Standard Issue Podcast

By Standard Issue

What's Standard Issue Podcast about?

For women by women: a podcast magazine (podzine) championing women's voices, founded by Sarah Millican, and packed with interviews, news, film, opinion and humour.

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Standard Issue Podcast episodes:

04.24.2024
SIM 965 Pod 302: Blue Lights, cricket whites and on Wednesdays we wear pink
The BBC's Belfast-set police drama Blue Lights is back on our tellies, so Hannah grabbed the chance to talk to one of its stars: former comedian, now novelist and actor, Andi Osho. They chat about understanding history, running down alleyways and going grey...
04.21.2024
SIM Ep 964 Chops 296: Powering up with Yasmin Ali
Most of us would be able to name our energy provider and probably a list of reasons we’re annoyed with them, but when it comes to the hows and whos that get it to, say, our plug sockets, details can...
04.20.2024
SIM Ep 963 Flicking #48: Poor Things
Hold onto your fannies, because for this month’s Flicking, Mick’s picked Poor Things, directed by Yorgos Lanthikos (man), based on a novel by Alisdair Gray (man), adapted for the big screen by Tony McNamara (man) and one of 2023’s hot...
04.17.2024
SIM Ep 962 Pod 301: Loretta Lynn, Tanya Franks and – whose hand is that? – oh, Tracy Flick
You’ve seen Sharon Horgan’s brilliant sitcom Pulling, right? If you haven’t, please do go watch it immediately *waits impatiently, tapping foot* Okay! How good is Tanya Franks in it?!? SOOOO good. Which means you’ll understand why our Hannah has been...
04.14.2024
SIM Ep 961 Chops 295: Elaine Lin Hering is Unlearning Silence
Harvard Law School lecturer, consultant and speaker, Elaine Lin Hering, was frustrated in her professional life by the realising that having a seat at the table isn't enough if no one can hear what you're saying. This inspired her to write Unlearning...
04.12.2024
SIM Ep 960 Outside The Box #64
Having a busy April? Why not have a nice sit down and turn on the telly? This month, Hannah and Jen are talking about Passenger, Manhunt, The Gone, The Dry, Masters of the Air, Mary & George, The Regime and...
04.10.2024
SIM Ep 959 Pod 300: Glass cliffs, tragic magic and TOP THAT!
We’ve all heard of the glass ceiling, right? But what about the phenomenon befalling the high-flying women who have dared to smash through it? It’s known as the glass cliff, and Sophie Williams has written a book about it. Sophie...
04.06.2024
SIM Ep 958 Chops 294: Hadley Freeman and the Good Girls
According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, hospital admissions for eating disorders have increased by 84% over the past five years. And yet, for so many of us, anorexia remains very hard to understand. Hannah chats to author, journalist and recovered anorexic Hadley...
04.02.2024
SIM Ep 957 Pod 299: All aboard the flying bath mat!
Experts - we should listen to them, right? RIGHT? Well, maybe not all of them. That's what Hannah learned while talking to Dr Julia Shaw, a criminal psychologist and the host of new Radio 4 show Experts on Trial. Jen's been on...
03.31.2024
SIM Ep 956 Chops 293: Courtney Moorehead Balaker on The Coddling of the American Mind
If you've not read the Atlantic article The Coddling of the American Mind, or the book that followed it, you've likely heard us recommend it. And now, it's a documentary, so Hannah got straight on the Zoom to California to talk to...
03.28.2024
SIM Ep 955 Pod 298: Love letters to Scotland
Playwright Stef Smith is best known for her, well, plays. But her award-winning BBC Scotland drama, Float – a tender tangle of love, life and identity in small-town Scotland – is also well worth your time. Season one is already...
03.24.2024
SIM Ep 954 Chops 292: Suzie Miller on Prima Facie and criminal justice
Playwright Suzie Miller is best known for her award-sweeping masterpiece, Prima Facie, a searing critique of the criminal justice system and, specifically, how it deals with survivors of sexual assault and rape. She’s now adapted the play into a novel, and...
