SWP8: Mary Anne Hobbs and her spectacular 80s hair

In this month's Sound Women podcast:

• Mary Anne Hobbs sits down with her BBC 6 Music Kate Cocker to mull over their working relationship, just as Kate leaves for a new job at Key 103. They discuss dubstep, women's magazines, being saved by John Peel, looking like Nikki Sixx, poached eggs, and why it's alright to admit you don't know what you're doing. Incidentally, if you've never heard Mary Anne talking about her childhood's illicit music-listening and running away with a band, this interview is well worth your reading-time.

• Lorna Skingley and Sarah Louie Harrison of Smooth Operations talk about their 50-part Radio 2 series The People's Songs, a social history of post-war Britain via fifty popular songs. The series is still available to listen to on the BBC website, so get stuck in.

• Karen Pearson talks to Ruth Barnes about setting up her indie Folded Wing, creating new platforms, getting commissions, nurturing presenters and becoming a Big Deal despite (or thanks to?) not having a plan.

On the members' only page of the Sound Women website, there's also a bonus bit of podcast, in which Mary Anne and Kate consider the power of silence in radio. It's not just them sitting in silence. I assure you they do speak.

If you'd like to be on the Sound Women podcast, get in touch: tweet @soundwomen or email [email protected]. The next podcast will appear on 1st February 2014, so please do return then!

Helen Zaltzman

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