Miriam and Miki discuss what would have happened if as a child, when her mother and stepfather moved to Los Angeles, she had moved with them as opposed to staying in London with her father. Along the way they discuss music, making friends on the peripheries, growing up between two homes and why being a little wishy washy can be a superpower.

TW: Emotional and sexual abuse

Miki is a singer, songwriter and guitarist. She is probably best known as a founding member of the alternative-rock band Lush, darlings of the indie scene and Britpop in the late 80s and early 90s. She is currently part of Piroshka and lives in London. Her memoir, Fingers Crossed: How Music Saved Me from Success, is a an incredible account of a trailblazing woman and a seminal band delivered with vivid, controlled storytelling, and is available now in all good bookshops and on Bookshop.org.

Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 3 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives.

Produced by Neil Mason

#MyUnlivedLife

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kamila and Miriam discuss what would have happened if, after graduating from university, she had not been able to attend her creative writing MFA in Massachusetts, and therefore returned home to Karachi instead of staying in America, where she met her then agent and now longtime editor Alexandra Pringle.

Along the way they discuss the destructive nature of guilt, the implications of early setbacks and successes, and how a new friendship is a lot like a romance.

Kamila Shamsie was born and grew up in Karachi, Pakistan and now lives in London, and is the author of eight novels including Burnt Shadows, A God in Every Stone and Home Fire, which won the Women’s Prize for fiction in 2018. Her work has been translated into over 30 languages, she is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and she is professor of creative writing at the University of Manchester. Her most recent novel, Best of Friends, is out now and available in all good bookshops and on Bookshop.org.

Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 3 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives.

Produced by Neil Mason

#MyUnlivedLife

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lisa and Miriam discuss what her life might have looked like if, when in her twenties, she’d listened to her instinct and not accepted a second date with a man who she didn’t really fancy, a man who went on to control almost every aspect of her life for the next five years. Along the way they discuss the positive and negative effect of peer expectations and how easily women override their intuition in the name of being nice, plus they get Lisa just a little bit of her twenties back.

Lisa Jewell's first novel, Ralph’s Party, was the bestselling debut novel of 1999, and since then she has written another eighteen novels, most recently a number of dark psychological thrillers. She is a New York Times and Sunday Times number one bestselling author and has been published worldwide in over twenty-five languages. She lives in north London with her husband, two teenage daughters and the the best dog in the world. Her most recent novel, The Family Remains, is out now and available in all good bookshops.

Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 2 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about a path their life might have taken and together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives.

Produced by Neil Mason

#MyUnlivedLife

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Travis and Miriam discuss what their life might have looked like if they had finished university instead of walking out of their exams. Along the way, the two talk about the cultural obsession with certainty, the importance of geography when forming communities and the sex appeal of really bad shoes.

Travis Alabanza is an award-winning writer, performer and theatre maker. After being the youngest recipient of the Artist-in-Residency programme at Tate Galleries, their debut show Burgerz toured internationally to sold-out performances in the Southbank Centre, in Brazil, and Berlin, and won the Edinburgh Fringe Total Theatre Award. Their writing has appeared in the Guardian, Vice, gal-dem and BBC Online, and they previously had a fortnightly column in the Metro. They have been published in numerous anthologies, including Black and Gay In the UK. Their work surrounding gender, trans identity and race has garnered international recognition, and they have given talks at universities including Oxford, Harvard, Bristol and more. Their new book, None of the Above: Reflections on Life Beyond the Binary, is published this August by Canongate.

Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 2 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about a path their life might have taken and together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives.

Produced by Neil Mason

#MyUnlivedLife

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Miriam and Chris discuss what his life might have looked like if he hadn’t been fired from the animation studio where he worked at the start of his career, and therefore not been forced into trying to make his way as a professional illustrator. Along the way they discuss the history of animation, how editing is good practice for children’s storytelling, and what it takes to carve your own path.

Chris Haughton is an Irish designer and illustrator and the acclaimed picture book author of family favourites A Bit Lost, Shh! We Have a Plan, Goodnight Everyone, Don’t Worry Little Crab, Maybe and Oh No, George!, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year. His new book Well Done, Mummy Penguin will be published in October. Chris’ books have won prestigious prize and awards across the world, from the Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Award to The Irish Children’s Book of the Year, and most recently Oscar’s Book Prize. He has sold over two million copies of his picture books and they have been published into 26 languages. Originally from Dublin, Chris now lives in London.

Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 2 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about a path their life might have taken and together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives.

