The High Low

It’s Chriiiiiiiistmas! From cracker jokes to festive songs; Yuletide readings and actual Christmas cards from the ACTUAL ye olde mail bag; a host of Christmas surveys unpicked and the ultimate question: should a parent ever tell their kid Father Christmas doesn’t exist? 

Also today, a ton of recs and a quick-fire festive round of Ask The High Low. 

The Pact We Made, by Layla AlAmmar https://www.harpercollins.co.uk/9780008284442/the-pact-we-made/

Hannah Gadsby meets Roxane Gay for The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/dec/08/hannah-gadsby-roxane-gay-in-conversation-body-image-fan-encounters-trolls

Reni Eddo-Lodge on the Blackfishing Phenomenon for British Vogue https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/blackfishing-phenomenon

Aimee Mullins interview in the current issue of PORTER magazine, out now 

Christine Amanpour: Sex and Love Around the World, on Netflix 

The American Meme on Netflix

Jill Soloway Wants It, TBD by Tina Brown https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/tbd-with-tina-brown/id1441327188?mt=2&i=1000424654080

The psychology power of the toys we keep, by Moya Sarner for The Guardian https://theguardian.com/society/2018/dec/12/still-have-childhood-teddy-psychological-power-toys-we-keep

Conversations On Love, by Natasha Lunn https://tinyletter.com/Conversations_on_Love

Nut roast recipe: https://www.redonline.co.uk/food/recipes/a500362/hairy-bikers-spinach-nut-roast-with-wild-mushroom-gravy/

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It was the week of Knickers (the cow too big for the abattoir), a Guardian long-read about poo (much to Dolly’s dismay) and Ada Hegerberg, the Norwegian Ballon d’Or winner who coolly refused to twerk. 

This episode, we discuss the proposed ban of the Christmas song, ‘Baby It’s Cold Out Here’, on account of its supposed coercion (“I really must go”) and connotations of date-rape (“what’s in this drink?”) But, when you dig into the lyrics and read what music historians have to say - it turns out this song was the very opposite. Is this a reminder that a ‘past-present’ translator is mandatory, with cultural artifacts? And Google, when are you making one?

Also on the agenda, abuse against women on social media, as written about by journalists Polly Vernon, in Grazia and Daisy Buchanan, on Twitter. Polly calls every day ‘Righteous Internet Pile-in Day’ where women are “attacked, vilified and lampooned by complete strangers.” Meanwhile, Daisy says “I’m sick of being told to just ignore it. What has become so broken?” We discuss the internet’s empathy deficit and why Amnesty International has declared abuse against women on the internet a violation of human rights.

Mrs Wilson on iPlayer https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b0btk3w3

Babies: Their Wonderful World, on iPlayer https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b0bt7v0j

What Red Was, by Rosie Price, pre-order here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/What-Red-Was-Rosie-Price/dp/1787301389

Bowel Movement - the push to change the way you poo, by Alex Blasdel for The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/nov/30/bowel-movement-change-the-way-you-poo-squatty-potty-toilet

Vanessa Paridis gets uppity with Chrissy Iley, by (um) Chrissy Iley for The Sunday Times Magazine https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-interview-vanessa-paradis-singer-and-johnny-depps-ex-gets-uppity-with-chrissy-iley-6bftjx57w

"I got used to lying. I didn’t want anyone to find out’” -An interview with Mel C, by Simon Hattenstone for The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/dec/01/mel-b-i-got-used-to-lying-i-didnt-want-anyone-to-find-out

My Cook Book Crushes, by Nora Ephron: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/02/13/serial-monogamy 

The Marvellous Mrs Maisel on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B07G9PHJJH 

Nish Kumar on The Adam Buxton Podcast: http://adam-buxton.co.uk/podcasts/ep87-nish-kumar

E-mail: [email protected]

Tweet: @thehighlowshow

If you want to write an IRL letter for Dolly’s ***new IRL ye old mailbag***, please send your wax-sealed correspondence to: Grace O’Leary, Independent Talent Group, 40 Whitfield Street, London, W1T 2RH

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We're back at Google's Curiosity Rooms to celebrate the launch of their Google Pixel 3 phone and we're still not over Baby Shark. On the agenda today: the zeitgeisty new buzz-phrase 'emotional labour'. What does it mean and are we using it correctly? We also discuss Sarah Michelle Gellar's thanksgiving gaffe, after she shared a pic of her in her underwear, as a 'warning' not to over-eat at Thanksgiving. Do women in the public eye hold responsibility for how we feel about their bodies? Plus, how incels are using sex robots; a powerful piece of 'ethical-dilemma' fiction about abortion; and our guardian angel Tina Brown's new podcast. 

