Standard Issue Podcast

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

After leaving an abusive relationship, former GB Boxer turned entrepreneur Lesley Sackey found herself living in survival mode – until she realised some of the lessons she'd learned in the ring could prove useful in life. She went on to co-found Fight Forward, an initiative helping women to empower themselves after experiencing abuse, as well as the forthcoming AI-integrated platform Pillow, which aims to help women move forward after trauma.  Jen catches up with Lesley to talk about her career in boxing, how her own experiences of abuse informed Fight Forward, and why boxing can help women recover after trauma. You can find out more about Fight Forward, including signing up for sessions here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Which Standard Issue presenter would survive an apocalypse? Just one of the many important questions Hannah and Mickey are asking in this week's Bush Telegraph. See also: Is America deporting legals? What next for Gaza? Why do the courts treat women so poorly? And what does any of this have to do with a Romanian model? So good job we no longer have to ask "what about China?". Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alan Parker's musical-drama exploded the careers of Irene Cara, Gene Anthony Ray and others, and – thanks to the hit TV series that followed – earned a reputation as a fluffy tale of leg warmers and sweatbands. But underneath the choreographed routines, will this warts-and-all depiction of life at the New York School of Performing Arts prove TOO MUCH for Jen and Mick? And what is a hot lunch, anyway? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In an era where misinformation is rife and spreads at light speed, the role of experts in research is more critical than ever. And yet, historical underrepresentation and systemic biases have led to a lack of trust in research among women and marginalised groups. So how do researchers regain our trust? Why is inclusivity so important? And how can we all better engage in research to ensure it's more equitable and representative moving forward?  Mick put these questions to the excellent Dr Suze Kundu, nanochemist, science communicator and freelance journalist, and Research Community Engagement Consultant for NASA Science Explorer. That's right, NASA. And true to data nerd form, Suze had answers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cariad Lloyd is an actor, comedian and writer (and one of our faves), who has been talking about grief since the death of her father when she was 15. She's turned her experiences into an award-winning podcast, Griefcast, and a bestselling book, You Are Not Alone. She's now written a children's book, Where Did She Go?, which aims to improve how we talk about death with children. Jen catches up with Cariad to chat about youngsters and grief, normalising those conversations, and fascinations with Nelson Mandela. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The big news is that someone has finally finished Mad Men, but if you're looking for some more recent TV, we've got that too. We chat about Poker Face, The Last of Us, Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles De Menezes, Austin, The Four Seasons and Malpractice in our big round-up of the month's TV. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A film about racial tensions, police violence and disaffected youth? And this might be dated, you say? OK, probably not, but join us anyway as we talk about one of France's most well-respected films, why it's funnier than you'd imagine, and its breakout star Vincent Cassel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When writer and director Sara Harrak got back into 5-a-side as an adult, she became obsessed, which led to her short film, Solers United. Starring Leah Harvey as Bills, it follows the trials and tribulations of a grassroots women's and non-binary team fighting for survival. Jen chats to Sara and Leah about community, gentrification, taking up more space, and the legend that is Dame Kelly Holmes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Journalist, author and life-long athlete Bonnie Tsui is fascinated by muscle: how it looks; what it does, and how we think about it. Her curiosity led her to the meat of her new book, On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters, which explores the world of muscle from five different perspectives: strength; form; action; flexibility, and endurance. Jen chats to Bonnie about the nature and narrative of muscle, perceptions around strength, and taking a look under the proverbial bonnet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Should Labour be addressing immigration? Should men be mammographers? Does anyone fancy being imprisoned in the Jorvik Viking Centre? Jen and Hannah attempt to answer these and many other important questions in today's podcast. Plus, in Jenny Off The Blocks, we're talking about ACL injuries and good news for Charlton Athletic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ridley Scott's epic regeneration of the swords and sandals genre made megastars out of Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix and bagged a whole load of metal for the trophy cabinet, alongside a heap of box-office kerching. But 25 years on, does this tale of blood, brutality, bread, circuses and vengeance still thrill? Mick, Hannah and Jen share their thoughts. Unleash hell. Or just have a listen, your call.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feminist writer, campaigner, and one of Standard Issue's firm favourites, Laura Bates's latest non-fiction is called The New Age of Sexism: How the AI Revolution is Reinventing Misogyny. Anyone fretting about the good old age of sexism, fret ye not, because it is still alive and kicking and very much fuelling and influencing the new one. And it's impossible to stress enough how critical a moment right now is: this isn't futuristic, distant and improbable amplified version of the same old, same old, it's already affecting women and girls, and minority groups. Our Mick chats to Laura about that, about the sheer scale of what's happening, the regressive nature of breakneck “progress”, the problem with ‘outliers', and about how men's wants and wallets trump women's rights and safety every time.  The New Age of Sexism: How the AI Revolution is Reinventing Misogyny is published by Simon & Schuster on May 15, but available for pre-order now. laurabates.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's game, set and love matches in our Yosra's pick of 2024 films, as she, Mick and Hannah watch Luca Guadagnino's sweaty tale of rivalry on and off the courts. Starring Zendaya, Josh O'Connor and Mike Faist, it was a bit of a critics' darling and a box-office champ. But does that mean a flying sausage for our three women? Or will they take issue with the plot, the characters, the tennis, the depiction of women (woman), and the Golden Globe-winning score? Ooh, it's a mystery.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There's a whole load of ‘but why the feck isn't that already happening?' in Hannah and Mick's look at the news this week, as they take in nudification apps (no thanks), fresh rules for the police (yes please), and new investigations at old mother and baby institutions in Ireland (finally). Still, good news comes in the shapes of Jon Bon Jovi, miniature dachshunds, and new shoes. Plus Sarah Millican's Light Relief for £5+ Patreon members. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Director Amy Heckerling is known for films centred on the female experience, but how feminist is a film about a woman narrated by an actual man-baby? Or a single mum hell-bent on finding a dad for her young child? Jen, Mick and Hannah revisit 1990's Look Who's Talking. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If an adult male grooms a teenage girl into a sexual relationship, we're increasingly likely to call it abuse. But reverse the sex of the perpetrator and victim and attitudes are very different. In her latest podcast, Lucky Boy, journalist Chloe Hadjimatheou investigates one such case. She chats to Hannah about why female abusers are judged less harshly and their victims are often not seen as victims at all. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anyone who's ever been anywhere near social media can attest to the somewhat loose definition of “self-care” adopted by society. Broadcasters Lauren Mishcon and Nicole Goodman, keen to challenge the deeply consumerist notions underpinning the wellness industry, and so their podcast, The Self-Care Club, in which they try and test different practices, was spawned. Now in its fifth year, the podcast has also led to a book, Have You Tried This: The Only Self-Care Book You Will Ever Need. Jen catches up with Lauren and Nicole to talk about the weird and wonderful things they've tried, how they define “self-care”, and just how problematic the industry is for women. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Girl On Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves, Pulitzer-nominated journalist Sophie Gilbert underlines how popular culture isn't an innocuous force. She chats to our Mick about how focusing on how women and girls have been presented in pop culture from the late 1990s through the first two decades of this century revealed modern misogyny has been shaped by a mass culture attuned to male desire and all-pervasive pornography.  Girl on Girl is published by John Murray on May 1, but available for pre-order now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Once cool, now ick. That could describe so many things from 1995, but in this instance it's Luc Besson's thriller about a prepubescent girl and her assassin neighbour. But could it all have been so different?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two young women walk into a theatre in China in 1935 and so begins a relationship that spans a turbulent period of history and ends with the death of one of them. Hannah chats to playwright and historian Amy Ng about her latest play, Shanghai Dolls, about finding the women behind the legends of Sun Weishi and Madame Mao, and about how we could all probably do with brushing up on our Chinese history. More information and tickets here: https://kilntheatre.com/whats-on/shanghai-dolls/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Books are a bit like buses for author Abigail Johnson, who signed a two-book deal after taking a punt on a creative writing course during the pandemic. Fast forward a few years, and Abigail's debut novel The Secret Collector is out now. Jen catches up with Abigail to talk about loneliness, learning from our elders (and indeed youngers), and the best bug that never happened. The Secret Collector is available now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There's a long weekend ahead and if you want to spend it watching telly, then you do you. Have some help choosing in the form of our monthly chat about TV, in which we're talking about The White Lotus, The Last of Us, After the Party, Dying for Sex, Black Mirror, Black Snow and Black Doves. Yeah, we saw the pattern there too. