The brains behind QI bring you an Olympic-sized quiz show

Question-setters Anna Ptaszynski and James Harkin get in the competitive spirit with Quite a Good Sport. Plus: five of the best podcasts about America

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Earlier this week, my colleague Archie Bland of First Edition fame enthusiastically recommended the podcast In the Dark to me. Despite being a super-successful investigative series – acquired last year by Condé Nast/The New Yorker – I’d never actually listened to the pod and its feted second season about Curtis Flowers, who was tried six times for the same murder. Or at least I thought I hadn’t listened to the podcast – I had actually caught the spin-off miniseries about discontent in Dubai’s royal family – The Runaway Princesses – back in January, but hadn’t quite joined the dots about it being part of a larger true-crime stable (maybe I’m an idiot, maybe the huge font size for “Runaway Princesses” and the tiny one for “from In the Dark” threw me?)

The Runaway Princesses didn’t blow me away, but I’m still curious about the show which – like Serial – has risen above the true-crime surfeit and been acquired by one of the biggest names in journalism. It is back this week for its third proper run, which sees Madeleine Baran explore the infamous killings of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians in 2005 by US marines, and ask why justice wasn’t served – the first two episodes are out now.

Read on for our picks of the week, including a new series from comic Jessica Knappett, who has gone down the Off Menu-esque route with a podcast all about celebs’ perfect days, and an Olympics-adjacent release from the team behind QI and No Such Thing as a Fish. And do remember that you can always email newsletters@theguardian.com with your thoughts, suggestions, comments or – like Archie – your recommendations for the Hear Here team.

Hannah J Davies
Deputy editor, newsletters

Picks of the week

Perfect Day With Jessica Knappett
Widely available, episodes weekly
Comedian Jessica Knappett invites famous friends to talk through their daily routine. First up is her Avoidance co-star Romesh Ranganathan, who chats about having a bin van named after him and interviewing 50 Cent, before Knappett turns the conversation to her Magic Mike Live trip – giving the podcast a charmingly rambling framework. Future guests include Baby Reindeer’s Jessica Gunning and Saltburn director Emerald Fennell. Hannah Verdier

Late to the Party
Widely available, episodes weekly
Katherine Ryan is always good value in interviews and she is comedian Grace Campbell’s first guest on her podcast about parties. The stories come thick and fast, from champagne-fuelled kids’ birthday bashes turning wild to just enough celebrity gossip involving Jimmy Carr, Kourtney Kardashian and the royals to keep listeners intrigued. HV

Under the Cover
Widely available, episodes weekly
The fashion shows, photoshoots and videos of the 90s are the stuff of legend – and stylist Paul Cavaco was there. Along with his daughter Cayli Cavaco Reck, he is joined by some of the big names from the time, including Cindy Crawford and Christy Turlington. Crawford is candid about her decision to do Playboy and that period of fashion history. HV

The Reggie Yates Podcast
Widely available, episodes weekly
After a four-year hiatus, Reggie Yates (pictured above) brings his podcast back, along with his mates Owen, Bubba and Uzo. One minute they’re feeling the pressure of a best man’s speech, the next they’re discussing what their prison personas would be. Cue hysterics and the freeing feeling they’ve forgotten people are listening. HV

Quite a Good Sport
Widely available, episodes weekly
A couple of the brains behind QI’s facts, Anna Ptaszynski and James Harkin (also hosts of No Such Thing as a Fish podcast), harness the spirit of the Olympics for their have-a-go podcast. Rowing is their first sport and they chat to Team GB’s modest Imogen Grant and Eve Stewart, before adding a healthy sprinkling of innuendo and even trying their luck on the water. HV

There’s a podcast for that

This week, Rachel Aroesti chooses five of the best podcasts about America, from a history of country idol Dolly Parton to an investigation of Hollywood’s golden age of sex and scandal

Dolly Parton’s America
This fascinating podcast treats Parton (above) as a totem for America and a key that helps unlock the nation’s buried prejudices, cultural baggage and stubborn divisions. Named after a University of Tennessee history course, it is the brainchild of erstwhile Radiolab host Jad Abumrad, whose father’s friendship with Parton (he’s a famous doctor who treated her after a car crash) gives him an in with the country queen. Alongside illuminating interviews, Abumrad also digs deep into the implications and influence of Parton, from her brutal, subversive lyrics to her Appalachian identity and her steadfast (and, to some, infuriating) insistence on remaining apolitical.

1619
To talk about American history, you need to talk about slavery. Yet this beautifully made podcast from the New York Times goes one step further, using its legacy as a lens through which to examine the country’s current state. Part of The 1619 Project – a Pulitzer-winning journalistic endeavour conceived to commemorate 400 years since the first enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia – the scope of the series is wide-ranging and its conclusions enlightening. We hear how a lack of medical treatment available to Black Americans led to federal healthcare; how skilled Black farmers have been deliberately undermined by banks; and how the pain and trauma of slavery set the tone for pop music as we know it.

Decoder Ring
Journalist Willa Paskin’s much-loved investigations of intriguing cultural ephemera doubles as an irreverent chronicle of modern America, told via its strange obsessions, forgotten influencers and enduring lifestyle trends. Some subjects will be familiar to British ears – one episode sees Paskin chronicle the legacy of Bart Simpson, another explores the literal riots that exploded around in-demand Cabbage Patch Kids dolls – but the show specialises in the kind of highly specific American juggernauts that never made it across the pond. It also does great work in tracing the fallout from various cultural conflicts: hear about the “pizza wars” of the 1980s and find out what happened when novelist Jonathan Franzen crossed talkshow giant Oprah in 2001.

The Bowery Boys: New York City History
Greg Young and Tom Meyers are the titular Bowery Boys in this smart, slick podcast that sees the duo go through the history of their adopted home town with a fine-tooth comb. As early embracers of the form – the show began in 2007 – the pair’s 400-episode strong pod is by now a well-oiled machine. There’s an instalment focusing on a different element of the town’s past, unpicking the origins and the evolution of famous areas – Madison Square Park, Flatbush, Fifth Avenue – and buildings (the Chrysler Building, the Ansonia), as well as a trove of enthralling miscellany, such as the Irish influence on the city, the inception of the Broadway musical and New York through the eyes of Edward Hopper.

You Must Remember This
America is synonymous with showbiz, something that makes Karina Longworth’s immersive, illuminating, atmospheric guide to 20th-century Hollywood as crucial a device for understanding the country as any political podcast. The show deals effectively in the shock of the old – injecting century-old scandals and controversies with new juiciness – as it profiles legends (Judy Garland, Marlon Brando) alongside overlooked figures (Frances Farmer, Claudette Colbert). But it also excels when it comes to crunching the more recent past, with the pod’s latest miniseries focusing on the erotic thrillers of the 80s and 90s, from Boxing Helena to Indecent Proposal.

Why not try …

• Jo Whiley and Steve Lamacq relive Britpop’s biggest bust-up in the BBC’s The Rise and Fall of Oasis.
  

• Sideways science podcasting with a side of philosophy in a new series of Naturebang.
  

• Footballer and manager turned pundit Graeme Souness tells his life story in a new series of Everything I Know About Me.