Standard Issue Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Rated or Dated: Cocoon (1985) Jun 25, 2025

Show notes

Is there a conspiracy to stop us watching a feel-good film about pensioners? Who was younger than Hannah when it was filmed? Whose legs does Jen envy? How high are Mickey's socks? We answer all these questions and more as we watch Ron Howard's sci-fi comedy drama about old people fighting age with the help of aliens.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Outside The Box June 2025 Jun 23, 2025

Show notes

In this month's Outside The Box, Hannah and Jen are chatting about The Rehearsal, The Bombing of Pan Am 103, Beth, The Better Sister and The Last Anniversary.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tinuke Craig takes on British Summertime Jun 20, 2025

Show notes

Announced as the new associate artistic director of Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre back in November 2024, Tinuke Craig is keen to show just how broad the theatre's programming can be. A production of Noughts and Crosses, based on the Malorie Blackman young adult series, and directed by Tinuke kicks it all off.

Jen chats to Tinuke about bringing Noughts and Crosses to the stage, giving young actors a break, and the wet panic of British Summertime.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

ROD: The Breakfast Club (1985) Jun 18, 2025

Show notes

Where John Hughes first dared to tread, many – so very many – teen movies have followed. Starring Molly Ringwald, Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy and Judd Nelson as five VERY DIFFERENT American high school kids thrown together in Saturday detention for various misdemeanours, does the Gen X cult classic pass muster with Mick, Hannah and Jen?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hannah Marsh pulls at threads Jun 16, 2025

Show notes

An emergency caesarean brought journalist Hannah Marsh's first child into the world. Afterwards, she struggled to make sense of the events that had led to his traumatic birth and her intense feeling of shame for not having the “perfect” birth she’d envisioned. Hannah set about looking into the origins of procedure, which in turn led to her new book, Thread: A Caesarean Story of Myth, Magic and Medicine.

Jen chats with Hannah about the many misconceptions about the caesarean (including thinking of it as a relatively recent procedure), the pressure on women around birth choices, and why women are struggling to have the births they want.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Genius with Helen Lewis Jun 13, 2025

Show notes

What makes a genius a genius? Do IQ tests teach us anything? Is a belief in genius right-wing coded? Hannah chats to journalist, author, broadcaster and Standard Issue fave Helen Lewis about her new book The Genius Myth, hero worship, eugenics, class and (braces) football.

To hear the full interview or to listen ad-free you can:

* You can become a Standard Issue member here: https://www.patreon.com/c/StandardIssue

* Make a one-off payment here: ⁠https://www.patreon.com/c/StandardIssue⁠

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rated or Dated: Maybe Baby (2000) Jun 11, 2025

Show notes

Adapted from his own novel, Inconceivable, Ben Elton’s 2000 directorial debut is hard to track down these days. Should Jen ever have unearthed it? Has Elton written a convincing female character in Joely Richardson’s baby-hungry Lucy? Is Hugh Laurie just dialling it in? What in the sweet fancy Moses is Emma Thompson doing? And can Hannah and Mick ever get over the trauma of watching it?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ella Lambert and the sanitary pads of real change Jun 10, 2025

Show notes

Back in 2020, then-student Ella Lambert started The Pachamama Project, when she was just 20 herself. 500 million people worldwide experience period poverty, including 100 million girls who miss school every single month. The Pachamama Project creates and distributes reusable period products to vulnerable women, girls and people who have periods, including refugees, around the world.

Our Mick tried not to think about what she was doing when she was 20, and got Ella on the Zoom to talk more about the brilliant UK charity she founded and why its work is so important.

The Pachamama Project is always looking for people to get involved, by the way, so please do check out thepachamamaproject.org for info on how to do that.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kirstie McLeod is telling stories in stitches Jun 09, 2025

Show notes

Artist Kirstie McLeod founded the Red Dress project in 2009, as a platform for women in marginalised groups to share their stories. Sixteen years later, the collective embroidery project represents 380 embroiderers across 51 countries and is exhibited all over the world. Jen chats to Kirstie about the project, embroidery as a (perhaps) surprising medium through which to pioneer social justice, and the joy of putting needle to thread.

The Red Dress is currently being exhibited at the Woven festival in Kirklees

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anoushka Lucas is a theatre animal Jun 06, 2025

Show notes

Fresh from her run in The Almeida's Rhinoceros, singer, composer, writer and actor Anoushka Lucas is back on stage in a revival of her one-way play Elephant. She chats to Hannah about why going back to it is a bit like reading an old diary, having a spectacularly successful side hustle and living in Russia.

Tickets to Elephant at London's Menier Chocolate Factory can be bought here: https://www.menierchocolatefactory.com/tickets/elephant/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected