6 Top New Non-True Crime Podcasts of July 2023
If you are looking for some new non-true crime podcasts, look no further! These six podcasts are sure to keep you listening and entertained.
1. Intrigue: Burning Sun - Hosted By Chloe Hadjimatheou - BBC Podcasts.
Intrigue is the perfect title for this new BBC Podcast because it will have you just that from the first episode - absolutely intrigued! This podcast tells of shocking sexual abuse of a number of young women in Korea and how this abusive treatment of women became almost normalised within society there. We hear first person accounts from some of the victims of these sexual assaults and learn about how one of these “sex scandals” ended with one of the world’s biggest K-pop stars being imprisoned for his crimes. This is:
“A tale of depravity, power and excess - hidden behind a facade of wholesome pop music.” (Source here).
This podcast is truly captivating. It is so well put together, following a logical and easy to follow timeline that is greatly enhanced by all the interviewees who make this podcast so powerful. The host is excellent and really lets the story evolve and develop with minimal interference.
All six episodes are available now and I strongly suggest you download and binge them all in one go (I think you will find it impossible to stop listening once you start).
2. The Retrievals - Hosted By Susan Burton - Serial Productions & The New York Times.
WOW is all I can say having listened to the first three available episodes of this brand new five-part podcast from Serial Productions and The New York Times; give me a moment to pick my jaw up off the floor! In The Retrievals podcast the focus is on the Yale Fertility Center and some of the many patients who received fertility treatment from this clinic. In particular, the focus is on the egg retrieval procedure which was abnormally painful despite the usual pain relief being administered to the patients undergoing the procedure. We hear directly from some of the patients who tell us all about their experiences with this clinic and a common theme quickly becomes obvious:
“They began their I.V.F. cycles full of expectation and hope. Then a surgical procedure called egg retrieval caused them excruciating pain. Some of the patients screamed out in the procedure room. Others called the clinic from home to report pain in the hours that followed.” (Source here).
The real reason why these patients were experiencing such pain? Well, it was because they were not actually receiving the pain medication they should have (the highly addictive drug Fentanyl) because a nurse working in the clinic was stealing the medication and replacing it with saline! There is so much more to this story and host Susan Burton examines deeper themes, questioning:
“… the stories we tell about women’s pain. How do we tolerate, interpret and account for it? What happens when pain is minimized or dismissed?” (Source here).
Definitely download the first three episodes and be ready for episode four which drops tomorrow!
3. Spellcaster: The Fall of Sam Bankman-Fried - Hosted By Hannah Miller - Wondery.
In 2019, Sam Bankman-Fried founded the crypto exchange FTX. At the start of 2022, at just 29 years old, Bankman-Fried’s company had made him a multi-billionaire. However, his good fortune did not last, just months later, in November 2022 his company FTX collapsed. At first the collapse appeared to be due to an “accounting oversight” but it wasn’t long before people realised that fraud was at the centre of the collapse and investors and customers had just lost billions.
The Spellcaster podcast takes us through the “Sam Bankman-Fried” story, from the beginning to the current day. It is so interesting and asks:
“Who was Sam really? A well-meaning billionaire who made a mistake? Or a calculated con man?” (Source here).
Another great Wondery podcast. All seven episodes are available now.
4. Dinner’s on Me with Jesse Tyler Ferguson - Sony Music.
I assume, like many people, Jesse Tyler Ferguson first appeared on the radar when he starred in the US Sitcom “Modern Family”. In the show, Jesse’s fantastic award nominated portrayal of the character Mitchell Pritchett is legendary. So, I was very excited to see that he was releasing his very own podcast.
In each episode Jesse chats with one of his (presumably) many famous friends (I want to be his friend, he seems sooo nice!) over dinner and we, the listener, get to “join” them at the dining table. There are some great shared moments recounted and some excellent “behind the scenes” stories told.
Jim Parsons was hands-down my favourite guest so far as I am a massive fan of “The Big Bang Theory” - who isn’t?! The Sarah Hyland, Kirsten Bell and Elizabeth Banks episodes are also very entertaining. All episodes are about one hour long, so they are super convenient if you don’t have a tonne of time to spare. I think this is a great podcast to dip in and out of, where you can pick and choose the episode you want to listen to depending on your interests and/or mood!
There are eleven episodes available so far.
5. Admissable: Shreds of Evidence - Hosted By Tessa Kramer - iHeartPodcasts, VPM & Story Mechanics.
Admissable: Shreds of Evidence is an twelve episode investigative documentary style podcast into the work of forensic scientist Mary Jane Burton. Mary Jane Burton was the leading forensic scientist in the Virginia state crime lab in the 1970s and 1980s. Her DNA analysis and identification work was responsible for the arrest and prosecution of many criminals, particularly those of a sexually violent nature. However, was Mary Jane Burton simply analysing crime scene evidence gathered and put before her or was she more fixated on solving cases, no matter the evidence and consequences?! Why was Burton keeping a private “catalogue” of DNA evidence that was only discovered after her death? Well, when thirteen men are:
“… exonerated thanks to the miraculous discovery of biological evidence that had been preserved by forensic scientist Mary Jane Burton and stashed away for decades in a Virginia records facility. Burton was hailed as a hero for saving the evidence. Many speculated that she’d foreseen a future in which DNA testing could deliver more accurate convictions and clear the innocent. But when a former co-worker disputes that narrative, a pattern of questionable practices and shadowy motives begins to emerge.” (Source here).
If you want to know the details of this crazy story and hear from the whistle-blower involved in this case, who trained under and worked with Mary Jane Burton, then the good news is all twelve episodes of this podcast are available now.
6. Big Sugar - Hosted By Celeste Headlee - iHeartPodcasts.
As the name suggests, the Big Sugar podcast investigates the world of Big Sugar i.e. the multi-billion dollar sugar industry. This is:
“… a deep dive into the inner workings of the sugar industry.” (Source here).
The sugar industry is a dark empire that for most people goes under the radar. But in this podcast we:
“Hear first-hand from the workers, lawyers and journalists exposing the lies, exploitation and ultimately the truth. We travel from the Oval Office to the nightclubs of Havana to the sugarcane fields of Florida. This is a story of our time, an untold story that focuses on human rights, lobbying, nutrition and the environment.” (Source here).
The first-hand accounts from some of the Jamaican sugar cane cutters brought to Florida in the USA to cut sugarcane are equal parts heart-breaking and maddening.
There are six episodes already available and I am eager to know (and not Googling) how the rest of this story plays out.
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