New drama series The Gathering is making waves on Channel 4 as we speak, so Hannah leapt at the chance to chat to one of its stars, Vinette Robinson. They talk about teenage ambition, playing real women with real problems, social media, teenage girls, working with Mike Leigh, the single-take logistics of Boiling Point, giving birth dozens of times in The Lazarus Project, and her upcoming appearance on Inside No 9. You are welcome. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 21, 2024•21 min
Buoyed by a positive sexual experience at university, journalist Kitty Ruskin decided to embrace her sexuality with a year of casual dating and no-strings sex. She was hoping to find pleasure and excitement, but the reality wasn't all fun and sexy games. All of which she chronicles in her new book, Ten Men: A Year of Casual Sex. Jen caught up with Kitty to talk about her quest, consent, dating apps and the so-called “sexual marketplace”. A heads up this interview touches on rape and on sexual as...
May 20, 2024•26 min
Hannah's in the market for a new favourite TV programme, so this week - along with Jen and Mick - they're auditioning Shogun, Shardlake, Renegade Nell, David Attenborough's Mammals, Sugar, Fallout and Palm Royale. Plus there's some chat about some of TV's more controversial offerings, Baby Reindeer and The Tattooist of Auschwitz. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 16, 2024•52 min
It’s Hannah and Mick on Bush Telegraph duty this Thursday 16 May. They’re talking about: the humanitarian crisis playing out in Sudan and why we’re not hearing enough about it; lummoxes, tosspots and numpties, and – separately but connected – the Tories’ ongoing desperate bumblefuckfest ahead of the general election (BUT WHEN IS IT?); the rise and enforced rest of the robots, and Northern Ireland scoring goals for women and girls all over the shop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megapho...
May 16, 2024•24 min
Has Maggie Smith ever Maggie Smithed harder than in Tea with Mussolini? It's just one of Hannah's questions about Franco Zeffirelli's 1999 lady-fest, which Jen's picked despite her dad's apparent love for it. Other questions include, has Rated or Dated reached Cher saturation point? Is it ever okay to be pals with a dictator? And, from Mick: WTF is Dench doing? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 15, 2024•24 min
Author Francesca de Tores, who you may know better as Francesca Haig, was gripped when she happened upon the Wikipedia entry for 18th century pirate, Mary Read. A woman pirate? Damn straight, a woman pirate. And so began Saltblood, Francesa’s first work of historic fiction. Jen caught up with her to chat all things Mary, and navigating the male-dominated waters of swashbuckling adventures. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 14, 2024•25 min
For three years, comedian Kiri Pritchard-McLean has had a secret alter-ego as a foster parent. But now she’s out, and talking about everything about fostering life – from gusset to hairline – in her new tour show, Peacock. In this episode, she’s chatting to Mick about why she and her partner decided to foster, the processes involved, the joys gained, why your hair can never be too big, and what to do with those eight spare biros knocking around the kitchen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visi...
May 13, 2024•24 min
Having been performing at the Edinburgh Fringe since she was 13, comedian and writer Ashley Storrie has had her fill of it. Lucky for her, she’s been starring in BBC Three comedy series Dinosaur. In this episode, she chats to Jen about the unusual way she came to co-create the series, neurodiversity on screen and how it compares to her experiences with autism spectrum disorder, and how to get started in comedy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 10, 2024•19 min
It’s Mick and Jen on Bush Telegraph duty this Thursday 9 May. They’re talking: male entitlement (whaaa?); police incompetence (no way!); remarkable women (come on now!); institutional sexism (surprise!), and Emma Hayes being brilliant (plus ça change). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 09, 2024•23 min
Does everyone have half a cup of tea? Great, let's begin. In this week's Rated or Dated, we're watching 1999's comedy-drama East is East. But how well does the comedy and drama really gel? Does anyone have any sympathy for George? And exactly how much does Hannah love Linda Bassett? All the answers lie within. Now wash your bastard curtains! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 08, 2024•25 min
Georgie Carroll went from being a nurse in Rochdale to a stand-up comedian in Adelaide. In this podcast, she's chatting to Hannah about wanderlust, career changes, being on Britain's Got Talent and the contradiction between how we think of nurses and how we sometimes treat them. Georgie is on tour now around the UK. You can find out more about her show, Sister Flo 2.0, where it's on and how to get tickets here: https://www.georgiecarroll.com/live-shows/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit me...
