Hollie McNish is a poet, writer and Ted Hughes Award-winning author of Nobody Told Me – a collection of poems and stories about raising a child in modern Britain..

Hollie writes with raw honesty, warmth and humour, but as well as great critical and mainstream success, she’s also had her fair share of setbacks and her work articulates perfectly the ‘everyday sadness’ that we all experience.

In this episode, Hollie and Helen chat:

• Motherhood myths

Trigger: suicide

Find out more about Hollie’s work here  and follow Hollie on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube @holliepoetry

Hollie’s next collection of poetry, Slug, is out in May.

Meik Wiking is a Danish happiness researcher, CEO of the Happiness Research Institute, and author of the bestselling Little Book of Hygge.

Meik is committed to researching into how more of us can get happier, but in doing so, he’s also studied what doesn’t make us happier. His latest report studied the impact of the coronavirus on wellbeing and - spoiler alert – it isn’t great. Here, he talks about his experiences of loss and sadness – both personally and professionally.

In this episode, Meik talks to Helen about:

• The loss of his mum at an early age

Trigger: suicide, bereavement

Find out more about Meik at https://www.meikwiking.com/ and follow Meik on Twitter and Instagram @MeikWiking or Facebook @meikwiking1

Ella Mills of Deliciously Ella is a champion of plant-based living, an award-winning author, and an adept businesswoman.

• Loss

Trigger: depression

Find out more about Deliciously Ella https://deliciouslyella.com/ and follow Ella on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook @DeliciouslyElla

Follow Helen on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook @MsHelenRussell

Get in touch with the show at [email protected]

Thanks to Joel Grove for production and to Matt Clacher at HarperCollins for making this podcast happen.

Why do we cry? How come love hurts? And what’s a happiness researcher doing talking about sadness, anyway?

Helen Russell is a journalist and happiness researcher and How to be Sad is a new podcast  based on her book of the same name - exploring why we get sad, what to do when we’re sad, and how we can all get happier by learning to be sad, better. Because let’s be honest – we are in unprecedented times. None of us are where we thought we’d be this time last year and we’re all struggling. We’re having to get better at having difficult conversations and finding ways of handling our sadness.

Join Helen as she talks to some high profile people from all walks of life who have done just that. Each week, special guests share their own experiences of everything from heartache to burnout, anxiety to addiction, the differences between sadness and depression - and how they cope.

Find out more @MsHelenRussell #HowToBeSad and pre order How To Be Sad at https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/how-to-be-sad-everything-ive-learned-about-getting-happier-by-being-sad-better-helen-russell?variant=32618500653134