The 10 best podcasts to kick start 2025

22 January 2025, 13:04

Looking to find your next favourite podcast? Radio X has some top choices from the past year: comedy, true crime, news and more.

By Radio X

@RadioX

• Podcasting has grown even bigger in the past few years with hundreds more new titles added every month that cover diverse interests and lifestyles.
• So many, in fact that, it's often difficult to know where to start - or find your next favourite. From self-improvement to niche hobbies, to true crime and news updates there's something for everyone.
• Radio X takes a look at the best of this year's new podcasts, from comedy to true crime stories that will fascinate you.
• Each of the podcasts listed below are available on Global Player

How to listen to podcasts: a beginner's guide to podcasting

1. James O'Brien Daily

   The best bits of James O'Brien's LBC phone-in show. Listen back to all the highlights in a 60-minute bite sized chunk of his show with new episodes every weekday. James covers all the big stories which will make you think - and possibly change your outlook.

   

2. Love Island: The Morning After

   Love Island The Morning After is back ready to bring you that winter sun. Join hosts Indiyah Polack and Amy Hart, the morning after the night before on the only official Love Island podcast. They’ll be joined each week with a rotation of incredible guests, as well as our dumped Islanders fresh from the Island.

   

3. The News Agents - USA

   With President Donald Trump installed in the White House for a second term, join Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel in a weekly podcast that unpicks everything you need to know about the world of US politics - all of it delivered with Emily and Jon’s astute analysis, world-class insight and wry sense of humour.

   

4. Paula's Marathon Run Club

   Join world record-breaking runner Paula Radcliffe and her co-host double Olympic runner Chris Thompson for an inspiring 16-week series designed to guide runners of all levels through their London Marathon training journey. Whether you're taking your first steps toward marathon greatness or aiming to beat your personal best, this series is packed with practical advice, uplifting stories, and a chance to learn from world-class athletes.

   Listen at Global Player

   

5. The Telepathy Tapes: Talk Tracks

   The Talk Tracks are a companion series to The Telepathy Tapes, which sits down with featured guests to unpack the revelations, challenges, and unexpected truths from Season One of THE TELEPATHY TAPES. Through candid conversations, the podcast explores the fabric of our reality, telepathy and psi abilities, and how it all relates to science, spirituality and the human experience.

   

6. Fin Vs History

   For people who like history but don't care what actually happened. Join comedians Fin Taylor and Horatio Gould as they guess/explain every event in human history, from Neanderthals to 9/11. Guaranteed to give you an entirely new and incorrect perspective on world events.

   

7. Fearless

   This empowering series tells the stories of inspirational people who have overcome challenges and fears in their lives in order to thrive. With the help of stellar guests including Dame Judi Dench, Michelle Visage and Evy Poumpouras, Trinny will be digging deep into the fears that can hold us back from our goals, and how to overcome them.

   

8. Monster: BTK

   The newest installment in the Monster franchise reveals the true story of the Wichita, Kansas serial killer who murdered at least 10 people between 1974 and 1991. Known by the moniker, BTK – Bind Torture Kill, his notoriety was bolstered by the taunting letters he sent to police, and the chilling phone calls he made to media outlets. BTK's identity was finally revealed in 2005 to the shock of his family, his community, and the world. He was the serial killer next door.

   

9. Mad, Sad and Bad with Paloma Faith

   Paloma Faith has had plenty of moments in her life when she's felt mad, sad or bad - or been told that's what she's being. But do these words mean the same for everyone? What does it mean if someone says you're mad: that you're angry? Unstable? Insane? Or perhaps just different... Could those words be liberating, therapeutic or even transformational? To find out more, Paloma invites an array of actors, comedians, musicians and thinkers into her home to reflect on times where they've felt mad, sad, bad - and even glad - what they've understood and learnt from these experiences too.

   

10. Who We Are Now with Izzy & Richard Hammond

    Season 3 of the series that sees Richard embark on a a mission to demystify and destigmatise conversations around masculinity, mental health, and the issues that affect us all, in a bid to discover who we are now. Joined by his co-pilot and grown-up daughter Izzy, they’ll dive into the worlds of mid-life crisis’, what makes a modern man, how to raise daughters, and even question what it means to be a little shorter than average...