Standard Issue Podcast

Orange is The New Black has come to an end and we chat its seventh and final series, as well as its legacy, in this month's Outside The Box. We also talk Dark Money, I Am... and Catch-22. Plus, Hannah's finally caught up with Home and Mick watched something new on Netflix. Or maybe it was a fever dream. Either way, she tells us about it. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuesp...

Why don't more of us appreciate how interesting older women are? It's a question we put to author and social history fan Kate Thompson, who came to tell us about her new novel Secrets of the Homefront Girls and why, when you've written about real-life matriarchs, there's no going back. Rachel DeLoache Williams talks to Hannah about being taken in by a con woman, enduring a high-profile trial and h...

She's been a dinosaur-based pop singer, started conversations about depression and penned a musical about cancer. Now performance artist and writer Bryony Kimmings is at the Edinburgh Festival with her show I’m A Phoenix, Bitch, which tackles trauma and recovering from it – with trademark Kimmings' songs, warmth and comedy of course. She tells Mickey all about it, and they also talk mental health...

Do social media companies wield too much power or should we all take more responsibility for what we put online? It's a question The National Youth Theatre's new play F. Off is currently asking Edinburgh Fringe audiences. Hannah grabbed some time with Tatty Hennessy, one of the show's co-creators, to chat about the Cambridge Analytica scandal, being addicted to the internet and why boycotting soci...

Comedian Sindhu Vee, professional Loose Woman Andrea McLean and the boss herself Sarah Millican joined Mick and Jen for this In Conversation recorded at Kings Place back in May. Chat included socks for sex, old lady home perms, success at any age, not shitting for a month, and meeting Jon Bon Jovi covered in sanitary towels. Also contains excellent advice on how to handle both a spider and a shit...

In this episode Jen chats to Anoushka Warden, writer and performer of My Mum's a Tw*t. They talked about Anoushka's experience of her mum joining a cult when Anoushka was 12 years old (which the play is based on), being a resilient teen and gangsta rap, obviously. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn...

Lucie Rudd is a nurse specialising in oncology and palliative care for more than 20 years and is now an end of life care advisor at Macmillan. She chats to Mick about how wrapping your head around "normal dying" and doing some practical planning, such as writing a will or thinking about what you’d put on your bucket list, earlier rather than later can make it easier to prepare for the inevitable....

With the Edinburgh Fringe fast approaching, we’re doing things a bit differently this week, bringing you a selection of our top picks for the festival, and – obviously – they’re all women. We caught up with Cally Beaton about the invisibility (or not) of women over 50; Jess Fostekew talks to us about societal perceptions of strength and femininity and raising a sexist baby; Desiree Burch talks to...

In one of two Chops this week, Jen chats to Nicky Dias of Cruse Bereavement Care about why we grieve, why it's so utterly shit and how we can help ourselves and others experiencing a bereavement.  We’ve teamed up with Macmillan again, going a bit more in-depth into the topics around death that we touched on at the panel event we did with them back in May. Our first Chops guest was the brilliant Po...

In one of TWO Sunday Chops this week, Hannah grabbed some time with choreographer Helen Pickett, whose new narrative ballet The Crucible has its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival as part of Scottish Ballet's 50th anniversary celebrations. They talked about the enduring appeal of Arthur Miller's play, how easy it was to translate into dance and about work to get more women of c...

It's been a busy week at SI HQ, Mick's managed to grab some time with Alliance for Choice's Danielle Roberts to see whether last week's vote on abortion rights means it really is Now For NI. Florence Schecter comes in to tell us the latest on The Vagina Museum and we chat to Caroline Burns Cooke about the '70s sitcom legend Yootha Joyce. In Jenny Off The Blocks, Jen meets Paralympian Stef Reid to...

In this one of two Chops this week, Hannah and Mick catch up with restaurateur, writer and blogger Saima Thompson, who just also happens to be a stage 4 cancer patient. We talked about HOW to talk about death, why it’s important, the reactions of others, cancer and mental health and how perspective changes when you're prognosis is terminal.  We’ve teamed up with Macmillan again going a bit more in...

In one of two Sunday Chops this week, Hannah and Mick talk to Priscilla Holbrook, one of the team behind America is Hard To See, which is heading to the Edinburgh Fringe after an award-winning off-Broadway run. It tells the story of Miracle, a community of paroled sex offenders in rural Florida, so we talked to Priscilla about how she got involved, forgiveness and whether calling such men "monster...

