Pick of the podcasts: Mortem, 10 Things That Scare Me, The Other Latif

Perhaps you think true crime podcasts are a bit grim?

Or maybe you’re one of those non-squeamish people who think Serial and Dirty John don’t get quite grisly enough?

For the latter group – the type of people who loved Six Feet Under and those programmes where they do graphic surgery on people – there’s Mortem.

Even if you do find it all a bit too much, Mortem might be an interesting listen nonetheless.

Carla Valentine is a real-life mortician who, along with a team of forensic scientists, examine bodies to look at various criminal deaths.

Find out what caused these unfortunates to end up on Carla’s slab.

Her and the team’s forensic science joins the dots, as we venture into the scene of the crime.

Happily though the bodies aren’t quite real – the victim and theoretical crime are fictional – but, brilliantly, the science is all real.

Each case, told over three episodes, tells the story of one body, through the sciences you may have never heard in detail before.

Carla is a technical curator at Barts Pathology Museum in London.

She says: “Today, I’m a senior anatomical pathology technologist and much of my adult life has been spent assisting pathologists at autopsy by day then answering questions about death and the post-mortem process by night, like some sort of death-oracle.

“I’ve always been popular at cocktail parties…”

Mortem (BBC Sounds)

10 Things That Scare Me (Apple Podcasts)

Short, sharp five-minute episodes of a podcast with a simple set-up. People name 10 of their deepest unspoken fears. Some, like Bridesmaids director Paul Feig and Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello are famous, while others aren’t. But all of them feature something jarring…

The Other Latif (Radiolab)

Podcaster Latif Nasser always believed his name was unique, singular, completely his own. Until one day when he made a bizarre and shocking discovery. He shares his name with another man: Abdul Latif Nasser, detainee 244 at Guantanamo Bay. Radiolab’s Latif is then drawn into a year-long investigation, picking apart evidence and trying to uncover what his namesake actually did or didn’t do.