Home
App
A seat at the table

A seat at the table

Ruth Rogers chats with A-listers about their food favourites and life stories

wk 46 podcasts Ruth Rogers

River Cafe Table

CONVERSATION

Ruthie's Table

Want to see this content?

This page contains content provided by Spotify. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as Spotify may use cookies and other technologies. To view this content, choose 'Accept and continue' to allow Spotify and its required purposes.

Accept and continue

The eponymous “Ruthie” is better known to those not in her encyclopaedic contacts book as Ruth Rogers, co-founder of London’s River Café. Her podcast began during lockdown in 2021 — Rogers is a driven woman and had to keep busy. The guests who join her to talk about their favourite food read like an A-list Who’s Who, with everyone who’s anyone from the worlds of acting, art, politics, music, activism and the odd chef. This latest run begins with the film director Guillermo del Toro, who talks of Mexican mole (sauce not mammal), barbecued goat and, on a more serious note, the kidnapping of his father. He’s followed by Tony Blair, who discusses dining with heads of state, childhood nutrition and education, and farming and food production. ANNA JONES

SOCIETY

Truthless

Want to see this content?

Accept and continue

Many of my best friends are liars. If you’re a writer it’s part of the job. Truthless is a new show from Spotify in which real people talk about the times in their lives when what began as a white lie took on a life of its own, planting a misapprehension that could only be sustained by what Churchill called “a bodyguard of lies”. We begin with the computer-illiterate hustler who got away with running IT for a Wall Street bank. You’ll never look at the person fixing your office computer in the same way again. DAVID HEPWORTH

HEALTH

My Life with Dementia

Want to see this content?

Accept and continue

Actor and Dementia UK ambassador Jim Broadbent fronts this podcast looking into the lives of people living with dementia, like Andy, diagnosed in his 50s. Interviewed with his wife, Christine, his story is heartbreaking but also hopeful — especially when he talks about maintaining a positive attitude to keep the illness at bay. With Dementia UK’s Admiral Nurses offering genuine practical advice, this is a must for anyone whose life has been touched by dementia. JAMES MOTTRAM

CURRENT AFFAIRS

News Natter

New Natter podcast art

Three presenters, friends and journalists come together to discuss issues big, quirky and trivial in this weekly news round-up from BBC Sounds. Each episode features a conversation between BBC West Midlands TV and radio presenters Trish Adudu, Nicola Beckford and Nikki Tapper, about everything from England’s new manager to the return of vinyl records. The three friends also opine on local stories from their region, such as the closure of Banks’s Brewery in Wolverhampton. TOM GOULDING

MOTORING

The Spark Inside

Want to see this content?

Accept and continue

If you know what the Enfield 8000 was, this is for you, a podcast aimed at petrolheads. Enthusiasts discuss every aspect of the world of cars and bikes, and that includes car shows, motor racing and tinkering about on Sundays with your beloved vehicle. Each week the presenters introduce people who work with, in or under cars. And everything is deliberately not blokey. PS In the 1970s the Enfield 8000 was the first British electric car to go into mass production. DAVID McGILLIVRAY

LIFE STORIES

Begin Again with Davina McCall

Want to see this content?

Accept and continue

“It’s never too late to change,” Davina McCall assures us in that soothing way of hers, as she introduces this midlife-themed podcast. Focused on self-improvement, Begin Again invites medical experts and celebrity guests to share confessions, information and ideas, inspiring listeners to shake things up during this life. There’s some jarring editing and a few cringing moments, but it is helpful, with its heart in the right place. EMMA SIMMONDS

WELLBEING

The Hidden 20%

Want to see this content?

Accept and continue

Launched earlier this year by Ben Branson, the founder of Seedlip non-alcoholic drinks, The Hidden 20% has already picked up a gong at the British Podcast Awards. Branson was diagnosed with autism and ADHD late in life and is now campaigning to break the cycle of shame, stigma and struggle among the 20 per cent of the global population who are neurodivergent. He is an empathetic interviewer and his guests include celebrities, psychologists and entrepreneurs discussing why neurodivergence is a superpower, not a disability. ANNA JONES

SOCIETY

If You Were in Charge

Want to see this content?

Accept and continue

What would you do if you had the unlimited power and wealth to solve the world’s toughest problems? That is the question put to experts by global peace strategist Sanam Naraghi Anderlini every week. First up is a biggie. How do you address “extreme capitalism” and its impact on wealth inequality? Well, for Abigail Disney, heir to (and occasional critic of) the Disney empire, it’s a wealth tax on all billionaires. A bold idea, especially in the US, but the self-confessed “class traitor” makes a coherent case. JEREMY ASPINALL

INVESTIGATION

Backfired: Attention Deficit

Backfired Audible podcast

Audible

Almost overnight, it seems, ADHD has gone from an obscure condition to a dysfunction affecting millions of people. The makers of this podcast interviewed two dozen people about their medication, and what they uncovered is not the kind of crisis we might have expected. Yes, there are not enough stimulants to go round. But those prescribed produce widely differing and sometimes extremely worrying effects. The situation is far from clear-cut. DAVID McGILLIVRAY

Get the Christmas double issue

Too much to watch at Christmas? Let Radio Times do the choosing to find something the whole family will enjoy.

Subscribe by 3 Dec