Prepare to be amazed by Beeban Kidron, a woman who took on the tech giants and won, making urgent, life impacting changes to digital regulation and the online experiences of children and young people. As a member of the House of Lords, Beeban pushed through the world’s first ever Design Code into law in the UK, radically changing how social media treats children. Beeban is also a film and documentary director, her credits including ‘Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason’, the 3 time BAFTA winning ad...
Dec 05, 2022•51 min•Season 10Ep. 14
In support of World Aids Day on 1st December, Annie spoke to Sasha who was born with HIV but only found out about her hidden diagnosis when she was 16 after going to A&E with an injury. She had spent most of her childhood in hospitals but wasn’t told why. Sasha is part of the first cohort of babies to survive with HIV and has struggled with treatments for most of her life. After she found out about her diagnosis, she faced a lot of stigma. Now in her 30’s, she has had 3 children and liv...
Nov 28, 2022•43 min•Season 10Ep. 13
Goldie is a music legend; a producer and DJ, graffiti artist and actor, instantly recognisable for wearing gold grills on his teeth. In the 90’s he became a pioneer of jungle and drum and bass music in the UK and launched the now legendary music label Metalheadz with DJ duo Kemistry & Storm. He released his ground breaking album Timeless in 1995, which went on to sell 250,000 copies. He dated Björk and Naomi Campbell. His success was immense and his impact and influence hasn’t stopped since....
Nov 21, 2022•44 min•Season 10Ep. 12
How and why should we change the conversation around death and grief? Cariad Lloyd is an award winning actor and comedian but she might be best known for starting a much needed public conversation around grief. In 2016, Cariad launched her multi award winning podcast, Griefcast - a podcast that examines the human experience of grief and death but with comedians, so it’s cheerier than it sounds. Having lost her Dad as a teenager, Cariad made it her mission to help anyone dealing with grief. With ...
Nov 14, 2022•47 min•Season 10Ep. 11
Patrick Cox was the most sought after shoe designer of the 90s, now he is a toad facilitator in Ibiza. When it comes to changes, you can’t get much more extreme. Patrick (otherwise known as Party Pat thanks to Janet Jackson) is the creator of the Wannabe, a modern style loafer, wanted and worn by everyone in the Brit Pop era. Every pop star you can think of had them - George Michael, Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson, the list is endless. The queues to get a pair were huge and at the peak frenzy, as ma...
Nov 07, 2022•57 min•Season 10Ep. 10
This week’s episode is a story of love and how love can change your life. It’s a story about marriage, family, health and grief but at its core is love. Love at all costs. Tembi Locke is an actress and an author and now the co-writer and executive producer behind the new Netflix’s series, ‘From Scratch’, based on Tembi’s beautiful and heartbreaking life story which she wrote about in her New York Times best-selling memoir. ‘From Scratch’ has been adapted and produced by Reece Witherspoon a...
Oct 31, 2022•41 min•Season 10Ep. 9
Can you heal yourself from trauma and change the course of your health? Gabor Mate believes you can. Gabor is a physician and an internationally renowned bestselling author and addiction expert in huge demand to speak about his expertise on addiction, trauma, childhood development, and the relationship of stress and illness. Gabor teaches that as human beings we are creatures of our environment and that our bodies are inseparable from our psychology and social relationships. His new book The Myt...
Oct 24, 2022•54 min•Season 10Ep. 8
Sophie Willan is fabulous; an actor, comedian and writer from Bolton, whose sitcom ‘Alma’s Not Normal’ earned her two BAFTAs. Her writing manages to be both fearless in tackling serious themes, and incredibly funny. You only have to watch Sophie’s reaction to winning her first BAFTA and acceptance speech for the second to realise how hilarious Sophie is and just how much her success means. Growing up Sophie was looked after by her Grandma and spent time in the care system due to her mother...
Oct 17, 2022•46 min•Season 10Ep. 7
‘You never quite know the ripple effect you have when you’re telling a tale’. Anne Marie Duff is a storyteller at heart. She is currently starring as Grace, a wife in an abusive relationship in Sharon Horgan’s phenomenal dark comedy, Bad Sisters which is being talked about everywhere. She’s an award-winning actress known for her BAFTA nominated roles in Shameless, The Virgin Queen and Nowhere Boy. She’s also starred on Broadway and at the National Theatre playing women like Lady Macbet...
Oct 10, 2022•47 min•Season 10Ep. 6
Sam Smith is back and on fire. They’re releasing new music and being completely themselves, knowing exactly who they are. Sam’s achieved monumental success - four Grammy Awards, three Brit Awards, a Golden Globe and an Academy Award. In 2019, Sam came out as non binary and today, their music is more popular than ever with their current single Unholy instantly becoming the number 1 trending song in the world. Having known Sam for many years, Annie, along with the rest of the world, has watc...
Oct 04, 2022•41 min•Season 10Ep. 5
This week on Changes, we welcome Shon Faye journalist and author of The Transgender Issue: An Argument for Justice, the biggest selling book on this topic in Britain and a Sunday Times Bestseller. Shon also hosts the podcast Call Me Mother which features conversations with LGBTQ+ trailblazers about what it means to be queer today. Shon’s book has been described as both urgent and important and something which everyone should read. It presents the facts about trans people in Britain today uncover...
Sep 26, 2022•57 min•Season 10Ep. 4
How can knowing more about the Universe change your life? Professor Brian Cox has the answer. A Former rock star turned physicist who has gone from playing keys in the band D:Ream, which had a UK No. 1 hit with "Things Can Only Get Better", to becoming everyone’s favourite physicist selling out arenas around the world with his fascinating shows about the Universe. Brian has previously been compared to David Attenborough in the science world having presented numerous documentaries for the ...
Sep 19, 2022•39 min•Season 10Ep. 3
It’s fair to say Robbie Williams knows a thing or two about change - catapulted from Stoke On Trent to superstar fame as a teenager in Take That before becoming one of the best selling artists of all time, a spotlight which came with relentless scrutiny and pressures. Robbie has achieved 13 number one UK albums, a record 18 Brit Awards and sold 80 million records worldwide. Today, he is a husband and father to four children, makes his own art which was showcased at Sotheby’s in London and has ju...
Sep 12, 2022•54 min•Season 10Ep. 2
Get ready for a South Dublin takeover! Annie is joined by the Irish comedian Joanne McNally, who, as well as hosting the phenomenally successful podcast ‘My Therapist Ghosted Me’ with her friend Vogue Williams, has sold out 60 nights at the Vicar Street venue in Dublin with her stand up show The Prosecco Express (that’s 63,000 tickets for that venue alone), played 4 sold out shows at the Palladium in London and recently sold out the Apollo with extra dates added. As t...
Sep 05, 2022•45 min•Season 10Ep. 1
This week we are revisiting actress and director Billie Piper and Bexy Cameron who was born into a cult called the Children of God. Billie Piper has been famous since she was 14, first a popstar then an award winning actress often playing complicated female characters, starring in Doctor Who, Secret Diary of A Call Girl, Collateral, I Hate Suzie, Yerma (for which she won 6 best actress awards) and, in 2021, Rare Beasts, which she wrote and directed. On Changes, Billie opened up about her life, r...
Aug 28, 2022•31 min•Season 9Ep. 18
Looking back at some stand out episodes, this week we revisit Davina McCall and Billy Porter. National treasure and TV legend Davina McCall has become a voice for women going through menopause raising awareness and understanding. She has also been through a lot in her life, here talking about being left with her Granny as a child and her subsequent fear of abandonment which she unintentionally came to face as an adult with a hypnotist. She also spoke so openly about her experience and know...
Aug 22, 2022•31 min•Season 9Ep. 17
This week we revisit highlights from two impactful episodes, the incredible author Zadie Smith and Jhemar Jonas who’s brother Michael was fatally stabbed to death. Since the night of his brother’s death, when Jhemar was 16, Jhemar has been trying to change the world advocating for youth-led solutions to violence and knife crime. He has mentored students and provided consultancy for City Hall, the Metropolitan police and Google about youth culture and violence prevention. He’s also a rapper who g...
Aug 15, 2022•36 min•Season 9Ep. 16
In August 2015 author Katherine May set out to walk the 630-mile south west coast path. Setting her feet down on the rugged and difficult path by the sea answers long standing questions. What followed was the journey of self discovery documented in her book The Electricity of Every Living Thing which has just been adapted into an immersive Audible Original drama. This week, we invited Katherine to talk about the physical and psychological journey that she undertook in the Electricity of E...
Aug 08, 2022•41 min•Season 9Ep. 15
This week we are revisiting highlights from two very prominent people in British Media - Romesh Ranganathan and Katie Price. Romesh is one of the UK’s most successful comedians but as you will hear in this conversation he experienced seismic changes in his life before he became famous. His whole world was turned upside down as a child when within the space of six months, his house was repossessed, he changed schools, his mum found out his dad was having an affair and his dad went to prison! Here...
Aug 01, 2022•39 min•Season 9Ep. 14
Why do people commit violent crimes? Do we all have the capacity to be evil? And is it possible to change the mind of a murderer? This week on Changes, we speak to one of Britain’s leading forensic psychiatrists Dr Gwen Adshead, co-author of the Sunday Times Bestseller The Devil You Know: Encounters in Forensic Psychiatry. Dr Adshead has spent over thirty years providing therapy inside secure hospitals and prisons like Broadmoor working with violent offenders who have committed...
