Standard Issue Podcast

A space mission that passed the Bechdel test? There’s never been such times! Mick needed no further prompting to get NASA’s finest, Dr Suze Kundu, on the Zoom to chat about bright spot amid the gloom: Artemis II. And not content with that being a feel-good story for the ages, Suze came armed with some other women-centred tales of joy in STEM. 

As ever, there’s extra chat for our £5 patreons. And so if you want to know a bit more on how positive this mission has been for women in STEM, learn what’s next for Artemis and hear Suze crying at Carroll the lunar crater, visit patreon.com/standardissue.

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After being raised by parents with addictions, professor of psychology at Maynooth University, Katriona O’Sullivan turned her experiences into bestselling non-fiction book Poor. Her follow-up, Hungry: A Biography of My Body, explores how poverty, and the sexual abuse she endured as a child, have shaped her relationship with her body.

Jen chats to Katriona about the vulnerability of neglected children and the adults they grow up to be, and the harm caused by society’s obsession with women shrinking themselves.

Help and support is available for survivors of all types of childhood abuse, via the National Association for People Abused in Childhood.

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Shih-Ching Tsou’s debut feature film caused a stir at Cannes, and tickled many a reviewer’s pickle, but flew under the radar when it landed on Netflix last November. A shame for many reasons, not least because it’s by a woman about women, as the iPhone camera tracks single mum Shu-Fen, and her two daughters – five-year-old I-Jing and university-aged I-Ann – as they try to make a fresh start in their home city of Taipei. What will Yosra and Hannah make of this refreshingly wang-light pick from Mick?

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Everything is totally normal in America, right? This week, special guest Helen Lewis stops by to talk to Hannah about Trump's war, Hegseth's row with the Pope, AI doom-mongering, the US at 250, and other assorted insanity. Who you gonna call? No really, who?

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Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan’s teen musical comedy gave a well-deserved ribbing to the advertising and music execs of the early ‘00s, as well as teen culture in general. But at what point does this satire become part of the problem? Shall we ask Tara Reid? And what were they putting in Sunny Delight in the late ‘90s?

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The fascinating story of Elizabeth Allen takes us from East London to a remote woodland cabin, to Hollywood and back, before settling in Coventry, where Compton Verney is exhibiting the artist’s absurd, funny and boldly prophetic work 60 years after her debut.

Jen catches up with Ila Colley, Compton Verney’s curator of folk art and the exhibition, Troublemakers and Prophets: Elizabeth Allen and Other Visionary Artists, to chat about Allen’s extraordinary life and work.

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A new adaptation of Virginia Woolf's The Waves opens at London's Jermyn Street Theatre next week. Hannah chats to playwright Flora Wilson Brown about the appeal of Woolf to young people, the issues with adapting her work and the loss of “scenes” in the modern world.

Grab yourself a ticket here: https://www.jermynstreettheatre.co.uk/show/the-waves/

Standard Issue Podcast | creating a magazine for ears, by women for women | Patreon

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It’s fair to say author, Scummy Mummy and self-proclaimed running nerd Helen Thorn has dealt with some pretty hefty shit in the last few years. Her new book, How to face big change and come back stronger, is a hopeful, comforting, funny look at how to navigate some of life’s biggest challenges: change, grief and loss of self. It’s packed with practical wisdom from a plethora of women who have walked the walk. 

Mick caught up with Helen to talk endurance, navigating life looking very different, growth, ditching bad habits, and – of course – lasagne.

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Surgeon Ian Paterson was jailed in 2017 for conducting botched and often unnecessary operations on his patients, who were predominantly women. Hannah chats to Deborah Douglas and Tracy King about their new book, The Cost of Trust: The Butcher Surgeon and the Scandal that Shamed British Medicine, their experiences of being "cared for" by Paterson and the battle to ensure it can't happen again.

This episode contains some pretty graphic descriptions of surgery

You can buy The Cost of Trust here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-cost-of-trust/deborah-douglas/tracy-king/9780008712938

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What could go wrong in an unregulated fertility clinic, asks our Jen while discussing a BBC report on families seeking fertility treatment in Northern Cyprus. Mick has better news about guidance aimed at making public spaces safer for women and girls, and there's a glimmer of hope from the Middle East. Elsewhere, the Daily Mail invites us to play a Guess Who? of “bodycounts” in SOTW, and there’s some uplifting news in Jenny Off The Blocks about sports science for female athletes, and the upcoming Women’s FA Cup quarter-finals.

Donate to the British Red Cross’s Gaza Crisis Appeal here.

You can find out more about the University of Portsmouth’s research group in breast health here. 

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