Standard Issue Podcast

Why are fans rioting when they won? Is a degree as worthwhile as it used to be? How badly are some pregnant women treated in maternity wards? Where is London's newest museum? And who has just become one of the highest paid female athletes in the world? This week, Hannah and Jen have all the answers. And yet, somehow, still have more questions.

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Is it a bird, is it a fish, is it a pig, or is it swinging on a star? Turns out, Michael Lehmann’s Bruce Willis vehicle is everything and nothing much at once. But the film that famously blew its budget, bombed at the box office and got savaged by critics is having a renaissance. WHY, ask Mick, Hannah and Jen?

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Fewer and fewer woman now identify as straight. Why? Well that's what Phoebe Maltz Bovy's new book The Last Straight Woman sets out to discover. She chats to Hannah about how trends, empathy for LGBT people, a rejection of gender roles, bad PR for men and porn may all be playing their part. 

You can buy The Last Straight Woman here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-last-straight-woman/phoebe-maltz-bovy/9780771013027

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Over on Instagram, Alex Light is a rare voice of sanity amid the relentless madness that is beauty standards for women and girls. Her new book, The Price of Pretty, examines the crushing beauty standards women are subjected to – and how we can learn to fight back. 

Mick chats to Alex about finding compassion for ourselves and other women in how we navigate these toxic waters, whether we choose to opt in, try to opt out, or just want to see change for the young girls growing up in a system that’s rigged against us.

The Price of Pretty: How toxic beauty standards are bringing women down and how we can fight back is published by HQ and out now. And you can follow Alex on Instagram at @alexlight_ldn.

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Much older men have dated much younger women since time immemorial, but should it feel inappropriate when the younger women in question are over the age of consent, but not yet 18? Dating educator, social worker, and podcaster Lalala Let Me Explain wants to end the “unwise but not illegal” defence used by grown adults entering relationships with young people who are above the age of consent but not yet eligible to vote.

Having joined forces with campaigner Poppy Mason to launch Close the Consent Gap, a campaign aimed at making such relationships illegal, she chats to Jen about it, and the harm that such power imbalances can cause.

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Join us for a little tour of the devolved Governments (where Wales comes out a lot better than Scotland, if we're honest), and for a look at one of the worst rulings in an English court in a long time. Bring a Chris or a talking animal, or indeed anything but a woman over 60.

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Who do we forgive in times of war? Louis de Bernières’ 1994 novel, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, has some suggestions, but are they the same as John Madden’s 2001 imagining of it? Still, never mind the morals, what about the accents? And can Nicolas Cage ever laugh like a normal person?

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Waiting On A Friend, the debut novel of journalist Natalie Adler, is set in the crucible of the early years of the AIDS crisis in New York. Natalie chats to Hannah about what inspired her to write it, a lost generation, and Old "affordable" New York.

* Waiting on a Friend is available to buy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/waiting-on-a-friend/natalie-adler/9781529439052

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Want some TV recommendations? Yeah, you do. This month we're chatting about Legends, Ponies, Widow's Bay and Believe Me, as well as some good and bad news about what's still to come this year, plus what should probably never have been on the telly in the first place. 

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Number 5 is alive! Or is he? This week, Hannah and Jen talk about the family-friendly sci-fi comedy, its inappropriate casting and why the love interests have the same haircut. 

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