Very few artists win the Turner Prize. Very few filmmakers win an Oscar. Only one person has won both. That person is Sir Steve McQueen, the acclaimed director of Hunger, Shame, 12 Years a Slave, and Widows. With each film, Steve McQueen expanded the scope of his fierce, unflinching gaze – from Irish republicanism, to the Slave Trade in the Deep South – but for his most recent project, he turned that gaze inwards, to the world that he knows most intimately. Small Axe is a love letter to his pare...
Sep 13, 2021•43 min•Season 7Ep. 1
Annie Macmanus returns with another crop of fascinating guests, from all walks of life, for conversation about the changes that define us. Changes, series four – launching September 13th. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sep 10, 2021•1 min
It’s the final part of the Mother Mother Mini-Series, and it’s a big one. Ciaran Thapar has written an explosive, game-changing study of youth violence in London: Cut Short. It’s based on his years of experience as a youth worker in the borough of Lambeth, where he has helped bridge the divide between distinct communities that share the same streets but live entirely parallel experiences. In that work, Ciaran has observed the realities of endemic poverty, racism, and knife crime that plague youn...
Jun 28, 2021•51 min•Season 6Ep. 4
Part three of the Mother Mother Mini-Series is all about living with grief – something Nikesh Shukla gets to terms with in his memoir, Brown Baby. Nikesh has written novels for adults and children, and he curated the acclaimed essay collection, The Good Immigrant, but this is the first time he’s delved so deep into his own life for material. It’s a gorgeous, vulnerable book, about the dual experience of becoming a father and losing a mother, and the ways those two events became tangled up in Nik...
Jun 21, 2021•44 min•Season 6Ep. 3
In the second part of the Mother Mother Mini-Series, Annie speaks to journalist, and now best-selling author, Sophie Heawood about her memoir, The Hungover Games. It’s an outrageously funny book about something that didn’t feel particularly funny at the time: Sophie was in her mid-30s, living in LA, covering showbiz for the UK press, and quite happily swerving most of the responsibilities that come with adulthood. Then, a doctor told her she’d never conceive a child – at which point she immediat...
Jun 14, 2021•40 min•Season 6Ep. 2
For the first part of the Mother Mother Mini-Series, Annie speaks to Francisco Garcia about the Missing Persons Crisis. When he was seven years old, Francisco's father walked out of his life, and entered into the messy hinterland of the missing. Now, as a journalist, Francisco has become fascinated with the wide spectrum of experience that gets bundled into the term 'missing person', and he takes that fascination, as well as his own curiosity about what became of his father, as the basis for his...
Jun 07, 2021•44 min•Season 6Ep. 1
To mark the release of Annie's debut novel, Mother Mother, Changes returns with a special mini-series. Four conversations. Four authors. A whole heap of change. Launching June 7th. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jun 04, 2021•2 min
We end the series with a wild and raucous cautionary tale of change. Shaun Attwood’s life is something you would expect to see in a film. He grew up in a small northern town and went on to become a stockbroker millionaire in Arizona. He then became a kingpin in drug smuggling, bringing up to £4 million of ecstasy into America. Eventually this lifestyle caught up with him and led to a SWAT team knocking his door down in 2002. He faced a 200 year sentence and after a legal battle and serving two y...
Apr 12, 2021•55 min•Season 5Ep. 10
In 2020, the world changed in ways none of us could ever have imagined. Dr Steven Taylor is the author of The Psychology of Pandemics, the first-ever comprehensive analysis of this subject which he published before Covid 19 broke out. Since then, the coronavirus pandemic has so far resulted in over 2.7 million deaths worldwide, with over 126,500 deaths in the UK alone. As the vaccination program beds in and the rules start to fall away, Annie wanted to bring you a conversation that could act as ...
Apr 05, 2021•48 min•Season 5Ep. 9
Get ready because this week’s guest is best selling author, glamour model and TV personality, Katie Price and there’s no holds barred! Katie has experienced huge changes in her life (she has six autobiographies to show for it), not least was her recent stay at the Priory, which she explains has transformed her. Ever since she first appeared in the Sun in 1996, Katie’s life has constantly been in the press. She’s appeared on I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here where she met Peter Andre who she the...
Mar 29, 2021•44 min•Season 5Ep. 8
Shaun King is a civil rights activist for the 21st Century. Previously named in Time magazine's top 25 most influential people on the internet, Shaun uses his vast social media following to advocate for justice and fundraise for the families of victims' of police brutality and discrimination. He posts videos and information about racially motivated crimes to help find the perpetrators. He’s headed social media campaigns which led to the identification and arrest of the men responsible for the as...
