This week in audio: Diddy on Trial - a case of the rapper gone wrong

Diddy on Trial
BBC Sounds

Christiane Amanpour Presents: The Ex Files
Global

AI Haven’t A Clue
Bauer Media

The detailed reporting – the evidence trawled over, the accused analysed, in-depth descriptions of witnesses, judge, prosecution, defence – recalls the time of Dickens, when court cases were written up in the papers and pored over by the public. All these years later, TikTok and podcasts are doing the same.

BBC Sounds, which once might have considered such topics somewhat infra dig, has joined in the trial podcast game. It has one for Luigi Mangione already set up, even though his trial, for allegedly killing American health insurance CEO Brian Thompson, doesn’t start until 26 June; similarly, Diddy on Trial has been releasing episodes for almost six months now.

In case you’re not up to speed, hip-hop grandee Diddy, AKA Puff Daddy, AKA Sean Combs, is being prosecuted in New York for charges including racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and engaging in prostitution, all of which he denies. Diddy’s trial only started on Monday, but by then Diddy on Trial was already 31 episodes in.

I’m unsure why anyone would bother with the earlier episodes, prior to the shows released last week. The Start of Diddy’s Trial: What to Expect featured US criminal defence attorney Shaun Kent and court sketch artist Jane Rosenberg, and Kent proved to be fantastic value, with revealing insights into the differences between how the prosecution and defence will present their cases.

Rosenberg was rather odder, jovially recalling how she brought her son along to a previous Combs trial in 2001, when he was acquitted of shooting a gun in a nightclub. Her son had a great time, apparently.

The final pre-court case episode, Diddy’s Trial Begins: What’s It Like in Court?, conveyed the strangeness of actually being in the courtroom after all the build-up.

Host Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty, who is excellent, described how “frail, grey... fragile old man” Diddy locked eyes with her: “He turned around and looked seven times... looked dead at me and then turned [back] around”. Spooky, to say the least.

Mutanda-Dougherty is bubbly and exemplary throughout, conveying the genuine public interest in the case, without stepping directly into the awfulness.

But despite her talent, now the trial has actually started, the listening experience is grim, and the latest episodes are hard going. What’s been revealed in court by Combs’s former partner Cassie Ventura is horrible and upsetting (and definitely not safe for work). It’s not for me.

But if you want daily updates on this thoroughly depressing case, then this podcast is the one.

The vastly experienced Christiane Amanpour (above) has been snaffled up by Global. Known as the chief international anchor at CNN, Amanpour can now add podcaster to her CV, as her new podcast, Christiane Amanpour Presents: The Ex Files With Jamie Rubin, started on Tuesday. (Global has a cheeky habit of nicking BBC hacks just when they might be feeling peeved. On top of the CNN gig, Amanpour had been appearing on and off as a Today show host, and perhaps thought she might be made permanent once Michal Hussein left. But that didn’t happen, so off to Global she goes.) 

Amanpour is fantastic, though The Ex-Files is built on an odd premise: she’s going to discuss current events alongside her ex-husband, Jamie Rubin.

Hmmm, I thought. But once I listened, I quite understood why Rubin is there. An ex-diplomat, he was also a high-up in the US government until very recently, serving as far back as the Clinton administration. And in the first episode, he revealed that he was part of a team that very nearly negotiated a ceasefire in the current Israel-Hamas war. This had gone unreported, because the negotiation was done behind the scenes (Tony Blair was involved, 90s fans), which is usually how peace is achieved.

Sadly, said Rubin, the deal collapsed “because we ran out of time. In October we were very, very close... but when Trump won, essentially our power evaporated.”

God, both Rubin and Amanpour are so impressive. Imagine being at a party with them: you’d never speak for feeling dumb. Luckily, this podcast has the opposite effect: the insights are remarkable and I learned more than I have from innumerable reports on Gaza. By the end, however, it had started to feel a little too insider-y, with Rubin and Amanpour swapping tales of Clinton and Arafat.

Here’s a sweet new podcast about artificial intelligence. AI Haven’t a Clue teams a tech industry expert, James Chandler, the UK chief strategy officer of the IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau), with an AI novice, radio presenter George Butler. The structure is pretty good: a few newsy AI stories at the top, a listener question, plus an interview with an expert, who in the opening instalment is Muhammad Lila from Goodable, a content platform that highlights good news rather than bad.

Chandler is smooth and confident, Butler bouncy and naive, and their chemistry is nice. But I could have done with a shorter interview with the glossy Lila – “we love working with brands that like to make a difference in the world”; oh really! – and more genuine responses from Butler, who’s charismatic but occasionally a little nervy. Once he relaxes into his role, this will be a charming show.

Photographs by Shareif Ziyadat/Getty Images for Sean "Diddy" Combs; Global