03.23.2024
SIM Ep 953 Flicking #47: Oppenheimer
They don’t come much bigger than Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s three-hour Oscar-nabbing historical drama, and Hannah’s pick for this month’s Flicking. It’s quite rightly made Cillian Murphy the man of the moment, but how’s Yosra feeling about Robert Downey Jnr’s gongs?...
03.20.2024
SIM Ep 952 Pod 297: Finding joy, female pleasure, and just the one Jack Nicholson
Hollie McNish - Standard Issue fave, award-winning poet, and all-round smasher - is back with Lobster, a brand-new collection of poems and prose. Naturally, Mick was delighted to jump on the Zoom to talk to her about it, as well as joy, not-joy, vulvas,...
03.17.2024
SIM Ep 951 Chops 291: Jenny Kleeman knows The Price of Life
Journalist, broadcaster, documentary-maker, author and Mickey mind-blower is back on the podcast to chat about her incredible new book, The Price of Life: In Search of What We’re Worth and Who Decides. It’s a fascinating and brutal investigation into who puts...
03.13.2024
SIM Ep 950 Pod 296 The '70s, the late '90s and right now
If you find watching sport in public a bit intimidating, Set Piece Social will be for you. This week, Jen chats to Naomi Fitzgibbons and Kate Hetherington about their pioneering new project to get women watching women's sport. Hannah's talking to writer...
03.10.2024
SIM Ep 949 Chops 290: Liz Jensen’s Wild and Precious Life
Liz Jensen is better known for her fiction writing, but the author and activist has just published a memoir, Your Wild and Precious Life: On Grief, Hope and Rebellion. Her new book documents her grief after the death of her son...
03.08.2024
SIM Ep 948 Outside The Box 63
This month's Outside The Box is here and this time we're talking about True Detective: Night Country, Masters of the Air, Mr & Mrs Smith, Trigger Point and Breathtaking, plus a load of stuff Hannah didn't even make it through...
03.06.2024
SIM Ep 947 Pod 295: Women with balls (and other objects)
Imagine having an idea so engaging that you make Anjelica Huston want to talk about Tupperware. Well, hello journalist Annabelle Hirsch, whose book, A History of Women in 101 Objects, is a fascinating walk through female history via, well, 101...
03.03.2024
SIM Ep 946 Chops 289: Tracy King's been thinking
Critical thinking isn't exactly everyone's strong point and in her upcoming memoir Learning to Think, Tracy King explains how she went from born-again Christianity to pseudoscience to teaching herself to think critically. And when she applied that thinking to the violent death...
02.28.2024
SIM Ep 945 Pod 294: Good sisters, bad sisters, and some rebirth
Writer and Standard Issue fave Kerry Hudson is back with brand-new memoir, Newborn, the follow-up to her previous work, Lowborn. In this week’s podzine, Hannah jumps on the Zoom to talk with Kerry about class, social mobility, money and why you can't air fry...
02.25.2024
SIM Ep 944 Chops 288: Again, With Feelings with Catherine Bohart
Comedian, podcast mogul, writer, broadcaster and professional oversharer, the glorious Catherine Bohart is this week’s Sunday Chops. She and Mick are chatting about the joy and freedom of podcasts, being a professional oversharer, living with OCD, the giving and receiving...
02.21.2024
SIM Ep 943 Pod 293: Gambling, fighting and getting your whole family in a room together
Lindsay Duncan - you heard us! - is on stage at the National Theatre in a revival of Dodie Smith's Dear Octopus, so of course Jen jumped at the chance to chat to her. They were joined by the play's director,...
02.18.2024
SIM Ep 942 Chops 287: Len Pennie’s Poyums
Performance poet Len Pennie is a big deal on the social media, particularly TikTok, where her Scots Word of the Day videos, forthright, urgent poetry and wicked sense of humour have made her a bona fide star. Published by Canongate on...
02.17.2024
SIM Ep 942 Flicking #46: Past Lives
