Strong Tea

This Quick Brew tackles a really tricky, but relevant, topic. We explore the pandora’s box that is cancel culture.    Cancel culture is the mass withdrawal of support from public figures or celebrities who have done things that aren't socially accepted today.   This practice of "cancelling" or mass shaming often occurs on social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. We have seen...

You know when you meet someone who just kicks the butt out of being awesome?   Get ready to meet Kaddy, faced with challenging adversity throughout her life, she’s remained strong and positive and has become a force to be reckoned with.   Listen to Kaddy’s story as she tells it from the perspective of a mother, a full-time care giver and advocate for carers everywhere.   Kaddy is the Founder and D...

Time for another Tea Break!   2023 has been so busy for us already, we wanted to take five, grab a cuppa and take stock.   This mini episode sees us chat what's been released this year so far, what topics and guests are coming up for Strong Tea, some highlights and some of the juicy content we want to get into for Quick Brews, all this AND what the best dunking biscuit is. What more could you want...

The book, Don’t Forget To Scream : Untold Truths About Motherhood speaks for itself when it comes to reviews: To describe this book as honest, brave, empathetic and powerful doesn't do it justice – it is all these things in abundance, but also funny and beautiful Adam Kay   Don’t Forget To Scream is a stunning, urgent, feminist masterpiece. Many of the essays brought me to tears, and I had to give...

Katie & Vikki are back again with a follow up to the extremely popular and heated episode discussing Euthanasia, released on February 17th 2023. This time we are joined by the wonderful Dr Tom Petrie. At the time of recording, Tom is in his final few weeks of medical training at Leicester University. Tom has a special interest in rheumatology and care of the elderly. This episode was an excellent...

We were first introduced to Gina Kinson by Michael Johnson-Ellis who was the guest in our first episode in the Becoming a Parent series, My Surrogacy Journey.    We learnt so much about the process and experience of surrogate parents but we also had so many questions and wanted to learn more about these incredible humans who are the surrogates.   The wonderful Gina Kinson has had two surrogate jou...

Next up in our Becoming A Parent mini series, we delve into the world of adoption.   In 2022, just under 3000 children were adopted, an increase from the previous year. There are so many reasons that people look to adopt and in today’s episode, Katy Smith shares her own personal experience.   Katy is a wellbeing and self-development coach for parents and is an adoptive parent support specialist. ...

In the next episode of our Becoming a Parent series, we are joined by our very special guest, Kate Draper. Kate talks to us about her experience in becoming a solo mum by choice. Motherhood is not contingent on a romantic relationship, marriage, or partnership (even though arguably, our culture holds bias against single parenting and encourages the ‘perfect’ family) and Kate helps to demystify ass...

Excited to bring you a special midweek podcast this week in honour of International Women’s Day! Today’s episode is a Quick Brew but with a very special guest, Krisi Smith of the awesome Bird & Blend tea!   Bird & Blend was founded in 2014 and has since becoming one of the greatest boutique tea brands in the UK with 14 retail stores and a significant online presence.   Krisi joins us today to talk...

So excited to bring you the first instalment in our Becoming A Parent series. Today, the incredible Michael Johnson-Ellis from TwoDadsUK® joins us to talk all about his and his husband Wes’ journey to become parents using a surrogate. Surrogacy is becoming an increasingly popular way in the UK to become a parent for a variety of different people whether there be fertility issues, LGBTQ+ people, si...

Today's episode is something a little different.   We teamed up with the fantastic Tyler Copenhaver-Heath and Clifford Starks from the Bully This - A Hero's Journey podcast to talk all things bullying. Both of these gents have incredible stories and experiences that they share with us in this episode, along with talking about how they created the award winning Bully This podcast.   We discuss the...

TRIGGER WARNING: discusses suicide, dying, and terminal illness.   The right to die. Morally, a tough debate to have, but so very important. Imagine suffering with an incurable illness that offered an extremely limited quality of life, you’ve spent your life independent, happy and active. This illness will destroy your body and mind, it will be extremely hard on you and those around you.   Should...