May 07, 2024•21 min
When journalist Yuan Yang’s activist friend Sam joked about Yuan writing the news story if Sam was ever detained… and then disappeared, Yuan knew there was a bigger story to tell about modern China. Her new book, Private Revolutions: Coming of Age in a New China, looks at modern China through the lives of four women in their 30s. She’s chatting to Mick about China’s communist lie, the fear of falling off ladders, pigs, parenting, and how the stories of these four brave idealist women in China’s ...
May 06, 2024•22 min
We interrupt your normal Standard Issue broadcast this week to tell you about the *new* normal Standard Issue broadcast, starting on Monday 6 May. But don’t worry, it’s not a cryptocurrency podcast. Or a Star Trek podcast, for that matter. That’s right, we’ve been teasing it for a while now, and finally Mick, Hannah and Jen are here to explain to you, dear listeners, how the new podcast format will work. To subscribe to our new Patreon tiers to enjoy ad-free podcasts, as well as exclusive conten...
May 01, 2024•10 min
Stranger Things: a bonafide telly phenomenon. The Duffer Brothers’ Netflix series has won an army of diehard fans across all demographics with its big budget mix of horror, fantasy and 80s nostalgia that makes sure never to skimp on character or storytelling. Kate Trefry’s been a writer on the series since season two and is currently wrapping up the fifth and final season, expected to be released next year. She’s also written its stage production and prequel, Stranger Things: The First Shadow, w...
Apr 28, 2024•33 min•Ep. 966
The BBC's Belfast-set police drama Blue Lights is back on our tellies, so Hannah grabbed the chance to talk to one of its stars: former comedian, now novelist and actor, Andi Osho. They chat about understanding history, running down alleyways and going grey in an industry where many women aren't. Jen's talking to writer Kate Atwell and director Diane Page about bringing women's cricket to the stage in Testmatch, and in Jenny Off The Blocks, there are some new Invincibles in town. There's Cher an...
Apr 24, 2024•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 965
Most of us would be able to name our energy provider and probably a list of reasons we’re annoyed with them, but when it comes to the hows and whos that get it to, say, our plug sockets, details can be a bit sketchy. Mick’s been on the Zoom with Yasmin Ali, a chemical engineer dedicated to developing renewable energy projects and author of the book Power Up: An Engineer's Adventures into Sustainable Energy. All credit to Yasmin, who has taken a potentially dry and technical subject and made it a...
Apr 21, 2024•34 min•Ep. 964
Hold onto your fannies, because for this month’s Flicking, Mick’s picked Poor Things, directed by Yorgos Lanthikos (man), based on a novel by Alisdair Gray (man), adapted for the big screen by Tony McNamara (man) and one of 2023’s hot feminist picks. DISCUSS. Emma Stone bagged an Oscar for her portrayal of Bella Baxter, the Frankenstein’s monster-esque creation of Dr Godwin Baxter (Willem Defoe), who goes on a voyage of self-discovery and empowerment/has sex with a lot of people – same, same. DI...
Apr 20, 2024•33 min•Ep. 963
You’ve seen Sharon Horgan’s brilliant sitcom Pulling, right? If you haven’t, please do go watch it immediately *waits impatiently, tapping foot* Okay! How good is Tanya Franks in it?!? SOOOO good. Which means you’ll understand why our Hannah has been champing at the bit for nigh on a decade to get an interview in. And here she is: Tanya Franks chatting to Hannah about accents, marathons, free speech, her current role in Power of Sail at the Menier Chocolate Factory and, of course, the joy and ch...
Apr 17, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 962
Harvard Law School lecturer, consultant and speaker, Elaine Lin Hering, was frustrated in her professional life by the realising that having a seat at the table isn't enough if no one can hear what you're saying. This inspired her to write Unlearning Silence: How to Speak Your Mind, Unleash Talent and Lead With Courage, and she chats to Jen about it in this week's Chops. They talk about how we learn silence, how we actively silence others, why that disproportionately impacts certain groups, and ...
Apr 14, 2024•34 min
Having a busy April? Why not have a nice sit down and turn on the telly? This month, Hannah and Jen are talking about Passenger, Manhunt, The Gone, The Dry, Masters of the Air, Mary & George, The Regime and Tell Them You Love Me. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 12, 2024•40 min
We’ve all heard of the glass ceiling, right? But what about the phenomenon befalling the high-flying women who have dared to smash through it? It’s known as the glass cliff, and Sophie Williams has written a book about it. Sophie joins Mick this week, to talk about how and why it happens – and why the issue matters to all women. Meanwhile, Jen is on the Zoom with theatre company Dirty Hare, to talk witches, history and their play Gunter, which is showing at The Royal Court Theatre until April 25...
Apr 10, 2024•1 hr 19 min
According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, hospital admissions for eating disorders have increased by 84% over the past five years. And yet, for so many of us, anorexia remains very hard to understand. Hannah chats to author, journalist and recovered anorexic Hadley Freeman about her memoir Good Girls: A Story and Study of Anorexia, about her experiences, as a teenager and now a mother, and about why so many women have a complicated relationship with food. Learn more about your ad choices....
Apr 06, 2024•34 min
Experts - we should listen to them, right? RIGHT? Well, maybe not all of them. That's what Hannah learned while talking to Dr Julia Shaw, a criminal psychologist and the host of new Radio 4 show Experts on Trial. Jen's been on the Zoom with Heather McCalden to talk about her genre-bending debut book, The Observable Universe, which is about losing both her parents to AIDS in the early '90s, and grief in the internet age. And in Rated or Dated, having not seen it as kids, what will Mickey and Hann...
Apr 02, 2024•55 min
If you've not read the Atlantic article The Coddling of the American Mind, or the book that followed it, you've likely heard us recommend it. And now, it's a documentary, so Hannah got straight on the Zoom to California to talk to its producer Courtney Moorehead Balaker about the current mental health crisis among young people and how, rather than helping, the culture on US university campuses is making young people more vulnerable. And how tribalism, helicopter parenting and the “one strike and...
Mar 31, 2024•38 min
Playwright Stef Smith is best known for her, well, plays. But her award-winning BBC Scotland drama, Float – a tender tangle of love, life and identity in small-town Scotland – is also well worth your time. Season one is already bingeable on the iPlayer and, ahead of season two hitting screens at the end of the month, our Mick chatted to Stef about water, women in love, representation, and the joys of being a soppy sausage. Talking of soppy sausages, Jen’s quite rightly feeling emotional about wh...
Mar 28, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 955
Playwright Suzie Miller is best known for her award-sweeping masterpiece, Prima Facie, a searing critique of the criminal justice system and, specifically, how it deals with survivors of sexual assault and rape. She’s now adapted the play into a novel, and so Jen was chuffed to bits to talk to her about the process of adaptation, as well as why she wrote it, the impact the play has had, and the sheer lunacy of a system that simply isn’t fit for purpose. Also, Jodie Comer, who blew minds in the p...
Mar 24, 2024•33 min
They don’t come much bigger than Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s three-hour Oscar-nabbing historical drama, and Hannah’s pick for this month’s Flicking. It’s quite rightly made Cillian Murphy the man of the moment, but how’s Yosra feeling about Robert Downey Jnr’s gongs? And will it have enough bang for its buck as far as Mick’s concerned? Find out! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 23, 2024•29 min
Hollie McNish - Standard Issue fave, award-winning poet, and all-round smasher - is back with Lobster, a brand-new collection of poems and prose. Naturally, Mick was delighted to jump on the Zoom to talk to her about it, as well as joy, not-joy, vulvas, knickers and RP. Over IRL, as the kids say, Jen was chuffed to bits to be reunited with writer Anoushka Warden, to talk to her about her debut novel, I’m F*cking Amazing. They also chat sweary titles, female pleasure, and navigating the NHS. Ther...
Mar 20, 2024•1 hr 21 min
Journalist, broadcaster, documentary-maker, author and Mickey mind-blower is back on the podcast to chat about her incredible new book, The Price of Life: In Search of What We’re Worth and Who Decides. It’s a fascinating and brutal investigation into who puts a price on our heads – because we all have not just one, but several, depending on the situation. Jenny’s met with a hitman, people who’ve faked their own death, modern-day slaves, the makers of F-35 fighter jets, scientists, effective altr...
Mar 17, 2024•40 min•Ep. 951
If you find watching sport in public a bit intimidating, Set Piece Social will be for you. This week, Jen chats to Naomi Fitzgibbons and Kate Hetherington about their pioneering new project to get women watching women's sport. Hannah's talking to writer Farine Clark about her new play London Zoo, and what inspired her career changes from medicine through journalism and into the arts. In Rated or Dated, Mickey (*screeches to a stop in a 1974 Gran Torino*) has had us watching 2004's Starksy & Hutc...
Mar 13, 2024•1 hr 10 min
