Ctrl Alt Delete

Glennon Doyle is someone I've wanted to have on the podcast for years, ever since I read her book LOVE WARRIOR (which was an Oprah Book Club selection), as well as her New York Times bestseller CARRY ON, WARRIOR. An activist and thought leader, Glennon is the founder and president of Together Rising, an all-women led nonprofit organisation that has revolutionised grassroots philanthropy – raising...

Renay Richardson is the founder and CEO of Broccoli Content , a company she founded in 2018. Broccoli is a new multi-genre podcasting joint venture between Renay and Sony Music and is focused on the development and distribution of original programming. Renay is a producer who has previously worked for podcast platforms including Acast & Audible and a successful independent podcast creator...

My guest today is the brilliant Candice Brathwaite, Sunday Times Bestselling author of I Am Not Your Baby Mother. The book has been called 'an urgent part-memoir, part-manifesto about Black British motherhood' in Red magazine .  When Candice fell pregnant and stepped into the motherhood playing field, she found her experience bore little resemblance to the photos of women in glossy...

Today's guest is Layla F. Saad, #1 bestselling author of Me And White Supremacy and globally respected writer, speaker and host of the Good Ancestor Podcast . She speaks on the topics of race, identity, leadership, personal transformation and social change. As an East African, Arab, British, Black, Muslim woman who was born and grew up in the West, and lives in Middle East, Layla has always sat at...

Today's guest is Julia Ebner, bestselling author and Research Fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, where she leads projects on online extremism, disinformation and hate speech. She has acted as a consultant for the UN, NATO, and the World Bank. Her journalism has appeared in the  Guardian ,  Independent ,  Prospect  and  Newsweek , and she was a key contributor...

Hello! Today's guest is journalist and consultant Jessica Evans. She has previously written for the likes of Stylist, Refinery29, Elle and all the top magazines. She is also the founder and CEO of The Freelance Sessions, which is an indie organisation that helps both aspiring writers become freelance journalists and established journalists in their career. The heart behind the one-to-one sessions...

My guest today is Emma Jane Unsworth - the award-winning novelist and screenwriter. Her latest novel, ADULTS, a comedy about a thirty-something woman whose life is falling apart and has been described as a "witty" and "virtuoso" satire by The Guardian and "sharp and funny" by The Times. Her previous novel, ANIMALS, was adapted into a film, for which Unsworth wrote the screenplay. The film premiere...

Kate Hamilton is my guest today. For five years she worked at SUITCASE magazine and for two of those years she held the position of Editor-in-Chief. She is also Co-Founder and Content Director at Sonder & Tell, a new agency that helps brands find their voice and express themselves. Their practice involves bringing an editorial approach to brand content, applying storytelling techniques to crea...

Today's guest is Angela D’Orazio, master blender and chief nose officer at Mackmyra – a multi-award-winning Swedish whisky distillery, and the producer of the world’s first AI-created whisky. Really excited to bring you a special bonus episode in partnership with Microsoft all about how AI is changing the whisky industry. I loved hearing about how us humans can work with AI to achieve a diffe...

Laura Dockrill is an award-winning author and illustrator.  What Have I Done?  is Laura's first book for adults. I have loved Laura's fiction and poems for years, and now this. I can already say it's one of the best memoirs I've ever read on mental health. It's about postpartum psychosis. It's moving, incredibly vivid and well written. Laura made me feel like I was standing in the corner...

Christine Armstrong is an author, researcher and speaker on the future of work. She is a contributing editor of Management Today, She is known to 'blow up the bullshit about working parenting and dig into the truth about what works. And what really doesn’t.' You might have read her piece in the Times that went viral called 'why working mums are being sold an impossible dream about work/life balanc...

[This episode was recorded in January 2020.) My guest today is the lovely Dani Dyer who won ITV2’s  Love Island  with a landslide 80% of the vote and captured the hearts of the nation. Trained as an actor, Dani has appeared in a number of films, as well as making her stage debut in  Nativity!  The Musical in 2018. Since leaving  Love Island , Dani has raised money for Comi...

