Standard Issue Podcast

Journalist and author Sudi Pigott has spent nearly three decades writing about food and travel. In her new book, Consider the Anchovy: a Journey in Pursuit of the Little Fish With the Big Flavour, she pays homage to one of her favourite ingredients, albeit one she thinks is in need of a rebrand. Jen chats to Sudi about why we should consider the anchovy, 'foodie' culture for the masses, and who in...

When back in 2014, the Guardian published Hilary Mantel’s short story The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, it sparked intense controversy. Critics called it a "distasteful fantasy" and "dangerous nonsense”, while others, our Mickey included, would argue that actually it’s a smart, creative exploration of a polarised political era from a literary heavyweight.  It’s also now a play, with Mantel’s...

Looking for some TV suggestions? We have some. So that worked out well. Join us as we chat about Deadloch, The Pitt, Scarpetta, Euphoria, Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards, Secret Garden, The Dinosaurs, Babies and Bait. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's Jen got in common with some pensioners in Barnet? Find out in this week's BT as she and Hannah talk about women's health, some bad news for women and girls in Myanmar, the "womanosphere", running marathons while pregnant and throwing some moves while middle aged or elderly.  You can read the Standard Issue Substack here: https://standardissuepodcast.substack.com/ The Government's Women's He...

Jonathan Boorman’s epic thesp fest was a big hit at the box office and a surprise watch in the Dunleavy household. The cast list is impressive. The lighting is dark. The dialogue is as clanking as the shiny armour. And the laughs come thick, fast and mostly not on purpose. Did Mick, Hannah and Jen have a good time with all the thrusting, grunting, Arthurian legend and whole load of unexpected Geof...

A space mission that passed the Bechdel test? There’s never been such times! Mick needed no further prompting to get NASA’s finest, Dr Suze Kundu, on the Zoom to chat about bright spot amid the gloom: Artemis II. And not content with that being a feel-good story for the ages, Suze came armed with some other women-centred tales of joy in STEM.  As ever, there’s extra chat for our £5 patreons. And s...

After being raised by parents with addictions, professor of psychology at Maynooth University, Katriona O’Sullivan turned her experiences into bestselling non-fiction book Poor. Her follow-up, Hungry: A Biography of My Body, explores how poverty, and the sexual abuse she endured as a child, have shaped her relationship with her body. Jen chats to Katriona about the vulnerability of neglected child...

Shih-Ching Tsou’s debut feature film caused a stir at Cannes, and tickled many a reviewer’s pickle, but flew under the radar when it landed on Netflix last November. A shame for many reasons, not least because it’s by a woman about women, as the iPhone camera tracks single mum Shu-Fen, and her two daughters – five-year-old I-Jing and university-aged I-Ann – as they try to make a fresh start in the...

Everything is totally normal in America, right? This week, special guest Helen Lewis stops by to talk to Hannah about Trump's war, Hegseth's row with the Pope, AI doom-mongering, the US at 250, and other assorted insanity. Who you gonna call? No really, who? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan’s teen musical comedy gave a well-deserved ribbing to the advertising and music execs of the early ‘00s, as well as teen culture in general. But at what point does this satire become part of the problem? Shall we ask Tara Reid? And what were they putting in Sunny Delight in the late ‘90s? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The fascinating story of Elizabeth Allen takes us from East London to a remote woodland cabin, to Hollywood and back, before settling in Coventry, where Compton Verney is exhibiting the artist’s absurd, funny and boldly prophetic work 60 years after her debut. Jen catches up with Ila Colley, Compton Verney’s curator of folk art and the exhibition, Troublemakers and Prophets: Elizabeth Allen and Ot...

A new adaptation of Virginia Woolf's The Waves opens at London's Jermyn Street Theatre next week. Hannah chats to playwright Flora Wilson Brown about the appeal of Woolf to young people, the issues with adapting her work and the loss of “scenes” in the modern world. Grab yourself a ticket here: https://www.jermynstreettheatre.co.uk/show/the-waves/ Standard Issue Podcast | creating a magazine for e...

It’s fair to say author, Scummy Mummy and self-proclaimed running nerd Helen Thorn has dealt with some pretty hefty shit in the last few years. Her new book, How to face big change and come back stronger, is a hopeful, comforting, funny look at how to navigate some of life’s biggest challenges: change, grief and loss of self. It’s packed with practical wisdom from a plethora of women who have walk...

Surgeon Ian Paterson was jailed in 2017 for conducting botched and often unnecessary operations on his patients, who were predominantly women. Hannah chats to Deborah Douglas and Tracy King about their new book, The Cost of Trust: The Butcher Surgeon and the Scandal that Shamed British Medicine, their experiences of being "cared for" by Paterson and the battle to ensure it can't happen again. This...

What could go wrong in an unregulated fertility clinic, asks our Jen while discussing a BBC report on families seeking fertility treatment in Northern Cyprus. Mick has better news about guidance aimed at making public spaces safer for women and girls, and there's a glimmer of hope from the Middle East. Elsewhere, the Daily Mail invites us to play a Guess Who? of “bodycounts” in SOTW, and there’s s...

Is it the Devil's work to run on a Sunday? Who's even heard of Cambridge University? And who will win a mini-break with Nigel Havers? Find out the answers to these and many more questions as we watch the classic '80s Oscar (and God) botherer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Journalist, writer and broadcaster Samira Ahmed is a busy woman. Through the Square Window, her new(ish) podcast with Graham Kibble-White guides listeners through UK TV of decades gone by. It’s nostalgia with a keen critical eye, examining what TV reflected about and indeed brought to British culture. With telly very much still at the forefront, Samira’s also penned the forthcoming BFI Film Classi...

The work of mothering has been undervalued for centuries, relegated to the sidelines thanks to patriarchal control of history. In her new book, A Women’s Work: Reclaiming the Radical History of Mothering, acclaimed author Dr Elinor Cleghorn brings stories of mothering out of the shadows to show how the women in them shaped history. Jen chats to Elinor about the book, the denigration of mothering a...

In this month's round-up of the best and worst TV, we're talking about A Woman of Substance, Gone, Rooster, The Lady, DTF St Louis and Louis Theroux: Inside The Manosphere.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hannah’s been looking for light at the end of the endlessly depressing news-tunnel and found it in the case of seven Adams County sheriff’s officers vs Joseph “Afroman” Foreman, as well as some delightful canine antics. There’s less happy news about top schools excluding SEND pupils, but a little Brucey bonus if you like not retraumatising victims of domestic abuse. Elsewhere, a gold rush ensues a...

Christopher Guest’s second time in the director’s chair involved him putting on a dog show. Co-written with Eugene Levy, this fake documentary about the people getting their pooches ready for the prestigious Mayflower Dog Show (and then the show itself) stars Michael McKean, Catherine O’Hara, Jane Lynch, Parker Posey, Fred Willard, John Michael Higgins, Michael Hitchcock and Jennifer Coolidge. And...

You might know Tat Effby as social media sensation The Caketoonist, sharing her brilliant, doable recipes with a hefty slice of humour all over the social media platforms. Tat’s now an author. Her first recipe book, Bake Your Sweet Time, takes traditional flavour combinations and puts them in recipes that vary in length and difficulty, depending on how much time you want to spend in the kitchen. I...

Dame Tracey Emin burst onto the art scene in the 1990s and controversy has followed her ever since. Like in 1999, when her Turner Prize-nominated My Bed caused a media frenzy. Emin's raw, autobiographical and confessional work is very personal yet also platforms the wider female experience through its themes of abuse, sexuality, poverty, and reproductive rights.  Jen chats to Jess Baxter, assistan...

Some 80% of us have at least one sibling, which makes it so commonplace we don't often give it much thought. But we should, says journalist Catherine Carr, and in today's podcast, she talks to Hannah about memory, loss, estrangement, birth order and her new book Who's The Favourite? The Loving, Messy Realities of Sibling Relationships. * You can buy Catherine's book here  * Listen to her podcast, ...

Hannah and Mick have braved this week’s onslaught of fresh hell. They’ve even tried turning it off and on again, but no, the news keeps newsing. And so they’re chatting the timescales of “immediate” change, archaic criminal law going through the Lords, ice cream and landmines in Croatia, and the sad slaying of the Buffy reboot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices