Nicky is an award-winning journalist and editor who has built his career at the intersection of politics, technology, and digital subculture. He has hosted several critically acclaimed podcasts exploring the darker corners of the internet, including Finding Q, The Sound and Fur & Loathing. He currently co-hosts BBC’s new daily tech podcast, The Interface.
As someone who has carved out a reporting niche at the febrile crossroads of technology, politics, conspiracy theories and weird internet subculture, these are my choices for podcasts for the curious-minded.
The Constant
Always pure joy when a new episode drops into my feed, in this esoteric – not to say eccentric – history show presenter Mark Chrisler explores stories themed around the history of humans… getting things wrong. From deep dives into mysteries like that of a wrecked submarine discovered on the bottom of the Chicago River to meanders through the centuries-long quest to measure longitude at sea, The Constant is fascinating, funny, often deeply moving, and always a delight to listen to. It’s my absolute favourite.
I’m Not A Monster: Season 2 – The Shamima Begum Story
The second gripping season of this show by investigative journalist Josh Baker tells the story of Shamima Begum, a British teenager who disappeared from London in 2015. When she was discovered four years later after the collapse of the Islamic State, her story became a hot-button issue in the media as she appealed to be allowed to return to Britain – should she be considered a traitor? Or a victim? Expertly reported, lavishly produced and compassionately told, I’m Not A Monster is a masterclass in investigative audio storytelling.
The Interface
For anyone looking for a fast, fun, and deeply reported look at the technology shaping our everyday lives, I should mention The Interface — the weekly BBC show I co-host with journalists Thomas Germain and Karen Hao. Every Thursday we unpack the biggest tech stories rewiring our minds and our world, whether they’ve shaken a government, broken the internet, or quietly tipped the balance of power.
The Redemption of Jar Jar Binks
When Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace came out in 1999, the internet was united in its loathing of one particular character: Jar Jar Binks. Host Dylan Marron looks at the evolution of one of the internet’s first coordinated hate-campaigns, and how it affected Ahmed Best. the actor who played him. The result is a surprising, entertainingly counterintuitive and ultimately persuasive deep dive into a story that you may think you know – but you really don’t. It has a lot to say about the evolution of internet culture and fandom, but at its heart is a moving and redemptive story about what it’s like to be the internet’s first “main character.”
Truthers: Tiffany Dover Is Dead*
Brandy Zadrozny, an internet reporter for MSNow, tells the story of one of the covid era’s weirdest conspiracy theories. In December 2020, a nurse called Tiffany Dover fainted on camera after getting vaccinated. She got right back up again – but the rumour was already spreading like wildfire that she had died and been replaced with a body-double. There’s no-one better at reporting on digital misinformation than Brandy, and she artfully maps the this theory and charts its worldwide spread.
NO SUCH THING
This is a podcast about three best friends settling dumb arguments – with journalistic rigour. Each episode, hosts Manny Fidel, Devan Joseph, and Noah Friedman take a closer look at topics ranging from cats to cloning, AI to divorce, and then apply their reporting talents to interrogate their gut instincts. You quickly come to feel you’re in a room with friends shooting the breeze, and each episode leaves you knowing more – and questioning your own assumptions.
QAA Podcast
Originally founded to track the Qanon conspiracy ecosystem, QAA quickly became unmissable listening for anyone looking to understand the world of conspiracy theories in general, from hollow earth to vaccine trutherism and everything else besides. Hosts Travis View, Julian Feeld and Jake Rockatansky, and UK correspondent Annie Kelly, blend journalism with expert discussion – and have fun with it too.
Behind the Bastards
Each episode of this longform history show, journalist Robert Evans sits down with a guest to forensically dive into the life stories of history’s greatest monsters. Cult leaders and tyrants, crooks and Nazis, shills and propagandists, this show covers them all – some you’ll have heard of, and some you won’t. With that subject-matter, it could be relentlessly bleak – but Evans is a terrific storyteller who neatly blends righteous anger with amusing diversions and an eye for the absurd.
The Slow Newscast
This weekly show from the Observer newspaper in the UK aims to be your guide to the stories behind the headlines. Each week, one of a rotating cast of top-flight investigative journalists takes a deeper, more deliberate look at a story from the week’s news. Informative and engaging, it makes a refreshing change of pace from a news ecosystem that often feels like it’s spinning out of control.
No Such Thing As A Fish
Not to be confused with the similarly-named No Such Thing above, this weekly show about cool facts started out as a podcast by researchers for the BBC TV show QI (Quite Interesting). But No Such Thing As A Fish has grown into its own juggernaut, recently filling the Sydney Opera House for a live show – and for good reason. Endlessly fascinating and riotously funny, it is underpinned by the fabulous chemistry of its presenters (James Harkin, Andrew Hunter Murray, Anna Ptaszynski and Dan Schreiber) and an impressive range of occasional guests including Michael Palin and Stephen Fry.
Search Engine
After the demise of the pioneering Reply All podcast, one of its presenters – PJ Vogt – struck out on his own, launching an ambitious scripted weekly show that somehow manages to capture the premium feel of a limited series with a weekly release cadence. I don’t know how he does it – but Search Engine has proved a true and worthy successor, its meandering deep-dives into a wide range of off-beat topics elevated to greatness by its thoughtful and elegant writing.
Pocket Casts Blog 