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Things are looking very worrying over in America, so of course we're talking about that. But we manage to get in a lot of other stuff too, including workers' rights, good news about bad games, rich women in space, mean girls in tennis and some more dreadful French pronunciations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Comedy? Horror? Satire? A full-length Huey Lewis and the News music video? There's a lot going on in Mary Harron's big screen adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis's controversial 1991 bestseller. Will Christian Bale's much-lauded turn as Patrick Bateman blow Mick, Hannah and Jen away or turn their stomachs? What does a female director's perspective bring to the exaggerated misogyny? Is any of it actually real? Do you like Phil Collins?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alice Vincent was a music journalist for many years, which had already started to shift how she listened, but then pregnancy and a deep trauma when her baby was very small led to her relationship with sound fracturing. In her new book, Hark: How Women Listen, she explores how she rebuilt that relationship, and also talks to other women about their experiences with sound and listening.   Our Mick got on the Zoom to talk about the different way sounds land in female bodies, and how we could all be listening more mindfully. Hark: How Women Listen is available for pre-order now and out on May 1. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elsa James's new exhibition, It Should Not Be Forgotten, explores themes of chattel enslavement and its impact on contemporary Black British life. Confronting Britain's national amnesia around its role in the transatlantic slave trade, Elsa's work seeks to bring an alternative perspective on how we engage with the past. Jen chats to Elsa about the exhibition's themes, sharing history, and facing its discomfort. It Should Not Be Forgotten is at Firstsite Colchester until July 6. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Actor Honeysuckle Weeks has been onstage and screen for more than 30 years and can currently be found touring as Marmee in a new adaptation of Louisa May Alcott classic, Little Women. Jen chats to Honeysuckle about how relatable the 1868 novel remains to young women, the tragedy of Jo, and loving Leslie Manville. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There's a whole lot of manosphere in this week's Bush Telegraph, helmed by Hannah and Mick, but maybe, just maybe, there's a side of justice to boot. Thank Christ? Turns out a lot more Gen Z-ers have turned to God than we thought, so perhaps. Thank dire wolves? Well, now you're just being silly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Waters' follow-up to smash hit Hairspray saw the so-called “Pope of Trash” enjoy the first-ever bidding war for his work. But does 1990's cult classic Cry-Baby live up to the hype? Is it the lol-a-thon Jen remembers? And can Mick and Hannah still bear to look at Johnny Depp's face?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writer, actor and top woman Brona C Titley was keener than mustard when she was asked to adapt Brian Helgeland's 2001 medieval action comedy for the stage. A Knight's Tale the Musical opens at Manchester Opera House this Friday, so Mick got Brona on the Zoom to chat the whys, the hows, and the horses. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Namulanta Kombo pitched an idea for a podcast to the BBC World Service and the result - Dear Daughter - has become a worldwide success story, garnering a devoted listenership and a bunch of awards. She joins Hannah from Nairobi, to talk about advice, good and bad, and the importance of passing on life lessons.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Directed by Nora Fingscheidt and adapted from Amy Liptrot's prizewining 2017 addiction memoir of the same name, The Outrun follows the recovery of young alcoholic Rona, and offers emotional turmoil in dramatic places. How will Mick, Yosra and Hannah cope with that? And it stars Saoirse Ronan. How will Hannah cope with that? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mick and Jen are steeling themselves for the seven bill (sort of) increases rolling out across the country this week, as they chat budget bloopers and a 45p consolation prize. Meanwhile, it's bleak news indeed as in the UK further crimes are alleged against serial rapist Zhenhao Zou, and across the pond, women in the US are up against infringements on democracy via the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act. Still, thank God for that new UTI drug, eh? In Jenny Off The Blocks there's tennis, rugby, an April Fool's and Cilla Black. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join us as we get into the groove of a "feminist cult classic". Is that jacket lush? Is Madonna playing Madonna? Is Desperately Seeking Susan a feminist film at all? All the debate is raging here. And Jen's in fancy dress. You're welcome. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Historian Hallie Rubenhold's non-fiction book The Five found the stories of the victims of Jack the Ripper underneath a whole pile of misogyny and myth-making. She's about to do the same for the women at the centre of the Crippen murder, with her book Story of a Murder: The Wives, the Mistress and Dr Crippen. Hallie chats to Hannah about the wrongs done to Belle Elmore, by both her husband and history, and why most true crime sucks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At various points in her life, writer and walking enthusiast Annabel Streets has felt a pull towards certain landscapes and wondered if there was a reason for that. In her new book, The Walking Cure: Harness the Life-changing Power of Landscape to Heal, Energise and Inspire, she explores the restorative and healing powers of walking. Jen catches up with Annabel to talk about why we should all be getting outside, the mindblowing new findings about the different benefits of different landscapes, and the many things to love about wandering around a cemetery. The Walking Cure is published by Tonic and is available now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fiddler on the Roof could win big at this year's Oliviers, with 13 nods, including one for Best Actress for Lara Pulver. She's also about to hit our screens in Paramount's new drama MobLand. Lara chats to Hannah about all this, plus working with Helen Mirren, the cancellation of Maternal and how what the childminder walked in on really wasn't what it looked. * You can listen to Jen's interview with Jackie Honess-Martin about Maternal here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr5qeoaEwC8 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There's fuckwittery, and there's whatever the hell is going on at the highest levels of government in America right now. In this week's BT, Hannah and Jen look at that whole horror show, the chances of another pandemic, a new GCSE, and the dearth of women in brewing. Plus there's rugby and tennis in Jenny Off The Blocks. And, perhaps most importantly, updates from Newport Pagnell's Facebook group.  The Atlantic mentioned is here: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/03/trump-administration-accidentally-texted-me-its-war-plans/682151/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie head up James Mangold's biographical drama, based on Susanna Kaysen's 1993 memoir about her time in a psychiatric hospital in the 1960s. It was a big deal on its release, so Mick, Hannah and Jen give it a watch to discover whether it's an astute look at female mental health in a time when women's rights and standards were very different or, to put it bluntly, dogshit, uninterrupted. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Women's Six Nations got underway on Saturday, with England eyeing a whopping 29th title in the tournament. And so, Jen jumped on the Zoom to chat to the Red Roses' top scorer of all time: Emily Scarratt. They're talking about how women's rugby is doing in the UK and on a global stage, the forthcoming World Cup, and how to take the lows, as well as the highs, when you're a professional athlete. Tickets for the Women's Six Nations are available online now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What a month, indeed what a few days, of TV. Hannah's got some high praise for Severance, The White Lotus, Toxic Town and Adolescence, while Jen's been keeping it real with some ITV dramas. And a few BBC ones to boot. Tuck in! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's a full basket of news from Hannah and Mick this week: oven-ready gammon joints, Streep-Short joy, a pre-tribunal win for some of the BBC's female presenters, the Met Police covering itself in glory again, and – all together now! – relugolix/estradiol/norethisterone acetate for the endo win. Plus, extra sunshine for our £5+ patrons with Sarah Millican's Light Relief. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Garry Marshall's much beloved romcom made a leading lady of Julia Roberts, and an absolute shedload of cash at the box office. But how romantic and/or funny is sex work, drug addiction and controlling relationships? And would either Hannah or Jen be up for being kept as Richard Gere's pet? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Investigative journalist and head of narrative at Stak, Nicky Anderson has been a ballet nut since she was a kid. And the New York City Ballet under George Balanchine? For many, it's ballet at its pinnacle. But at what cost?  In her new seven-part podcast series, Dancing With Shadows, Nicky explores the history of the New York City Ballet and its influence, with a focus on the dark side of the company and the culture and legacy created and left by Balanchine.  Mick got her on the Zoom to talk about this deep dive into a sport-slash-art form renowned for demanding absolute sacrifice from its young, predominantly female, dancers and for being a very closed institution, how it shines a light on abuse sort of becoming par for the course, and the perils of genius. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices