Alonement

My guest this week, Oliver Burkeman, may be many things – but he's not a productivity expert. Thankfully, the former Guardian columnist rejects both the societal obsession with productivity hacking and the idea of being an expert (he'd much prefer to be regarded as a work in progress tackling the problems he personally struggles with through his work, he tells me on this episode). While Oliver mak...

She’s famous for her 60-second videos, yet I was lucky enough to have a full 60 MINUTES interviewing this week’s guest, the wonderful Dr Julie Smith. She’s the clinical psychologist, online educator and ‘TikTok therapist’ who has been looking after the emotional health of her 3 and a half million (!) followers over the past three years through her light-hearted yet information-filled videos, which...

As far as being 'alone' goes, my guest Erling Kagge has experienced the extreme end of the spectrum. The first man to ever complete the Three Poles challenge (that's Mount Everest, the North Pole and the South Pole) on foot, Erling once spent 50 days alone, without radio contact, during his solo South Pole expedition in 1992 – a feat which saw him featured on the cover of Time magazine the fo...

For Radhika Sanghani, author of the brilliant new novel 30 Things I Love About Myself, time alone holds an important significance as the space where she’s learnt the true meaning of self-love. Her book even includes an aspirational, alonement-loving heroine… and what could be better? Appearing as my first guest on this season of the podcast, Radhika brings an infectious, empowering energy and a wh...

It’s comeback time, baby! Alonement returns with season 6 on Friday 18 February, with guests including a comedian, a self-love guru and an Arctic explorer. Subscribe now on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Trust me, you won’t want to miss out. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Can you believe we’ve reached season finale time *already*? No, me neither, to be honest… but we’re out with a bang! Natasha Lunn, the author of Sunday Times bestseller and one of 2021’s most talked-about non-fiction titles, Conversations on Love , is my marvellous final guest for season five of the podcast.  Natasha’s debut book, Conversations On Love , is inspired by her bimonthly newslette...

This week I’m talking to Michael James Wong, the founder of global mindfulness collective Just Breathe. Earlier this year, he launched a brilliant meditation app of the same name. He is committed to bringing mindfulness to people around the world – whether that’s through in-person events which in the past have attracted over 1,000 participants, or through being connected online. He’s also just abo...

Divorcing your husband, travelling the world alone, getting back together with an ex & having a baby might sound like a lot to go through in a year, but this week's guest, journalist, columnist & author Kate Wills, did it all. In this episode, we discuss her first book, A Trip of One's Own, a solo travel memoir written on the other side of the pandemic about Kate's divorce in her early thi...

I’m honoured to introduce this week’s guest, Mo Gawdat – an author, speaker, serial entrepreneur, former chief business officer at Google X and one of the most innovative thinkers I’ve ever come across. ‘I only allow my brain two different types of thought: a useful thought, or a joyful thought, or it shuts up’ – this quote from the podcast is typical of Mo’s logical approach to his inner world. W...

Emma John is an award winning journalist and author. Her most recent book, Self-Contained , is a memoir which chronicles what it’s like to enter your 40s without having been in a serious long-term relationship. It’s a book that celebrates the fullness of single life – the highs and lows. Our conversation is an unapologetic, unflinching look at the single experience, with a particular emphasis on h...

On the show this week I have Lorraine Candy, one of the most influential people on the UK’s magazine industry and formerly editor-in-chief at Cosmopolitan, ELLE & latterly Sunday Times Style. Lorraine is also the host of the Postcards from Midlife podcast, and author of new book, Mum, What’s Wrong With You – a funny, practical manual for anyone raising teenage girls. I found this conversation...

Hello, my worker bees! So let's face it, the perfect office probably doesn't exist – but if it did, it would be the brainchild of Alex Soojung Kim Pang, PHD, a Silicon Valley consultant and a futurist who has spent the last two decades researching the nature of people, work and technology. Alex totally transformed how I think about the 'work-life balance' – we spoke about the need to instead creat...

We’re backkkkkkk, gang! For episode uno of Season 5, I have been GRACED by the presence of comedian/author/generally awesome human Bella Younger. Formerly known as her alter-ego Deliciously Stella (yup, the one taking the p– out of the dodgier side of the wellness industry for years), Bella has officially killed off her one-time alias and written a brand new book to mark it. Our conversa...

