Standard Issue Podcast

A century after their birth, the Mitford Sisters continue to fascinate and appal in equal measure. As a new play about them, The Party Girls, opens at The Marlowe in Canterbury, Hannah chats to playwright Amy Rosenthal about why their stories still resonate, sisterhood and the frivolity of evil.

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Fairy tales have long been a source of life lessons and observations. Adding to that tradition and brimming with female power, Wild Folk: Tales From the Stones, by writer and illustrator Jackie Morris and stained glass artist Tamsin Abbott, is officially one of the most beautiful books in our Mick’s possession.

She chats with Jackie and Tamsin about the power of stories, the collaborative process, finding just the right sky and that aforementioned female power. 

Wild Folk isn’t as easily available as it should be, but you can – and should – get it from www.sevenfables.co.uk.

Also, give Tamsin a follow @tamsintheshed and ditto Jackie @jackiemorrisartist, both on Instagram.

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Featuring a couple of bona fide bangers by Irving Berlin, this Fred and Ginger bonanza, in which misunderstandings, misidentification and miscommunication slows true love’s flow, was the pair’s most successful film. But will the ‘idiot plot’ be too frustrating for words? Can Mick deal with the sheer amount of tap dancing? Why is Hannah screaming and refusing to look at the screen? And what am “Venice”?

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In 2017, fashion model and counsellor-turned gender equality

Jen caught up with Karen to chat about the book, the thorny topic of equal pay in football, the power of the sport to change hearts, minds and culture, and why football matters.

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Hold Fast, the latest series of the BBC World Service's Lives Less Ordinary podcast, tells the extraordinary tale of the Avontuur, a 100-year-old sailing cargo ship which left Germany heading for the Caribbean in early 2020. What happened next could never have been predicted, as the world was gripped by a global pandemic and the 15-strong crew found themselves unable to disembark for 188 days. Hannah was delighted to chat to producer Christina Hardinge and composer Noémie Ducimetière about making a truly immersive podcast series about an incredible story of survival and teamwork.

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This month's Outside The Box is a podcast of two halves. First up, Mickey and Hannah are chatting about Department Q, Untamed, Bookish and Parenthood. Then Jen arrives, and she and Hannah discuss Unforgivable, The Gone, Too Much, The Gilded Age and 1000 Men and Me: The Bonnie Blue Story. Yes, that is a whole lot of telly.

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A pig herding sheep? A kids film getting loads of Oscar nods? A main role containing just 16 lines of dialogue? Join Hannah and Jen as they discuss these and other unheard of (unherd of?) things, after watching an understated farmyard classic.

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In 2017 Katy O'Neill Gutierrez was keen to get outdoors with her newborn daughter. When she searched for local mum and baby groups that combined a love of the outdoors with meeting other new parents, she couldn't find anything that fit the bill, so she decided to start her own. What started as a few friends meeting in North London for a walk with their babies turned into Blaze Trails, which now has more than 60 groups across the UK meeting regularly.

Jen chats to Katy about the significant impact of the organisation on the mental health of its members, combatting loneliness in new parents, barriers to getting active, and why equality can be so hard to come by in family life.

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When BBC journalist Melissa Hogenboom happened across a study looking at attitudes towards male and female breadwinners, it made her wonder what other power imbalances we see play out in our everyday lives and how they affect us. This inspired her fascinating new book Breadwinners: and Other Power Imbalances That Influence Your Life.

Jen chats to Melissa about those inequalities, the value we place in different tasks, the point at which those values become entrenched, and why they hate the word “bossy”.

Breadwinners I published by Canongate and available now.

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It was smash hit city for Michael J Fox in 1985, with Rod Daniel’s fantasy-comedyTeen Wolf following hot on the heels of Back to the Future, but did they have enough people in their hair and make-up department? Should 33-year-olds be at school? And how easy is it to accept a werewolf on your basketball team?

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