Greta Lee and Teo Yoo star in Celine Song’s debut feature, which follows deeply connected childhood friends Nora (Lee) and Hae Sung (Yoo) over the course of 24 years and an ocean of separation. It’s a gentle, poignant, philosophical, maybe...
02.14.2024
SIM Ep 940 Pod 291: Where are we going? What does it mean? And what is this film?
Comedian, writer, podcaster, friend of Standard Issue, and glorious human being Jess Fostekew is back on tour with her new show Mettle, and so Mick jumped at the chance to talk to her about it. They also chat buses, bulking, and the tiny...
02.14.2024
SIM Ep 941 Pod 292: Olga, Ola, Othello and okay, let’s DANCE MONTAGE
Imagine making a film set in a town where dancing is illegal. Imagine that bit being the true story element of said film. Imagine that not one of the team had ever seen 1984’s Footloose in full before this very...
02.07.2024
SIM Ep 940 Pod 291: Where are we going? What does it mean? And what is this film?
Why won't copy show up? Comedian, writer, podcaster, friend of Standard Issue, and glorious human being Jess Fostekew is back on tour with her new show Mettle, and so Mick jumped at the chance to talk to her about it. They also chat buses,...
02.04.2024
SIM Ep 939 Chops 286: Broken Water, broken nights, and the highs and lows of mumming
Being a mum is great, but it can also be relentlessly challenging and impossibly difficult. Not to mention that from the day they're born, you know you'll eventually lose your children to adulthood. In her late 30s, writer and actress Michele...
01.31.2024
SIM Ep 938 Pod 290: Live from Antarctica and the Fountain of Destiny!
Sort of. This week, Jen's been on the satellite phone to bone fide polar adventurer Harpreet ‘Preet’ Chandi. Preet recently broke a third World Record, becoming the world’s fastest woman to complete a solo unsupported ski expedition to the South Pole. She chats to...
01.28.2024
SIM Ep 937 Chops 285: A Phone Fix with the Brain Doctor
Are we addicted to our phones? Are they bad for our mental health? Are they changing the way we behave? Hannah gets the answers to these and many more questions from neuroscientist Dr Faye Begeti, otherwise known as the Brain Doctor, whose...
01.24.2024
SIM Ep 936 Pod 289: Comedy, cancer, college campuses and Christ almighty, our eyes
Stand up Laura Smyth came to comedy later in life and with a whole load of experiences, including cancer, under her belt. People are lapping it up, and tickets to her debut tour show, Living My Best Life, are selling...
01.21.2024
SIM Ep 935 Chops 284: Zahra Nader on the plight of women and girls in Afghanistan
If ever a subject demanded a bit more of our time, it’s what’s happening to women and girls in Afghanistan under the Taliban. Zahra Nader, editor-in-chief of Zan Times, a brilliant, women-led investigative newsroom, covering the human rights crisis in...
01.19.2024
SIM Ep 934 Outside The Box #62
It's cold out, although inexplicably sunny in Hannah's lounge, so let's all stay in and watch some telly. This month, we're talking about Julia, Mr Bates vs The Post Office, Slow Horses, Fool Me Once, True Detective: Night Country, Attenborough and...
01.17.2024
SIM Ep 933 Pod 288: Fast fashion, favourable odds and four weddings
Just how bad is fast fashion for the earth and and how can we help curb its impact? Just a couple of the questions Mick’s asking Harriet Saywood-Bellisario, designer and founder of sustainable womenswear label Saywood, as they chat about how fashion and...
01.14.2024
SIM Ep 932 Chops 283: Kahlo, Basquiat & Jennifer Clement’s Promised Party
Frida Kahlo and Jean-Michel Basquiat are huge names from the world of art, but what must it have been like to hang out and grow up in their worlds? Author and poet Jennifer Clement knows all about it and has...
01.13.2024
SIM Ep 931 Flicking #45: Cocaine Bear
Mama’s got a brand new bag! And by “Mama”, we mean Flicking. This year, instead of watching firm favourites from their pasts, Hannah, Yosra and Mickey are giving their thoughts on films released in 2023. And what an absolute classic to...
01.10.2024
SIM Ep 930 Pod 287: Health, holidays and high drama
Yes, we do keep banging on about medical misogyny and you'll get no apologies from us. On that note, Mickey's been on the Zoom with journalist Sarah Graham, who specialises in writing about women’s health, to talk about her excellent book, Rebel...
01.07.2024
SIM Ep 929 Chops 282: India Rakusen's Child
Journalist India Rakusen is about to launch an ambitious new project for Radio 4/BBC Sounds, so Hannah leapt at the chance to chat to her about it. The 27-part series (wow), Child, starts from when a sperm meets an egg, and then follows the mother...
01.03.2024
SIM Ep 928 Pod 286: We like to move it, move it
Don’t worry, we’ve not come over all ‘new year, new you’ bollocks, but this week’s podzine is packed with exercise chat, from recognising a cult when you see one to getting a bit more bang for your buck when it comes to...
12.27.2023
SIM Ep 927: Blast from the gigcast past #6
We're having a little break for Christmas, but to keep you entertained over the festive period, here’s a blast from the gigcast past. Jen’s chosen a cracker - pun intended - from 2017, just as we were about to launch...
12.27.2023
SIM Ep 926: Blast from the gigcast past #5
We're having a little break for Christmas, but to keep you full of Standard Issue joy while you’re in a cheese coma/back at work, here's a favourite gigcast from the before times. In this episode, Mick's taking us back to...
12.27.2023
SIM Ep 925: Blast from the gigcast past #4
We're having a little break for Christmas, but just in case you are jonesing for our voices, here's a favourite gigcast from days of yore. In this episode Hannah's revisiting one from way back in January 2017, when we spoiled you...
12.20.2023
SIM Ep 924 Pod 285: Bold women, busy women, and a couple of camels
The wonderful Lisa Palfrey is back on our screens over the festive period, alongside all of Wales (almost), in BBC One comedy drama, Men Up*, about a 1994 trial for the then-new drug, Viagra. Hannah jumped at the opportunity to get...
12.17.2023
SIM Ep 923 Chops 281: Rebecca Roache is not fucking offended
From the lowly F-bomb, all the way over to the spam-faced jizz clown end of the spectrum, we’re big fans of a swear here on Standard Issue. But why is swearing considered offensive when the words don’t really mean anything offensive? Dr Rebecca...
12.15.2023
SIM Ep 922 Outside The Box #61
Sure, you're probably busy with Christmas prep, but if you'd like some recommendations on what to watch during/after, you've come to the right place. This month we're talking about Lupin, Time, Kin, Vigil, Boat Story, Scrublands, The Crown and Squid Game: The Challenge. You're...
12.13.2023
SIM 921 Pod 284 Homelessness, heroines and Howie (oh, Jesus Christ!)
Milton Keynes, once the UK capital of youth homelessness and dubbed "tent city" by the media, has successfully tackled its rough sleeping crisis. How? Hannah got on the Zoom with city councillor and soon-to-be Labour candidate in the next election...
12.09.2023
SIM Ep 920 Flicking #44: Paddington 2
SPOILER ALERT: It’s a massive love-in on Flicking this month, and rightly so, because our Hannah has picked the glorious Paddington 2. Seriously, what’s not to love? Yosra and Mick are also big fans, and there’s even a guest appearance...
12.06.2023
SIM Ep 919 Pod 283: Revolting women, women drivers and knicker issues
Curator Linsey Young spent five years working on the excellent Women In Revolt! exhibition at Tate Britain and, trust us, it was time very well spent. In this week’s podzine, she talks to Mick about punk art, reclaiming bodies, a three-minute...
11.29.2023
SIM Ep 918 Pod 282: Broken bits, Disobedient Bodies, and an absolutely massive voice
It’s pretty well documented that the beauty industry isn’t particularly kind to women, but why are we accepting the capitalist forces that make us feel almost universally crap about ourselves? And where do they even come from? These are questions...

What's Standard Issue Podcast about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Standard Issue Podcast episodes:

SIM 965 Pod 302: Blue Lights, cricket whites and on Wednesdays we wear pink

SIM Ep 964 Chops 296: Powering up with Yasmin Ali

SIM Ep 963 Flicking #48: Poor Things

SIM Ep 962 Pod 301: Loretta Lynn, Tanya Franks and – whose hand is that? – oh, Tracy Flick

SIM Ep 961 Chops 295: Elaine Lin Hering is Unlearning Silence

SIM Ep 960 Outside The Box #64

SIM Ep 959 Pod 300: Glass cliffs, tragic magic and TOP THAT!

SIM Ep 958 Chops 294: Hadley Freeman and the Good Girls

SIM Ep 957 Pod 299: All aboard the flying bath mat!

SIM Ep 956 Chops 293: Courtney Moorehead Balaker on The Coddling of the American Mind

SIM Ep 955 Pod 298: Love letters to Scotland

SIM Ep 954 Chops 292: Suzie Miller on Prima Facie and criminal justice

SIM Ep 953 Flicking #47: Oppenheimer

SIM Ep 952 Pod 297: Finding joy, female pleasure, and just the one Jack Nicholson

SIM Ep 951 Chops 291: Jenny Kleeman knows The Price of Life

SIM Ep 950 Pod 296 The '70s, the late '90s and right now

SIM Ep 949 Chops 290: Liz Jensen’s Wild and Precious Life

SIM Ep 948 Outside The Box 63

SIM Ep 947 Pod 295: Women with balls (and other objects)

SIM Ep 946 Chops 289: Tracy King's been thinking

SIM Ep 945 Pod 294: Good sisters, bad sisters, and some rebirth

SIM Ep 944 Chops 288: Again, With Feelings with Catherine Bohart

SIM Ep 943 Pod 293: Gambling, fighting and getting your whole family in a room together

SIM Ep 942 Chops 287: Len Pennie’s Poyums

SIM Ep 942 Flicking #46: Past Lives

SIM Ep 940 Pod 291: Where are we going? What does it mean? And what is this film?

SIM Ep 941 Pod 292: Olga, Ola, Othello and okay, let’s DANCE MONTAGE

SIM Ep 940 Pod 291: Where are we going? What does it mean? And what is this film?

SIM Ep 939 Chops 286: Broken Water, broken nights, and the highs and lows of mumming

SIM Ep 938 Pod 290: Live from Antarctica and the Fountain of Destiny!

SIM Ep 937 Chops 285: A Phone Fix with the Brain Doctor

SIM Ep 936 Pod 289: Comedy, cancer, college campuses and Christ almighty, our eyes

SIM Ep 935 Chops 284: Zahra Nader on the plight of women and girls in Afghanistan

SIM Ep 934 Outside The Box #62

SIM Ep 933 Pod 288: Fast fashion, favourable odds and four weddings

SIM Ep 932 Chops 283: Kahlo, Basquiat & Jennifer Clement’s Promised Party

SIM Ep 931 Flicking #45: Cocaine Bear

SIM Ep 930 Pod 287: Health, holidays and high drama

SIM Ep 929 Chops 282: India Rakusen's Child

SIM Ep 928 Pod 286: We like to move it, move it

SIM Ep 927: Blast from the gigcast past #6

SIM Ep 926: Blast from the gigcast past #5

SIM Ep 925: Blast from the gigcast past #4

SIM Ep 924 Pod 285: Bold women, busy women, and a couple of camels

SIM Ep 923 Chops 281: Rebecca Roache is not fucking offended

SIM Ep 922 Outside The Box #61

SIM 921 Pod 284 Homelessness, heroines and Howie (oh, Jesus Christ!)

SIM Ep 920 Flicking #44: Paddington 2

SIM Ep 919 Pod 283: Revolting women, women drivers and knicker issues

SIM Ep 918 Pod 282: Broken bits, Disobedient Bodies, and an absolutely massive voice