Ctrl Alt Delete

Welcome to Ctrl Alt Delete! My guest today is one of my favourite authors, the incredibly inspiring force of nature that is Naomi Alderman! She is the multi-award-winning novelist of Disobedience and The Power. Disobedience has been adapted into a film directed by Sebastián Lelio, based on the novel of the same name by Naomi and stars both Rachael McAdams and Rachel Weiz. It is out in cinemas now. And The Power is one of Obama's favourite books! No big deal.Speaking of cinemas: I'm excited that this episode is in partnership with Curzon Cinemas. http://bit.ly/2P1WwKZFor nearly a century, Curzon has been pioneering ways to bring audiences exclusive access to a brilliant selection of award winning, classic and contemporary independent films from around the world. I'm excited to tell you about Curzon Home Cinema. By registering you get access to a selection of the latest cinema releases available now to watch from the comfort of your own home. I love going to the cinema but I also love staying in (especially during this dark winter months). So wherever you are in the UK and Ireland, you can watch new films at home! So the choice is yours: watch your films at the cinema, or instantly at home, Curzon offers you both choices. Why not try out watching Disobedience at home?So, a bit more about the iconic Naomi Alderman. Her literary début came in 2006 called Disobedience, a well-received yet slightly controversial novel about a North London rabbi's lesbian daughter living in New York, which won her the 2006 Orange Award for New Writers, the 2007 Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, and a feature as one of the Waterstones 25 Writers for the Future.Her other novel, The Power, won the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction in 2017. The Power was THE book of the year last year, an incredible sci-fi/dystopian novel about gendered violence and the fetishisation of power. The premise of the book is that women are more powerful than men. God becomes a “she”; and men are frightened to walk alone at night.We discuss life as a polymath, what it's like having Rachel Weisz ring you up and want to turn your book into a film and how to know whether something is a good or bad idea when it comes to creating stuff. Thank you, Naomi. Such an inspiring episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest today is the wonderful Hari Nef: model, actress, activist and first trans woman signed to IMG Worldwide​​, one of the biggest model management firm​s in the world. ​She has grace​d​ the cover​s ​​​of​ publications such as Elle UK, Love Magazine and Interview, and has appeared in editorials in Vogue and Wonderland Magazine, among others. She may be currently best known for her ​role ​in the  Emmy award-winning series TRANSPARENT. ​​ ​Hari currently lives in LA and ​is currently starring​ in the Gucci Bloom fragrance campaign alongside Dakota Johnson and Petra Collins. Most recently Hari has starred in black comedy thriller Assassination Nation ​(also starring Suki Waterhouse) which ​i​​​​s out now in UK cinemas​. It is about ​​a group of best friends live in a world of selfies, emojis, snaps and sexts. But when their town of Salem is besieged by a massive data hack, resulting in half the citizens’ private info spewed into the public view, the community descends into anarchy. ​The Times have called it "The Crucible for the Instagram era​" and critics at The Guardian have said it "feels like the product of a one-night stand between Spring Breakers and The Purge."In this episode we chat about the film, dealing with internet storms, how to follow your gut when choosing which projects to work on and why she loves working on thrillers that centre around social media. Hope you enjoy! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pandora Sykes is a journalist and co-host of The High Low podcast. Pandora is a former colleague of mine; we were part of the launch team of the now defunct website The Debrief back in 2014. She was the fashion editor, I was the social media editor. She then went on to hold the iconic position of Fashion Features Editor and Wardrobe Mistress columnist of The Sunday Times Style magazine.Now, Pandora is now doing many different things; she is a journalist, brand consultant, podcast co-host and speaker. She is a Contributing Editor at Man Repeller and ELLE, she has written for titles including The Guardian, Marie Claire, Vogue, Red magazine, i-D, The Cut, Vogue Australia, The Spectator and The Sunday Times.Pandora is the co-host of an iTunes No.1 weekly culture podcast, The High Low (one of my faves) which she created with author and journalist, Dolly Alderton which has a major cult following.We discuss sharing, multi-hyphenate careers, career evolution, writing, authenticity and sticking to what feels right for you. This is Pandora's Manrepeller piece about online sharing that we discuss: https://www.manrepeller.com/2018/09/maintaining-selective-privacy-online.html   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

E. Lockhart is a New York Times bestselling author of ten novels, including We Were Liars, which was a New York Times bestseller and Zoella Book Club pick, and the novel Genuine Fraud, soon to be a film produced by Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner of HBO series Girls.In this episode we talk about writing, writing writing! The art of writing novels, how to keep your momentum when writing, how to study the books you love and how to manage your ego and ignore reviews, good and bad.Favourite quote from the episode:"The me who can write a novel is not the same me who goes to the grocery stores and swimming pool and does things with my family. That person doesn't know how to write a novel." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is with Scott Harrison, founder of Charity:Water and Joshua Coombes, founder of Do Something For Nothing. I had the best time getting to know two amazing entrepreneurs last week when I hosted a master class called "Passion to Purpose" at the WeWork Creator Awards in London. Scott has the most interesting story and has helped millions get access to clean water. Joshua is probably best known for the haircuts he offers to homeless people all over the world and whose stories he shares shares their stories to encourage people to connect with others. These two guys essentially created their own opportunities in social entrepreneurialism using cultural norms like water and grooming to serve marginalised communities. I learned a lot and I hope you find this episode as inspiring as I did. Thank you to WeWork for having me host this.  If you're an entrepreneur, you're going to want to know more about the Creator Awards pitch competition -  check out the WeWork London Creator recap  to learn more.  In the episode I mention the WeWork London Economic Impact Report which has a ton of interesting stats surrounding entrepreneurs.  Stay up to date with WeWork on IG and Twitter.     Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Estée Lalonde is a returning guest! Estée is a U.K.-based lifestyle vlogger, author and fellow podcaster, who shares her beauty and fashion expertise with more than 1.2 million subscribers on her YouTube channel every week. She has served as a brand ambassador for the likes of Lancôme, Garnier, and Adidas, and last year, she launched a podcast called The Heart Of It, in which she explores subjects that close to her heart — including feminism, travel, and tattoos — alongside guests. This year she launched a new podcast called On The Line, and she has also brought out a jewellery collection with DAISY London. We catch up on life, work, dates, crystals and everything in between. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jodi Picoult ​is the bestselling author​ of 25 novels.​​ Her books have sold over 15 million copies worldwide, and have been translated into​ almost 50 languages.​In this episode -- (recorded live at Foyles Charing Cross as part of Jodi's UK tour) -- we discuss her newest book A Spark Of Light, which centres around women, choice and abortion rights in America​. It unravels backwards, with characters held hostage in an abortion centre in Mississippi. As the novel goes on, you start to realise what brought all the different characters there.Jodi has always centred her novels around important topics. In her novel Nineteen Minutes, she wrote about the aftermath of a school shooting in a small town, and it was her first book to debut at number 1 on the New York Times best-seller list. Her book Change of Heart, published on March 4, 2008, was her second novel to debut at number 1 on that list.​ One of the books she might be also best known for is My Sister's Keeper, which was made into a film starring Cameron Diaz. In her book, Small Great Things​, she tackled racism and white supremacy.In 2016, Jodi joined the advisory board of Vida: Women in Literary Arts, which is a "non-profit feminist organization committed to creating transparency around the lack of gender parity in the literary landscape and to amplifying historically-marginalized voices, including people of color; writers with disabilities; and queer, trans and gender nonconforming individuals."Quotes from the episode:"When women don't tell their stories, narratives are written for us. And they are narratives of blame and shame.""Women's rights are universal rights.""We have to reach across the aisle. We have to speak to people who think differently to us. Instead of judging and talking, you have to sit back and listen, and hope they will give you the grace to do the same thing." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is with Areeq Chowdhury, founder and chief executive of the voluntary, youth-led, think tank WebRoots Democracy. I wanted to do an episode of Ctrl Alt Delete all about online voting. Can it happen? Will it happen? When will it happen?Other countries are already experimenting with online voting and we do everything with our phones, so I wanted to explore the pros and cons for this conversation. We discuss the benefits (research says online voting would make more people more likely to vote) and the push-backs, including security concerns, privacy and hacking and clicktivism. One thing that stood out from chatting to Areeq was that the people who would benefit the most from this would be people living with disabilities. For a lot of people, it's not a case of 'can't be bothered' it's a case of 'can't physically get there'.Areeq Chowdhury was born and brought up in Manchester and studied Economics and Political Science at the University of Birmingham where he began researching the relationship between the internet and political participation. After graduating in 2013, he moved to London and has worked at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the London Assembly, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and KPMG.At the age of 21, he founded WebRoots Democracy which has been leading the campaign for online voting and has been working with politicians, charities, thinktanks, and technology companies on researching the benefits and challenges of a digital democracy. He has authored and edited two reports on the topic: Viral Voting (2015) and Secure Voting (2016). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the second part of this interview, recorded live, which focuses on the audience Q&A! Katherine Ormerod is a journalist, influencer and author. She has worked as a journalist for over a decade, starting her career as a fashion assistant at Sunday Times Style, moving to Grazia to become Senior Fashion News & Features Editor then on to Glamour where she was Fashion Features Editor at Large. Prior to her career, she graduated with a MA(Hons) in History from the University of Edinburgh and went on to get a Master's in Fashion History & Theory from the London College of Fashion. Katherine has written for the FT, the Telegraph, Harper's Bazaar and the Mail on Sunday.In January 2017, she launched workworkwork.co, an anti-perfectionism platform where high-profile social media stars and women with aspirational careers share stories from their 'unedited' lives.​She's now written a book 'Why Social Media Is Ruining Your Life' a no-holds-barred, no-filter look at what social media is doing to us as a society, and how we can deconstruct the online fantasy to change our own attitudes about modern womanhood.Quotes from the episode:​"​S​ocial media takes all the WORK out."​ ​'Social media has to be ONE of the ​pans frying in our general life, it can't be the only pan frying. It can't be every part of the way you validate yourself. It can't be the only way you promote your career."  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Katherine Ormerod is a journalist, influencer and author. She has worked as a journalist for over a decade, starting her career as a fashion assistant at Sunday Times Style, moving to Grazia to become Senior Fashion News & Features Editor then on to Glamour where she was Fashion Features Editor at Large. Prior to her career, she graduated with a MA(Hons) in History from the University of Edinburgh and went on to get a Master's in Fashion History & Theory from the London College of Fashion. Katherine has written for the FT, the Telegraph, Harper's Bazaar and the Mail on Sunday.In January 2017, she launched workworkwork.co, an anti-perfectionism platform where high-profile social media stars and women with aspirational careers share stories from their 'unedited' lives.​She's now written a book 'Why Social Media Is Ruining Your Life' a no-holds-barred, no-filter look at what social media is doing to us as a society, and how we can deconstruct the online fantasy to change our own attitudes about modern womanhood.Quotes from the episode:​"​S​ocial media takes all the WORK out."​ ​'Social media has to be ONE of the ​pans frying in our general life, it can't be the only pan frying. It can't be every part of the way you validate yourself. It can't be the only way you promote your career."  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.