Pick of the week
Speaking in TonguesThis official Rolling Stones podcast is hosted by Norah Jones and released across six weeks, with each chapter charting the making of the band’s upcoming studio album, Foreign Tongues. Unsurprisingly, it’s a polished exercise in PR for one of the world’s biggest acts. Its first episode is also something of a tribute, as it considers how Mick, Keith and Ronnie returned to the studio following the death of drummer Charlie Watt in 2021. Hannah J DaviesWidely available, episodes weeklyOMMM: Our Museum Mindfulness MeditationLA’s Getty Museum may have reverse engineered the title to get that acronym but nothing else about this blissed-out series feels contrived. Lilit Sadoyan, museum educator and art historian, is the perfect guide for a fusion of art and quiet reflection which considers the hidden depths of works such as Van Gogh’s Irises. HJD Widely available, episodes weeklyFeminist Art LivesMusician and writer Cosey Fanni Tutti. Photograph: Chris CarterDrawn from vast research project Feminist Art Making Histories, this impressive series is stuffed full of influential artistic voices from the 70s, 80s and 90s. Among its excellent episodes are Picturing Ourselves, hosted by art historian Dr Amy Tobin and featuring the transgressive work of Cosey Fanni Tutti and Sonia Boyce on dismantling stereotypes of Black womanhood. HJDWidely available, episodes weeklySpy CitiesOne for the super-sleuths, this nerdy show takes espionage fans across the world to the cities with the best spy stories. Writer Angus Blair and former diplomat David Ludlow are our hosts on the move – starting in London, then moving on to Istanbul, Washington DC and beyond. Hollie RichardsonWidely available, episodes weeklyskip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionWe Keep Us SafeThis thorough investigation from NPR and the Seattle Times feels decidedly more like public interest journalism than true crime. It reopens the case of Antonio Mays Jr, a Black teenager shot dead at a 2020 occupation protest in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. While much of the day was livestreamed, shockingly Mays’s killing remains unsolved. HJDWidely available, episodes weekly