Mar 22, 2021•49 min•Season 5Ep. 7
Billie Piper has changed from teen pop star to award winning actress starring in Doctor Who, Secret Diary of A Call Girl, Collateral, I Hate Suzie and now releasing her debut self written and directed film Rare Beasts. She has been BAFTA nominated and won six Best Actress awards including an Olivier Award for her performance in the play Yerma. It’s safe to say Billie is drawn to portraying very real female characters not shying away from the complications of being a woman today but instead embra...
Mar 15, 2021•46 min•Season 5Ep. 6
On International Women’s Day meet Ariel Bruce, a phenomenal woman who profoundly changes people’s lives by tracing missing family. Described as the Agatha Christie of the adoption world, Ariel works on ITV’s Long Lost Family and specialises in finding people affected by adoption, using her unique skills as a social worker and her background in care to reunite families all over the world. Born in London, Ariel’s parents were Jewish refugees and at the age of 12, she was placed into care an...
Mar 08, 2021•47 min•Season 5Ep. 5
Candice Carty-Williams is a writer and author of the award winning Sunday Times bestselling novel Queenie, which changed the game in publishing! Candice has transitioned from first working in publishing to becoming both the first black person and first black woman to win "Book of the Year" at the British Book Awards in 2020. In this raw, open and fascinating conversation you will hear just how strong Candice is and the numerous changes she has navigated - an unsettled childhood, experiencing los...
Mar 01, 2021•55 min•Season 5Ep. 4
Today we want to let you know about a new show that we’re loving. It’s called Ian Wright’s Everyday People, where each week Wrighty meets someone with an incredible story of bravery, resilience or transformation. He gets to the heart of how they’ve changed the world for the better and why they do the things they do. There's Major Chris Brannigan, a doting father-of-three who took on an impossible 700 mile barefoot walk, raising funds to create a pioneering treatment for his daughter, diag...
Feb 23, 2021•8 min
Travis Alabanza is a performer, writer and theatre maker who identifies as black, trans feminine and gender non-conforming. They are the youngest person to be awarded a residency at The Tate, the first black trans person to sell out a show at Southbank Centre and have had work featured at the V&A, Roundhouse and, most recently, the Bush Theatre with their play ‘Overflow’. As one of the most prominent emerging trans voices in the arts and beyond, Travis talks to Annie about their journey with...
Feb 22, 2021•56 min•Season 5Ep. 3
Since 27th January, in the heart of London, nine activists, who call themselves HS2 Rebellion, have been trying to affect change by occupying a network of tunnels which they dug under Euston station. Larch Maxey is one of them. They are protesting against HS2, the High speed rail project planning to connect London to Birmingham up to Manchester and Leeds, a project which will lead to faster travel and better links between the north and south. It is estimated to cost over £100 billion. The activi...
Feb 18, 2021•54 min•Season 5Ep. 2
Bez is a legendary figure of the Manchester music scene - the wild maraca playing dance man of Happy Mondays and a member of Black Grape, he has since traded the party days to lead a healthy lifestyle and become an unlikely fitness instructor with his You Tube classes "Get Buzzin’ with Bez”. A multi faceted man, Bez won Celebrity Big Brother in 2005, previously stood as a candidate in the UK General Election running on a platform of "free energy, free food and free anything" and has explored com...
Feb 15, 2021•41 min•Season 5Ep. 2
Warning! This episode will make you want to buy a farm in the middle of nowhere! Kelis is a queen of change - a multi-platinum, Grammy nominated artist, born in NYC, she signed to her first record deal when she was 17 years old. Her remarkable voice and groundbreaking songs like Caught Out There, Milkshake, Millionaire catapulted her to fame, which peaked in 2005 when she married the rapper Nas. They divorced five years later soon after the birth of her son Knight. Midway through her career Keli...
Feb 08, 2021•57 min•Season 5Ep. 1
Strictly sensation and Radio 1 buddy Clara Amfo is hijacking the feed to give you a sneak peek at her new series of This City, which explores the best city in the world (London) through some very special guests... Discover past episodes and get new ones as they drop when you subscribe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Nov 18, 2020•17 min•Season 4Ep. 10
From growing up in Wales, attending RADA in London and becoming a Hollywood film star living an LA life, to refocusing on activism and developing community projects in his home town of Port Talbot, Michael Sheen has changed a lot over the years. Here Michael talks about all these changes - his early childhood memories of moving around and feeling displaced, his first ever heartbreak, having a bruised ego and crisis of confidence in drama school, struggling with the move to LA, his relations...
Nov 09, 2020•49 min•Season 4Ep. 10
2% of the population suffer from Body Dysmorphic disorder. This week’s guest, Denise, hated her nose so much that she eventually had surgery to alter it. Following the surgery, her mental health deteriorated and she was sectioned and diagnosed with Body Dysmorphic Disorder. BDD is characterised by someone having a preoccupation with perceived flaws in their physical appearance, which are unnoticeable to others. People don’t want to leave the house, or see other people at all. It took 15 yea...
Nov 02, 2020•43 min•Season 4Ep. 9
Alison Lapper is a celebrated artist, best known for being the subject of a very famous piece of art, a Marc Quinn sculpture which caused uproar at the time depicting her ‘limbless body’, no arms and very short legs, heavily pregnant with her son Parys. The statute rested on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar square and proved quite the subversive neighbour to the other male war heroes depicted on the other plinths. Parys was born able bodied and healthy and his arrival was the beginning of nea...
Oct 26, 2020•1 hr•Season 4Ep. 8
Tammie Jo was told ‘girls don’t fly’ before defying the odds to become one of the first female pilots in the US Navy, going on to save 148 lives when she landed a plane after an engine exploded cracking a window, and sucking one passenger half way out. In this gripping conversation, Tammie Jo tells Annie about the many doors slammed in her face by the army and the navy and how with her dogged persistence and self belief, she eventually triumphed as a fighter pilot and went on to be a trail...
Oct 19, 2020•48 min•Season 4Ep. 7
Do you believe people with extremist views can change? Our guest this week is Nigel Bromage, who spent decades in dangerous far right organisations such as the National Front, British Movement and Combat 18. In this unique and revealing conversation, Nigel tells Annie how he was groomed into the National Front as a teenager, when he was at his most vulnerable after his Mother’s death, and how after over 20 years in the far-right, he finally managed to escape. Since then he has worked tirelessly ...
Oct 12, 2020•49 min•Season 4Ep. 6
Beth Ditto went from growing up in the conservative south of the USA to being the punk front woman of Gossip and posing nude on the cover of NME. She is a queer icon and a feminist who promoted body positivity long before it was cool. With her usual hilarity and frankness, Beth Ditto speaks to Annie about her unconventional childhood in a huge family and living with her Aunt in her teens, a relationship which shaped Beth and influenced her passion for feminism. She opens up about how at 15...
Oct 06, 2020•40 min•Season 4Ep. 5
Surprise! In this special episode on change, our planet and sustainability, award winning producer for Blue Planet II, Orla Doherty, shares her incredibly unique perspective on our oceans. Orla made huge changes in her life to get to where she is today - her love for the ocean came later in life at the age of 30 when she learnt to scuba dive, but when she fell, she fell hard!! She went on to quit her job in London as a TV producer and spent 10 years on a boat exploring coral reefs. After returni...
Oct 02, 2020•51 min•Season 4Ep. 4
In this wonderfully compelling conversation, The Booker Prize winning author opens up to Annie about her childhood, going to the Youth Theatre, losing herself in a toxic relationship with another woman and her hopes for the future of society. As the first black woman to win the Booker Prize, Bernardine Evaristo is, rightly so, unashamedly basking in the huge success of her ninth novel ‘Girl, Woman, Other’. In this episode, Bernardine takes Annie through her journey with writing and speaks ...
Sep 28, 2020•48 min•Season 4Ep. 4
Have you ever wondered what actually happens when you win the lottery? How you deal with the reality of this overwhelming amount of money? Susan Herdman won the lottery in 2010, on a 14 million to one chance. In this episode she tells us about her life before and after the win, the strange heightened night when she knew that she had won but it was unconfirmed by the lottery, and where she went and did karaoke with the winning ticket tucked in her bra (every woman knows of course that this is the...
Sep 21, 2020•45 min•Season 4Ep. 3
As a child within the space of six months, Romesh Ranganathan’s house was repossessed, he changed schools, his mum found out his dad was having an affair and his dad went to prison! Later in life, Romesh changed careers from being a maths teacher to a comedian, something he almost gave up following his Dad’s death. Since then Romesh has become a BAFTA winner and one of the most successful comedians in the UK. In this interview Romesh talks openly about all these changes with his usual cynical wi...
Sep 14, 2020•54 min•Season 4Ep. 2