Russell Brand on Happy Place, by Fearne Cotton https://www.acast.com/happy-place/russell-brand

A Spark of Light, by Jodi Picoult https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Jodi-Picoult/A-Spark-of-Light--from-the-author-everyone-should-be-reading/22391565

The Reddit sex robot forums radicalising men, by Jade Angeles Fitton for New Statesman https://www.newstatesman.com/2018/11/no-bio-wife-will-ever-be-loyal-reddit-sex-robot-forums-radicalising-men

Joni Mitchell Taught Me How To Feel: 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00019d9

TBD with Tina Brown 

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/tbd-with-tina-brown/id1441327188?mt=2&i=1000424654080 

On Margate Sands by Octavia Bright: 

http://somesuchstories.co/story/on-margate-sands

Just Eat It by Laura Thomas: 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Just-Eat-intuitive-eating-together/dp/1509893911

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The Baby Shark ear-worm; Joanna Lumley saying the word 'waz'; and the Chinese man who got so drunk on Black Friday (aka Single's Day in China) he bought a salamander and a tiny Thai pig. Oh, it's a good week at The High Low.

Today we discuss M&S's Christmas display - a woman in red lace underwear next to a man in a suit - which one Twitter user gone viral called "vomit-inducing." Is it? We also discuss John Allen Chau, the American missionary killed by the isolated Sentinelese tribe and Lena Dunham's extraordinarily revealing interview for New York Magazine.

E-mail [email protected]

Tweet @thehighlowshow

Budget Christmas ad goes viral https://www.thedrum.com/news/2018/11/26/budget-love-gift-christmas-ad-goes-viral

Little Mix: these issues of body shaming needed exposure, by Gaby Hinsliff for The Observer https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/23/little-mix-body-shaming-piers-morgan-naked-strip

Meet the traumatised Asian men who are trapped in forced marriages, by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown for The Sunday Times magazine https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/meet-the-traumatised-asian-men-who-are-trapped-in-forced-marriages-9n2cl5tsr

It melts plastic and can kill - so why is club drug GHB on the rise? By Alexandra Jones for The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/nov/24/club-drug-ghb-melts-plastic-kill

Ayiti, by Roxane Gay https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Roxane-Gay/Ayiti/21948009

Lena Dunham Comes To Terms With Herself, by Allison P. Davis https://www.thecut.com/2018/11/lena-dunham-comes-to-terms-with-herself.html#comments 

Amy Schumer on The Armchair Expert: https://armchairexpertpod.com/pods/amy-schumer 

Brian May on Fresh Air: https://www.npr.org/2018/11/09/666197208/queen-guitarist-brian-may-on-writing-anthems-and-studying-astrophysics 

Bougie London Literary Woman on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BougieLitWoman 

Bougie London Literary Woman interviewed for Vice: https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/59v9yq/a-bewitching-interview-with-bougie-london-literary-woman 

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It was the week of the BBC's 100 Women of the Year list, Hockney's record-breaking art sale and the story of Deke Duncan, a radio jockey playing to an audience of one (Dolly's spirit animal.)

On today's agenda, the 'cleanfluencer' phenomenon, Mrs Hinch - who has over 1.3 million IG followers and shares videos of herself cleaning. Why DO people go so potty for her? Does she offer an ordered escape from a terrifyingly messy world?

And we discuss Lolly Adefope's wry joke about a whitewashed comedy line-up - which escalated into a perceived 'race row' and saw Lolly cast in the role of 'Angry Black Woman.' Why is calm and valid criticism so hard for us to accept? And what does it say about diversity - or rather, the continued lack of it?

