Podd: How To Fail With Elizabeth Day

Jonathan Van Ness - 'I was one wrong thing away from losing everything'

2 april 2025 | 50 min

How To Date: BONUS EPISODE - Your dating questions answered…

31 mars 2025 | 42 min

Sam Ryder - ‘Fame is like giving a dog a treat every single day. You get used to it.’

26 mars 2025 | 56 min

How To Date: The most important relationship you’ll ever have

24 mars 2025 | 60 min

Olivia Attwood - ‘It’s either vodka and a gay club until 5am, or hyperbaric oxygen’

19 mars 2025 | 52 min

How To Date: How to cope with heartbreak and rejection

17 mars 2025 | 47 min

Erin Doherty - ‘Lean Into Your Truth’

12 mars 2025 | 49 min

How To Date: Taking it to the next level

10 mars 2025 | 51 min

Gugu Mbatha-Raw - ‘Have I ever worked with an awful co-star? Maybe one or two’

5 mars 2025 | 49 min

How To Date: Red and Green Flags

3 mars 2025 | 59 min

Kate Hudson - ‘Fame is a tumultuous machine’

26 februari 2025 | 61 min

How To Date: Communication - dating dos and don’ts

25 februari 2025 | 55 min

Simon Callow: ‘Scottish reeling almost killed me.’

19 februari 2025 | 44 min

How To Date: The first date

17 februari 2025 | 54 min

Jessel Taank - ‘Real Housewives? It’s like Game of Thrones’

12 februari 2025 | 54 min

How To Date: How to meet someone

10 februari 2025 | 54 min

Nick Grimshaw - 'I told The Guardian I was gay before I told my parents'

5 februari 2025 | 53 min

Introducing How To Date: Am I ready to date?

3 februari 2025 | 52 min

Dame Harriet Walter - ‘I wish I’d had all this attention when I was 40’

29 januari 2025 | 56 min

Sharon Horgan - ‘My marriage failed but it had such a positive impact on my life’

22 januari 2025 | 49 min

Stephen Merchant: ‘Most famous people are f**cked up’

15 januari 2025 | 51 min

Failure Throwback: Geena Davis

8 januari 2025 | 62 min

Failure Throwback: Jamie Dornan

1 januari 2025 | 70 min

Failure Throwback: Phoebe Waller-Bridge

25 december 2024 | 62 min

Sir Chris Hoy - ‘There’s no cure but I still find hope’

18 december 2024 | 58 min

Kirsty Young - ‘The great benefit of age? You give less of a f**k.’

11 december 2024 | 52 min

Luke Evans - ‘If I didn’t have to take my top off on a movie set, I’d let myself go’

27 november 2024 | 57 min

Andy Cohen - ‘Madonna says I’m a trouble-making queen’

20 november 2024 | 53 min

Andy Cohen doesn’t just shape the culture. He is the culture. And if you think I was excited-slash-terrified to interview a man who means so much to me (despite us never having met until this moment) then you would be entirely correct.

In many ways, Andy is the godfather of reality TV. He’s responsible for the birth of The Real Housewives franchise, without which we would never have had some of the most iconic small-screen moments of the last 20 years or spin-off shows such as Vanderpump Rules and Below Deck. He’s also the host of the phenomenally successful late-night talk show Watch What Happens Live, the author of five New York Times bestselling books and has even appeared as Zeus in a Lady Gaga music video.

We talk about…everything. I get all the tea on The Real Housewives - its inception, its stars and which housewife gives him the best gifts. We chat about that baby shower. We talk about why John Mayer would be Andy’s ideal husband. We talk about gay parenting, surrogacy and why an incident in a playground with his son left him feeling like a failure. We talk about knowing your audience, how difficult it is to deal with online trolling, why he’s never had any plastic surgery and whether he’d ever share a bath with Meredith Marks. One of my favourite ever interviews. Thank you so much, Andy!

NEW HOW TO FAIL WITH ELIZABETH DAY PRESENTED BY HAYU LIVE TOUR DATE

Friday 28th March 2025 – The London Barbican

Go to: www.fane.co.uk/how-to-fail

Have something to share of your own? I'd love to hear from you! Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com

Production & Post Production Coordinator: Eric Ryan

Studio and Mix Engineer: Matias Torres Sole and John Scott

Senior Producer: Selina Ream

Executive Producer: Carly Maile

Head of Marketing: Kieran Lancini

How to Fail is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ella Purnell - ‘Therapy changed my life’

13 november 2024 | 44 min

Lashana Lynch - ‘I didn’t know when I was auditioning that I was going to be 007’

6 november 2024 | 49 min

Jilly Cooper - ‘What’s a dick pic?’

30 oktober 2024 | 40 min

James Blunt - ‘The Iraq war lost me my GRAMMYS’

23 oktober 2024 | 52 min

TW: miscarriage and pregnancy loss

You’ll probably have heard of James Blunt. And if you haven’t, you’ve almost definitely heard his most famous song, You’re Beautiful. There was a time in the early 2000s that it was EVERYWHERE. And that’s because James Blunt was absolutely huge. His debut 2004 album, Back To Bedlam, was the biggest-selling album of the decade in the UK, shifting over 12 million copies. I know!! TWELVE MILLION.

He has released another six albums since then, every one of them a top 10 hit, winning two Brit Awards and two Ivor Novellos along the way.

But Blunt faced an astonishing cultural backlash for his ubiquity - eventually choosing to fight back in his own words on Twitter, where he rapidly became known for his acerbic put-downs and self-deprecating humour.

He joins me to talk about the ‘honour’ of being a ‘one-hit wonder’, his rejection by every single major record label and his failure to win any Grammys, despite being nominated for five in one night. We also talk about his friendship with the late Carrie Fisher, whether he bears a grudge against any of the musicians who slagged him off (looking at you, Damon Albarn and Noel Gallagher), the absurdity of fame and - in a moving exchange - the male experience of miscarriage.

At points, his humour was so dry it took me a couple of seconds to realise he’d made a joke. Listening back, I can confirm I find him utterly hilarious.

Back To Bedlam is about to be released as a remastered 20th anniversary edition.

Have something to share of your own? I'd love to hear from you! Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com

Production & Post Production Manager: Eric Ryan

Studio and Mix Engineer: Matias Torres Sole and Josh Gibbs

Producer: Hannah Talbot

Executive Producer: Carly Maile

Head of Marketing: Kieran Lancini

How to Fail is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Miranda Hart - 'I always knew I’d get married at 51'

16 oktober 2024 | 58 min

Neneh Cherry - ‘My mother’s death undid me.’

9 oktober 2024 | 46 min

Rupert Everett - 'Everyone is my Professional Nemesis'

2 oktober 2024 | 51 min

Yuval Noah Harari - ‘AI doesn't have to end badly for humankind’

25 september 2024 | 57 min

Diane Abbott - ‘I’ve never had a nice chat with Keir Starmer’

18 september 2024 | 52 min

Kate Winslet - ‘I remember thinking: I do not want to be famous’

11 september 2024 | 58 min

Look, I don’t like to brag but in case you hadn’t noticed, we’ve got Kate Winslet on How To Fail this week. ACTUAL KATE WINSLET! The one and only! And oh my goodness, what an incredible guest she is: acutely intelligent, funny and brilliantly forthright. We covered so much ground - from the media obsession with her body image, to her regret at giving up tap-dancing, her feelings of failure around not yet having directed, working with Emma Thompson and the time Woody Allen called her ‘a bad actress’...it’s *all* here.

We talk about a career that started at the age of 17 in Heavenly Creatures and went on to encompass some of the biggest roles in the biggest movies of all time - Sense and Sensibility, Titanic, Iris, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and so much more. Along the way, Winslet has won an Academy Award, two Emmys, five Baftas, five Golden Globes and been awarded a CBE. Now, 48, Winslet’s titular role in Lee, the biopic of war photographer Lee Miller, also marks her first time as producer. It was a passion project she was determined to get made, although it took her eight long years to do so.

And for anyone who wants to hear more about the filming of The Holiday and whether she and Leonardo di Caprio are still friends, then you *have* to tune into Failing With Friends, our subscriber episode, where Winslet spills all the beans.

Have something to share of your own? I'd love to hear from you! Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com

Production & Post Production Manager: Lily Hambly

Studio and Mix Engineer: Gulliver Tickell and Josh Gibbs

Producer: Hannah Talbot

Executive Producer: Carly Maile

Head of Marketing: Kieran Lancini

How to Fail is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Agony Uncle Salman Rushdie – ‘I walked into a glass door and fell in love’

4 september 2024 | 25 min

Ellie Simmonds - Being different is a superpower.

28 augusti 2024 | 45 min

Guenther Steiner - F1 made me an absent father

21 augusti 2024 | 46 min

Ade Adepitan - ‘At 16 I’d seen more violence than anyone should ever see’

14 augusti 2024 | 54 min

TW: contains references to racist abuse and racially-aggravated violence.

This is probably one of my favourite episodes of all time, and I don’t say that lightly. The former championship wheelchair basketball star turned TV presenter, Ade Adepitan, came into the How To Fail studio with an open heart and a moving story to tell. He blew us all away.

Ade talks about growing up working-class, Black and disabled and how the intersection of these left him feeling he had to prove himself twice as much. He talks about letting his parents down and a family estrangement that lasted 10 years. We chat about the impact of leaving Nigeria, aged three, and how that has continued to shape his outlook on life and we talk about his own self-perceived failure to protect his friend from a racist attack as a teenager - and how what happened changed all their lives. We also talk about a 2005 BBC documentary where he broke down in front of cameras while trying to climb a volcano and his fear that he had let himself and the disabled community down. AND - in a first for How To Fail -his failure to take a compliment

You can catch Ade presenting Channel 4’s coverage of the Paralympic Games this summer.

As always, I’m desperate to hear about your failures. Every week, my guest and I choose a selection to read out and answer on our special subscription offering, Failing with Friends. We’ll endeavour to give you advice, wisdom, some laughs and much, much more.

Have something to share of your own? I'd love to hear from you! Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com

Production & Post Production Manager: Lily Hambly

Studio and Mix Engineer: Gulliver Tickell and Josh Gibbs

Producer: Hannah Talbot

Executive Producer: Carly Maile

Head of Marketing: Kieran Lancini

How to Fail is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pat Cummins - 'My mother’s death taught me cricket isn’t as important as family'

7 augusti 2024 | 44 min

Elif Shafak - ‘There’s only one thing that scares me - and that’s indifference’

31 juli 2024 | 46 min

Danny O Donoghue - ‘I’m finished drinking, I’m finished smoking, everything’

24 juli 2024 | 47 min

Introducing How To Write a Book: Episode 1 - The Idea (Part 1)

22 juli 2024 | 37 min

In this first episode of How to Write a Book, Elizabeth Day’s new podclass series, hosts Sara Collins, Sharmaine Lovegrove and Nelle Andrew discuss coming up with ideas.

Just where do ideas for books come from? How do you know if they’re any good, or even if they’re right for you to pursue? Our expert podclass provides answers to all of this - and even a lesson in how to know when your idea might be ready to send to an agent.

And we could not have a more experienced bunch to guide you on this journey. Sara Collins is the bestselling novelist and screenwriter currently serving as a judge for the 2024 Booker Prize. Her debut novel, The Confessions of Frannie Langton, won the Costa book awards in 2019 and she later wrote the TV screenplay. Nelle Andrew is a literary agent and former Agent of the Year at the

British Book Awards, and Sharmaine Lovegrove is the co-founder and managing director of Dialogue Books, an inclusive imprint at a major publishing house. Each of them is an expert in one stage of the publishing journey…. and all are literary nerds (in the best possible way).

Together, Sara, Sharmaine and Nelle are your on-hand writing community giving you the push you need to get started on that novel, memoir, or piece of non fiction you've always dreamed of writing.

We hope you enjoy our part 1 & part 2 on IDEA. If you don’t want to wait for next week’s episode, you can subscribe now and binge them all at once by tapping ‘subscribe’. You’ll get to listen to all episodes ad-free and get exclusive subscriber access to How To Fail and Failing With Friends.

Books discussed in these episodes include:

•The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins

•The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

•Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

•Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth

•The Color Purple by Alice Walker

•Scissors, Paper, Stone by Elizabeth Day

•Paradise City by Elizabeth Day

•Magpie by Elizabeth Day

We also talk about Christopher Booker, Kit de Waal, The Seven Basic Plots and Michael Crichton’

Executive produced by Elizabeth Day for Daylight Productions and Carly Maile for Sony Music Entertainment.

Produced by Imogen Serwotka.

