The High Low

The chicken nugget Reddit scandal and our favourite polls from the week including what is no longer selling in shops (drones and suspenders) and what not to say on a date.

And of course, it's the Wagatha Christie scandal. Coleen Rooney masked as Poirot outed fellow WAG Rebekah Vardy as the person she believed to be leaking false stories about her to the tabloids. Coleen social's media post went viral and soon Netflix were wondering if they should launch a series about it, Keira Knightley offered to play Coleen, and Paul Rudd just looked baffled. How and why did this story gather such extraordinary reach? Is it anything to do with feminism? What does it say about the way celebrities now use social media? And our perception of WAGs? And DID SHE DO IT?

The High Low is now on tour - thank you to everyone who came to the Barbican on the 12th, see some more of you in Dublin on the 20th!

E-mail [email protected]

Tweet@thehighlowshow

Links

Ronan Farrow interview, by Emma Brockes for The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/oct/15/ronan-farrow-book-harvey-weinstein-measures-bury-alleged-crimes

Paloma Faith interview, by Helena de Bertadano for The Sunday Times magazine https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/paloma-faith-interview-gender-parenting-zwdslqq8p

Abbey Clancy interview, by Sophie Heawood for YOU magazine https://www.you.co.uk/abbey-clancy-interview-2019/

Peter Crouch extract from his book, I, Robot, How To Be A Footballer 2 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/peter-crouch-extract-from-i-robot-how-to-be-a-footballer-2-w0h7xvjlz

Mim Skinner on being an orphan by the age of 30, for The Sunday Times Style https://www.thetimes.co.uk/magazine/style/how-being-orphaned-before-30-brought-me-closer-to-my-sisters-and-led-us-to-form-a-new-normal-3jfjwrbj5

The Capture, on BBC iPlayer https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m00085sx/the-capture

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It's a big week for the food chains: Pizza Express - every millennial's favourite nostalgic restaurant - is in chronic debt; and Rory Stewart has pledged allegiance to Pret. We talk loos and why women spend 2.3 times as long in the loo as men, the return of our favourite podcast, Dear Joan and Jericha, Jason Donovan's turn as a fire fighter and Rod Stewart's heroic move, after a couple's wedding was scuppered by the Thomas Cook crash. 

Also today, Prince Harry's letter to the tabloids and Meghan's lawsuit against The Mail on Sunday, about the paparazzi bullying of his wife, Meghan (and the leaking of Thomas Markle's letter) which he compares to the plight of his mother, Princess Diana and calls, "history repeating itself". The royal biographers are muttering into their bone china tea cups, but is his voluble emotion - and fury - justified, or will it prove counter-productive?

And Dolly has found a poll about politeness. Do British people spend more money on being polite? 

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Links

Patrick Jephson on Prince Harry's war on the media, for The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/oct/05/i-was-by-dianas-side-in-her-press-battles-meghan-harry-patrick-jephson 

Annie Lord on break-ups for Vice https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/a35nw8/getting-over-a-long-term-relationship-break-up

Shelf Respect, by Annie Austen

Olive, Again, by Elizabeth Strout

Dear Joan and Jericha, Series 2 https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/dear-joan-and-jericha-julia-davis-and-vicki-pepperdine/id1376577916

Liam Gallagher's 73 Questions for American Vogue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBWHXDzWrw4

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Greta Thunberg gave an emotional speech at the UN Climate Summit in NYC, Sally Challen did her first video interview about emotional abuse and coercive control to Sky News since she was cleared of murdering her husband in July and Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry became Dolly's new hero after her vibey turn at the Labour party conference. 

In shocking news, the inventor of the labradoodle has admitted that he regrets creating the hybrid dog and Demi Moore has released a sizzling autobiography about her marriage to Ashton Kutcher. 

This week we have an author special with Amrou Al-Kadhi. The Iraqi-Brit drag queen known as Glamrou of the drag troupe Denim, they are the author of a new coming-of-age memoir, Unicorn, about navigating a queer identity within a religion that considers homosexuality a crime. They talk about intersectionality, family, the act of transforming pain into pleasure via drag, discovering Sufism and seeking acceptance.

The High Low Experience starts next week - and while London, Dublin and Glasgow are sold out, we have a few tickets left for the Manchester show! Go to faneproductions.com/highlow to book.

E-mail [email protected]

Tweet @thehighlowshow 

Links

Unicorn, by Amrou Al-Kadhi https://www.waterstones.com/book/unicorn/amrou-al-kadhi/9780008306069

The Opposite of Loneliness, by Marina Keegan

In praise of autumn dawns by Nell Frizzell: 

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/commentisfree/2019/sep/23/in-praise-of-autumn-dawns-a-slice-of-magic-before-the-winter-hell

An Unbelievable Story of Rape, by T.Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong, for ProPublica, 2015 https://www.propublica.org/article/false-rape-accusations-an-unbelievable-story

Unbelievable, on Netflix

The Rewatchables podcast series https://www.theringer.com/the-rewatchables

The Open Ears Project with Eddie Izzard: 

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/17-on-elevation/id1477850699?i=1000451298008

The Open Ears Project with Aminatou Sow: 

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-open-ears-project/id1477850699?i=1000449737238

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It’s a riot of celebrity news this week: Madonna, J-Lo and Brad n Leo’s sarnie dates. Whole gang’s here. Plus: Mark Ronson’s sapiosexuality, Fleabag’s Emmy sweep, Thomas Cook’s crash and Justin Trudeau’s blackface scandal.

Also this week: we discuss male vs female vanity (klaxon: men look in the mirror more than women) and Debrett’s etiquette guide for Facebook messenger. What does this (slightly hilarious) meeting of minds tell us about how desperately we need digital etiquette? We discuss online communication in the age of the constant feedback loop. 

We’re going on tour and we want your stories! Send us your best yarns - funny, moving, shocking, riveting - to the e-mail address below.

And for those of you who still want tickets to The High Low Experience - there are a few left for our Manchester show: www.faneproductions.com/our-shows/the-high-low-experience

E-mail [email protected]

Tweet @thehighlowshow 

Links

Talking To Strangers, by Malcolm Gladwell

State of the Union, on BBC iPlayer

The Red Hand Files: How Long Will I Be Alone: https://www.theredhandfiles.com/how-long-will-i-be-alone/

On The Psychological Effect Of Living With Houseplants by Stephanie Bishop: https://www.lrb.co.uk/v41/n18/stephanie-bishop/on-the-psychological-effect-of-living-with-houseplants

Why Back To Black is The Best Album of The 21st Century by Alexis Petridis: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/sep/13/best-album-21st-century-amy-winehouse-back-to-black

Juno Dawson on The Beauty Podcast with Sali Hughes https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/transition-and-the-power-of-beauty-with-juno-dawson/id1473108312?i=1000448498677

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It's always good to start with a jolly, and this time we've found a woman who wore a dinosaur costume to her sister's wedding. Also today, we play a clip from Chanel Miller, the "Emily Doe" of the Brock Turner sexual assault case, whose memoir is soon to be published, and discuss the shocking news that domestic abuse is at a 5-year high in the UK. 

This week Pandora has devoured She Said, the book by the Pulitzer prizewinning journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey who broke the Harvey Weinstein story, followed by that of Christine Blasey Ford. We discuss their impact on MeToo, *that* leaked Lisa Bloom memo and their thoughts on the Believe All Women hashtag.

We also discuss Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Tarantino's fictional re-telling of the Manson murders and the personal essay that 'broke' the internet: by the Instagram ghost-writer, Natalie Beach, which we received an unprecedented amount of requests to cover. What does the enthusiasm for this story - it was in the UK's top 5 tweets - tell us about female friendship, schadenfreude and emotional exposure in the internet age?

ALSO: WE NEED YOUR STORIES! As part of The High Low Experience, we want to include your best stories: your funniest, saddest, weirdest, most shocking, interesting, moving - stories that have been passed down/ along through friends, family, the pub. Please e-mail: [email protected]. Send us your best yarns.

Recommendations

She Said, by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey

Know My Name, by Chanel Miller (out Sept 24th)

The White Album by Joan Didion 

Bolder by Helen Cathcart and Dominique Afacan

The story of Caroline Calloway and her ghost writer, Natalie Beach, for The Cut https://bit.ly/2mbLY3j  

The complicated ethics of publishing personal essays online, by Micha Frazer-Carroll for gal-dem https://bit.ly/2kmG9iR  

The con-artist and her mark, by Sarah Ditum for The Guardian https://bit.ly/2m1gRXN  

An interview with Natalie Beach, by Jonah Engel Bromwich for The New York Times https://nyti.ms/2kj2k9E  

The pain of clearing out my parents' house, by Janice Turner for The Times https://bit.ly/2kjnK6q  

Interview with Kantor and Twohey on NPR's Fresh Air https://n.pr/2kD2icN  

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Dolly's found an emotional support horse called Flirty; Pandora is in love with a Twitter thread about what it was really like to work in HMV. And - gird your loins - Thatcher Wine has done his FIRST INTERVIEW. It's predictably surreal.

Today we host comedian Jen Brister, the author of The Other Mother, published by Square Peg at Penguin Random House, about same sex relationships and being not the biological mother to her twin boys, but "the other one". We talk parenthood, partnership and the pressure of having to come out all over again, as a gay mother.

E-mail [email protected]

Tweet @thehighlowshow

Links

The Other Mother, by Jen Brister https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1116917/the-other-mother/9781910931967

The Testaments, by Margaret Atwood https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-testaments/9781784742324

Thatcher Wine interview by Hilary Reid for The Cut https://www.thecut.com/2019/09/thatcher-wine-juniper-books.html

Anthony Ekundayo Lennon interview on being accused of 'passing' as a black man, by Simon Hattenstone for The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/07/anthony-lennon-theatre-director-accused-of-passing-as-black-interview-simon-hattenstone

Three Vicars Talking https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0007qb0

Donna Schaper on Here’s The Thing https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/heres-the-thing-with-alec-baldwin/id472939437?i=1000447319326

MUNA https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mGkMQc308wY

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Hello High Lowers! Sharpen your pencils, the heat wave is over and a new school term is upon us. We cover some of the news stories of the summer plus our favourite bonkers surveys, including a shockingly disgusting underpants poll and the best place to find love (Oxford, apparently). Plus, it's Pandora's favourite prize of the year - no, not the Pulitzer, not even the Nobel - it's Rear of the Year.

Reccs

Euphoria on Sky

Game Face on Channel 4

Scarlett Curtis on Russell Brand’s Under The Skin

Giles Coren on novel acknowledgements 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/pretentious-bores-make-me-want-to-burn-every-book-7lh5cv8cn

Indistractable, by Nir Eyal

Cribsheet, by Emily Ostler

We Need New Stories, by Nesrine Malik

Such A Fun Age, by Kiley Reid

The Most Fun We Ever Had, by Claire Lombardo

Twas The Night Before Christmas, by Adam Kay

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong

Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout

Expectations, by Anna Hope

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris 

Calypso by David Sedaris 

Theft by Luke Brown

The New Me by Halle Butler 

The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy 

All At Sea by Decca Aikenhead 

The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer 

The Confession by Jessie Burton

E-mail [email protected]

Tweet @thehighlowshow

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Have you survived the heat wave? HAVE YOU? This week, Dolly discovers a woman who loves a chandelier, Jared O’Mara resigns after assault charges and his press chief sensationally quit via Jared’s own Twitter, and justice is served as the 4 teenagers who assaulted Melania Geymonat and Chris, in May, are charged. Plus a clip from the archive of Kate Moss and Johnny Depp’s arsecrack. It’ll make sense when you hear it. (God bless the 90s.) 

We discuss Leader of the House of Commons’ Jacob Rees-Mogg’s antiquated style guide (banning the use of ‘very’, ‘lot’, commas after ‘and’ and, (see what we did there?) er, ‘got’) and the practicalities of a life led in Esq. We also discuss how young people get their news and the pros and cons to less television. 

The High Low is now on a break for August and will be back in September!

E-mail [email protected]

Tweet @thehighlowshow 

Buy tickets to our Manchester show of The High Low Experience at www.faneproductions.com/highlow

Links

Taffy Brodesser-Akner on thriving under stress, for Real Simple https://www.realsimple.com/work-life/life-strategies/taffy-brodesser-akner-stress-tips

Elizabeth Day on other people’s kids, for Mail on Sunday’s YOU magazine https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-7261445/amp/Elizabeth-Day-peoples-kids-really-to.html

Lena Dunham on Love Island and heartbreak, for The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/jul/27/lena-dunham-love-island-can-you-love-after-hurt

We’re all content providers now, by Lou Stoppard for The Financial Times https://www.ft.com/content/f4d47bf6-e1ac-11e8-a8a0-99b2e340ffeb

My Name Is Lucy Barton, by Elizabeth Strout

Midnight Chicken by Ella Risbridger Midnight Chicken: & Other Recipes Worth Living For https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1408867761/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_Lw8pDb7JPW1QG

This American Life: Rom Com 

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/638/rom-com

This American Life: Americans In Paris 

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/165/americans-in-paris

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Ding dong the BoJo's in. Duuuuuude. 

This week: curry seagull; the controversial Cats trailer; and why Ireland's 8th amendment might have been repealed - but is far from what has been legally mandated.

And on today’s agenda, we delve into Instagram's proposed removal of the 'like' counter, which is being trialled in countries including Japan and Australia. Will this change social media for the better? Will it eradicate 'comparisonitus', a flimsiness of self constructed on dopamine hits, and the homogeneity of 'basic' culture? And what is the future for influencer culture? Dolly and I discuss, with reference to our own complicity in this personal profit model.

We also tackle our growing obsession with the processes and routines of people we admire. From beauty to work to sleep to exercise, we are obsessed with the schedules of other people. But what does that say about the way we live our lives? Is it an attempt to shrug off our own lives and co-opt what we perceive to be a happier, more optimised one?

If you would like to come and see The High Low live in action, there are a few tickets left to our Manchester show. Book here! www.faneproductions/com/highlow

E-mail [email protected]

Tweet @thehighlowshow 

Links

Kate Kellaway interviews Lemn Sissay for The Guardian, 2016 https://bit.ly/2bs5oGL  

Frank Sinatra Has Got A Cold, by Gay Talese for Esquire, 1966 https://bit.ly/2uLGEqS  

Profile of Zadie Smith in The Telegraph, 2002 https://bit.ly/2JV4ftK

'Police officers demanded to see my books' by Elif Shafak for The Guardian https://bit.ly/2Y63aZ8  

Is Instagram's removal of its 'like' counter a turning point in social media? https://bit.ly/2Y220yI  

Megan Nolan on her teenage relationships with older men for The New Statesman: https://bit.ly/2McXEhb  

Caitlin Moran on not slut-shaming daughters: https://bit.ly/2YnjLrt  

Why are we obsessed with other people's daily habits? by Suzannah Showler: https://bit.ly/32OVIkP  

Less by Andrew Sean Greer 

So Lucky, by Dawn O'Porter, pre-order now

10 Minutes 38 Seconds In This Strange World, by Elif Shafak

Have You Heard George's Podcast? By George Mpanga https://apple.co/2PieAST  

Zadie Smith interview on the Touré Show https://bit.ly/2M9mDBM  

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Westminster rules in favour of gay marriage and abortion rights in Northern Ireland, former EDL leader Tommy Robinson is sentenced to 9 months in prison (and banned from YouTube), a man dressed in a gimp suit terrorises the people of Somerset, and a love letter from Tupac to Madonna is expected to fetch $300,000 at auction. Plus, how do YOU feel about Matt Hancock's plan to link up Alexa and the NHS? (Spoiler alert: Dolly doesn't like robots.)

Today we have the man who has sold 8 million books, who possesses the most delicious voice you've ever heard (it even beats Philippe Sands), the one and only David Nicholls, on the show. The screenwriter of multiple hits such as Great Expectations and Patrick Melrose and the best-selling author of Starter for 10, The Understudy, One Day and Us, he is back with a new novel, Sweet Sorrow, about a teenage summer romance in the 80s. We talk about teenage love, parenting and being parented, writing, anxiety in the internet age and that twist in One Day. 

E-mail [email protected]

Tweet @thehighlowshow 

Links

Pre-order Dolly's novel, Ghosts, here! https://www.waterstones.com/book/ghosts/dolly-alderton/9781785177255

Sweet Sorrow, by David Nicholls https://www.waterstones.com/book/sweet-sorrow/david-nicholls/9781529393088

Sweet Home, by Wendy Erskine https://www.waterstones.com/book/sweet-home/wendy-erskine/9781906539726

My Name Is Why, by Lemn Sissay https://www.waterstones.com/book/my-name-is-why/lemn-sissay/9781786892348

The Lingering of Loss, by Jill Lepore for The New Yorker https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/07/08/the-lingering-of-loss

Kids Don't Damage Women's Careers - Men Do, by Jessica Valenti for Medium's GEN https://gen.medium.com/kids-dont-damage-women-s-careers-men-do-eb07cba689b8

David Szalay on All That Man Is, for BBC Radio 4's Bookclub https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0005mg6

Lemn Sissay on Radio 4 Desert Island Discs https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06gthsz

The Adam Buxton Podcast: episode 100 http://adam-buxton.co.uk/podcasts/ep100-joe-cornish-louis-theroux

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