Jul 25, 2022•55 min•Season 9Ep. 13
Denise Gough is a double Olivier Award winning actress having blown away critics in the plays People, Places and Things and Angels in America, but before seeing her name in lights, Denise was a homeless drug addict begging on Shaftesbury Avenue. This is her account of her remarkable story of change, from a small town in Ireland to being one of the most in demand actresses today. That success includes starring alongside Keira Knightly in Collette, giving a phenomenally powerful performance i...
Jul 18, 2022•51 min•Season 9Ep. 12
Big Zuu is changing the face of television. From growing up on the Mozart Estate in West London to winning two BAFTAs for Big Zuu's Big Eats, delivering a powerful acceptance speech, he is a shining example of what people can achieve given the chance. Big Zuu’s mum arrived in the UK from Sierra Leone when she was pregnant. Since then, together, they have navigated changing circumstances, with Big Zuu studying to be a youth worker before becoming a rapper/grime MC and now huge TV personality and ...
Jul 11, 2022•52 min•Season 9Ep. 11
At the age of 20, Lady Unchained went to prison. She didn’t believe she was the type of person who would ever do that. She went to church, was about to launch her own business and had no former convictions, but one day everything changed. She spent eleven months behind bars and five months tagged. Inside, she faced systemic racism and had to adapt to survive. It changed her, and leaving prison, she realised she was facing an uphill battle in changing people’s perceptions. Here, she shares her gr...
Jul 04, 2022•51 min•Season 9Ep. 10
This is a conversation about class, identity, ambition and grief. It's Grace Dent stripped back. Grace is a broadcaster, columnist, author, award winning food critic and now host of the brilliant podcast Comfort Eating. But she is also just a woman from humble working-class beginnings who grew up in Carlisle in the north of England and grafted and adapted to get to where she is today. Despite now living a glittering media life in London, appearing on MasterChef, dining in some of the best restau...
Jun 27, 2022•56 min•Season 9Ep. 9
It’s been 3 years but finally Glastonbury will be back in all its magnificent glory this week. The biggest festival in the world. A festival like no other. To get excited, co-organiser Emily Eavis made a visit to Annie’s rave shed to talk about all things change; personal change and changes at the festival which turned 50 in 2020! This year back on Worthy Farm in Somerset, the family and 200,000 revellers will finally be able to properly celebrate. Emily grew up on Worthy Farm so has witn...
Jun 20, 2022•50 min•Season 9Ep. 8
This week, ahead of Glastonbury, we welcome to Changes the incredible powerhouse that is Irish singer Róisín Murphy! Former frontwoman of Moloko and a solo artist with five solo albums to her name, nominations for the Mercury Music Prize, the Brit Awards and the Ivor Novello Awards and an icon in the world of fashion, with incredibly extravagant stage outfits and wild performances to match. She’s the queen of electronic music. Bold, unafraid and uniquely herself. No one exists like Róisín Murphy...
Jun 13, 2022•49 min•Season 9Ep. 7
The first ever live guest for Changes!! Ella Vaday is the drag persona of Nick Collier and self-proclaimed “drag beast from Dagenham East” who dominated the UK’s third series of Drag Race UK, almost winning. In this special episode recorded in front of a live audience at the London Podcast Show, Nick explains how despite appearances he hasn’t always been so confident in his identity. As a young boy Nick went through numerous challenging changes in quick succession and was always in de...
Jun 06, 2022•55 min•Season 9Ep. 6
Long Covid is something which has changed many people’s lives, Kate Weinberg is one of them. According to the Office for National Statistics 1.3 million people in the UK were experiencing Long Covid symptoms as of 2 January 2022. Of those people more than four in 10 (so 42 per cent) were experiencing Long Covid symptoms more than a year after their first suspected infection. But what is it? How does it impact people? And most importantly, how do people get better? Kate Weinberg is an autho...
May 30, 2022•55 min•Season 9Ep. 5
Roddy Doyle is a cultural beacon of Ireland and an absolute joy to listen to. In this episode the renowned novelist speaks to Annie about art, identity, growing older and a changing Ireland. Roddy won the Booker Prize in 1993 for his seminal novel Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha , and is the author of eleven acclaimed novels including The Commitments , The Snapper , The Van and Smile . Roddy grew up in Dublin in the 60s and talks in this episode about his really uncomfortable experience of attending a Chr...
May 23, 2022•46 min•Season 9Ep. 4
Joe Lycett is one of Britain's most loved comedians affecting change through his comedy in the most brilliant and beautiful ways. Not one to shy away from the bigger issues at play, Joe invites people to think, and actively questions about the systems we live in. After the death of his friend who died in lockdown, a change which has had a huge impact on Joe’s life, his mockery of the official inquiry into party gate by tweeting a fake Sue Grey report made headlines. Even the Government was conce...
May 16, 2022•52 min•Season 9Ep. 3
