Standard Issue Podcast

Violence against women is an issue that isn't going away any time soon. In the aftermath of the #MeToo movement, and a string of widely reported murders of women by men, some men are asking what they can do to be better allies. Sophie Gallagher, deputy features editor at the i paper, has some ideas, which she puts forward in her book How Men Can Help: A Guide To Undoing Harm and Being A Better All...

With the Birmingham Festival 2022 about to get underway, Hannah ventures (via Zoom) to the glorious Midlands for a chat with artist Dawinder Bansal about her exhibition, Jambo Cinema, which opens on July 28. They're talking Bollywood, social history, video shops and “daytimers”, among other things. Jenny Off The Blocks also takes us to Birmingham as, ahead of the Commonwealth Games, Jen catches up...

Not one, but TWO funny women in this week’s Sunday Chops, the first of two Edinburgh Fringe specials – although if you can’t get to the festival, fret not, as both of these excellent comedians can be found elsewhere, too. Human fireball Helen Bauer tells Mick about giving advice on the Trusty Hogs podcast, dealing with diet culture in her show Madame Good Tit, and what it’s like to have Marsha fro...

Is The Lazarus Project Sky's best original drama in a long time? Did Sherwood avoid the Spycops cliche? Does Hannah still love, love, love Only Murders In The Building? Does Mick regret her trip to Paris? Will Jen ever make it past episode one of anything? We answer these questions - and more - in this month's Outside The Box. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast. Hos...

Ayisha Malik’s new book, The Movement, explores life in a world where everyone is talking, but no one seems to be listening, and what it means to have a voice. She chats to Jen about how we communicate and why a female protagonist shutting the fuck up is a feminist statement. Our regular music mistress, Liz Buckley, gives Mick the lowdown on Phoebe Bridgers, the joy of puns, slagging off Ryan Adam...

Jihyun Park's new book, The Hard Road Out, details how she escaped, not once, but twice, from one of the world's most repressive and secretive regimes: North Korea. She talks to Hannah about why, with the help of South Korean writer Seh-Lynn Chai, she's now chosen to tell her story, about brainwashing, escape, sexual exploitation, and a new life for Jihyun and her family in the UK.  Support this s...

Clearly, a franchise revival-cum-nostalgia fest of one of Mick’s all-time favourite movies was going to be Noonan catnip, so she’s been in giddy bliss the four times she’s watched Ghostbusters: Afterlife since it came out in November 2021. But what do Yosra and Hannah make of Jason “son of Ivan” Reitman’s sort of sequel, sort of reboot, definite love letter to the 1984 supernatural comedy classic?...

There’s a wealth of cracking shows at the West End this summer, so Hannah got on the Zoom with Ruth Bratt – actress, comedian, and star of Showstoppers – to get the lowdown on where to spend your cash.   Mick chats queens of crime, the golden age of detective fiction, and why Richard Curtis can do one with journalist and host of the excellent Shedunnit podcast, Caroline Crampton.   In Jenny Off Th...

What if the sexual revolution was the biggest lie ever sold to women? With her new book, The Case Against the Sexual Revolution: A New Guide to Sex in the 21st Century, journalist and campaigner against male sexual violence, Louise Perry has penned a fierce, bold, radical exploration of whose interests sex positivism really serves. Spoiler: it ain’t women.  She chats to Mickey about sociosexuality...

How do you keep calm during an LBC call-in? This week, Mick finds out from writer, broadcaster and mental health champion, Natasha Devon, as they chat about privilege one-upmanship, toxic friendships and Natasha's new book Toxic. In Jenny Off The Blocks, Jen's talking balls to one half of the Two Girls Talk Balls Podcast, Charlotte French, about the Women’s Euro, which kicks off TONIGHT. It's defi...

Earlier this year saw the publication of Deep Deception, a non-fiction book about the Spycops scandal by five of the many women targeted by undercover police officers in the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and into the 2010s. They were part of left-wing activist groups routinely spied on by the Special Demonstrations Squad, a police unit founded in 1968. All five were hoodwinked into believing they had met th...

It’s definitely a podcast of two halves this week. In BT, Mick chats the US Supreme Court’s barbaric striking down of Roe V Wade and what that means for women and people who can get pregnant, and Jen looks at the ongoing binfire that is the UK government and every fecker in it. Screaming pillows mandatory.  But, it’s not all doom and gloom, as that’s followed by not one, but TWO brilliantly funny...

Following a 2020 investigation by Guardian journalist Lucy Osborne that exposed an historic culture of control, coercion and abuse within some of the world's leading modelling agencies, the fashion industry has been having something of a #MeToo moment. Building on Osborne's ongoing investigation, a new Sky Documentaries series, Scouting For Girls: Fashion's Darkest Secret, began on June 24. In thi...

Teresa Lim’s first book, The Interpreter's Daughter, recounts what happened when she set out to trace her family history. She tells Hannah about her discoveries, which span 19th century China to modern-day Singapore, and include a hidden tale about her great aunt, who was, it turns out, a woman after our Hannah’s own heart. Mostly.  In Jenny Off The Blocks, Jen’s been on the Zoom with fellow journ...

More than half of young women are ‘filled with dread’ at the state of their finances and 29% are “always in debt”. The picture for young mums is bleaker yet. That's according to The Young Women's Trust's annual survey, released this week. Hannah got on the Zoom with Claire Reindorp, the charity's chief executive, to find out more. They chat about university debt, discrimination, the gig economy, t...

Leila Mottley is the author of the hour – and don’t take our words for it, that’s straight from Oprah Winfrey. She joins Mick to talk about her novel Nightcrawling, based on a real-life story, which tells the tale of Oakland teen Kiara, who is fighting to keep her life together any which way she can, leading to her being sexually exploited by police. Meanwhile Hannah catches up with actress Sinead...

Having private photographs you sent to your boyfriend hacked from your iCloud and spread around the internet is most people's idea of hell. When it happened to actor Melissa Johns, she knew there was only one way through it. She chats to Hannah about intrusion, body image, shame, disability and turning the whole thing into a one-woman show, Snatched.  Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/s...

She’s kept it quiet until now, but turns out Hannah loves Kayvan Novak. Who knew? (Everyone. Everyone knew.) But his beautiful face isn’t the only reason our Dunleavy’s a colossal fan of Four Lions, Chris Morris’s 2010 cult gem about an inept gang of jihadis. But will it make Yosra and Mick laugh? Will it make them cry? Both? Find out in this month’s Flicking. WARNING: Toploader earworm imminent… ...

We need to ditch the shame around sex. Everyone's good with that, yeah? If that hasn't convinced you, Natalie Lee - aka Style Me Sunday - will almost certainly do a better job. She chats to Mick about the absolute joy of feeling herself and her aptly-titled new book, Feeling Myself. And while we're on the subject of feelings, Hannah gets dangerously close to having some when she chats to Theresa H...

Football’s domestic leagues have wound up for this season, but we are here for you with some excellent chat from excellent women, as Dr Carrie Dunn joins Jen to chat about their respective new books.  In 1921, women were banned from playing football in the grounds of affiliated Football Association clubs for 50 years. Of course women didn’t just stop playing football, and Carrie’s new book, Unsuit...

Kidnaps, rebirths, mythical serpents, magical pregnancies, the Upside Down and people who take a chunk out of your salary, this month's Outside The Box has it all. In it, we chat about The Essex Serpent, Ten Percent, Floodlights, Stranger Things, Inside No 9 and Life After Life. So yes, you can spend the long weekend watching TV if you want. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardiss...

251km across the Sahara on foot? Erm… Sabrina Pace-Humphreys tells Mickey about the Marathon Des Sables, aka “the toughest footrace on earth” and what in the sweet fancy fuck inspired her to do it. She also chats about how ultrarunning and rural racism led her to activism, founding the Black Trail Runners, and writing her memoir, Black Sheep.  Jen’s been on the Zoom with Shelina Janmohamed, author...

Ace actor Shobna Gulati has taken on the role of Mari Huff in a new version of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, so Hannah jumped on the Zoom to find out more. Not that we needed much excuse. They chat about being on tour with your son, embracing the grey and working with Victoria Wood.    Mick speaks to Ellie Greenhalgh, the lead on the Women’s Development Unit, a partnership project between The...

Men are looking for sex and women are looking for love, right? Wrong, says Kala Ellis, creator Spreadsheet, a new sitcom starring Katherine Parkinson, which debuts tonight on Channel 4. Hannah chats to Kala about what happens when you're not looking for "the one", comparisons to Sex and The City and why new apps can be frankly terrifying. Meanwhile, Jen's been learning more about 20 years of Deafi...

Acclaimed writer Sarah Perry’s surprise (to her) best-seller The Essex Serpent has been adapted to a six-part Apple TV series, starring Tom Hiddleston and Claire Danes (we know). Could there be a better excuse – not that we needed one – to get her on the Zoom, for a natter? Our Jen was giddy as a kipper to chat to Sarah, about having a book fly off the shelves, what it’s like to have a Hollywood s...