Tune in, high-ranking audiophiles: Andy Burnham has been on his “listening tour” this week, visiting towns across Britain, his ears open. It’s a telling idea for a prime minister who’s spent his summer recess getting his voice heard in new ways, on perky social media clips and meticulously chosen podcasts and radio programmes.

There he was, bright and breezy, on BBC Radio 5 Live’s 5am Wake Up to Money, a show he told producer Stefan Jajecznyk he listens to “when he has to be up so early”. Presented by the warm, savvy Felicity Hannah, it opens with her explaining how Burnham’s team got in touch with hers directly, before cutting to their chat in a sweltering, noisy community hub.

“I can accept the criticism that this isn’t enough,” Burnham replies when Hannah suggests his recent slew of announcements were “small potatoes” in the cost of living crisis. “What you’ve got to do is put in an accumulation of smaller things that will combine to put the pressure down.” Even when he’s circling a firm answer, Burnham’s boy-next-door pragmatism still sounds strikingly fresh.

So does his bluntness. What keeps you awake at night? Hannah asks. “Pretty much all of it. There’s also so much to deal with – you’re kind of ready to retire when it comes to the end of the day.” Hannah then asks a funny question: “Are you growing the economy on vibes?” Fair play on his response. “No! If I’d tried that in Greater Manchester I’d have got nowhere.”

Being interviewed by women also detracts from the bantery, blokeish slant of some of Burnham’s recent pub and football-related contentBeing interviewed by women also detracts from the bantery, blokeish slant of some of Burnham’s recent pub and football-related content

Burnham also spoke to LBC again (the station bagged the first post-Makerfield byelection interview, carried out by Andrew Marr) about the state of Britain’s high streets. You’ve probably already heard about the moment when he misnamed his favourite item from Greggs, prompted by a question from twentysomething reporter Henry Riley. The branch nearest to No 10 North in Manchester renamed the pastry in question the “sausage, cheese and bean thing”, doubling its sales; it’s now even had a name change nationally. The social media meme-ification of this radio moment, like so many others, gave it its status, and its quicksilver energy.

Burnham’s appearance on Elizabeth Day’s podcast earlier this month was more of a surprise (as was the message that popped up when I tried to listen to it on my podcast provider: “To listen to explicit podcasts, sign in”). “We don’t often get politicians who are willing to admit to their mistakes,” begins Day, as glossily professional as ever, before describing her subject’s failed first attempt to get into Cambridge, his brief time as a journalist working on “illustrious titles like Container Management” (which is why he won’t go on Have I Got News for You, he explains, because “they would make [it] their guest publication… and read out my old articles… I couldn’t bear the humiliation!”), and his two previous failed Labour party leadership bids.

These 49 minutes of How to Fail With Elizabeth Day are a masterclass in relatable, ever so slightly edgy charm. As well as the moment that went viral about his wife (Marie-France van Heel texted him “ANSWER THE F***ING QUESTION” after hearing one of his interviews), we hear Burnham admit to stealing communion wine as a Catholic altar boy (“I’m not going to claim I’m the most observant”) and remembering how he tried to convince his father that studying English literature at university was important by showing him the Arthur Scargill quote at the beginning of Tony Harrison’s 1985 poem V. “Doing English is intensely political; it’s about your power to get your point over and communicate well,” Burnham adds, revealingly.

Being interviewed by women also detracts from the bantery, blokeish slant of some of Burnham’s recent pub and football-related content, while quotes about his generation of politicians being “guilty of a shameful dereliction of duty” and “shameful cowardice” present him as a radical leader paving his dynamic pathway of change. Then you remember there have been no shiny interviews yet about the UK’s continuing raging wildfires, or meme-able content about his opinions on oil-drilling or the Israel Defense Forces. The prime minister’s listening tour may be ongoing on the road and on the air, but his ears, and ours, need to keep paying attention.

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