Way back in the mists of time - 2018 - the authors of the bestselling Slay in Your Lane: The Black Girl’s Bible, came on our podcast. It opened our eyes. So, as soon as there was a whisper of a new book, we booked them in. So yes, Yomi Adegoke and Elizabeth Uviebinene are back with Loud Black Girls, an anthology of 20 black British women writers asking what’s next…
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Episode 57: Loud Black Girls with Yomi Adegoke and Elizabeth Uviebinene

Do you feel like a fully-functional human person? Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan of The Midult look at all the glamour and indignity of being a grown-up, while rummaging through the handbags, emotional knicker drawers and lives of some extraordinary people.

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Happy Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before we have to get through the next week. Oh God. This week we talk all the tiny, micro-traumas we experience that leave us feeling all wonky. You know, like when someone points a phone at you mid-Facetime. Or a ball lands at your feet in the park and you are clearly expected to kick it, or throw it or…sorry just passed out there for a second…or the doorbell ringing: is it a murderer? Is it the police telling you everyone is dead? Is it that book you ordered on positive thinking? And if that’s not enough tiny trauma, we’ve launched a Substack. Sorry. We’d love you to continue to sail with us on HMS Midulthood for this bumpy, occasionally nausea-inducing, disappointingly-hot-pirate-free voyage on Substack - you know that we believe: if we’re not in it together, we’re not in it at all… 
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PODCAST FROM THE EDGE 20:

OK Annabel is still OOO, so Emilie has roped in a friend of the pod, the marvellous Esther Coren to help. Esther has her own podcast, Giles Coren Has No Idea and a Substack called The Spike and she also gives excellent book recommendations. Given we’re all feeling mad, bad and dangerous to know (not in a swashbuckling-Byronic-way but in a teetering on The-Brink-kind-of-way) perhaps books can soothe us tiny bit: little umbrellas for the mind. We talk about The Paleo Life by Clare Foges (out June 6), Quint by Robert Lautner, The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (May 14), One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, The Egg & I by Betty MacDonald (out of print, but will be on World of Books, which, incidentally, is the preloved Amazon), Hugo Rifkind’s Rabbits (also June 6), and In Memoriam by Alice Winn. Plus there’s a cameo from Esther’s cat Iris. 
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Episode 194: Brilliant Books by Esther Coren

Who doesn’t love a solution story? The tale of a grown-up woman who had a problem and thought, ‘You know what? I am not going to wait for some fucker to fix this – I am just going to do it myself’? This week we have two such stories from the podvault – first up is Sahar Hashemi who smashed through many a ceiling and is still busy opening lots of doors for women: she founded Coffee Republic - three years before Starbucks landed on our shores; for the past couple of years, she’s been putting her considerable energy into spotlighting women-owned businesses with her Buy Women Built movement; asking the question: why do we only hear about the men? Did you know that 81% of 11-18-year olds are unable to name one single female entrepreneur? She’s out to change all that. 
Then we have some highlights from our interview with Joanna Jensen, who suffered from eczema as a child and, when her own children were born with the same condition, she decided ‘enough is enough.’ In 2010 she created Child’s Farm from her kitchen table and, by the end of the decade, it was the UK’s number one baby and child brand. She sold it to Cussons for £40 million in 2022. *does a little dance*. Anyway, it might sound like an enviably smooth ride but, like all of these stories, it is full of bumps, lumps, divorce and other crises. Why have one brilliant female entrepreneur when you can have two?
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Episode 193: The Entrepreneurial Issue

You will have heard of Hadley Freeman, The Sunday Times columnist who writes about feminism, the arts, politics and, she says, anything else that takes her fancy. She is also the author of several acclaimed books – including Good Girls: A Story and Study of Anorexia, just out in paperback. It’s a searing record of her own illness, illuminating the dark corners of this most brutal of mental health disorders, with her deft blend of forensic detail and humour. Please note we talk frankly about this devastating illness. It sounds “oof” (take this as your trigger warning) but Hadley is so generous both in the book and on the podcast that it feels like a ray of light rather than a trauma wallow...
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Episode 192: Hadley Freeman

Happy Friday! Just slipping into your feed to let you know that the week is nearly over, and there’s only one more week to go before we have to get through the next week. Oh God. This week we talk about all the terrible things that happen to our faces and bodies in pictures: one huge eye bulging next to a normal-sized one; extra leg/hand/foot (who does that belong to?!?), limbs that look like hams - is it because we’re terrible people? Also we’re announcing a change. Sorry. We hate change. But we have to change. Here’s the thing: For the past six years, we’ve been sending out our free newsletter. But if internet years were like dog years that would be (Jesus, MATHS now?) 42 years. It’s so nice to get things for free, isn’t it? Unfortunately, it’s no longer possible for us to do it for free, so we are going to have to change. And, by change, we mean charge. We’d love you to continue to sail with us on HMS Midulthood for this bumpy, occasionally nausea-inducing, disappointingly-hot-pirate-free voyage on Substack - you know we believe that, if we’re not in it together, we’re not in it at all. Link in bio… 
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Episode 57: Loud Black Girls with Yomi Adegoke and Elizabeth Uviebinene

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