Beth’s Dead, Pipeline
BETH’s DEAD - monica padman, elizabeth laime, andy rosen
When Monica Padman’s favourite podcast hosts, Elizabeth Laime and Andy Rosen, stopped producing shows, she felt bereft. Years later, Monica is a successful podcaster herself - Dax Shepherd’s co-host on the uber-successful Armchair Expert - and she wants to find out why her favourite podcasts stopped out of the blue.
What she discovers shocks her. The married couple stopped broadcasting after they were told one of their most dedicated listeners had taken her own life, and Elizabeth seems to have been the person the listener confided in most.
It's a story about fandoms, parasocial relationships, mental health - with an important reminder: you never know who you're talking to behind a computer screen.
What drew me in most was the format. It's narrative storytelling, but chatty. The hosts revisit their correspondence with listeners - some read on air at the time, some never shared - reacting with the benefit of hindsight. It’s forensic in detail, yet it still feels like you're sitting in on a fascinating story in a bar. No extensive sound design. No highly edited scripts or perfectly crafted cliffhangers. And yet I was completely hooked.
Pipeline - daily mail
The Daily Mail’s audio is not to be underestimated - they’re producing some really compelling series.
I came late to Pipeline, their first narrative show. It follows journalist Isabelle Stanley and producer Bella Soames to Trinidad, where they uncover the shocking story of four divers sucked into an undersea oil pipe and left to die. The only survivor, a fifth diver, tells Isabelle exactly what happened. What follows is cover-ups, finger-pointing, and even the suggestion that the Trinidadian government may have called an early general election after finding out about this very investigation.
This is powerful, empathetic reporting that made me question my own commissioning bias towards British stories.\
Looking for more podcast recommendations? Journalist Robin Pomeroy's weekly LinkedIn posts offer thoughtful takes on both mainstream hits and hidden gems you've never heard of.