Pick of the podcasts: Rewirement, The Offcuts Drawer, Black Alley

Retirement used to be about puzzle magazines, pottering about the garden and endless episodes of Countdown.

These days, though, pensioners are eschewing settling into their dotage for a more action-packed lifestyle: think mountain biking holidays as well as bowling clubs.

All these activities cost a bit of money though, so you do have to plan ahead.

Thankfully there’s a new podcast for those who have retired and those of us who plan to do it ourselves one day, should we be so lucky.

As a freelance broadcaster Angellica Bell – best known as co-host on the Martin Lewis Money Show – knows the importance of planning for the future.

In Rewirement, Angellica opens up the conversation on retirement in this eight-part podcast series, challenging the stereotypes on what we can achieve when we retire and looking at what we can all be doing to make sure we have a plan in place for when we enter the post-work world.

Angellica talks to two retired individuals doing incredible things per episode, such as Mick the coal miner turned ski instructor and Jacky, who went from working for an airline to obtaining a Masters in forensic psychology in her 50s.

Each episode looks at a different area of retirement, such as how to keep mentally and physically fit, relocating later in life and even an LGBTQ+ retirement.

Angellica’s guests talk about how they opened a new chapter on their lives, changed their mindsets on retirement, the happiness it has given them and why there’s no limitations on what you can do later in life.

While the opportunities are endless, the podcast highlights the importance of planning; Rewirement might be the best start you could make.

The Offcuts Drawer

The podcast where writers dig out bits of their unpublished work, the writing they never finished, had rejected or still hang on to, and actors perform them. Then the writer explains what on earth they were thinking. Among the scribes who have joined host Laura Shavin’s intriguing idea, which has been nominated for a Webby award, are Scottish writers Christopher Brookmyre and Val McDermid.

Black Alley

Intriguingly described as being like a cross between Pulp Fiction and In Bruges, Black Alley is a new crime fiction anthology podcast series made in Ireland. A startling opening episode stars Paul Mescal, better known as the hunk from last year’s lockdown hit Normal People. The first episode sees a criminal gang gather in their den. Who can survive the nest of vipers? This is really gripping stuff.