Please do get in touch with us, your writing community, with thoughts, feedback and more at: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sara Cox - ‘it made me feel a bit of a failed mum’

17 juli 2024 | 52 min

Sara Cox is a broadcaster and author. You might have grown up with her on Radio 1’s iconic Breakfast Show. You might remember her being one of the first so-called ‘ladettes’ (and if you do, we talk about how much she hates this word in the episode). You might have read one of her bestselling books - she wrote a memoir in 2019, followed by two novels, the most recent of which, Way Back, was published in March.

She’s now the host of the most listened to radio show in Europe: BBC Radio 2’s tea time, as well as being on our screens at the helm of the hugely successful TV books show, Between the Covers. But her upbringing was far removed from media luvviedom: she comes from a Lancashire farming family and spent her childhood shuttling between her divorced parents - her father’s farm and her mother’s pub. We talk about how these early experiences affected her and what she learned from her parents’ break-up. We also discuss her failure to farm, her failure to believe she’s ACTUALLY an author and an early career failure to control Sacha Baron Cohen when he was a live guest on Radio 1 (and the media’s misogynistic treatment of Cox in the aftermath).

As always, I’m desperate to hear about your failures. Every week, my guest and I choose a selection to read out and answer on our special subscription offering, Failing with Friends. We’ll endeavour to give you advice, wisdom, some laughs and much, much more.

Have something to share of your own? I'd love to hear from you! Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com

Production & Post Production Manager: Lily Hambly

Studio and Mix Engineer: Gulliver Tickell and Josh Gibbs

Producer: Hannah Talbot

Executive Producer: Carly Maile

Head of Marketing: Kieran Lancini

How to Fail is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Danny Dyer - 'I’m a fking legend or I’m a fking disgrace. I suppose I divide people'

10 juli 2024 | 53 min

We bonded over swearing. And, although I’m not one to brag: Danny Dyer said it suits me. DANNY F***ING DYER! I mean. I know this is a podcast about failure, but surely that’s a major life achievement?

Anyway, I digress… Today’s guest was born in East London and had a challenging childhood - his parents split when he was nine after his mother discovered Danny’s father had a secret family. Acting was, in many ways, his escape from everyday life. He started in his teens, and was soon acting alongside luminaries such as Helen Mirren, Mark Rylance, Daniel Craig and Derek Jacobi. In his 20s, his mentor was the playwright Harold Pinter - someone Danny considers a father figure in his life, and who he has as the screensaver on his phone. We talk about what he learned from his drug addiction and his subsequent rehab, including one panic-inducing story about being on stage and forgetting his lines after spending the night before smoking crack in New York. It’s an extraordinary tale of resilience and self-growth and I really appreciate Danny’s honesty in telling it.

We also talk about what psychics say to him, his concerns over his daughter becoming famous, his royal heritage and why he might have got the wrong dog.

Danny’s show Mr Bigstuff is out on Sky - Wednesday 17th July

How to Fail is going on a live tour in Spring 2025, presented by Hayu! Tickets are on sale now at www.fane.co.uk/how-to-fail

Have something to share of your own? I'd love to hear from you! Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com

Production & Post Production Manager: Lily Hambly

Studio and Mix Engineer: Josh Gibbs

Senior Producer: Selina Ream

Executive Producer: Carly Maile

Head of Marketing: Kieran Lancini

How to Fail is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jesse Tyler Ferguson - ‘I was caught stealing gay porn'

3 juli 2024 | 52 min

This week: it’s Mitch from Modern Family! On screen, Jesse Tyler Ferguson brought to life one of the most beloved comic roles in recent years but he’s also a Tony-award winning theatre actor, not to mention host of the wonderful Dinner’s On Me podcast.

Jesse was so easy to talk to - I felt I could ask him anything, and frequently did. We chat about his adolescent failures at sport when it seemed to be all his dad wanted from him, and this leads us into a deeply moving discussion about his own sexuality. The story of how his parents became aware that their son was gay is one that will stay with you for a long time - and although it contains its fair share of trauma, it is delivered, as ever, with Jesse’s trademark black humour.

We also speak about his inability not to read reviews and his abject failure to meditate (one I can relate to). Plus: fascinating chats about surrogacy, social anxiety and whether straight actors should ‘play gay’.

As always, I’m desperate to hear about your failures. Every week, my guest and I choose a selection to read out and answer on our special subscription offering, Failing with Friends. We’ll endeavour to give you advice, wisdom, some laughs and much, much more.

Listen to ‘Dinner’s on Me with Jesse Tyler Ferguson’ here: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/dinners-on-me-with-jesse-tyler-ferguson/id1683905652

Have something to share of your own? I'd love to hear from you! Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com

Production & Post Production Manager: Lily Hambly

Studio and Mix Engineer: Gulliver Tickell and Josh Gibbs

Senior Producer: Selina Ream

Executive Producer: Carly Maile

Head of Marketing: Kieran Lancini

How to Fail is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sadiq Khan - ‘Had I known what it involved, I can’t say I’d have gone into politics’

26 juni 2024 | 55 min

Vogue Williams - ‘I love therapy’

19 juni 2024 | 51 min

Angel Strawbridge - No Regrets

12 juni 2024 | 42 min

Salman Rushdie - ‘I’d rather have had a different life’

5 juni 2024 | 56 min

TW: this episode contains graphic descriptions of violence and injuries.

Two years ago, Sir Salman Rushdie, one of the most celebrated and famous authors in the world was on stage at the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York, when a figure dressed in black clothes and a mask rushed onto stage and stabbed him numerous times. He nearly died.

Today, I’m so honoured that this extraordinary man joins me to talk about what this experience taught him - and how the forces of love ultimately triumphed over the forces of hatred. We talk about his new book, Knife: Meditations on an Attempted Murder, as well as his early failures at boarding school where he was bullied for being a foreigner who was too clever and bad at games. Plus his failure to be an actor and his early writing rejections. There is some amazing advice in here for anyone involved in the act of creativity about leaning into the messy imperfections and getting to understand who you really are in the process. And…what Margaret Thatcher was *really* like.

As always, I’d LOVE to hear about your failures. Every week, my guest and I choose a selection to read out and answer on our special subscription offering, Failing with Friends. We’ll endeavour to give you advice, wisdom, some laughs and much, much more.

Knife by Salman Rushdie is available to buy now.

Have something to share of your own? I'd love to hear from you! Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com

Production & Post Production Manager: Lily Hambly

Studio and Mix Engineer: Gulliver Tickell and Josh Gibbs

Senior Producer: Selina Ream

Executive Producer: Carly Maile

How to Fail is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Louise Thompson - ‘I asked myself: Am I alive?’

29 maj 2024 | 60 min

Shania Twain - ‘There is no man that intimidates me’

22 maj 2024 | 53 min

Today’s guest has the biggest selling studio album ever in the UK by an international female artist. She has won five Grammys, sold more than 100 million albums worldwide and, at 58, remains the top-selling female country pop artist of all time. This year, she makes her Glastonbury debut in the coveted Legends slot, undertakes a new tour of the UK and Ireland and returns to Las Vegas for her third residency.

And yet Shania Twain has battled adversity from a young age; her childhood was challenging and impoverished. From the age of eight, she was helping to support her family by singing in bars. Today, she is a cultural icon who has influenced a new wave of artists including Taylor Swift and Harry Styles.

Shania and I talk about her inability to remember song lyrics, her failure to stick to the rules and the grief she felt after her parents died in a car accident. Plus, why recording Man, I Feel Like A Woman, was a transformative experience for how she felt about her own body and her own femininity. It was such an honour being in the same room as this total icon, and I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did.

As always, I’d LOVE to hear about your failures. Every week, my guest and I choose a selection to read out and answer on our special subscription offering, Failing with Friends. We’ll endeavour to give you advice, wisdom, some laughs and much, much more.

Have something to share of your own? I'd love to hear from you! Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com

Production & Post Production Manager: Lily Hambly

Studio and Mix Engineer: Gulliver Tickell and Josh Gibbs

Producer: Hannah Talbot

Executive Producer: Carly Maile

How to Fail is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dame Arlene Phillips - ‘I know the power of love’

15 maj 2024 | 56 min

Oh my. I can’t tell you how moving I found this interview. That doesn’t mean it’s a weepy one - sometimes, the most powerful exchanges are the ones where you witness the sheer strength it takes someone *no*t to cry.

Dame Arlene Phillips is defined by her strength: strength of mind and of body (at 80, she’s still hard at work as a hit choreographer). You’ll know her as an internationally celebrated jazz and musical theatre legend, who has worked on some of the biggest-selling musicals in West End and Broadway theatre, as well as a number of blockbuster movies. But you might not know she lost her mum to leukaemia when she was just 15, had a challenging upbringing and had her second baby when she was 47 years old (she thought the pregnancy symptoms were signs of perimenopause).

Then in 2008, Dame Arlene was unceremoniously dropped as a judge from Strictly Come Dancing amid accusations of ageism. She only found out when it was reported on the next day’s radio news. We talk frankly about how this affected her - and how she’s never had an apology from the BBC. We also discuss Dame Arlene’s failure to become a ballerina and how this made her feel about her body, her fear of flying and her past inability to stand up for herself.

WHAT. A. WOMAN.

As always, I’d LOVE to hear about your failures. Every week, my guest and I choose a selection to read out and answer on our special subscription offering, Failing with Friends. We’ll endeavour to give you advice, wisdom, some laughs and much, much more.

Have something to share of your own? I'd love to hear from you! Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com

Production & Post Production Manager: Lily Hambly

Studio and Mix Engineer: Gulliver Tickell and Josh Gibbs

Producer: Hannah Talbot

Executive Producer: Carly Maile

How to Fail is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Henry Winkler - The Fonz, Getting Fired and Listening To Your Gut

8 maj 2024 | 38 min

Bonnie Tyler - Her first ever podcast interview

1 maj 2024 | 53 min

TW: miscarriage

This week, brace yourself for A TOTAL ECLIPSE… of all other podcast episodes, because this one’s a total banger. I could not have asked for a more open, hilarious, moving or riveting encounter than with the formidable Bonnie Tyler.

She grew up in a working-class Welsh family and answered a newspaper ad for a backing singer when she was 17. From there, she went on to be one of the most iconic recording artists of all time. Her hit singles include It’s A Heartache, Holding Out for a Hero and, of course, Total Eclipse of the Heart.

At 72, Bonnie is still hard at work, and managed to squeeze in an hour on How to Fail between gigs and the release of her new album, In Berlin. It’s also her first ever podcast interview. You might want to bring the tissues for this one, as we have a bit of a weep when Bonnie talks about losing her amazing mum. We also touch on miscarriage and a childfree life. Plus: Bonnie’s failure at elocution lessons, the fascinating story behind her friendship with Tina Turner, performing for Putin (no, really), being a bit of a hoarder and the secret to a 50-year marriage.

As always, I’d LOVE to hear about your failures. Every week, my guest and I choose a selection to read out and answer on our special subscription offering, Failing with Friends. We’ll endeavour to give you advice, wisdom, some laughs and much, much more.

Have something to share of your own? I'd love to hear from you! Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com

Production & Post Production Manager: Lily Hambly

Studio and Mix Engineer: Gulliver Tickell and Josh Gibbs

Producer: Hannah Talbot

Executive Producer: Carly Maile

How to Fail is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Will Young - ‘I like to talk about it because I survived it’

24 april 2024 | 58 min

TW: this episode contains discussion of sexual assault and suicide.

In many ways, Will Young is the definition of resilience. As a child, he endured physical and psychological abuse at prep school. In his 20s, he found fame on a reality TV show and was forced to be public about his sexuality by a tabloid newspaper, after which he faced years of homophobia. In his 30s, he coped with extensive periods of depression as he struggled to understand his PTSD and tragically lost his twin brother, Rupert, to death by suicide. Now in his 40s, his survival is its own success.

And yet, professionally, he has also thrived, selling over 10 million albums worldwide, scooping two Brit Awards and an Ivor Novello along the way. Four of his albums have reached number one.

In person, Will is witty, smart and heartbreaking in equal measure. I think this is one of my favourite ever HTF episodes. We talk flunking his A-levels, dropping out of Strictly Come Dancing and relationship failures.

Despite once stating he never had confidence in himself as a pop star, Young is about to release his ninth studio album, Light It Up and a new single, Falling Deep, was released last week.

As always, I’d LOVE to hear about your failures. Every week, my guest and I choose a selection to read out and answer on our special subscription offering, Failing with Friends. We’ll endeavour to give you advice, wisdom, some laughs and much, much more.

