The world is opening up again, but do all of us feel ready for it? Mick's been on the phone with Standard Issue 's favourite psychotherapist, Jane Watson, to find out how to ease ourselves back into the old normal and what to do if we like the new normal too much for that. Jen catches up with Faye Bell, founder of Strong and Bendy fitness studio to chat about post-Covid gymming. In Rated or Dated, we talk mud pies, upskirting and the late Rik Mayall as we watch 1991's Drop Dead Fred . The Church...
Apr 21, 2021•1 hr 13 min
Eating disorders have, unusually, made the news a fair bit during the course of the pandemic, which – perhaps unsurprisingly – has seen a rise in eating disorders. And while the official stats aren’t available as yet, professionals are also reporting a surge in self-harming behaviour, not just in adults, but also among children, some as young as eight. Mickey and journalist Kelly Welles chat about their personal experiences of eating disorders and self-harm, and how Kelly channelled her depressi...
Apr 18, 2021•29 min•Ep. 493
Mother of God, Line of Duty is back and we've thoughts, loads of them. There's also a whole lot to say about the end of an era for Unforgotten, and three-part ITV series Too Close . Mick's got a lot of good things to say about the Tina Turner documentary, TINA, and Hannah's been watching a documentary about the Great Famine in Ireland. Never let it be said that we lack breadth. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more in...
Apr 16, 2021•40 min
Narratives around race and ethnicity continue to be reductive and damaging, says journalist Natalie Morris, who chatted to Jen about her new book Mixed/Other , as well as identity, entitlement, and the limitations of the census. Hannah’s found out some juicy gossip about her family, so she’s caught up with Professor Rebecca Probert about the history of divorce and – SPOILER ALERT – bigamy. In Jenny off the blocks, Jen’s talking about the unstoppable rise of Rachael Blackmore. In Rated or Dated, ...
Apr 14, 2021•1 hr 28 min
Women are often missing from history, their roles downplayed, their achievements diminished. In this week's Chops, Hannah chats to three women on a mission to correct this: Ailsa Holland, Tania Hershman and Jo Bell. After the success of the @OnThisDayShe Twitter account, they've released a weighty book, also entitled On This Day She , which as they tell Hannah, is filled with tales of brilliant, pioneering, complicated, flawed women. And some plain bad ones too. Support this show http://supporte...
Apr 11, 2021•1 hr 2 min
This weekend is the British Library's HistoryFest, so Hannah's been on the Zoom with one of this year's speakers, Dr Peggy Brunache, to find out more about the trans-Atlantic slave trade and what myth should be thrown in the bin forever. Mickey catches up with Katherine Kotz, multi-hyphenate in the arts, and curator of an excellent new online short-film festival called The Motherhood Project at the Battersea Arts Centre, which is raising cash for Refuge. Katherine managed to fight the delirium o...
Apr 07, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 490
Covid 19 has given the handshake a bad rap, reckons explorer and paleoanthropologist Ella Al-Shamahi, who set out to explore the origins and significance of the greeting in her book The Handshake: A Gripping History . She chatted to Jen about why she is a massive advocate for the handshake, why it's probably not gone for good, and why some of us have really missed physical contact in our lives, over the past year Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast . Hosted on Acas...
Apr 04, 2021•34 min
Brace yourself for Hannah's naming of the genre of film that British filmmakers have absolutely mastered and of which 2014's Pride – the (based on a true) story of the 1980s alliance between London gay-rights activists and striking Welsh miners – might just be the pinnacle. Yosra's onboard, but will Mick's po-faced feminism ruin everything? Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad ch...
Apr 03, 2021•29 min•Ep. 489
We're not always singing from the same hymn sheet as other women's magazines, but that doesn't mean we don't find the whole industry fascinating. So this week, Mickey got on the phone to Nina-Sophia Miralles to chat about the history of one its biggest beasts, Vogue , which Nina charts in her new book Glossy . Jen's chatting hormones, training and women's sport with The Well HQ's Baz Moffat and Dr Emma Ross. We put on our best push-up bras (we don't) for this week's Rated or Dated, as we watch J...
Mar 31, 2021•1 hr 23 min
American poet and essayist Molly McCully Brown’s latest book, Places I’ve Taken My Body , is a collection of personal essays that travel the physical, emotional and mental journeys of a life in all its frustration, pain, limitations, joy, humour and colour, told through Molly’s lens of living with cerebral palsy. Molly chats to Mickey about disability and desire, treating a body with kindness (and how hard that can be), the sheer stop-everything-and-watch-it-now excellence of the documentary Cri...
