Standard Issue Podcast

Next year, our Jen is running the London Marathon for the Samaritans. It's her second time round the 26.2 mile block, although some 18 years after her first one, her knees ain't what they used to be. And who better to talk to about knees, Vaseline, always having tissues to hand, and finding joy as a middle-aged, woman marathon runner, than Standard Issue favourite, Helen Thorn*...

Relentless silliness, sight gags, wordplay and sheer chaotic comedic energy? Too right it was Mick’s pick for Flicking this month. And so she and Yosra are chatting about last year’s The Naked Gun reboot, in which Liam Neeson steps into Leslie Nielsen’s shoes as gumshoe lieutenant Frank Drebin… Jr. But is there still a place for old-school comedy in today’s film landscape, or is it more about nost...

Where does the word 'whore' come from? In this week’s Bush Telegraph, Mick’s wondering if Saturday Night Live guest host Shane Gillis knows (no), cares (no) or has any comedy chops whatsoever (no). For Jen, it’s medical misogyny o'clock again, with new research suggesting autoimmune conditions are, in fact, not just in our pretty little heads. Plus, there’s good news for victims in rape...

Hannah Arendt's most famous expression - the banality of evil - might be well quoted, but the woman herself is less widely known. Her time in the Gurs internment camp in France is the subject of a new play by Julia Pascal. Hannah talks to the playwright and director about life for women in camps, the importance of critical thinking and why Arendt's work is as vital as ever.  * Tickets for The...

It seems there’s scarcely a person alive, male or female, who doesn’t have some kind of hang-up about their hair. Whether we have too much, not enough, whether it’s the right colour or texture, we’re all obsessed and who can blame us? After all, human hair is fascinating, or at least that’s what author, educator and evolutionary biologist Judy Wearing thinks. Jen chats to Judy about her new book A...

Award-winning author Liz Hyder’s new book, The Teller of Tall Tales, is aimed at young adults but a total delight for grown-ups, too. Because we never grow out of stories: telling them and, well, being them.  Mick chats to Liz about old-school folk and fairy tales with a modern sensibility, heavy awards, telling tales, second person narratives, the privilege of writing for the young adult aud...

Brace yourself for a tension bellyache as Shane Meadows’ violence-smeared, working-class coming-of-age drama gets Rated or Dated. This Is England firmly marked out Meadows as the voice of working-class realism and introduced a host of brilliant British character actors to the screen. But 20 years on from its release, and more than 40 years on from its 1983 setting, is it still horribly, terrifying...

Amelia Bullmore is about to star in Margaret Atwood's stage adaptation of her book The Penelopiad. So Hannah grabbed the chance to chat to the actress about The Odyssey and the price its women pay, as well as learning the guitar for Riot Women and, if you're a Standard Issue supporter, an early misunderstanding about the makeup bus.  * Tickets for The Penelopiad are here: https://ww...

Paralympic athletes Tully Kearney and Melanie Woods are used to be recognised for their performance in the pool and on the track. And now they’re being recognised for their overall contributions to sport, with nominations in children’s charity Variety’s biannual Disability Sports Awards. Jen caught up with them to find out more about their careers, having mental fortitude, helping others get into...

It's 12 years since Standard Issue was founded by the boss, Sarah Millican. To celebrate, and just for the ears of our Patreon supporters, we got together to get the party started with a shuffle through our Spotify playlists.  This is a preview. To hear the whole podcast and enjoy the other many benefits of membership, click here: Standard Issue Podcast | creating a magazine for ears, by wome...

This week Mickey takes a look at the case of the Cornell Seven, as well as what this year's PM, Andy Burnham, has planned for a better Britain. Which may happen. At some point. Meanwhile, Hannah's venturing back into the world of sport, and there's some dispute over which is the cutest of the world's most newly discovered species. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alex Cox’s biopic of punk-rock’s "ill-fated lovers" Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen, starring Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb, was met with critical acclaim upon release and in the years that followed. But has it romanticised a relationship in which a woman wound up dead? Does it glamorise heroin? And in what other ways has it done poor Nancy dirty? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/ad...

Iranian-American author Laleh Khadivi’s latest novel, Female Life on Planet Earth, centres on a mid-life woman, Heti, who comes up against some new information about her recently dead mum that questions everything she thought she knew about her. Or does it? From there, Laleh explores how an individual woman can be a multitude of women, and the distinctively female ability to regenerate.  She...

In 2013 director Grace Harper Brighouse began work on a film about her dad Richard’s dying dog, in a bid to heal their fractured relationship. Over the course of filming, tragic events unfolded within the family, changing the nature of the film and the discussion about Richard’s long-standing drug addiction. More than a decade later, the finished film became her debut feature documentary Dependenc...

In this month's Outside The Box, Jen and Hannah have been busying themselves watching Slow Horses, Youth, The Blame and Vigil, plus they look forward to the annual Autumn Drama Drop. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A romance/fantasy/drama/comedy, there's a lot going on in Terry Gilliam's New York-set classic. But does the story of grief, guilt and forgiveness still have something to say today? Hannah and Jen tuck in. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A hugely important work when it first ran on Broadway, it’s taken 50 years for Ntozake Shange’s seminal choreopoem For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuf to get a major revival in the UK. Overseeing that is director Diane Page, who’s brought it to The Yard Theatre, Hackney, for its grand reopening. Jen catches up with Diane to find out more about the play, why it’s...

Painter Beryl Cook divided the art world when she burst into the public consciousness in 1976. This year, she would have celebrated her 100th birthday, so Hannah grabbed some time with Hilary Bracegirdle, writer of new biography, Beryl Cook: Life and Art, and Teresa Cook, Beryl’s daughter-in-law, to find out more about the artist's life, work and legacy. You can grab a copy of Beryl Cook: Life and...

This week, Hannah and Jen are talking about a Hyrox horror, Carers UK's new report, unrest in the countryside, a drug hoping to stave off Alzheimer's, bad behaviour at Flushing Meadows (no pun intended) and, inevitably, Sydney Sweeney's tits.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2025 was a big year for horror, with the genre not only having some big releases, but also taking home some big awards. Including an Oscar for Amy Madigan for her role in Zach Cregger’s supernatural mystery horror, about a community left questioning WTF is going on when all but one child from the same classroom disappears at exactly 2.17am, running into the night like demented penguins. Hannah, Yo...

Many parents are moving away from the more authoritarian ideas of previous generations. But is it possible so-called “gentle parenting” has passed the point of being useful? Dr Siggie Cohen, a leading child development specialist, Instagram sensation, and author of new book You Are the Parent: Becoming the Calm Confident Leader Your Child Needs, thinks there is another way. Jen chats to...

September is Gynecological Cancers Awareness Month, so Hannah took the chance to catch up with our friend Jane Hill, a writer and comedian who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer last year. Jane’s Substack, Have You Got Somebody With You?, has been chronicling her experiences, so they chat about that, about planning for the worst, going through cancer "alone" and how she got that title for an Edinbu...

Spider bites, violent pensioners, a Bill about dying that refuses to die, some appalling headline writing, and bonnes nouvelles de France – Mick and Hannah have braved this week’s news (and the garden), so you don’t have to.  Here’s Mick’s chat with Alessia Camoirano about Britain’s Forgotten Girls Here’s Hannah’s chat with Professor Clare McGlynn about extreme pornography Learn more about yo...

Across Britain, young girls from all demographics are being groomed, trafficked and sexually exploited by drug gangs. Authorities have been warned repeatedly about what’s happening to these girls, often known as ‘gift girls’, and yet the same failures continue.  In Britain’s Forgotten Girls, a documentary for BBC Current Affairs, director, producer and journalist Alessia Camoirano speaks to s...

Salma Hayek and Penélope Cruz star in Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg’s "Western" "action" “comedy”, but what will the script by *eyeroll* Luc Besson have them do in this tale of two unlikely bank robbers? How empowering is wet brawling? How many times will Jen, Hannah and Mick say “tits” in this episode? And who on earth is this film for? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/ad...