Podcasts about Sussex

Did you know that there is a whole industry around the concept of helping deserving people and organizations to receive recognition through winning awards? In this episode we meet and get to know one of the foremost experts in this industry, Donna O'Toole. Donna grew up in the South of England in a real castle. At the age of 16 her family conditions changed, and she had to go to a home with four other girls who also lost their family arrangements. Donna had to go to work although she had wanted to go to university. Eventually she did get to earn her degree.   Donna studied linguistics and found ways to use her growing knowledge of the field. Eventually she discovered the value of recognition and how helping people and companies gain recognition made them better for the experience. She began working to help people and companies earn awards. She will tell us about this fascinating subject and why earning awards is important. She gives us statistics about how after working to win awards and the subsequent recognition sales and overall exposure usually grows.     About the Guest:   Donna O'Toole is an award-winning entrepreneur, international awards judge, and bestselling author of WIN! – the ultimate guide to winning awards. She's also the founder of August Recognition, a global leader in awards strategy and part of the Dent Global group, helping purpose-driven entrepreneurs stand out, scale up, and make a meaningful impact.   Named one of the Top 25 Customer Experience Influencers in the world, Donna has transformed the visibility and credibility of hundreds of businesses - from start-ups to FTSE 100 giants - by helping them win the recognition they deserve. Her clients span global brands, high-growth entrepreneurs, and inspirational leaders across every industry.   Donna is renowned for her outstanding success rate in the most prestigious awards in the world, including The King's Awards for Enterprise. She's passionate about the true value of awards - not just the trophy, but the trust, authority, and growth they generate.   Now, Donna is taking her mission even further. Together with her business partner and Dent Global co-founder Daniel Priestley, she's launching a pioneering new AI venture that's transforming the awards industry - making it safer, simpler, and smarter than ever for people to find, enter, and achieve the awards and recognition that matters.   Ways to connect with Donna:   https://www.augustawards.com/ - to get a free copy of my book: Win! and to get a Free awards list LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnaotoole/ Instagram: @donnaot     About the Host:   Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening!   Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast   If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset .   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review   Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.       Transcription Notes:   Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:17 Well, hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of unstoppable mindset. I am your host, Michael Hingson, and I think we'll have some fun today. We get to talk to Donna O'Toole, who is over in England, and she has a very interesting story to tell and a profession that she works at regarding awards. We'll get to all that in a bit. I don't want to give it all away, because it's more fun to listen to Donna tell it than it is to listen to me tell it. No one has ever said that I'm boring, but nevertheless, I always think that the people who come on the podcast are much more fun and interesting than I so I can't I can't argue with that, and of course, that's my job to make sure that happens. But anyway, here we are once again with unstoppable mindset. And Donna, I want to welcome you and thank you for being here.   Donna O'Toole ** 02:09 Thank you. It's great to be here with you. Michael, thank you.   Michael Hingson ** 02:13 And it's what about 930 in the evening? Or no, it's up 737   **Donna O'Toole ** 02:17 Well, it's   Michael Hingson ** 02:19 after dinner. Yeah. Well, thank you for being here. And we're, we're really glad to have the opportunity to do this. And so I'd like to start, it's so fun to always start this way. Tell us sort of about the early Donna growing up and all that. Ah, okay.   Donna O'Toole ** 02:35 Um, okay. So, well, I don't tell very many people this actually so secret. One for you, Michael, I actually grew up in a castle, which makes me sound like I lived in a fairy tale, but I didn't. It was definitely not a fairy tale, and I'm not a princess, so I'm sorry to disappoint anybody.   Michael Hingson ** 02:54 Well, what was it like growing up at a castle?   Donna O'Toole ** 02:59 It was, you know what? It's one of those things that when you're an adult, and you look back, you realize how amazing you were, it was, and how lucky you were. But when you're a child, it's just all, you know, isn't it? So, yeah, we were very lucky. I grew up in a town called Arundel, which is in the south of the UK. It's a very historic town, and the reason that I lived there was because my stepdad was the head groundsman at the castle, so he looked after all of the grounds for the Duke of Norfolk. And yeah, it was a it was a wonderful place to live. We used to be naughty and run around and go hiding in nooks and crannies that we shouldn't be. However, I was permanently petrified that there was ghosts and bats and all sorts of things like that.   Michael Hingson ** 03:48 So were there ghosts?   Donna O'Toole ** 03:49 Yes, definitely, certainly, they were making noises like ghosts, and we couldn't identify what they were. So, yeah, there's a few stories around that castle. Actually around I think there's a ghost of a lady in one in the library, and there is a ghost of a Labrador, actually, that people talk about seeing there as well. So I'm sure they were friendly.   Michael Hingson ** 04:14 Did you ever see any ghosts?   Donna O'Toole ** 04:16 I think I convinced myself that I did. On many occasion, my bedroom window looked out over Arundel Cathedral, which is was lit up at night, which looks very spooky. I used to be terrified to look out of the window at night, in case I saw something I didn't want to see.   Michael Hingson ** 04:36 So was the castle drafty and cold in the winter?   Donna O'Toole ** 04:40 Yes, definitely very stone and cold. And we had a ray burn. It's called, it's like an auger type thing where you just, you sort of heat up the kitchen by heating up this oven thing. Yeah, I remember putting wood in it. I remember that,   Michael Hingson ** 04:56 wow. Well, that was kind of fun. So how long did you. Live in the castle.   Donna O'Toole ** 05:00 So I lived in the castle until I was 16, and then her life took a bit of an unexpected turn at that point, and we had a difficult family breakdown that resulted in myself being actually taken into care for a while, so I didn't get to I did. I did finish school and finished my GCSEs exams as they were, but it did mean that I didn't get to continue on my education at that point, as I needed to earn some money and learn how to look after myself. So at 16, I was living in a home with four other girls who were in similar situations to me, which is girls who's through no fault of their own, their families couldn't look after them anymore. And we learned to, you know, live and survive and get through life together. And it was a great adventure. There was ups and downs, for sure, but actually at that point, I needed to get some work, and I also wanted to continue studying, so I ended up becoming an apprentice dental nurse, and that is where I started. And I never expected to go there. Wow.   Michael Hingson ** 06:24 I guess, I guess it is an adventure, though. Yeah,   Donna O'Toole ** 06:27 Life is an adventure, and you've got to be ready for whatever it throws at you. That's what I say. And   Michael Hingson ** 06:31 I think that's a good way to put it. I think that life's an adventure, and I think that we can choose how to look at life no matter what happens, and either we can think things are positive and grow with whatever occurs or not. Yeah, 100% 100% and   Donna O'Toole ** 06:46 actually, if it wasn't for that part of my life, I don't think I would be here today, doing what I'm doing now. So it's, it's incredible how you can't predict where life's going to take you, but you do go on a journey. So I actually became a dental nurse. And then I got bit bored of that, and my brain was always active, trying to think of something new to do. And I spotted a gap in the market for at the time dentists had there was just this legislation that changed that meant that dentists always had to have a nurse or a chaperone in the surgery with them, whereas before they hadn't had to have that. And so what was happening was you had all these small dental practices whereby the the dentist couldn't work if their nurse was on holiday or off sick or on maternity leave or something. So I spotted this gap in the market to be to start a dental nurse agency to fill those gaps, if you pardon the pun, and and to actually go all over Sussex and support the practices that needed help. So that was at the age of 19, I started my first business, and yeah, it was a great   Michael Hingson ** 08:00 success. I was just going to ask how successful it was.   Donna O'Toole ** 08:03 Yeah, it was great, and I really enjoyed it. And I got to know so many people. I trained nurses, which I really enjoyed as well. So I developed myself whilst I was developing them, which was great and and then after that, I I stopped that business and handed it over to some good friends who were brilliant nurses to have my children and to take a little break while I have my two daughters.   Michael Hingson ** 08:27 Now, did you ever get to university or college?   Donna O'Toole ** 08:31 Yeah, so then had my girls, and still I've got a very busy brain that needs a lot of occupying. So I thought, right, what can I do now? I've got two children under the age of four or five. I know I must need something else to do, so I decided to go back, finally, to university, and I studied linguistics, so English language linguistics at the University of Sussex in in the UK. And interestingly, it's incredible, because during that part of my life, I absolutely loved every part of it. I was really passionate about English, and as a child, I'd wanted to be an English teacher, but because my life had gone on a different path, it wasn't something that I'd been able to do. But actually, during that time, I studied large language models and computer mediated communication. And it just absolutely blows my mind that through making that decision and then further decisions later down the road, I'm actually now launching a company that is AI based that is containing large language models. So it's really, like, amazing how you can connect the dots in your in your journey.   Michael Hingson ** 09:45 And of course, you're calling it Donna GPT, right? I had to. I   Donna O'Toole ** 09:51 love it. I'm Michael. I am definitely calling it that now.   Michael Hingson ** 09:56 Well, that's, that is cool though.   Donna O'Toole ** 09:58 Yeah. So when I. Actually completed my degree. I came out of that and thought, right, well, I need to do some work now. And I started writing for businesses. I'm quite a business writer. I'm a real aura of people who can write fiction. I think that's incredible, yeah, but I'm definitely on the factual side. So I started business writing. Then I started, just by coincidence, started writing award entries for some businesses. I then started working with another awards agency, and I really saw, then the power of how awards and recognition helped people to reach their potential in business and in life, and so that then took me on my next journey.   Michael Hingson ** 10:47 Well, awards are, are interesting. And of course, we hear about awards for all sorts of things, but tell me more about the power of awards and where they where they can fit into society.   Donna O'Toole ** 11:00 Yeah. So, so we work from I work with business awards, so generally speaking, so even back then, it was sort of working with entrepreneurs, or entrepreneurial businesses, or even big brands, whereby they wanted to recognize their achievement and they wanted to raise their profile, so they needed to raise brand awareness, perhaps around what they do, their services, their products, and what's always quite I find quite interesting about awards is people who've never been involved in awards tend to come into them with quite skepticism, which is understandable. It's not a regulated industry, so you do have to be a bit skeptical and do due diligence around what awards you're entering. But they come into them with skepticism about themselves and actually whether they have what it takes to win. And very often, what I found was they did have what it takes to win, they just didn't have know how to communicate it in a way that others could understand that they had what it took to win. So my job, as I see it, is to really support them, to communicate their story, their data, their evidence, everything that they're doing, and turn that into a proposition that demonstrates why they would be exceptional at what they do, or their team is exceptional, their brand is exceptional, so that They can stand out in awards.   Michael Hingson ** 12:21 So it's almost like you're helping to train potential award recipients to respect what the awards are and what they do. Yeah,   Donna O'Toole ** 12:31 it is always understanding what they're looking for, what the criteria is, and how they can stand out against it. But also, you know, most people who are involved in a business, whether you're running a business or whether you're a part of a team or you're a manager, we don't have the time to stop and look back and think, wow, what have we done over the last year? What have we achieved? What you know, what's really standing out about us? We just don't give ourselves that time. So recognition and awards is a really good opportunity to stop and look back and celebrate together the development journey that you've been on in your business and and motivate your team and the people around you to do even more because you're recognizing it   Michael Hingson ** 13:13 well. So how did you actually get involved in doing awards in the first place? What that's a pretty unique sort of thing to take on.   Donna O'Toole ** 13:23 Yeah. So it was kind of a journey from starting out in business writing and then moving through into doing a few award entries, and then that became more and more, and then I worked for another organization. And then in 2016 I decided the time was right to launch my own company and to start supporting more people with awards. I was, had already been involved with the industry, so I was very well supported by some great awards in the industry. And so yeah, I I started my new business, and that was called August recognition. And because I'm a linguist, I like words that have extra meanings. And August actually means in its second sense of the word, when you're not using it as the month actually means respected and admired. So in my mind, I had started an agency that enabled people to be respected and admired for what they did, and help them raise their profile that way. So   Michael Hingson ** 14:24 you don't really hear a lot about the industry of helping people get awards, but I gather it's probably a fairly substantial industry around the world.   Donna O'Toole ** 14:35 Yeah, it's 10 billion pound industry in the awards industry in itself. It's 2 billion just in the UK. So yeah, it's a big, big industry. There's so many events connected to awards. There's so many different processes. So yeah, and there's, if you imagine, every different industry there is in the world there's awards for it. I dare you to find an industry where there's not an award. Yeah. Even,   Michael Hingson ** 15:02 I'm sorry, even, even AI. And that's pretty even AI, yeah, yeah. And so when AI starts generating its own awards, then we can probably worry a little bit,   Donna O'Toole ** 15:13 yeah, we're eating ourselves, yeah?   Michael Hingson ** 15:17 But still, it's, it's a fascinating, well, topic and industry to talk about, because I'm sure there's a lot to it. Of course, like with anything, there's also a lot of politics and all that sort of stuff, but, but it must be a fascinating industry to to be a part of and to see when you help somebody get an award. How does all that work? Yeah, so   Donna O'Toole ** 15:42 usually, well, we work with businesses from the smallest business in the world right through to the biggest business in the world, literally. And what I really love about the whole process is you, you as a small business, you can use the same strategies, you can enter the same awards as the biggest businesses can and you can win. So what I really love is that you you don't have to be a certain size, you don't have to be a certain type of business. You just need to be having an impact in some way on something, and then be able to tell It and Prove It, essentially.   Michael Hingson ** 16:19 So how do you as a person in the industry make your money or earn your money as part of all of this? So   Donna O'Toole ** 16:26 we work with clients who are looking for recognition. So for example, a brand may come to us and say, you know, over the last couple of years, we've done some great learning and development projects. We've trained our teams, we've digitized our processes, we've done all of these great things. We'd love to recognize the people that have worked so hard and really, you know, give them the recognition that they deserve. So we will then look at their project, look at their business. You know, what kind of impact has that had on it might be internally. It might be that it's had a great impact for their customers. It might be it's had a great impact for the impact. For the employees. And then we'll look at all of the data around that, and we will create, we will research which are going to be the best awards to recognize them, which criteria they match, which categories they match, and then essentially, we'll support them to execute all of the work that needs to go together to go into the awards process. Someone's once said to me, did you ever think you'd be running a business where you're basically writing exams every single day? Yeah, it's a bit like that. Fortunately, I don't do the writing anymore so, but yeah, I kind of love it.   Michael Hingson ** 17:36 Yeah. Well, it seems like it would be sort of your your writing exams every day, or you're involved in helping to prepare people for the exams.   Donna O'Toole ** 17:45 Yeah, it's very analytical from looking at what's been achieved, but then it's all about communication and how you're going to deliver that to the awards process. And it's all about finding the right awards that are going to give them the right recognition, that's going to really have a return on investment for the motivation of the team, for the brand awareness, whatever it is that their goals are, that they're hoping to get to.   