Rnz: The Podcast Hour

Radio Atlas brings non-English audio documentaries to an English speaking audience using subtitles that are timed to appear on your smartphone screen at exactly the same time as you hear the audio. We speak to Eleanor McDowall who started up Radio Atlas, and runs it in her spare time.

Dispatch To A Friend involves two real-life friends Gillian Bell and Annabelle Hickson reading out the letters they send to each other in a simple celebration of their friendship. We play part of an Episode called 'Catmint, Venn diagrams and a bread pudding'.

He's played in the NBA, and stands over 2 metres tall in his socks, but Paul Shirley isn't your typical basketball jock. For starters he's a talented writer, doesn't take himself too seriously, and was a self-confessed late bloomer who had limited early success with the ladies. 'Stories I Tell on Dates' by Paul Shirley is produced by Lunch Break Entertainment.

'Hallelujah' by Leonard Cohen took years to write, once had as many as 80 verses, and was practically ignored when it first came out 34 years ago. The BBC Radio 4 series Soul Music tells the story of the emotional impact of a  song and how it was written.

Soul Music: Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah'. Globetrotting romances: Stories I Tell On Dates. Loving letters: Dispatch to A Friend. And Radio Atlas: subtitling foreign language audio.

'Zig Zag' tells the story of two people navigating their way through a profound period of personal change against a backdrop of technological upheaval. Manoush Zomorodi used to host New York Public Radio's popular tech show 'Note To Self'. But she and producer Jen Poyant ditched their jobs to find a future for themselves inside an emerging form of journalism powered by the Blockchain. We play an extract from Episode 2 called 'Blockchain. Block What?!' where they grapple with some of the big questions that potentially obstruct their narrative: like what is Blockchain? And why should we care?!

The ABC series 'Little Tiny' tells short stories about small things that have shaped world history, including one very special cartoon rabbit (who isn't called Bugs!).

The English writer and presenter Olly Mann's still only in his thirties, but he's already a seasoned veteran of the UK podcasting scene. A few years back, Olly Mann launched his podcast 'The Modern Mann', a magazine-style show with a longer interview bookended by chats with regular contributors about sex, and the latest trends. We play some of a memorable episode called 'Lost At Sea' and speak to Olly Mann about what he looks for when he's choosing his interview subjects.

'Bubble' is a comedy imagining what life would be like inside a giant, corporate-controlled dome powered by the gig economy. It's a place where everyone seems to either be building their own app, or working on somebody else's. And there are monsters too! We play an extract of Episode 1 of Bubble, called Huntrs.

Bubble: a sci fi comedy. The Modern Mann: lost overboard. Little Tiny: small things that have changed the course of history. Zig Zag: demystifying Blockchain.

In 'Branch Out', host Vanessa Fuchs goes rustling through the undergrowth at The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney to show off the science and the stories behind some of its most interesting plants. Trevor Wilson and New Zealander Matt Renner discuss a new plant they discovered in a very unlikely place.

Back in the early 2000s, a steroids scandal rocked world sport. Famous athletes including the baseball player Barry Bonds, and the track star Marion Jones, got caught taking performance enhancing drugs supplied to them by BALCO. 'American Scandal' tells the story of BALCO, its boss Victor Conte, and how he and his clients were brought to justice. We play some of Episode 2 of American Scandal called 'Gold Medals and Bad Blood', hosted by Lindsay Graham for Wondery.

Jonathan Zenti is an independent radio producer living in Rome. He is also overweight. Jonathan doesn't see his size as a problem, but it often seems to be an issue for the people he comes into contact with. He explores how our bodies can shape our lives in the podcast Meat. Jonathan chats to Richard Scott and we listen in to some of the first episode 'Host's Fat', which recently won a prize at the Third Coast International Audio Festival.

Finding children clothes that they actually want to wear is no easy task. Could part of the problem be that their gaudy designs and garish colours and patterns are probably the work of an adult? And what would it be like to be an adult who has to wear children's clothes? Joe Rosenberg speaks to his friend, colleague and the host of 'Articles of Interest' Avery Trufelman about his experiences shopping in the children's clothing aisle.

Articles of Interest, Meat, American Scandal and Branch Out.

Nearly 30 years ago, thieves posing as police officers broke into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and made off with 13 artworks. The total value of the heist in today's market? A cool US$500 million, making it the biggest art theft of all time. Despite a $10 million reward no arrests have ever been made, and none of the art's ever been recovered. 'Last Seen' from WBUR Boston and the Boston Globe is presented by Kelly Horan and Jack Rodolico.

The badly burned body of a woman is discovered in a valley in Norway. Arranged around her is an odd assortment of objects, and all the labels have been removed from her clothes. Although it sounds like it could come from the pages of a detective novel, this grisly tragedy is a real life mystery that's remained unsolved for nearly 50 years. So who was this unidentified woman? Was it murder or suicide? And could advances in forensic science, including DNA analysis, help solve this cold case? These are some of the questions that the 10-part series 'Death In Ice Valley'- a co-production between the BBC World Service and the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK- tries to answer.

Tristan Meyer Odell is a typical Canadian teenager with an unusual hobby: he's into taxidermy. And even though stuffing dead animals isn't perhaps the pastime you'd choose for your offspring, his parents are totally on board. Rachel Matlow of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation presents 'The Teenage Taxidermist' a story that originally aired on CBC's Sunday Edition.

Season 1 focussed on one single, extraordinary case, Season 3 looks at the often humdrum, high volume world of daily life in the hulking Justice Center in Cleveland, Ohio for insights into how the wider machinery of justice is working. With extracts from Episode 1 "A Bar Fight Walks Into the Justice Center" featuring Sarah Koenig, and from Episode 2 called "You've Got Some Gauls" with Emmanuel Dzotsi.

Serial season 3: judging US justice. CBC's The Teenage Taxidermist. A murder mystery? Death In Ice Valley. And the world's biggest art theft: Last Seen.