In this special bonus episode of Changes, Annie talks about nightclubs with The Blessed Madonna - their history, their cultural significance and their tenuous future after Covid restrictions ravaged the industry in the last two years. Through statistics, lived experience and passion for what night-clubs can do to and for a person, Marea and Annie explore exactly why clubs matter.We couldn’t think of a better person to speak with than Marea; with years of DJing experience at some of the most treasured nightclubs in the world, from Smart Bar in Chicago to Berghain in Berlin. And fittingly, the voice of Fred again..’s ‘We’ve Lost Dancing’ song that documented the sadness, confusion and optimism of the events of last year. In 2021, as countries began to ease COVID-19 restrictions, iconic venues all over the globe reopened their doors to welcome back DJs and dancers. Although there were joyous moments throughout the summer and Autumn, the year of reopening did not mark the “roaring 20s'' we all predicted.While technically open for business, many dance music venues are facing pandemic-related debts that threaten to close their doors for good. A few have been passed over for crucial reopening grants, and others were affected by another round of lockdowns.  In 2022, dance music scenes and venues all over the globe are fighting for survival. Join Annie and The Blessed Madonna to hear their unique perspective, as they share their thoughts and stories. You can also watch this conversation, sponsored by Amazon Music here:Amzn.to/ChangesPodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What entity better captured the spirit, energy, and atmosphere of the '90s than the Spice Girls? From the outside, it was a fairytale: five girls, all utterly relatable and recognisable, were plucked from obscurity and turned into the world's biggest popstars. Melanie Chisholm was one of those girls, but we didn't know her by that name. To us, she was Mel C, or Sporty Spice – and all these years later, she's still figuring out where one identity ends and the other begins. The Spice Girls, in its first iteration, was over almost as soon as it begun – just a couple of short years of world domination – but the ripple effects of that period have followed Melanie well into her adulthood. This is a conversation about the realities of becoming an overnight sensation, both positive and negative, and the long road to self-discovery. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In recent years, there has been a huge change in eating habits, with many of us choosing to eat more plant-based foods. Even some of the biggest fast-food chains in the world are now offering plant-based alternatives and nearly 1 in 3 Brits drink plant-based milk alternatives.  In this bonus episode of Changes, sponsored by Oatly, we explore this transition with the help of vegan chef Rachel Ama. We discuss why it’s happening now, the trends and the myths, along with the idea of making a plant-based diet work around your life, not rule it. Rachel Ama became vegan 7 years ago and now has over 600k subscribers to her YouTube channel. She won the Observer Food Monthly Rising Star award in 2019, the same year she released her bestselling debut cookbook Vegan Eats, and last year she released her second cookbook, One Pot: Three Ways. You can buy those here: https://www.rachelama.com/new-page-31. Rachel is the perfect guest to speak about our new normal and share her expertise.  Our sponsors Oatly have recently launched ‘The New Norm & Al Show’ featuring Norm & Al, oat drink carton puppets who, like many of us, are trying to navigate the switch to plant-based eating. You can stream it at https://www.oatly.com/. Reference is made in this episode to the following survey:https://www.mintel.com/press-centre/food-and-drink/the-cream-of-the-vegan-milk-crop-sales-of-oat-milk-overtake-almond-in-the-uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Can you imagine not knowing anything about your family, being rejected by the one you thought you knew and, at 17, finding out your real name and that your mother did in fact want you? In honour of Care Day, the world's largest celebration of the successes and achievements of children and young people with experience of care, which took place on Friday, we welcome to Changes, the hugely celebrated poet, writer and phenomenal human, Lemn Sissay. A man who was stolen from his mother, rejected by his foster family and moved through the care system from one brutal institution to the next. Lemn is now a BAFTA nominated International prize winning writer and was appointed an OBE in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to literature and charity. In this episode, Lemn recounts in detail the physical journeys he took when being driven away from his foster family, the only life he knew and, later in life, travelling to meet his mother for the first time in Africa. It is deeply moving.  