New year, new news-storms, and grooming gangs have dominated

2025’s early headlines. But, asks Mick, how much do the people “leading” this

debate care about the working-class girls at the centre of the story and what

really needs to shift for that to happen? Meanwhile, Jen’s chatting about the

foster care crisis, and some intriguing new fitness trends. In Sexism of the

Week, we’re wondering how great a tourist destination Afghanistan actually

is, and there’s cricket and tennis in JOTB. And for our £5 and above Patreons,

The Boss, aka Sarah Millican, is back with some Light Relief.

You can listen to Mick's interview with Kiri

Pritchard-McLean about becoming a foster parent, here.

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Danny Boyle's debut film won awards for Ewan McGregor but is he really the star of the show? Did anyone want to see that much of Keith Allen? What's Boyle's problem with friendship? All the answers lie within.

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A new version of Oscar Wilde’s iconic play The Importance of Being Earnest is enjoying a sold-out run at the National Theatre. Jen caught up with its stars, Sharon D Clarke, Ronke Adekoluejo and Eliza Scanlen, to chat about the enduring appeal of the play, how they’re bringing it to a fresh audience, and accessibility of theatre in the UK.

The run is now sold out except for Rush tickets, but you can catch it on NT Live from February 20.

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As a teenager, American comedian Spring Day was in a cult. Her latest show, Exvangelical, explains why she joined and why she left. She and Hannah chat about that and a lot more besides, including the differences in being disabled in the US and the UK.

* Tickets for the Soho Theatre shows, on January 7 & 8, are here: https://sohotheatre.com/events/spring-day-exvangelical/#:~:text=As%20seen%20on%20BBC's%20Live,dark%20comedy%20for%20nice%20people.&text=Spring%20joined%20a%20Christian%20cult,think%20you%20heathens%20would%20understand.

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Money makes the world go round, and that doesn’t look likely to change anytime soon. So why do so many of us put our head in the sand when it comes to cash? And how do we get more fluent at the money talk?

Our Mick definitely needs a little guidance where budgeting, saving and investing is concerned, so she got on the Zoom with financial literacy expert Wendy Grace. They’re chatting fears and anxiety around money, how we can change our relationship with it, when and how to get kids financially savvy, and why Wendy wants more young women to get passionate about pensions. 

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With the New Year approaching, some of us will be thinking about resolutions for the year ahead. Not Laura Tristram, founder of new app, Lumii Life, an AI-powered mental health companion, who believes that shaming ourselves into “better” behaviours is never the way forward.

Jen caught up with Laura to talk about how New Year’s resolutions can actually be bad for our mental health, why we should treat ourselves with compassion, and what led her to found Lumii Life.

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It's our second revisit of a classic festive Rated or Dated and this time it's picked by Jen. How did 1990's Home Alone stand up when we watched it all the way back in 2020? Ahh, 2020. I'd say happy days, but you know...

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We're having a week off, so here's a classic from the Rated or Dated files. But what did Mickey, Jen and Hannah make of Richard Curtis's 2003 Christmas offering? You can probably guess, but if you haven't, it's probably best not to listen with your Nan while you're prepping the sprouts.

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In the last Outside The Box of 2024, we've been watching Say Nothing, Shetland, Until I Kill You, The Day of the Jackal, Bad Sisters, Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, Mrs Davies and, you've guessed it, more Attenborough, in the form of Asia. 

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Christmas classic or RSPCA headache? Chris Columbus and Joe Dante’s creature feature had a lot of input from one Steven Spielberg and it shows. But will this horror/comedy/action combo for kids still surprise and delight Mick, Hannah and Jen? Is Gizmo still a charming little nugget? Are the gremlins mischievous, anarchic fun or irritating? And WHEN THE HELL IS BREAKFAST?

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