The World As It Should Be

Eliza Reid was raised near Ottawa in Canada, and moved to Iceland in 2003 when she was 27 years old. In 2016, Eliza's husband took office as President of Iceland and she became Iceland's First Lady. In her capacity as First Lady, Eliza has been active in promoting gender equality, entrepreneurship and innovation as well as tourism, sustainability and the country's writers and rich literary heritage. She was named a UN Special Ambassador and the Sustainable Development Goals in 2017.Eliza has been published in several newspapers and magazines included a much lauded op-ed in the NY Times on the strange role of the first lady (she's also delivered a TED talk on the subject). She is also the co-founder of the acclaimed Icelandic Writers Retreat.Her book Secrets of the Sprakkar: Iceland's Extraordinary Women and How They are Changing the World is out on 8 March. Hillary Rodham Clinton describes it as ‘a fascinating window into what a more gender-equal world could look like and why it's worth striving for'Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-world-as-it-should-be. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Author Pola Oloixarac was born in Buenos Aires and now lives in Barcelona. She has written three novels, and is a regular contributor to The New York Times, El País and La Nación.In 2010, she was chosen as one of Granta's Best Young Spanish Novelists, and more recently she won the Eccles Centre & Hay Festival Writer's Award. Pola's most recent book, Mona, is about to be published in the UK. It was chosen as a Best Book of the Year by the New York Public Library, Bookforum, AV Club, Lit Hub, Thrillist, and Redbook.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-world-as-it-should-be. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This special episode was recorded last year as part of our Primadonna Prize event. It features:Sandi Toksvig began her comedy career at Girton College, Cambridge where she found time to write and perform in the first all-woman show at the Footlights as well as achieve a first-class degree. Sandi is well known to UK audiences as a broadcaster from Number 73, Call My Bluff, Whose Line Is It Anyway? QI, and The Great British Bake Off. She has written more than twenty fiction and non-fiction books for children and adults.Elif Shafak is an award-winning British-Turkish novelist and the most widely read female author in Turkey. She has published eighteen books, twelve of which are novels. Her work has been translated into fifty languages. In 2017 she was chosen by Politico as one of the twelve people who would make the world better. Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu is a New York Attorney and Solicitor of England & Wales with broad expertise in the financial services industry, an author, public speaker and political commentator featured in mainstream and online media. She founded the Women in Leadership publication as a platform to drive positive change on topical issues that impact women globally through inspiring personal leadership journeys. Her book This Is Why I Resist was published in 2021.Tickets for this year's Primadonna Prize award, live at Conway Hall on 31 March and featuring Lenny Henry, Kit de Waal and Sandi Toksvig, are now on sale. See our website for details. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-world-as-it-should-be. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kimberly Latrice Jones is an American author, activist and filmmaker. She is co-author of the NYT bestselling YA novel, I'm Not Dying with You Tonight and her latest book, How We Can Win: Race, History and Changing the Money Game that's Rigged.How We Can Win is an expansion of a 7-minute video of Kimberly, filmed in Atlanta whilst she was helping clear up the streets following the murder of George Floyd at the hands of the police. In it, she uses a Monopoly analogy to explain the history of racism and its impact on Black Americans. The video went viral, and the book is already making the headlines both here and in the US.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-world-as-it-should-be. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Angelle Joseph is an artist, community worker and broadcaster. As presenter of BBC Suffolk's Music Introducing show, she is a pioneer of unsigned, undiscovered and under-the-radar music in Suffolk. She has also presented and hosted mixes on BBC Sounds for BBC Introducing, 1Xtra and 6Music. Alongside this, Angelle works with youth and community groups in her local area, and presents the ‘Belongings' show on BBC Radio Suffolk, which brings people together from different cultures and communities to share their love of music and talk about their work and ideas. This Christmas, Angelle was on the airwaves as part of Radio 1's takeover, collating the best of 2021 ‘Introducing' sessions from across all local shows. She's a rising star of radio, and we're delighted to say she's also a Primadonna! Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-world-as-it-should-be. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Monique Roffey is a writer, activist and lecturer. She was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, and now shares her time between there and her home in London. Monique has published seven books – a memoir and six novels – as well as works of short fiction, essays and literary journalism. Her novel The Mermaid of Black Conch won the Costa Fiction Award and the Costa Book of the Year in 2020, and was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize that same year. It was short-listed for both the Rathbones Folio Award and the Republic of Consciousness Prize in 2021. Monique teaches creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University, where she is currently a senior lecturer. In 2019, she helped set up Writers Rebel, a campaigning group inside Extinction Rebellion. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-world-as-it-should-be. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sabeena Akhtar is a writer, editor, programmer… and a Primadonna. She has worked in publishing with the radical non-profit Tilted Axis Press, as a curator for Media Diversified, for whom she created an online library of writers of colour, and is the Festival Coordinator of Bare Lit, the UK's principal festival celebrating remarkable writers in the diaspora.Sabeena co-founded both Primadonna festival in 2019, and Bare Lit Kids, the UK's first children's festival showcasing the work of writers of colour. She has also curated for the Breakthrough Festival, a new festival for working-class writers, and is the lead programmer for the WOW – Women of the World Festivals. She has contributed to the 404 Ink title We Shall Fight Until We Win and the Saqi Books title Smashing It, and is the editor of a remarkable anthology Cut From The Same Cloth.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-world-as-it-should-be. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Juno Dawson is a writer, actor and activist, best known for her YA novels including Clean, Meat Market and, most recently, Wonderland.Juno has also written bestselling non-fiction, including the LGBTQ guide This Book Is Gay and The Gender Games: The Problem With Men and Women, From Someone Who Has Been Both.In her podcast, So I Got To Thinking, Juno rewatches classic episodes from Sex and the City before attempting to answer Carrie Bradshaw's questions for the modern day. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-world-as-it-should-be. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pop icons Pepsi & Shirlie met outside a tube station in London in 1985 when Pepsi – then Helen – auditioned to join Shirlie, Andrew Ridgely and George Michael as a backing singer in Wham! In 1987 they released their debut solo single Heartache, which reached number 2 in the charts, and was followed by two studio albums (it was kept off the top spot by their close friend George, whose duet with Aretha Franklin – I Knew You Were Waiting – was at number 1). They went their separate ways in the early 90s before working together again singing backing vocals for Geri Halliwell in 2000, following this up with a reunion tour in 2011 and various live performances in the years since. In 2017, they paid tribute to George Michael, alongside Andrew Ridgely, at the Brit awards, following his shocking death on Christmas Day 2016. Most recently they've penned their joint autobiography, It's All in Black and White: Wham, Life and Friendship, which was published by Welbeck in September this year.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-world-as-it-should-be. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bronwyn Sweeney worked in the media for almost a decade as a copywriter and brand creative, working on everything from haircare to home furnishings. When she was 29, Bronwyn's employer paid for her to do a two-day standup comedy course – and she was smitten. She has gone from having a comedy career as a ‘bit on the side' to divulging secrets from inside the advertising industry as part of her routine on the standup circuit.Earlier this year, Bronwyn made the Grand Final of the 2021 Funny Women Awards, finishing as runner-up in front of a live audience at the Bloomsbury Theatre, London. She impressed the judges with her high-energy performance and ‘fake American from Blackpool' routine, and describes the event as the ‘best gig of my life. Terrifying, exhilarating, life-affirming.'Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-world-as-it-should-be. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lucy Mangan is one of Britain's best-known journalists. She is a columnist and TV critic for the Guardian and has written for Stylist, the Daily Telegraph and many other titles. Lucy has written five works of non-fiction including her memoir Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading, published in 2018. Her debut novel, Are We Having Fun Yet, has just been published to rave reviews from, among others, Caitlin Moran, Marian Keyes and Jenny Eclair.Are We Having Fun Yet chronicles 12 months in the life of Liz, a ‘mute but mutinous' 40-year-old juggling all of the labour – seen and unseen – that accompanies parenting, partnering, working, helping out at school and with friends, and just occasionally finding time for a solitary swim. Lucy lives with her husband, son and cat Patrick and, in her own words, her domestic set-up is 'a miracle of efficiency and competence'.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-world-as-it-should-be. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Elly Jackson formed the band La Roux in 2006, and became a global superstar three years later, aged 21, with the release of La Roux's self-titled, multi-platinum debut album, which included the singles In For The Kill and Bulletproof.In the UK, Bulletproof went straight to the top of the singles charts, and also made the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, with the album going on to sell over 6 million copies worldwide. It also won the Grammy for Best Electronic/Dance Album. Since 2012, Elly has performed solo as La Roux, releasing a second album in 2014, and her third in 2020 on her own label Supercolour Records. La Roux's cover of the Gang of Four classic Damaged Goods has just been released as an EP with new club remixes – it also features on the multi-artist compilation album The Problem of Leisure: A Celebration of Andy Gill and Gang of Four, which is out now.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-world-as-it-should-be. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A special edition of the podcast, recorded live at Primadonna 2021, and featuring two authors whose careers are inextricably linked with the festival.Eva Verde's memoir piece ‘I am not your Tituba' had just been selected to form part of Kit De Waal's anthology Common People when she came to the first Primadonna in 2019. Shortly after, she was signed to write her first novel Lives Like Mine about a dual-heritage mother who embarks on a school-run affair, which was published this summer.Louise Mumford was also at Primadonna 2019 where she met Lisa Milton and told her about an idea for a book she'd been working on. That idea became Sleepless, published by Lisa under the HQ Stories imprint in 2020, marking the start of Louise's career as a professional author.Eva and Louise returned to Primadonna in 2021 where they joined the podcast for this special recording in front of a live audience.(We apologise that some sections of the audio aren't as good as we'd like. That's the problem with recording live!).Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-world-as-it-should-be. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Catriona Morton is a twenty-four-year-old writer, activist and podcaster based in London. Catriona's podcast, After: Surviving Sexual Assault was broadcast on BBC Sounds in 2019. A 10-part series, it gave a platform to survivors of sexual abuse and assault to discuss their experiences. Catriona is also the founder of the survivor-centred website Life Continues After Dot Com. Catriona founded both of these platforms as a space for survivors of sexual trauma to come together to share their stories. Catriona has just published her first book The Way We Survive: Notes on Rape Culture.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-world-as-it-should-be. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Catherine Mayer is a bestselling author, journalist and activist. She is the co-founder and President of the Women's Equality Party and co-founder of Primadonna festival, and has worked for Time magazine, has written for the Globe Theatre, has toured solo with a one-woman show (obviously) and also with Grayson Perry in their joint production Hello Boys.Catherine's books include Amortality: The Pleasures and Perils of Living Agelessly; Charles: The Heart of a King, and Attack of the Fifty Foot Women: How Gender Equality Can Save the World! Her most recent book is a memoir, Good Grief: Embracing Life at a Time of Death, which also contains letters written by Catherine's mother after she, like Catherine, was widowed at the start of the pandemic. Catherine's husband was the musician Andy Gill, founder member of the band Gang of Four. After Andy's death, Catherine took on his unfinished projects, releasing two EPs by Gang of Four, and acting as executive producer for a tribute album, The Problem of Leisure: A celebration of Andy Gill and Gang of Four featuring globally famous musicians.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-world-as-it-should-be. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Catherine Cho was born in the US to Korean parents, and grew up in Kentucky. She spent time in New York and Hong Kong before settling in London.Catherine studied English at university but her first career was in corporate law. She then moved to publishing via PR, working at Curtis Brown and then at the Madeleine Milburn literary agency.She wrote her first book Inferno about her experience of post-partum psychosis following the birth of her son Cato, which was published in 2020.This year, Catherine announced plans to open an agency of her own, Paper Literary. She is on the lookout for debut talent in adult fiction and non-fiction, with a focus on stories that resonate in the US and UK.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-world-as-it-should-be. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gail Ann Dorsey was born in Philadelphia, USA, and acquired her first bass guitar aged 14. After an early stint at film school (where she was the only woman in her first year classes), she dedicated herself full time to her career in music.Gail has recorded and toured as a session musician with the great and the good of the music industry, including Tears for Fears, Boy George, Lenny Kravitz, The National, Ani Di Franco, Bryan Ferry, Gang of Four and perhaps most famously David Bowie. She sang and played bass in his band from 1995 to Bowie's death in 2016.She has also recorded as a solo artist, releasing three critically acclaimed albums, the most recent of which is titled I Used To Be... She now lives in New York, and is looking forward to re-starting work once live music venues reopen post-pandemic.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-world-as-it-should-be. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Adele Parks is one of the most-loved and biggest-selling women's fiction writers in the UK. Her first novel was published in 2000, and since then she has sold 4 million books and been translated into more than 30 different languages. Adele has published twenty bestselling novels in twenty years, including the number 1 bestsellers Lies Lies Lies and Just My Luck. She is a proud Ambassador for the National Literacy Trust and The Reading Agency's Six Book Challenge, which encourages less confident readers to fall in love with books. Adele is a judge for the Costa Book Awards and the British Book Awards. Her next book Both Of You is published on 27 May.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-world-as-it-should-be. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bee Rowlatt is a writer, journalist and activist. She chaired the 'Mary on the Green' campaign to memorialise Mary Wollstonecraft, unveiling Maggi Hambling's tribute to the pioneer of feminist thought on Newington Green in November 2020.Her book In Search of Mary won the Society of Authors' K Blundell Trust award, and the best-seller Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad was dramatised by the BBC and translated into numerous languages. Bee is a founding Trustee of the human rights education charity the Wollstonecraft Society and wrote the play An Amazon Stept Out for its launch at the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue. Bee contributed to Virago's Fifty Shades of Feminism, and clocked over two decades at BBC World Service. She speaks fluent Spanish and has a research background in Latin America. She's written for BBC Online, The Telegraph, Grazia, Die Welt, Times, Guardian and Daily Mail, and appears regularly on tv and radio. She is an all-round legend and we love her.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-world-as-it-should-be. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Christy Lefteri's novel The Beekeeper of Aleppo became an international sensation on its release in 2019. Inspired by her experiences at a volunteer centre in Athens where she helped Syrian and Afghan refugees, Christy felt compelled to tell the stories of the people she met.By the end of 2020 The Beekeeper of Aleppo was the third-bestselling paperback of the year. Christy has been nominated for a British Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and won the Aspen Words Literary Prize. Her drive to influence change through her writing led to another novel, Songbirds, about the experience of human migration and the search for ‘a better life'. It is published in July. And it's as devastating and beautiful as Beekeeper…Christy recently won the Nielsen Gold Bestseller Award for over 500K copies sold of Beekeeper – congratulations! Christy, welcome to our podcast.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-world-as-it-should-be. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sam Baker is a journalist, broadcaster and author. She's edited and written for magazines including Company, Chat and Take a Break, and is former editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan and Red. She's also written for other publications including the Guardian, Sunday Times and Stylist.Sam has judged The Women's Prize for Fiction, the Costa Novel award and the British Book Awards. She is the author of four novels and one work of non-fiction – The Shift – which seeks to give a voice to women over 40.Marian Keyes said of The Shift -'I need this book - we all need this book. If menopause happened to men, there would be celebrations and parties every time one of them completed their change'. We love this quote!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-world-as-it-should-be. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hollie McNish describes herself as a writer who loves writing. She is also a poet, performer, educator, collaborator and the first poet to record an album at Abbey Road studios.She has garnered over ten million YouTube views for her online poetry performances and her fans range from Pink to Tim Minchon. Benjamin Zephaniah said ‘I can't take my ears off her', Kae Tempest has described her poetry as ‘welcoming, galvanising and beautiful'. Hollie has published four collections of poetry and one ‘poetic memoir', Nobody Told Me (2016) for which she won the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry. She runs Page to Performance, delivering workshops in spoken word and poetry slams and is part of the collective Point Blank Poets.Hollie's sixth book – another cross-genre collection of poetry, memoir and short stories – is called Slug, and other things I've been told to hate. It will be published in May 2021.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-world-as-it-should-be. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Multiple-award-winning author Kit de Waal was born in Birmingham to an Irish mother who was a childminder and foster carer and a Caribbean father.She worked for fifteen years in criminal and family law, was a magistrate for several years and sits on adoption panels. She used to advise Social Services on the care of foster children, and has written training manuals on adoption, foster care and judgecraft for members of the judiciary.Her first novel My Name Is Leon was published in 2016 and shortlisted for the Costa Book Award. Kit spent her first advance on establishing a creative writing scholarship at Birkbeck College for a working-class student, and later crowdfunded Common People, an anthology of working class memoir by new and established writers.In 2018 she published The Trick to Time, and followed this up a year later with her first YA novel, Becoming Dinah. Her short story collection Supporting Cast was published in 2020.Kit's writing has received numerous awards including the Bridport Flash Fiction Prize 2014 and 2015 and the SI Leeds Literary Reader's Choice Prize 2014 and the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year.Kit is a co-founder of the Primadonna festival and the Big Book Weekend, set up in response to the Covid-19 crisis. In 2019 she was named Future Book Person of the Year.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-world-as-it-should-be. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.