My guest today is Gemma Milne, the science/tech writer and author of  Smoke & Mirrors: How Hype Obscures the Future and How to See Past It  . Her works have been featured in the BBC, The Times and she is the co-founder of Science: Disrupt – a media outlet covering advances in science startups, research processes and industries such as space, energy, health and advanced comp...

Vex King is an author, mind coach and entrepreneur. He experienced many challenges when he was growing up and we talk about this within this episode; his father died when he was just a baby, his family were often homeless and he grew up in troubled neighbourhoods. Vex talks about how he has turned his life around through his popular Instagram account (@vexking) which has become a source of in...

Sophie Walker is a feminist activist, founding leader of the Women’s Equality Party, and recently-appointed chief executive of Young Women’s Trust, the charity representing and supporting women who are living on no or low pay. She is passionate about rebuilding society for and with (extra)ordinary women. You can follow her on Twitter under @sophierunning. Today I'm chatting to Sophi...

My guest today is the brilliant author Holly Bourne who started her writing career as a news journalist, where she was nominated for Best Print Journalist of the Year. She then spent six years working as an editor, a relationship advisor, and general 'agony aunt' for a youth charity - helping young people with their relationships and mental health. (TW: This episode discusses rape and sexual assau...

This episode is dedicated to all things Working From Home with the brilliant life coach Selina Barker. Selina is a life design and career change coach, writer, podcast host, co-founder of Project Love and creator of the Goodbye Hello journal. She is someone who gives very practical advice around designing your day and avoiding burn out so I thought she'd be the perfect guest for this week. She sav...

My guest today is with psychotherapist and anxiety expert Anna Mathur. I wanted to do a special episode on how to deal with anxiety and anxious feelings, especially circumstantially around what is happening right now with Covid-19 and our daily lives looking very different right now. Anna is passionate about taking therapy out of the therapy room and into general accessible spaces, empowering...

*Please note this episode was recorded in early March.* My guest today is Samatha Clarke, an author and Happiness Consultant. She is a teacher of Guardian Masterclasses and lecturer at The School of Life and expert on work happiness, culture and relationships. Whenever I speak to Sam, she always says something that makes me reflect on my work life. She has given me amazing advice in the past...

Welcome back to Ctrl Alt Delete! When I was in LA earlier this year, I did a little podcast swap with one of my favourite podcasts across the pond called Forever 35 at Kate's house in sunny California. It’s hosted by friends and writers Doree Shafrir and Kate Spencer who dive into the self-care practices that we all text our friends about — from which serums they’re using right now to finding a gr...

My guest today is Frankie Bridge, best known as one fifth of 'The Saturdays'. Frankie has been really open about her mental health issues over the years and has been an ambassador for MIND after opening up about her experiences of anxiety, depression and panic attacks, following her hospitalisation in May 2012. Having initially dealt with these issues in silence, Frankie has been keen to support M...

Rana Foroohar is an author,  Financial Times  columnist and CNN analyst, writing and investigating into how today’s biggest tech companies are hijacking our data, our livelihoods, and our minds. I really wanted to do an episode on Big Tech - aka FANG - Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google). How tech has changed and how it's changed us. Her book Don't be Evil looks into how bi...

Today's guest is New York Times Bestselling novelist Ann Napolitano. In this episode we are discussing her new novel Dear Edward. Unlike a lot of big new titles publishing in 2020, this isn’t the big debut push.  Dear Edward  is Ann Napolitano’s third book, her first novel was rejected 80 times, and her second novel hardly sold. And yet  Dear Edward  is set to be one of 2020’s...

Ruby Warrington is a lifestyle writer and former features editor of the UK's Sunday Times Style. In 2013, she created The Numinous, an online magazine that bridges the gap between the mystical and the mainstream. I wanted to invite Ruby onto the podcast to discuss her bestselling and hugely popular book Sober Curious which has been described as a bold guide to choosing to live hangover-f...

CORRECTION: In the intro I said Kiley Reid has written 'a number of novels and stories'. Such A Fun Age is actually her DEBUT novel. Apologies for this error. Kiley Reid is a New York Times Bestselling writer, earning her MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she won a fellowship award and taught undergraduate creative writing workshops with a focus on race and class. Kiley has...