Mar 28, 2021•39 min•Ep. 486
At just 20 years old, Ameena Hamid is Britain’s youngest theatre producer and a champion of those whose stories don't get told. She chats to Hannah about supporting young graduates, putting underrepresented voices centre stage, and why it’s key that theatre pays attention to who its audience is and – crucially – who its audience can be. Grooming and exploitation of children has risen during lockdown, so Jen got on the blower to Becky Fedia, national programme manager at The Children’s Society, t...
Mar 24, 2021•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 485
When Delphine Minoui, journalist and Middle East correspondent for Le Figaro , discovered a photo of an underground library amid the rubble and battleground of the besieged Syrian city of Daraya, she had to find out more. And so started the incredible story of The Book Collectors of Daraya, an incredible tale of rebels, bravery and books. Mickey chats with Delphine about Daraya, the rebels she befriended, the women in hiding, what’s happening in Syria, and making an invisible story, visible. Sup...
Mar 21, 2021•35 min•Ep. 484
We're sooo close to being allowed to do anything else other than watch TV, but with a few weeks still to go, here's what we've been enjoying and not enjoying over the last month. We give a big cheer about the return of Unforgotten and an even bigger cheer that The Terro r is finally on the proper telly. Hannah would like it to be known that she told you so. Mick's been watching Your Honour and Pretend It's A City and Jen's got views on both Roman Kemp: Our Silent Emergency and Caroline Flack: He...
Mar 19, 2021•53 min
Working from home has been the bane of many people’s lives over the last 12 months, but Harriet Minter, journalist, broadcast and author of new book Working From Home , reckons there are some pretty serious pros, as well. She tells Hannah all about finding out how, where and when you work best to optimise performance. Meanwhile, we’ve been rummaging in our family trees with this week’s podcast sponsor, Ancestry, and Mick talks to the genealogy brand’s executive story producer, Jennifer Utley, to...
Mar 17, 2021•1 hr 18 min
Is there a place for seminal second-wave feminist Betty Friedan in modern feminist thinking? On what would have been the 100th anniversary of her birth, Thread has published Friedan’s classic text, The Feminine Mystique (originally published in 1963), as an e-book. Journalist Gaby Hinsliff has written the intro and she joins our Mickey in the sixth and final interview in our International Women’s Day 2021 specials to talk about why, yes, Friedan still has A LOT of relevant things to say about th...
Mar 13, 2021•32 min•Ep. 481
Ideas around feminism might change over time, but the battles feminists face have alarming continuity. Dr Hannah Dawson, historian of ideas at King's College London, has charted feminist thought from 1405 through to the present day in The Penguin Book of Feminist Writing . In the fifth episode of our International Women's Day 2021 series, she chats to Jen about just that, the writers that shaped her, and the absolute bloody joy of Jeanette Winterson. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/...
Mar 12, 2021•34 min
In the fourth of our International Women's Day 2021 podcasts, Hannah chats to Kerrang! 's only female DJ, Sophie K, about women in rock music, from those on the stage to those writing about them. They chat about why there are still so few women at the head of rock - and even fewer women of colour - as well as a year without live music, the effect of lockdown on young musicians and why the ageing rockstar cliche can do one. Have at it. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespo...
Mar 11, 2021•37 min
You can't win as a woman with a body, for being too fat, too thin, too muscly and so on, but Laura "Biceps" Hoggins, PT and co-director of The Foundry gym, has learnt to give zero fucks, about this. In the third part of our International Women's Day series, she chats to Jen about Instagram, strong women, why exercise should never be a punishment, and fake news bums. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. L...
Mar 10, 2021•45 min
In the second of our International Women's Day 2021 podcasts, Hannah chats to actress Katy Wix about her soon-to-be-released book Delicacy: A Memoir about Cake and Death. They discuss body image, the first time they heard the word diet, returning to filming, talking ill of the dead, youthful exuberance, Susie Orbach and their first bras. So, you know, a lot. Tuck in! Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. ...
Mar 09, 2021•58 min
Feminist lawyer, fierce campaigner for women’s rights, founder of the Centre For Women’s Justice, a charity and public interest law firm holding the state to account for violence against women and girls, and co-founder of campaigning organisation Justice For Women, Harriet Wistrich is a bonafide hero. In the first of our six long-form interviews with excellent women to celebrate International Women’s Day 2021, Harriet chats to Mickey about the dire stats around rape prosecutions, taking the Crow...
