How one woman raised $100,000 for cancer treatment she never needed

Picks of the week

People Who Knew Me
BBC Sounds, episodes weekly from Tuesday
Rosamund Pike, pictured below, stars as Emily, a woman who faked her own death on 9/11 and is now living happily in California. That’s until she’s diagnosed with breast cancer and decides to confront her past. Pike is natural and relatable, which puts this adaptation of Kim Hooper’s novel streets ahead of the average radio drama. Convincing characters, 15-minute episodes and a gripping storyline fuel a need to hear more. Hannah Verdier

Smoke Screen: Just Say You’re Sorry
Widely available, episodes weekly
This investigative podcast series has dealt with a sex cult, a fake priest and a puppy pimp, but now turns its attention to James Holland, known as the “serial killer whisperer” for his interrogation skills. Journalist Maurice Chammah digs deep into Holland’s backstory to find out how he really squeezed out those confessions. HV

The Fighty Pucks
Widely available, episodes weekly
Claire Crofton tells the entertaining story of the most violent ice-hockey team around, the Danbury Trashers (above), led by AJ Galante and his father Jimmy. Expect cheerful anecdotes about AJ’s childhood, including the time Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson came to his birthday party, though it’s clear the team’s fierce competitive instincts are real. HV

Retold: The Stoner Arms Dealers
Widely available, episodes weekly
How did two stoner kids become arms dealers? James McAvoy is the narrator for the first of four standalone stories, with this one focusing on “War Dogs” Efraim Diveroli and David Packouz. News that their supplies have been seized just as they’re tucking into sushi sets the scene nicely. HV

Scamanda
Widely available, episodes weekly
Back in 2012, just before Instagram usurped the blogosphere, a young woman called Amanda Riley blogged about her cancer journey after a Hodgkin’s lymphoma diagnosis. In this eight-part series, journalist Charlie Webster reveals how Riley went on to scam her community and solicit more than $100,000 in donations to help pay for treatments she never received. Hollie Richardson

There’s a podcast for that

This week, Charlie Lindlar chooses five of the best podcasts to mend a broken heart, from the New York Times’s restorative stories of true love to a rallying show about the power of female friendship

Modern Love
An offshoot of the New York Times’s long-running column of the same name, the Modern Love podcast drops episodes every week that dive deep into personal stories about love “in all its glorious permutations”. It’s where you’ll find unlikely tales of true love, ones that got away and relationships that fell apart – and, even if you’re nursing a broken heart, there is sure to be something that speaks to you. At the very least, there’s a truly revealing episode all about the life-changing experience that is appearing on Love Island.

Terrible, Thanks for Asking
Sometimes when you’re trying to piece things back together, what you really need is catharsis. You’ll find that aplenty in this podcast from author Nora McInerny, which has a bold but simple conceit: what if we all told the unabashed truth about the hard things we’re going through? Not every episode trawls through the emotional wreckage of relationship breakdown, but each provides a much-needed dose of perspective, optimism and resilience.

This Is Why
One you’ll need to dig into the archives for, this show was originally named This Is Why You’re Single before a rebrand in 2020 to expand its remit beyond romantic relationships. The show ended in 2021, but look back to its early years and you’ll find blunt but wholesome advice from comedian hosts Laura Lane and Angela Spera, covering everything from when to stay friendly with an ex to figuring out the right time to get back out there – and advice on detecting dating app creeps when you do.

The Bounce Back Podcast
Another show with inspiration tucked away in its 50-episode archive is this podcast from life coach Laura Yates. Centred on working on yourself in order to better your chance of relationship success, Yates is a calming host, always gentle with her guests and keen to stress there are no easy fixes to find love. Look out for the gripping episode on how to rebuild your life after infidelity – told through a first-person account from someone who knows what that takes.

Call Your Girlfriend
If all else fails, fall back on this classic podcast from writers and “long distance besties” Ann Friedman and Aminatou Sow, which is – at its core – an ode to female friendship. The hit show, which ran for seven years and over 350 episodes, covered an unfathomable range of topics and feature guests from Star Trek’s LeVar Burton to US vice-president Kamala Harris. But it was always really about the unbreakable bond between true friends, and the kind of platonic relationships that are as meaningful and important to life as romantic ones.

Why not try …

• Comics deal with their anger in a safe (and funny) space in Tiff Stevenson’s podcast Catharsis.

• Charming green-fingered tales in Our Plant Stories.
  

• Horror fans (and wimps) unite in Ruined (recently acquired by pod giants Crooked).

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