The Week Unwrapped - with Olly Mann The Week

Fun and interesting listening on the way to work

A great podcast - if you can tolerate Jamie Timpson. Other commentators are thoughtful and balanced, but Timpson’s undeserved confidence is his own opinions and experiences is consistently jarring. Obnoxious and reactionary new-ladism at its worst.

As one would expect from a podcast created by The Week, this is professionally produced and covers an interesting blend of developments which are not big news now but may be causing headlines in months or years to come. The content is well chosen and covered by the knowledgeable team, and discussion is fairly free but kept moving and limited to a useful duration per topic.

One potential criticism is that the podcast doesn’t include outside experts or interviews (aside from the occasional excerpt to introduce the story), but in fact this is one aspect I like as it means the participants don’t have vested interests in steering or derailing the discussion, and make their points succinctly. A precise of the competing views are generally mentioned for balance.

Overall, this is the only podcast for which I make a special effort to catch every episode and it makes my commute much more enjoyable. I find it a brilliant complement to the regular reporting in The Week and I do hope it will continue for a long time.