In need of distraction but don’t want another never-ending whodunnit? These gripping podcast series and stand-alone listens will keep you (and the family) entertained for hours and can be downloaded from all the usual audio streaming services.

Learn something new

The Protocol

• Number of episodes: 6
• Total listening time: 4 hours 20 minutes

As the debate around healthcare for young transgender people in the US rages on, this series attempts to impartially lay out the facts. Throughout the series different voices and perspectives are aired to give listeners an understanding of the spectrum of opinions on the matter. The New York Times

Broomgate: A Curling Scandal

• Number of episodes: 6
• Total listening time: 3 hours

The winter sport, curling, where players slide round stones on ice towards a target area and thereafter frantically sweep the ice in front of the stone with brooms, does not typically make headlines for its behind-the-scenes rivalries and drama. However, this podcast delves into a sensational drama that surrounded the 2015 World Curling Tour which ended with broken friendships, intense rivalries and countless lawsuits. CBC

Joanne McNally Investigates: Who Replaced Avril Lavigne?

• Number of episodes: 6
• Total listening time: 3 hours 30 minutes

The conspiracy theory that 2000s Canadian pop singer Avril Lavigne died and was replaced by a lookalike has persisted in certain corners of the internet for years. In this series comedian Joanne McNally tries to understand how this rumour started, and more importantly, if there is any truth to it. BBC & CBC

The Rest is History: Irish War of Independence and Civil War Series

• Number of episodes: 6
• Total listening time: 5 hours 30 minutes

For this six-part series British historians Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook are joined by a host of Irish historians to explore how the Irish War of Independence and Civil War unfolded. Great for anyone who wants a refresher on Irish history without feeling as if they are back at school. Goalhanger

Titanic: Ship of Dreams

• Number of episodes: 13
• Total listening time: 10 hours

Host Paul McGann uses his own family’s connection to the Titanic – his great uncle was a trimmer down in its engine room – to explore the stories of the everyday people caught up in history’s most famous ship sinking. Noiser

Family friendly

Greeking Out

• Number of episodes: 10 series of 10 episodes
• Average episode length: 25 minutes

In each episode this podcast delves into a different ancient Greek myth and retells it in an engaging way that is suitable for the whole family. While this podcast is targeted towards families, listening to these retellings is so enjoyable that quite a few adults have been known to listen on their own. National Geographic Kids

Terrestrials

• Number of episodes: 14
• Total listening time: 20 minutes

Terrestrials focuses on a different animal or natural phenomenon in every episode that is in some way strange or surprising, it’s a great blend of learning and fun. Radiolab

You’re Dead to Me (Radio Edit)

• Number of episodes: 218 episodes
• Average episode length: 28 minutes

Each episode of You’re Dead to Me brings together a comedian and a historian to discuss a particular event or person in history. A witty and humorous listen, it is recommend for families with children aged 10+. BBC

Can’t stop listening

Dead Eyes: Series One

• Number of episodes: 10
• Total listening time: 6 hours 25 minutes

Back in 2001 the actor and comedian Connor Ratliff was fired from a small role in the HBO television series Band of Brothers for supposedly having “dead eyes”. Two decades later he sets out to discover why he was really fired and more broadly, to explore the effect that rejection has on people in the entertainment industry. Headgum

Blood on the Dance Floor

• Number of episodes: 6
• Total listening time: 3 hours

This series tells the previously untold story of Darren Bradshaw, a gay police officer murdered in Northern Ireland in 1997. A tense listen, this podcast examines a side of the Troubles that’s not often explored. BBC

In The Dark: Season Two

• Number of episodes: 18
• Total listening time: 16 hours 50 minutes

Each season of In The Dark examines a potential miscarriage of justice in the US. Season two tells the story of Curtis Flowers, who had faced trial for a quadruple murder from 1996 six times. Having won five appeal cases he was then made to stand trial for the murders again and was reconvicted. This story is full of riveting twists and turns that will keep you hooked for hours. The New Yorker

Noble

• Number of episodes: 9
• Total listening time: 4 hours 50 minutes

When more than 300 bodies were discovered on the property of a well-respected family in 2002 in the US state of Georgia it began one of the biggest and most expensive investigations in US history. It also triggered an intense debate about death and how the living should treat the dead. Audiochuck

West Cork

• Number of episodes: 14
• Total listening time: 8 hours 50 minutes

While the unsolved murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier in West Cork has been rehashed many times, this is by far the most forensic and thoughtful look at the case. Unlike other retellings this one centres on the personality of Toscan du Plantier and explores how this tragic murder became such a public spectacle. Acast/Yarn FM

Where is George Gibney?

• Number of episodes: 12
• Total listening time: 7 hours

George Gibney, a once celebrated Irish Olympic swimming coach, was charged with sexual abuse of young girls and then disappeared. In this nail-biting series Mark Horgan, a BBC journalist, sets out to find him. BBC

Where is Jón?

• Number of episodes: 7
• Total listening time: 4 hours 45 minutes

In 2019 Jón Jonsson came to Dublin from Iceland to play at the Dublin Poker Festival, and within 24 hours of landing he had seemingly vanished without a trace. This podcast, a collaboration between Irish and Icelandic state media, tries to uncover what happened to him. RTÉ/RÚV

The Price of Paradise

• Number of episodes: 8
• Total listening time: 4 hours 20 minutes

In the early 2000s Jayne Gaskin decided to sell her English home and move her family to an island off the coast of Nicaragua which she had bought on the internet. What follows is the most bizarre tale of murder, corruption and the making of a Channel 4 documentary. Wondery

One-episode wonders

The Murder of Bridget Cleary

• Podcast: Morbid by Acast
• Listening time: 1 hour 25 minutes

In 1885, Micheal Cleary and other members of his family murdered his wife Bridget in their home in Co Tipperary. He claimed to have done so as she had been taken by fairies and replaced with a changeling – but did he really mean that? Or was it just an excuse?

A Very Irish Coup

• Podcast: Doc on One by RTÉ
• Listening time: 40 minutes

The story of the most successful betting scam in Irish gambling history. From the identities of those involved to the sleepy location where it took place, this is a story so unbelievable that it must be true.

Don’t Go Far

• Podcast: Doc on One by RTÉ
• Listening time: 39 minutes

This will have you laughing from start to finish. The story of how, in 1985, two Dublin school boys made it from Ireland to New York without any money or a single form of identification.

The Cult of Purity Culture

• Podcast: Sounds Like a Cult by Studio 71
• Listening time: 1 hour 10 minutes

Each episode of Sounds Like a Cult sets out to explore if a fanatical group that sounds like a cult really is one. This episode explores the strange world of purity rings which are worn to signify a promise that an adolescent boy or girl has made to stay chaste until marriage.

You’re Wrong About The Stanford Prison Experiment

• Podcast: You’re Wrong About by Sarah Marshall
• Listening time: 1 hour 10 minutes

Every episode of You’re Wrong About looks at a different event or person that journalist Sarah Marshall believes has been misrepresented. This episode looks at the often-over-simplified Stanford Prison Experiment and what it might tell us about the inequalities inherent in scientific research.