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Links

Mother Ship, by Francesca Segal https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1116702/mother-ship/9781784742690.html

Why Are Young People Having So Little Sex? By Katie Julian for The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/12/the-sex-recession/573949/

Popular, by Mitch Prinstein https://www.amazon.co.uk/Popular-Finding-Happiness-Success-Relationships/dp/039956375X

BBC's 100 Women list of 2018 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-46225037

Tara Westover on How To Fail, with Elizabeth Day https://www.acast.com/how-to-fail1/how-to-fail-tara-westover

When Michelle Met Oprah - Dec issue of ELLE UK https://www.elle.com/uk/life-and-culture/a25007149/michelle-obama-is-still-optimistic/

Could The Palm Oil Boycott Increase Deforestation?: https://theconversation.com/palm-oil-boycott-could-actually-increase-deforestation-sustainable-products-are-the-solution-106733

Why Young Men Need More Pornography, by Eva Wiseman: https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/young-men-pornography

India Knight on Sex Education for Girls: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/india-knight-mp-jess-phillips-sex-ed-must-change-help-girls-take-ownership-bodies-97c96k5n7 

Homecoming on Amazon Prime: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/video/detail/B07FP41Z59

Lena Dunham on Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard: https://armchairexpertpod.com/pods/lena-dunham

Elizabeth Gilbert on The Ted Interview: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/elizabeth-gilbert-shows-up-for-everything/id1437306870?i=1000421929243&mt=2 

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It's World Kindness Day & Dolly has a beautiful poem to kick us off, whilst Pandora has a new Spotify suggestion for everyone who went nutty for French Chill. 

46% of men remove their body hair, up from 36% in 2017. Is it the fusion of porn culture and pop culture?

Plus we discuss Collins dictionary's word of the year - 'single-use.' What were the other contenders? Are you a plogger? 

Lastly, Iceland's Christmas ad, banned for being political, after the supermarket re-branded a Greenpeace advert warning against the dangers of palm oil.

E-mail: [email protected]

Tweet: @thehighlowshow

Good Morning Jazz on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/user/spotify/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX71VcjjnyaBQ?si=fPT3z_VuSti-bZBSfccYPQ

Like Women, Men Are Now Suffering in Their Pursuit of the 'Perfect Body', by Barbara Ellen for The Observer https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/11/men-suffer-as-much-as-women-in-their-pursuit-of-the-perfect-body

Victoria's Secret is Trying to Change With The Times. Or is it? By Vanessa Friedman for The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/09/fashion/victorias-secret-liberation-in-corsets-and-spike-heels.html

Nick Cave on grief, for The Red Hand Files https://www.theredhandfiles.com/communication-dream-feeling/

Yes I Have White Parents. But I Have African Ancestry Too, by Anthony Ekundayo Lennon for The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/10/white-parents-african-ancestry-anthony-ekundayo-lennon

Anthony Ekundayo Lennon and The Left's Dilemma About Race, by Toby Young for The Spectator https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p06lh7gk/informer-series-1-1-no-sleep-till-brooklyn

The Informer https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p06lh7gk/informer-series-1-1-no-sleep-till-brooklyn

The Sinner Season 2 https://www.netflix.com/title/80175802

To The Woman Crying Uncontrollably In TheNext Stall, by Kim Addonizio http://diodepoetry.com/v9n1/content/addonizio_k.html 

Barneys, Books, and Bust-ups: 50 Years of The Booker Prize https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bntjf6 

Sally4ever on Now TV https://www.nowtv.com/gb/watch/sally4ever/iYEQZ2rcf32XP8H8XCTxU5 

The Adam Buxton Podcast https://www.acast.com/adambuxton

Petition to release Iceland's banned Christmas advert on TV 

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From Prince George memes (@garyjanetti) to vegan abuse (last week journalist William Sitwell was sacked from the Waitrose Food magazine, for his jokes about killing vegans) via the healthiest/ unhealthiest high streets in the UK, as voted by The Royal Society of Public Health. Edinburgh won, Grimsby lost, and you’ll have to listen to the podcast to find out why. 

Today we have author Olivia Sudjic on the show to discuss her new essay, Exposure, about the anxiety that threatened to engulf her after her debut novel, Sympathy, became a literary success. Part literary criticism, drawing on some of her favourite works by female authors, Sudjic’s intelligent, sharp, thoughtful and deeply confronting essay discusses not just anxiety but all of its merry cohorts: insomnia, self-surveillance, self-loathing, sabotage, imposter syndrome and the gender imbalance when it comes to critiquing women’s fiction (as Roxane Gay points out, Knausgård is never called a ‘diarist‘.) Sudjic discusses what it means to be a published author, divorcing yourself from your art and why anxiety, when correctly managed, can be a positive force: a galvanizing ‘self-awareness’ which keeps you writing. 

