Julia Davis: wickedly funny

The best podcasts in December 2018—My Ocean and Dear Joan and Jericha

Plus The Sporkful
November 15, 2018
My Ocean

We are increasingly being made aware of the need to protect our oceans, so this series of conversations with professionals working in marine science and conservation feels timely and important. The podcast tackles plastic pollution, as well as subjects such as the therapeutic effects of being near water. In one episode a Blue Planet producer talks about how the series is filmed, and we hear about “the curse of cuteness,” whereby “ugly” marine animals like the blobfish get much less attention than cuter creatures.

 

Dear Joan and Jericha

This excellent comedy podcast from Julia Davis, below, (of Nighty Night fame and currently in Sky’s Sally4Ever) and Vicki Pepperdine (Getting On) is hilarious. Davis and Pepperdine play two middle-aged local radio agony aunts answering listeners’ “intimate problems”—including a widow’s attraction to her handsome grown-up godson, and all sorts of issues with bowels and sexual organs—offering terrible advice and no sympathy. Their conversations are outrageously rude and completely unforgettable.

 

The Sporkful

A food podcast aimed at “eaters, not foodies,” The Sporkful is very American and unpretentious, addressing funny and often philosophical food questions: for example, how to assuage food guilt, “Life Lessons from the Pizza Hut Buffet,” and, soberingly, what if there were no nachos? Especially good is the episode about why Nigella Lawson is “the British Beyoncé,” guest-starring Lawson herself, in which she tells us why she takes English mustard and a small pot of Maldon salt with her everywhere she goes.