Produced by Neil Mason

#MyUnlivedLife

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Miriam and Sandra discuss what her life might have looked like if, as a teenager, she’d not been afraid to answer honestly when a friend asked her a question about her sexuality. Along the way they discuss the American suburbs, open relationships and the particular joy of bottomless cups of coffee.

Sandra Newman is the author of four novels including The Heavens and The Country of Ice Cream Star, and several bestselling nonfiction books on writing. She is currently working on a feminist retelling of Nineteen Eighty-Four and her most recent novel, The Men, is a disquieting tale of impossible sacrifices, and is available in all good bookshops.

Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 2 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about a path their life might have taken and together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives.

Produced by Neil Mason

#MyUnlivedLife

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andrew and Miriam discuss what his life might have been like if, a year after graduating from university in Oxford and getting a job in London, he had done a complete 180 and moved back to Oxford to write sketch comedy with a friend. Along the way they invent a fictional sandwich chain, narrowly avoid petty theft and helicopter Philip Larkin into the 2012 olympics. They also laugh A LOT.

Andrew Hunter Murray. Andrew is a scriptwriter and fact-hunter for BBC2's QI. He co-hosts the podcast No Such Thing As A Fish, which has toured the UK, Europe and Australia. He also writes jokes and journalism for Private Eye magazine, and hosts the Eye's podcast, Page 94. He is one of the founder members of the award-winning comedy show Austentatious, and spent three years as one of the regular correspondents on BBC2’s The Mash Report.

He is the author of The Last Day and his new, totally gripping ecological thriller The Sanctuary is out now and available in all good bookshops.

Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 2 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about a path their life might have taken and together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives.

Produced by Neil Mason

#MyUnlivedLife

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Miriam and Deesha discuss what her life might have been like if, after catching the man who she’d just started dating in a devastating lie, she had walked away instead of staying with, and ultimately marrying him. Along the way they discuss the shame that exists around loneliness, the importance of small surprises, and some handy tips for spotting dating app red flags.

Deesha Philyaw’s debut short story collection, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, won the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the 2020/2021 Story Prize, and the 2020 LA Times Book Prize: The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction. In addition to winning all the awards, the collection, which focusses on Black women, sex, and the Black church, is being adapted for television by HBO Max. Deesha is also a Kimbilio Fiction Fellow and will be the 2022-2023 John and Renée Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi.

Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 2 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about a path their life might have taken and together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives.

Produced by Neil Mason

#MyUnlivedLife

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Miriam and Edward discuss what his life might have looked like if he’d never been selected for a certain large book retailer’s prize in America, and thus never flown to New York and never met his wife, the novelist Elizabeth McCracken. Along the way they discuss the lives of objects, the original, and much darker, version of Pinocchio (not for the faint of heart) and at least one way to get yourself out of a creative fallow period.

Edward is the author of the novels Observatory Mansions and Alva and Irva: the Twins Who Saved a City, and of the YA Iremonger Trilogy, which have all been translated into many different languages and all of which he illustrated. His novel Little, which took him a ridiculous fifteen years to finish, has been published in 20 countries and his novel The Swallowed Man is set inside the belly of an enormous sea beast. His most recent book B: A Year in Plagues and Pencils is a collection of drawings created over the first year of lockdown, and is truly an outward-looking tribute to creativity and connection in a time of isolation, and is available from your local bookshop. Edward has lived in England, France, Romania, Lithuania, Germany, Ireland, Denmark, and the United States and currently lives in Austin, Texas.

Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 2 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about a path their life might have taken and together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives.

Produced by Neil Mason

#MyUnlivedLife

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Louise and Miriam discuss what her life might have been like if she hadn’t lived in Beirut for two years in her late twenties - two years she credits with getting her out of a rut but also which she feels, given the amount of time she spent in the sun while there, sowed the seeds for the melanoma for which she is currently in treatment. Along the way they discuss how adversity can lead to creativity, the importance of a really good girlfriend and why professional cooking is great training for being a writer.

Louise Kennedy is a short story writer and novelist whose work has appeared everywhere from the Stinging Fly and the Guardian to the Irish Times and Radio 4. She was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award in both 2019 and 2020 and her debut novel, Trespasses, is a stunning and devastating love story set against the backdrop of The Troubles. Before getting her start as a writer Louise spent nearly thirty years working as a chef, and she now lives in Sligo with her husband and two children.

Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 2 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about a path their life might have taken and together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives.

Produced by Neil Mason

#MyUnlivedLife

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.