Standard Issue Podcast

On day three of our International Women's Day 2020 series, we give you the gift of Su Pollard, actor and national treasure, best known as Hi-de-Hi's Peggy, and now starring in one-woman show Harpy. Jen chats to Su about mental health, ageing stars, wedding singers and upsetting passengers from the mighty Harwich Ferry. And parrots, obviously.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

Inspiring force of nature and all-round top woman Sophie Walker chats to Mickey about: activism and how we can all get involved; being an optimistic feminist (and how we can all be one); how being the founding leader of the Women’s Equality Party changed her life; her recent appointment as CEO of The Young Women’s Trust, and her brilliant book, Five Rules For Rebellion: Let’s Change The World Ourselves. 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

In the first of our special interviews celebrating International Women's Day 2020, Hannah and Jen chatted to actor and writer Amelia Bullmore about her varied career. They talked about working with such excellent women as Sally Wainwright and Val McDermid, the joy of costumes, Coronation Street and - of course - I'm Alan Partridge, as well as how to write crime drama responsibly. Loads more bonus IWD podcasts to enjoy this week, so don't forget to press subscribe wherever you are listening to this to make sure you don't miss any of them.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

In this episode Jen catches up with author Molly Aitken to chat about her debut novel, The Island Child. They talk about motherhood, mental health, mythology, and why women don't ever seem to catch a break when it comes to complicated characters.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

At last year's Edinburgh Fringe, Mick, Hannah and Jen had a bloody lovely chat with comedian Laura Lexx and presenter and author Janet Ellis. They talked about finding a thing's peril (but doing it anyway!), the joy and revelation of napping, Goldie the dog, Goldie the musician, and the importance of the Night Stool Man. You’re probably going to have to listen if you want to know what that means.Our next gig is on March 29 as part of Podfest Birmingham, where we’ll be joined by bloody excellent actor and writer Helen Monks, comedy legend Janice Connolly aka Mrs Barbara Nice, and our very own flipping boss, Sarah Millican. Check out our website standardissuepodcast.com for info on all of our gigs, including where you can buy tickets.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

From Marian Keyes to Jilly Cooper, Joanne Harris to Toni Morrison, Barbara Cartland to Gabriel Garcia Marquez: romantic novels are a broad church able to tackle a lot of big topics and hot potatoes. And yet a lot of people still get sniffy when it comes to romance. We chatted to the bloody smashing Alison May, Chair of the Romantic Novelists’ Association – this year celebrating its 60th anniversary – about changing hearts and minds, inclusivity, literary love stories, that time Cliff Richard played Heathcliff, why Same Girl by Usher and R Kelly would make a terrible romantic novel, and the intriguing sounding “banging” line of Mills & Boon books called Dare. Crikey Moses.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

Ever wondered why some of the women around you just can't seem to catch a break in the workplace? In the fourth and final episode of our series on pregnancy, Jen catches up with Aceil Haddad, head of comms at the pregnancy and maternity rights charity Pregnant Then Screwed. They chat about the problems facing women in the workplace who are pregnant, on maternity leave or have returned to work after having kids, as well as the "comedy" tropes associated with motherhood and older women, feeling seen, and just how many children Boris Johnson may or may not have.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

FANFARE PLEASE. It's our 100th podzine and, woman oh woman, is it a bumper banger. (Yes. Yes it is.) Kiran Millwood-Hargrave writes beautifully of women's experiences from history and The Mercies, her debut adult fiction (although don't think you're too old to read her children's and YA books), is no different, charting a 17th Century real-life devastating storm and imagining what happened in the three years between that and a real-life devastating witch hunt. She tells Jen all about The Mercies and its inspiration.Comedian, actor and writer Katherine Jakeways joins the team to talk spending rather too much time with family, what it's like writing for radio, the art of audio spoon balancing and her new Radio 4 sitcom, Teatime. Becka McFadden tells us about Legal Aliens Theatre Company's play Closed Lands, and we chat why the West is so keen on building walls, both literal and metaphorical. There's really bad wind as Dunleavy Does Disaster tackles Twister and the stomach-churning effect of Bill Paxton's character within it. And in the Bush Telegraph, Jen has some excellent words on how we can all be better at the media and why that's necessary. Among other stuff. So cover yourself in tampons for warmth (see SOTW for more details) and get stuck in.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

We hear quite a lot about the joy and wonder of pregnancy, rather less about the stress of wondering if something's wrong or you just need to fart. In part three of our series on pregnancy, Jen talks to Anna Cook, team member at Mumsnet, about mental health in pregnancy, the anxiety around growing a human, and what you can do to help yourself and others experiencing it.   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

Journalist Hazel Davis had The Best Time when we sent her to the British Library to chat with author and all-round hilarious woman Nina Stibbe. Chat veers delightfully wildly from Nina's first book, Love, Nina, to wayward mothers, prudish teens, being first published at 50, and when it's okay to risk pissing off your entire family. Nina's novel Reasons To Be Cheerful is out in paperback now. 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