Ctrl Alt Delete

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Jodi Picoult ​is the bestselling author​ of 25 novels.​​ Her books have sold over 15 million copies worldwide, and have been translated into​ almost 50 languages.

​In this episode -- (recorded live at Foyles Charing Cross as part of Jodi's UK tour) -- we discuss her newest book A Spark Of Light, which centres around women, choice and abortion rights in America​. It unravels backwards, with characters held hostage in an abortion centre in Mississippi. As the novel goes on, you start to realise what brought all the different characters there.

Jodi has always centred her novels around important topics. In her novel Nineteen Minutes, she wrote about the aftermath of a school shooting in a small town, and it was her first book to debut at number 1 on the New York Times best-seller list. Her book Change of Heart, published on March 4, 2008, was her second novel to debut at number 1 on that list.​ One of the books she might be also best known for is My Sister's Keeper, which was made into a film starring Cameron Diaz. In her book, Small Great Things​, she tackled racism and white supremacy.

In 2016, Jodi joined the advisory board of Vida: Women in Literary Arts, which is a "non-profit feminist organization committed to creating transparency around the lack of gender parity in the literary landscape and to amplifying historically-marginalized voices, including people of color; writers with disabilities; and queer, trans and gender nonconforming individuals."

Quotes from the episode:

"When women don't tell their stories, narratives are written for us. And they are narratives of blame and shame."

"Women's rights are universal rights."

"We have to reach across the aisle. We have to speak to people who think differently to us. Instead of judging and talking, you have to sit back and listen, and hope they will give you the grace to do the same thing."

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This episode is with Areeq Chowdhury, founder and chief executive of the voluntary, youth-led, think tank WebRoots Democracy. I wanted to do an episode of Ctrl Alt Delete all about online voting. Can it happen? Will it happen? When will it happen?

Other countries are already experimenting with online voting and we do everything with our phones, so I wanted to explore the pros and cons for this conversation. We discuss the benefits (research says online voting would make more people more likely to vote) and the push-backs, including security concerns, privacy and hacking and clicktivism. One thing that stood out from chatting to Areeq was that the people who would benefit the most from this would be people living with disabilities. For a lot of people, it's not a case of 'can't be bothered' it's a case of 'can't physically get there'.

Areeq Chowdhury was born and brought up in Manchester and studied Economics and Political Science at the University of Birmingham where he began researching the relationship between the internet and political participation. After graduating in 2013, he moved to London and has worked at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the London Assembly, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and KPMG.

At the age of 21, he founded WebRoots Democracy which has been leading the campaign for online voting and has been working with politicians, charities, thinktanks, and technology companies on researching the benefits and challenges of a digital democracy. He has authored and edited two reports on the topic: Viral Voting (2015) and Secure Voting (2016).

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This is the second part of this interview, recorded live, which focuses on the audience Q&A! Katherine Ormerod is a journalist, influencer and author. She has worked as a journalist for over a decade, starting her career as a fashion assistant at Sunday Times Style, moving to Grazia to become Senior Fashion News & Features Editor then on to Glamour where she was Fashion Features Editor at Large. Prior to her career, she graduated with a MA(Hons) in History from the University of Edinburgh and went on to get a Master's in Fashion History & Theory from the London College of Fashion. Katherine has written for the FT, the Telegraph, Harper's Bazaar and the Mail on Sunday.

In January 2017, she launched workworkwork.co, an anti-perfectionism platform where high-profile social media stars and women with aspirational careers share stories from their 'unedited' lives.

​She's now written a book 'Why Social Media Is Ruining Your Life' a no-holds-barred, no-filter look at what social media is doing to us as a society, and how we can deconstruct the online fantasy to change our own attitudes about modern womanhood.

Quotes from the episode:

​"​S​ocial media takes all the WORK out."​ 

​'Social media has to be ONE of the ​pans frying in our general life, it can't be the only pan frying. It can't be every part of the way you validate yourself. It can't be the only way you promote your career."

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Katherine Ormerod is a journalist, influencer and author. She has worked as a journalist for over a decade, starting her career as a fashion assistant at Sunday Times Style, moving to Grazia to become Senior Fashion News & Features Editor then on to Glamour where she was Fashion Features Editor at Large. Prior to her career, she graduated with a MA(Hons) in History from the University of Edinburgh and went on to get a Master's in Fashion History & Theory from the London College of Fashion. Katherine has written for the FT, the Telegraph, Harper's Bazaar and the Mail on Sunday.

In January 2017, she launched workworkwork.co, an anti-perfectionism platform where high-profile social media stars and women with aspirational careers share stories from their 'unedited' lives.

​She's now written a book 'Why Social Media Is Ruining Your Life' a no-holds-barred, no-filter look at what social media is doing to us as a society, and how we can deconstruct the online fantasy to change our own attitudes about modern womanhood.

Quotes from the episode:

​"​S​ocial media takes all the WORK out."​ 

​'Social media has to be ONE of the ​pans frying in our general life, it can't be the only pan frying. It can't be every part of the way you validate yourself. It can't be the only way you promote your career." 

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This is a special live recording of Ctrl Alt Delete focused on​ all things​ periods, from cramps to menstrual mishaps, bloody good anecdotes, mind-boggling facts and incredible stories as we delve into a raw discussion about all aspects periods around the world.

This was recorded at Hoxton Square Bar & Grill in collaboration with Project Period, a campaign bringing together activists to maximise momentum on efforts to put period poverty onto the global agenda.

On the panel were three brilliant women talking about periods: gynecologist and Instagram influencer Anita Mittra “The Gynae Geek”, period poverty activist Holly Bantleman, and social entrepreneur Tasha Bishop of “The Pants Project’.

The aim of this conversation is to raise awareness (and money) for women affected by period stigmas and the lack of access to sanitary products and relevant information related to menstruation around the world. We want to change perspectives and attitudes on periods, and drive any one listening to take action to end period poverty and put stigmas to an end.

Want to take action?

We are uniting our voices under www.thisisourperiod.org. Please click the link and sign the period promise, where you can find out more about organisations and activists working on the issue. You can follow recent events and projects by signing the period promise and following the latest on Instagram @thisisourperiod.

**100% of proceeds from the live recording will support Juliana's project in Kenya; a hub to create jobs for women and ensure a steady supply of sanitary pads in rural Kenya**

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My guest today is the incredible entrepreneur Amy Thomson​. She was the founder of SEEN, a global marketing agency working with brands such as Nike, Microsoft and RBS. She is also the co-founder of a business school for future female leaders called Future Girl Corp (alongside Sharmadean Reid, another Ctrl Alt DElete guest), which has a simple mission to inspire the new generation of female leaders. Now, she, alongside her team, has ​launched the Moody Month App. ​The mission ​of the app i​s to empower every woman to harness their moods through understanding their hormonal and emotional selves. The Moody Month App will allow you to track your monthly moods and cycle, along with plugging straight into your calendar and giving you mood forecasts for your month. 

​The message behind the app is that being moody is your biggest asset, it's what makes you human not a robot. By having more awareness of your moods, means you can optimise your happiness. Let’s all re-connect and embrace the things that make us humans​.​​​​

​Amy has shared her story and inspiration behind the app so honestly and openly in this episode. In 2015, when​ her periods stopped due to ​stress, she ​start​ed​ a diary, and began to see patterns linking her bad moods and her hormonal imbalance.​ ​​She then sold her agency, broke up with ​her boyfriend and set out on a mission to build this​ new​ technology​ which has turned into ​Moody. The​ site​ and app​ offers advice, from books recommendations, t​o articles ​to superfood tips. There’s an online shop, too​. I found this conversation SO inspiring and I hope you do too.​

My favourite quote from the episode:

"I'm getting Ubers, I'm ordering food, I'm using Nike Plus to track my running, but I'm a writing an analogue diary for my periods??"

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Helena Morrissey who is one of the best-known women in the City.

She handles billions of pounds worth of assets for many years and is now Head of Personal Investing at Legal and General Management, a new role aimed at engaging the nation to save and invest more.

In 2010, Helena founded the 30% Club, a cross-business initiative to achieve better gender-balanced UK company boards. She wrote a book earlier this year called A Good Time to be a Girl: Don’t Lean In, Change the System. The Ft said about her book "At its heart is a conviction that diversity in any workplace will lead to a better, fairer and more prosperous society". She was named one of Fortune Magazine’s World’s 50 Greatest Leaders. She has twice been voted one of the 50 Most Influential People in Finance globally by Bloomberg Markets. she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Cambridge University in 2016. She was appointed CBE in the 2012 New Year’s Honours list for her contribution to the role of women in business. In 2017, she was made a dame.

Helena is married to a Buddhist meditation teacher and they have nine children, six girls and three boys whose ages range from 8 to 26.

In this episode we talk about the importance of investing your future in this episode, how you don't have to be like a man to be successful and what it's like having 9 kids and making your career work.

Quotes from the episode:

"You don't have to be formidable to be a successful business woman."

"I have a Dame-hood, but actually I'm no better or worse a person than before that. I want to use any influence I have for good."

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Chloe Milligan runs a florist company called MUD Urban Flowers. Unlike a traditional florist, MUD operates solely online and this innovative, contemporary take on the trade soon became a great success. MUD Urban Flowers has now expanded into Edinburgh and has plans to continue growing UK wide via franchises from early 2019.

In a landmark year celebrating 100 years since women were granted the vote, I teamed up with Royal Bank of Scotland to bring together Scotland’s most inspiring, like-minded and motivated women at a series of four networking events across the country to encourage businesswomen to connect, support one another and thrive together. The events were held in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow. The events come on the back of a report commissioned by Royal Bank of Scotland that revealed the challenges facing women in business and what they do to overcome them.

*This episode is part of a paid partnership with Royal Bank Of Scotland.*

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Farrah Storr is the award-winning editor-in-chief of the UK's Cosmopolitan magazine. She took over the brand in 2015 where she was tasked with reimagining it for the millennial woman. The October issue of Cosmo magazine has model and body-positivity advocate Tess Holliday on the cover. It was celebrated across the internet by many who lauded the magazine for championing body positivity and embracing larger bodies but it was also battled out on Good Morning Britain (by Piers Morgan) arguing that it glorifies obesity. Over her 17-year career as a journalist Farrah has done everything from undercover investigations in the world of cut-price cosmetic surgery to reporting from inside some of the world’s most luxurious fashion houses. She was also the founding editor-in-chief of Women’s Health magazine – the most successful women’s magazine launch of the decade.

In 2017 Farrah was cited as one of only 36 BAME leaders in The Guardian UK’s 1000 Most Powerful list.

Her first book is out now called The Discomfort Zone all about the power of discomfort, published by Piatkus, which we discuss a lot in this episode.

Quotes from the episode:

"Being vulnerable is what you have to do as a writer, that is your job.. sometimes that means putting yourself up for scrutiny from other people, but that's what makes the best writers."

"You can have it all....ish. It's naive to think you can have everything."

"True heroes are never that popular."

"Most of success is the climb; the grind to actually get to success. The grind should be the enjoyable bit."

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