Mar 08, 2021•31 min•Ep. 476
Being alone - be that physically or emotionally - gets a bad rap, something Francesca Specter is trying to change. In this week's Chops, she and Hannah talk about living alone vs never getting a minute to yourself, how the nation views loners, "the bogey man of the naked self" and Francesca's new book Alonement . Tuck in! Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaph...
Mar 07, 2021•37 min
This month's Flicking is an important but challenging watch, in the shape of Henry Blake's 2019 directorial debut, County Lines . But how does the film deal with stereotypes relating to "gang" culture, and can our intrepid film-adventurers see the film for the grit? Spoiler alert - they very much can. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Mar 06, 2021•28 min
The pandemic has highlighted many things, not least that motherhood is hard work. In this week's podcast, Jen talks to Pregnant Then Screwed's Joeli Brearley about the fight for rights for pregnant women and mothers, and her new book Pregnant Then Screwed . Hannah's also chatting imposter syndrome, bad haircuts and The Fear Fighter Manual with Luvvie Ajayi Jones. British Gymnastics comes under the spotlight in Jenny Off The Blocks and in BT we're talking nuance, Shamima Begum and - er - Mr Potat...
Mar 03, 2021•1 hr 27 min
Well, we're talking about it - obviously - but as incidents of verbal and physical abuse against shop workers rockets, the media remains pretty quiet on the subject. Hannah's been on the phone to Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) to find out the human cost behind some pretty staggering statistics about how the country is treating this group of key workers. She chats to Tracy Gilbert, Scottish Deputy Divisional Officer, and Joanne Cairns, Deputy Head of Research, about what i...
Feb 28, 2021•28 min
Salena Godden’s Mrs Death Misses Death is receiving rave reviews and has already been snapped up for film and telly by Idris Elba’s Green Door Pictures, so we got Hazel Davis to talk to the poet, author, standup and activist about her oddly prescient debut novel. Meanwhile, Jen fired up the Zoom to chat with Amy Thomson, founder of the Moody Month app and author of Moody: A Woman's 21st Century Hormone Guide . There’s cake AND masturbation, so definitely put the kettle on. Over in Rated or Dated...
Feb 24, 2021•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 471
Eighty years since The Blitz terrorised the British public, we find ourselves back in confusing, scary and dangerous times. In this week's Chops, Hannah chats to chief curator of Historic Royal Palaces and TV historian extraordinaire Lucy Worsley about her new documentary Blitz Spirit . They talk about people working on the frontline of the Home Front, what history can teach us about these strange times we live in now and whether our current experiences can help us understand the past a bit bett...
Feb 21, 2021•26 min
Knowing what is or isn't going to give you a hangover is essential lockdown intel, so Mick gets busy herding delightful comedy cats and hosts of the Spit or Swallow podcast, Lou Conran and Sally-Anne Hayward, to find out more. Jen has a natter with Michelle Elman, life coach and author of new book The Joy of Being Selfish , about boundaries, why we need them and how to set them. In Jenny off the Blocks, Jen's talking sailing, specifically the Vendee Globe, completed by Pip Hare last week. Just h...
Feb 17, 2021•1 hr 16 min
Mick chats to poet, performer and fellow northern bird Kate Fox about The Oscillations , Kate's wonderful new collection of poetry, full of joy, wry observations and humour, while tackling hard-hitting topics such as loss, trauma and the pandemic. They also talk attention spans, flux and flow, weak ties, dogs’ bums, neurodiversity, the occasional importance of labels, and larking about in the North Sea. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast . Hosted on Acast. See aca...
Feb 14, 2021•35 min•Ep. 467
It's a busy start to 2021 for Outside The Box and this month we're talking about It's A Sin, The Serpent, Lupin, Staged 2, The Investigation and A Perfect Planet . Plus Hannah's got some love for Alison Wright, Mickey's doing her best French accent and Jen takes us on a tour of ITV's best and worst police dramas. We didn't make her. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. V...
Feb 12, 2021•46 min
We've all been under a lot of pressure in the last year and anecdotal evidence suggests it's starting to take its toll on the nation's relationships. So, this week, Hannah got on the phone to Dee Holmes from Relate, to find out if work pressures, health concerns, financial worries, grief, childcare issues and close proximity is bonding us closer together or tearing us apart. Mickey's chatting to Rebecca Watson about little scratch , her debut novel, a formally inventive day-in-the-life of a slig...
Feb 10, 2021•1 hr 24 min
