The disturbing tale of one family’s flight from the Nazis: best podcasts of the week

Pick of the week
Half-Life

When poet, novelist and writer Joe Dunthorne decided to constitute a household history, helium had nary thought what helium was getting into. His travel started, unpromisingly, with a turgid 2,000-page memoir written by his great-grandfather Siegfried. But portion looking for an relationship of his family’s flight from Nazi Germany, Dunthorne recovered thing overmuch much disturbing. This gripping podcast follows him arsenic helium reconstructs an erased history. Phil Harrison
BBC Sounds, episodes weekly

The Louis Theroux Podcast

Bella Ramsey. Photograph: Suki Dhanda/The Observer

After his excellent BBC documentary connected Israeli settlers successful the West Bank, Theroux ably shifts gears. Series five of his personage interrogation amusement kicks disconnected with The Last of Us prima Bella Ramsey – who is lukewarm and omniscient connected gender, fame and autism – with rapper/actor Little Simz and anti-ageing obsessive Bryan Johnson to follow. Hannah J Davies
Widely available, episodes weekly

Vine: Six Seconds That Changed the World

Benedict Townsend goes backmost to 2012 for this eight-part exploration of TikTok precursor Vine. The short-form video app was huge, acknowledgment successful nary tiny portion to a $30m acquisition by Twitter. Townsend scrupulously charts its emergence and fall, from the breakout stars to the brands that exploited the nascent creator economy. HJD
Widely available, episodes weekly

Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah

Uncovering deception … Jake Halpern.

A new series of the meaty investigative podcast centred connected radical surviving treble lives. Sarah Cavanaugh made headlines successful 2022 with her audacious communicative of stolen valour (she wasn’t a decorated US marine veteran, nor was she dying of crab arsenic she claimed erstwhile she obtained fiscal assistance intended for erstwhile personnel). Jake Halpern and Jess McHugh spell heavy into her deception. HJD
Widely available, episodes weekly

Floating Space

Katie Stokes is successful her mid-20s, and should beryllium having the clip of her beingness successful London – truthful wherefore is she truthful lonely? This delightful bid from the Transmission Roundhouse inaugural sees the audio shaper get existent astir our deficiency of “third places” distant from location and work. HJD
Widely available, episodes weekly