Have something to share of your own? I'd love to hear from you! Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com

Production & Post Production Manager: Lily Hambly

Studio and Mix Engineer: Josh Gibbs

Producer: Hannah Talbot

Executive Producer: Carly Maile

Head of Marketing: Kieran Lancini

How to Fail is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Richard Osman on cats, crime and c**ts

17 april 2024 | 59 min

Dr. Jen Gunter - Patriarchy, periods and penile failure

10 april 2024 | 55 min

Adeel Akhtar - The importance of staying true to yourself

3 april 2024 | 48 min

Katie Price - ‘Everything bad that’s ever happened to me is because of men’

27 mars 2024 | 50 min

TW: this episode contains discussion of sexual assault and suicide.

In the 90s you might have known Katie Price as ‘Jordan’ - featured on page three, known for her succession of plastic surgeries and her complicated personal life. But, in reality, she is so much more than the cartoon character the media created for her.

Today, Katie is a mother of five and her disabled son, Harvey, is - she tells me - the only person who ‘never judges’ her. Her life has been scarred by trauma and she has survived horrendous, and repeated, sexual abuse. And yet she refuses to let these experiences define her. The woman I met was warm, down-to-earth, funny and smart. I felt I could ask her anything and that she’d tell me the truth without thinking.

She joins me to talk about her failed marriages, her failure to look after her mental health and her failure to be taken seriously as a singer. I’m so grateful to Katie for her extraordinary honesty. It meant that this wasn’t always an easy chat, but it was a conversation that left me in awe of her resilience and courage.

As always, I’d LOVE to hear about your failures. Every week, my guest and I choose a selection to read out and answer on our special subscription offering, Failing with Friends. We’ll endeavour to give you advice, wisdom, some laughs and much, much more.

Have something to share of your own? I'd love to hear from you! Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com

Production & Post Production Manager: Lily Hambly

Studio Engineer: Josh Gibbs

Mix Engineer: Josh Gibbs

Producer: Hannah Talbot

Executive Producer: Carly Maile

Head of Marketing: Kieran Lancini

How to Fail is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nicole Scherzinger - ‘I’ve never felt I’m enough’

20 mars 2024 | 41 min

Jon Ronson on truth-telling and the culture wars

13 mars 2024 | 60 min

Jon Ronson is a journalistic hero of mine, as he is to many. He was one of the first people to write about the culture wars, well before the phrase became commonplace in our news cycles. His two audio series exploring real-life origin stories from these everyday battles ‘Things Fell Apart' (BBC Sounds) have been a huge commercial and critical success.

Ronson has written a handful of fascinating works of non-fiction including ‘Them: Adventures with Extremists’; ‘The Psychopath Test’ and ‘So You’Ve Been Publicly Shamed’ and his book ‘The Men Who Stare at Goats’ was made into a feature film starring George Clooney, Ewan McGregor and Jeff Bridges.

We explore Jon’s love of storytelling, what being bullied at school taught him, why truth-telling is vital and whether he will ever regret his solitary nature. Plus: why (according to him) he sucks at screenwriting despite having been portrayed by two Star Wars actors. Oh, and his deadly professional rivalry with Louis Theroux…

Season 2 of Things Fell Apart is available now on BBC Sounds

And as always, I’d LOVE to hear about your failures. Every week, my guest and I choose a selection to read out and answer on our special subscription offering, Failing with Friends. We’ll endeavour to give you advice, wisdom, some laughs and much, much more.

Have something to share of your own? I'd love to hear from you! Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com

Production & Post Production Manager: Lily Hambly

Studio Engineer: Gulli Lawrence-Tickle

Mix Engineer: Josh Gibbs

Senior Producer: Selina Ream

Executive Producer: Carly Maile

Head of Marketing: Kieran Lancini

How to Fail is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Production.

Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts

To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AJ Odudu - ‘Living to tell the tale is the joyful thing’

6 mars 2024 | 44 min

Mel B - ‘I was a Spice Girl shouting about girl power, but I was girl powerless.’

28 februari 2024 | 61 min

Sabrina Dhowre Elba… I thought ‘this is how I’m going to die’

21 februari 2024 | 51 min

Paloma Faith… ‘I overshare by whose standards? Not mine.’

14 februari 2024 | 56 min

Sathnam Sanghera on why books can save us and how to understand Empire

7 februari 2024 | 51 min

Joe Wicks on addiction, homeschooling and body image

31 januari 2024 | 55 min

Dan Levy on overcoming rejection and harnessing grief

24 januari 2024 | 50 min

Who’s ready for Season 20?

19 januari 2024 | 3 min

HAPPY HIGH BETTER FAIL: The Ultimate Podcast Mash-Up with Fearne Cotton, Rangan Chatterjee, Jake Humphrey & Damian Hughes

15 december 2023 | 61 min

S18, Ep10 Claudia Winkleman on the joy of imperfection

1 november 2023 | 61 min

S18 BONUS EPISODE: Georgia Harrison on taking back her power

26 oktober 2023 | 64 min

S18, Ep9 Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock: one of Britain's foremost space scientists on belonging and the meaning of life

25 oktober 2023 | 55 min

S18, Ep8 Dawn French on fertility, friendship and being an anti-perfectionist

20 oktober 2023 | 64 min

S18, Ep7 Gillian Anderson on sex, body image and rebellion

18 oktober 2023 | 42 min

S18 MIDSEASON BONUS! Captain Sandy from Below Deck on surviving addiction, pirates - and reality TV

13 oktober 2023 | 58 min

S18, Ep6 Marina Abramovic: one of the greatest living artists on performance, passion and power

11 oktober 2023 | 63 min

S18, Ep5 Geri Halliwell-Horner on writing, grief - and what the Spice Girls taught her

4 oktober 2023 | 53 min

S18, Ep4 Arlo Parks on the impossibility of perfection

27 september 2023 | 59 min

S18, Ep3 Rory Stewart on why politics is broken - and what to do about it

20 september 2023 | 54 min

S18, Ep2 Sara Pascoe on fertility, fear and what success really means

13 september 2023 | 63 min

S18, Ep1 Miriam Margolyes on not marrying a nice Jewish doctor

6 september 2023 | 53 min

The F-Word Miniseries: Mo Gawdat and Elizabeth Day on Friendship

17 augusti 2023 | 82 min

The F-Word Miniseries: Nigel Morris on leaving school at 15 and becoming a billionaire

16 augusti 2023 | 54 min

The F-Word Miniseries: Gabor Maté on Feelings

15 augusti 2023 | 58 min

S17, BONUS EPISODE: Lucy Spraggan on survival, sobriety and staying true to herself

19 juli 2023 | 78 min

TW: discussion of sensitive issues including sexual assault, suicide and addiction

This interview contains Lucy's account of sexual assault. That account starts about 30 minutes in and is flagged before we discuss it.

I don't have many words to write about this extraordinary guest because I really need you to listen to her story, in her own words. The singer and songwriter Lucy Spraggan shot to fame as an X Factor contestant in 2012. She was just 20 when she was scouted to take part in the ITV series and she became an overnight sensation, with her audition watched by millions. But her time on the show was cut short after she was subjected to a horrific sexual assault. At the time, it was reported she had withdrawn from the talent contest owing to illness. That wasn't the case. For years, Lucy did not feel able to tell the story of what happened to her - until now.
This is Lucy's only podcast interview and it marks the publication of her incredible and courageous memoir, Process: Finding My Way Through. It was Lucy, and her publishers, who approached How To Fail and it was only after extensive consultation with all of them that we agreed to sit down in an environment that felt safe and respectful to Lucy's experience.
She is, quite simply, one of the bravest people I have ever met. This was an emotional and, at times, confronting interview. But what comes out of it loud and clear is Lucy's strength, her compassion and her resilience. Also, she's so lovely and funny too.
This is not an interview about her trauma. She is so much bigger than that. This is an interview about the survivor that she is. We talk about sexuality, sobriety, reality television, the unexpected kindness of Simon Cowell and her journey to embrace the fullness of herself. I loved every second and I love Lucy Spraggan.

--

If you've been affected by any of the issues raised, Samaritans are here to help 24/7. Call for free on 116 123.

--

You can order Lucy's memoir, Process: Finding My Way Through here.

--

How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted and produced by Elizabeth Day. To contact us, email [email protected]

--

Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

How To Fail @howtofailpod

Lucy Spraggan @lspraggan

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S17 BONUS EPISODE! Dan Carter: one of the greatest rugby players of all time on what failure taught him about winning

14 juli 2023 | 68 min

S17, Ep10 Elliot Page on the transcendence of showing up as himself

5 juli 2023 | 47 min

S17, Ep9 Mae Muller on failing to win Eurovision - but finding her voice

28 juni 2023 | 53 min

S17, Ep8 Yomi Adegoke on social media, mental health and reality TV

21 juni 2023 | 60 min

S17, Ep7 Sir Ranulph Fiennes on adventure, fertility and living up to his father's memory

14 juni 2023 | 58 min

S17, Ep6 Diana Evans: the bestselling author on writing routines, dealing with her inner critic and living life to the fullest

7 juni 2023 | 56 min

S17, Ep5 Bear Grylls on turning fear into courage

31 maj 2023 | 58 min

S17 BONUS EPISODE: Rachel Cargle on reimagining the life we want to live.

25 maj 2023 | 57 min

S17, Ep4 Dr Gladys McGarey: a 102-year-old doctor shares the secret to health and happiness

24 maj 2023 | 47 min

S17, Ep3 Alex Crawford: the legendary war correspondent on staying alive, motherhood and the resilience of hope

17 maj 2023 | 65 min

S17, Ep2 Jay Shetty on failing to fit in, learning to love and how to survive heartbreak

10 maj 2023 | 69 min

S17, Ep1 Rylan Clark on fame, heartbreak and the long journey to self-acceptance

3 maj 2023 | 59 min

BONUS EPISODE! Mel Schilling: the MAFS dating expert on confidence, relationships and the secret to finding true love

5 april 2023 | 79 min

BONUS EPISODE! How To Fail x Happy Place: The Ultimate Podcast Collab

3 april 2023 | 55 min

S16, BONUS EPISODE! FRIENDAHOLIC: Confessions of a Friendship Addict - an exclusive extract from my new book,

30 mars 2023 | 29 min

S16, BONUS EPISODE: Cody Rigsby on queerness, addiction and being Rishi Sunak's favourite Peloton instructor

29 mars 2023 | 58 min

S16, Ep11 How To Fail: Bernie Sanders on defeat, defiance and the struggles that shaped him (plus: the power of mittens)

15 mars 2023 | 44 min

S16, Ep10 How To Fail: Margaret Atwood on wisdom, witchcraft and womanhood

8 mars 2023 | 67 min

S16 Ep9 How To Fail: Greg James on radio, rebellion and failing to be a good at fame

1 mars 2023 | 64 min

S16, Ep8 How To Fail: Joan Bakewell - the legendary broadcaster on life, love and everything in between

22 februari 2023 | 65 min

S16, Ep7 How To Fail: Munroe Bergdorf on the beauty of transitions, breaking the rules and learning how forgive herself and others

15 februari 2023 | 68 min

S16, Ep6 How To Fail: Rick Edwards on confidence, competitiveness and the lessons he's learned from past relationships

8 februari 2023 | 58 min

S16, Ep5 How To Fail: Big Zuu the Bafta-winning TV cook on being the child of a refugee, his ADHD diagnosis and racism in football

1 februari 2023 | 65 min

S16, Ep4 How To Fail: Spencer Matthews on alcoholism, the death of his brother and surviving reality TV

25 januari 2023 | 67 min

S16, Ep3 How To Fail: Yusra Mardini - how a teenage Syrian refugee became an Olympic swimmer against unimaginable odds

18 januari 2023 | 62 min

S16, Ep2 How To Fail: Alex Jones on fertility, mental health and the time she locked King Charles in the toilet

11 januari 2023 | 71 min

S16, Ep1 How To Fail: Rick Astley on never growing up, never giving up and how a difficult childhood shaped his success

4 januari 2023 | 68 min

S15, BONUS EPISODE! How To Fail: Roman Kemp on mental health, male suicide and failing to be Batman

28 december 2022 | 44 min

🎤 How To Fail LIVE: Craig David on racism, bullying and having the courage to open his heart again

9 december 2022 | 99 min

🎤 How To Fail LIVE: Sophie Ellis-Bextor on surviving ladette culture, toxic relationships and finding a room of her own

8 december 2022 | 77 min

🎤 How To Fail LIVE: Caitlin Moran on parenting failures, body image and big vaginas

7 december 2022 | 89 min

🎤 How To Fail LIVE: Mo Gawdat, the world-renowned happiness expert on how to manage stress, how to live with grief and how to be happy

6 december 2022 | 87 min

S15, BONUS EPISODE! How To Fail: Sheila Hancock on stage-fright, self-doubt and being a wartime evacuee

