Back in the day, I listened to the radio a lot. As a teenager in the 1970s, my early morning routine was set by Today, the BBC’s flagship current affairs programme. But these days my listening time is mainly devoted to podcasts and audio books. I’m not alone: according to media regulator Ofcom, over a fifth of British adults listen to a podcast every week.

The word podcast is a slice of tech history. It’s a mash up between broadcast and iPod, the portable digital music player that turned Apple from a niche computer company into a consumer electronics giant over 20 years ago. (It shows how long the podcast have been around.)

I’ve listened to a stack of podcasts over the years, but thought I’d highlight the ones I always come back to, as well as a few others that are also worth a listen.

Not Another One

There’s a flood of politics podcasts to choose from. Some are fiercely partisan, which is unsurprising in an age of the echo chamber: many run a mile from listening to people with a different world view. But I find it stimulating when it takes the form of a podcast featuring people with contrasting political views ‘disagreeing agreeably’, as happens on my current favourite podcast, Not Another One.

The show’s title borrows the famous comment by Brenda from Bristol expressing her horror that Britain was to have another general election in 2017, just two years after the previous ballot. Appropriately, it was launched just before the 2024 general election.

Not Another One features Steve Richards, a left-leaning political writer, broadcaster and podcaster; Miranda Green, the FT deputy opinion editor and former press secretary to Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown; Iain Martin, the centre right journalist, author and defence pundit; and Tim Montgomerie, founder of the Conservative Home website, who defected to Reform UK in 2024. (Steve never misses an opportunity to mention how many BBC news outlets interviewed Tim about this.)

The quartet don’t hold back in challenging each other, especially on Brexit (Steve and Miranda were pro-EU, while Tim and Iain were in favour of Brexit), net zero and much more. But it’s done in a way that is both invigorating and respectful – not an easy trick to pull off.

It was an episode about immigration in late 2024 that got me hooked. I normally avoid shows about this topic, because they are all too often depressing in their predictable recycling of propaganda about this hottest of issues. But I listened intently on my dog walk as the quartet aired genuinely thoughtful and contrasting perspectives.

There are a few regular in-jokes and triggers. Any mentions of Margaret Thatcher – especially by Steve – are greeted by laughter. Iain frequently calls out Labour cabinet minister Ed Millband, whose policies on net zero he regards as disastrous. Brexit features regularly, with Steve citing figures estimating the damage it’s caused to the British economy, prompting Iain to challenge the accuracy of the estimates. Whenever the quartet wander into an interesting diversion from the day’s topic, at least one will call out, ‘We must do an episode on this’.

I’m closer to Steve and Miranda in my political outlook, but I’m genuinely interested in Iain and Tim’s perspectives. With Iain, this isn’t surprising. I loved his book about the collapse of Royal Bank of Scotland, Making it Happen, and enjoyed his old Times column. But Tim Montgomerie? The man whose move to Reform shocked many, who thought him too intelligent to fall for the snake oil salesman Nigel Farage? Yet on this podcast Tim is endearingly open about the weaknesses of his new party, and far from a right wing caricature. Steve has admitted that many of his Labour friends can’t believe he’s partnered with Tim, but they clearly get on well as brilliant debaters and storytellers.

Not Another One has for me overtaken The Rest is Politics with Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart, which started the trend of British podcast hosts disagreeing agreeably. In reality, Campbell and Stewart are of the same centrist tribe: the Labour right and Tory left have long had much more in common than you’d expect. And they’re not as well-informed as their confident delivery suggests. Rory Stewart notoriously predicted that Kamala Harris would comfortably beat Donald Trump in the US presidential race. It reminded me of The Guardian’s hilariously ill-judged attempt to swing the 2004 presidential election by encouraging readers to write to voters in Clark County, Oregon, which prompted the pithy response: ‘Dear Limey Assholes: Keep your noses out of our business. As I recall we kicked your asses out of our country back in 1776′.

Iain has established a tradition of Not Another One wine recommendations in the final editions before Christmas – Co-op champagne was the hot tip in 2025 – while his recommendation of Fredrik Logevall’s biography of JF Kennedy was thoroughly merited.

I’ve got just one gripe about Not Another One. Like all the London media, it neglects Wales. I briefly hoped that had changed when it discussed Plaid Cymru’s stunning win in the Caerphilly Senedd by-election. But the team spent the whole episode discussing the implications for Labour, the Tories and Reform UK. Yet this was an election victory that suggested Wales might just elect its first nationalist government in 2026, an event as historic as the SNP’s coming to power in Scotland in 2007. A missed opportunity.

Postscript

The strength of the Not Another One was ironically underlined by the latest episode in which only Tim Montgomerie and Iain Martin took part, about the wave of protests in Iran against the brutal Islamic fundamentalist dictatorship. It was a much less compelling edition because of the lack of the usual diversity of views – a case of agreeing agreeably. Tim and Iain were wholly in agreement, optimistically assuming that the regime would be toppled, and indulging in a side order of BBC bashing.

They did at least have the grace to joke about the temptation of devoting the episode to praising Brexit and condemning Britain’s net zero policies, reinforcing my comments above! I just hope Iain and Tim are right that the Iranian people are about to topple the fundamentalist religious thugs who have ruined their country and caused untold misery around the region.

 The Rest is History

I love history. It was my favourite subject in school, so it’s a tad surprising that I came late to The Rest is History podcast, which was crowned Apple’s Show of the Year for 2025.

The hosts, Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland, are brilliant storytellers, with a touch of theatricality to make it a real show. I first enjoyed Dominic’s talents in his brilliant books of recent British political and social history (from Eden to Thatcher) – if you think the current Starmer government is embattled, read his account of Thatcher’s traumatic first three years in power, Who Dares Wins.

The Rest is History typically tells the story about a personality or event in history in mini series, with each episode opening with one of the presenters reading a quote in a ham-actor voice.

Over the past year, my favourite series was about the causes of the Great War. It was like a drama production, including a step by step account of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife at Sarajevo. It was fascinating to hear Dominic and Tom telling the story of each nation’s path to war, with Britain featuring last. They included extraordinary details: British foreign secretary Sir Edward Grey visited London Zoo as the hours counted down to war. The long-serving French ambassador to Britain didn’t speak a word of English and insisted every word be translated – including ‘yes’. And the Kaiser signed the mobilisation of German forces at a desk made from wood from HMS Victory, Britain’s most famous warship.

I listened to the road to the Great War series during a 150 mile bike ride, and was enthralled. I never subscribed to the idea that Germany was uniquely responsible for war in 1914, but Sandbrook and Holland led me to see how the irresponsibility and complacency of other nations, notably Russia and France, played a big part in the path to war. They cite Christopher Clark’s magisterial book about the causes of the war, The Sleepwalkers, which I found compelling.

The Rest is History isn’t just about British history. I’ve learned a lot from its series about Abraham Lincoln, the assassination of JFK, America in 1968, and the Irish civil war.

PS: in their episode celebrating the Apple Show of the Year win, Sandbrook and Holland referred to Apple Computer. They clearly need to learn more about that company’s recent history!

Rock & Roll Politics with Steve Richards

Steve Richards, who we’ve already met as a host of Not Another One, reminds me of AJP Taylor. Taylor was one of the first television historians, and had the remarkable ability to keep audiences spell-bound as he spoke for 30 minutes or an hour without notes. Steve has a similar style, but with far more humour.

Steve has an extraordinary knowledge of British political history. On his podcast, and Not Another One, he readily recalls events from the 1960s and later decades with encyclopaedic expertise. As a politics and history geek, I approve.

I first started listening to his podcast in 2023, and also attended two of his 2025 stage shows at London’s Kings Place theatre. Steve is great at engaging the audience (he has labelled listeners as members of the Rock & Roll Politics Cooperative) and I was one of the first to speak at the September event. I explained why I didn’t think Andy Burnham would replace Keir Starmer as Labour leader and PM. I cited the improbability of the mayor of Greater Manchester securing a seat in the Commons to enter a leadership election. In a moment of nostalgia, I revealed that the British PM on the day I was born, Alec Douglas-Home, was a member of neither the House of Commons nor the House of Lords. He’d given up his hereditary peerage days before, ahead of the by-election that saw him become an MP. It’s impossible to think that could happen today.

Steve has read out a few of my contributions on his podcast. In the first, I reflected on Jim Callaghan’s talents as a political teacher (one of Steve’s favourite phrases) during his underrated 1970s premiership. I also recounted my conversation with Callaghan in 1985:

Callaghan asked me as a new graduate what I wanted to do for a living. ‘I’d like to work in PR or journalism,’ I replied. ‘They all want to do that now, don’t they?’ Jim replied, more to Dad than to me. Within two years, I had started my 37 year career in PR.

Steve has impeccable connections with the Labour party. His son, Jake Richards, is a Labour junior minister, and his daughter Amy a special adviser.

The Wild Ones Podcast

And now for something different…

I listen to a few cycling podcasts while I’m out on my bike. The Wild Ones Podcast is my favourite, presented by Jimmi Nicholls, Francis Cade and Emily Childs. I like the irreverent, informal style – a contrast to the typically corporate nature of a lot of bike podcasts – and the way ‘producer Emily’ has become more prominent, rather than a backstage presence.

The team are a lot younger than I am, and I’ve learned a lot from them – not least that ‘sick’ as an adjective is now a term of praise, rather than unwell or disgusting. Not that I’ll be following their lead here.

The Wild Ones have resisted the trend to see carbon as the perfect material for bikes, urging us to make steel bikes cool again. They’ve also criticised bike brands for not selling small enough versions of their bikes.

I rarely watch the video versions of the podcast – not easy when riding – but according to Jimmi (in early 2025) it was viewed 4.6 million times on YouTube, while the audio only version was downloaded 900,000 times, in the previous 12 months. It shows how the world of audio and video is blurring.

The also-rans

The News Agents

I often listen to The News Agents, a Global podcast featuring former BBC stars Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall. They were lucky to launch in late 2022, when Liz Truss’s premiership was imploding, and every day brought dramatic events for them to dissect. I still enjoy the show, especially when Lewis is interviewing on a Friday. (His encounter with Neil Kinnock was compelling.) But it’s not essential listening.

How to Win an Election

This Times Radio podcast was launched in 2023 in the run up to the following year’s general election, with Peter Mandelson representing Labour, Polly Mackenzie the Lib Dems and Danny Finkelstein the Conservatives. Mandelson was insufferably full of himself and patronising, and left the show after being selected as (short-lived) ambassador to the US. Another Blair-era figure, Sally Morgan, replaced him, and is much more effective. Polly is always good value on policy – she was Nick Clegg’s policy adviser – while Danny brings brilliant insights. (Most usually reminding listeners that they are unusual: most people pay no attention to politics, and a commanding performance in prime minister’s questions will rarely have any impact on voters.)

The Rest is Politics: Leading

I now prefer this spin off to the original Rest is Politics. In each episode, Alasdair Campbell and Rory Stewart interview a political leader from around the world, including former British and overseas prime ministers. My favourite was the edition with Mary McAleese. The former Irish president spoke movingly talked about the day her father held a dying woman in his arms after terrorists bombed his pub in Belfast during the Troubles. McAleese went on to become the first person from Northern Ireland to be elected president of the Irish republic, but still lives with the mental scars of the terrible days of the Troubles.

13 Minutes Presents

This series started off as 13 Minutes to the Moon, referring to the critical minutes leading to the first Moon landing in 1969. Subsequent series told the story of how Apollo 13 – ‘Houston, we’ve had a problem’ – was saved from catastrophe by brilliant improvisation, and more recently the history of the Space Shuttle.

It’s a classic BBC production, with stunning audio, sound effects and witness stories. The first two series are the best – the Space Shuttle could have been told in half the time.

Which is your favourite podcast? Let me know in the comments!