Not Another Mummy Podcast

On this episode I chat to Molly Forbes, the author of Body Happy Kids and a mum of two. Molly was a guest on the podcast a few years ago, when she was a host on the Channel 4 show Naked Beach, which shone a light on the body insecurities that many of us have and helped people to overcome them. Since then, Molly has set up social enterprise Body Happy Org, has been campaigning to ban diet club adve...

Are you dreading your children hitting the teenage years and hormones turning them into sulky, shouty, door slamming young adults? I know I am! But my guest on this episode, journalist and podcaster Lorraine Candy, says we shouldn’t worry, she is here to hold our hand through the process. Lorraine is the mum to three teens and a nine year old and she is the author of Mum What’s Wrong With You – 10...

My guest on this episode took an earth-shattering life event and turned it into a novel - Josie Lloyd is a best-selling author and mum of three. She has written 15 bestselling novels including the number one hit Come Together, which she co-authored with her husband, Emlyn Rees. In 2017, Josie was diagnosed with breast cancer and, urged by a friend to keep fit, she went down to the seafront in Brig...

It was an utter joy to welcome Dr Ranj onto the podcast as a guest – as well as working for the NHS through the pandemic as a paediatric doctor, Ranj published a book - How To Grow Up And Feel Amazing: The No Worries Guide For Boys. It’s a must-read book for all tween boys, covering physical and emotional changes they’ll go through as puberty hits. I talked to Ranj about what his own teenage years...

This episode is essential listening if you’re in your 20s, 30s or 40s. Which sounds like I’m really bigging myself up, but it’s my guest, not me, who is delivering all of the wisdom. Maisie Hill is a women’s health practitioner, author and podcaster who is doing everything she can to spread the word about perimenopause and getting us in tune with our menstrual cycles. Her latest book Perimenopause...

Do you talk to your children about race – and racism – and if so, how often? My guest on this episode Uju Asika encourages all parents to start this conversation as early as possible and not to feel awkward about it. Uju is a mum of two and the author of Bringing Up Race: How to Raise a Kind Child in a Prejudiced World. We talk about how the conversation will be different, depending on your childr...

My guest on this episode is mum of three Hayley McLean. All three of Hayley’s children were assumed male at birth but her second-born, Noa, identifies as female. Hayley tells me what it’s like to be the mum of a transgender child, from the early signs through to Noa telling her parents, in no uncertain terms, that she is a girl. Hayley talks about how they’ve fully supported Noa and about the reac...

Separating from your partner would be one of the worst things that could happen to you, right? Well, no, according to my guest on this episode, it doesn’t have to be. Amy Ransom is a mum of three and the author of The Soul-Soaring Virtues of Separation: 111 Learnings to Heal Your Heart and Help You Fly – a guide to reframing separation, looking at it as the start of something new rather than the e...

Imagine a world where women don’t lose their jobs, or miss out on promotions, because they’re pregnant or have just had a baby. I can’t even picture it, because so many women experience maternity discrimination, today, in 2021. My guest on this episode, Joeli Brearley, lost her job the day after she told her employer she was pregnant and went onto launch the charity and campaigning group Pregnant...

Over the past year or so, most of us have become increasingly reliant on the communities around us – our neighbours, WhatsApp groups of friends, even people we’ve never met but follow on social media. Community has become so important and my guest on this episode knows just how vital they are. Robert Douglas is a dad of two and has built up a community of dads online with his Instagram account @th...

The seventh series of Not Another Mummy Podcast kicks off with the brilliant Hollie McNish as my guest. Hollie is an award-winning poet and writer, with books like Nobody Told Me and Plum and loads of sell-out live shows under her belt. Hollie is a mum of one and lots of her poetry is about motherhood – warts and all. Her new book, though, Slug… And Other Things I’ve Been Told To Hate is about bir...

There’s little that will prepare you for the moment you hear the words: “You’re having twins!” You might feel shocked, delighted, scared, horrified, amused – or a mixture of all of the above. As a twin mum myself, I’ve got first-hand experience with the emotional rollercoaster of having two babies at once and I wanted to write a book which will guide parents from the moment they find out, thr...

It’s the end of the series – and a Christmas special – with the brilliant Anna Williamson as my guest, talking about how to look after our mental health at the busiest time of the year. Anna is a TV presenter (catch her on the new series of Celebs Go Dating on Channel 4), podcaster and author. She’s also a qualified life coach and she’s done lots of work around smashing the stigma surrounding ment...

It’s the penultimate episode of the series (next episode is a Christmas special *jingles some bells*) and my guest this week is former social worker and child development trainer Becky Goddard-Hill. Becky is the author of brilliant book Create Your Own Calm which is an activity book for pre-teens and teens to work through and learn about being emotionally resilient. And we all need a bit of resili...

Sinéad Burke is an advocate, teacher, and a British Vogue Contributing Editor. She also happens to be a little person at three and a half feet tall. Born with the genetic disorder achondroplasia, Sinéad was in primary school when she first advocated for change and requested a different style of desk which she could access easily. Since then, Sinéad has gone on to become a leading disability advoca...

What’s your skincare routine like? As I confess to my guest on this episode, mine used to be shamefully bad but I’ve seen the error of my ways and I’ve recently started looking after my skin properly. Thankfully, Caroline Hirons isn’t here to judge us – but she is here to help. Her book Skincare is a number one bestseller and only the second ever   Fashion/Beauty title to get to num...

When you’re watching TV with your kids, do you take notice of how many people on the screen are Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic, LGBT, working class or disabled? Often we’re so grateful for the ten minutes of quiet, to drink a cup of tea, we’re more likely to zone out of what’s on the screen. But my guests on this episode – children’s digital media expert Olivia Dickinson and Lyndsay Gardner, mum of...

We’re still not talking about the menopause enough. It’s something I didn’t know much about until recently (after all, it happens to older women, right?) but when, at 41, I started having perimenopausal symptoms I started to read up on it. And with approximately 13 million women in the UK going through menopause and life expectancy for women increasing, we all need to be educated about our options...

Wouldn’t it be amazing if I could wave a magic wand and fix all of your work/home life balance problems? While I can’t promise that this podcast episode will do that, my guest Christine Armstrong does reveal what she believes to be the solution to our work/parenting problems. Christine is a mum of three and the author of The Mother Of All Jobs, a book which explores all of the angles of that commo...

Waking up one morning and discovering you’ve lost your sight is something that many of us just couldn’t even imagine, but to trauma doctor Amit Patel, it was his reality and spelled the end of his medical career. Back in 2013, newly married Amit lost his sight due to a rare eye condition, keratoconus. After hitting rock bottom and being unable to leave the house for three months, Amit started to r...

On this episode I welcome Stuart Heritage as my guest. Stuart is a dad of two and when his first son was just a few hours old, Stuart started writing a column about fatherhood for The Guardian. Since then he’s written for Esquire, The Times and lots of other newspapers, magazines and websites. His writing on fatherhood is just as likely to make you smile and laugh as it will make you reflect on yo...

My guest on this episode is Mark Lemon, a dad of two and children’s author who at the age of 12, found his life changed forever when his dad was murdered. Mark talks to me about the huge effect this had on him, as a teenager, and also how it has shaped the kind of person – and dad – he is today. Incredibly, Mark turned something tragic into something positive because he now does a lot of work talk...

Dr Pragya Agarwal is my guest on this episode – she’s an author, a two-times Tedx speaker, an academic, and a mum of three. Her book Sway: Unravelling Unconscious Bias was published in April and brilliantly, allows the reader to explore the concept of bias in a non-judgemental way. Pragya takes a scientific approach at looking at bias and when I read it, it made me analyse my own biases. In my cha...

On this episode I’m joined by Zoey and Kelly Allen who are, along with their two kids and dog, an LGBTQ+ family. 18 months ago, Zoey came out as transgender to her wife Kelly and they started a new phase of their lives. Through their blog – Our Transitional Life – they document their journey and offer support to the LGBTQ+ community, showing that coming out can, overall, be a positive experie...

My guest on this episode is Candice Brathwaite, mum of two and author of the Sunday Times Bestselling book I Am Not Your Baby Mother which has been described as a “thought-provoking, urgent and inspirational guide to life as a black mother”. In it, Candice writes about her experiences growing up in South London and shares her story of motherhood so far. She challenges the stereotypical version of...