The Gurls Talk Podcast

We're back! We're kicking off our fourth season with one of my favorite people, Ziwe! Amidst the LOLs we talk about everything from imposter syndrome to some of my favorite essays in Ziwe's debut book Black Friend.   Ziwe's book of essays Black Friend is out now. It's one of my favorite books of the year, I know you'll enjoy it too.  You can follow @ziwef and you can...

In this episode, I spoke to Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Alessia Cara. Discovered at the tender age of 18, she’s grown up in the spotlight, and shared that journey with her fans through her music – often showing us a perspective far outside the confident, sexy pop-princess norm. Her unique voice and emotional vulnerability gives her lyrics a power; a sense of relatability for anyone who has ev...

When you see Little Simz (or Simbi, as I call her) perform, she gives everything to the crowd. Off stage, she has this incredible composed energy. So, how does she find the balance? We talk about how to manage the energy you expel in your work and what to keep for yourself.   In a recent interview Simbi said, “my career is very important to me but it’s not my life, I’m doing things differently thi...

Few books have taken hold of the Gurls Talk team like Three Women and Animal. The vulnerability of Lisa’s writing inspires uncomfortable conversations, encapsulating everything that Gurls Talk is about, so it’s a dream come true to have her on the podcast.   Lisa writes with such brutal honesty, we get to see the rawness of her protagonists as they struggle through messy, complicated feelings. We...

Trigger warning: This episode covers difficult topics, which some listeners may find upsetting. These areas include rape, sexual assault, and various types of abuse. Please practice good self-care and listen at your own discretion. If you need additional support, please visit our website at www.gurlstalk.com/hotlines   For too long we’ve stayed quiet to the culture that’s normalised and trivialise...

It was a total fangirl moment talking to Elsa, who has got so many of us through lockdown with her videos. Her real, honest, universally relatable, hilarious videos. Saying the things we say in our own heads but never out loud. It’s this energy that has taken the world by storm over the past year. Elsa has a refreshing take on being unashamedly herself, refusing to fit into the mould that’s out th...

It’s easy to spiral from the seemingly smallest things during the pandemic. Life has been really tough for a long time now. But one thing, one huge thing, has helped immeasurably: being sober. And in this episode, Brandon shares his experience of leaning into the AA community and reaching his first year of sobriety. Choosing a life of sobriety, he says, has been the hardest and most gratifying thi...

Remember being squished in a sweaty crowd with thousands of people watching an insanely talented music artist performing on stage? And the artist’s energy, and the crowd’s energy feeding one another, and in that moment, your body’s buzzing with joy – you feel alive. Yeah, us too. For Rosalía, she misses the energy from performing to a large audience, she misses being around people. I think most of...

On this week’s podcast, I catch up with two formidable ladies in the fields of women’s health and sport. Stacy Sims, PhD is an expert in sex differences, and globally acclaimed for her research and TED Talk, ‘Women are Not Small Men’. She’s dedicated the last 20 years to educating women, and men, on the female body, and how it responds differently to athleticism than the male body. Joslyn Thompson...

Fangirling Rupi is an easy thing to do. If not for her raw, intimate poetry, for the way she talks about the power of her friendships and platonic, familial love. It makes talking (and listening) to Rupi feel like you’ve been friends forever. As we ruminate life in lockdown – me in London, Rupi in Toronto – we talk about making sense of our identity in the stillness and being gentle with ourselves...

On this week’s episode, I spoke to the incredible, inspiring Michaela DePrince. The epitome of poise and grace, Michaela is a dancer, author and War Child ambassador. She has overcome tremendous challenges over her lifetime, including grief, war, racism, bullying and more, all in the pursuit of  what she calls ‘her soul’ – her passion for dance. What stands out for me is her unmistakable grit; a b...

Warning: This episode covers difficult topics, which some listeners may find upsetting. These areas include sexual and physical abuse, child sexual abuse, addiction, the death of a child, police brutality and systemic racism. Please practice good self-care and listen at your own discretion. If you need additional support please visit our website at www. Gurlstalk.com/hotlines This week’s episode i...

