Standard Issue Podcast

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 week. SCENES, such very eighties scenes, in this week’s Rated or Dated, chosen by Offord, montaged by Bacon. 

Before that, Mick’s been on the Zoom with comedian Olga Koch to chat about her latest show, Prawn Cocktail, the masters she did in lockdown, which looks at parasocial relationships and how the two might come together. 

Hannah’s been to see Othello at The Globe’s Sam Wanamaker theatre, a new production directed by Ola Ince, and she loved it. Hannah chats to Ola about placing Othello in a police force, putting words in Shakespeare’s character’s mouths, and why she’s put a second black man onstage in a play which quite on purpose only ever has one.

In Jenny Off the Blocks, Jen’s talking about allyship in football (we can all wave our scarves in celebration at CANDI Utd’s recent actions), while over in the Bush Telegraph, we’re getting up to date on who’s in charge of France and what a nutritious breakfast looks like, as well as looking at some bad maths for women. 

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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, bulking, and the tiny birds of Geoff Capes.

Hannah’s been on the Zoom to talk to journalist and award-winning podcast host Catherine Carr about her podcast Where Are You Going?, why people are so keen to tell her the answer to this question and why listeners can't get enough of it.

In Jenny Off The Blocks, Jen ponders what's next for the Women’s Tour. And we wonder what is this film, as we settle down for some Gen X stereotypes and miserable facial hair in 1994’s Reality Bites for this week’s Rated or Dated. 

Meanwhile, there’s Viking fire, heavy workloads, and a crypt full o’ dust in the Bush Telegram.

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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 Winstanley gave birth to a much-wanted child, and quickly realised that mumming wasn't the sugar-coated dream she'd been sold. And so she wrote a play about her own experiences and those of others at different stages of their motherhood journey. 

A decade on, Broken Water is now playing at the Arcola Theatre. Our Jen caught up with Michele and director Nicola Samer to talk about the highs and lows of being a mum, the losses we incur along the way, and, when it comes to representations of motherhood, how much (or little) has changed in the last ten years.

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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 Jen about the how and why, accepting failure when it comes, becoming a role model and looking after your mental health. Speaking of which, Mickey's been on the Zoom with our resident psychotherapist Jane Watson to talk about "the overwhelm", how to spot it and what to do if it's not as simple as "have you tried removing stress from your life?" In BT, Hannah has a smorgasbord of vaccination news, while in SOTW, we look at #OppenOscarBarbieHeimerHistoryIsForMenKenGoslingGerwigGate. And in Rated or Dated, we ask "is this the reason there are so few statues of women?" as we watch 1974's The Golden Voyage of Sinbad.

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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 new book The Phone Fix: The Brain-Focused Guide to Building Healthy Digital Habits and Breaking Bad Ones is out on February 1.

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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 like hot cakes. Mmm, hot cakes. Laura chats to our Hannah about wide-ranging appeal, the big C and maintaining a sense of self. 

Mick’s been on the Zoom to America, chatting to author Kiley Reid, whose debut novel, Such a Fun Age, which had race relations as its focal point, was a much-hyped international bestseller longlisted for the Booker Prize. No pressure for the follow-up then, eh? They’re talking money, shame and Come and Get It, Kiley’s sophomore novel, set on a college campus.

There’s more Stateside school time as Jen’s Rated or Dated pick of 1999’s She’s All That, unsurprisingly goes down like a lead balloon. Mmm, lead balloons. Not least with Jen. Still, she’s better news of a football, rugby and boxing nature in Jenny Off the Blocks. 

Plus, there’s a rush of good news (although some is definitely broccoli in disguise) in this week’s Bush Telegraph.

• Laura Smyth will be on tour with brand new show Living My Best Life from April this year, tickets are available from https://laurasmyth.com

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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 Afghanistan with a focus on women, is well-placed to tell our Mick what’s really happening on the ground in Afghanistan. 

Despite the risk to the safety of those involved, since its genesis in August 2022, Zan Times has reported on the rise of child marriage, the impossible choices that women health workers face, the rise of female suicide, femicide and domestic violence, how women journalists continue to fight, and how humanitarian aid is not reaching the most vulnerable, bringing attention to distressing issues that affect women in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. 

Zahra also talks about how letting the Taliban get away with this treatment of women isn’t just bad for women in Afghanistan, it sets a precedent that’s bad for all women. But it’s only women, eh? Maybe that’s why the world seems to have forgotten about this particular, HUGE, human rights issue. 

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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 the Giant Sea Monster, and the final ever episode of Ghosts. Tuck in! 

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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 sustainability don’t have to be at odds.

Jen’s chatting to Eurosport presenter Rachel Stringer about The Cube, early mornings and the runners and riders in this year's Australian Open. 

We’re asking "has it dated?" (we hadn’t noticed) and Hannah’s shouting a big old fuckity fuck at herself for choosing 1994's Four Weddings and a Funeral as this week’s Rated or Dated offering.

And in the Bush Telegraph, the Government is expertly throwing money in a black hole again, as we talk about predictable chaos, problematic policing and preventative medicine.

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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 written about her fascinating life in new book, Promised Party: Kahlo, Basquiat & Me.

In the memoir, Jennifer writes about her upbringing in a bohemian community in 1960s and 70s Mexico City, before moving to New York City as a dancer in the late 70s, and living through the counterculture scene of the 1980s. She chats to tocayo Jen, about her experiences, story-telling, posthumous fame, and the work she’s undertaken as PEN International’s ONLY woman president, to make sure women’s voices are heard, and celebrated.

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