Sex therapist Chantelle Otten is here to save her listeners’ love lives

Often, podcasts are the opposite of practical. Mostly, they’re a form of audio escapism – from losing yourself in the twists and turns of true crime, to plugging into a comedy show and chuckling your way through a commute.

So alongside the return of powerful podcast Bodies, it’s nice this week to see the launch of Call Me Disabled, a show that reminds us of the genre’s ability to create a genuine impact, by trying to both raise awareness of issues affecting disabled people, and advocating for social change to improve their lives.

Picks of the week

Drawing on her own experiences of living with chronic illness and neurodivergency, Poppy Field hosts this illuminating series discussing what it means to identify as disabled. Photograph: -

Call Me Disabled
Widely available, episodes weekly
“Drop the euphemisms,” says Poppy Field (above) in this powerful new podcast. Although it’s a term that doesn’t work for everyone, Field is sick of being told how to identify after living with chronic pain and neurodivergence. Her first guest is Jameisha Prescod (who founded You Look Okay to Me) and they talk openly about advocating for themselves and others, asking for a wheelchair and the power of radical rest. Hannah Verdier

Bodies
Widely available, episodes weekly
Allison Behringer’s thought-provoking and long-running podcast is back for a fourth season, with episodes on ADHD, early puberty and postpartum psychosis lined up. First up is an exploration of the importance of touch, with a moving contribution from a woman who gives burn survivors massage therapy and another who prefers a firm touch to light. HV

Off the Beaten Jack
Widely available, episodes weekly
This immersive travel series focuses less on places than the people you meet there. Its second season sees host Jack Boswell spend three months housesitting in a Mississippi town to create a portrait of a Bible belt community – from its strip club workers to its mayor. Alexi Duggins

The Global Jigsaw
BBC Sounds, episodes weekly
Telling unique stories is the remit of this podcast from BBC Monitoring – who analyse 150 countries’ media across 100 languages for political, security and social shifts. From profiles of Iranian jihadis to the Turkish trend for street debates going viral on social media, it’s a measured, thoughtful look at issues around the world. AD

Sex Therapy: Sessions With Chantelle Otten
Audible, episodes weekly
If you’re obsessed with the BBC’s Couples Therapy, this podcast is your next fly-on-the-wall experience in a real therapy room. This time it’s all about sex, from a married couple of 10 years who want to bring another person into the bedroom to a cis woman in a straight relationship who is bi-curious, sexologist Chantelle Otten takes them through a session. Hollie Richardson

There’s a podcast for that

Jameela Jamil, host of I Weigh, in The Good Place. Photograph: NBC/Getty Images

Climate of Change
It’s both a reassuring and a terrifying thing to hear Cate Blanchett admit that she is as overwhelmed with eco-anxiety as much as the rest of us. But, as she recently told this paper, her aim is to “turn the magnet towards optimism” with a podcast that explores what’s happening right now to combat the climate crisis. This isn’t just a case of a wealthy celebrity turned podcast preacher: her co-host and friend Danny Kennedy has some serious eco credentials, as managing director of the California Clean Energy Fund. Perhaps it’s possible to end a chat about the climate on a positive note, after all.

I Weigh
Jameela Jamil isn’t one to stay quiet on how insidious body shaming is in the entertainment industry. In fact, after living with an eating disorder and having her body judged by tabloids on a daily basis, exposing body-related prejudice has become her cause. The presenter and actor launched the I Weigh community in 2018, an inclusive platform where a person’s worth isn’t down to a number on the scales. In this podcast, she speaks to big names in the business, including Reese Witherspoon and Kelly Rowland, as well as health and wellbeing experts, activists, and anybody who has got something to say about their relationship with their body, self-worth and mental health.

The Martin Lewis Podcast
What’s the difference between an Isa and a Lisa? What rights do renters have? What does the budget actually mean for little old me? For all of us struggling with those questions and more, MoneySavingExpert founder Martin Lewis is very good with finance facts, and just so happens to be a very nice man, too (see: his heartbreaking Desert Island Discs episode, complete with hilariously terrible music choices). Over a particularly turbulent few years, Lewis has answered his followers’ questions with empathy, and while he never tries to sugarcoat the state of the economy he is always honest on what he thinks about government policies.

Asylum Speakers Podcast with Jaz O’Hara: Stories of Migration
Activist Jaz O’Hara is first and foremost clear on one thing in this podcast: these aren’t stories about refugees, but rather they are stories about people. A record 100 million people across the world are forcibly displaced, and O’Hara’s show features interviews with the extraordinary people behind that shocking statistic, from those who have had to leave their lives behind to live in refugee camps, to the volunteers, filmmakers and campaigners on the ground. She also gives practical advice for anyone who wants to know what they can do to help. Listen out for the six-part miniseries, The Journey, following a variety of migration routes to northern Europe.

Why not try …

• Mouthwatering menus and smart celebrity chats in a new series of Angela Hartnett and Nick Grimshaw’s food pod, Dish.
  

• Warm and varied chats on neurodiversity in the BBC Sounds podcast 1800 Seconds on Autism.

• Shocking (and hilarious) revelations aplenty as influencers Coco Sarel and Candice Brathwaite return for more Closet Confessions.