2 december 2022 | 62 min

S15, BONUS EPISODE! How To Fail: Trinny Woodall on single parenthood, business failure and the empowerment of her 50s

30 november 2022 | 69 min

S15, BONUS EPISODE! How To Fail: Jo Elvin, the charity CEO on resilience, friendship fails and female anger

29 november 2022 | 61 min

S15, Ep12 How To Fail: Justin Basini, the Clearscore CEO on business failure, body image and friendship

16 november 2022 | 71 min

S15, Ep11 How To Fail: Geena Davis, the Oscar-winning actress on fame, feminism and being diagnosed with ADD in her 40s

9 november 2022 | 60 min

S15, BONUS EPISODE How To Fail: Lorraine Kelly, the daytime TV icon on failing to go to uni, being fired and...penguins

4 november 2022 | 51 min

S15, Ep10 How To Fail: Tom Daley, the Olympic diving champion on his fear of mistakes, body image and perfectionism

2 november 2022 | 53 min

S15, Ep9 How To Fail: Greta Thunberg on activism, friendship and failing to be a 'normal' teenager

26 oktober 2022 | 55 min

S15, BONUS EPISODE How To Fail: Rob Delaney on the death of his beloved son, Henry

20 oktober 2022 | 56 min

S15, Ep8 How To Fail: Malorie Blackman, the iconic Noughts and Crosses author on rejection, racism and the importance of representation

19 oktober 2022 | 61 min

S15, Ep7 How To Fail: Nihal Arthanayake on fatherhood, chicken bongs and the most difficult conversation he's ever had

12 oktober 2022 | 67 min

S15, Ep6 How To Fail: Jordan Stephens on male vulnerability, anger and getting naked

5 oktober 2022 | 64 min

S15, Ep5 How To Fail: Domenica Calarco, the star of Married At First Sight Australia on divorce, anxiety and reality TV

28 september 2022 | 70 min

S15, Ep4 How To Fail: Florence Given on shame, sexuality and finding her voice

21 september 2022 | 63 min

S15, Ep3 How To Fail: Melanie Chisholm on mental health, self-worth and the Spice Girls

14 september 2022 | 70 min

S15, Ep2 How To Fail: Edward Enninful, the editor of British Vogue on body image, diversity and the joy of being friends with Naomi Campbell

7 september 2022 | 54 min

S15, Ep1 How To Fail: Vanessa Feltz on divorce, body-shaming and Big Brother breakdowns

31 augusti 2022 | 71 min

S14, BONUS EPISODE! How To Fail: Jane Goodall

20 juli 2022 | 59 min

S14, BONUS EPISODE! How To Fail: Kit de Waal

13 juli 2022 | 61 min

S14, Ep9 How To Fail: Russell Kane

6 juli 2022 | 59 min

S14, Ep8 How To Fail: Asim Chaudhry

29 juni 2022 | 69 min

S14, Ep7 How To Fail: Benjamin Zephaniah

22 juni 2022 | 66 min

S14, Ep6 How To Fail: Warsan Shire

15 juni 2022 | 59 min

S14, MID-SEASON BONUS! How To Fail: Caroline Stanbury

10 juni 2022 | 50 min

Look, anyone who knows me knows of my love for reality TV. And anyone who knows anything about reality TV realises that when you get the chance to interview a bona fide Real Housewife, you jump at it. Which is why today's special bonus episode is with Caroline Stanbury.
Now, if you're not versed in your Bravo TV herstory or your pre-Selling Sunset heritage, you might not have heard of Caroline. She first appeared on our screens in 2014 as one of the cast members of the (sadly) short-lived Ladies of London. Viewers were either riveted by her ice-maiden ways or really quite scared. I was one of the latter, but I couldn't stop watching.
This is a woman born into privilege and old English money who went on to make her name in a completely different - and some might say, antithetical - world. Now she's back on our screens as part of The Real Housewives of Dubai.
I've never interviewed anyone quite like Caroline. She is impressive almost *because of* her lack of self-reflection: she just dusts herself down and gets on with it. Which is kind of hilarious when your podcast is all about failure. But it also caused me to reflect on how rare it is to see a woman inhabit this emotional space. And I came away thinking I had things to learn from her about inner strength. This is a long way of saying: it's not a typical HTF episode. But it is a wildly entertaining one as we talk about everything from surviving divorce (and then getting married to a much younger man), failing to go to university, the loss of her first business, IVF, boarding school, the power of manifestation and yes, of COURSE, the highs and lows of reality television.
Thank you Caroline - you're one in a billion.

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Caroline's podcast Divorced Not Dead is available to listen to here: https://dearmedia.com/shows/divorced-not-dead/

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How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and Chris Sharp. To contact us, email [email protected]

--

Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

How To Fail @howtofailpod

Caroline Stanbury @carolinestanbury

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S14, Ep5 How To Fail: Michael Rosen

8 juni 2022 | 61 min

S14, Ep4 How To Fail: Natasha Brown

1 juni 2022 | 58 min

S14, Ep3 How To Fail: Jarvis Cocker

25 maj 2022 | 49 min

S14, Ep2 How To Fail: Minnie Driver

20 maj 2022 | 61 min

S14, Ep1 How To Fail: Simu Liu

18 maj 2022 | 47 min

BETWEEN SEASON BONUS! How To Fail: Colin Hehir

27 april 2022 | 59 min

S13, BONUS EPISODE! How To Fail: Candice Carty-Williams

23 mars 2022 | 58 min

Best Friend Therapy: trailer

17 mars 2022 | 2 min

S13, BONUS EPISODE! How To Fail: Ashley Walters

16 mars 2022 | 56 min

S13, Ep8 How To Fail: Delia Smith

2 mars 2022 | 63 min

Yes, it's the SEASON FINALE so you bet I'm going to use CapsLock. And for our final episode of Season 13, I speak to the cooking legend that is Delia Smith.
But if you're expecting a chat about her failure to poach an egg in 1986, you're very much mistaken. Because, at 80, Delia has just written a new book about the meaning of life. Called You Matter, it's an insightful inquisition into what it is to be human. She joins me to talk about human evolution and where it's leading us, as well as why failure is an integral part of getting to know ourselves.
This is such an interesting episode: I loved chatting to Delia but we didn't spend that long on her actual three failures. Instead we talked more broadly about life, love, loss, faith, meditation (without using that specific word) and everything in between. She tells me about what it's like to be a cooking icon, why she hates Masterchef and the sous-vide machine and yes, we do talk about THAT moment of 'let's be having you' at the Norwich City football match. She opens up about being a woman who doesn't have children in the public eye, her failure to pass the 11 plus and how that shaped the rest of her life, and her love of Pharrell Williams. It was a joy to have such an unexpected conversation. I hope you like it too - and we'll be back soon with some bonus episodes. PLURAL.

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I'm doing a live show! Come along to the Royal Festival Hall at 4pm on Sunday 13th March and join me, the wonderful Andi Oliver and Jordan Stephens, for an afternoon of chats and laughter and, yes, failure. I'll be interviewing the two of them, chat-show style, and then YOU will get a chance to ask us all your questions. Hope to see you there. You can book tickets here: https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/literature-poetry/sunday-afternoon-wow-elizabeth-day?eventId=890800

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Delia's new book, You Matter, is out tomorrow and available to order here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/you-matter/delia-smith/9781912914333

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The YouTube video with Karim Sulayman that Delia mentions in this episode is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCy8Cfvoe6g

---

How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and Chris Sharp. To contact us, email [email protected]

---

Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

How To Fail @howtofailpod

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S13, Ep7 How To Fail: Dr Rangan Chatterjee

23 februari 2022 | 70 min

S13, Ep6 How To Fail: Self Esteem

16 februari 2022 | 63 min

S13, Ep5 How to Fail: Munya Chawawa

9 februari 2022 | 58 min

S13, Ep 4 How To Fail: Andi Oliver

2 februari 2022 | 70 min

S13, Ep3 How To Fail: Alan Cumming

26 januari 2022 | 53 min

S13, Ep2 How To Fail: Steven Bartlett

19 januari 2022 | 64 min

S13, Ep1 How To Fail: Brené Brown

12 januari 2022 | 59 min

How To Fail: Season 13 Trailer

6 januari 2022 | 2 min

TWIXMAS BONUS EPISODE! How To Fail: Clemency Burton-Hill

27 december 2021 | 66 min

How to Fail: A Christmas Message 2021

24 december 2021 | 6 min

S12, BONUS EPISODE How to Fail: Holly Willoughby

3 november 2021 | 62 min

S12, Ep8 How to Fail: Meg Mason

20 oktober 2021 | 75 min

S12, Ep7 How to Fail: Lady Hale

13 oktober 2021 | 56 min

S12, Ep6 How to Fail: Stanley Tucci

6 oktober 2021 | 62 min

S12, Ep 5 How to Fail: Ruby Tandoh

29 september 2021 | 60 min

S12, Ep3 How to Fail: Phil Wang

15 september 2021 | 53 min

S12, Ep2 How to Fail: Jacqueline Wilson

8 september 2021 | 63 min

BONUS EPISODE! How to Fail: Tanya Reynolds

2 september 2021 | 72 min

S12, Ep1 How to Fail: Derren Brown

1 september 2021 | 60 min

S11, BONUS EPISODE How to Fail: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

28 juli 2021 | 70 min

When I started this podcast, I had a list of dream guests.* At the top was Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Her third novel, Americanah, is one of my favourite books of all time. I can remember exactly where I was when I read it. I was moved by the power of its epic sweep, the brilliance of its observations and the characters who made your heart break.

But although she's an amazing writer, Chimamanda's cultural reach goes much further than the literary world. Her TED Talks are among the most viewed of all time. Beyoncé sampled her words in Flawless. Anything she writes, whether it be fiction, essays or commentary attracts global attention.

Her latest book, Notes on Grief, is an essay examining the devastation of her father’s unexpected death in June 2020. In March 2021, there followed a second heartbreak: the death of her mother, on what would have been her father’s 89th birthday. Chimamanda joins me to talk about those terrible losses, the grief and rage it has left her with and how she is trying to cope. She also talks about being a daughter, motherhood, fertility and her unsuccessful attempts to conceive a second child, her frustration that she can't seem to write more at the speed she would like and...well, Kim Kardashian.

NB: This interview was recorded before Chimamanda's recent blog post on cancel culture which is why we don't talk about it. And a further note: this is an emotional listen that explores the raw depths of grief, so if you're not in that frame of mind, maybe leave it for another day. But if you want to hear someone eloquently explain what grief feels like to go through and what to do with the pain, then this is for you.

Thank you Chimamanda, for your honesty and your power.

*Michelle Obama, Stormzy, Dr Dre and Michael Jordan, since you ask. I've recently added Marcus Rashford to the list.

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Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is out now and available to buy here.

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My new novel, Magpie, is out on 2nd September. I'd love it if you felt like pre-ordering as it really helps authors! You can do that here.

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This episode is sponsored by Sweaty Betty. Use the code HOWTOFAIL at check out to get 20% off. How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and Chris Sharp. We love hearing from you. To contact us, email [email protected]

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Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

How To Fail @howtofailpod

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie @chimamanda_adichie

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S11, Ep8 How to Fail: Maggie O'Farrell

14 juli 2021 | 55 min

BONUS EPISODE: HEERRREE'S DOLLY!

11 juli 2021 | 69 min

SHE'S BAAAAAACK!

To mark the third anniversary of How To Fail, I invite back the one and only Dolly Alderton.

Dolly was one of my first ever guests in the debut season of How To Fail, way back in the mists of time (by which I mean the summer of 2018). Back then, she had just published her memoir Everything I Know About Love a few months earlier. She could have had little idea of the success that was to follow: it became a bestseller, won Autobiography of the Year at the National Book Awards and was selected for Stylist magazine’s best books of the decade by remarkable woman. Dolly is now adapting the book into a BBC drama. Her first novel, Ghosts, was published last year and went straight in at Number 2 in the Sunday Times Bestseller list. It's out in paperback later this month. She was also the co-host of the hugely beloved (and sorely lamented) The High Low podcast.

In public, it might have seemed as though Dolly was cresting the wave of extraordinary success. But it didn't always feel that way for her personally. She joins me to talk about the disconnect between outward success and inward sensitivity; about social media and her strategy for managing it; about love and loss and everything in between; about understanding that she is an extreme person and that's ok; and about her abject failure to bake birthday cakes. Plus she introduces me to the mind-shatteringly great concept of 'creative monogamy'.

Dolly is one of my favourite people. She's kind, generous, compassionate, wise, empathetic and hilarious and her return to How To Fail demonstrates all these qualities in abundance. I'm so touched she chose to come back and speak so honestly about her experiences. And I hope you enjoy this extra-special treat of an episode.

*

Dolly will be turning the tables and interviewing me on 2nd September at London's Barbican to mark the publication of my new novel Magpie. If you're desperate for YET MORE OF US, I can promise an evening full of big emotion and belly-laughs. To book tickets (there's also an option to pre-order Magpie here so you'll be the first to get your hands on a copy) go to https://www.fane.co.uk/magpie

See you there!

*

Ghosts by Dolly Alderton is available to order here.

*

How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and Chris Sharp. We love hearing from you. To contact us, email [email protected]

*

Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

How To Fail @howtofailpod

Dolly Alderton @dollyalderton

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S11, Ep7 How to Fail: Martine Wright

7 juli 2021 | 69 min

S11, Ep6 How to Fail: Paris Lees

30 juni 2021 | 60 min

S11, Ep5 How to Fail: Christie Watson

23 juni 2021 | 62 min

S11, Ep4 How to Fail: Guvna B

16 juni 2021 | 57 min

S11, Ep3 How to Fail: Ed Miliband

9 juni 2021 | 59 min

S11, Ep2 How to Fail: Jessica Ennis-Hill

2 juni 2021 | 60 min

S11, Ep1 How to Fail: Graham Norton

26 maj 2021 | 66 min

BONUS EPISODE How to Fail: Dr Alex George

12 maj 2021 | 65 min

S10, BONUS EPISODE How to Fail: Adrian Dunbar

7 april 2021 | 52 min

S10, Ep8 How to Fail: Kazuo Ishiguro

24 mars 2021 | 61 min

S10, Ep7 How to Fail: Emma Reed Turrell

17 mars 2021 | 61 min

On an excitement scale of 1-10 I am currently at a 15 because this week's guest...is my best friend.

As well as being my bff (arguably her most important qualification, I'm sure you'll agree) Emma Reed Turrell is also a brilliant psychotherapist and the author of what is destined to become a must-read book, Please Yourself: How to Stop People-Pleasing and Transform the Way You Live. This is the manual every single self-identifying people pleaser needs to read (and in fact, even those who don't think they are people-pleasers should read it because Emma has helpful advice for you too). The book is packed full of clinical expertise, case studies, practical guidance, intellectual rigour and humour. Plus the odd mention of me. (Well, ok, there's one). It's her first book and it truly blew my mind.

I've been wanting an excuse to get Emma on the podcast for ages because she is my life guru: a person who has been there for all my ups and downs, who has seen me at my lowest and highest ebbs and who has always had these incredible stores of wisdom that have helped guide me through. I honestly don't know what I'd do without her. And I wanted to be able to share some of that with you!

She joins me to talk about why we people-please, how to stop it and how we can benefit from not being liked, as well as her own journey to understanding the difference between feeling alongside, rather than along with, her failure to be a good extrovert and her failure give the appropriate number of f***s. And we revisit some of our favourite friendship memories, which might or might not include her dance routine to Salt N' Pepa's Push It.

I love you, Emma. And I love that I get to share this with all you lovely listeners. It's a special one.

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Emma's book Please Yourself, is available to pre-order here

And if you'd like to get in touch with her directly, Emma's website is here

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How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and Chris Sharp. We love hearing from you! To contact us, email [email protected]

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Social Media:

Emma Reed Turrell @etcounselling

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

How To Fail @howtofailpod

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S10, Ep6 How to Fail: Jim Down

10 mars 2021 | 45 min

S10, Ep5 How to Fail: Dr Nicole LePera, The Holistic Psychologist

3 mars 2021 | 72 min

S10, Ep4 How to Fail: Emma Barnett

24 februari 2021 | 74 min

S10, Ep3 How to Fail: Alexandra Burke

17 februari 2021 | 62 min

S10, Ep2 How to Fail: Matt Haig

10 februari 2021 | 63 min

S10, Ep1 How to Fail: Jameela Jamil

3 februari 2021 | 58 min

SPECIAL EPISODE! How to Fail: Leanne Hainsby

30 december 2020 | 57 min

It's the weirdest time of the year, when all the days become a formless sludge and we start to miss getting emails. Navigating the days between Christmas and New Year can be tricky at the best of times, but in 2020 there's an extra layer of WTAF. So I knew I wanted to talk to someone motivating, but not annoying; someone who could nudge us gently into 2021, without making us feel like we weren't already good enough; someone sweet and funny who wasn't smug; someone who, in short, is as sceptical about New Year's resolutions as I am and can instead make us all feel better about who we are right now. That person is Leanne Hainsby.

Anyone who is lucky enough to own a Peloton will already know who Leanne is. Anyone who doesn't know what a Peloton is, well, it's basically a super-duper fixed exercise bike with a video screen that enables you to join live and on-demand classes given by amazing instructors. If you have never been on a Peloton and would rather chew your own feet than go to a spin class PLEASE STAY WITH ME. You don't need to have any prior knowledge to love Leanne Hainsby, I promise.

She is the UK's first female Peloton instructor, a woman whose physical strength is matched only by her emotional authenticity. A former professional dancer for everyone from Katy Perry to Steps, she is kind, supportive, enthusiastic, funny, insightful and empathetic. Her trademark phrase, shouted through the screen to the hundreds of thousands of Peloton riders who join her classes, is 'Yes to you.' Leanne is, quite literally, my favourite person I haven't met yet. And so I wanted to introduce you all to her because she's a total gem.

She joins me to talk about her failure to value herself in past relationships, her failure to be punctual and her failure to see herself beyond her problematic skin (such an interesting conversation). Along the way, we chat about music, cats, mood swings, how to exercise when you really don't feel like it and, yes, there might be a few details about her boyfriend (fellow UK Peloton instructor, Ben Alldis). Please have a listen even if you don't think this episode is for you. I promise you it will put a spring in your step. And if it doesn't, I'll give you your money back...oh now, hold on, this podcast is free so that's not possible. You see? Everyone's a winner!

YES TO YOU!

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If you're in the mood for an antidote to all the 'new year, new me' hype, I can entirely objectively (ahem) recommend my new book Failosophy: A Handbook For When Things Go Wrong which explains why I hate New Year's resolutions and which also contains 7 Failure Principles developed from two-and-bit years worth of accumulated podcast wisdom.

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This episode is not sponsored, but I did want to flag a new book by Samaritans out on 7th January. How To Listen comes with a preface by Michael Palin and includes helpful tips from trained Samaritans on how to talk about how we are feeling, as well as how to listen to one another in a way that can prevent day-to-day concern or worry from escalating into more complex emotions. You can (pre)order your copy here.

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How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and Chris Sharp. We love hearing from you! To contact us, email [email protected]

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Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

How To Fail @howtofailpod

Leanne Hainsby @leannehainsby

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How to Fail: A Christmas Message

25 december 2020 | 10 min

A How to Fail Miniseries: Rebecca Anderton-Davies

16 december 2020 | 31 min

For this four week miniseries, we've been introducing you to four 'ordinary' people with extraordinary stories as part of a one-off How To Fail miniseries in partnership with Grey Goose.

My final guest is Rebecca Anderton-Davies, a woman with a double life: a high-flying investment banker who has become a yoga phenomenon in her spare time. At the age of 27, she was hit by a van while cycling to work, breaking her collarbone and badly damaging her shoulder tissue. As part of her rehabilitation, her physiotherapist suggested she started doing a slow form of yoga. To begin with, Rebecca was, by her own admission, 'rubbish' but she soon found that the lessons she learned in failing on the mat served her well in the rest of her life.

When, a couple of years later, a doctor found blood clots on her lungs - a life-threatening condition - yoga helped her again. But her busy job meant that she didn't often have time to make it to a studio, so Rebecca started practising at home, and sharing her journey on Instagram. This year, she published The Book of Yoga Self-Practice, enabling everyone stuck at home during lockdown to keep their bodies moving. She joins me to talk about all of this, as well as the joy - and wisdom - that comes from embracing imperfection when you're a perfectionist. Rebecca is such an uplifting, smart and self-deprecating guest: even if you've never done yoga (or, like me, you've done it for years and still can't do side-crow or headstand and are deeply competitive with the man in the harem pants at the front of the class even though you know that's not the point of yoga) you *will* gain something precious from this episode.

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You can buy The Book of Yoga Self-Practice here.

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Looking for a Christmas stocking filler? I can highly recommend Failosophy: A Handbook For When Things Go Wrong which contains 7 Failure Principles developed from two-and-bit years worth of accumulated podcast wisdom.

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How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and Chris Sharp. We love hearing from you! To contact us, email [email protected] You can buy our fantastic PODCAST MERCH here.

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Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

How To Fail @howtofailpod

Rebecca Anderton-Davies: @somewhatrad

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A How to Fail Miniseries: Bassel Deeb

9 december 2020 | 32 min

A How to Fail Miniseries: Ross Barr

2 december 2020 | 31 min

A How to Fail Miniseries: Yinka Bokinni

25 november 2020 | 29 min

S9, BONUS EPISODE! How to Fail: Jamie Dornan

24 november 2020 | 68 min

S9, BONUS EPISODE! How to Fail: Claudia Rankine

28 oktober 2020 | 56 min

S9, Ep8 How to Fail: James Acaster

14 oktober 2020 | 63 min

S9, Ep7 How to Fail: Nadiya Hussain

7 oktober 2020 | 64 min

S9, Ep6 How to Fail: Failosophy Special

30 september 2020 | 68 min

S9, Ep5 How to Fail: Ovie Soko

23 september 2020 | 51 min

S9, Ep 4 How to Fail: Ruby Wax

16 september 2020 | 62 min

S9, Ep3 How to Fail: Annie Nightingale

15 september 2020 | 50 min

S9, Ep2 How to Fail: Mohsin Zaidi

2 september 2020 | 59 min

S9, Ep1 How to Fail: Adam Buxton

26 augusti 2020 | 67 min

S8, BONUS EPISODE! How to Fail: Gloria Steinem

5 augusti 2020 | 59 min

GLORIA STEINEM. Gloria ACTUAL Steinem.

For this very special bonus episode, I had the absolute honour of interviewing one of my all-time heroes, the feminist activist, writer and icon, Gloria Steinem. And yes, I'm still pinching myself.

We talk about her failure to understand her mother, her failure to be at her father's deathbed and her failure to learn lessons quickly enough - yes, we go deep... She also talks to me about how, at the age of 86, she is joyfully outliving society's expectations of her; of how fear can often be a sign of growth (let that sink in), about how 'anger is an energy cell', about how we are 'linked not ranked', about not having children, about spending a lifetime combatting misogyny and racism and sexism and injustice, and about the counteracting forces of love and compassion and friendship which keep her going. If you've been watching the Mrs America miniseries about the battle for equality, then this is a MUST-LISTEN, even if I do say so myself.

I love Steinem's work so much that I often quote her in my own - the book of How To Fail is a classic example (she's in the 'Anger' chapter) - and so to be given a chance to meet her, albeit remotely, was honestly a life highlight. She did not let me down. In fact, she exceeded my wildest expectations.

Whoever said never meet your heroes clearly never met Gloria Steinem.

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If you've enjoyed this season of How To Fail, you might like to join me for a livestream event I'm doing on 2nd October to mark the launch of my new book Failosophy: A Handbook For When Things Go Wrong You can book here

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The Truth Will Set You Free, But First It Will Piss You Off, an illustrated collection of Steinem's best quotes, is out now and available to buy here.

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How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and Chris Sharp. We love hearing from you! To contact us, email [email protected]

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Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Gloria Steinem @gloriasteinem

How To Fail @howtofailpod

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S8, Ep8 How to Fail: Bernardine Evaristo

22 juli 2020 | 64 min

S8, Ep7 How to Fail: Siena Castellon

15 juli 2020 | 59 min

Siena Castellon is my youngest ever guest. She's a 17-year-old activist and mentor. She is autistic, has dyslexia and dyspraxia and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. And she's just published her first book.

Her book, The Spectrum Girl's Survival Guide: How to Grow Up Awesome and Autistic, is a brilliant guide for neurodiverse girls navigating a neurotypical world. It is packed full of information and insight into many of the challenges that autistic teen girls face. There are sections on how to date, how to deal with social anxiety and sensory sensitivity and an analysis of the fact that autism is routinely underdiagnosed in girls (in Siena's words: 'we’re really good at hiding our autistic traits. In fact, we become so good at pretending to be “normal” that we convince everyone that we’re neurotypical.')

Siena joins me to talk about being bullied at school, being misunderstood by teachers and failed by a mainstream education system that seemed unable to appreciate her difference. We discuss neurodiversity, sexism, dogs, prejudice, challenging the stereotypical 'Rainman' view of autism and why it's important to stand up for yourself. As Siena puts it: 'I've learnt that you can't assume that people experience the world the way you do and that it's important to express yourself to avoid people making untrue assumptions about you.'

Siena is AMAZING. Listen to her and feel inspired (and also probably quite old).

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The Spectrum Girl's Survival Guide: How to Grow Up Awesome and Autistic by Siena Castellon is out now and available to purchase here.

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I've written a new book! Failosophy: A Handbook For When Things Go Wrong is out in October. It's a practical, inspirational and reassuring guide to the seven principles of failure I've developed since doing this podcast. Packed full of contributions from loads of former guests, as well as listener stories, it is also beautifully illustrated by Paul Blow and I would love it if you wanted to pre-order a signed copy here.

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How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and Chris Sharp. We love hearing from you! To contact us, email [email protected]

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Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Siena Castellon @NCWeek

How To Fail @howtofailpod

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S8, Ep6 How to Fail: Glennon Doyle

8 juli 2020 | 66 min

S8, Ep5 How to Fail: Julia Samuel

1 juli 2020 | 60 min

Today's guest is someone I fell in platonic love with by reading her work. Julia Samuel is one of the country's leading psychotherapists but she is also well-known as an author. Her first book, Grief Works, was a Sunday Times bestseller and is routinely cited as one of the most helpful and compassionate books on bereavement you will ever read. Her second book, This Too Shall Pass, Stories of Change, Crisis and Hopeful Beginnings, was published just before lockdown and could not have been a more insightful guide to the uncertain times we all found ourselves in. Adwoa Aboah called it 'one of the most valuable books I've ever read', while my hero Esther Perel, said it was 'a remarkable portrayal of how we need to understand ourselves to truly heal'.

She joins me to talk about failing exams, failed jobs, her self-perceived failures as a mother and the impossibility of putting our emotions through a logical system. We also touch on imposter syndrome, quitting things you aren't good at, being a twin (she is one!), her close friendship with the late Princess Diana (plus what kind of godmother she is to Prince George) as well as the discomfort she feels talking about herself, rather than being the one to ask questions of a client.

I am so honoured to have Julia on the podcast. Her integrity and intelligence, forged through 30 years as a working therapist, shine through absolutely everything she does. Her work has been crucially important to me personally and I'm sure it will be to you too.

As Julia says: 'We are brought up thinking life is an upward journey, a stairway to a better place, each step higher than the last. but the reality is far less certain: there are ups and downs, and the only certainty that exists is that there will be change.'

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Julia's latest book, This Too Shall Pass, is out now and available to order here.

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I've written a new book! Failosophy: A Handbook For When Things Go Wrong is out in October. It's a practical, inspirational and reassuring guide to the seven principles of failure I've developed since doing this podcast. Packed full of contributions from loads of former guests, as well as listener stories, it is also beautifully illustrated by Paul Blow and I would love it if you wanted to pre-order a signed copy here.

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How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and Chris Sharp. We love hearing from you! To contact us, email [email protected]

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Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Julia Samuel @juliasamuelmbe

How To Fail @howtofailpod

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S8, Ep4 How to Fail: Scarlett Moffatt

24 juni 2020 | 51 min

Scarlett Moffatt was working at the checkout in Asda when she and he family got the chance to be on Channel 4's Gogglebox. She rapidly became the show's break-out star with her brilliant one-liners. Television fame followed - she co-presented with Ant and Dec, won 2016's I'm A Celebrity and now hosts the official podcast for Rupaul’s Drag Race UK. But with her overnight celebrity also came increased scrutiny and criticism.

She joins me to talk about becoming an accidental famous person and dealing with online abuse (she will now reply to trolls with the phone number for the Samaritans). Scarlett also discusses her shifting relationship with body image and her own struggles with anxiety and low self-worth.

This is a woman who has worked hard all her life - from her first job at 14, putting sweets into Pic n' Mix to being employed in sales at the Carphone Warehouse. When she went on I'm A Celebrity, she had only just managed to clear her student overdraft. With the fee she was given from that show, Scarlett paid off the mortgage on her parents' house. She talks to me about the value of hard graft, being bullied at school, a bicycle accident that left her with Bell's Palsy and using humour as a defence mechanism. This episode also contains what is quite possibly the greatest Tom Hardy anecdote you will ever hear.

Thank you Scarlett, you are an absolute gem. Those school bullies were wrong about you. They always are.

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I've written a new book! Failosophy: A Handbook For When Things Go Wrong is out in October. It's a practical, inspirational and reassuring guide to the seven principles of failure I've developed since doing this podcast. Packed full of contributions from loads of former guests, as well as listener stories, it is also beautifully illustrated by Paul Blow and I would love it if you wanted to pre-order a signed copy here.

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You can listen to Scarlett hosting Rupaul's Drag Race UK: The Podcast here.

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How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and Chris Sharp. We love hearing from you! To contact us, email [email protected]

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Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Scarlett Moffatt @scarlettmoffatt

How To Fail @howtofailpod

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S8, Ep3 How to Fail: Matthew Syed

17 juni 2020 | 61 min

Matthew Syed is an acclaimed author, newspaper columnist and broadcaster. He is also, in many ways, is the father of failure. I mean that as a compliment, obviously. Through his seminal, bestselling books - Bounce, Black Box Thinking and his latest, Rebel Ideas - he has shown again and again that failure can actually be the richest seam of data acquisition.

His interest in making mistakes in order to evolve started, incongruously, with table tennis. He was the British number one in 1995 but later choked in spectacular fashion at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. The experience triggered a fascination with what it means to fall apart under pressure and why it happens.

Syed joins me to talk about all this, as well as leaving school at 15, his childhood experiences of racism, the horror of cold-calling when he ran a marketing agency, the 'terrible' early newspaper columns he wrote, the necessity for diversity of thinking, fatherhood and why we don't need to be scared of airplane turbulence (thank goodness, quite frankly, because I'm terrified of it). It was a joy meeting Matthew, and I also liked his exceptionally polite way of saying 'thank you' when I ask a question.

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I've written a new book! Failosophy: A Handbook For When Things Go Wrong is out in October. It's a practical, inspirational and reassuring guide to the seven principles of failure I've developed since doing this podcast. Packed full of contributions from loads of former guests, as well as listener stories, it is also beautifully illustrated by Paul Blow and I would love it if you wanted to pre-order a signed copy here.

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Matthew Syed's lates book, Rebel Ideas: The Power of Diverse Thinking is available to order here.

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How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and Chris Sharp. We love hearing from you! To contact us, email [email protected]

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Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Matthew Syed @matthewsyed

How To Fail @howtofailpod

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S8, Ep2 How to Fail: Samantha Irby

10 juni 2020 | 59 min

*This episode was recorded before recent tragic events in America. There are links to useful Black Lives Matter resources and ways to help below*

You know when you read someone's work and feel like you'd be friends in real life, and you become basically a little obsessed and Google them to inhale all the online content that is out there about this person and their work and THEN you get to to meet them and despite thinking they couldn't possibly live up to all your overhyped expectation, they actually do? Well, ok, so that's what happened to me with Samantha Irby.

Not only is she a brilliant, hilarious and perspicacious essayist (she has published three collections, the latest of which, Wow, No Thank You, entered the New York Times bestseller list at number one) but she's a wonderful, generous and warm human being. Samantha joins me to talk about failure to complete college, her failed relationships, failing at drama class, being her mother's carer, growing up poor, using humour as a defence mechanism and the BRILLIANT theory she has developed of 'Detachment Parenting' which she deploys on her wife's children. Oh, and we talk about The Real Housewives too, because we're both huge fans (in fact, we went on about it for so long that I had to edit some of it out in case we bored everyone else). My other favourite thing about this interview is that producer Naomi nonchalantly informed me that Samantha would be dialling in from Kathmandu, Nepal. It turns out that she had misheard and actually meant Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Samantha, I heart you. Please can we be friends for real? CALL ME!

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I've written a new book! Failosophy: A Handbook For When Things Go Wrong is out in October. It's a practical, inspirational and reassuring guide to the seven principles of failure I've developed since doing this podcast. Packed full of contributions from loads of former guests, as well as listener stories, it is also beautifully hand-illustrated by Paul Blow and I would love it if you wanted to pre-order a signed copy here.

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Samantha Irby's latest book, Wow, No Thank You is out now and available to order here. Her extraordinary essay, My Mother, My Daughter is available to read for free online here.

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Many of you will have been as appalled as we are by the recent tragic news from America and the homicide of George Floyd. If you'd like to help there is a link to Black Lives Matter resources (including petitions to sign and places to donate) here.

Belly Mujinga was a railway worker at London's Victoria station who was spat at by an assailant and who later died of Covid-19. You can donate to her family here.

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How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and Chris Sharp. We love hearing from you! To contact us, email [email protected]

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Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Samantha Irby @wordscience

How To Fail @howtofailpod

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S8, Ep1 How to Fail: Jessie Ware

3 juni 2020 | 64 min

*This episode was recorded before recent tragic events in America. There are links to useful Black Lives Matter resources and ways to help below*

WE'RE BAAAAAACCCCKKKK just like Backstreet, The Mack, and the toilet roll that's now in stock again in Sainsbury's. And what a guest I have for you! It is the one, the only, Jessie Ware. Not only is she one of my favourite singer-songwriters (four Brit nominations to her name, three top-ten albums and a whopping 120 million streams on Spotify for one of her most famous songs, Say You Love Me...JUST SAYIN) but she's also one of my favourite podcasters, co-hosting the brilliant Table Manners with her mother, Lennie and interviewing an array of astonishing talent over a home-cooked dinner. Their eponymous cookbook is a Sunday Times bestseller.

Part of what makes Table Manners so special is Jessie's down-to-earth manner, whip-smart sense of humour and her ability to shortcut to the real stuff (it's also the affectionate bickering with Lennie, who says that they 'put the fun into dysfunctional'). All of these qualities also make her a wonderful interviewee. She joins me to talk about her failure to tidy up, her failure to be a journalist and her failure to live in the present. Along the way, we discuss imposter syndrome, body image, accidental success, life, love and almost everything in between. Basically all you need to know is that I loved her before we recorded this episode, but now I love her even more.

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I've written a new book! Failosophy: A Handbook For When Things Go Wrong is out in October. It's a practical, inspirational and reassuring guide to the seven principles of failure I've developed since doing this podcast. Packed full of contributions from loads of former guests, as well as listener stories, it is also beautifully hand-illustrated by Paul Blow and I would love it if you wanted to pre-order a signed copy here.

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Jessie Ware's latest album, What's Your Pleasure, is out on 19th June and available to preorder here.

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Many of you will have been as appalled as we are by the recent tragic news from America and the homicide of George Floyd. If you'd like to help there is a link to Black Lives Matter resources (including petitions to sign and places to donate) here.

Belly Mujinga was a railway worker at London's Victoria station who was spat at by an assailant and who later died of Covid-19. You can donate to her family here.

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How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and Chris Sharp. We love hearing from you! To contact us, email [email protected]

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Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Jessie Ware @jessieware

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SPECIAL EPISODE! How to Fail: Daisy Edgar-Jones on being the star of Normal People, the lockdown television hit everyone is talking about

20 maj 2020 | 60 min

Ok, so I said I was done with the special lockdown episodes but, forgive me, I CHANGED MY MIND. The reason for this is that I watched Normal People and thought it was the most exceptional piece of television I've seen in...well...an absolute age, and I basically hunted down Daisy Edgar-Jones like the obsessive fan I was until she agreed to be interviewed by me.

And so here it is: Daisy Edgar-Jones, who gave the performance of a lifetime as Marianne in the BBC adaptation of Sally Rooney's acclaimed novel, Normal People, joins me for the most beautiful chat about failing to go to university, feeling the need for constant validation, wanting to do things for their own artistic sake but being hamstrung by other people's approval, body image, living with anxiety (which manifests as hypochondria), feeling lost in her late teens, dealing with rejection, the weirdness of overnight fame and Connell's silver chain (in-joke there for Normal People mega-fans). We also talk allllll about Normal People: how she approached the part of Marianne, her on-and-off-screen relationship with Connell (played brilliantly by Paul Mescal), how they filmed those extraordinary, respectful sex scenes and the story behind Marianne's fringe.

Daisy is 21 but speaks with the wisdom of someone three times her age. She is so open, so funny, so kind and so generous in this interview that I know it's going to be a great help to a great many people, especially as it's Mental Health Awareness Week and we need more people to talk like this. Thank you Daisy, you're insanely talented and a genuinely lovely person and I'm so grateful you replied to my Instagram DM.

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I haven't taken sponsorship for any of the special lockdown episodes because it didn't feel right, but if you have enjoyed this interview or any of the others, I'd be so grateful if you'd consider donating to Samaritans. a truly incredible charity which helps people in crisis by being there, at the end of a phone line, 24/7, 365 days a year. Covid-19 has placed an unprecedented pressure on Samaritans volunteers at precisely the time that we need them the most. Any donation, however small, will help and I'd be so grateful if you felt able to make one. Here is the link to donate:

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/howtofailwithelizabethday

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CORRECTION: during the course of our conversation, Daisy made an innocent mistake in referring to the condition where you effectively 'drown yourself' through drinking too much water as 'hyperhidrosis'. In fact, hyperhidrosis is a serious dermatological condition experienced by 2 million people in the UK which causes excessive sweating, caused by the sympathetic nervous system overreacting and causing bodies to go into stress overdrive. Despite 3 in 100 people in the UK having this condition, not many people talk about it for fear of shame and embarrassment. Thank you to the lovely listener who pointed out the error and who wished to raise awareness of this overlooked condition.

What Daisy actually meant to say was hyponatraemia, a rare but potentially lethal over-hydration which dilutes salt levels in the blood and has similar symptoms to dehydration, such as headaches, nausea and cramp.

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If you really can't get enough How To Fail content and are looking for something to read during lockdown, there is a book! How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong is out now and available to order here

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How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and recorded, edited and mixed by Chris Sharp. We love hearing from you! To contact us, email [email protected]

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Social Media:

Elizabeth...

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SPECIAL EPISODE! How to Fail: Henry Holland on business failure in the time of Covid-19

22 april 2020 | 63 min

In the last of four special episodes specifically designed to help you through lockdown and Covid-19 anxiety, I welcome the fashion designer Henry Holland onto the podcast. This week, How To Fail returns to its usual format of discussing three failures but I've chosen to make this a special episode because one of Henry's failures will speak directly to a lot of people right now. It is the failure of his business, House of Holland, a failure linked to the impact of Coronavirus and which has left Henry having to call in the administrators and let beloved members of staff go. It's a failure he is still coming to terms with and I'm so grateful to him for choosing to talk about it.

We also discuss growing up in Ramsbottom, with childhood friend (and future supermodel) Agyness Deyn, and going to a school which stifled his individuality and where even the female teachers were called 'sir'. Later, Henry became a fashion journalist on teen magazines in London before he started making slogan t-shirts as a side-hustle. The t-shirts proved so popular they rapidly became a sought-after fashion item, and Henry's future in fashion was assured. It was a life that took him onto the world's catwalks and into some of the most glamorous parties (keep your ears tuned in for the Kanye West anecdote) but, last month, he was forced to acknowledge that his business was no longer financially sustainable. 'The emotional turmoil of closing a business was one that was heavy to bear,' he wrote recently in a piece for British Vogue. 'But now, on the other side, while unemployed in the craziest economic time we’ve experienced in a generation, I can’t help but feel a sense of relief. Relief I am no longer letting people down. Relief I am no longer pretending everything is perfect when in fact it’s not. And relief most of all that I have space and time to think about what it is I want from my working life.'

Thank you Henry. We'll be back in June for a brand new season with a truly fabulous line-up of guests. Until then, stay safe and I hope you all enjoy the episode.

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If you really can't get enough How To Fail content and are looking for something to read during lockdown, there is a book! How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong is out now and available to order here

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How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and recorded, edited and mixed by Chris Sharp. We love hearing from you! To contact us, email [email protected]

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Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Henry Holland @henryholland

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SPECIAL EPISODE! How To Fail: Listeners share their Coronavirus stories

15 april 2020 | 55 min

For this extra-special listener episode, I asked you to get in touch with your stories. And you did not let me down. I received so many responses that when I printed them out they ran to over 100 pages of typed text. I wished I could read every single one of them out, but that would have taken quite a long time, so I did the best I could and picked a selection of the most moving, most eloquent, most reassuring, most funny, most inspiring, most heroic stories you are ever likely to hear. I burst into tears while reading your emails and messages, and I laughed a lot too. I adore you, you wonderful listeners. You are the most exceptional, thoughtful and brave audience.

In this special episode, you will hear from NHS doctors and nurses, from teachers, from vets, from struggling parents and from blended families and from those who desperately want to be parents but aren't, from those who have just broken up with lovers and from those in brand new relationships now in lockdown, from those who have tragically said goodbye to loved ones, from people who live with chronic illness and disordered eating, from those whose school and university terms were cut short without notice, from spoon-carvers and home-bakers and trashy-television-watchers. In every story, there will be a shimmering grain of humanity that I hope makes each and every one of us feel more connected.

Thank you for honouring me with your stories. Thank you for trusting me with your insights. Thank you for listening and connecting. Thank you for your acts of courage and quiet heroism. And thank you for giving me the chance to make this episode.

We will find our feet again. This too shall pass. Sending love to all of you out there, and I’ll see you soon.

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If you really can't get enough How To Fail content and are looking for something to read during lockdown, there is a book! How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong is out now and available to order here

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How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and recorded, edited and mixed by Chris Sharp. We love hearing from you! To contact us, email [email protected]

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Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SPECIAL EPISODE! How To Fail: Alain De Botton on embracing vulnerability in the age of Coronavirus

31 mars 2020 | 60 min

In the second of two special episodes, the renowned philosopher Alain de Botton, returns to How To Fail With Elizabeth Day to talk about how to be human and how to stay (relatively) sane in the grip of a global pandemic. We talk about the fact that, right now, it's rational to be a little demented and how we should all take lessons from our childhood and be less ashamed of bursting into tears when we really need to. He tells me about the merits of stoicism, the comfort that comes from admitting the situation we're in without sentimentalisation and what it means to find consolation in these unprecedented times.

Along the way, de Botton tackles how to deal with grief and dismantles the idea of any hierarchy of suffering - insisting that how we feel is a fact that must be taken seriously, even if there are people worse off than us. And he also tells me about the need 'to turn the light on in the room of your fears' so that the darkness no longer has the power to terrify us. This leads to the brilliant idea of having a pessimistic shopping list, where you write down all the things you're most afraid of.

In many ways, this interview is the perfect companion piece to Mo Gawdat's episode last week: de Botton tackles similar subjects but approaches them from a different angle, one that embraces darkness rather than choosing not to dwell on it. I found it so comforting talking to him, and it's a comfort that has sustained me for the days since doing the interview. I hope it does the same for you.

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If you really can't get enough How To Fail content and are looking for something to read during lockdown, there is a book! How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong is out now and available to order here

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Alain de Botton is the founder of The School of Life You can see a video of this podcast recording on their YouTube channel.

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How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and recorded, edited and mixed by Chris Sharp. We love hearing from you! To contact us, email [email protected]

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Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Alain de Botton @alaindebotton

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SPECIAL EPISODE! How to Fail: Mo Gawdat on how to cope with anxiety in a time of Coronavirus

23 mars 2020 | 74 min

Hello. I hope you're all doing ok out there. Bit of a strange time isn't it? It can feel overwhelming to be living through a global pandemic, but there are things all of us can do - small things that can have big impact. We can stay at home and save lives. We can distance socially and help the heroic health carers working on the frontline of this disease. We can spread a little positivity. We can refuse to panic buy toilet roll. And I, at least, can make podcasts so that you can listen to them and hopefully feel a little less alone.

When I was thinking of who I most wanted to hear from about how to live through this unprecedented moment in our history, there was really only one answer. It was Mo Gawdat. I originally met Mo when I interviewed him in Season 4 of the podcast. You can listen to that episode here. He told me about how he had developed a seemingly simple algorithm that enables every single person to be happy, whatever the circumstances - you can read more about that in his book Solve For Happy. Meeting Mo had a huge impact on me. I know it also helped a great many of you - at every event I do now, at least one person will come up to me to say Mo has changed their life for the better.

I am so, so grateful to Mo for agreeing to come back onto the podcast to discuss how to live with anxiety and isolation in a time of Coronavirus. We talk about how to handle negative thoughts, how to practise gratitude and the concept of 'committed acceptance' which focuses on a) accepting the situation and b) within that acceptance, working out what you can actively do to make life better. He shares with us his own daily routine for self-isolation, the difference between the inevitability of pain and the choice of suffering, the wondrous abilities of the brain to come up with narratives which sometimes do not serve us and the importance of understanding the impact exercising our own free will have on others. Along the way, we argue about whether Love Actually is the best romcom of all time.

I hope you enjoy the episode and that it brings you some comfort as you go about your day.

Sending love to you all.

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How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and recorded, edited and mixed by Chris Sharp. We love hearing from you! To contact us, email [email protected]

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Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Mo Gawdat @mgawdat

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S7, BONUS EPISODE! How to Fail: Deliciously Ella

4 mars 2020 | 70 min

SURPRISE! Here I am, clogging up your podcast feed again. Yes, I know I said that Frankie Bridge was the last episode in season 7, but I might have slightly not been telling you the whole truth because here I am with a brand, spanking new BONUS EPISODE all fresh and ready to be listened to by your gorgeous ears.

This week, I talk to Ella Mills, aka Deliciously Ella, the woman who launched an empire of plant-based foodstuffs, delis, bestselling cookbooks and fitness apps, all designed to make you live a healthier life. The starting point was her own illness: as a student at St Andrews University, she went in and out of hospital for months until she was diagnosed with a condition that effects the autonomic nervous system. The medicines she was prescribed met with limited success, so Ella decided to experiment with diet. The resulting blog became a phenomenon, and now, here we are.

She joins me to talk about her fear of failure and how it stopped her being honest about her illness to her best friends, her failures in business, her failure to know when to quit and her failure to breastfeed, which wrongly made her feel like a failure as a mother. Along the way we discuss sexuality, death, the clean-eating backlash and why chickpeas are great. It will not surprise regular listeners of this podcast to learn that I segued into talking about hummus.

Thank you so much to the wonderful Ella Mills!

(And that really is the final episode for a while. See you again for Season 8).

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This special bonus episode is sponsored by one of my favourite jewellery brands, Missoma. Visit uk.missoma.com and use the code ElizabethDay10 at checkout for 10% off your next purchase!

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The Sunday Times Top 5 bestselling book of the podcast, How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong is out now in paperback and available to buy here.

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There is a FLASH SALE on exclusive How To Fail podcast merchandise - sweatshirts, t-shirts, mugs, post-its and notepads - until Thursday morning. The perfect gift for the failure in all of us! View the full range at howtofailshop.com

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How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and Chris Sharp. We love hearing from you! To contact us, email [email protected]

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Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Ella Mills @deliciouslyella

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S7, Ep8 How to Fail: Frankie Bridge

18 februari 2020 | 59 min

Frankie Bridge is probably best known as a member of one of the UK's most successful girl bands of all time, The Saturdays. But, more recently, it's as a mental health advocate that she has been making headlines. Her new memoir, Open: Why asking for help can save your life, is a brave and unflinchingly honest attempt to destigmatise the conditions that so many of us struggle with in private. Frankie lives with treatment-resistant depression. Initially, she struggled in silence but when she was hospitalised in 2011, she could no longer ignore the severity of what she was facing. Open tells the story of what happened next, of how she survived and of the decisions she makes on a daily basis to protect that survival.

It was an honour to have her on the podcast to talk about all of this, especially in the wake of the devastating news about Caroline Flack. I met Caroline a few years ago and she was really lovely: so warm and funny and kind. I - like many of you - have been so sad and so shaken by the idea that she could see no other way out. I cannot imagine the pain that her family and friends are feeling. I am thinking of them. Although this interview with Frankie was recorded before any of us knew what Caroline was going through, Frankie has a lot to say about the dark places that depression can take you and offers many helpful insights into how to cope.

Below are some useful numbers that can help you if you are going through a tough time or have been affected by any of the issues raised. Please know that you are not alone. Please know that, even if it doesn't feel like it right now, this too shall pass. You are loved, you are wonderful, you are unique. You are worthwhile. You exist. Please hold on.

USEFUL NUMBERS

Contact Samaritans 24 hours a day, 365 days a year on 116 123 (free from any phone).

If you don't feel like talking, text Shout to 85258 to get help from crisis volunteers 24/7 (free on all mobile networks).

Mind, the mental health charity, is on 020 8519 212.

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Frankie Bridge's memoir, Open, is out now and available to order here.

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This episode is sponsored by one of my favourite jewellery brands, Missoma. Visit uk.missoma.com and use the code ElizabethDay10 at checkout for 10% off your next purchase!

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The Sunday Times Top 5 bestselling book of the podcast, How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong is out now in paperback and available to buy here.