My third and final guest for this miniseries is Rekesh Chauhan, an award-winning British-Indian pianist and composer, who over the pandemic channelled his musical talent into producing two short films to raise awareness around mental and emotional health issues. The second – Feel So Alone – released to coincide with this year's Loneliness Awareness Week, spotlights the effects of loneliness o...

This episode’s guest is Sunday Times bestselling author Cheryl Rickman. Cheryl’s latest book, Navigating Loneliness: How To Connect With Yourself and Others, is an insightful, comprehensive handbook to finding the balance between solitude and loneliness – through cultivating the most meaningful, fulfilling relationships possible with yourself and others.  Cheryl is a woman after my own heart...

Hello, hello, hello! Welcome to a 3-part miniseries of Alonement produced for Loneliness Awareness Week in collaboration with the Marmalade Trust. My first guest is Alex Holmes, an author, podcaster and mental health educator. On his podcast, Time To Talk, Alex interviews his guests about mental health, masculinity, identity and emotional education. His book of the same name, Time To Talk: How Men...

It’s season finale time! And, might I add, what a banger to conclude with: my interviewee this week is Dr Emma Hepburn a.k.a @thepsychologymum. Emma quickly became one of my all-time favourites interviewees within minutes of starting this recording. She is that magical combination of grounded, honest and astonishingly wise. One moment she’s your relatable close friend, the next she’s throwing out...

And now, the end is near… It’s the penultimate episode of the season, and my guest is Dr Remi Adekoya. I was fascinated to find out, through Remi’s work, that a third of British people will be mixed race by the end of the century. His brilliant new book, Biracial Britain : A Different Way Of Looking At Race , brings together stories of biracial British people from all ages and mixed-race backgroun...

Meet the woman who makes sobriety cool: this week’s guest is Millie Gooch, founder of the Sober Girl Society. Millie gave up drinking alcohol in 2018, and never looked back. I’m all about glamorising a good cause (hello – positive alone time!) and this is exactly what Millie does with her platform, showing that a sober life is not a lesser life: it can often by much the opposite. During this conve...

It's MAGIC Magid! This week’s guest, former Lord Mayor of Sheffield Magid Magid – often referred to as Magic Magid – is the first politician to appear on the show, and what a joy it was to speak with him. Magid is an absolute powerhouse: arriving in the UK at the age of four as a Somali refugee, he went on to become Sheffield’s youngest ever Mayor, taking up the role in 2018 at the age of 28, and...

*TRIGGER WARNING* The topics discussed on this podcast may be triggering for those following the news story around the disappearance of Sarah Everard last week.    My guest this week is poet Hollie McNish. Hollie had been described by critics as ‘a bewildering law unto herself’ – and, you know what, that’s pretty accurate.    Forget everything you thought you knew about poetry – Hollie, who former...

Welcome to a very special episode of Alonement to mark the publication week of my first BOOK: Alonement: How to be alone and absolutely own it, the book inspired by this podcast, out now – get your copy on Amazon , Waterstones , Bookshop.org and all good booksellers.   So what’s on the agenda? Ironically, considering the theme of this podcast, it’s the first time I am going solo without a guest. H...

Ostensibly, this week’s guest – one of the UK’s best known reality TV stars – might not seem like the go-to authority on time alone. Yet, after half a decade of living around cameras, Made in Chelsea star Lucy Watson describes her solitude as a ‘relief’. In this episode, we discuss the power of following your values and living authentically. For Lucy, that means following a vegan lifestyle, as she...

Ever struggled to set boundaries in your life? If this sounds like you (and – let’s face it – it's most of us), then this week’s episode, starring ‘The Joy of Being Selfish’ author Michelle Elman, will prove an absolute saviour. Michelle is a life coach and body positive activist, best known to her 300,000 social media followers for her global Scarred Not Scared campaign. Fascinatingly, we recorde...

Don’t panic – but my guest this week is Nell Frizzell, the brilliant author of ‘The Panic Years’, a memoir about Nell’s journey from a single woman in her late twenties to becoming a first-time mother at 32. Listening back to this episode, I was wowed for a second time by Nell’s eloquence and honesty: she puts into words what so many women feel around those ‘panic years’ of deciding whether or not...