Standard Issue Podcast

Fairy tales have long been a source of life lessons and observations. Adding to that tradition and brimming with female power, Wild Folk: Tales From the Stones, by writer and illustrator Jackie Morris and stained glass artist Tamsin Abbott, is officially one of the most beautiful books in our Mick's possession. She chats with Jackie and Tamsin about the power of stories, the collaborative process, finding just the right sky and that aforementioned female power.  Wild Folk isn't as easily available as it should be, but you can – and should – get it from www.sevenfables.co.uk. Also, give Tamsin a follow @tamsintheshed and ditto Jackie @jackiemorrisartist, both on Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Featuring a couple of bona fide bangers by Irving Berlin, this Fred and Ginger bonanza, in which misunderstandings, misidentification and miscommunication slows true love's flow, was the pair's most successful film. But will the ‘idiot plot' be too frustrating for words? Can Mick deal with the sheer amount of tap dancing? Why is Hannah screaming and refusing to look at the screen? And what am “Venice”? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2017, fashion model and counsellor-turned gender equality campaigner Karen Dobres, found herself on the board of her local football club Lewes FC, despite never having had an interest in the sport. But she discovered a passion for the women's game and The Rooks made headlines as the first football club ever to pay its men's and women's team players equally. Her new book Pitch Invasion: My Story as a Feminist on a Football Club Board charts her time on the board. Jen caught up with Karen to chat about the book, the thorny topic of equal pay in football, the power of the sport to change hearts, minds and culture, and why football matters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hold Fast, the latest series of the BBC World Service's Lives Less Ordinary podcast, tells the extraordinary tale of the Avontuur, a 100-year-old sailing cargo ship which left Germany heading for the Caribbean in early 2020. What happened next could never have been predicted, as the world was gripped by a global pandemic and the 15-strong crew found themselves unable to disembark for 188 days. Hannah was delighted to chat to producer Christina Hardinge and composer Noémie Ducimetière about making a truly immersive podcast series about an incredible story of survival and teamwork. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This month's Outside The Box is a podcast of two halves. First up, Mickey and Hannah are chatting about Department Q, Untamed, Bookish and Parenthood. Then Jen arrives, and she and Hannah discuss Unforgivable, The Gone, Too Much, The Gilded Age and 1000 Men and Me: The Bonnie Blue Story. Yes, that is a whole lot of telly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A pig herding sheep? A kids film getting loads of Oscar nods? A main role containing just 16 lines of dialogue? Join Hannah and Jen as they discuss these and other unheard of (unherd of?) things, after watching an understated farmyard classic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2017 Katy O'Neill Gutierrez was keen to get outdoors with her newborn daughter. When she searched for local mum and baby groups that combined a love of the outdoors with meeting other new parents, she couldn't find anything that fit the bill, so she decided to start her own. What started as a few friends meeting in North London for a walk with their babies turned into Blaze Trails, which now has more than 60 groups across the UK meeting regularly. Jen chats to Katy about the significant impact of the organisation on the mental health of its members, combatting loneliness in new parents, barriers to getting active, and why equality can be so hard to come by in family life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When BBC journalist Melissa Hogenboom happened across a study looking at attitudes towards male and female breadwinners, it made her wonder what other power imbalances we see play out in our everyday lives and how they affect us. This inspired her fascinating new book Breadwinners: and Other Power Imbalances That Influence Your Life. Jen chats to Melissa about those inequalities, the value we place in different tasks, the point at which those values become entrenched, and why they hate the word “bossy”. Breadwinners I published by Canongate and available now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was smash hit city for Michael J Fox in 1985, with Rod Daniel's fantasy-comedyTeen Wolf following hot on the heels of Back to the Future, but did they have enough people in their hair and make-up department? Should 33-year-olds be at school? And how easy is it to accept a werewolf on your basketball team? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jo Hamilton was one of the most high-profile victims of the British Post Office Scandal in which she, along with hundreds of other innocent subpostmasters, was wrongly prosecuted for shortfalls caused by faulty accounting software. The scandal is quite rightly considered one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British judicial history – with the Government also very heavily implicated.  Jo's treatment at the hands of the Post Office had a devastating impact on, well, her whole world and that of her family. She went on to be a founding member of the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance and one of the 555 litigants in the successful group legal action of Bates & Others v Post Office Ltd. Her criminal conviction was overturned in April 2021. If you've seen ITV's remarkable four-part drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office, Jo is played by Monica Dolan.  And so when she heard Jo had written a book, Why Are You Here, Mrs Hamilton?, Mick jumped at the chance to talk to Jo about what happened, how it's changed her, and what still needs to happen in order for justice to be served.  Why Are You Here, Mrs Hamilton?: The Post Office Scandal and My Extraordinary Fight for Justice is published by Blink and available from all good bookshops. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Comedian Jessica Fostekew is going back on the road with her new show Iconic Breath, including short runs at the Edinburgh Fringe and at London's Soho Theatre. She chats to Hannah about still giving a shit, inherited traits, weightlifting, and guessing how old children are.  Tickets to Jess' Edinburgh show are here: ⁠https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/jessica-fostekew-iconic-breath⁠ And for the rest of the tour here: ⁠https://www.plosive.co.uk/events/jessica-fostekew-iconic-breath-tour-2026?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaeEOPT83EkJgQV4yVP68nYdyMzG6LkvUYfmigUxzV8a07a0OIu9RiwBU8e7Qw_aem_fRrrXp35p2e844kQG4z2tw Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Colman Domingo got an Oscar nod for his portrayal of John “Divine G” Whitfield in Greg Kwedar's film based on the real-life Rehabilitation Through the Arts programme (RTA) at America's Sing Sing Maximum Security Prison. Domingo is just one of a handful of professional actors starring alongside real-life alumni of RTA, a programme which gives them a sense of purpose and a close-knit group of friends. Yosra loved it when she saw it on its UK release last summer, but will Hannah and Mick feel the same? Could there even be tears in Dunleavyville?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lou Butcher, better known as the Topless Runner, has been running marathons naked from the waist up since having two mastectomies after being diagnosed with breast cancer. She chats to our friend Hazel Davis about health anxiety, body confidence, the politics of being bare chested and her memoir, Going Topless.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A fictional mystery without a solution masquerading as a true story is Australia's best film, you say? We do. Well, Hannah does anyway. But what does Mickey make of Peter Weir's dreamy boarding school drama/horror on a first watch?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hannah is happily child-free so she was glad to grab some time with author Helen Taylor to chat about her new book Childless By Choice, which is part memoir, part cultural history. They talk about "crazy cat ladies", societal pressure, misconceptions and the pressing question of who is going to look after us when we get old. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's a big one this week, as Mick and Hannah watch possibly the most cult of cult films: Richard O'Brien's stage show turned Jim Sharman's screen show, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. So many questions. Has there ever been a hotter Curry than Tim? How might the modern youth view it? Did Hannah sing along? And what's Mr Peanutbutter's favourite berry got to do with anything? We see you shiver with… you know. Mick mentions a couple of interesting articles, which you'll find here: https://www.them.us/story/yes-rocky-horror-picture-show-is-transphobic-transmisogynist And indeed here: https://www.bigissue.com/culture/theatre/rocky-horror-at-50-a-place-for-the-marginalised/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Comedian and storyteller, actress and broadcasting star, Desiree Burch is also a perimenopausal woman with plenty to say about it. Mick got on the Zoom to talk about Desiree's new show, The Golden Wrath, as well as the ups, downs and big bag of goo that is a woman's midlife.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2017, Zelda Perkins broke an NDA of more than 20 years to speak out against Harvey Weinstein. Since then, she's tirelessly campaigned to end the misuse and abuse of NDAS – non-disclosure agreements – used to silence victims. Her campaigning included setting up Can't Buy My Silence in 2021, and Mick chatted to her about that at the time.  Earlier this month, the Government announced it will ban NDAs designed to silence victims of workplace harassment and discrimination, a change that will be implemented through amendments to the Employment Rights Bill. A week later, the Lords passed it. This is a huge victory for Zelda – and the many brave people who have broken NDAs – after tireless campaigning, so obviously Mick got her back on the podcast to talk about the whats, whys, hows and what's next. For the full interview, get involved with our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/StandardIssue Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joel Schumacher's sci-fi psychological horror exploring the boundaries between life, death and redemption was chock-a-block with early 1990s Hollywood's hottest property. But who gets redeemed and why? What happens when Bacon meets ham? And for the love of God, why won't someone turn on a light? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2024, alongside Steph McCall and Olympic athlete Rose Harvey, Natasha Edwards co-founded BOLDLI running club, a response to safety concerns around women runners. Now, BOLDLI provides resources to help women gain the confidence to run when and where they want, and this year they've teamed up with the Altra Kielder Marathon to launch the Stay Out There: She Runs Free initiative. Jen was tickled pink to catch up not only with Natasha but also with former world, European and Commonwealth champion, Paula Radcliffe – you heard us! – who is also backing the initiative. They're talking about why groups like BOLDLI are so needed, life after competitive running, and that time a bloke tried to catch up with Paula. You can find out more information about the Altra Kielder Marathon here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Karis Kelly's award-winning play Consumed is about to tour the UK, so Hannah grabbed the chance to chat with the playwright about Northern Ireland in the arts, mother-daughter relationships, religion, superstition, OCD, trans-generational trauma, blood on stage and a lot more. Tickets for Consumed can be bought here:  https://painesplough.com/productions/consumed/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sally Gardner has had a long career of writing for children, for adults, and for everyone between. She chats to Hannah about her latest novel, The Bride Stone, growing up in London's Gray's Inn and about her belief that being dyslexic helped rather than hindered her writing career. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you ready for our close ups? Maybe not, but tuck in anyway as we watch Gloria Swanson's glorious swansong in Billy Wilder's dark comedy about lost fame, madness and how to arrange a funeral for a chimpanzee.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adventurer, award-winning travel writer and Director of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, Jean McNeil knows a lot about the world and our ever-more threadbare connection to it.  She chats to Mickey about her latest book, Latitudes: Encounters with a Changing Planet, a front-line witness account of the impact of climate change, and about her travels to and writing about remote, inhospitable places. Which started with being raised in one. And the fact Jean trained as a walking safari guide? Well, that's (big) catnip to our Mick.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During her career as a midwife, Dr Laura Abbott – now an associate professor in research at the University of Hertfordshire – became interested in the plight of women who gave birth in prison, or were separated from their babies by incarceration. And so she founded the Lost Mothers Project: a research project exploring the effects of mandatory separation of babies from women with Criminal Justice System involvement. As the Lost Mothers Project prepares to take its findings to Parliament, Jen chats to Laura about the vital work being done, an increased awareness of the England and Wales prison system for women, and why change needs to come now. You can find out more about the work of the Lost Mother's Project, including Scenes From Lost Mothers, here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The second series of crime drama Karen Pirie is about to arrive, so Hannah grabbed some time with its star Lauren Lyle to talk about why Karen's not like other detectives, but a lot like most women her age. They also chat about Toxic Town, The Bombing of Pan Am 103 and women who "do". Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Starring Michael J Fox, Christopher Lloyd and a genuinely beautiful school building, Robert Zemeckis's time travel comedy blockbuster continues to be a cultural touchstone. At the time, it dazzled at the box office and with critics alike. But 40 years on, how does it fare with Mick, Hannah and Jen? Do the inevitable time travel plotholes matter? How much did the young Jen fancy the young Fox? Does Mick own this 1980s smash on DVD? And, perhaps most importantly, what in the Doc Brown is going on with Hannah's hair?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oddbody is Rose Keating's debut short story collection, an anthology of bold and unsettling tales inspired by her love of horror – and the genre's intersection with the female experience. In this episode, Jen gets inside the weird and wonderful mind of the Marian Keyes Young Writer Award winner, as she and Rose talk about how the body horror genre lends itself to the lived female experience, the inherent comedy of horror, and the horror (the horror!) of eggs. Oddbody is published by Canongate and is available now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Author Esther Freud first shot to fame with her debut novel, Hideous Kinky, back in 1992. Her tenth novel, My Sister and Other Lovers, reunites readers with sisters Lucy and Bea, and astutely captures the realities of being a sister and having a sister. Spoiler: as much as pop culture would like us to think it, a sister is not a built-in BFF.  Our Mick chats to Esther about sisters, siblings, parents, the slippery nature of memory, and love in its many forms. My Sister and Other Lovers is published by Bloomsbury and out now Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rachel Talalay's 1995 take on the much-loved comic series Tank Girl had so much promise, but does it live up to its "truly feminist" hype? Who gets to decide? And how will a jazz-loving kangaroo-man help or hinder these efforts? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hannah's joined by playwright Iman Qureshi and director Hannah Hauer-King to chat about their play about the members of a lesbian choir, The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs. They chat about disability on stage, the search for community, and joining a uniquely British genre. * The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs is on at the Kiln Theatre until July 12. You can find tickets here: https://kilntheatre.com/whats-on/the-ministry-of-lesbian-affairs/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Theatre maker Jess Andrews found herself exploring the murky world of dating apps after she and her husband decided to join the polyamorous community. The experience inspired her to create her one-woman show I Met All My Friends on Dating Apps, which is now touring. Jen chats to Jess about misconceptions around polyamory, why no one's having a great time on dating apps and how we might fix some of the problems within it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This animated sci-fi adventure, adapted from Peter Brown's much-loved books and written and directed by Chris Sanders, got a fair few Oscar nods, even if it missed out on an actual statue. But how will the tale of futuristic, task-oriented robot Roz, thrust into mothering gosling Brightbill amid the natural world's chaos, fare with Mick, Hannah and Yosra? And what's Bullseye got to do with it? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is there a conspiracy to stop us watching a feel-good film about pensioners? Who was younger than Hannah when it was filmed? Whose legs does Jen envy? How high are Mickey's socks? We answer all these questions and more as we watch Ron Howard's sci-fi comedy drama about old people fighting age with the help of aliens.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this month's Outside The Box, Hannah and Jen are chatting about The Rehearsal, The Bombing of Pan Am 103, Beth, The Better Sister and The Last Anniversary.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Announced as the new associate artistic director of Regent's Park Open Air Theatre back in November 2024, Tinuke Craig is keen to show just how broad the theatre's programming can be. A production of Noughts and Crosses, based on the Malorie Blackman young adult series, and directed by Tinuke kicks it all off. Jen chats to Tinuke about bringing Noughts and Crosses to the stage, giving young actors a break, and the wet panic of British Summertime. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Where John Hughes first dared to tread, many – so very many – teen movies have followed. Starring Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy and Judd Nelson as five VERY DIFFERENT American high school kids thrown together in Saturday detention for various misdemeanours, does the Gen X cult classic pass muster with Mick, Hannah and Jen? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An emergency caesarean brought journalist Hannah Marsh's first child into the world. Afterwards, she struggled to make sense of the events that had led to his traumatic birth and her intense feeling of shame for not having the “perfect” birth she'd envisioned. Hannah set about looking into the origins of procedure, which in turn led to her new book, Thread: A Caesarean Story of Myth, Magic and Medicine.  Jen chats with Hannah about the many misconceptions about the caesarean (including thinking of it as a relatively recent procedure), the pressure on women around birth choices, and why women are struggling to have the births they want. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What makes a genius a genius? Do IQ tests teach us anything? Is a belief in genius right-wing coded? Hannah chats to journalist, author, broadcaster and Standard Issue fave Helen Lewis about her new book The Genius Myth, hero worship, eugenics, class and (braces) football. To hear the full interview or to listen ad-free you can:  * You can become a Standard Issue member here:  https://www.patreon.com/c/StandardIssue * Make a one-off payment here:  ⁠https://www.patreon.com/c/StandardIssue⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adapted from his own novel, Inconceivable, Ben Elton's 2000 directorial debut is hard to track down these days. Should Jen ever have unearthed it? Has Elton written a convincing female character in Joely Richardson's baby-hungry Lucy? Is Hugh Laurie just dialling it in? What in the sweet fancy Moses is Emma Thompson doing? And can Hannah and Mick ever get over the trauma of watching it?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Back in 2020, then-student Ella Lambert started The Pachamama Project, when she was just 20 herself. 500 million people worldwide experience period poverty, including 100 million girls who miss school every single month. The Pachamama Project creates and distributes reusable period products to vulnerable women, girls and people who have periods, including refugees, around the world.  Our Mick tried not to think about what she was doing when she was 20, and got Ella on the Zoom to talk more about the brilliant UK charity she founded and why its work is so important.  The Pachamama Project is always looking for people to get involved, by the way, so please do check out thepachamamaproject.org for info on how to do that.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Artist Kirstie McLeod founded the Red Dress project in 2009, as a platform for women in marginalised groups to share their stories. Sixteen years later, the collective embroidery project represents 380 embroiderers across 51 countries and is exhibited all over the world. Jen chats to Kirstie about the project, embroidery as a (perhaps) surprising medium through which to pioneer social justice, and the joy of putting needle to thread. The Red Dress is currently being exhibited at the Woven festival in Kirklees Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fresh from her run in The Almeida's Rhinoceros, singer, composer, writer and actor Anoushka Lucas is back on stage in a revival of her one-way play Elephant. She chats to Hannah about why going back to it is a bit like reading an old diary, having a spectacularly successful side hustle and living in Russia. Tickets to Elephant at London's Menier Chocolate Factory can be bought here: https://www.menierchocolatefactory.com/tickets/elephant/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Inclusion, exclusion, cervical wands, disallowed ads, sunk rescue deals, and three whole women: Jen and Mick cover the lot in this week's look at the news. Sexism of the Week uncovers a not so brave new world in how young men view women, and in JOTB there's a pride of Lionesses, and some excellent cycle team names. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens to characters when writers lose interest? They get a terrible film. Which is what The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse is all about. Very meta. But does it avoid becoming a bad film itself? And since it's got Geoff Tipps, a surprisingly touching Herr Lipp plot, and Victoria Wood herself in it, do Mickey, Hannah and Jen even care? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kate Muir's name might not ring any immediate bells, but her documentaries with Davina McCall about the perimenopause, menopause and HRT made quite the stir. And rightly so, given they busted myths around HRT that have been stopping women asking for it for decades. Mick got on the Zoom with the women's health campaigner, documentary maker, journalist and author to talk about the menopause movement, healthcare's reluctance to keep up, the ridiculous idea that middle age is boring, and Kate's latest book, How to Have a Magnificent Midlife Crisis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former model Jess Davies started campaigning around image-based sexual abuse after her own experience of it, and the realisation that so many other women she knew had been through the same. Off the back of this came a string of documentaries, including Deepfake Porn: Could You Be Next for BBC Three, and now a book, No One Wants to See Your Dick: A Handbook For Survival in the Digital World. Jen catches up with Jess to talk about how very common these problems are, the blurring of on and offline lives, and the ticking time bomb of Only Fans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The most terrifying dystopias are within touching distance of now. And so it is with Alex Garland's Civil War, in which he uses imagined journalists chasing a story in an imagined civil war in an imagined future America to explore topics that resonate very loudly in the real world today. It's a bleak, brutal and occasionally beautiful watch. But is it an important one? What's its point? How good is Kirsten Dunst?!? And is two times too many times to see it? Hannah, Yosra and Mick discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How many kids is too many kids? Well, Boris Johnson and the UK Government are pretty divided on the issue. As well as covering the news of possible changes to the current two-child benefit cap, Hannah and Jen are talking about the horrific treatment of Nicola Packer, sexism and misogyny in the New South Wales police, and finally some good news about 20mph speed limits. Plus, there's joy for Charlton Athletic supporters, but sorrow for Mary Earps fans, in this week's Jenny Off The Blocks. You can listen to Mick's chat with Terri White about the two-child benefit cap here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A kids' film with genuine horror credentials? Don't Look Now's Nicolas Roeg directs Roald Dahl's 1983 tale of one boy (mouse) and his grandma versus a whole coven (convention) of child-killing witches. And by witches, we mean middle-aged women who don't meet society's arbitrary beauty standards and wear sensible shoes. WHAT COULD IT MEAN? Mick, Hannah and Jen investigate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Acclaimed biographer Judith Mackrell makes a second visit to Standard Issue to chat about the Johns, a pair of siblings who went from an unhappy home in Wales to become two of the greatest British painters of the Edwardian period. She chats to Hannah about the very different but intertwined lives of Gwen and Augustus and why their work isn't always easy to find. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices