My Perfect Podcast: Laura Whitmore
In this column, we ask a pod person about the ’casts that mean a lot to them. This month, it’s Laura Whitmore who, alongside husband Iain Stirling, presents hit true crime podcast Murder They Wrote which continues with new weekly episodes and a special Halloween run
Which podcast educates you? Jessie Ware’s Is It Normal? educated me hugely during pregnancy. It tackled the questions you’re often too scared or embarrassed to ask about birth. Informative, reassuring and funny, it felt like having a brilliantly knowledgeable friend alongside you, which was useful as I spent most of my pregnancy convinced every new symptom meant I was either dying or about to give birth immediately.
Which podcast makes you laugh? Off Menu. I love the premise: asking people to reveal their dream meal sounds deceptively simple, but somehow it becomes a brilliant insight into personality, nostalgia and chaos. Plus, James [Acaster] and Ed [Gamble] are a perfect double act. It does make me hungry so I usually have a snack as I listen.
Which podcast makes you sad or angry? The News Agents can regularly do both. There are days when I come away feeling informed and engaged, and others when I feel the world is a dark unjust space. I think that’s probably the sign of good journalism; it makes you feel something rather than simply scroll on.
Which podcast is your guilty pleasure? Anything involving celebrity gossip or a really niche pop-culture deep dive. I won’t name names because then I’d have to admit how much time I’ve spent listening to people dissecting celebrity feuds that have absolutely no impact on my actual life.
Tell us someone who currently doesn’t have a podcast but totally should. And why do you think their one would be amazing? My mother. Her podcast would essentially be a weekly round-up of people who have died that I have absolutely no connection to whatsoever. She is obsessed with RIP.ie and regularly rings me with updates on the passing of people from villages I’ve never visited or people I vaguely knew in 1997. ‘You remember Mary’s brother-in-law’s cousin?’ No, mum. I don’t.
Pitch us a new podcast idea in exactly 27 words Laura Whitmore Has Got Good News: five brilliant, bizarre and uplifting stories from the week, because doomscrolling is exhausting and surely someone, somewhere, has rescued a duck.
New episodes of Murder They Wrote are available weekly on BBC Sounds.