We're taking a trip to the Upside Down in this month's Outside The Box, when Hannah and Mick chat Stranger Things. There's a whole heap of Matt Berry in What We Do In The Shadows and The Year of The Rabbit. Jen's finally watched Big Little Lies. Plus there's Waco and Surviving America's Most Hated Family. Yes, that is a lot of TV to have watched. You're welcome. Support this show http://supporter....

That’s right, Terminator 2 gets the Dunleavy Does Dystopia treatment in this week’s episode. Hold onto your trousers, Arnie fans. There are more bikes, too, as Jen chats to Caroline Folmer, bad-ass cyclist and member of the Donnons des Elles au Velo, who, if you’re not aware of them, are the female cyclists tackling the 21-stage, 3,351km track of the Tour de France. Because it’s NO WOMEN ALLOWED i...

Poppy Mardall, founder and director of Poppy’s Funerals, stopped by to share her incredible insider knowledge about what happens within the funeral industry. A lot of it was Brand New Information, at least for Mick and Jen, who basically sat open-mouthed when they found out what you can legally do in your back garden. This is the first in a series of Chops running throughout July, in which we talk...

This week, team Noonan, Dunleavy and Offord catch up with writer, actress and straight-up legend among women, Rebecca Humphries, to chat about her “no bullshit” beauty blog, The Trowel, and what it’s like to be in the eye of a media shitstorm. Hannah has a natter with comedian and bona-fide American Kate McCabe, to find out more about the upcoming Democratic Primary over in the US of A. And in Jen...

For this week's Chops, Hannah went to London's Old Vic to meet actor, author and scene-stealer extraordinaire, Sophie Thompson, to chat about her latest play Present Laughter, the perils of fame and talking to herons. They also chatted her books for kids, Zoo Boy, and Detectorists, Because of course they did. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast. Hosted on Acast. See...

Back in April, Mickey and Hannah met comedian Jayde Adams and the legend that is Helen Lederer for another weird and wonderful In Conversation event. And this time, the boss, Sarah Millican dropped in, too. We talked about what we'd save from our homes in a fire, what stories stuck with us from childhood and what happened that time the cat sat on Jayde's mum's head. Tuck in! Support this show http...

The menstrual cycle: it and its associated hormones (big hitters = oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone) have a massive impact on women's lives. And it's not all painful cramps and mood swings. You may have heard Mickey advertising an Audible book called Period Power, which is an unputdownable 126,000 words by women's health practitioner, birth doula and go-to authority on all things menstruat...

A bonus edition of Outside the Box this week, because TV keeps being so relentlessly good. This time we talk Ghosts, Black Mirror, Jessica Jones, The Handmaid's Tale and Years and Years. Plus, there's news of some long-awaited returning series on Netflix. Get it in your ears! Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informa...

Sarah Millican – that’s right, the boss herself! – gets involved in this episode to talk about her new Radio 4 panel show, Elephant In The Room, which starts on Thursday 27 June. Author Dina Nayeri joins Jen and Mick to discuss how we’re treating those seeking refuge in our country, what we can do better, Dina’s own story and her new book, The Ungrateful Refugee. In JOTB, Jen catches up with gold-...

Comedian and author Susan Calman chats to Mickey about her new book Sunny Side Up, covering all sorts of stuff, from how to navigate the depressing political environment of people yelling at each other on Twitter to making the future a kinder place for her niece, from ‘Thumbs Up Thursdays’ to being bait on Death Row. There's also cat chat. Obviously. Over on Chops number two, Hannah asks what Mich...

Michael Gove's recent admission that he took cocaine in the past has seemingly affected his chances of becoming our next Prime Minister. But does anyone actually care? And if so, why? We chat to two experts, political commentator Ayesha Hazarika, and host of the Say Why To Drugs podcast Dr Suzi Gage, about who is really driving the conversation on drug use in the UK, about whether honesty is the b...

This week we catch up with mental health writer Michelle Thomas about her debut book My Shit Therapist. Frances Ridout, director of the Legal Advice Centre at Queen Mary University London, pops by to tell us about the work she’s doing to help victims of image-based sexual abuse. There’s a sneaky taster of this week’s Sunday Chops with the absolute smasher that is Susan Calman, who's talking to Mic...