Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Arts myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Who would have imagined that the most powerful figure in British podcasting would be Gary Lineker? The footballer-turned-pundit is the co-founder of Goalhanger, the production company that is home to the dizzyingly popular The Rest Is . . . podcasts: The Rest Is History, The Rest Is Politics, The Rest Is Football, The Rest Is Money and The Rest Is Entertainment. All but one of these series are in the top 10 of the UK podcast charts at the time of writing, and several have branched out into live shows: The Rest Is History has recently toured the US while in October The Rest Is Politics filled London’s 20,000-capacity O2 Arena. (Side note: “The Rest Is” title makes sense for the history series but is nonsensical when applied to the others. But this is a brand and they are sticking to it.)Now there’s a new series, The Rest Is Classified, which has naturally shot straight to the top of the charts. The aim is to provide insider accounts of notable moments in spying history, from the hunt for Osama bin Laden and the story of Watergate to the Kim Philby scandal. The opening two episodes are about the CIA- and MI6-backed coup in Iran in 1953, a tale of drunken agents, fake street riots and disputes over oil. At the centre of the story is the excellently named Kermit Roosevelt, grandson of Theodore and an intelligence officer charged with the task of overthrowing Iranian prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. While the first coup failed, Roosevelt had a second stab at it, succeeding via a campaign of chaos and disinformation.The series hosts are Gordon Corera, who worked for 20 years as the BBC’s security correspondent, and David McCloskey, an ex-CIA analyst and spy novelist. Along with their obvious credentials, the pair have an easy chemistry, bouncing off one another’s anecdotes and allowing space for gentle disagreement, or at least differing interpretations of the facts. The atmosphere is learned yet convivial and conversational. and is very much of a piece with The Rest Is History, which is hosted by historians Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland. This is deliberate since both series are aimed at listeners who enjoy old-school storytelling where the likes of Churchill, Nixon and Hitler have walk-on parts. Churchill duly appears in the second instalment of The Rest Is Classified, summoning Roosevelt to 10 Downing Street to give an account of events in Iran, only to fall asleep while Roosevelt is in mid-flow.I have one complaint about Goalhanger, and that is its overwhelming maleness. Out of 13 podcasts, only four feature female co-hosts — and each of those present alongside a man. There are, currently, no shows solely hosted by women. This will be rectified next year, I’m told, but it’s a dispiriting state of affairs and reflective of where we are in podcasting. What was once an industry celebrated for its accessibility and range of voices is now increasingly dominated by the pale, stale and male.goalhangerpodcasts.com
