Standard Issue Podcast

The stage version of The Life of Pi is currently pulling in the crowds and snaffling all the Olivier nominations, so Hannah got on the Zoom with the woman responsible for adapting the book: Lolita Chakrabarti. They talk about the highs and lows of tackling such a well-loved novel and its themes of storytelling and faith, as well as chatting about some of Lolita's other recent projects, including A Working Diary, the book she wrote with her husband, fellow actor Adrian Lester.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do you turn a book of short stories into a cohesive play? This week, Mickey finds out as she chats Angela Carter, feminism, wolves and circus skills with Mary Swan, director of Proteus Theatre’s adaptation of The Bloody Chamber. Jen's been on the Zoom with US writer Kimberly Jones about her book, How We Can Win, and the economics of racial inequality in the US, and in Jenny Off The Blocks, she's looking forward to the Women's Six Nations. In BT, we're discussing P&O and Child Q, plus you can find out why an interview Hannah has been chasing for months (and is now not happening), turns out to be really good news. And we take a listener's suggestion and tuck into My Cousin Vinny. Will we ever do that again? You can find out in this week's Rated or Dated.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Professor Jane Monckton Smith is a criminologist specialising in domestic homicide, a former police officer, a professor of public protection at the University of Gloucestershire, and responsible for groundbreaking work on coercive control and stalking. Too right we love her.In this Chops, she chats with Mick about her latest book, In Control: Dangerous Relationships and How They End in Murder, in which she lays out the eight stages of a domestic homicide timeline – the first temporal sequencing of domestic homicide, and vital to helping stop the appalling rates of domestic murder. It’s an outstanding book, which should be required reading for, well, everyone. And it’s testament to Jane that, despite the subject matter, it is both accessible and engaging. And out now in paperback, courtesy of Bloomsbury. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Comedian and Standard Issue fave Rachel Parris has been soliciting advice from strangers for her new book, which is called... Advice From Strangers. She chats to Hannah, from the back of a cab, about the joy and madness of actual advice from strangers, being on tour, and her candid writing about late miscarriage. Our resident music buff Liz Buckley is back and she's in a shiny hat, because this time she's talking to Mick about country music superstar, rhinestone queen, philanthropist, stealth feminist and absolute shero: Dolly Parton.In Jenny Off The Blocks, shit's getting real at Chelsea, and Jen's also wondering what the what is going on in the England women's cricket team. And in Rated or Dated, grab your hankies and prepare to shout "FIT!" a lot, because we're watching the devastatingly beautiful people in Anthony Minghella's Oscar-bothering 1997 romance/drama, The English Patient.Plus, apocalyptic times and, indeed, shenanigans in the Bush Telegraph.  Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aaron Sorkin's award-winning adaptation of much-loved Harper Lee novel To Kill A Mockingbird, is finally coming to London's Gielgud Theatre. In this week's Chops, Jen catches up with Pamela Nomvete and Gwyneth Keyworth, who play Calpurnia and Scout in the new production, to find out what it's like to play such beloved roles, how Sorkin has brought the play into the 21st century, and whether or not Scout is a revolutionary, rather than simply an innocent narrator.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's Hannah's Flicking pick and she chose the third film of a trilogy set in a time of pandemic AND war. So, is Matt Reeves' 2017 sci-fi, dystopian, performance capture, ape-tastic blockbuster good enough for Yosra and Mick to forgive her? All hail Caesar is all we're saying. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jessica Turner and Amara Karan are stars of Tim Walker’s new play Bloody Difficult Women, in which they play Theresa May and Gina Miller respectively, in a storyline that charts the events behind the court case Miller brought against May in 2016 and what’s happened since. They chat to our Jen about being powerful women – and making Theresa May sympathetic. Sorrywhatnow?Hannah’s been on the Zoom with comedian Hayley Ellis to chat touring with the boss (as in our boss, Sarah Millican), bringing up a baby in a pandemic, what she learned about comedy when she couldn't do it, and why it’s always key to check someone’s a real doctor before whipping your piles out. Sorrywhatnow?In Jenny Off The Blocks, it’s tough titties for Chelsea fans and loadsa medals at the Paralympics, and there’s a big cinematic hug in Rated or Dated as the team watch Stand By Me. Meanwhile, in BT, the good news is a plaque for women has been removed and Mick’s put International Women’s Day in the sin bin. SORRYWHATNOW? Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Psychologist and working-class feminist author Dr Jessica Taylor’s new book, Sexy But Psycho: How the Patriarchy Uses Women’s Trauma Against Them, is an uncompromising challenge to the psychiatric labelling and medicalisation of women and girls. And blimey, what a book: huge food for thought and a push for seismic change, engagingly written.In this Chops, she chats to our Mick (fresh from having her mind blown) about why she’s challenging the traditional medical model of psychiatry, the incalculable damage caused by pathologising women, the straight line between “she’s a witch!”, “hysteria” and borderline and emotionally unstable personality disorders, false comfort in diagnosis, why everyone should be cautious when seeking mental health diagnoses, and the huge pros of a trauma informed response to mental health. Oh, and why Freud needs to get in the sea.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why is everyone in Iceland so happy? Might it be that they are closer to gender equality than most? In this week's podcast, Hannah chats to writer, journalist and First Lady of Iceland, Eliza Reid, about life for women in a country with the same number of residents as Nottingham, and her new book Secrets of The Sprakkar. With the Winter Paralympics just a few days away, Jen's been on the blower to Vicky Gosling, chief executive of GB Snowsport, to talk about a disappointing Winter Olympics and hope for the future. We're struggling again with the binary nature of Rated or Dated as Mickey picks this week's film, Tim Burton's Mars Attacks! And it's good news for Hank The Tank, but not much else to cheer about as we say het bonhe in this week's Bush Telegraph.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My Pen is The Wing of a Bird is an excellent new book - on sale now -  featuring short stories by 18 new female writers in Afghanistan. It exists thanks to the hard work of the people behind the writers' development programme Untold, and exists despite the not insubstantial obstacles of a global pandemic and the disaster that befell Afghanistan last summer. In this week's Chops, Hannah talks to the founder of Untold, Lucy Hannah, and Shekiba Habib, one of the translators who worked on the stories, and now lives in the UK. The chat about life for women in Afghanistan today, the work necessary to pull this book together and the variety of stories it tells.My Pen is the Wing of a Bird is published by MacLehose Press. Untold Narratives CIC works with writers marginalised in society by community or conflict. You can support Untold’s work here: http://untold-stories.org/donate/Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices