It’s a new year and we’ve got new podcasts for you to put in your ear holes! Liz looks at the most minor of true crime scandals with The Walkers Switch. Nick looks at actual serious true crime with Smoke Screen: Fake Priest. Then Zane gets his word nerd on with Science Diction.

As always we follow that up with the reviews of last week’s recommendations.

Liz Recommends - The Walkers Switch

https://www.laurenandaugustine.com/the-walkers-switch

“2 out of 3 people remember Walkers switching the colours of their Cheese and Onion and Salt and Vinegar crisp packets. But Walkers deny it ever happened. Are they lying? If so, why? The Walkers Switch investigates the greatest hoax in British crisp history.”

This podcast from Lauren Peters and Augustine Cerf investigates the issue forensically. They believe you deserve to know the truth, so explore fan theories, a possible Tory plot and the Mandela Effect, whereby people create their own memories. It’s like Serial for crisps, with mysterious tinkly podcast music and the serious approach the issue deserves.

The Walkers Switch is Serial, but for crisps. Esquire has named it one of the best podcasts of 2020, and one of The Guardian’s podcasts of the week.

Limited series, 6 episodes between 15 and 40 mins long.

For both: it’d a serial so start at the start.

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-walkers-switch/id1504502482

Nick Recommends - Smoke Screen: Fake Priest

For 30 years, a man claimed to be a priest. He performed baptisms and took confession. Every time he ran into trouble, Father Ryan would move on to another small Midwestern town and start his scheme all over again. Followers who once worshipped him, now accuse him of exploitation, fraud and abuse. Multiple prosecutors have charged him, but he’s never been imprisoned for his crimes. Investigative reporter Alex Schuman, who hails from a small Iowa town himself, set out to find out how Father Ryan got away with it for so long and why on earth he did it.

For both: from the start

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/smoke-screen-fake-priest/id1525807626

Zane Recommends - Science Diction

https://www.npr.org/podcasts/813012842/science-diction

From the people who make Science Friday, we bring you Science Diction, a bite-sized podcast about words—and the science stories behind them. Hosted by SciFri producer and self-proclaimed word nerd Johanna Mayer, each episode of Science Diction digs into the origin of a single word or phrase, and, with the help of historians, authors, etymologists, and scientists, reveals a surprising science connection. Did you know the origin of the word meme has more to do with evolutionary biology than lolcats? Or that the element cobalt takes its name from a very cheeky goblin from German folklore? Fun, nosy, and nerdy, Science Diction takes a look at what we're really saying when we use everyday words. Science Diction is a show for information packrats who are constantly sniffing out knowledge—you can listen while making your coffee or brushing your teeth. Episodes will drop once a week in the Science Friday podcast feed for the show's four-episode first season. Continuing Science Friday's decades-long track record of making science accessible, Science Diction reveals the science in places we didn't even know it existed. Because science is everywhere—even in our words. Locked inside our language are etymologies and...

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