Does the world need more married-couple podcasts? I would say it doesn’t, but commissioning editors apparently don’t agree. Podcasts hosted by celebrity couples wryly talking about their domestic lives, and/or chatting to their friends, are suddenly everywhere. You can see why they like the format: the commute is short and the material writes itself — or that’s the idea. We can blame the trend on Shagged. Married. Annoyed , the bafflingly successful British podcast presented by actor and comedian Chris Ramsey and his wife Rosie. Their series not only regularly tops the podcast charts but has spawned a book, a TV show and — even more bafflingly — an arena tour. In 2021, the Ramseys set the record for the largest ever live podcast audience at London’s O2 Arena.
Since then, we’ve had footballer Peter Crouch and model Abbey Clancy’s The Therapy Crouch ; British comedy power couple Rhod Gilbert and Sian Harries’s The Froth and — OK, this one’s quite novel — Scared to Death , a US show in which Dan Cummins tries to freak out his wife, Lynze, with real-life horror stories from around the world. Now there are two new additions to the genre: How Was It For You? with comedians Rachel Parris and Marcus Brigstocke, and the deliberately smug-sounding The Endless Honeymoon Podcast, hosted by married Los Angeles-based stand-ups Natasha Leggero and Moshe Kasher.
The latter has been going for a couple of months and sees the pair doling out relationship advice between sharing the ups and downs of family life. The latest episode finds them reflecting on a recent family trip to Taiwan, which they insist on calling “tropical China”, before taking calls from listeners, among them Rachel from Cleveland who asks how to maintain optimism during fertility treatment. I had imagined the shift from daft spouse banter to IVF-related heartache would be jarring, but the hosts just about pull it off. Kasher declines to offer false hope, telling Rachel “things become destiny in the rear-view mirror only”. Episodes err on the side of lengthy — some exceed an hour — but it helps that they have a clear theme and structure.
How Was It For You? has a theme of sorts, though it’s too woolly to work. The podcast finds Brigstocke and Parris “reviewing” different elements of their lives, from going on a train journey with friends to the gratingly noisy toys enjoyed by their toddler. In the age of influencers sharing details of their supposedly perfect lives, they hope to provide a down-to-earth guide to modern living. But while much of what they say is undoubtedly relatable — who hasn’t endured a train journey from hell? — it is also wincingly banal. Here’s a thought: instead of a podcast in which a couple rattle on about their lovably chaotic home life, how about one documenting their slide towards marital breakdown? Then I’d be all ears.