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Jean McNeil's wild encounters Jul 15, 2025

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Adventurer, award-winning travel writer and Director of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, Jean McNeil knows a lot about the world and our ever-more threadbare connection to it.

She chats to Mickey about her latest book, Latitudes: Encounters with a Changing Planet, a front-line witness account of the impact of climate change, and about her travels to and writing about remote, inhospitable places. Which started with being raised in one. And the fact Jean trained as a walking safari guide? Well, that’s (big) catnip to our Mick.

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Laura Abbott on Lost Mothers Jul 14, 2025

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During her career as a midwife, Dr Laura Abbott – now an associate professor in research at the University of Hertfordshire – became interested in the plight of women who gave birth in prison, or were separated from their babies by incarceration. And so she founded the Lost Mothers Project: a research project exploring the effects of mandatory separation of babies from women with Criminal Justice System involvement. As the Lost Mothers Project prepares to take its findings to Parliament, Jen chats to Laura about the vital work being done, an increased awareness of the England and Wales prison system for women, and why change needs to come now.

You can find out more about the work of the Lost Mother’s Project, including Scenes From Lost Mothers, here.

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Karen Pirie, TV's most ordinary detective Jul 11, 2025

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The second series of crime drama Karen Pirie is about to arrive, so Hannah grabbed some time with its star Lauren Lyle to talk about why Karen's not like other detectives, but a lot like most women her age. They also chat about Toxic Town, The Bombing of Pan Am 103 and women who "do".

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Rated or Dated: Back to the Future (1985) Jul 09, 2025

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Starring Michael J Fox, Christopher Lloyd and a genuinely beautiful school building, Robert Zemeckis’s time travel comedy blockbuster continues to be a cultural touchstone. At the time, it dazzled at the box office and with critics alike. But 40 years on, how does it fare with Mick, Hannah and Jen? Do the inevitable time travel plotholes matter? How much did the young Jen fancy the young Fox? Does Mick own this 1980s smash on DVD? And, perhaps most importantly, what in the Doc Brown is going on with Hannah’s hair?

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Body talk with Rose Keating Jul 07, 2025

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Oddbody is Rose Keating’s debut short story collection, an anthology of bold and unsettling tales inspired by her love of horror – and the genre's intersection with the female experience. In this episode, Jen gets inside the weird and wonderful mind of the Marian Keyes Young Writer Award winner, as she and Rose talk about how the body horror genre lends itself to the lived female experience, the inherent comedy of horror, and the horror (the horror!) of eggs. Oddbody is published by Canongate and is available now.

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Esther Freud’s sister (and other love[r]s) Jul 04, 2025

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Author Esther Freud first shot to fame with her debut novel, Hideous Kinky, back in 1992. Her tenth novel, My Sister and Other Lovers, reunites readers with sisters Lucy and Bea, and astutely captures the realities of being a sister and having a sister. Spoiler: as much as pop culture would like us to think it, a sister is not a built-in BFF.

Our Mick chats to Esther about sisters, siblings, parents, the slippery nature of memory, and love in its many forms.

My Sister and Other Lovers is published by Bloomsbury and out now

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Rated or Dated: Tank Girl (1995) Jul 02, 2025

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Rachel Talalay's 1995 take on the much-loved comic series Tank Girl had so much promise, but does it live up to its "truly feminist" hype? Who gets to decide? And how will a jazz-loving kangaroo-man help or hinder these efforts?

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Welcome to The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs Jul 01, 2025

Show notes

Hannah's joined by playwright Iman Qureshi and director Hannah Hauer-King to chat about their play about the members of a lesbian choir, The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs. They chat about disability on stage, the search for community, and joining a uniquely British genre. *

The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs is on at the Kiln Theatre until July 12. You can find tickets here: https://kilntheatre.com/whats-on/the-ministry-of-lesbian-affairs/

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Jess Andrews met all her friends on dating apps Jun 30, 2025

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Theatre maker Jess Andrews found herself exploring the murky world of dating apps after she and her husband decided to join the polyamorous community. The experience inspired her to create her one-woman show I Met All My Friends on Dating Apps, which is now touring.

Jen chats to Jess about misconceptions around polyamory, why no one’s having a great time on dating apps and how we might fix some of the problems within it.

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Flicking #63: The Wild Robot Jun 27, 2025

Show notes

This animated sci-fi adventure, adapted from Peter Brown’s much-loved books and written and directed by Chris Sanders, got a fair few Oscar nods, even if it missed out on an actual statue. But how will the tale of futuristic, task-oriented robot Roz, thrust into mothering gosling Brightbill amid the natural world’s chaos, fare with Mick, Hannah and Yosra? And what’s Bullseye got to do with it?

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