According to The World Health Organisation (2017) over 260 million people worldwide suffer from an anxiety disorder; it affects almost twice as many women as men. Oft considered a modern epidemic, the subject is something we’ve long deliberated about covering on The High Low, but have never had the nerve. We hope the conversation proves as valuable to others, as much as it did us. 

Please do note that nothing discussed in today’s episode constitutes advice from a healthcare professional. If you think you might be suffering from anxiety, or an anxiety disorder, please do contact your local GP, or visit mind.org.uk and anxietyuk.org.uk to get the help and support you need. 

The Little Drummer Girl https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bqs366

Informer https://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=informer

There She Goes (all BBC iPlayer) https://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=there+she+goes&sa_f=search-product&scope=

The Good Place on Netflix https://www.netflix.com/title/80113701

A Love Story for Bewildered Girls, by Emma Morgan (February 2019, pre-order now) https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/309/309817/a-love-story-for-bewildered-girls/9780241357767.html

Zoe Williams on William Sitwell's resignation: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/31/waitrose-editor-quits-vegan 

You're Booked with Daisy Buchanan: https://www.acast.com/booked 

Sheridan Smith interviewed for The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/nov/03/sheridan-smith-fell-apart-lost-my-mind-tom-lamont 

Morwenna Ferrier on the fashion in Killing Eve: 

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Since we’ve been gone, Apple has added cream cheese to its emoji bagel after furious complaints (we discuss what we have on OUR bagels and spoiler alert: it’s not cream cheese, Apple); Urban Outfitters has produced an “influencer’ Halloween costume of crop top and leggings; and, of course, a new scandal which features a megalomaniac at its centre, has broken: Arcadia chairman, Philip Green, has been accused of sexual and racial harassment after peer Lord Hain exercised his parliamentary immunity (where injunctions do not apply) to name him as the anonymous retail boss who allegedly paid off employees. We discuss the difference between the injunction and the NDA and what constitutes ‘in the public interest.’

E-mail [email protected]

Tweet @thehighlowshow 

Tuesdays with Morrie, by Mitch Albom

https://www.hive.co.uk/Search/Keyword?keyword=Tuesdays%20with%20morrie%20&productType=0

Seven Days of Us, by Francesca Hornak

https://www.hive.co.uk/Search/Keyword?keyword=Seven%20Days%20of%20Us&productType=0

Rituals For Everyday, by Nadia Narain and Katia Narain Phillips (pre-order) https://www.hive.co.uk/Search/Keyword?keyword=Rituals%20for%20Every%20Day&productType=0

Late In The Day, by Tessa Hadley (pre-order)

https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Tessa-Hadley/Late-in-the-Day/22991701

A Keeper, by Graham Norton

https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Graham-Norton/A-Keeper/22246134

The class of 1946-2018: Twenty-seven school-shooting survivors bear their scars, and bear witness, as told to Jared Soule and Amelia Schonbek, with a portfolio shot by Michael Avedon for New York magazine

https://www.nymag.com/intelligencer/amp/2018/10/school-shooting-survivors.html

What is camp now? By Charlie Porter, for The Financial Times

https://www.ft.com/content/175c0956-cc99-11e8-8d0b-a6539b949662

Why it’s okay to cut off family members, by Sali Hughes, for The Pool 

https://www.the-pool.com/news-views/opinion/2018/42/Meghan-Markle-estranged-family-Sali-Hughes

Busy Phillips on WTF: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-959-busy-philipps 

Richard E Grant on WTF: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-960-richard-e-grant-brian-posehn 

Roisin Meets Richard E Grant: https://soundcloud.com/irishtimes-lifestyle/richard-e-grant

With Nails by Richard E Grant: 

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By the time she died in Syria, in 2012, Marie Colvin was one of the world’s most renowned and courageous war correspondents. Recognised for her trademark eye patch - the consequence of a grenade in Sri Lanka, in 2001 - and revered as a journalist, with a 25 year tenure at The Sunday Times, Marie Colvin had a personal life as tumultuous as the war zones she covered. With the help of 300 of Marie’s journals, her friend and colleague, Channel 4’s International Editor, Lindsey Hilsum, has written a funny, frank and moving biography, In Extremis: The Life of War Correspondent Marie Colvin, where she separates the myth from the woman: as brave as she is glamorous; as fierce as she is vulnerable. Ahead of the release of A Private War - a film of Marie’s life, with Rosamund Pike as Marie and Jamie Dornan as photographer, Paul Conroy - we talk to Lindsey about her friendship with Marie, the reality of being a war correspondent and how you keep mentally strong and sane, the bad news cycle, social media and MeToo. 

Pre-order In Extremis, by Lindsey Hilsum (published 11th November by Penguin) here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1111214/in-extremis/9781784740931.html

Dopesick, by Beth Macy https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Beth-Macy/Dopesick--Dealers-Doctors-and-the-Drug-Company-that-Addicted-America/22704243

Tom Daley’s Desert Island Discs https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0blhfpj

Witness for the Prosecution, an Agatha Christie play on London’s Southbank https://www.southbanklondon.com/Witness-for-the-Prosecution

How Goop’s haters made Gwyneth Paltrow’s Company worth $250 million - by Taffy Brodesser-Akner for The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/25/magazine/big-business-gwyneth-paltrow-wellness.html

Recommended apps: 

Deliveries: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/deliveries-a-package-tracker/id290986013?mt=8

Gone For Good: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/gone-for-good/id1055619157?mt=8

Treatwell: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/treatwell-nails-hair-wax/id814443140?mt=8

Taskrabbit: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/taskrabbit-chores-done-today/id374165361?mt=8

Blythe Danner on The Goop Podcast: 

https://goop.com/work/parenthood/gwyneth-x-blythe-on-mothers-and-daughters/

Simon Cowell on Desert Island Discs: 

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/desert-island-discs-archive-2005-2011/id435713614?mt=2&i=1000368646169

Sara Pascoe on theatre: 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=enoj6OK9j0U

Information on Lips choir: 

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Everyone’s talking about Kanye’s nutty meeting with Trump in The Oval Office last week; whilst Melania, in her most frank televised interview yet, described herself as the most bullied person in the world. Meanwhile, Fendi has made a £750 scarf which looks like a vulva (transcendental experience of being ‘born again’ presumably baked in to the price), the Duchess of Sussex is having a baby and we discuss the juiciest tidbits of the 850-guest royal wedding that we both, accidentally, got really quite into. 

Also this week we discuss why 1/3 of Gen Z don’t drink (and interview two Gen Z authors Scarlett Curtis and Charly Cox about their differing attitudes to alcohol) and some brilliant pieces of journalism this weekend by Josh Glancy and Max Hastings, that discuss how feelings have trumped rational thought. Is The Enlightenment’s 300-year intellectual tenure under threat? And what are the dangers of placing heart and gut above facts and mind? 

E-mail [email protected]

Tweet @thehighlowshow 

Links

It’s time to do away with the gay best friend, by Philip Ellis for Man Repeller https://www.manrepeller.com/2018/10/gay-best-friend-stereotype.html

I’ll Be There For You, by Kelsey Miller https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Kelsey-Miller/Ill-Be-There-For-You/22458067

Motherhood, by Sheila Heti https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Sheila-Heti/Motherhood/22325906

The xx, by Angela Chadwick https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Angela-Chadwick/XX/22437212

Christene Barberich interviews Hanya Yanaghihara for Refinery29’s UnStyled podcast https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/hanya-yanagihara-on-making-your-mark-in-brave-new-media/id1171140955?i=1000421309939&mt=2

@brian_bilston on Instagram for poetry 

How have we let feelings obscure rational debate, by Josh Glancy’s column for The Sunday Times magazine https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/josh-glancy-brett-kavanaugh-case-has-ignited-online-fury-like-never-before-how-have-we-let-feelings-obscure-rational-debate-6nq6h6hpq

We’re in a dark age where hearts rule minds, by Max Hastings for The Times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/we-re-in-a-dark-age-where-hearts-rule-minds-5p7gl6g5q

For millennials, thinking and emotions are equals — more or less, by Karl Moore https://www.forbes.com/sites/karlmoore/2017/06/26/for-millennials-thinking-and-emotions-are-equals-more-or-less/amp/

Sophie Wilkinson on Cara Delevigne for Grazia: 

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