Barack Obama’s new show: the best podcasts of the week | TV & radio

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Reconstruction: An Unfinished Promise

Who would have thought, back in 2008, that Barack Obama (pictured above) would be one of the podcasting movers and shakers? The former president is front and center in this series on the era of slavery in the US, a collaboration with Malcolm Gladwell for Audible and the History Channel. It’s brilliant and well-researched, but it’s the dialogue and careful communication that make it so compelling. Hannah J Davies
It is widely available, episodes every week

Tocqueville Road Trip

John Prideaux, editor of the US Economist, embarks on a journey to examine American democracy in its 250th year. He follows the 1831 journey of the French nobleman Alexis de Tocqueville, whose book is “one of the most intelligent things ever written about the United States”. It’s a beautiful way to deal with the anxiety that will survive Trump. Alex Duggins
It is widely available, episodes every week

Swingers

Journalist Catrin Nye tells the story of a woman who joined a surfing website to impress her husband – and who says she had illicit sex with more than 100 men. It’s vivid, harrowing and unremarkable, as Nye explores the swing, including interviews with men who do. What they reveal is hard to hear. Alex Duggins
BBC Sounds, all episodes available here

Here is the history

According to legend, a leaf went into the hot water drink of the Chinese emperor Shen Nung in 2737BC and the cup was born. Tea is just one British tradition that historian Alice Loxton and the BBC’s Ben Henderson explore in this podcast – although the discussion soon turns to the violence and smuggling that caused it. HJD
BBC Sounds, weekly episodes

Bone Valley

The author of Rolling Stone Paul Solotaroff conducts the fifth season of the famous eagle, on the murder of a 12-year-old girl in New York State in 1995. Although the circumstances of the death of Josette Wright are terrible, this is a careful, powerful investigation: says Solotaroff, this is a story that “will not pierce my peace” and “will not pierce my skin.” HJD
It is widely available, episodes every week