Lemn’s unique and incredible story of determination as well as his perspective on the concept of family, home and how we can improve care for children are both humbling and incredibly important. Here Lemn shares his unbelievable story with Annie, his most recent changes and his relationship now to the word ‘Care’.  Lemn’s incredible Memoir, My Name Is Why was a number one Sunday Times Bestseller. You can buy it here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Name-Why-Lemn-Sissay/dp/1786892340His new children's book Don’t Ask The Dragon can be pre ordered here (released Friday 24th February 2022) https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09DZ477R5/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i4Visit Lemn’s exhibition at the Foundling Museumhttps://foundlingmuseum.org.uk/event/superman-was-a-foundling/ You can find out more about Care Day here: https://careday.org/ Content: Abuse, neglect, racism, addiction. Should you be affected by anything raised in this episode, there is help on hand. In the UK, The Samaritans can be reached on 116 123. You can also contact Mind on 0300 123 3393 or head to mind.org.uk. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14. Hotlines in other countries can be found http://www.suicide.org/international-suicide-hotlines.html Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We bring you a very unique episode this week, where Annie speaks to her husband Tom (a music producer who goes by the name Toddla T). It’s an incredibly insightful and generous conversation about being diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, becoming sober and how they have both navigated those changes together. ‘Four years after meeting Tom at Fabric nightclub, we had a baby together. We had another kid just under four years later. We’ve been together for 13 years in all. We’ve both had to grow up a lot since becoming parents, but since we got married in 2018, Tom has had a reckoning of sorts in terms of understanding himself, and this is all due to a huge change that happened in his life a few years ago, where he got an adult diagnosis of ADHD. I asked him to talk to me about his changes, and we covered his journey from being a misunderstood kid in school, to his epiphany of discovering music, to becoming famous, to becoming sober and the crippling anxiety that came as a result of that, to finally finding clarity after visiting an ADHD specialist and the work in progress that is his recovery. ‘We really hope you enjoy this very special episode of Changes. All the links that Annie and Tom mention in the episode are as follows:https://adhdaware.org.uk/what-is-adhd/getting-nhs-diagnosis/https://aadduk.org/help-support/specialists-support-and-coaches/Scattered Minds by Gabor Mate https://www.amazon.co.uk/Scattered-Minds-Origins-Attention-Disorder/dp/1785042211The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober by Catherine Grayhttps://www.amazon.co.uk/Unexpected-Joy-Being-Sober-alcohol-free/dp/1912023385Untangle Your Anxiety: A Guide To Overcoming An Anxiety Disorder By Two People Who Have Been Through It by Joshua Fletcher and Dean Stotthttps://www.amazon.co.uk/Untangle-Your-Anxiety-Overcoming-Disorder/dp/B08YQM9SPY/ref=sr_1_4?crid=1ZXJHAT5OSQA5&keywords=anxiety&qid=1644340522&sprefix=anxiety+%2Caps%2C190&sr=8-4ADHD and Anxietyhttps://www.instagram.com/p/CZiPPFHK7Xp/?utm_medium=copy_linkShould you be affected by any of the issues raised in this episode, in the UK, The Samaritans can be reached on 116 123. You can also contact Mind on 0300 123 3393 or head to mind.org.uk. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14. Hotlines in other countries can be found http://www.suicide.org/international-suicide-hotlines.html Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Damon Albarn is a man whose whole creative ethos is based on change. His career spans over three decades now, with thirty albums released. His band Blur have released 8 studio albums, with Park Life released in 1994 the same year that Oasis released Definitely Maybe. It defined an era, making Blur synonymous with the 90s and the term Britpop. As co-founder of Gorillaz with Jamie Hewlett he has sold over 25 million records worldwide. He is prolific collaborator, forming various bands, like The Good, the Bad & the Queen with Paul Simonon of the Clash, Simon Tong of the Verve, and Tony Allen of Fela Kuti and Rocket Juice And The Moon, again with Tony Allen and flea from Red Hot Chilli Peppers. He’s worked with the Strokes, Bobby Womack, De La Soul and so many more! Damon has also created film scores, composed an opera, written music for a musical called Wonderland and is one of the people behind the Africa express movement, a platform for exchanges between African and western musicians. Damon is 53 now, with a grown up daughter and spends him time between London and Devon and Iceland, where he has just received Icelandic citizenship. He is as busy as ever. His latest solo album The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows, has had rave reviews and is out now. You can buy it here: https://damonalbarn.ochre.store/?ffm=FFM_bc82b474204774cc44f23dbfe8711498  We met at Damon’s studio in Tottenham before Christmas and had a lovely meandering conversation starting with Damon as a teenager going through bullying in school, moving to rural Essex, the start and the end of Blur, the inception of Gorillaz, social media addiction, metal detecting, and being witchy … Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Changes is back for a new year and kicking off with an emotional and inspirational conversation with award winning journalist, broadcaster and author Elizabeth Day.From the outside Elizabeth Day’s career has been an indisputable success story, a double first in history at Cambridge, a British Press Award for Young Journalist of the Year in 2004, endless writing credits and five novels. But it’s her podcast How To Fail and her memoir How To Fail: Everything I’ve Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong and Failosophy: A Handbook For When Things Go Wrong that have ironically been her biggest successes. Elizabeth talks us through her biggest changes, from a move to Northern Ireland at the age of 4 and her troubles fitting in with an English accent in school there, to her divorce in her late thirties and her struggles with trying to have a baby. All of these things changed her sense of self and they way she looked at the world. And in that way that change can, she was able to do things differently as a result of them. How To Fail was her reaction to her own personal failures and has been a huge success as a podcast. And her latest novel Magpie, is borne out of Elizabeth wanting a book to exist in the world that tells the story of those women who struggle with infertility. The result is a thrilling, unique, and at times, heart wrenching novel. Elizabeth is remarkably open and articulate in talking about her IVFs and her miscarriages here, in a way that so many women will relate to and will find comforting and constructive. We thank her! And hope that you enjoy this episode.  You can buy Magpie and any of Elizabeth’s previous books here:https://www.elizabethdayonline.co.uk/booksYou can listen to How To Fail, the podcast here:https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/how-to-fail-with-elizabeth-day/id1407451189 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Changes is back for one last lap of 2021. It's been a year of high hopes, broken promises, and, in amongst it all, some fairly profound changes (end of Trump! Vaccine! Billionaires flying to space in rockets!). To help us make sense of it all, we've invited the excellent comic and actor, Lolly Adefope onto the show for a bit of a debrief on the year that was. Lolly's been busy charming audiences on both sides of the Atlantic for the last few years – with roles in Ghosts, This Time with Alan Partridge, and the TV adaptation of Lindy West's memoir, Shrill. Even amongst the turmoil of the pandemic, she's been moving from strength to strenth, so we're thrilled to welcome her onto the show now, before bidding adieu to 2021 for good. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Series finale time, and we're not just talking "a" change, we're talking THE change – with a bona fide national treasure, no less. Davina McCall is part of the fabric and texture of day to day life in the UK. As a TV presenter she has been a warm, generous, and deeply empathetic fixture on our televisions since the dawn of Big Brother at the beginning of the millennium. The path she'd taken to that point was pretty bumpy, and you'll hear her talk a little bit about that in this conversation, but the main reason that we've invited Davina onto Changes is to talk about the menopause. Like countless women, Davina was blindsided by the first signs of her own perimenopause, ten years ago, and she's spent much of the time since trying to get to the bottom of the truth about what was happening to her body. She's discovered more than she could have possibly imagine, and she's on a mission to share that information with as many people as possible, so that the big change of menopause might be less of an ambush for generations of women still to come. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Prue Leith is a living legend, and one of the most joyous conversationalists we've ever hosted on Changes. It's difficult to know where to start with the life that Prue has led. Most will know her as one of the judges of The Great British Bake Off, but you can pretty easily get dizzy reading her CV – novels, cook books, michelin star winning restaurants, catering companies, cookery schools – etc ad infinitum. Prue believes that life should be punctuated by plenty of little revolutions, and she's made an astounding career of practicing exactly what she preaches. Given that outlook, she's exactly the kind of guest we love on Changes – full of insight and perspective about the nature of change itself. It is quite simply a delight to hear her talk. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.