PODCAST

by SARAH SHANNON

The Diary of a CEO

In The Diary ofa CEO, 30-year-old entrepreneur Steven Bartlett (right) interviews business types and updates us on the complex whirl of his own life. Its format hardly reinvents the wheel, but good podcasts don't need to be complicated. Bartlett is charismatic, thoughtful and direct. His guests respond by being refreshingly open. And thanks to this audio alchemy, the series has risen to the top of the podcast charts.

Rewind a few years and Bartlett was a broke university drop-out. Then he founded social media marketing company, Social Chain, took it public five years later, has a net worth estimated at £50m and recently became the youngest Dragon on the BBC's Dragons' Den. It's quite the backstory and Bartlett draws on it to probe his guests on their own success.

Stephen Fry, Peter Crouch, Richard Osman and Richard Branson have appeared in recent episodes. Which leads to one quibble: why so few inspirational women?

'Bartlett is charismatic, thoughtful and direct. His guests respond by being refreshingly open'

RADIO

BBC Radio 3 Breakfast