Rnz: The Podcast Hour

The rapper Prodigy and his collaborator Havoc came to fame in the 1990s as the influential US rap duo Mobb Deep. But Prodigy also suffered from sickle cell anaemia, dying from complications related to the disease in June 2017. 'The Realness' from WNYC looks at the impact of sickle cell on Prodigy's life and music.

'Beyond Kate' marks the 125th anniversary of the suffrage petition, and the decision to allow women in New Zealand to vote. RNZ's Sonia Sly tells the story of how this momentous decision was reached in 1893, and reviews its legacy today.

'The Digital Human' explores our sometimes troubled relationship with technology, and how it's changing our lives. In each episode a one word topic (for example Echo, Secrets, Memory, Isolation, Chance) gets explored. And its host, the writer and academic Aleks Krotoski, weaves together personal stories, history, and analysis, with a smart script. There's 80-odd episodes to choose from, with a new 15th season starting in a few days. We play excerpts from 'Friction', which looks at what could be lost in our seemingly endless quest for a care-free, friction-less life. Meanwhile, 'Sin-eaters' looks at the life of the content moderator; they're the people responsible for looking at some of the most horrible stuff on the internet so that we don't have to. But at what cost to them and their lives? Friction and Sin-eaters from the BBC's The Digital Human are presented by Aleks Krotoski and produced by Peter McManus for BBC Radio 4.

Meet strangers in 11 cities and then start up a conversation with them by asking one straightforward question: Where Are You Going? Because of the open-ended nature of the question, and the disarming nature of the person asking it, the series 'Where Are You Going?' can take you off in all sorts of unexpected directions. Host Catherine Carr's visited a total of 11 cities with the latest season covering South-East Asia. We play some of the Hanoi edition and speak to Catherine Carr about that central question, how she asks it, and how people respond. Where Are You Going? is presented by Catherine Carr and produced by Jo Coombs of Loftus Media for the BBC World Service.

Where Are You Going? Meeting strangers in 11 different cities. How tech's shaping modern life: The Digital Human. Generation X: Beyond Kate. And The Realness: how a blood disease shaped hip hop history.

The Japanese anime studio Studio Ghibli is 33 years old this year, and from Spirited Away to Kiki's Delivery Service, it's responsible for some of the most popular animated films ever made. Film geek Michael Leader has seen all 20-odd of them, but his colleague Jake Cunningham has hardly seen any. So each week they watch one, share their thoughts about it and some interesting facts about how it was made, and then rank them all from best to worst. Here's part of their discussion about many people's favourite Ghibli, the 1988 film 'My Neighbour Totoro' with the two presenters joined by the film writer Beth Webb who recently wrote a piece to mark the film's 30th anniversary.

A nocturne is a piece of music that's inspired by, or which evokes, the night. It's also the name of a podcast I've been enjoying recently. Nocturne is made by the independent American audio producer Vanessa Lowe, who's intrigued by how people and places change as day turns into night. We play excerpts from a couple of her recent stories. 'Blackfish' is all about a Cornish fisherman called Malcolm Saunders who does some of his best work at night, fishing off the coast of the south west of England. Meanwhile, if you've ever stayed somewhere without power, or just turned off the lights at night so you can light a few candles and enjoy the way it makes the room look different, then you might appreciate 'Candle Hour'. It's the story of writer and journalist Julia Scott who was finding that technology use and 24/7 access to often negative news stories wasn't the best preparation for bed. So she thought back to the power cuts and snow storms in her childhood in Canada decades before, and started a relaxing ritual b

Te Puaheiri Snowden and Paraone Gloyne have made are around 60 episodes of Tāringa so far, which blend kupu (Māori words), interviews with iwi, information about the history of tikanga (customs and protocols) and re-tellings of traditional stories.

What's the biggest coincidence you've ever experienced? Unfortunately it's unlikely that any of them will impress David Spiegelhalter all that much. He's a Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk at the University of Cambridge, he collects stories about coincidences, and was interviewed as part of a BBC documentary called 'What Are The Odds?' about some of the favourite coincidences in his collection. 'What Are The Odds?' from the BBC, is presented by Rajesh Mirchandani and produced by Kate Bissell.

What Are The Odds? Collecting coincidences. Taringa: learning more about Te Ao Maori (the Maori world). Nocturne tells stories of the night and The Ghibliotheque reviews the works of Studio Ghibli.

Have you ever seen a dead body? That confronting question is the starting point for an Australian podcast called Dead Bodies, which discusses this macabre but fascinating topic. The two hosts, Dee Dee Dunleavy and Sharnelle Vella, interview people whose lives or work have brought them into contact with the dead, as well as musing on their own experiences. In the process they explore how seeing a dead body can affect us, and what the experience can reveal about our own attitudes to life and mortality.

'The Foreign Desk' from Monocle is an award-winning show covering big global news stories in a bright and breezy style. According to its host, the Australian journalist Andrew Mueller, what sets The Foreign Desk apart is a guiding principle of actually speaking to at least one person from the country they're talking about. As Andrew says in an email, "It shouldn't be unusual, but it is". We play some of a recent primer on the Trump-Kim summit in Singapore called 'Do We Still Need International Summits?' which provides a good example of the show's signature style.

Cocaine & Rhinestones is a one-man history of country music that's attracting new fans to this often mocked and neglected musical genre. We speak with host Tyler Mahan Coe about his story, and play a clip from the fourth episode of Cocaine & Rhinestones which tells the story of Bobbie Gentry and her 1967 hit 'Ode to Billie Joe'.

If the everyday objects that surround us could speak, then what would they say? That's the whimsical central idea of 'Everything Is Alive', a show that brings inanimate objects to life. The chatty, charming Maeve is a lamp post living in Brooklyn (and a big Singing In The Rain fan!).

Everything is Alive: talking soap, chatty lamp posts. Country music history: Cocaine & Rhinestones. The Foreign Desk: global news stories. Have you ever seen a dead body? The Dead Bodies podcast.

In the popular science show 'Ologies', host Alie Ward speaks to some of the best ologists on the planet about their passions, and the most interesting stuff they're discovering. The featured episode is all about moths and butterflies or lepidopterology and features Phil Torres, a well-travelled TV host and lepidopterologist.

'Rule of Three' dissects comedy classics. Two switched-on comedy writers, Joel Morris and Jason Hazeley, get a guest to come in and nominate something that really makes them laugh: the episode we're featuring is all about ''The Album of the Soundtrack of the Trailer of the Film of Monty Python and the Holy Grail' (the 'executive' LP version of course!), chosen by the English comedian and actor Matt Holness.

London-based couple Gavin Wong and Claire Curran were having way too much fun hearing stories about their single friends' dating exploits not to turn them into a podcast.

Criminal is a weekly podcast bringing to life the true stories of people who have "done wrong, been wronged, or got caught somewhere in the middle" – from serial killers to serial streakers.

Criminal: telling right and wrong. Swipe Left Swipe Left: looking for love. Dissecting comedy classics: Rule of Three, and Ologies: science with a sense helping of humour.