circleNew podcast announcement! It turns out the devious stars of the reality hit show The Traitors UK are getting their own series. It's a bit outlandish. Paul Gorton and Harry Clarke are launching a show designed to prove that reality TV contestants aren't the only ones who can pull off a scam. They'll take a look at the “biggest attempted crimes of all time” and teach you how to do it right. We're not sure what being able to scam people on a Claudia Winkleman-hosted Scottish Airbnb trip has in common with pulling off the perfect bank robbery, but we're curious to see when Harry and Paul will be making an appearance. Devious starts next Wednesday.
While we wait, there's plenty of other great shows to watch. Read our guide to the best club podcasts and synopses of shows ranging from walking tours of the places that inspired chart-topping musicians to exposes of US national scandals. Plus, there'll be Stacey Dooley's look at celebrity trials, which differs from Gorton and Clark's show in one disappointing way: how she she would have committed a crime.
Alexi Duggins
Deputy TV Editor
This week's picks
Famous…on trial
BBC Sounds, weekly episodes
TV favorite Stacey Dooley teams up with comedian Larry Dean to revisit and retry celebrity court cases, starting with Pamela Anderson's stolen sex tape case, which was illegal and tinged with 90s sexism. Dooley is as thoughtful and incisive as ever, but she also brings us some fun, addictive celebrity gossip. Be sure to tune in to sister series Famously… In Love, where we unravel some of the biggest romances and affairs. Holly Richardson
Youth Development Center
Widely available, with weekly episodes
Jason Moon investigates one of the biggest juvenile detention scandals in U.S. history, in which more than 1,000 people came forward to accuse New Hampshire of misconduct at a juvenile detention center. Former inmates tell horrifying stories of horrific abuse, including promises of visits to their parents in exchange for sexual acts. Hannah Verdier
Life in Seven Songs
Widely available, with episodes released every other Tuesday
Starting with the city's first black female mayor, London Breed, the San Francisco Standard's Sophie Bearman challenges her guests to sum up their lives in seven songs. Breed, who loves Beyoncé and can rap New Edition's “Candy Girl,” is a likeable interviewee with an inspiring success story. HV
Has justice been served?
Widely available, with weekly episodes
Jen Baldwin and David Wilson boast that their new podcast will tackle some gory, heartbreaking and sensational cases – perfect for true crime stories. In the first case, historian David Olusoga sensitively tells the story of his great-great-grandfather, who was convicted of murder in the 1890s, and the impact it had on his family. HV
Origin story
Full episode available on Apple Podcasts
In this Apple Music podcast, Dotti, Matt Wilkinson and Rebecca Judd encourage a range of music-makers to talk about their early days, with appearances from the likes of Blossoms, Young T & Bugsy and Becky Hill, who is a bundle of warmth and fondly credits her brother for “inspiring the monster raver that I am”. HV
There is a podcast
this week, Hannah Verdier select The 5 best club podcastsFrom the history of raves to queer talk about dance floor appeal
History of the World's Greatest Nightclubs
Paris Hilton knows clubbing; she's executive producer of this A-list podcast. Host Ultra Naté takes listeners on a world tour, providing plenty of social history behind the party era. Key moments include Madonna's first performance at Danceteria in New York, Frankie Knuckles setting the musical agenda in Chicago, and a 22-hour party at Space in Ibiza. The UK is also featured, with Turnmills' Hacienda and Trade bringing joy to a financially depressed and repressed period in history.
Dance floor memories
Damien Carlin's series about forgotten LGBTQ+ club histories is told by the people who lived through its most vibrant nights. From London's Heaven to Birmingham's Nightingale Club, there are plenty of stories to tell, including overcoming prejudice, the quest to create another Studio 54, and living life to the fullest when HIV hits your community. For his second season, Carlin heads to Wales to tell the sweetest tales of women who banded together to throw discos just for themselves, and men who found romantic encounters in smoky pubs where Elvis Presley blasted from the jukebox.
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Speed of sound
Haters may have ruined disco, but the scene was good while it lasted, and it never went away, even years after it went out of style. Host Steve Greenberg forensically examines the songs and legendary horses that filled Studio 54 dance floors, including Van McCoy's “The Hustle,” Donna Summer's “Love to Love You Baby,” and Gloria Gaynor's “I Will Survive.” Greenberg is the guy who unearthed the three-piece boy band Hanson, so he knows a thing or two about music, and here he tells a comprehensive history that goes beyond the oft-told tale.
Ecstasy: Battle of the Raves
If the best years of your life were spent on the dance floor between 1987 and 1990, the musical snippets in this BBC podcast (Frankie Knuckles' Your Love, The Beloved's The Sun Rising, New Order's Bizarre Love Triangle) will transport you back in time. Happy Mondays' Shaun Ryder and Hacienda DJ Graham Park also feature, but the most passionate testimonials come from everyday ravers who turned to dancing and MDMA to escape their mundane lives. One person puts it quite realistically: “It was a great time but also the beginning of my downfall.”
Gay-ish
When Sarah Esocoff got a message saying, “A Brooklyn Trancecore show is the best night out of your life,” she couldn't resist checking it out. And so she ended up in the middle of the trance mosh pit, where there were bands wearing cat ears, cathartic screams, and people of all ages pushing each other along for the ride. As anyone who's ever stepped foot in this pit knows, aside from the fact that it looks terrifying for those who don't like shaking floorboards, it functions in much the same way as a dance floor: a place of release, where someone will catch you if you fall.
Please try…
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Calling all Malcolm Gladwell fans: the king of popular science is back with Medal of Honor, a new series about heroic human achievements.
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From bisexual bison to whale orgies, The Field Guide to Gay Animals explores the strange and untold history of the natural world.
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Renowned choreographer Akram Khan interviews leading artists, dancers and more about the joy of movement in “Move To Live.”
