I was already an enthusiastic fan of The Week magazine when they approached me to host their first foray into podcasting back in 2017.
The result was The Week Unwrapped, a show that has now racked up over 300 episodes and multiple publishing awards.
Each week, I investigate the ‘biggest’ story of the past week with three guests. The gimmick is: we reject the events generating the most headlines, and focus instead on under-reported news with the greatest repercussions for our lives.
with panelists John Stepek and Kari Wilkin and special guest Iain Dale at Podcast Live: Politics, October 2019
For example, in the week President Trump was inaugurated, we discussed what Xi Jinping had been saying at Davos... and instead of focussing on the Brexit vote in the House of Commons, we turned our gaze to the rapid rise of French Presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron (very presciently, as it turned out!)
We’ve been selected by The Mail on Sunday and Wired in their ‘best podcast’ lists, and, in 2021, the show won ‘Podcast of the Year’ at the PPA Awards, with the Judges describing it as “professional, entertaining, informative, with a quirky approach and an excellent example of a brand extension.”
The show has also won ‘Best News and Current Affairs’ at the Publisher Podcasting Awards in both 2020 and 2021, and has been nominated at The Drum Online Media Awards, the Campaign Publishing Awards, and the Digital Publishing Awards.
Occasionally we welcome special guests, who have included Dr Adam Rutherford, Edith Bowman, Iain Dale and Bassem Youssef.
The show is regularly expanded into limited seasons of specials produced in association with high-profile corporate clients. In 2021, American Express funded a series of Investments Unwrapped, following a successful arts series, Culture Unwrapped, in 2020. I’ve also presented seasons of China Unwrapped for Tech UK and the China-British Business Council, and Business Unwrapped for sponsors Lombard Asset Finance, Volkswagen and Barclays Corporate Banking.