Rnz: The Podcast Hour

Most of us let random, interesting-looking strangers walk on by - but not so Eva Krysiak. Richard Scott meets the audio producer behind the award-winning 'photographic podcast' Everyone Else.

The audio producing duo The Kitchen Sisters started working together on a live local radio show in California back in the late 1970s. Since then Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson have made about 500 audio documentaries together, covering topics from space food to Spanish shepherds, from kimchi to the recording of Prince's album 'Purple Rain'. And over the decades they've refined a distinctive style; it's audio rich, full of found sounds, voicemail messages, and music, it's mainly recorded in the field, not in the studio, and there's not that much of them in their stories. We play a selection of The Kitchen Sisters' work, including Operation Hummus which tells the story of the cultural and political battle over the origins of a simple chickpea dish. Also Chicken Pills, which highlights some potentially dangerous beauty practices in Jamaica, and how some people will stop at nothing in their quest for a perfect body. And we speak to The Kitchen Sisters' Davia Nelson about how they find their stories, the emergence of

The Kingsmen's 1963 anthem 'Louie Louie' has become a soundtrack to raucous parties and good times; you might remember John Belushi beerily belting it out with the other frat boys in the 1978 film 'Animal House'. You can even try to discern what the lyrics say- like the FBI did when it investigated the song for obscenity- but you'll probably fail! And don't assume that The Kingsmen were the ones who actually wrote the track either. From KCRW's series 'Lost Notes', David Weinberg tells the story of 'Louie Louie: The Strange Journey of the Dirtiest Song Never Written'.

Lost Notes: the strange tale of 'Louie, Louie'. Unearthing hidden histories: The Kitchen Sisters. 'Everyone Else': capturing chance encounters.

Celebrity chat shows don't always give you many major insights into what makes the biggest stars tick. But when you throw in some food, have some famous mates, and get your mum to do the cooking, you seem to find out a whole lot more about them! Jessie Ware's an English singer and songwriter and in her show 'Table Manners' her mum Lennie cooks up a storm for a selection of invited guests including Ed Sheeran, TV personality Alan Carr, and chef Yotam Ottolenghi. This is from the very first episode back in November when the English singer Sam Smith popped round for dinner.

'The Teacher's Pet' is an Australian true crime series that centres on the disappearance and suspected murder of Sydney woman Lyn Dawson in 1982. The show's uncovered new evidence and witnesses to the events leading up her disappearance over its 13 episodes (and counting). Made by news and media company The Australian, and hosted by its national chief correspondent Hedley Thomas, the show's also proving to be a big commercial success. We play some of Episode 3 of 'The Teacher's Pet', where Hedley Thomas manages to get the chief suspect in the case on the phone.

The American audio producing duo The Kitchen Sisters have made hundreds of sound-rich documentaries over their 30-plus years in the business. This is one of their stories that involves a famous heavyweight boxer, and some unusual uses for the grill he brought to the masses. Next week we speak to one of The Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson, and play more of their stories.

The New York Times' series 'Caliphate' shows up the challenges of reporting on Islamic State. We speak to the journalist at the centre of it, Rukmini Callimachi, and the show's producer Andy Mills about the importance of audio in today's media landscape.

Caliphate: reporting on Islamic State. An Unexpected Kitchen: The George Foreman Grill. Cracking a cold case? The Teacher's Pet. And celebrity revelations over a home-cooked dinner: Table Manners with Jessie Ware.

After digging deep into Watergate, the highly-rated 'Slow Burn' is back this week, covering events around the Monica Lewinsky scandal that led to the impeachment of US President Bill Clinton. We play some of Episode 1 called 'Deal or No Deal', which revisits a lunch meeting 20 years ago between Monica Lewinsky and her supposed friend Linda Tripp.

Teenagers tell their own stories in their own words on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation podcast Mic Drop. We tune into a boy called Evans talking about growing up far away from his father on the episode Who Am I?.

Drew Ackerman doesn't care if his podcast puts you to sleep – in fact, that's kind of the point. Every month, hundreds of thousands of people around the world tune in to help them drop off.

'A Very Fatal Murder' sends up 'Serial', 'S-Town' and other true crime podcasts. Whether you're a fan of these true crime shows or not, then this might be for you. From Onion Public Radio, we play some of Episode 1 of "A Very Fatal Murder".

A Very Fatal Murder: sending up true crime. Tune in and drop off? Sleep With Me. Teens take the mic to talk about the challenges of modern life, and Slow Burn: impeaching Bill Clinton.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in water, 'Inside Jaws' comes along! The series inter-cuts between dramatisations of famous shark attacks, scenes from Steven Spielberg's directing career, and stories from the filming of 'Jaws' itself. Shooting the movie was a catalogue of disasters, with persistent problems affecting Bruce, the collective name for the mechanical sharks they used. We play a taster from Episode 5 of 'Inside Jaws'.

Some people are already thinking about the concrete realities of getting to Mars, and what living and working there would actually be like. According to journalist Tim Urban, one day hundreds of people could travel there on 'cruise ships' equipped with cinemas and restaurants and enjoying amazing views of the stars. From the show Crazy/Genius, hosted by Derek Thompson of The Atlantic, 'Should We Go to Mars?'.

What if the technological challenge of getting to Mars and back isn't the biggest obstacle we have to overcome? Could human relationships, our ability to manage stress and conflict and solve problems together after being cooped up for months on end, be another major hurdle? To test this out, NASA's been sending teams of volunteers to live for long periods in an isolation dome on a Hawaiian volcano. 'The Habitat', produced by Gimlet Media and presented by Lynn Levy, is the story of one of these groups who started a year-long stint in the dome back in August 2015. And we speak to Lynn Levy about the challenges of telling this story from outside the dome.

'The Habitat': simulating a Mars mission and 'Crazy/Genius' discusses whether we should go to Mars. Also 'Inside Jaws' goes behind the filming of a movie classic.

NPR's Hidden Brain is a show that combines science and storytelling and uses them to understand our unconscious choices and biases, and how these can shape our behaviour. We play an excerpt from a recent episode of Hidden Brain called 'Baby Talk: Decoding The Secret Language Of Babies' (originally published on May 14th 2018). It explores the way that babies can communicate without using words, and is presented by Shankar Vedantam.

The Tip Off takes you behind the scenes of the biggest investigative journalism scoops in the news today. It's just won an award for Best New Podcast at the British Podcast Awards, and each week host Maeve McClenaghan speaks to journalists about the sometimes painstaking research behind their major stories. It's a UK show so big issues of the day there tend to take centre stage, with recent stories about knife crime and the abuse of the prescription tranquiliser Xanax. But it's a compelling listen, and there's an international dimension to many of the stories too. We play some of Episode 7 'Codename Prometheus' which is about the Panama Papers, and how journalists from all over the world collaborated to cover the story.