Standard Issue Podcast

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 about death. You may remember that back in May, Hannah and Mick hosted a panel event talking about death for Macmillan. The chat was fascinating and the reaction was ‘more please!’ from listeners and panel guests alike. And we don’t like to disappoint.If it gets you thinking about how and where you would like to be cared for at the end of your life, choosing the funeral you’d like, the legacy you want to leave behind or who you want to remember in your will, Macmillan has information and resources to support the conversation and help you have it. Talking about death can be difficult but having honest conversations and taking small but simple steps, such as writing a will, can help you and your family prepare emotionally, practically and financially. Macmillan Cancer Support offer a will-writing service to help you take that first step in planning for the future, so you can get on with living life as fully a you can. Visit macmillan.org.uk today for information and support.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

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 Jenny Off The Blocks, Jen gets the lowdown on the forthcoming Netball World Cup from luminary of the game and BBC Sport pundit, Sara Bayman.Dunleavy Does Dystopia takes on the harrowing Children of Men, while in the Bush Telegraph the team hope, as ever, to wake from the dystopian nightmare of the Boris, Brexit and bumholes. 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

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 acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 menstruation, Maisie Hill.Mick and Jen had a natter with Maisie, and we're pretty sure what she has to say will excite and inspire you to harness those hormones and make them work better in your world – and make you ever so curious about these incredible bodies we inhabit, but which have had so little research attention. Oh, and prepare to hear a few facts, good and bad, that will blow your mind.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

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 information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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-medal owning Olympian rower Katherine Grainger to talk what’s what in women’s sport right now, and Dunleavy Does Dystopia goes back in time to 1984’s Nineteen Eighty-Four/looks outside for a bit. And in the Bush Telegraph, there’s a cracking list of names you can call Farage, and a cupboard’s worth of soiled jizz-flannels in Sexism of the Week. 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 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 Michael Gove's recent drugs-related revelations mean for his crack at the Tory leadership contest, and chats drugs in the Commons in general, with host of the Say Why To Drugs podcast Dr Suzi Gage and one of our favourite political correspondents, Ayesha Hazarika. 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

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 best drugs policy and about who, if anyone, is winning the war on drugs.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

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 Mick about her book Sunny Side Up.There’s peak Trump, good news/bad news over at Nike, and some Nigey nonsense in the Bush Telegraph, leopard print barnets and football fever in Jenny off the Blocks, and Dunleavy Does Dystopia watches Demolition Man. Be well.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