When the Belgian audio producer Helena de Groot got together with her American partner, David, she told him emphatically that she didn't want children. She told him again just before they got married in San Francisco. David seemed to accept her decision, saying he wanted to be with her more than he wanted a baby. But as the years went by, he began trying to change her mind.
In Creation Myth, De Groot ponders the question: to breed or not to breed? A compellingly raw audio memoir, it moves from present to past and back again as it documents its creator's innermost anxieties about motherhood. Now, from the vantage point of her forties, De Groot finds herself questioning her own convictions and weighing the impact of her decision on herself, her friendships and her marriage.
Older people have been ill-served by podcasts in the last decade, but change is in the air. The runaway success of 76-year-old Bill Nighy's podcast Ill Advised has revealed an appetite for the wisdom of society's elders. Enter The Best is Yet to Come, the new podcast from 90-year-old Sir John Tusa, the BBC journalist who launched TV's Newsnight and was managing director of the BBC World Service>. Tusa conducts lengthy interviews with fellow nonagenarians about their lives, careers and their plans for the future. There is warmth and depth to these conversations, which avoid the cackling informality found in chat casts pitched at younger listeners. Tusa's first guest is Philip Graham, a child psychiatrist and author whose own miserable childhood galvanised him into studying and improving the lot of British children. Upcoming guests include the author and historian Lady Antonia Frasier and former deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine.
In 2002, in Aurora, Illinois, Al and Mary Ann Signorelli's 21-year-old son Jeff was shot dead at a social gathering in what seemed a random act of violence. No arrests were made and the case remains unsolved, but this podcast which is written, produced and hosted by Willy Nast isn't a whodunnit. Decades in the making, City of Lights is a thoughtful and empathetic account of the aftermath of a murder and what happens to those left behind.
For the Signorellis, coming to terms with their grief meant trying to fix the apathetic political and social systems that had allowed violent crime to flourish in their city. Nast is no impartial observer: he grew up in Aurora and knew Jeff Signorelli, albeit vaguely. That he is so embroiled in the story makes for a heartfelt portrait of a city and a couple whose determination and resilience take your breath away.