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Lisa Owens is a writer who quit her job as an editor at independent publisher Profile Books to study creative writing at the University of East Anglia. Her debut novel Not Working was published last year by Picador about a girl called Claire who quits her job to “find herself”. We talk about her writing process, the importance of writing down your observations, how to self-edit and how to go about getting your first book published. We also talk about the potential narcissism of only reading non-fiction and why it’s sometimes awkward introducing yourself as a writer at dinner parties. AND *that* annoying question: “so what do you do?” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I interviewed the amazing author and The Everyday Sexism Project founder Laura Bates at Cheltenham Literature Festival on 9th October 2016 for a very special live episode of this podcast. Laura's new book GIRL UP tackles body image, relationships and social media pressures. It's a no-nonsense survival guide to growing up as a 21st century, empowered girl. We talk about sex education, body image, social media, feminist societies, educating boys and the power of speaking up. For this episode we are on stage at Cheltenham Ladies' College, Parabola Arts Centre and engaged with a lovely and warm audience of 300 people. It was such a special evening and I hope you enjoy this extra special 40th episode which is an hour long. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Meg is my friend and the founder of the Wonderful You blog and YouTube channel where she aims to change the traditional blogging industry with her unique art direction. She covers topics such as fashion, lifestyle, beauty, and travel, not afraid of speaking out on issues such as body and self confidence. She’s worked with loads of brands including Levi's, ASOS, Clinique, Wonderbra and Selfridges and she was one of The Media Eye’s - Rising Stars in June this year and is represented by Milk Management. We talk about the future of blogging, body image, sponsored content, collaborating, and how sometimes it feels overwhelming keeping up with all the technology thrown in our faces daily. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cindy Gallop is an advertising consultant, founder and former chair of the US branch of advertising firm BBH . She is the founder of the IfWeRanTheWorld and MakeLoveNotPorn. Cindy’s TEDTalk "Make Love Not Porn" was one of the "most talked about presentations" at the 2009 TED conference and has been watched over one and a half million times. We talk about the future of sex, what “social sex” means, her company Make Love Not Porn, why people (women especially) should work for themselves and why we shouldn’t believe a lot of the random sex surveys out there. Cindy is the fountain of knowledge for each things porn related and I found talking to her very very inspiring indeed. Hope you enjoy this epiosde, feel free to tweet us afterwards your thoughts @emma gannon and @cindygallop or @makelovenotporn. “I really urge women to aspire to much more than flexible working. To aspire to starting and designing your own business to be the business you want it to be.” - Cindy Gallop Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I’ve been a fan of Mara Wilson since I was 7 years old. She is the star of my favourite film from when I was little, the 1996 film "Matilda" based on the book by Roald Dahl. She’s also known for her roles in Mrs. Doubtfire and the 1994 remake of Miracle on 34th Street. Nowadays, she’s an author, a playwright and occasional actress. I caught up her with her to talk about her new book, out TODAY (13th SEPTEMBER) called “Where Am I Now? True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame.” I loved this conversation - Mara is one of my favourite people to follow online and on Twitter and I’ve loved reading her writing on her blog and her musings on life. \ \\\\\\\\\ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

She is the sweary big sister of the Internet who gives brilliant and thought-provoking weekly advice via her column “Ask Polly” for New York Magazines “The Cut”. She answers all sorts of questions from “How do I dump my crappy best friend?” to “I’m broke and I hate my job” to “My sister has cancer and I can’t go on.” It’s my favourite weekly column and every week I’m excited to read it. I always learn something important. She has a book that’s just come out called “How To Be a Person In The World” which has a whole load of #AskPolly columns in there, both new and old ones and has had amazing reviews including the New Yorker. She is also the author of the memoir DISASTER PREPAREDNESS (published by Riverhead, 2011) and she was Salon.com's TV critic for 7 years. We talk about writing, standing out from the crowd, writing a column, what advice we take and why being "guru" doesn't appeal. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hannah Witton has popular YouTube channel with over 200,000 subscribers and likes to spread positive messages about sex, relationships, body image, gender & sexuality and doesn’t take herself too seriously.She’s worked with the likes of MTV & Durex – In 2013 she was shortlisted for Young Person of the Year at the Sexual Health Awards and Her short film on the History of Homosexuality was a finalist in the Guardian and Oxford University Press’ Very Short Film Competition in 2013. in 2014 she was shortlisted for Best Vlog at the Cosmopolitan Blog Awards.Hannah was also the first ever YouTuber to present Radio 1’s hour long show ‘The Internet Takeover’.We talk feminism, hormones, contraception, periods and MORE! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cariad Lloyd is an award-winning actor, improviser, comedian and writer. She has appeared in Peep Show, Have I Got News For You and Qi. She has been improvising for ten years and is one of the creators of Austentatious: The Improvised Jane Austen Novel, who have had four sell-out Edinburgh Festivals. Visit austentatiousimpro.com for all the upcoming tour dates. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lucy Lendrem started off as an account manager at Gleam Digital in 2013 which created social strategies for brands like Chanel and Unilever - it later turned into Gleam Futures (a social talent agency that manages the most influential social talent in the world.) She now heads up the UK talent as a group talent manager. She was recently on The Drum’s 50 under 30 which highlighted 50 of the most impressive digital pioneers shaking up the industry. We discuss what it's like behind the scenes working at Gleam managing the top tier social talent like the lovely Zoella, how we need to lift each other up to make the industry do better as a whole, and what goes into being an "agent" in a new-ish industry. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gemma Cairney is a radio presenter who currently presents The Surgery on Wednesday evenings at 9.00pm on BBC Radio 1. In January 2015, Gemma started a production company called Boom Shakalaka Productions. The company produces various types of content, including podcasts and theatre. Boom Shakalaka produced a show about depression at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2015 called 'My Beautiful Black Dog'.Since 2008 Gemma has presented the BBC’s Glastonbury festival coverage and in 2015 she co-hosted BBC1’s New Year’s Eve coverage alongside Nick Grimshaw.In 2013, Gemma launched the Fox Problem alongside Georgia LA and Georgie Okell which was an entertainment show live-streamed via YouTube.A few weeks before recording this podcast Gemma announced her first book called guide for life called Open: A Toolkit for How Magic and Messed Up Life Can Be which comes out March next week. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.