Michael Hingson ** 18:06 Well, so awards in general, it seems to me, create a lot of recognition. And you say that recognition has the power to make people unstoppable? Tell me a little bit more about them. What that means to you? Yeah,   Donna O'Toole ** 18:24 absolutely. Um, something I call awards imposter syndrome, which is where, you know, often, and this typically is with entrepreneurs and smaller businesses. They they'll come to us and say, you know, I'd really love to get some recognition of my brand, but I really, I think we we're doing enough, or don't know if we're worth it or we could really stand out. And actually, you know, what we want to do is make them unstoppable. We we want them to see where all the power is in what they're doing and how they can make a difference in the world. So we will go and discover all of that about their business, and then help them to communicate it in a way that even now they can see what they're doing is brilliant. And then through that recognition, there's a lot of research to show the amount of motivation that awards bring to people, even more so than even a pay rise, you know. So through that recognition, it makes them feel more able. I always say to people you know, don't think about business awards right now. Think about the awards that you won when you were a child. Think about when you were at school and you entered awards in the swimming competitions or dancing competitions. Someone want someone told me today they won a competition for the best recorder player. I said I thought, I thought we had to ban recorders. But you know, when you got that recognition as a child, we didn't think, Oh, my goodness, I'm you know, do I really deserve it? I'm so shy. Let's not tell anyone about this recognition. We loved it, and it enabled us to go on and do more. So we want to do okay, we won that swimming competition. Let's do another swimming competition. Let's really learn our craft and do more and more of what we do better and better. Her and I liked people to try and think of that feeling that they had then and bring that into now with their business. You know, don't be humble about what you're doing, because the more that you can shout about your success, the more that you can help other people to achieve success through what you're doing, and the more you've got a platform to shine a spotlight on something that you believe in and that you want to make a difference in the world about. So, you know it, I call that, I say to people, you know, if you're feeling like a bit of an imposter about awards, one of the best things you can do is to create what we call a who wins when you win campaign. And what that is, is sort of putting a stake in the ground and making a pledge to say, when we win this award, we are going to go and do this great thing, and it might be we're going to go and do a team beach clean together. We're going to mentor some people. We're going to celebrate as a team and go out for the day, or we're going to plant some trees. You know, it could be anything that means something to you, but it's a really good opportunity to seal that recognition with something that reminds you that you are worth it and really helps you get over that imposter syndrome and celebrate your achievement.   Michael Hingson ** 21:14 I assume you also run into the other side of that, which are the people who just think by definition, because they are, whoever they are, they must deserve awards, whether, yeah, must be a lot of that. Yes. So   Donna O'Toole ** 21:27 a while back, because I'm a linguist, I interrogate language all the time. I can't help it. And I would look at, I judge a lot of award entries all from around the world. Judge the leading competitions in many countries. And I would look at these award entries, and I could tell what the person was thinking when they're writing the entry, as they're coming as you're reading it. And I developed these 10 personas of different types of people that enter awards. And so we've got everything from the imposter to the ostrich who wants to hide their head in the sand to the bridesmaid who's always the always, never quite makes it to the podium. And one of those actually is the peacock. And the peacock is the one who thinks they're going to win everything, and does come across like that, but isn't great about taking the feedback when they don't win.   Michael Hingson ** 22:20 Yeah, that's really the issue, isn't it? Right? It's they don't take the feedback, and they don't change what they do and why they do it and how they do it, to be a little bit more humble in what they're all about.   Donna O'Toole ** 22:33 Absolutely, absolutely. We've also got an awards persona called the politician, and that's somebody who doesn't answer any of the questions, and all their numbers don't add up.   Michael Hingson ** 22:46 Now, I wonder what my cat would think about awards. I wonder dogs are humble, but I don't know that cats are necessarily,   Donna O'Toole ** 22:56 yeah, they've definitely got a bit more persona going on, haven't they? I don't   Michael Hingson ** 23:01 know if they necessarily would be interested in awards, because they tend not to want to stand up in front of public and do stuff. That's   Donna O'Toole ** 23:07 true, that's true. Yeah, they're kind of yeah, they're their own creature, aren't they? They are, aren't they? I don't think they think they need awards, actually,   Michael Hingson ** 23:15 yeah, that's right. They don't think they need awards. They think that everybody should just recognize them for who they are,   Donna O'Toole ** 23:20 I might have to add a new persona to my league now.   Michael Hingson ** 23:26 Well, you know, there's, there's value in that, but, but still, so you've, you've helped a lot of people with awards. I wonder if you have a story that you could share where they've received recognition and it just completely changed their lives and what they did and what they do. Oh,   Donna O'Toole ** 23:49 so many, so many of those. Yeah. So, I mean, let's think of an example. So a few years ago, I was working, actually, it was interesting. I was I was introduced by on email, just to a gentleman called Andrew, who I was introduced by the Department of Trade and Industry here in the UK, who said he's got a great story. He's got a great business. He's growing fast. We think he should win some awards. We should talk to you. And so I was like, great. Let's get on a call, Andrew. And every time we booked a call, he didn't turn up to the call. And I thought, oh goodness, you know, it's like three attempts at this call and it's just not happening. And I just emailed him and said, look, it looks like you. Maybe you're not interested in winning awards, so, you know, catch up with me if you ever get the chance. And he emailed me back, actually, this is in the introduction of my books. And he emailed me back, and he said, Donna, I'm so so sorry. I'm going through a really difficult time at the moment. His wife had cancer. His son was being bullied at school, and he was really struggling, and he'd started a business that would have grown very quickly, whilst also as a side hustle, while. Also doing the job, and he was quite overwhelmed. And I said, he said, you know, and he actually said, so if I can't even turn up for a call, how could I possibly win an award? So I said, Oh, my goodness, okay, let me, let's get together, and I'll let you know whether you can win an award or not. But this is a big award we're talking about, because he'd actually been recommended to enter what was the Queen's Awards for Enterprise. It's now the king's Awards, which is the biggest and most prestigious business award in the UK, if not in the world. And I said, let's, you know, you've been recommended for this. Let's, let's at least explore it. So I went over to his house. We had a coffee, I went through everything of his business, and I said, You know what I do? Think you've got what it takes, but I don't think you're in the right mindset to be able to manage so let us help you. So he agreed, we worked on that project, and a year later, because that's how long it takes, I was absolutely delighted. He won the Queen's awards for innovation, and it was game changing for him. And what I really loved about it was, it's a couple of things. So one is because he's a techie person, and he had launched it was a software product that he'd developed. He'd put the logo for the award on his website, and he measured the impact that that was making on his website, which is really useful for me to know, because often people don't do that. And he got came back to me in a couple of months later, and he said, in three months, his sales have gone up by 30% because of the impact of winning this award. And you know, when you're running a business and you're trying to run a family and you've got other things going on that are really important, you need your sales to go up without you having to work harder, because it gives you the free time. It gives you the ability to employ people to support you. It gives you then the time back with your family when they need you most. So I was absolutely delighted for him that it had an impact on him and his business that would enable him to actually have the time that he needed with his family and help them and support them. So that was something that was game changing in my mind, for, you know, for a really personal reason. And I was delighted he was happy to share that in in my book. Yeah, so that that was a lovely one.   Michael Hingson ** 27:14 So what is kind of the common thread? Or, how do you what is it you see in someone that makes them award winning, that that genuinely makes them award winning, as opposed to the politicians and peacock   Donna O'Toole ** 27:28 Okay, so what it is is they need to be making an impact in some way. And I think people tend to be quite fixated on on measuring or looking at their customer service, but I'm looking at their customer impact. So what their customer impact is that's something customer service is transactional, right? Customer impact is transformational. So what is it that you're doing that is making a difference or making life easier in some way for your customers? Or it is could be internal as well. So it could be your employees, for example, but generally it's impact. Now, with Andrew's story, the software that he developed, it was the first software that had the biggest ability to, I mean, I'm not a techie, so I'm probably describing this in the wrong way, the ability to display charts and graphs with the biggest amount of numbers. So we think, Okay, well, why is that important? Well, these are the graphs and the charts that are going into ECG machines in hospitals. These are going into universities to do research. You know? These are going into all sorts of things, stocks and shares. They're going into Formula One racing cars. There's so many, there's so much impact coming out from having designed that software that it's having an impact on us as humanity, and that's the kind of golden thread that you want in your award, is, what is the impact that you're having, and where can you show and prove that it's making a difference to someone, somehow, somewhere?   Michael Hingson ** 28:56 And I assume there are, we've talked about it, but I assume that there are a lot of people who are award winners who never, just never thought they would be, even though they're, they're perfectly capable and, oh yeah, they're deserving, but they, they don't, they're not doing it to seek the award. They're doing it to do what they want to do.   Donna O'Toole ** 29:18 Yeah, and they need, they need the recognition to shine that you know, 90% of businesses are small businesses now, and it's a very noisy world out there when you're trying to sell your products and services, you need to be able to do something that helps you to cut through and to get into customers minds and build trust. 85 Nielsen did a study 85% of customers now want to see credible awards on your website, on your products, before they will have the trust layer there to buy from you. What's really interesting is, years ago, we had, you remember when reviews came out? So Amazon was one of the first organizations to do reviews. I actually studied. Reviews and the mechanisms and language structures in them. And we all trusted reviews at the beginning, because, oh, great, you know, someone's going to tell us what their experience was of this thing, and we love it. And then as time went on and as the decades have progressed, we then learned not trust reviews, because it was like, Oh, hang on, they might be fake reviews, or, you know, that could be a competitor, putting a bad review on a competitor. So there's lots of reasons then not to trust reviews. So then we go, oh, well, what do we trust? Then we can't just trust what the business is telling us. We need something that's external, that's third party, and that's going to enable us to trust that brand. And then what we saw then is the pandemic happened, and we all went to shopping online. We all went to living online, and we all saw businesses fall apart and lose money who we never expected to because they didn't have the digital transformation turn around quick enough, or for whatever reason, there was a lot of businesses that suffered in the pandemic, and a lot thrived, and since that then, it was almost like awards and reviews together became even more important to all of us, because we needed something to help us to trust the brands other than, you know, the strongest referral, which is a word of mouth referral. So if you haven't had a word of mouth referral and you've gone online and you found something through a search, how do you know whether you can trust putting your money into that business to buy its products or services? So this is really where we come back to recognition, to say, Well, no, this is a this brand gives excellent customer service, or this brand is a great place to work. It really looks after its employees. So there's a huge amount of reasons now why businesses do awards to demonstrate they are trustworthy in so many ways like nowadays. You know, we live in a world where employees want to work for organizations that will look after them and that will treat them well, so that employees looking for jobs will go out looking for the businesses that have got a great place to work accreditation or award because it makes them trust that they're going to be looked after. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 32:08 it's interesting. Nielsen did a study back in 2016 regarding brand brand loyalty and disabilities, and what they found was that people with disabilities are at least 35% more likely to stay with an organization and buy from an organization that has done things like really taken the Time to make their websites accessible and to make their their environment welcoming to people with disabilities, because it is so hard to oftentimes deal with companies they're they're companies that that I deal with their websites. They're just not accessible, and they don't want to change, and it's not magic to make them accessible, but they don't, and then there are other companies that do, and I agree with the Nielsen study. It makes perfect sense, because the reality is, you're going to steal with companies that that really take the time to show that they value you being there, yeah,   Donna O'Toole ** 33:17 well, it's interesting, actually, because I've been looking at this in the awards industry and accessibility, and it's something that I'm passionate about as well. And so we've just written a white paper, we've just done some research, commissioned some research, and we've just written a white paper on accessibility and awards, because we want people to be recognized, whatever, whoever, whatever they do, it shouldn't be saved for anyone who isn't, you know, doesn't have a disability or can't access their forms. You know, it should be open to absolutely everybody. So we've been looking into that now and seeing, you know, what is it that we can do to influence the industry to be more accessible and to really share recognition for all?   Michael Hingson ** 33:59 Yeah, well, and, and it's important, I think, to do that, because there have been enough statistics to show that roughly 25% of the population has some sort of a disability in the traditional sense of the word. Now, I have a different view than that. I believe that everyone on the planet has a disability, and for most people, their disability is you're light dependent. You don't do well in the dark, and if suddenly you're in a building and the power goes out or whatever, you scramble around trying to find a light source or a smartphone or a flashlight or whatever. But the reality is that all those light sources do is cover up your disability. On the other hand, I do recognize that there are people. We're in a minority by any standard, because we are, we are not the traditional, if you will, person. We do tend to be blind, or we tend to be deaf or hard of hearing, or we tend to be low vision, or we don't walk, and there are fewer of. Less than there are of the rest of you light dependent people, and so you don't recognize the disability that's there. But it's, it's important, I think, for people to recognize it. Because in reality, when people suddenly realize, Oh, I've got my own challenges, then you get to be more aware of and want to, at least a lot of times, think about ways to make the world a more inclusive place overall.   Donna O'Toole ** 35:27 I think that's such a great way of looking at it, and it really helps immediately. I couldn't see exactly what you you're saying is, yeah, 100% as soon as the lights go out, I'm completely incapable of knowing what to do next. So, yeah, you're absolutely right.   Michael Hingson ** 35:44 Yeah, it is. It is one of those things that we just don't deal with enough. But nevertheless, it's, it's there. So there, there are a lot of reasons to to deal with access, and that's why I work with a company called accessibe that has been they started smaller and narrower in scope, but they have become very robust in doing things to make the internet a more inclusive place. And so one of the things that they've learned is you can't do it all with AI, although AI can help. And so there are so many things to be done, but the reality is, there are a lot of different kinds of disabilities that really need the Internet to and website creators to pay attention to their needs, to make sure that they, in fact, do what's necessary to make the web accessible to those people. It's a challenge.   Donna O'Toole ** 36:40 It is, and we're going through that challenge at the moment, actually. So I'm just launching a new business, and it's called, it's an AI platform that's going to enable people to do exactly what we do as an agency, find, enter and win awards, but on a platform that is accessible to everybody. So it's aI enabled. But obviously, as you exactly say, that's not the end of the story. So there's a lot of work to do, and we're doing lots of research to find out what we need to do to make sure that that is accessible to everybody, because we want to enable more people to have a good chance of getting the recognition they deserve through a platform that enables them to do that, rather than perhaps miss out on really vital recognition that could help to promote what they do just because they can't access it.   Michael Hingson ** 37:31 Yeah, well, and it happens way too, way too often. Yeah. And it's not like it's magical to make the web more inclusive. It's just that a lot of people don't know how to do it. Although the information is readily available, they just don't consider it a priority.   Donna O'Toole ** 37:48 Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, we're really putting this front and center. My business partner is Daniel Priestley. He's just been on the driver CEO actually talking about the AI side of it. So together, we're really working at trying to join all the dots so that we get all the right technologies in there and ways of working. So I'll be getting you beta testing that. Michael,   Michael Hingson ** 38:14 absolutely. And if there's any way to help, I am very happy to help. Thank you. So Don't, don't hesitate to reach out. So we will. We've now said that publicly for the whole world, that's all right. So what do you say to the person who says winning an award is just not for   Donna O'Toole ** 38:33 me? I think often, you know, I was thinking about this earlier, actually, and I was thinking, you know, there's different things that we're all in favor of and all not in favor of most of the time, when I come across people who say a winning awards is not, for me, is they either haven't been involved in an awards process before, or they feel a bit shy of it and like a bit of an imposter. And, you know, it's a risk, isn't it? You're putting yourself up to be judged, ultimately. So it does take a bit of courage, and it takes a bit of reflection. So, you know, I say, Look at what impact you're having, you know, go away and see, have you got impact on your customers? Somehow, have you got impact on your community? Somehow? It doesn't all have to be about transactional business. It could be that actually you're doing something great for the environment or sustainability or for a community source or for charity, you know, so what are you doing that's making a difference, and it could recognition help you to do more of that? Could it give you the spotlight to enable you to do more of that purpose? Because if it could, then why not, you know, why not do it and get some recognition?   Michael Hingson ** 39:36 Yeah, well, and that makes sense. And but some people may still just continue to say, well, I don't really think I've done that much, and so it isn't for me.   Donna O'Toole ** 39:47 Yeah, absolutely. And you'll always have people who don't want to do everything at the end of the day, you know, it's probably, realistically, it's probably, you know, the top 10% of businesses that are looking to win awards because they're already in that zone or. Where they're, you know, they're growing, they're they're trying to transform. They're always jumping on the next best thing. So, you know, it's a good way to benchmark ourselves as well, and to say, you know, how can I progress this year? Well, what would it take for me to win this particular award? Let's say, let's have a look at what it would take, and let's see if we can get to the business, to that stage, because that way you can develop the business first, before you even think of entering the award, so that you have got the impact, and you have got, you know, all the right things to show that you're making a difference.   Michael Hingson ** 40:31 Yeah, and you brought up a point earlier, which I think is extremely interesting, the whole issue of awards and reviews, one of the things that I do when I'm looking at buying a product that I'm not overly familiar with is I love to look at the worst reviews for the product. Yeah, they're the most fun, because you find out really quickly. If you look at those reviews, you find out whether the person really knows what they're talking about or not and whether they really got good arguments. And I find that the people who give the bad reviews generally are, are not, are not necessarily, really giving you substantive information that you can use.   Donna O'Toole ** 41:15 Yeah, exactly. That's often the way I am. I actually studied reviews, and I looked at the different language structures and reviews of different retail stores, and how, how the the language that the people used in their reviews influenced the buyers. And it was really funny, because this is back in the days. This is just when I was at university. I was doing my dissertation, and it was what we were looking for. What I was looking for was what represent, what people felt represented good value for money. Because no matter how much money you've got, whether you've got a pound to spend or 1000 pounds to spend, you just want to get good value for money for what you're spending. So it doesn't really matter how pricey the product is. It matters your perception of good value for money, and that's essentially what tends to come across in a review, even if people don't say it is whether they think it's good value for money or not, whether it's the brand or the actual product. And it was really funny, because I did this whole study, and I came up with a structure that retailers should use to give to their reviewers to then put the review in in the most helpful way possible for the people then looking at the reviews who want to purchase the product, and I it was great, and I was really happy with it, and got first class and all of that. Anyway, a while later, I bought a coat from a store called Debenhams in the UK, which is now only online. But I bought this coat, I wrote a review and put it on their website. And it was quite the early days of reviews. Still, two days later, Debenhams called me, and I couldn't believe it, because when you had to leave your review, you had to leave your name and number, and it was like, I said, it's a very new thing then. And they actually telephoned me, and they said, Hello, we want to say thank you for your review that you left about this coat, and I still have the coat. And because, because of your review, we sold out the product. And so we want to say thank you. So we're sending you a voucher. And I got this voucher through the post. And I mean, you wouldn't get that, I don't think nowadays, no, but it really showed me the difference that a review could make on a product back then, you know, and how writing the right type of review, not just saying it's great, but why it's great, why I considered it good value for money about the material and the sizing and the shape and all of the quality and that kind of thing. It gave people reassurance to buy, and that's what we're looking for when we're looking at reviews. And that's where awards can come in and kind of secure that trust as well. I don't know about you, but I get down rabbit holes with reviews on things like trip,   Michael Hingson ** 43:52 oh yeah. Well, what I found is, if I look at the positive, the best reviews, I get more good technical information, and I got and I get more good product knowledge, but then I look at the bad reviews, and the reason I look at those is I want to see if they truly are giving me the same information the other way, and they don't. They're it's totally emotional, and a lot of times it is just not, in fact, what I or others find with the products, and that the bad reviews tend not to really give you nearly the information that the bad reviewers think they're giving you if you if you read them carefully. And I think that gets back to your whole issue of studying language, but still, they're not giving you the information that they really ought to be giving you. And, you know, I've had some where somebody gave a bad review to a product because the box arrived and it was open or wasn't sealed. Well, yeah, all right, so what   Donna O'Toole ** 44:55 exactly I know it's ridiculous. I mean, I think we're as consumers a bit more. Pragmatic about it nowadays, but as businesses, we need to be able to demonstrate to our customers in every way possible, you know. And that's why social media now and user generated content is so popular. Because we don't want to see what it looks like on a model anymore. We want to see what it looks like on a real life, personal we want to hear someone's like real life, day to day experience of something, as opposed to a polished article on it, right,   Michael Hingson ** 45:26 which, which is, is the way it ought to be. And again, that gets back to substance. And the the people who give really good reviews are generally the ones that are giving you substance. I've had some bad reviewers that had very good reasons for why they feel the way they do. And then you look at it and you go, Well, maybe it doesn't fit in their situation or, aha, they really know what they're talking about. I'm going to take that into consideration when I look at buying this product or not. But a lot of them   Donna O'Toole ** 45:57 don't. Absolutely, no, absolutely, yeah, I could do this for days.   Michael Hingson ** 46:04 Yeah. Well, it is. It is fascinating, but it's part of human nature   Donna O'Toole ** 46:09 psychology, isn't I tell you when else it comes up and it's quite interesting. So often we make companies may approach us and say, Leo, we want to win awards to be the best place to work. And we'll say, okay, great, you know, tell us about the workplace, and we'll go through all these different criteria with them, and they tell us all this great stuff. And then we go and do our own research as well, because we need to verify this, right? And we go on to glass door, and then we see some horrendous reviews from employees that have left. I think, okay, maybe this is, maybe this is not quite all the story we're getting here. Yeah. So, you know, the thing with awards is, if you are saying anything about your business, you're going to have to prove it. So reviews from your customers and reviews from your employees are super important for awards. Actually,   Michael Hingson ** 46:59 I find as a speaker that letters of recommendation are extremely important. In fact, I even put it in my contract that if someone likes the talk, then I expect to get a letter of recommendation. And for a good amount of people, they do that, although I've had some people who forget or just don't. But the letters are extremely valuable, especially when they go into detail about not just the talk, but like in my case, I view when I visit a customer, or when I view when I talk about going to speak somewhere, I believe that I'm a guest like anyone who goes, and it's not about me, it's about them. It's about the event. It's about the people who are putting it on. It's about the audience. And I always want to make sure that I do everything I can to be as not a problem as possible. And I know that there are some people that don't do that. I had a I had an event once where I went and spoke, and while there, I talked to the person who brought me in, and I said, What's the most difficult speaker you ever had? Had come here? And I was just curious. I was curious to see what he say without any hesitation. He said, We had a woman who came to speak, and we honored the contract, although still don't know why, but she insisted that in the green room, and so there had to be one, but in the green room there had to be a brand new, never used crystal champagne flute full of pink M M's. Now what does that have to do with being a speaker? Well, I know some people just like to take people through the wringer. They want to try to drive the point home that they're the bosses. Well, I think that, you know, I know what I can do. What I said to the guy, though afterward I said, Well, okay, I hear you. They actually did find peak Eminem. So was interesting. I said, Well, let me just tell you that if you bring cheese and crackers, I'll share them with you.   49:10 They brought you that we had fun, yes,   Michael Hingson ** 49:13 but, you know, but, but he, he understood that there were no demands. I wouldn't do that. I just think that that's not what I'm supposed to do as a speaker. My job is to in a well, inspire and motivate and and to educate. But it's not my job to be difficult. And I've gotten some wonderful letters that say how easy I made it to work with them, which is great. Yeah, fantastic. I'm sure you did. So it's, it's a lot of fun to to see some of those, and I've gotten some great stories over the years, which is really   Speaker 1 ** 49:46 a lot, and that's why they love to have you. Well, I hope so   Michael Hingson ** 49:53 we still do it, and it's a lot of fun to help and motivate and inspire. But yeah, I. I and by the way, I guess I'd never be interested in pink M M's anyway, so I wouldn't see the colors. So,   Donna O'Toole ** 50:08 yeah, glass of water is just about the thing on my list.   Michael Hingson ** 50:12 Yeah, well, you know, I'll take M M's if they show up. And I'm not going to demand them, that's okay. But you know, people are interesting. So once somebody's won an award, you've talked about this some, but when I once somebody has won an award, what's next?   Donna O'Toole ** 50:28 So next, it's all about, well, sharing it to demonstrate why people often forget to tell people why they've won an award. They just say that they've won an award. I think it's important to say, why? Like, what is it? What is it? What impact are you having? What's the difference that you're making out there in the world? Why have you won and share that on your profile? As I said, you know, people buy from people now as well. If you're winning an award as a leader or as a speaker or as an entrepreneur, you know people want to know about that because it helps to give credibility to what you do and trust like, just like those letters of referral that you're talking about. So, you know, get that on your LinkedIn profile, get it onto your podcast, you know, all of those different things, and take pride in your work and share that   Michael Hingson ** 51:14 I had a salesperson I hired is my favorite sales guy, and when I asked him, as I asked everybody who came to apply for jobs, what are you going to be selling for us? Tell me about that. He is the only person who ever said, The only thing I really have to sell is myself and my word. Your product is stuff, and it's all about trust and it's all about honoring my word. And he said, The only thing I asked from you is that you backed me up. And I said, well, as long as you do a good job, you know, but he understood it, and he's actually the only person that I ever hired that really articulated that, but that was always the answer I was looking for, because it really told me a lot about him. Just that simple answer told me more about him than anything else anyone, even he could say,   Donna O'Toole ** 52:06 yeah, absolutely. So it's so important, and you know, so I'm part of a key person of influence program that Daniel Priestley runs, and it's I do profile coaching for entrepreneurs to help them to become a key person of influence in their in their industry. And now that's not being an influencer. That's being someone who's known for being good at what they do and being a key person in that industry. And you know, work flows to you if people know what you do and know who to come to because you're the expert in that area, if you're a small business, you're an entrepreneur, you're struggling to get leads, then actually maybe you need to make yourself put bit more known. People tend to be bit shy and hide behind their brand. But you know, if you look at people like Richard Branson, you know, we when you trust an entrepreneur, then you will buy from the brand. And there's many more entrepreneurs I could mention, who when the trust is lost with them because of their behavior in some way, then their brand suffers. It's quite clear to see, yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 53:09 do you find that most people who win an award do carry on and do positive things as a result, and that their brand and what they do improves, or is some people win and just falls by the wayside.   Donna O'Toole ** 53:27 Generally speaking, if you're the people that are going in for awards, the brands that are going forwards, they're progressive, so they usually progress with it. There's a piece of research that shows that businesses that have won awards are around 77% more valuable than businesses without awards even five years after winning. And that's because when you're going for an award in business, you've got to do a lot of develop. You know, there's got to be some good stuff happening in your business. And so naturally, the businesses that are doing those good things want to keep doing more of those good things internally, and so they tend to keep driving the business forward. And they have that motivation. They have motivated teams who are being recognized for the work that they're doing, and all of that naturally pushes them forward. So in five years time, they're still leagues ahead of their competitors that are not winning awards.   Michael Hingson ** 54:20 So always worth exploring winning awards. Oh, 100% Yeah. If   Donna O'Toole ** 54:27 I always say, I think, quote Nelson Mandela on this, you've got nothing to lose. You'll either win or you'll learn. If you don't win, then you should learn something about what you do need to do to win, and that will bring your business on.   Michael Hingson ** 54:39 Absolutely agree it's like, I also believe there's no such thing as failure. Failure is really it didn't go the way you planned. And so what do you learn in order to make that not happen again?   Donna O'Toole ** 54:51 Yeah, exactly, that exactly. So we need that kind of resilience in business today,   Michael Hingson ** 54:57 if people listening and watching this. Just take away one lesson and get one piece of advice out of this. What should it be?   Donna O'Toole ** 55:04 Understand your impact? I would say people don't often understand their impact. So ask your customers, ask your employees, what's improved since we've been working together? What? What if? What's improved for you since you've been using our product? And then calculate up what is that impact that you're having? You know, if 90% of your customers are saying that since using your product, I don't know, they're they're they're having a better their their accounts are better, or their skin is better. You whatever it is your product or your service is, then you've got impact that you're having. So start investigating what that impact is, and then that will help to steer you towards which kind of awards you could potentially be winning as well.   Michael Hingson ** 55:47 And of course, if you really think about your impact and whoever you are and whatever business you're doing, and you do monitor that, then that's one of the most important things that you can do about your business anyway, and people should be doing that.   Donna O'Toole ** 56:01 Yeah, exactly. But probably 90% of people that come to me aren't measuring their impact, and so it's a surprise, but I always say, Well, if you don't know what your impact is, how do you know that what your product or your services works? Just because people are buying it, you still need to know what your impact is. How do you measure impact? Oh, you can measure it in so many different ways, and you want in awards to be able to demonstrate it both quantitatively and qualitatively. So typically, in large corporate organizations, they will be measuring impact. So there's something called net promoter scores. So, you know, they'll be asking customers, would they recommend them? They'll ask them what they're enjoying about their products and things. So they tend to have some kind of measurement built into their process, in their customer departments, however, in smaller businesses, often they don't. So I say, you know, draw up a simple survey, ask your customers what's changed since you've been working with us. Let's say you're a service provider. So are you less stressed since you've been working with us? Do you have more revenue coming in since you've been working with us? What is it? And get them to answer a little survey. And then you could go all this collective impact that you can put together to look at the percentages and see what that's telling you. And if you don't want to know what the impact is in your business, then I question why you don't want to why   Michael Hingson ** 57:16 you're in the business in the first place, exactly. Well, tell us about your book. You've mentioned books several times, yeah.   Donna O'Toole ** 57:23 So I wrote a book called Win, of course, raise your profile and grow your business through winning awards. And really, it's a toolkit for for entrepreneurs. I was working with a lot of large businesses, and, you know, I was conscious that small businesses don't always have the resources to win awards or to be able to outsource. So I wrote a book that they could use to follow the toolkit, essentially, of winning awards. So that's developing their strategy, knowing understanding how awards work and which ones would suit their business, setting awards goals, understanding criteria. What does innovation really mean? What do they want to see? What kind of evidence do I need to provide? How do I know if it's the right race for me? All of those things. So it takes you end to end, through the awards journey internationally. You know, no matter where you are, you can follow the same process, and you could nowadays, it's really important to become the most award winning in your sector, so you can follow the process to get there. And that's a hugely valuable tagline.   Michael Hingson ** 58:26 And I appreciate that you sent us a picture of the book cover, and it is in the show notes. I hope people will go get   Donna O'Toole ** 58:31 it absolutely and it is on Audible as well, so that everyone can access it. So yeah, enjoy listening to my voice a lot more.   Michael Hingson ** 58:39 I was just going to ask if you read it. I did read it for you.   Donna O'Toole ** 58:44 Do you know what it was? I was so proud of that I was more proud of the audible recording than I was of writing at the book. But I don't know why. I think it's because I actually really enjoy listening to books on audio. So I'm quite passionate about listening. I like listening to the actual author's voice, though. So I found I was quite interesting, actually, when I found, when I recorded it, that was quite good at recording audio. The studio guy that I was working with was like, Oh, you're really good at this. We could just drop it words back in if there was a mistake.   Michael Hingson ** 59:14 There you are. See, it is so much better to edit today than it used to be, because now it is. It is all electronic, and I, I edit from time to time, just different things and all that I don't we work on not editing the podcast. That is, I don't want to cut out part of a conversation, because it is a conversation, but, but now you can do so many things, like, if there's a lot of noise, you can even filter that out without affecting the camera. It is so cool.   Donna O'Toole ** 59:43 Yeah, very, very clever. So, yeah, get it on Audible. There you   Michael Hingson ** 59:47 go. Well, great. Well, I hope people will Well, I want to thank you for being here. This has been a lot of fun, and you should get an award for doing it. That's all there is to it. But I really appreciate you being here. And. I appreciate all of you out there listening to us and watching us. Love to get your thoughts. How do people reach out to you? Donna, if they'd like to to talk with you,   Donna O'Toole ** 1:00:09 absolutely. So you can con

Martin Shaw, Professor of International Relations at the University of Sussex, explains why he believes Israel's planned occupation of Gaza City violates international law.

Annemarie Lean-Vercoe is a British Award winning and BAFTA Nominated Cinematographer. She most recently lensed Outrageous, which follows the lives of the fascinating Mitford Sisters. The show premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2025 and will be airing this summer on UKTV and BritBoxTV.  Annemarie is a graduate of the National Film and Television School (NFTS) with film and TV credits as Cinematographer or Director of Photography spanning more than 26 years. These include Call the Midwife, Breeders, The Chelsea Detective, All Creatures Great and Small, Marilyn Reframed, the BAFTA winner Suffragettes with Lucy Worsley and BAFTA nominated Is There Anybody Out There.  Annemarie was born in Devon, England in 1977 and has an older sister and step siblings. Her parents divorced when she was just four but remarried locally and remained close by, providing Annemarie with an extended family. In his second career her father was a sailing photographer who introduced her to cameras and she soon developed a curiosity as to what was possible behind the lens. She enjoyed an idyllic childhood with freedom to explore the surrounding countryside, learning to ride ponies and how to sail. After Yealmpton Primary School, Annemarie attended the Royal School in Bath but left early to be with her mother. An early interest in arts and crafts then led her to a year-long Foundation Arts Course before attending an under-graduate program at the London College of Printing (University of the Arts London). By now she had developed an interest in film cameras and started to gain some experience as a trainee on productions in the UK. A series of introductions and the benefit of a scholarship led her to the NFTS with an eye to becoming a cinematographer.  After graduating Annemarie has been consistently in demand balancing her career with raising her family, thanks to the help of her mother and mother-in-law. She is a proud member of Illuminatrix and Women Behind The Camera.  Her numerous awards include BAFTA, BIFA and STAR OF TOMORROW.  Annemarie is currently in production on the British TV drama series Bergerac.  She lives in Sussex, England with her husband Finn and two children. Annemarie's links:https://cargocollective.com/cinematographerhttps://www.imdb.com/name/nm1233187/https://www.instagram.com/annemarieleanvercoe1 https://www.illuminatrixdops.com/member/annemarie-lean-vercoe/ Host: Chris StaffordProduced by Hollowell StudiosFollow @theaartpodcast on InstagramThe AART Podcast on YouTubeEmail: theaartpodcast@gmail.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/wisp--4769409/support.

Annemarie Lean-Vercoe is a British Award winning and BAFTA Nominated Cinematographer. Her most recently lensed Outrageous, which follows the lives of the fascinating Mitford Sisters. The show premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2025 and will be airing this summer on UKTV and BritBoxTV.  Annemarie is a graduate of the National Film and Television School (NFTS) with film and TV credits as Cinematographer or Director of Photography spanning more than 26 years. These include Call the Midwife, Breeders, The Chelsea Detective, All Creatures Great and Small, Marilyn Reframed, the BAFTA winner Suffragettes with Lucy Worsley and BAFTA nominated Is There Anybody Out There.  Annemarie was born in Devon, England in 1977 and has an older sister and step siblings. Her parents divorced when she was just four but remarried locally and remained close by, providing Annemarie with an extended family. In his second career her father was a sailing photographer who introduced her to cameras and she soon developed a curiosity as to what was possible behind the lens. She enjoyed an idyllic childhood with freedom to explore the surrounding countryside, learning to ride ponies and how to sail. After Yealmpton Primary School, Annemarie attended the Royal School in Bath but left early to be with her mother. An early interest in arts and crafts then led her to a year-long Foundation Arts Course before attending an under-graduate program at the London College of Printing (University of the Arts London). By now she had developed an interest in film cameras and started to gain some experience as a trainee on productions in the UK. A series of introductions and the benefit of a scholarship led her to the NFTS with an eye to becoming a cinematographer.  After graduating Annemarie has been consistently in demand balancing her career with raising her family, thanks to the help of her mother and mother-in-law. She is a proud member of Illuminatrix and Women Behind The Camera.  Her numerous awards include BAFTA, BIFA and STAR OF TOMORROW.  Annemarie is currently in production on the British TV drama series Bergerac.  She lives in Sussex, England with her husband Finn and two children. Annemarie's links:https://cargocollective.com/cinematographerhttps://www.imdb.com/name/nm1233187/https://www.instagram.com/annemarieleanvercoe1 https://www.illuminatrixdops.com/member/annemarie-lean-vercoe/ Host: Chris StaffordProduced by Hollowell StudiosFollow @theaartpodcast on InstagramThe AART Podcast on YouTubeEmail: theaartpodcast@gmail.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/aart--5814675/support.

Netflix, 2025: Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, steht in einer Streaming-Show am Herd – und ganz Großbritannien schaut zu. „With Love, Meghan“ heißt das Format und sorgt weltweit für Schlagzeilen. -- In dieser Episode sprechen Alexander-Klaus Stecher und Claus Beling erneut mit Adels-Experte Andi Englert über die aktuellen Entwicklungen rund um die royale Familie. Meghan Markle und Prinz Harry sind nach wie vor eines der umstrittensten Paare weltweit. Seit sich die beiden aus den royalen Aufgaben zurückgezogen haben, treten sie immer wieder, sehr umstritten, medial auf. Aber was darf ein Mitglied der Familie Sussex? Die Schlagzeilen schwanken zwischen Versöhnungsgerüchten, Trennungs-Spekulationen und Meghans Karriere in Hollywood. Könnte Meghan tatsächlich wieder als Schauspielerin erfolgreich sein? Wie wahrscheinlich ist es, dass ihr Wunsch, eine Superheldin zu spielen, wahr wird? Wie steht es um das Vertrauen zwischen Harry und seiner Familie? Wie hat Harry auf die Krebsdiagnose von Kate reagiert? Und ein Gedankenspiel: Wie würde das Königshaus reagieren, wenn Meghan mit OnlyFans beginnen würde? BRITPOD - England at its best! -- WhatsApp: Du kannst Alexander und Claus direkt auf ihre Handys Nachrichten schicken! Welche Ecke Englands sollten die beiden mal besuchen? Zu welchen Themen wünschst Du Dir mehr Folgen? Warst Du schon mal in Great Britain und magst ein paar Fotos mit Claus und Alexander teilen? Probiere es gleich aus: +49 8152 989770 - einfach diese Nummer einspeichern und schon kannst Du BRITPOD per WhatsApp erreichen. -- Ein ALL EARS ON YOU Original Podcast.

Listen Ad Free https://www.solgoodmedia.com - Listen to hundreds of audiobooks, thousands of short stories, and ambient sounds all ad free!

This week, Jon joins forces with Trevor Knell from our friends across the border in Sussex to look ahead to the Isthmian League season for the 18 Kent sides in the Premier and South East divisions - and to learn about our 11 Sussex rivals.And as an added treat, before that you can hear from Holmesdale boss Andy Constable on his side's progress on and off the pitch and Tunbridge Wells manager Steve Ives also speaks after the two sides drew 1-1 in their FA Cup tie at the weekend. You will know who is through now, but, you know... Pesky replays! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv Titan submersible implosion that killed all five on board was preventable, says report Warwickshire Police respond to George Finchs rape cover up claim Cross channel migrant smuggling gang exposed by BBC undercover filming Family pay tribute to Oasis fan Lee Claydon who died at Wembley Sussex couple detained in Iran allowed to call home for first time Great Barrier Reef suffers worst coral decline on record Netanyahu to propose full reoccupation of Gaza, Israeli media report Genevieve Chenneour Bridgerton actress speaks of phone theft trauma Bill and Hillary Clinton subpoened in House committees Epstein probe Stockport couple drowned in Majorca flash floods, inquest told

No evidence of bullying, misogyny or racism. On the face of it, good news for the Duke of Sussex. But there's still plenty of fallout from a very public row ignited by the woman still in charge of the charity set up by Harry in honour of his mother, that he's now walked away from.  Earlier this year, Sentebale's chair, Dr Sophie Chandauka, used an interview with Sky News' Trevor Phillips to accuse Harry of "harassment and bullying at scale". The prince strenuously denied those claims and has now been cleared by the Charity Commission, which found no evidence to back up Dr Chandauka's accusations. However, it did find the internal - yet very public - dispute at Sentebale "severely impacted the charity's reputation". So, what next for Harry and the charity that was once so close to his heart? Niall Paterson is joined by Sky's royal correspondent, Rhiannon Mills, to discuss the fallout. Producer: Emma Rae Woodhouse Editor: Mike Bovill 

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv Family pay tribute to Oasis fan Lee Claydon who died at Wembley Genevieve Chenneour Bridgerton actress speaks of phone theft trauma Sussex couple detained in Iran allowed to call home for first time Stockport couple drowned in Majorca flash floods, inquest told Bill and Hillary Clinton subpoened in House committees Epstein probe Warwickshire Police respond to George Finchs rape cover up claim Great Barrier Reef suffers worst coral decline on record Cross channel migrant smuggling gang exposed by BBC undercover filming Titan submersible implosion that killed all five on board was preventable, says report Netanyahu to propose full reoccupation of Gaza, Israeli media report

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv Cross channel migrant smuggling gang exposed by BBC undercover filming Stockport couple drowned in Majorca flash floods, inquest told Netanyahu to propose full reoccupation of Gaza, Israeli media report Sussex couple detained in Iran allowed to call home for first time Bill and Hillary Clinton subpoened in House committees Epstein probe Great Barrier Reef suffers worst coral decline on record Titan submersible implosion that killed all five on board was preventable, says report Warwickshire Police respond to George Finchs rape cover up claim Family pay tribute to Oasis fan Lee Claydon who died at Wembley Genevieve Chenneour Bridgerton actress speaks of phone theft trauma

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv Titan submersible implosion that killed all five on board was preventable, says report Stockport couple drowned in Majorca flash floods, inquest told Bill and Hillary Clinton subpoened in House committees Epstein probe Genevieve Chenneour Bridgerton actress speaks of phone theft trauma Netanyahu to propose full reoccupation of Gaza, Israeli media report Great Barrier Reef suffers worst coral decline on record Cross channel migrant smuggling gang exposed by BBC undercover filming Family pay tribute to Oasis fan Lee Claydon who died at Wembley Sussex couple detained in Iran allowed to call home for first time Warwickshire Police respond to George Finchs rape cover up claim

What a week at Glorious Goodwood — and we've got every major angle covered. Emmet Kennedy is joined by Adam Mills and Jamie Wrenn to unpack a seismic week on the Downs. From a record-breaking 150/1 shock in the Sussex Stakes to major Arc and St Leger implications, this is your full recap with betting angles, bold predictions, and explosive opinions.

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex's hit Netflix show, With Love, Meghan was accused of copying Pamela Anderson's show. For months people have falsely accused Meghan of copying, which is ridiculous considering Meghan's show was filmed months earlier, and was originally slated to be released in January 2025, and now Pamela shares her thoughts in defense of Meghan on WWHL with Andy Cohen. While I'm glad she clarified this, I also feel there missing pieces to this situation, as with most situations where Meghan is unfairly accused of something, that should be included in these conversations.  Yes, the media pits women against each other and we should call it out, at the same time people should hold themselves accountable and speak with intention, or speak up sooner.

Happy Birthday to the Duchess of Sussex, who of course finds herself in the middle of another controversy - this one over Netflix Store Wages.Become a premium subscriber! (no ads and no feed drops). For Apple users, hit the banner on your Apple podcasts app which says UNINTERRUPTED LISTENING. You also get 25+ other series from comedy to paranormal, royals, romance, trivia, politics, movies, music, murder, sports, travel, religion, spirituality, celebrity gossip and feuds, consisting of THOUSANDS OF SHOWS AD-FREE! (it's only $4.99 a month with a free-trial month) PLUS, subscribers get offers like early show releases and subscriber-only shows. Go to Caloroga.com for all our shows!Subscribe to Deep Crown's free newsletter at https://deepcrown.substack.comThanks to our sponsor https://go.happinessexperiment.com/begin-aff-o2?am_id=podcast2025&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=michael

Your next chance to WIN is tomorrow at 7:20am!

Another birthday to celebrate.This time we look to the south as our smallest publication in Sussex Bylines. We ask the Editor-in-Chief, Ginny Smith, as well as James Joughin and Pea Channon, both members of SBL core editorial team, to talk about what the last 5 years have been like.On top of that, we're joined by 2 of Sussex's contributors, Ross McNally and Rudi Banfield, who talk about what it's like to write for Sussex Bylines.If you wish to contribute to our cause, we have a crowdfunding page to help the Network expand. Donate only if you can and whatever you can, every little really helps. ⁠https://chuffed.org/project/ng7b7xwqwlze⁠The Bylines Network has also relaunched the Bylines shop, where you can get anything from hoodies to mugs, and featuring all merch from all 10 of our publications. ⁠https://bylines-network.teemill.com/⁠
Our online Gazette is now free if you sign up to any of our 10 newsletters, Join the mailing list: ⁠⁠https://bylinesnetwork.co.uk/sign-up/⁠Voxel Revolution Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Your next chance to WIN is tomorrow at 7:20am!

We take a look at the latest rumors surrounding teh Duchess of Sussex?  Is she getting a Season 3 from Netflix?  Is she worried Charles will steer Harry to a divorce?Become a premium subscriber! (no ads and no feed drops). For Apple users, hit the banner on your Apple podcasts app which says UNINTERRUPTED LISTENING. You also get 25+ other series from comedy to paranormal, royals, romance, trivia, politics, movies, music, murder, sports, travel, religion, spirituality, celebrity gossip and feuds, consisting of THOUSANDS OF SHOWS AD-FREE! (it's only $4.99 a month with a free-trial month) PLUS, subscribers get offers like early show releases and subscriber-only shows. Go to Caloroga.com for all our shows! Subscribe to Deep Crown's free newsletter at https://deepcrown.substack.com Thanks to our sponsor https://go.happinessexperiment.com/begin-aff-o2?am_id=podcast2025&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=michael

Russ and Pete were joined once again by their favourite friend of the show, Phil Annets, to whet their tastebuds ahead of the Extra Preliminary Round of The FA Cup this weekend….yes it's back ALREADY! Russ and Pete will be at Haywards Heath Town's game vs Ashford United down in Sussex, but what else is on the menu up and down the country? Then in part 2, discussions moves to all things Albion for another update on transfers in and out, plus there's the England Women's glorious triumph at The Euros and the far from glorious news eminating from Morecambe and Sheff Wednesday in recent weeks. And the latest Clown Town update! Stand or fall! UTA! Up The Bluebells!!! We are part of The Sports Social Network Check out Phil's socials for more FA Cup stats and facts @FACupFactfile on X Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dave's Journey Back To Nature: Part 1A young man discovers nudism.Based on posts by Big galoot, in 6 parts. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories.My name is Dave and I found out I'm a naturist.I was a shy and introverted teenager. By the time I was eighteen, the most I had done sexually was to masturbate over the lingerie models in my mums home shopping catalogue.Around this time I also discovered that I loved being naked. This was a good few years ago, before the internet was everywhere; more innocent times maybe. I didn't know anything about naturism, or anything like that, I just knew I loved being naked. It felt so right. Everything was fine for a while; I would spend time in my room naked, with the door locked of course. Then I met my first girlfriend, and even though we got on well, I found I couldn't tell her about wanting to be naked. I even started cancelling dates so I could stay home in the nude. We would eventually drift apart.I started getting bolder with my nudism. I'd go from my bedroom to the bathroom with no clothes on; that sort of thing. I eventually built up the courage to walk around the house naked when I knew no one was at home. That summer I ventured outside for the first time.It was amazing, the warm sun on my naked body. I started refusing to go on trips with the rest of the family, or meet up with friends, so I could stay at home, alone, naked. My parents just thought I was a surly teenager.On one such occasion, everyone had gone off for the day. By 11 o'clock I was laid out in the back garden, basking in the hot sun, idly playing with my cock. I heard a little cough and a female voice say "umm, excuse me, sorry for interrupting" I sat bolt upright, my hands automatically covering my genitals, I looked around and saw Muriel, a friend of my mother's, standing there; an amused look on her face."Sorry for startling you David, I was just dropping off this parcel for your mum, when I saw no one was in I thought I'd bring it around the back and put in in the garden shed."I was too embarrassed to say anything. Muriel continued, "I've known you since you were a little boy, my how you've grown." I think I went even redder, if that was possible,She continued; "I envy you; lying there enjoying the sun on your body. If I had more time, I think I'd strip off and join you. But I must keep going. Enjoy the rest of your day, and tell your mum I'll phone her later."And with that, she was gone. Now, as I said earlier, these were more innocent days, before the big fetish for MILFS. Although Muriel was a very attractive woman, and would definitely have qualified. I just didn't think of her in that way. What I did take from what she'd said, was that maybe being naked wasn't that strange, and maybe I wasn't some sort of weirdo. I was also aware that a bit of me had enjoyed getting caught. My cock hidden behind my hands, growing, rather than shrinking.In September, I went to college and had to find somewhere to live. I eventually moved into a house with three other students; John, Mary, and Suzi. They were a good bunch and we got along well, but I really missed my freedom to wander around nude.One evening we were all very drunk and Suzi suggested we play truth or dare. After lots of moans and groans, we eventually got the game started. It came to my turn and I elected to tell a truth. I was quite pissed and blurted out about wanting to be naked all the time. There was silence for a while until Mary, who I think was even more drunk than me, started laughing and said she thought it was great; and that she thought she was a lesbian; and that we should all be free to be what we want. Mary's confession certainly trumped mine and thankfully took up the rest of our drunken conversations.I was first up the next morning, my head ready to explode. I was making coffee when Mary walked into the kitchen, we both managed painful good mornings, and then Mary said, "Did I really tell everyone last night that I was a lesbian?""Yes you did, and I told you all I was a nudist."When we stopped laughing Mary said, "Right; get them off." Pulling at my tee shirt."Piss off," I said, laughing.Mary stopped "I meant what I think I said last night. It's great you've told us, and this is your house and you should be free to be naked, if you want.""Thanks Mary, I'm not sure if the other's agree with you, though.""Well fuck them! They'll just have to get used to it.""You're still drunk." I dismissed her remarks."Probably, but l do mean it."I sat with my coffee, thinking about what Mary had said. I wasn't too concerned about what John thought. He spent most of his time at his girlfriend's anyway.Suzi was another matter. Both Mary and Suzi were good looking, outgoing girls who were fun to be with. But truth be told, I had a bit of a crush on Suzi. All of us in the house had flirted a bit and made some saucy comments, as any group of young people might. But Suzi had flirted a bit more with me, enough to make me think that the attraction might be mutual. But I was young and inexperienced, and not too certain of myself, and had now confessed my, what some might see as, perversions.Pushing Confessions into Conversions.That evening, I was in the house on my own, sat watching television. I was sorely tempted to strip off, but I dared not. Mary came in and said, "What are you up too?""Nothing much, I'm meant to be studying, but I'm just vegging out in front of the box.""Well if you want to you should do it nude.""Do you think so?" I said, pleaded for her to talk me into it."Definitely, if you're happier that way, then that's what you should do. And anyway your safe, you know I'm not gonna jump your bones."We both laughed a bit at this."How are you feeling about your little confession last night?" I asked Mary."Fucking brilliant! You're my friends and flat mates, and I've wanted to tell you for ages. Didn't mean to do it drunk, playing truth or dare, but I'm glad you all know.""I think it's great and I'm really happy that you're happy. I don't know if this is appropriate, but if anyone gives you any hassle about it, I'll thump them for you, if you want." I assured her.Mary laughed. "Thanks for being supportive, you're like a big brother, but I'm a good scratcher and biter myself.""That could be interesting," I said with a smirk."Fuck off! Anyway, you'll never get to find out. Now; you gonna get naked and relax, or what?"I thought about it. "I think I will, if it's ok with you?""Of course it is, do you want me to go outside while you undress?""Actually I think I enjoy being watched as well.""You Tart!""I know." We both laughed.I'd gotten down as far as my underpants, Mary watching me the whole time, when she spoke, "I've got one concern.""What?" I asked, a little worried."Is your ass clean? I don't want you putting skid marks all over the sofa." She never lack for British wit."Fuck off!" I said, both of us laughing loudly. Mary could be very crass and very funny.There were two sofas in our living room. I was sat on one, naked, and Mary on the other. The evening had been fun, watching a bit of tv, chatting, and generally relaxing.At one stage, there was a bit of a sex scene in one of the movies, nothing to write home about, but none the less, I had a semi erection. I was also dying to use pee. I tried holding it but the full sensation was having an even worse effect on my cock. I'd have to walk past Mary on her sofa to get out the room and would look silly with my hand over my crotch. Eventually I thought, ‘Fuck this, I'll just brazen it out.'As I passed Mary she gave me a hard smack on the bum."What was that for?" I asked."Firstly, you have a very slappable bottom and secondly, you're lucky I didn't slap something else, flaunting that bloody big thing about the place.""Sorry." I started apologizing."Don't be, I'm only joking, now get to where you're going and come back, I think there's an even juicier scene coming up," Mary said, with a big, knowing grin on her face.Around 11 o'clock I was thinking of going to bed, when Suzi returned from a night out. She walked into the living room and stopped dead in her tracks, obviously not expecting to find me naked. Before I could say anything Mary piped up"How was your night, Suzi?""Good! Mummy and daddy were in town, they took me out for a lovely meal. I invited them back but they wanted to get home. Good job they did, by the looks of it.""Oh, that could have been fun," Mary said."Umm," Was all Suzi managed."Now where are you going to sit, next to that lovely naked man or next to this raging lesbian?" Mary asked, giving Suzi a very exaggerated wink."Next to the naked man I think, there's a better angle of view," Suzi paused for effect. "Of the telly." We all laughed a bit and Suzi sat down a couple of feet from me.Even though I was staring directly at it, I couldn't tell you what was on the tv. I was much too aware of this beautiful woman sitting so near to me. I think she'd probably had a few glasses of wine when she was out, she seemed very relaxed and smiley. Even though I was staring ahead I was aware of her looking at me, it made me tingle and caused a stirring in my crotch which I tried, I think none too successfully, to hide by raising my thigh up a bit.Eventually she said she had to use the bathroom, and was going to bed after that. The effects of the wine and sitting on the low sofa meant that she went to put her hand on my knee to help herself up. At the same time I sat forward to help her up, causing her to miss my knee and put her hand slipping off my mid-thigh, and onto my rather large boner, which I had been trying unsuccessfully to hide under my leg.My stiffened cock was in pain from the weight trying to bend it. I immediately yelped and; she instinctively moved her hand away whilst trying to stand at the same time. She lost a bit of balance, which caused me to put a hand on her bottom to stop her falling backwards and her hand to go back again to my thigh, then slipping again but this time merely brushing my cock while her hand sank into the cushion, The bounce made my cock flop up on top of her hand. I pushed forward and she was eventually upright.We both said, "Oops, sorry." Before cracking up into hysterics."Good night Dave, good night Mary," Suzi said, still laughing. "See you tomorrow.""Night!" We both said.“Worst hand job ever!” I said, loud enough for Suzi to hear.After she had left, I looked at Mary, she was shaking her head."That was like a bloody Carry On film," She said."I know, it was mad, her hand on my nob, my hand on her ass, I couldn't have planned that if I tried." A bit brave, and proud of my wit.We both smiled. "Have you had a nice evening, being nude?" Mary asked."Fabulous! Thank you for encouraging me, and making it possible,"Mary smiled, but I think I saw a little sadness in her countenance. "You're very welcome," she said.I stood up. "I'm off to bed now, I'm knackered," I paused in front of Mary, my cock hanging down. "You know it's strange, if I was dressed I think I'd bend down a give you a peck on the cheek to say good night and thank you for being a good friend. But, as it is, it doesn't seem right." I said, feeling all philosophical."Piss off, will you; and take your big dong with you," Mary said, before trying to slap me on the ass again. I managed to jump out the way, my semi flaccid tallywhacker flopping a bit, and went to bed laughing.I lay in bed thinking what an amazing night it had been. My housemates seemed ok, and even encouraging of my nudity; and one of them was a secret spanker, I smiled to myself before having the most amazing masturbation session ever, thinking of what might have been and dreaming of what might be.The next few weeks were uneventful; we didn't see much of John, who seemed of the impression that we were all a bit too weird for his liking. I went around nude whenever the mood took me, Mary slapped my ass whenever she could, which became a standing joke amongst us all. Suzi seemed fairly cool with my nudity, I think, no, I hoped; stealing admiring glances at me. But the prevailing mood in the house was one of academic stress, we all had exams coming up.Geri Finds A Naturist Haven at College.That Saturday I was sat on one of the sofas, naked; supposedly studying, but really daydreaming. I heard the front door open and then Mary and one other voice. Mary stuck her head round the door and said, "Hi Dave, I've got a friend with me, is it ok if she comes in here?""Of course." I replied. I knew Mary had been seeing someone called Geraldine and wondered if this was her.Mary came in with a petite, pretty girl beside her."Geraldine this is David, David, Geraldine."Geraldine's most noticeable feature was her short, bobbed, fiery red hair. I was unsure whether to stand up to say hello, as I would have if clothed. Thankfully Geraldine saved my embarrassment by marching right over to me, arm extended. With a big smile she said,"Hi David, so lovely to meet you, please call me Geri, everyone does, Mary's told me so much about you."I managed to only half stand up to shake hands, lessening my slight embarrassment."Lovely to meet you Geri, call me Dave.""I hope you don't mind us joining you like this.""No not at all, take a seat.""I meant in the buff, Mary told me you might be naked and I was hoping you would be. I use to go on naturist holidays with my parents when I was a child, but it's ages since I had the chance to strip of with others. Anyways it doesn't seem fair, you naked and us dressed."I don't know who was more in shock, me or Mary."So is ok if we join you?" Geri asked."Absolutely, of course, be my guest," I said extending my arm, indicating the sofa. I looked at Mary, most of the color had drained from her face. As Geraldine started to undress, I smiled at Mary, in return I got daggers. I just raised my eyebrows as if to say 'your turn now.'I saw Mary take a deep breath, and start to undress. I averted my eyes a little so as not to gawk. Whilst nudity for me wasn't, in of itself, sexual; having these two attractive women strip off was undoubtedly very erotic to me. I decided there was no point in pretending that I wasn't looking, but instead, I just made polite conversation and tried not to stare.I asked Geri about herself, where she was from, how she and Mary had met. That sort of thing.She chatted away, all the time undressing. Finally she was naked and turned and bent over to fold all her clothes neatly. Now this was an amazing site, her pert bottom and rosy lips fully on show, but I wasn't aroused. Rather, I felt this was the most natural, wonderful thing I had ever seen.

In this episode Gary Mansfield speaks to Haus of Lucy (@HouseOfLucy) Haus of Lucy is a contemporary multimedia artist based in Sussex, celebrated for her unique fusion of traditional art with modern culture, often delivered with a satirical twist. With a background in magazine design, she made the leap to full-time artistry in 2019 following a high-profile commission for the Adidas flagship store in London. This key opportunity proved transformative, sparking collaborations with brands including Footlocker, Lazy Oaf, Primark, and Greggs. Her work cleverly disrupts classical conventions by inserting unexpected, often humorous elements into familiar scenes. A 15th-century landscape may feature an EasyJet aircraft, or a porcelain tureen might be repurposed as a KFC gravy boat.These imaginative juxtapositions invite viewers to reconsider the relationship between fine art and contemporary consumer culture. In addition to her prints, Lucy reimagines discarded ceramic figurines, turning them into provocative modern characters—like a demure Victorian lady armed with a chainsaw or a cherubic baby dabbling in the dark web. These pieces offer wry social commentary while preserving the nostalgic charm of vintage ornamentation.Working from her Brighton studio, Haus of Lucy continues to intrigue and amuse with work that is both visually striking and intellectually playful. For more information on the work of Haus of Lucy go tohttps://pureevilgallery.com/ To Support this podcast from as little as £3 per month: www.patreon/ministryofarts For full line up of confirmed artists go to https://www.ministryofarts.co.ukEmail: ministryofartsorg@gmail.comSocial Media: @ministryofartsorg Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer chaired an emergency cabinet meeting and announced that the UK will recognise the state of Palestine in September, unless the Israeli government takes steps to end the "appalling situation" in Gaza. Before the announcement, Dr David Wearing, a lecturer in International Relations at the University of Sussex and an expert on UK foreign relations in the Middle East explained what needs to happen to resolve the conflict. And in part two, The Standard's Head of Culture, Martin Robinson shares the wild true story behind the new musical Brixton Calling, which is on at Southwark Playhouse. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Solve crimes with the great detective in "Sherlock Holmes Short Stories." Featuring classic tales by Arthur Conan Doyle, this podcast brings you the brilliant deductions and thrilling adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Whether you're a longtime fan or new to the world of Holmes, these timeless mysteries will keep you captivated.

In this episode, Laura and Chay catch up on everything happening on their allotment plots during the busy month of July. They dive into what they've been harvesting recently, the various tasks they've been tackling, and how they're managing their plots during a particularly dry spell. With a potential hosepipe ban looming due to the lack of rain, they offer practical tips on water conservation and how to prepare for restrictions.At the point of this recording (July 2025), hosepipe bans are in effect across parts of Yorkshire, Kent, Sussex, Oxfordshire, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, and Wales. Laura also takes a moment to speak candidly about her recent absence from social media, sharing a personal and heartfelt explanation. This episode blends practical gardening advice with real-life reflections, offering both inspiration and support to fellow growers.If you have any questions you would like to ask us or would like to collaborate with us, then please contact us on: allotmentdiariespodcast@gmail.com. You can also follow our social media accounts: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. Allotment Diaries Podcast is a podcast that examines what has worked well and what hasn't worked so well when it comes to having an allotment plot. It seeks to give an honest insight into what owning an allotment plot is actually about.

Galway & Goodwood week is very much rocking and rolling now, and Ruby and Rory are back with us for Wednesday.   Watch Galway Rewind with Patrick Mullins here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NXE1NJyqeQ   It's Wednesday Tipping, coming to you straight "From The Horse's Mouth"...   18+ GambleAware

It seems Prince Harry and Meghan Markle may be finding a new royal court—this time in Palm Beach. According to RadarOnline, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are growing increasingly close to Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz, who have reportedly extended an open invitation for Harry and Meghan to spend their summers at the couple's lavish Florida compound.Follow our new series Crown and Controversy! Follow now.  The full Season 1 is available now for premium subscribers.  Episodes come out every Sunday on the normal feed. To become a premium subscriber (no ads and no feed drops) visit caloroga.com/plus.   For Apple users, hit the banner on your Apple podcasts app which seays UNINTERRUPTED LISTENING. For Spotify or other players, visit caloroga.com/plus. You also get 25+ other shows on the network ad-free!    Subscribe to Deep Crown's free newsletter at https://deepcrown.substack.com Thanks to our sponsor https://go.happinessexperiment.com/begin-aff-o2?am_id=podcast2025&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=michael

Get ready for one of the biggest weeks of summer racing! Emmet Kennedy, Georgia Cox, and George Gorman and preview all the key races at Glorious Goodwood 2025 — and they're not holding back. Whether you're hunting for a 16/1 NAP, a Group 1 lay, or a banker to anchor your multis, this is your edge over the bookmakers.

In this episode of Talking History, we'll discuss the man who helped make Henry VIII, until Henry VIII turned on him - as we bring you the real Thomas Cromwell, on the 485th anniversary of his death.Featuring Gareth Russell, historian and author; Dr Laura Flannigan, Junior Research Fellow in History at St John's College, Oxford University; Dr Joanne Paul, Honorary Associate Professor in Intellectual History at the University of Sussex; Dr Paul Cavill, senior lecturer in early modern British history at the University of Cambridge; and Professor David Kenny, Head of the School of Law at Trinity College Dublin.

In breaking news, Netflix has released their viewing figures for the shows people are watching and more importantly not watching. And sadly for Holly, With Love, Meghan didn't fare so well—but was it still a success? Plus, Australia is re-learning how to deal with a political leader who is *checks notes* a woman. This week's conundrum is how much detail the people are entitled to know about her and her past. But it might just be the commentary that's problematic. And, Jessica Biel's back broke the internet. Mia, Jessie and Holly are divided on whether the new age of celeb transparency is liberating or in fact a curse? If you or someone you know is in need of support, help is available: Lifeline 13 11 14 1800RESPECT 1800 737 732 Support independent women's media What To Listen To Next: Listen to our latest episode: Every Nosy Question About Holly’s Holiday Answered Listen: The Coldplay Affair. And What The Internet Did Next. Listen: The Salt Path Scandal That Blew Up Listen: The Lies That We're Allowed To Tell Listen: The Missing Minute & The Missing Body Listen: What Is Going On With Justin Bieber? Listen: Microefficiencies & The Politics Of A Mean Group Chat Parenting Out Loud: Sleep Divorce, 'Hopeless' Dads & Goodnight To The Bedtime Story Connect your subscription to Apple Podcasts Watch Mamamia Out Loud: Mamamia Out Loud on YouTube What to read: Meghan Markle's show exposes the royal family's big mistake. A brutally honest review of Meghan Markle's new Netflix series. There's one question we're all asking since watching Adolescence. An expert just answered it. Jessica Biel's thriller The Better Sister only tells half the story. THE END BITS: Check out our merch at MamamiaOutLoud.com Mamamia studios are styled with furniture from Fenton and Fenton GET IN TOUCH: Feedback? We’re listening. Send us an email at outloud@mamamia.com.au Share your story, feedback, or dilemma! Send us a voice message. Join our Facebook group Mamamia Outlouders to talk about the show. Follow us on Instagram @mamamiaoutloud and on Tiktok @mamamiaoutloud Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this week's episode, we spotlight one of the best all-around chicken breeds out there - the Sussex! Mark Eggers from Nutrena Feeds joins us for a great conversation about the protein needs of different chicken breeds. We share our recipe for Quick and Easy Almond Cake, and grab some retail therapy with Xmas in July ornaments.Grubbly Farms - click here for our affiliate link.https://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-100963304-15546963Pre and Probiotic and Vitamin and Electrolyte Powders!Bright and Early Coffee - use code CWTCL15 for 15% off of any bagged coffee. K Cups always ship free!https://brightandearlycoffee.com/Omlet Coops- Use Our Affiliate Link and COFFEE10 code for 10% off!https://tidd.ly/3Uwt8BfChicken Luv -  use CWTCL50 for 50% off your first box of any multi-month subscription!https://www.chickenluv.com/Breed Spotlight is sponsored by Murray McMurray Hatcheryhttps://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/Metzer Farms Waterfowlhttps://www.metzerfarms.com/Nestera UShttps://nestera.us/cwtclUse our affiliate link above for 5% off your purchase!Love My Girls Treats - https://www.lovemygirls.com/Quick and Easy Almond Cake - https://coffeewiththechickenladies.com/farm-fresh-egg-recipes/quick-and-easy-almond-cake/CWTCL Websitehttps://coffeewiththechickenladies.com/CWTCL Etsy Shophttps://www.etsy.com/shop/CoffeeWChickenLadiesAs Amazon Influencers, we may receive a small commission from the sale of some items at no additional cost to consumers.CWTCL Amazon Recommendationshttps://www.amazon.com/shop/coffeewiththechickenladiesSupport the show

This week's EMOTIONAL royal moments! Kate receives THUNDEROUS standing ovation at Wimbledon finals in her stunning comeback since cancer diagnosis, bringing Centre Court to tears! Meanwhile, EXPLOSIVE royal tensions revealed as William's friend declares he "absolutely f***ing hates" Harry while secret peace talks occur between Charles's team and Sussex aides! King Charles faces BACKLASH for hosting Trump's "unprecedented" second state visit in September! Meghan gets ROASTED in new documentary for transformation from "feminist to domestic influencer" while her rosé gets surprisingly POSITIVE reviews! Plus: Queen Camilla may have to endure Charles practicing his new French CAVALRY TRUMPET gift, and royal fans go wild over hunky "Green Beret Guy" Sergeant Neil Mitchell stealing focus from the King!To become a premium subscriber (no ads and no feed drops) visit caloroga.com/plus.   For Apple users, hit the banner on your Apple podcasts app which seays UNINTERRUPTED LISTENING. For Spotify or other players, visit caloroga.com/plus. You also get 25+ other shows on the network ad-free!   Go to Caloroga.com for all our shows!

Yascha Mounk and Dan Williams discuss fake news. Daniel Williams is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sussex. He writes the Conspicuous Cognition newsletter, which brings together philosophical insights and scientific research to examine the forces shaping contemporary society and politics. In this week's conversation, Yascha Mounk and Dan Williams explore whether the term misinformation is defined too broadly, how to judge if something is fake news, and what is meant by the “everyone is biased” bias. Podcast production by Jack Shields and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! ⁠Spotify⁠ | ⁠Apple⁠ | ⁠Google⁠ X: ⁠@Yascha_Mounk⁠ & ⁠@JoinPersuasion⁠ YouTube: ⁠Yascha Mounk⁠, ⁠Persuasion⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“The problems we face are not the fault of any single individual or organisation. They are often the by-product of good intentions. And yet, alongside children and young people and their parents and carers, it's educators who are most exposed to these pressures – who confront them every day, and try to make it all work regardless,” writes today's guest in a piece from May titled Confronting the educational polycrisis.Joining us from Brighton, UK Dr James Mannion is a keynote speaker, teacher trainer, researcher, consultant and author with a passion for educational and political reform. He is the co-founder and Director of Rethinking Education, a teacher training organisation specialising in implementation and improvement science, self-regulated learning and practitioner inquiry. A former teacher of 12 years, James has an MA in person-centred education from the University of Sussex and a PhD in self-regulated learning from the University of Cambridge. He is also the host of the popular Rethinking Education podcast, of which I have been a huge fan for a long time. In fact, HRP contributed the very first video essay we ever made to a virtual arm of James's Rethinking Education Conference back in 2022. This conversation crossover has certainly been a long time coming!“We have multiple crises on our hands,” James writes, “They interact and have become entangled. This makes them difficult to resolve - but resolve them we must.” And my hope today is that even if we can't untangle the polycrisis today, we can at least get a better grasp and perhaps loosen their hold on our education systems.https://drjamesmannion.substack.com/https://makingchangestick.substack.com/https://www.educationpa.org/https://wssnow.org/https://www.ucyottawa.com/invitation-to-the-rcen-book-club/

Today as part of the Tales of a Nuffield Scholar podcast which aims to share the stories of Nuffield UK Alumni, we welcome Jo Franklin and Rob Hodgkins — sheep farmers, Nuffield Scholars, and the founders of Cabrito in Hertfordshire.

Joining Iain Dale on Cross Question this evening are Labour MP Will Stone, Lib Dem MP Jess Brown-Fuller, political commentator Anita Boateng and Tim Loughton, former Conservative minister who's now running to be the first Sussex mayor.

Why is Labour sacking MPs?Joining Iain Dale on Cross Question this evening are Labour MP Will Stone, Lib Dem MP Jess Brown-Fuller, political commentator Anita Boateng and Tim Loughton, former Conservative minister who's now running to be the first Sussex mayor.

Accra's James Fort is an iconic monument for Ghana and modern Africa. This lecture explores the fort's evolution -from its role as a trading post in the early European-African encounters, through its significance during the trans-Atlantic trade and enslavement, to its later use as a modern colonial prison in the post-independence era. It also explores its connection to Ghana's liberation movement, particularly its role in imprisoning Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and other political leaders during their resistance to British rule. Today, this monument represents the resilience, talent and creative potential of a sustainable future for Ghana and its youthful population.This lecture was recorded by Elsie Owusu on the 27th of March 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.Elsie Owusu OBE is a Ghanaian-British architect and urban designer. She is principal of Elsie Owusu Architects, with projects in UK, Nigeria and Ghana.With an extensive portfolio of international projects, from transport and infrastructure and master planning, Elsie is a specialist conservation architect. She is currently designing rural community-led zero-carbon schemes and conservation projects in Ghana and developing eco-homes in Sussex. When a partner at Feilden+Mawson, she was co-lead architect for the UK Supreme Court and London's Green Park Station.Born in Ghana, Elsie was the founding chair of the Society of Black Architects. She is a trustee of UK Supreme Court Arts Trust and former member of Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Council. Previous roles include the Founding Vice-Chair of the London School of Architecture, the London Mayor's Panel of Design Advocates and Board Member of the Commonwealth Heritage Forum. Elsie is a director of JustGhana Ltd which promotes education, architecture, arts and creative industries in Ghana and the UK.In 2003, she was honoured by The Queen for services to architecture. She was the runner-up for the Presidency of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in 2018.The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/james-fortGresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-todayWebsite:  https://gresham.ac.ukTwitter:  https://twitter.com/greshamcollegeFacebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollegeInstagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollegeSupport Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-todaySupport the show

Lee Miller lived many lives—model, surrealist, war correspondent—but it was in the kitchen and garden at Farleys House that she found a kind of peace after the chaos. In this episode, Lee's granddaughter Ami Bouhassane discusses her book Lee Miller: A Life with Food, Friends and Recipes, and offers an intimate portrait of her grandmother's postwar years. We explore how cooking became a creative outlet, the mystery of the unpublished Entertaining Freezer, and the role of the garden in shaping Lee's later life. Links Lee Miller Archives (official site) – Explore her life as a surrealist, model, war correspondent, photographer, and gourmet cook, with access to archives, exhibitions, and images. Farleys House & Gallery (official site) – Visit the Sussex home and sculpture garden of Lee Miller and Roland Penrose, with information on guided house tours, seasonal exhibitions, and booking details. Other episodes if you liked this one: Episode 324: “Kitchen Garden Living” with Bailey Van Tassel — we dig into the art of seasonal, sustainable kitchen gardening, echoing Lee Miller's own relationship with her garden at Farleys House.  Episode 328: “Soil, Health & Nutrition” featuring Sam Hamrebtan — an exploration of how growing practices shape the nutrient quality of our food, beautifully complementing our discussion of Lee's experimental cooking.  Please support the podcast on Patreon  

FreshEd is away for the next few weeks. -- Today we talk about what it would mean to queer higher education. My guests are Louise Morley and Daniel Leyton. In their new book, they disrupt some of the norms and common ways of thinking in higher education today. Louise Morley is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Sussex and Daniel Leyton is a Lecturer at the University of Exeter. Their new book is entitled Queering Higher Education: Troubling Norms in the Global Knowledge Economy. freshedpodcast.com/morley-leyton/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: info@freshedpodcast.com Support FreshEd: www.freshedpodcast.com/support

In this powerful and passionate episode, Natalie is joined once again by Katie Rollings, founder of Fertility Action, the UK's newest fertility charity. As a returning guest, Katie provides an urgent and inspiring update on the charity's current work, including critical campaigning efforts, growing support groups, and the ever-pressing fight against the fertility funding postcode lottery.Together, Natalie and Katie discuss:The expansion of Fertility Action's support groups and communityThe emotional toll of fertility treatment and the gaps in support post-treatmentWhy peer connection and bespoke support are crucialOngoing parliamentary campaigning for fair fertility treatment accessHow to get involved by writing to your MPThe need for a male fertility focus in healthcare strategyUrgent updates on changes to NHS fertility funding in Sussex and beyondKatie also opens up about the emotional challenges of fighting for change while encountering public misunderstanding and resistance and why she refuses to give up.Plans for culturally diverse and condition-specific groups (like secondary infertility) are in motion—making sure everyone feels seen and heard.Fertility Action is looking for empathetic volunteers to host support groups. Training and supervision will be provided. If you're 3+ years post-treatment and can commit to a year, they'd love to hear from you.Male participation in support groups is still limited, but growing. There's a need for more male facilitators and attendees—especially to normalize male perspectives on infertility.Groups meet on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Join with your mic or camera on or off, even in your PJs! It's a low-pressure, welcoming environmentTake Action:Write to Your MP - Encourage them to attend the fertility campaign event in Parliament on Wednesday, 16 July. Use the Fertility Action letter template Join the Conversation on Male Fertility & Mental HealthContribute to the ongoing male fertility survey submissions close Wednesday, 17 July. HHelpful Links:Fertility Action Instagram (Linktree)Men's Health Strategy ConsultationTest Him with Ian StonesFertility Matters at WorkDM Natalie on Instagram: @fertilitypoddy Email thoughts or guest ideas: natalie@thefertilitypodcast.com Subscribe on your podcast app to stay updated

Catherine, Princess of Wales, made a stylish diplomatic splash in Dior as she welcomed the Macrons to the UK—her first time wearing the iconic French label. Prince William, meanwhile, is off to Zurich for the Women's Euro semi-final. We also dive into the latest staff shakeup in Harry and Meghan's camp, a social media misstep from Kensington Palace, and a Wimbledon sighting from King Frederik of Denmark.To get this show ad-free and binge all episodes of Crown and Controversy now, join Caloroga Plus: caloroga.com/plus

Amy is joined by historian and author, Dr. Philippa Gregory, to discuss her newest book, Normal Women, exploring 900 years of women's stories including the origins of the gender wage gap, the history and normality of women loving women, where our abortion laws began, and much much more.Donate to Breaking Down PatriarchyPhilippa Gregory is one of the world's foremost historical novelists and non-fiction writers. She wrote her first ever novel, Wideacre, when she was completing her PhD in eighteenth-century literature and it sold worldwide, heralding a new era for historical fiction. Her flair for blending history and imagination developed into a signature style and Philippa went on to write many bestselling novels, including The Other Boleyn Girl and The White Queen.Now a recognized authority on women's history, Philippa graduated from the University of Sussex and received a PhD from the University of Edinburgh, where she is a Regent and was made Alumna of the Year in 2009.

On this week's episode of A Right Royal Podcast, hosts Andrea Caamano and Emmy Griffiths are joined by HELLO!'s Royal Editor Emily Nash for more chat about the comings and goings on the royal family. It is also a fond au revoir to Emmy, who is heading off on maternity leave! In the episode, our trio are joined by Sky News' royal correspondent Rhiannon Mills to discuss the Duchy of Cornwall review and what it all means, the bittersweet news about the royal train, Princess Catherine's recent visit to Colchester, the release of the Duchess of Sussex's new rosé and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So here it is, the conclusion of David's wonderful story about the summer in his teens when he played cricket for Sussex. We pick things up with him at the crease for an important tour match in Jersey. Then, after that's all wrapped up, Joe the tells David about the time he very unexpectedly got himself a try-out at his local semi-pro football club. This is an episode absolute bursting at the seems with sporting potential! FOR ALL THINGS CHATABIX'Y FOLLOW/SUBSCRIBE/CONTACT: YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@chatabixpodcast⁠⁠⁠ Insta: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/chatabixpodcast/⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@chatabix⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/chatabix1⁠⁠⁠ Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/chatabix⁠⁠⁠ Merch: ⁠⁠⁠https://chatabixshop.com/⁠⁠⁠ Contact us: ⁠⁠⁠chatabix@yahoo.com⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's show, Joe wants to celebrate their podcast. So him and David both count their blessings about how much they enjoy doing it and come up with some new ideas for it too. First up is ‘We Did Wednesdays', where David goes out to experience something new and then reports back on the pod about it. And to get the ball rolling, he books in a visit to Agatha Christie's house. Then David wants to tell Joe about how proud he is to have played cricket for Sussex as a teenager. So sit back and relax as he weaves another of his magical tales - the conclusion of which will be in tomorrow's episode (you know how these things go). FOR ALL THINGS CHATABIX'Y FOLLOW/SUBSCRIBE/CONTACT: YouTube: ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@chatabixpodcast⁠⁠ Insta: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/chatabixpodcast/⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@chatabix⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠https://twitter.com/chatabix1⁠⁠ Patreon: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/chatabix⁠⁠ Merch: ⁠⁠https://chatabixshop.com/⁠⁠ Contact us: ⁠⁠chatabix@yahoo.com⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

His friend the great scholar Desiderius Erasmus referred to Thomas More as “a Man for all seasons.” But which season? Or which Thomas More? Is he an advocate of conscience? A heroic defender of the Catholic faith? A saintly martyr? A fanatical zealot unwilling to listen to cool reason? An amateur inquisitor who lit the night with burning Lutherans and their books, and enjoyed little more than coming home after work for a torture session? Does every era get the Thomas More that it deserves?Thomas More was indeed a man of many twists and turns, a Tudor Odysseus. A Londoner; the grandson of a baker and son of a lawyer; a page in a noble household; an exceptional prose stylist, in Latin or English; a lawyer of exceptional diligence and skill; a guild member; a religious controversialist, able to match Martin Luther in scatology; a subtle humanist of European-wide fame; a poet; a politician; a bureaucrat; a royal advisor; a confessor of the faith; a prisoner; and a martyr. He was all those things, and more besides. With me to talk about the life and times of Thomas More is Joanne Paul, Associate Professor in Early Modern History at the University of Sussex. Her research focuses on the intellectual and cultural history of the Renaissance and Early Modern periods, written widely on Thomas More, William Shakespeare, Machiavelli and Thomas Hobbes. Her most recent book is Thomas More: A Life, which is the subject of our conversation today.For Further Investigation The web page of Joanne PaulThomas More: A LifeThe last time we talked about the Tudors on Historically ThinkingAnd the book we talked about with its author, Lucy E.C. Wooding, which is recommended by Joanne Paul A very old conversation about the Protestant ReformationAnother book by Joanne Paul on Thomas More, but focusing on his thoughtJohn Guy, Thomas More Thomas More, Utopia, ed. by Joanne Paul

What is the aspect of being you that you cling to most tightly? Why are you you and not somebody else? How do you understand and make sense of your experiences? These are questions studied by Anil Seth, Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience and the University of Sussex. Anil and Chris reflect on the limitations in describing the brain as a “supercomputer,” the ethical and morally grey areas of technological advancements and brain computer interfaces, and how hallucinogenic drugs affect consciousness.FollowHost: Chris Duffy (Instagram: @chrisiduffy | chrisduffycomedy.com)Guest: Anil Seth (Instagram: @profanilseth | LinkedIn: @anilseth | Website: https://www.anilseth.com/) LinksBeing You: A New Science of ConsciousnessSubscribe to TED Instagram: @tedYouTube: @TEDTikTok: @tedtoksLinkedIn: @ted-conferencesWebsite: ted.comPodcasts: ted.com/podcastsFor the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscriptsWant to help shape TED's shows going forward? Fill out our survey here!Learn more about TED Next at ted.com/futureyouFor the Idea Search application, go to ted.com/ideasearch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.