The High Low

Latest Episodes:

Meghan & Harry's Godparent Privacy Furore; And What Makes A True Eccentric? Jul 09, 2019

Show notes

Glasto's been and gone and the USA won the Women's World Cup - as the crowd began chanting "equal pay, equal pay."

This week we cover the latest royal storm in a bone-china teacup, as Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex refuse to name the godparents of their newborn baby, Archie. Are the taxpayers entitled to this intel? Or is it time to stop seeing privacy, in our era of 360 surveillance, in black and white terms?

We also take the BBC's eccentric quiz and discuss Will Self's riveting new documentary on what makes a true eccentric and how 'the eccentric' is oft commodified or misunderstood. Take the quiz and let us know - how eccentric are YOU?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2xKy0KkffPNDywmxxC6qrkm/how-eccentric-are-you

Donate to Broadwater Farm's summer play experience https://justgiving.com/crowdfunding/broadwaterfarm

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Links

The Falconer, by Dana Czapnik

The New Me, by Halle Butler

Bitch, by Elizabeth Wurtzel

Camilla Long on HRH Killjoy, for The Sunday Times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/for-keeping-mum-about-archies-godparents-i-rechristen-the-peoples-prince-hrh-killjoy-qs87wlrz6

When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez met Greta Thunberg, for The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jun/29/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-met-greta-thunberg-hope-contagious-climate

Pete Paphides' gorgeous Twitter thread on Glastonbury https://twitter.com/petepaphides/status/1145666196622254081

The Death of the Eccentric, hosted by Will Self for BBC Radio 4https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0006kt6

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Debunking Wellness Myths with Is Butter A Carb? Authors, Rosie Saunt & Helen West Jul 02, 2019

Show notes

We're recording this in advance, so no news update this week but a bunch of reccs and an author special!

Do you swear by your daily turmeric latte? Are you a celery juice fanatic? From placenta pills to kombucha, the registered dietitians, co-founders of The Rooted Project and authors of Is Butter A Carb? Unpicking Fact From Fiction In The World Of Nutrition, Rosie Saunt and Helen West, take us through the myths, fads and where the *actual* science can be found in our wellness crisis.

We talk about body positivity, veganism, food shame, the privilege of wellness and - hardest of all - what constitutes a healthy diet? This is a must-read book that will change the way you think about food, diet, health and happiness. You can follow @rooted_project on Instagram and Twitter.

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Links

Is Butter A Carb? Unpicking Fact From Fiction In The World of Nutrition, by Rosie Saunt and Helen West https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-rooted-project/rosie-saunt/helen-west/9780349419299

Swan Song, by Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott

The Second Mountain: The Quest For A Moral Life, by David Brooks

The Bold Type, on Amazon Prime

TED Talks Daily podcast with David Brooks https://player.fm/series/tedtalks-video/the-lies-our-culture-tells-us-about-what-matters-and-a-better-way-to-live-david-brooks

David Brooks on TBD with Tina Brown podcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/david-brooks-moral-journey/id1441327188?i=1000435034594

David Brooks on Vox's The Ezra Klein Show podcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/sg/podcast/the-disillusionment-of-david-brooks/id1081584611?i=1000437042197

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*EPISODE 100* Why Do Brits Hate Other Brits Abroad? & The Influencer Engagement #Sponcon Furore Jun 25, 2019

Show notes

‘Twas the week of Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds’ sofa row, the ‘tube pusher’ is charged with attempted murder and the president of Colombia warns against the hypocrisy of the “woke who do coke”. Dolly’s obsessed with Pink Gin Lady - her new summer meme - and Pandora’s perturbed by Charmin’s industrial-sized ‘Forever Roll’ for millennials (do we hate shopping for basic sanitation? Or do we just shit more?)

In this week’s ep we discuss the #sponcon leak that blew up the internet - after the ‘pitch deck’ for New York influencer and Goop Partnership Director, Marissa Casey Fuchs, was leaked to The Atlantic. Does she deserve the white hot wrath of the Internet? And what does this incident tell us about the celebrification of everyone, schadenfreude and our consumer obsession with free shit?

Also today, a new survey has revealed that 72% of Brits ‘recoil’ when they hear another Brit abroad. NB: if we hear you on our holiday, we *will* hide behind a pot plant.

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Links

Easy on Netflix

Booksmart

Evvie Drake Starts Over, by Linda Holmes

You Accomplished Something Great. So Now What? A. C. Shilton on ‘Arrival Fallacy’, for The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/28/smarter-living/you-accomplished-something-great-so-now-what.amp.html

Why Going To Bed By 10pm is The Secret To A Happy, Healthy Life, by India Knight for The Sunday Times Magazine https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/why-going-to-bed-by-10pm-is-the-secret-to-a-happy-healthy-life-qp69kkmxz

The Case For Re-Defining Fertility, by Anna Louie Sussman for The New Yorker https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-inquiry/the-case-for-social-infertility/amp

The Rise and Fall of Babe.Net, by Allison P. Davies for The Cut https://www.thecut.com/2019/06/babe-net-aziz-ansari-date-rise-and-fall.html

Welcome to the Era of Branded Engagements, by Taylor Lorenz for The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/592141/

Why 200K People Couldn’t Look Away From This Influencer’s Viral Engagement Stunt, by Cait Munro for Refinery 29 https://www.refinery29.com/amp/en-gb/2019/06/236248/marissa-fuchs-engagement-proposal-instagram-influencer-viral-response

Brene Brown on Russell Brand https://player.fm/series/under-the-skin-with-russell-brand-1504231/ep-85-vulnerability-and-power-with-brene-brown

Fortunately With Fi And Jane https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p07dstjl

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An Author Special with anti-FGM Campaigner Nimko Ali on What We’re Told Not To Talk About Jun 19, 2019

Show notes

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has undertaken her 3rd hunger strike (joined by husband Richard) and ship captain Pia Klemp, who rescued drowning migrants, faces 20 years in prison. On the other end of the news spectrum, Kylie Jenner has been criticised for her Handmaid’s Tale fancy dress party (including Under His Eye tequila) and Missguided have sold out of their 100% plastic £1 bikini. And Dolly’s got a new story from Orkney, naturally.

Today’s author is the utterly brilliant Nimko Ali OBE, am anti-FGM campaigner whose book What We’re Told Not To Talk About (But Are Going To Anyway) sees stories from 42 women across 14 countries on emotional and shocking topics including forced marriage, genital mutilation, the menopause and what it’s like to get your period when you’re homeless.

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Links

Pre-order Pandora’s book! How Do We Know We’re Getting It Right & other essays on modern life (published July 2020) https://www.waterstones.com/book/how-do-we-know-were-doing-it-right/pandora-sykes/9781785176876

What We’re Told Not To Talk About (But Are Going To Anyway), by Nimko Ali

This Will Only Hurt A Little, by Busy Philipps

All Families Are Psychotic, by Douglas Coupland

Look Alive Out There, by Sloane Crosley

Exposure, by Emily Gould for The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/magazine/25internet-t.html

The Making of a Millennial Woman, by Rebecca Liu for Another Gaze http://www.anothergaze.com/making-millennial-woman-feminist-capitalist-fleabag-girls-sally-rooney-lena-dunham-unlikeable-female-character-relatable/

Are only certain kinds of people deemed worthy of our compassion? By Kenan Malik for The Observer https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/15/are-only-kinds-of-people-deemed-worthy-of-our-compassion

You saw me covered in blood on a bus. But do you get outraged about all homophobia? By Chris for The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/14/homophobic-attack-bus-outrage-media-white

Charlotte Church on The Adam Buxton podcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-adam-buxton-podcast/id1040481893?i=1000440911416

Daisy Buchanan on emotional eating and weight loss:

https://medium.com/@NotRollergirl/i-tried-to-stop-eating-my-feelings-and-now-i-have-too-many-feelings-9076b24e6907

Eva Wiseman on small talk

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/jun/16/people-often-sneer-at-it-but-small-talk-is-hugely-significant-eva-wiseman

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Pride Month; & the Complex Conundrum of Euthanasia Jun 11, 2019

Show notes

*Apologies for some slight sound issues this week*

Dolly's lost her passport and Michael Gove's nose is feeling regretful. We talk Sally Challen, humpback whales and why sleep apps could make your sleeping worse.

And we deep-dive into pride month and discuss the fallacy that is the proposed straight pride march, particularly in the wake of recent homophobic hate crimes in the UK. Also, the euthanasia that never was: after the false news story about 17 year old Dutch teenager, Noa Pothoven, did the rounds, we discuss the complexity and implications of euthanasia, social media and the suicide contagion.

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Links

Easy on Netflix

Queer Intentions, by Amelia Abraham

Florence Welch on self-sabotage, for the July issue of British Vogue - on sale now

The Age of the Internet 'Wife Guy', by Amanda Hess for The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/arts/internet-wife-guy-robbie-tripp.html

Sloane Crosley on the Longform Podcast https://longform.org/posts/longform-podcast-343-sloane-crosley

The Pleasure Podcast https://thepleasurepodcast.com

Emma Jane Unsworth on post natal depression https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jun/08/lie-health-visitor-lie-friends-truth-postnatal-depression?CMP=twt_b-gdnweekend

What does childbirth feel like? By Nell Frizzell for The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/18/what-does-childbirth-feel-like-google

When will homophobes learn that lesbians aren't their playthings? By Sophie Wilkinson for The Telegraph https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/sophie-wilkinson0/

Death on demand: has euthanasia gone too far? By Christopher de Bellaigue for Guardian Long Reads https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/jan/18/death-on-demand-has-euthanasia-gone-too-far-netherlands-assisted-dying

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Should Celebrities Be Involved In Prison Reform?; & The Lunacy of Hen/Stag Season Jun 04, 2019

Show notes

There's been a garden gnome heist and Trump's on his state visit (those are inter-connected stories, naturally.) Love Island is back - but is there any actual body diversity?

We discuss Kim Kardashian-West's campaign for clemency for convicted murderer and death row inmate, Kevin Cooper. Should celebrities lend their weight to social reform; or is this signify a dangerous "mission creep"?

And it's silly season: that of hens and stags. With the help of YOU, our brilliant High Low listeners, we discuss the maddest hen stories out there and throw in a few new surveys, for good measure.

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Grief is the Thing With Feathers, by Max Porter

My Dark Vanessa, by Kate Elizabeth Russell

Animals by Emma Jane Unsworth

The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read by Philippa Perry

Terry Gross interviews Howard Stern, for Fresh Air https://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/2019/05/14/723182920/fresh-air-for-may-14-2019-howard-stern-part-1

Why Morrissey Fans Feel So Betrayed by Tim Jonze https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/may/30/bigmouth-strikes-again-morrissey-songs-loneliness-shyness-misfits-far-right-party-tonight-show-jimmy-fallon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What The Moby-Natalie Portman Row Reveals About Entitlement & Truth-Telling; & Are Women Without Children Happier? May 28, 2019

Show notes

Dolly talks bird-feeding and rabid Game of Thrones fans who want to re-make the ending; Pandora ponders what Spice Girl merch to get her hands on; and we discuss Oxbridge's first appointment of its first black female master.

In this episode, a talk-gone-viral from Hay Festival, by behavioural scientist and LSE scientist Paul Dolan, who claimed that women without a spouse and children are happier. We call on the words of Grace Dent, Corinne Fisher and Terri Gross; Simone de Beauvoir and Jacqueline Rose in order to try and determine what makes a happy woman (and is it ever possible to contrast two very different lives?)

We also muse upon the Moby vs. Natalie Portman row, after the musician claimed in his memoir that they dated when she was 20; she says they didn't date - oh and she was 18. What does this story tell us about about entitlement, fact-checking and truth-telling?

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The Salt Path by Raynor Winn

Years and Years, on BBC iPlayer

Mothers, by Jacqueline Rose

Hadley Freeman on the pro-life lobby, for The Guardian https://bit.ly/2HFQmjg

Eva Wiseman on why life is shades of grey, for The Observer magazine https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/may/26/why-are-arguments-always-so-black-and-white-reality-television

Terri Gross on not having kids, on The Longest Short podcast https://longestshortesttime.com/episode-79-terry-gross-on-not-having-kids/

The C Word on Luminary: https://bit.ly/2HHhVsz

The Scarcity Mindset by Octavia Bright: https://www.elle.com/uk/life-and-culture/a27527675/scarcity-mindset-competition-women/

Laura Snapes reviews The Spice Girls reunion show: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/may/25/spice-girls-review-nostalgia-live-croke-park-dublin

Nina Stibbe on The Adam Buxton podcast: https://soundcloud.com/adam-buxton/podcast-ep90-nina-stibbe

Wait by Galway Kinnell: https://poets.org/poem/wait

Grace Dent and Sian Harries on not having children: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09jd32d

Arwa Mahdawi on Moby and nice-guy misogyny: https://bit.ly/2HDM7op

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alabama's Abortion Ban; & The Trouble with Uber's New 'Silence' Mode May 21, 2019

Show notes

Grumpy Cat has died and we came last (again) in Eurovision. This week Dolly's down a Doris Day content-hole and Pandora's bewitched by the Instagram account @90sanxiety.

We discuss Alabama's new abortion ban - the most restrictive in the States - voted in by 25 white men and reflect on the ongoing battle for agency in Northern Ireland, which sees 28 women travel to England every single day, for an abortion.

Donate here to Abortion Support Network - https://donate.asn.org.uk/gb-en/donate

And we debate Uber's new 'silence mode' - whereby you will be able to silence your driver. A practical solution for when you need a bit of quiet; or a worrying indicator of our inability to entertain ad hoc conversation?

It's Time To Hear Alabama's Women - stories from 200 women by The Alabama Media Group https://www.al.com/opinion/2019/05/its-time-to-hear-alabamas-women.html

The clock is turning back on women's rights, by Janice Turner for The Times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-clock-is-turning-back-on-women-s-rights-x9n9mvqrw

The Matchless Presence of Doris Day, by Anthony Lane: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/postscript/the-matchless-presence-of-doris-day

Fresh Air remembers Doris Day: https://www.npr.org/2019/05/15/723531128/fresh-air-remembers-hollywood-legend-doris-day

Jemima Kirke on Woman Of The Hour with Lena Dunham: https://play.acast.com/s/womenofthehour/friendship-bonus-episode-lena-and-jemima

Anjelica Huston on WTF: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1018-anjelica-huston

Brene Brown on WTF: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1012-bren-brown

Homefire, by Kamila Shamsie

David Harewood on Psychosis, on BBC iPlayer

Dead To Me, on Netflix

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The concept of ‘workism’ & Bryony Gordon on mental health in teen girls May 14, 2019

Show notes

Pandora’s listened to a podcast on ‘workism’ - the idea that work is now the cornerstone of your identity - and it’s changed her life; meanwhile, Dolly’s tits deep in Doris Day nostalgia.

We talk Danny Baker’s racist tweet, why maternity clothes should be modelled by pregnant models, the Philippines’ proposed ban on gossip. How many mins do you gossip each day? A new study tells us the answer.

And we host journalist, author and mental health campaigner Bryony Gordon to discuss her new book You Got This and why we need to focus on the mental health of and myths fed to teenage girls.

E-mail thehighlowshow@gmail.com

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You Got This, by Bryony Gordon

The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read, by Philippa Perry

Mama’s Boy, by Dustin Lance Black

Louis Theroux: Mothers on the Edge, BBC iPlayer

The Ezra Klein Show: Work as identity, burnout as lifestyle https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-ezra-klein-show/id1081584611?i=1000436045971

Louis Theroux on Desert Island Discs: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00050p7

Alexis Georgoulis interviewed for The Times: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/its-spiro-from-the-durrells-and-hes-single-zg3hgf6kn

Eddie Izzard on Joe Rogan: https://www.reddit.com/r/JoeRogan/comments/bk34bd/joe_rogan_experience_1289_eddie_izzard/

Phoebe Waller Bridge on THR Awards Chatter: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/awards-chatter/id1039032256?i=1000437565819

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

An Author Special with Rosie Price on the effects of trauma on the mind and body May 07, 2019

Show notes

The new royal baby, the Caster Semenya furore, the 'hogspital' and the proposed raise to the minimum wage - oh, and 86% of people have revealed that they are disappointed by the Mona Lisa. Sorry, Lis.

Dolly's discovered tribute bands and Pandora's tits-deep in Refinery 29's Money Diaries series.

Also today we have an author special with Rosie Price, the author of sensational debut fiction, What Red Was. A book about family, friendship, privilege and class, at the centre of the narrative is a rape. We discuss trauma, the aftershock of sexual assault and why the idea of writing as 'catharsis' is problematic. What Red Was is out on May 7th and we cannot recommend it enough.

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What Red Was, by Rosie Price https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Rosie-Price/What-Red-Was/23570030

Caster Semenya is a victim of rules that are confusing and unfair, by Kenan Malik for The Observer https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/05/caster-semenya-is-a-victim-of-rules-that-are-confusing-and-unfair

Larry Ray and the Stolen Kids of Sarah Lawrence, by Ezra Marcus and James D. Walsh for New York Magazine https://www.thecut.com/2019/04/larry-ray-sarah-lawrence-students.html

Refinery29's Money Diary Series https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/money-diary-uk

Conversations on Love with Dr. Lucy Kalanithi, by Natasha Lunn https://instagram.us18.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=ca50d07f68560ca687f3eece1&id=f8198ddab2

When Did Pop Culture Become Homework? by Soraya Roberts for Longreads https://longreads.com/2019/04/26/when-did-pop-culture-become-homework/

How shocking books have changed with their readers, by Leo Benedictus for The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/may/02/has-fiction-lost-its-edge-american-psycho-bret-easton-ellis-leila-slimani

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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