Standard Issue Podcast

Journalist, writer and broadcaster Samira Ahmed is a busy woman. Through the Square Window, her new(ish) podcast with Graham Kibble-White guides listeners through UK TV of decades gone by. It’s nostalgia with a keen critical eye, examining what TV reflected about and indeed brought to British culture. With telly very much still at the forefront, Samira’s also penned the forthcoming BFI Film Classics volume on 1964 Beatles’ movie A Hard Day’s Night. She chats to Mick about TV, its role in our daily life, how her mum taught men to cook, and what the telly can tell us about a social moment. And of course, the Fab Four’s first film and what makes it such a great ride. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The work of mothering has been undervalued for centuries, relegated to the sidelines thanks to patriarchal control of history. In her new book, A Women’s Work: Reclaiming the Radical History of Mothering, acclaimed author Dr Elinor Cleghorn brings stories of mothering out of the shadows to show how the women in them shaped history. Jen chats to Elinor about the book, the denigration of mothering as “women’s work”, and the lessons we could learn (as well a few we could forget) from the past. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this month's round-up of the best and worst TV, we're talking about A Woman of Substance, Gone, Rooster, The Lady, DTF St Louis and Louis Theroux: Inside The Manosphere.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hannah’s been looking for light at the end of the endlessly depressing news-tunnel and found it in the case of seven Adams County sheriff’s officers vs Joseph “Afroman” Foreman, as well as some delightful canine antics. There’s less happy news about top schools excluding SEND pupils, but a little Brucey bonus if you like not retraumatising victims of domestic abuse. Elsewhere, a gold rush ensues at the athletics, and Jenny Off The Blocks also ponders new FIFA rules on coaches in women’s football. Want to support us and enjoy additional content? Of course you do. And you can: patreon.com/standardissue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher Guest’s second time in the director’s chair involved him putting on a dog show. Co-written with Eugene Levy, this fake documentary about the people getting their pooches ready for the prestigious Mayflower Dog Show (and then the show itself) stars Michael McKean, Catherine O’Hara, Jane Lynch, Parker Posey, Fred Willard, John Michael Higgins, Michael Hitchcock and Jennifer Coolidge. And loads of dogs. Will Mick, Hannah and Jen give it a blue rosette or send it home with its tail between its legs? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You might know Tat Effby as social media sensation The Caketoonist, sharing her brilliant, doable recipes with a hefty slice of humour all over the social media platforms. Tat’s now an author. Her first recipe book, Bake Your Sweet Time, takes traditional flavour combinations and puts them in recipes that vary in length and difficulty, depending on how much time you want to spend in the kitchen. It’s a triumph. She chats to Mick about caking, baking, and taking sweet liberties. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dame Tracey Emin burst onto the art scene in the 1990s and controversy has followed her ever since. Like in 1999, when her Turner Prize-nominated My Bed caused a media frenzy. Emin's raw, autobiographical and confessional work is very personal yet also platforms the wider female experience through its themes of abuse, sexuality, poverty, and reproductive rights.  Jen chats to Jess Baxter, assistant curator of major new exhibition Tracey Emin: A Second Life at the Tate Modern, about the artist, her work, and the expression of the female experience. Want to support us and enjoy additional content? Of course you do. And you can: patreon.com/standardissue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some 80% of us have at least one sibling, which makes it so commonplace we don't often give it much thought. But we should, says journalist Catherine Carr, and in today's podcast, she talks to Hannah about memory, loss, estrangement, birth order and her new book Who's The Favourite? The Loving, Messy Realities of Sibling Relationships. * You can buy Catherine's book here  * Listen to her podcast, Relatively, here  * And support Standard Issue here: Standard Issue Podcast | creating a magazine for ears, by women for women | Patreon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hannah and Mick have braved this week’s onslaught of fresh hell. They’ve even tried turning it off and on again, but no, the news keeps newsing. And so they’re chatting the timescales of “immediate” change, archaic criminal law going through the Lords, ice cream and landmines in Croatia, and the sad slaying of the Buffy reboot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dench, McKellan, Atkins, (Richard E) Grant! Who doesn’t love a bit of Tim Sullivan’s weepie ‘90s romcom? Hmmm, maybe Mickey and Hannah. Maybe even Jen herself. But can its sublime cast or Simply Red save this week’s offering? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices