It’s been a big year for Serial Productions, from their years-in-the-making Trojan Horse Affair to Adnan Syed, the subject of that first series of Serial, getting his murder conviction overturned and all charges against him dropped. Now owned by the New York Times, you might expect the podcast outfit’s output to have veered into louder, more state-of-the-nation releases. However, still carrying its DNA as a one-time offshoot of This American Life, the Serial stable continues to tell those wider stories through a narrower lens.

A case in point: one of our picks this week, We Were Three, the story of two Covid deaths in one US family which also acts as a study of misinformation, decades-long familial abuse, addiction, trauma, and the complicated business of grieving difficult people. For its subject, Rachel McKibbens, it’s also about setting the record straight on the view that her late brother Peter was a “bumbling conspiracy theory-riddled anti-vaxxer who sat by and watched his dad die, and watched himself die”.

It’s not an easy listen; aside from its tough themes, as with the podcast Unread – told from the perspective of a man piecing together the online life of his dead friend – the focus here is on understanding the thoughts and feelings of the deceased via texts sent in their final weeks. However, the result is a powerful study of the impacts of Covid scepticism, and the reality that the political is often uncomfortably personal.

Read on for the rest of the week’s picks, including Acid Dream: The Great LSD Plot for those in a madcap mood.

Hannah J Davies
Deputy editor, newsletters

Picks of the week

Surviving El Chapo: The Twins Who Brought Down a Drug Lord
Widely available, episodes weekly
From high-flying cocaine dealers to government informants, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and journalist Charlie Webster tell the story of identical twins Jay and Peter Flores, who were responsible for taking down Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, one of the world’s most dangerous drug barons. After 14 years in prison, the twins speak out for the first time to tell this thrilling, high-wire tale. Sammy Gecsoyler

I Hear Fear
Amazon Music, episodes weekly
Carey Mulligan introduces a new standalone spook story each week in this well-crafted podcast. The first episode shows the danger of listening to repetitive beats, with a young woman who gets trapped in a warehouse rave. Will a call to her mum who can “smell the fear” (it’s probably just the sweat) be enough to save her? Hannah Verdier

Acid Dream: The Great LSD Plot
BBC Sounds, episodes weekly
Rhys Ifans tells the story of the Microdot Gang, who did big business in the 70s when Wales was a hotbed for LSD production, fuelling 60% of the world’s supply. “It’s like Bonnie and Clyde, but with fewer guns and more incense,” he says, bringing tales of farmhouse drug busts, backed by a Gruff Rhys score. HV

We Were Three
Widely available, all episodes out now
The makers of Serial deliver an intriguing podcast with a focus on Rachel McKibbens, who lost her brother and father to Covid. Beneath their turbulent family dynamic lies a man who was scared of vaccination and medical treatment plus a backstory of a violent home life, as told by This American Life’s Nancy Updike. HV

The Paddlefish Caviar Heist
Widely available, episodes weekly
Fish guts on the roadside and an influx of flashy cars set the scene for this podcast about a suspected international caviar poaching ring that infiltrated a small US midwest town. Host and former truffle dealer Helen Hollyman is one fabulous storyteller, providing a podcast where “Parks and Rec meets The Wire”. HV

There’s a podcast for that

This week, Hollie Richardson chooses five of the best podcasts on periods, from a mythbusting menstrual series to a show focusing on “niche” gynaecological issues

28ish Days Later
Ready to take an audio tour of the womb? It’s just one of the brilliant features in this snappy series (each episode is 15 minutes long) about what actually happens down there every month. India Rakusen is our host, taking us on a journey of each day of the menstrual cycle, speaking to experts along the way. As well as explaining the facts of the cycle, she explores subjects such as menstruation tracking apps, endometriosis, and pain. Although fluffy in parts (we get it – periods can be gross and beautiful), it is educational, mythbusting – and offers a variety of perspectives

Period Power
Even after several years or even decades of menstruating, you might still find yourself having an “aha!” moment every time a period arrives after waves of seemingly inexplicable emotion. Luckily, period guru Maisie Adams (author of Period Power) is here to help make sense of what menstrual cycles do to our bodies – physically and mentally – and show us how to harness these changes. Take, for example, how overnight you can go from thinking that every person on the planet fancies you to feeling like Shrek’s grumpy sister, all thanks to a mid-cycle oestrogen bomb. As the series progresses, Adams dissects broader issues, such as perimenopause, and navigating gynaecological diagnoses.

The Menstruality Podcast
Broadening social conversations around menstruating, this inclusive podcast comes from the menstrual cycle awareness organisation, Red School. Host Sophie Jane Hardy welcomes a guest in each episode for an in-depth conversation, which she always starts with a “cycle check in”. Notable episodes include explorations of menstruality (the life journey from menarche – the first menstruation – through the menstruating years to the menopause) and LGBTQ+ inclusion, featuring a discussion on how to ensure that non-binary or gender fluid and trans people feel safe and included in menstruality work. Elsewhere, Hardy focuses on the challenge of cycle tracking when you’re having trouble conceiving or have experienced pregnancy loss.

Periods & Power Moves
There’s a big Instagram #Girlboss vibe to this series, what with host Vianney Leigh being a life coach who “[helps] entrepreneurs create transformative change in their lives by eliminating PMS”. But we’ll let that slide – after all, research published last year reported severe PMS was significantly associated with poor presenteeism, intention to reduce working hours, and higher work absence and, clearly, conversations about menstrual cycles and success are necessary. Topics vary from being a Black leader in the menstruation space; how changing seasons affect periods; how periods changed during the pandemic and even how to sync foods with a cycle.

The Period Party
Yes, there is something a bit *eye-roll* about a period podcast called The Period Party which describes its content as “girl talk gone menstrual!” … but hear us out. Hosted by (constantly upbeat) US women’s health coach Nicole Jardim, each episode focuses on a niche gynaecological issue. Vaginal steaming! Hormonal migraines! Vulvodynia! IUD side effects! Bloating and poo! Anxiety and hormones! The podcast has been running since 2017, and continues to build a library of must-read information on all the questions and queries you could possibly have around periods.

Why not try …

• Honest conversations on race, gender, love and more in Spotify’s Small Talk Is Dead.

• The Economist’s Sue-Lin Wong asks just who is China’s leader, Xi Jinping, in The Prince.

• Prepare for a hit of indie nostalgia in Up The Bracket: 20 years of the Libertines.