Standard Issue Podcast

Back in the 1970s, a group of Bristolian idealists dreamed of a nation stitched together by safe cycling paths, which would make us less reliant on our cars. They founded what would become Britain's 13,000 miles long National Cycle Network. Cycling journalist Laura Laker wondered what had gone right and, indeed, wrong, with a network once described by the CEO of the charity that runs it as “a bit crap”, and set off on an epic journey around the UK to find out more. That journey became the basis for her new book, Potholes and Pavements: A Bumpy Ride on Britain’s National Cycle Network. Fellow cycling enthusiast Jen, caught up with Laura to talk about what inspired her journey, the magic of travelling by bike, and why all leaders of a country should go on a big old road trip before they sign up to the job. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this month's Outside The Box, Hannah and Jen are talking about Rebus, Eric, Bodkin, Insomnia, Alaska Daily, The Gathering, Dark Matter and Bay of Fires. Plus, it turns out Hannah was right about Colin Farrell being a BEEEEEP in Sugar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The world has gone election-crazy, but fortunately Hannah and Jen have mostly swerved it in this week’s Bush Telegraph. There’s some real human hardship to talk about, beyond poor ickle Rishi’s lack of Sky TV, as well as some mental imagery you’re likely never to forget around microplastics and human testicle samples. In sport, we’re looking at the European Athletics Championships, as well as saying a firm “fuck this shit” to the decision makers at Thornaby FC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Journalist Ellen Atlanta fell into a career in the beauty industry. Like many of us who subscribe to westernised beauty ideals and an online-culture, it was fine until it wasn’t. For Ellen, that was when she began to question whether or not she was part of the problem herself, and so began her work on her debut book, Pixel Flesh: How Toxic Beauty Culture Harms Women. In this episode, she chats to Jen about the book, a life spent online, the harmful standards women hold themselves up to and the increasingly dystopian nightmare of the cult of Kylie Jenner. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fans of the Star Wars universe will no doubt recognise Ireland’s Denise Gough as steely Andor villain Dedra Meero. But it was back in 2015 that she was catapulted to stardom with her role as Emma in Duncan Macmillan’s existential addiction drama, People, Places & Things. Almost ten years on, People, Places & Things is back and so is Denise with a proper barnstormer of a performance in a play that’s funny, clever, vivid, devastating and one of the most emotionally intelligent takes on addiction, recovery and our notions of self our Mick’s ever seen. Denise is herself a former addict, so in this episode, she and Mick are talking about addiction, the dark humour of addicts, notions of self, that time psychiatrists had a fight in the foyer, and why it’s important to see women in roles like this. People, Places & Things runs until August 10 at Trafalgar Theatre. https://trafalgartheatre.com/shows/people-places-and-things/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fun times for football enthusiasts approach us, as the Euros kick off in Germany next week. Both England and Scotland are through to the tournament, with Scotland up first, against the host nation, before England take on Serbia – but how will the home nations fare? Jen caught up with Caoimhe O’Neill – journalist at The Athletic, Liverpool FC fan, and the proud owner of two Scotland shirts – to find out if football really is coming home, what it means to leave Marcus Rashford behind, what’s next for Jen's adoptive dad, Gareth Southgate, and who we should be looking out for in both squads. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What a week! Trump is guilty, Farage is milkshaked, Owen Jones is Owen Jones-ing and some of the four horses of the apocalypse are having a nice time in a field. At least concrete is still concrete. Mickey and Hannah manage to fit all this in and still find time for a horrific sexism of the week, in which we get to see how one judge's mind works and really don't like it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Jen’s getting philosophical with high on drama, easy on the acting, ‘90s runaway hit, Speed. But can Mick and Hannah get on board? Der dum tsssssshhhhhh. Cue maniacal laughter, and a shedload of plot holes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With Scattered, award-winning journalist and former child refugee Aamna Mohdin has written a warm, candid and surprisingly funny memoir about her family’s experiences fleeing the Somali civil war in the 1990s. She chats to our Mick about survivor’s guilt, people not 'migrants', the joys in interviewing your parents, and her relationship with Somalia today. Scattered is published by Bloomsbury, out on June 6 and available from all good bookshops. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When she was 11, Genevieve Kingston's mother died, leaving her a box of gifts and letters, designed to see her through the big events of her life. In her new memoir, Genevieve, now a writer and actor, explores the loss of her mother and the joys of refinding her through her letters from the past. Hannah chats to her about that memoir - Did I Ever Tell You? - being on Oprah's 'to read' list, and how some cultures are just better at dealing with death than others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rosie Garland is a poet, an author and the front woman, since the 1980s, of punk band The March Violets. In this podcast, Hannah chats to her about her latest novel, The Fates, which is about, you've guessed it, the Fates, about how mythology treats women and why Zeus was an absolute dick. They're also talking about Rosie's recovery from cancer, how that affected her writing and performing and about what's next on her very full life plate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mickey, Hannah and Jen are asking all the big questions this week. Such as, when a film's plot is so famous its title is now a verb, how's that going to affect three first-time viewers? And what would 1940s audiences have thought was going on? Also, were any Victorians called Paula and Brian? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A cursed wedding, a honeymoon meltdown, a gaslighting hotelier, and some pretty dodgy goings on: Scarlett Thomas’s latest novel, The Sleepwalkers, is a gripping tale of catastrophe from the contents page on. Scarlett chats to Mick about finding inspiration on a holiday from hell, the chain of blame in Big Patriarchy, trusting women, judging women, a love of wrong things, and big lash action. The Sleepwalkers is published by Simon & Schuster, out now, and a brilliant, very dark, very funny read. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hot on the heels of Women in Revolt!, Tate Britain is hosting another huge exhibition dedicated to professional women artists, spanning 400 years from the early 16th Century. Now You See Us: Women Artists in Great Britain, 1520-1920 puts paid to the notion that women couldn’t make a living from art, and only ever pursued it as a cute leisure activity. Jen caught up with Tabitha Barber, Tate Britain's Curator of British Art, 1550-1750, to talk about what women artists were up to, why misconceptions around them exist and why art is *sort of* like football when it comes to ideas about the sexes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This mockumentary comedy flew under the radar when it was released last year. But our Yosra’s excited to make a song and dance about Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman’s big-hearted tale of a musical theatre camp, struggling to save itself after its beloved founder falls into a coma. It’s well charted that we love a mockumentary, but will there be enough gags for Hannah? Or too much singing for Mick? You know what to do. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jen and Hannah are on Bush Telegraph duty this Thursday 23 May. They’re talking about how the only thing the UK doesn’t seem to be in short supply of these days, is court rulings against its own Government. Meanwhile the wait for a wheelchair hits frankly ludicrous levels. Harrison Butker (you heard) has his say on a woman’s worth, and with any luck it’s his balls Serena will be hitting in the near future, as Jen chats about a possible comeback in JOTB. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeff Goldblum, people! Turns out, the big fella isn’t necessarily a lure for Hannah and Jen, so will they find anything else to like in Julien Temple’s American-science-fiction-musical-romantic comedy? And yes, of course it was Mick who picked it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New drama series The Gathering is making waves on Channel 4 as we speak, so Hannah leapt at the chance to chat to one of its stars, Vinette Robinson. They talk about teenage ambition, playing real women with real problems, social media, teenage girls, working with Mike Leigh, the single-take logistics of Boiling Point, giving birth dozens of times in The Lazarus Project, and her upcoming appearance on Inside No 9. You are welcome. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Buoyed by a positive sexual experience at university, journalist Kitty Ruskin decided to embrace her sexuality with a year of casual dating and no-strings sex. She was hoping to find pleasure and excitement, but the reality wasn't all fun and sexy games. All of which she chronicles in her new book, Ten Men: A Year of Casual Sex. Jen caught up with Kitty to talk about her quest, consent, dating apps and the so-called “sexual marketplace”. A heads up this interview touches on rape and on sexual assault, including Kitty's experience of this as a child. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hannah's in the market for a new favourite TV programme, so this week - along with Jen and Mick - they're auditioning Shogun, Shardlake, Renegade Nell, David Attenborough's Mammals, Sugar, Fallout and Palm Royale. Plus there's some chat about some of TV's more controversial offerings, Baby Reindeer and The Tattooist of Auschwitz. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices