Rnz: The Podcast Hour

Disgraceland bills itself as a true-crime podcast involving some of the biggest names in music- stars like Jerry Lee Lewis, Sid Vicious, Tupac Shakur and James Brown. Host Jake Brennan brings infamous events from music's hall of shame to life with his entertaining prose, using a little bit of poetic licence along the way to take us right inside the action. As the featured episode 'Sam Cooke: An Insatiable Libido and a Justifiable Homicide' about the life and death of the soul superstar shows, the results are highly entertaining (and 'Mr Wonderful' might not have been quite so wonderful after all).

The Lip is an independent, locally produced podcast created by former magazine journo Megan McChesney. She speaks with Richard Scott about the challenges of getting The Lip off the ground - and shares her own listening recommendations.

The Lip: compelling NZ stories, Disgraceland: the death of Mr Wonderful, The Tip Off: behind breaking news, and NPR's Hidden Brain: Baby Talk.

Take two engaging hosts, one interesting topic, add some reading and background research, and then record a conversation where they explain the subject's complexities, and tell each other all the most interesting bits. That's the basic recipe of the Stuff You Should Know podcast, and with more than 1000 episodes recorded over the past 10 years, and millions of downloads every month, you could say that it's working! Recent episodes have covered anarchism, Sea Monkeys, condoms, Ponzi schemes and narwahls- not words you'll often hear together in the same sentence. This episode called 'Skyscrapers: 'Scuse me while I kiss the sky' answers the question of how skyscrapers work. And hosts Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant have a knack of making the answer sound surprisingly simple. 2018-07-21 1255

Bereavement and grief are major life events that happen to all of us eventually. But there aren't many how-to guides to help you navigate your way through the death of a loved one, and it isn't always an easy subject to talk about. Inspired by her own experiences, the English actor and comedian Cariad Lloyd started collecting life stories about grief and loss in her podcast 'Griefcast', which has just won Podcast of The Year (and also awards for best interview and best entertainment podcast at the British Podcast Awards). We play excerpts of Griefcast's interview with Susan Wokoma and Robert Webb, and speak to Cariad Lloyd about how she got the idea to start the podcast up.

Slow TV, those relaxing images of ferry rides and burning logs and people knitting, could be facing some serious competition from 'The Boring Talks', a BBC series celebrating the seemingly mundane and the trivial. Blockbusting topics like a history of yellow lines, book pricing algorithms, and the international regulation of wooden pallets, are just some of the scintillating subjects on offer. We feature clips from two episodes with sneeze-ologist Pete Fletcher taking self tracking to the next level. Also Ali Coote on the ins and outs of ice cream vans.

In 1968, the American senator and politician Robert F. Kennedy was shot and killed at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. It was just 4 and a half years after the assassination of his older brother John F. Kennedy in Dallas. A lone gunman called Sirhan Sirhan was captured at the scene with a revolver in his hand, and convicted and sentenced to death (later reduced to life imprisonment). But 'The RFK Tapes' explores whether the case against Sirhan Sirhan was as straightforward as it sounds...and it uses lots of lovely old tapes, newsreel and other audio to do it. We play an excerpt from Episode 1 of The RFK Tapes from Crimetown Presents.

An open and shut case? The RFK Tapes. The Boring Talks: on tracking sneezes and ice cream vans. Griefcast: comedians share their tales of bereavement and loss. How skyscrapers work: The Stuff You Should Know.

The Beef And Dairy Network is a show that parodies highly specialised industry newsletters dedicated to the intricacies of food production. It describes itself as 'The number one podcast for those involved or just interested in the production of beef animals and dairy herds'. The English comedian Benjamin Partridge got his inspiration when one of his friends kept getting signed up to all these trade journals from organisations like the Pork Network for a joke. The result is dry, deadpan and very funny with shows highlighting the role of cows in wartime, a bovine poet laureate, and rumoured sightings of a rare pygmy cow. This edition is billed as its 'Lamb Investigation Special' and has a strong New Zealand theme. You can only imagine what the show would make of Air New Zealand's inflight vegan burger option!

Decoder Ring's a new monthly podcast hosted by Slate's TV critic Willa Paskin that tries to crack all kinds of cultural mysteries. So far, it's deciphered clowns and when and why they got so scary, and also unpicked a fan theory about the BBC TV series 'Sherlock' and a possible homosexual relationship between Holmes and Watson. This episode, called 'The Laff Box' looks at the history of the laugh track, the canned laughter you'll have heard on many TV comedy shows that was once a big thing but has now fallen out of favour.

Ear Hustle (prison slang for eavesdropping) is a podcast recorded and made inside San Quentin State Prison in California. With thousands of inmates, and the country's largest Death Row, San Quentin is one of America's oldest and most notorious jails and is so large it even has its own zip code. Ear Hustle is billed as the first podcast to be created entirely inside a prison and it's racking up millions of downloads, with recent polls putting it ahead of perennial podcast favourites like This American Life and Radiolab in the popularity charts. The podcast shares stories of prison life told by the prisoners and the guards themselves, covering topics like what makes a good cellmate, parenthood in prison, and capital punishment, telling them with humour and compassion with plenty of nice audio and two engaging hosts. We play extracts from Episode 14 'The Workaround' and Episode 3 'Looking Out' and speak to Ear Hustle's Nigel Poor.

Ear Hustle, Decoder Ring and The Beef And Dairy Network.