Standard Issue Podcast

They said it could never be done, but Tits Ahoy, Tits Akimbo and Tits McGee come together in Paul Verhoeven’s 1995 erotic drama/satirical masterpiece/car crash of nudity* and it’s more aggressively aggressive than is ever necessary.

Showgirls bombed and took a critical spanking at the time, but 30 years on, opinion has softened. Well, some opinions. Do they include those of our Mick, Hannah and Jen? Find out.

*delete as appropriate

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Psychotherapist Jen Cox and life coach Salima Saxton, are best mates and co-hosts of the podcast Women Are Mad. Together they’ve created a space to show women that emotions are a superpower. And it has – as the name of their podcast suggests – a healthy focus on rage as a source of fuel and change. They chat to Mick about the power in sharing, the joy of rage, and why we need to let it out.  

Women Are Mad is available wherever you get your podcasts and Jennifer’s book, Women Are Angry: Why Your Rage is Hiding and How to Let It Out, is available from all good bookshops.

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Is your New Year's resolution to stay in and watch more telly? Unlikely, but let us recommend some things to watch regardless. This time we're chatting about What We Do In The Shadows, 100 Years of Solitude, Playing Nice, Somebody Somewhere, SAS Rogue Heroes, Missing You and Dr Odyssey (OMFG!)

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Bryan Singer’s much lauded, twisty-turny, Oscar-winning

classic starring Kevin Spacey has us separating art from artist this week. But

is the art all that interesting? What is Pete Postlethwaite’s head-scratcher of

an accent? And when the surprise ending's all everyone talks about, how does it

fare on a second watch?

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Fiona MacKenzie is Standard Issue’s original ‘random angry woman’, a tag she gave herself when she first came on the pod to talk about her campaign, We Can’t Consent To This. Her work led to a change in the law and the scrapping of the ‘rough sex defence’. 

Fiona’s now exploring how Westminster can work better for women with The Other Half, a non-partisan think tank developing policy in women’s interests and spanning public life, justice, Mothers and Others. This includes assisted dying safeguards to protect the lives of vulnerable women, which, as the officially titled Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill – more commonly known as the assisted dying bill – passes through Parliament, Fiona and Mick focus on in this interview.

The Other Half wants to hear from women in order to move forward in helping create policy that considers and benefits women, so take five minutes to fill in a couple of the surveys you’ll find on the website. theotherhalf.uk

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That great sporting rivalry the women’s Ashes got underway in Australia on Saturday. Jen caught up with two of England Cricket's finest, tournament debutant Ryana MacDonald Gay, and team stalwart Tammy Beaumont, to talk rivalry, excitement, and where the women’s game is at right now.

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Coralie Fargeat’s gonzo body horror comedy The Substance just bagged Demi Moore a Golden Globe and started a lot of conversations when it hit cinemas last year. Conversations in which the word “feminist” came up a lot. And so, for the first Flicking of 2025, Mick, Hannah and Yosra hold onto their boob vomit to talk ageing, bodies, ageing bodies, the relationship between younger and older self, and how they may never get over Dennis Quaid eating shrimp.

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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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