Pick of the Podcasts: Films To Be Buried With, Motherhood Sessions and The Shrink Next Door

Films To Be Buried With (Acast, Spotify, iTunes)

As a conceit, it’s a classic. You are cast away on a desert island and are given the choice of eight songs, a book and a luxury item to take with you.

It is, of course, BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs show, and there’s a reason it has endured for more than 70 years.

The format of asking a guest to choose their favourite songs has been slightly adjusted and given a morbid – but irresistible – twist on Films To Be Buried With.

This podcast asks a guest what films they’d like to take with them when they die. The host, Brett Goldstein, has appeared in Doctor Who and comedy series Derek, Uncle and Drifters.

So far the line-up has included names such as Ricky Gervais, Katherine Ryan, Jack Whitehall and Mark Kermode.

“I’m proper obsessed with film, and wanted to do something that could be fun with that,” said Brett. “Also, I wanted to do it as a podcast so that I could have complete control over it and make a thing that wouldn’t need to have lots of interference from execs and producers and agents and whatnot.

“Podcasts, like stand up, allow for spontaneity, speed and autonomy. It is, in many ways, further proof that I am a terrible control freak.”

Among the questions – like asking about favourite scary movies – there are more fascinating topics, such as movies you used to love but now don’t, and films you have to defend. Of course, the real fun is coming up with your own favourites.

Motherhood Sessions (Apple Podcasts)

A brainy podcast tackling thorny issues for mums. Psychiatrist Dr Alexandra Sacks, author of the best-selling parenting book What No One Tells You, speaks to mums about issues such as co-parenting with an ex and setting boundaries with grandparents.

The Shrink Next Door (Wondery)

Veteran journalist Joe Nocera’s neighbour was named Ike, a therapist to the stars.

But one summer, Joe discovered that Ike was gone and everything he’d thought he’d known about Ike was wrong. From the podcast company who created Dirty John, The Shrink

Next Door is a story about power, control and how one man turned to the worst
person for help for three decades.