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What does it mean to keep making, caring and staying human when everything feels like it’s falling apart?

In this final episode of the Girls Twiddling Knobs podcast, Isobel Anderson speaks directly and unfiltered to you, the listeners, with honesty, clarity and care.

This is not a neat goodbye or a highlight reel. It is a reckoning. A permission slip. And a series of parting truths offered to women in music, male allies, music organisations and colleagues in higher education.

Isobel reflects on the wider context we are living in: dark times, eroding systems, the devaluing of art and the quiet shame so many creatives carry around money, security and survival. She argues for doing less but doing it with integrity. For making more than we consume. For listening more than we shout. And for staying close to creativity not because it will save the world, but because it keeps us human.

You’ll hear candid advice about:

• The real trade-offs between making art and making a living
• Why streaming is a dead end for most musicians
• When to treat music like a business and when not to
• Investing in skills, backing yourself and stopping the wait for permission
• Letting other people own their shit
• Why organisations must take digital communication seriously if they want real impact
• The role men must play as active, imperfect allies
• The heartbreak and hope of higher education, and when it might be time to build something else

The episode closes with gratitude, acknowledgements and a reflection on legacy. Girls Twiddling Knobs may be ending, but listening, making, creating and caring do not.

Stay bold. Stay unapologetic. Don’t wait for permission. Stay human.

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Girls Twiddling Knobs has ended, but you can stay connected to Isobel's artistic work here.

Girls Twiddling Knobs was hosted by Isobel Anderson and produced by Isobel Anderson and Jade Bailey from Nov 2020-Jan 2026 and will remain live on all major podcast platforms throughout 2026.

We are grateful to the British Library who have archived the podcast in their Sound and Vision Collection.

Learn more about the Girls Twiddling Knobs legacy here.

Watch this episode on YouTube

Explore more episodes here.

Listen on Spotify.