Podcast Reviews: 'The Ex Files' and 'Titanic: Ship of Dreams'

The Ex Files

(Global)

"The Ex Files is built on an odd premise," said Miranda Sawyer in The Observer (U.K.). It's a global affairs show in which Christiane Amanpour, CNN's "vastly experienced" international anchor, discusses current events with her ex-husband, Jamie Rubin. "But once I listened, I quite understood why Rubin is there." He was a top State Department official in both the Clinton and Biden administrations and adds valuable experience of his own, including his having helped almost broker a cease-fire last year between Israel and Hamas. "Both Rubin and Amanpour are so impressive," and from their debut episode, "I learned more than I have from innumerable reports on Gaza."

The Ex Files is "a brilliant listen," said Kerri-Ann Roper in The Independent (U.K.). In the second episode, as Amanpour and Rubin discuss what it might take to end the war in Ukraine, Amanpour draws upon lessons learned while making a CNN documentary on Vladimir Putin. She's special. "There isn't anyone better placed to be guiding listeners through the tangled web of today's world politics."

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Titanic: Ship of Dreams

(Noiser)

People never tire of the story of the Titanic, and the latest podcast about the 1912 disaster "makes it sweaty, complex, horrifying, and real," said Chloe Walker in Podcast Review. "Although Ship of Dreams is dense with information, much of it very technical, the priority is on conjuring images for the audience through beautifully chosen words." So Belfast's shipyard, the Titanic's boiler room, and the bioluminescence of the arctic sea all feel "thrillingly tangible" as host Paul McGann illuminates a "mind-boggling" number of ways that the tragedy could have been averted.

As familiar as the story is, "there is enough detail that listeners may discover something new," said Fiona Sturges in the Financial Times. There was far more debate over the design of the ship's carpets, for example, than its lifeboats. McGann, an actor whose great-uncle survived the disaster, "overdoes the portent, much of the time sounding as if he's reading from the Book of Revelation." Still, the series succeeds in sustaining suspense, its core mission, "by focusing less on what happened than why."