She’s known as the supermodel turned actress turned writer who’s sick of being put in a box because of how she looks. This episode with @Emrata is a biggie for anyone who’s sick of being told how they should behave, how intellectual they should be, and what they should or shouldn’t have an opinion on. While the world is on fire, my conversation with Emily Ratajkowski gave me a whole lot of love. S...

They say don’t meet your idols. But for this week’s episode I was lucky enough to do just that, and it was completely exhilarating.  Bernardine Evaristo, the acclaimed author of one of my all-time favourite books, Girl, Woman, Other, joined me to chat about everything from her win of the 2019 Booker prize, to understanding her proximity to whiteness, to her work in theatre in the eighties. Bernard...

On this week’s episode, I was lucky enough to speak to Ada Hegerberg, the first woman in history to win Football’s most coveted individual prize, the Ballon d’Or.  Ada’s positivity and sense of perspective is infectious. While discussing her recent ACL injury, she explains how she viewed the healing process as an opportunity for gratitude and mental strength, as well as a chance to understand her...

This week, I’m honoured to introduced the Gurls Talk community to my dear friend, the talented iO Tillett Wright. This autumn, he releases a new book, Self Evident Truths: 10,000 Portraits of Queer America. It documents a 10-year journey across America where he has photographed thousands of people from every walk of life. Centred on the tenet that ‘familiarity is a gateway drug to empathy’ his pic...

The experience of Black girlhood is a difficult one. We are thrust into spaces and organisations that aren’t built for us, that do not understand us and that deny us agency. Few people understand this more than my guests this week. Ebinehita Iyere founded Milk & Honey to create spaces where young Black girls could connect with their feelings and vulnerability at that pivotal point in their liv...

As protests calling for racial justice sweep the globe, people are becoming increasingly aware of the ongoing impact racism has on the mental health of Black communities. However, less attention has been devoted to understanding how this abuse manifests and is exacerbated in online spaces. My guest this week, Seyi Akiwowo, is the founder of Glitch UK, a charity that aims to end online abuse. In th...

If you’re anything like me, then you were in awe of the dedication and focus shown in Netflix’s Cheer. Lexi Brumback ( @lexisbrumback ) was the tumbler with a natural ability to fly through the air like an actual goddess. This episode, Lexi will wow you with her honesty as we enter the world of her teens. After running away from home at 16, Lexi credits cheerleading for turning her life around, co...

Growing up biracial in Britain is something I have in common with this week’s guest. Afua Hirsch and I are both proud of our Ghanaian heritage, but growing up in predominantly white spaces meant we both struggled to express that pride and protect ourselves from the microaggressions of our white peers. This episode explores some deeply personal themes of acceptance and identity, and reflects on the...

Ever since the tragic murder of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and Tony McDade, the Black Lives Matter movement has protested against police brutality and racism in all 50 US states and more than 18 countries (and counting). But activism cannot be achieved without vulnerability and sacrifice, which is exactly what my guest this week epitomises. Janaya Future Khan talks about how their...

I just love episodes like these… where I know I’m going to talk to someone who will change my entire outlook on life. Hollie Arnold is a record breaking, gold medal winning javelin thrower who loves makeup and was born without her right arm. She’s an absolute force of pure joy and she puts it all down to her love for sport and the positive people in her life. We talk about how finding something yo...

The maneater, the glamour model, the sexy one. Well, that’s the role the producers of Love Island put on Megan Barton-Hanson when she was in the villa in 2018. But as we all know, reality TV is a heavily edited version of what really happens, and Megan and I dive into this and how sudden fame affected her mental health. We talk about how women are still being judged against each other in the media...

This is a special one for me as I’ve always wanted to introduce my wonderful mum to the Gurls Talk community. She’s an inspiration to me and many others, not only as my mother, but as one of the mothers of the fashion industry. Her talent agency CLM represents some of the biggest names in the business, and watching her juggle a career and being a parent has taught me so much about what’s possible....

“The worst loneliness is not to be comfortable with yourself.” I read this Mark Twain quote in Lucy Sheridan’s new and utterly brilliant book ‘The Comparison Cure’ and it really resonated with me, because we can all get stuck in a compare and despair space. Lucy’s a great friend of Gurls Talk, and I loved having her back on the podcast as she really is a deity of building up self-worth. We talk ab...