Katie has known Joe since she was a teeny tiny girl, their mums worked together many moons ago and are life long friends.   Joe is one hell of a human! Tenacious, outgoing and supremely positive, he has lived all over the world and had an array of jobs.   In his late 20s, during training for a half marathon, Joe noticed some changes in his body, a series of things which just didn’t feel right. Aft...

Social Media. Best thing since sliced bread or a recipe for disaster? We delve into the toxic world of social media. Deep fakes to fake news - just how toxic is social media for us? We look at social media and freedom of speech, is everyone entitled to say and post what they think? So many questions, so little time!  In this hour long episode we discuss statistics, stories, celebrities and topical...

We are so excited to be bringing you the first of several fantastic episodes with the very lovely Finlay Games.    Finlay, also known as Finn, has a huge following online thanks to his wonderfully honest accounts of his life journey.   In this episode, Finn discusses his journey with drugs and alcohol and how he used these to block out feelings, emotions and parts of his life.   Finn attended his...

True Crime is a loved genre of books, podcasts, movies and tv shows and documentaries the World over, but why?   Why does watching or listening to, in some cases, seriously hideous crimes, fascinate us so much?   In this episode Katie & Vikki delve into the world of murderers, kidnappers, cannibals and cults to discover why true crime has so many fans and at what point does it go from the moderate...

Victoria Kleinsman returns as a very loved member of the Strong Tea family to talk openly and honestly about surviving eating disorders.   Vic has overcome anorexia, binge eating disorder, and bulimia.   Vic’s battle with food started at a very young age and plagued her for many years but strength and resilience has not only helped her survive these disorders but to become an inspiration for other...

  It's 2023, and we are LIVE!! Happy new year folks and thank you for joining us for another exciting year of podcasting delights! This episode sees us chat through many of the forthcoming episodes and topics we will be covering in 2023 and what our new year's resolutions are! Whatever the new year holds for you, we are pleased to have you with us so grab a cuppa of your favourite brew and let's d...

Welcome to the last podcast of 2022, the big Christmas Tea Party! 2022 has been an incredible year for us and so we take the opportunity to chat through some of the incredible guests and topics from the year, discuss some of the biggest moment of 2022 in the media (who could forget the slap heard around the World!) and if we actually stuck with any of our resolutions from last year! Plenty of chat...

Have you ever met someone that just oozes with loveliness? That’s Jonathan.    We came across Jonathan Blake following his appearance on the recent Sky documentary, Positive. This incredible three part series looked at the AIDS epidemic during the 80s and how people’s lives were affected, the persecution that the gay community faced and how the media and government reacted. Jonathan was one of man...

Stress. Our body and mind’s natural reaction to pressure. Being triggered when we experience something new or unexpected that threatens our sense of self or when we feel we have little control over a situation. Stress can be experienced anywhere and at any time in many different scenarios, in this episode we talk about when and where it can happen, the impact that it has and our own personal exper...

Trigger warning: This episode contains details of violence, rape, animal abuse, depression and emotive content.   Contains some swearing.   Victoria Kleinsman is an inspiration. In what is one of the most emotional episodes in the Strong Tea series so far, we cannot tell you how wonderful this lady is.   Vic is a coach who provides food freedom and body love counselling. She is also a podcaster an...

This episode sees Katie & Vikki delve into the dark world of bullying which happens in school, the workplace, online and in the home. It happens far more than you’d think.   Not beating around the bush, we talk about the types of bullying, the stats and our own personal experiences.   Bullying is damaging and can have a profound effect on mental health, we explore different tips and advice on how...

Birth control. It's been around for a long long time, and yet this topic is still not talked about enough. This episode sees us discuss the different types, the pros and cons, the dangers, the myths, the politics and the inequalities...we cover it all. This episode has some surprising moments and includes research that we hope will give you food for thought and a good knowledge to have that inform...

This episode brings us the wonderful Dom. And he really is, wonderful that is. Dom is an absolute powerhouse of a human being, his positivity is impossible not to warm to. This podcast details Dom’s journey with cerebral palsy and how the alternative community became a huge part of his life and support structure. We just had to invite him on and this episode will not disappoint. Dom is founder of...