The 44th president’s latest podcast is a slick, excellently researched look at the post-slavery period in the US. Plus, a troubling foray into the world of swinging

Who would have thought, back in 2008, that Barack Obama (pictured above) would become one of podcasting’s biggest movers and shakers? The former president is front and centre of this series on the post-slavery period in the US, a collaboration with Malcolm Gladwell for Audible and the History Channel. It’s slick and excellently researched, but it’s the calibre of conversation and careful dot-joining that make it so compelling. Hannah J Davies
Widely available, episodes weekly

As Emerald Fennell’s new adaptation hits the screens, the historian Dominic Sandbrook takes a deep-dive into the novel’s dark themes. Plus, how to battle phone addiction

The latest release from Goalhanger hears historian Dominic Sandbrook in English teacher mode, as he dissects classic novels with producer Tabitha Syrett. Luckily, it doesn’t feel like homework: their first episode, on Wuthering Heights, revels in Emily Brontë’s dark themes, confusingly-named protagonists, and the author herself – from her tragically tiny coffin to the graveyard water that may have led to her premature death. Hannah J Davies
Widely available, episodes weekly