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You can now buy exclusive How To Fail podcast merchandise - sweatshirts, t-shirts, mugs, post-its and notepads. The perfect gift for the failure in all of us! View the full range at howtofailshop.com

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How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and Chris Sharp. We love hearing from you! To contact us, email [email protected]

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Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Frankie Bridge @frankiebridge

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S7, Ep7 How to Fail: Adam Pearson

12 februari 2020 | 56 min

So. This podcast episode almost didn't happen because I'd forgotten to put it into my iCal (I find any diary that isn't paper so confusing, don't you?) and on the allotted day, I had a text from sound engineer Chris saying 'We're outside!'. Needless to say, I was not inside. I was half-an-hour away having breakfast with my friend Viv.

It is a testament to Adam Pearson's kindness that, when I spoke to him, harassed and sweating as I ran for the train, he didn't seem remotely put out. 'It's very on-brand to fail at turning up,' he quipped.

Anyway, I'm so glad Adam stuck around because when we did sit down to record this interview, he was utterly phenomenal. Adam is a broadcaster, actor, campaigner and documentary-maker (and also Celebrity Mastermind champion) who has lived for most of his life with the incurable genetic condition, neurofibromatosis which causes benign tumours to grow along the nerves. In his case, the tumours are mostly on his face and they have severely affected his physical appearance since the age of five.

Adam joins me to talk about what his condition has taught him: from standing up to bullies at school to confronting the people filming him on their cameraphones when he ventures outside. He talks about the discrimination, the name-calling and how he has managed to channel his anger into changing the world for the better. Along the way, we discuss the pressures of social media in a culture that has learned to value superficial aesthetic 'perfection' at the cost of other, more meaningful characteristics. And we talk about his failure at dating, which involves once taking a Swedish woman to Ikea (it seemed like a good idea at the time) and possibly the most offensive joke you'll ever hear about why he was barred from eHarmony - listeners of a sensitive disposition might like to turn away for that bit, but I've left it in because it will give you a sense of Adam's humour, which is an integral part of how he has learned to survive.

I hope you enjoy the episode. As the man himself might say: BOOYAH.

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This episode is sponsored by Frank Body who are offering listeners 15% off when they spend £20 or more with the code HOWTOFAIL15 at checkout.

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The Sunday Times Top 5 bestselling book of the podcast, How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong is out now in paperback and available to buy here.

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You can now buy exclusive How To Fail podcast merchandise - sweatshirts, t-shirts, mugs, post-its and notepads. The perfect gift for the failure in all of us! View the full range at howtofailshop.com

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How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and Chris Sharp. We love hearing from you! To contact us, email [email protected]

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Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Adam Pearson @adam_pearson

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S7, Ep6 How to Fail: Marian Keyes

5 februari 2020 | 48 min

S7, Ep5 How to Fail: Eniola Aluko

29 januari 2020 | 61 min

S7, Ep4 How to Fail: Tom Kerridge

22 januari 2020 | 57 min

S7, Ep3 How to Fail: Mabel

15 januari 2020 | 57 min

My guest today has the middle name Alabama-Pearl, which is pretty cool but NOT QUITE AS COOL as the fact that she's a chart-topping pop-star who has racked up three top-10 hits and recently wrote one of the best Christmas songs of all time, Loneliest Time of the Year (and I say that as a die-hard Mariah fan). Plus, my guest is still only 23 years old. Revolting.

Yes, that's right, it's Mabel, a double Brit nominee and the creative brains behind the hit song Don’t Call Me Up, which was in the top 40 for four months. She was born in Malaga, went to school in Stockholm and now lives in London. Her creative lineage is quite something: Mabel's mother is Neneh Cherry, her dad Cameron McVey is a producer who has worked with Massive Attack, Portishead, All Saints and Sugababes, her uncle is Eagle-Eye Cherry and her step-grandfather is the legendary jazz musician Don Cherry. But her talent and self-possession is all her own. Mabel joins me to talk about her failure to remember lyrics, her failure to stay vegan (which is hilarious) and her failure to sleep, which is a first on the podcast and I'm so glad she decided to broach the subject of insomnia as I know it effects so many of us and is such a debilitating thing.

Thank you, Mabel, for coming on the podcast and doing your research so well that you actually read my book first. I heart you hard for that.

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Talking of that book...the Sunday Times Top 5 bestselling book of the podcast, How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong is out now in paperback and available to buy here.

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This episode is sponsored by MEYA, a new meditation app that uses the power of music to switch you into a meditative state. Download the app here to experience the power of MEYA mind journeys and a new way to fit meditation into your daily routine this January.

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How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and Chris Sharp. We love hearing from you! To contact us, email [email protected]

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Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Mabel @Mabel

MEYA @meya_app

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S7, Ep2 How to Fail: Malcolm Gladwell

8 januari 2020 | 48 min

**TW: contains references to police brutality against Black people**

My guest this week is Malcolm Gladwell, a man who has challenged and changed the way we think with six bestselling books including The Tipping Point, Blink and Outliers. Gladwell also hosts his own highly successful podcast, Revisionist History and is basically 98% brain. Obviously this makes him quite an intimidating prospect to interview, but luckily he was extremely nice and, as luck would have it, his new book is all about how we can best talk to strangers. It is called, appropriately enough, Talking To Strangers, and I found it a fascinating read, written in Gladwell's trademark style which combines academic research with humour, insight and journalistic expertise, all of which makes for a curiously propulsive narrative.

Malcolm really engaged with the idea of this podcast and came up with three highly thoughtful failures, including a professional low-point which caused him public embarrassment and a deeply felt failure to stand by an alcoholic friend. We also chat about running, faith and whether prejudice can ever be a force for good. Talking to Malcolm for an hour felt like plunging into a freezing pool and emerging zingily refreshed from the experience. It was thought-provoking in the best, most meaningful way and I hope it stimulates you as much as it did me.

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The Sunday Times Top 5 bestselling book of the podcast, How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong is out now in paperback and available to buy here.

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Talking To Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell is published by Penguin Books and is available to buy here.

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This episode is sponsored by MEYA, a new meditation app that uses the power of music to switch you into a meditative state. Download the app here to experience the power of MEYA mind journeys and a new way to fit meditation into your daily routine this January.

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How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and Chris Sharp. We love hearing from you! To contact us, email [email protected]

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Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Malcolm Gladwell @gladwell

MEYA @meya_app

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S7, Ep1 How to Fail: Andrew Scott

1 januari 2020 | 61 min

HAPPPPPY NEW YEAAARRRR! I hope you've woken up with a sense of rejuvenating freshness about the year ahead, but if you haven't - if you're hungover or feeling weird or sad or discombobulated or tired or like you haven't achieved enough - then fear not. You are simply caught up in this messy business of being human and that's fine. There is no need for a new year to mean a new you. The old you is great! The old you has stuff to say. And to remind you of this, I have the most wondrous of all special guests to help you usher in the first days of 2020.

Andrew Scott, as well as being an utterly lovely person, is an astonishingly talented and versatile actor. Yeah, ok, you might just have heard of him from the little-known, moderately successful television show that is Fleabag, in which he played the Hot Priest and somehow made 'KNEEL' the sexiest word in the English language, but he's also been in Bond movies and Shakespeare plays and in some of the best television shows and films of the last decade. I'd list them all here but there wouldn't be enough room.

He joins me to kick off a new decade and to talk about his failure at a drama competition aged 10 (a failure that ended up teaching him about the arbitrary nature of criticism), his failure to complete his degree and - his words - his 'failure to be heteronormative'. Along the way, we talk about the judgemental language of sexuality (why do gay people have to 'come out' when it implies you're hiding something? Why refer to someone as 'openly gay' when you wouldn't say 'openly Irish'? What does 'casual sex' really mean?), why acting should be playful, why growing older is an act of un-learning the things you think you know and why he still feels bad about a pizza delivery guy.

I love this man. I know you will too.

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The Sunday Times Top 5 bestselling book of the podcast, How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong is out NOW in paperback and available to buy here.

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This episode is sponsored by Secret Spa - the mobile app that provides you with all your beauty treatments in the comfort of your own home. Now covering London and Manchester, for 15% off your first booking, use the code HOWTOFAIL on the app or via the website secretspa.co.uk

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How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and Chris Sharp. We love hearing from you! To contact us, email [email protected]

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Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

ANDREW SCOTT IS NOT ON SOCIAL MEDIA. (Yet another reason to love him).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S6, Ep 8 How to Fail: Jane Garvey

20 november 2019 | 62 min

*SEASON FINALE KLAXON* I mean...where does the time go? A minute ago it was summer and now here I am posting the final episode of Season Six and it's a mere 24 shopping days left until Christmas. Sheesh.

But what a pleasure I have in store for you! She comes in the form of the ICONIC Jane Garvey: broadcaster extraordinaire, host of Radio 4's Woman's Hour and one-half of the brilliant podcasting duo, Fortunately...with Fi and Jane. I couldn't have asked for a better guest to bring this season to a close. (Well, I suppose I could have asked, but the point is, no-one would have been able to fulfil that request).

Jane so engaged with the premise of How To Fail that she sent not three but seven failures over email, saying she was 'struggling to narrow it down' and that it was up to me to choose which ones we talked about. We talk about her failure to listen, her tendency never to be seen to be trying too hard in case she doesn't succeed and her failure to appreciate fully what women were really up against in terms of equal pay at the BBC, partly because of what she sees as her own internalised misogyny and self-acknowledged white privilege. Most poignantly, Jane talks about her three miscarriages, and the long-felt emotional impact of each one. As anyone who has ever been through it will know, having a miscarriage is a specific form of grief that is difficult to describe but Jane articulates her feelings so beautifully that I know her story will be a great help to many of us.

'All sounds a but whiny,' she signed off her email, 'but I’m actually a laugh when I try!!'

You are indeed Jane. You're HILARIOUS. But you're also someone who isn't afraid to go deep and we're so grateful for it.

I'll be taking a little break now but will be back in January with eight more fabulous guests. I'm deeply appreciative of everyone who has listened, downloaded, rated, reviewed and subscribed. You make me very happy (and, on a practical note, you also make it more financially feasible for me to carry on doing this so YAY for that). Until next year: thank you and keep failing better!

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Looking for a Christmas present? THEN LOOK NO FURTHER THAN MY MEMOIR, the Sunday Times Top 5 bestselling book of the podcast, How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong which is available here.

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You can listen to Fortunately...with Fi and Jane here

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This season of How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and Chris Sharp and sponsored by Sweaty Betty. Sweaty Betty are offering listeners 20% off full-price items with the code HOWTOFAIL

To contact us, email [email protected]

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Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Jane Garvey @janegarvey1

Sweaty Betty @sweatybetty

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S6, BONUS EPISODE! How to Fail: Lemn Sissay

12 november 2019 | 51 min

For this extra-special bonus episode, I'm delighted to welcome Lemn Sissay to the podcast. Lemn is a poet, author and broadcaster whose memoir, My Name Is Why, is one of the most moving I have ever read. In it, he writes about his childhood - the son of Ethiopian parents who was wrongly given up for adoption as a baby and fostered by a white, working-class family in Lancashire. At the age of 12, he was told by his adoptive family that they would be putting him in a children's home and would never contact him again. He spent the next five years in a succession of brutal institutions during which he had a mental breakdown. In these dark times, the light of his poetry began to form.

It is astonishing, then, that Lemn is such a gloriously expansive interviewee. You know when people talk about good energy? Lemn has good energy by the bucketload. There is not a trace of bitterness in his demeanour, in spite of what he has been through, and he's unafraid to be vulnerable and honest, even though his early life was a succession of betrayals.

He joins me to talk about his failure to belong to the family he spent his life searching for, his failure to marry or have children (Lemn is the first male guest to have chosen this as a failure, which in itself is pretty fascinating), why he gave up drinking and his failure to be the poet he wishes he could be. Along the way, we talk about the power of human resilience and what family really means. Oh, and his dislike of cauliflower.

This is a deeply inspiring and humbling interview. You might want to have the tissues ready.

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The How To Fail Live tour is almost over. SNIFF! There are limited tickets left for Belfast with Sinead Burke (14th November) and Gateshead (8th December). Dublin with Amy Huberman (15th November) has SOLD OUT! Thank you! These events are not recorded as podcasts so the only way to be there is to book tickets via www.faneproductions.com/howtofail

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The Sunday Times Top 5 bestselling book of the podcast, How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong by Elizabeth Day, is out now and is available here.

To contact us, email [email protected]

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My Name Is Why by Lemn Sissay is out now, published by Canongate, and available to order here

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This BONUS SPECIAL episode of How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is sponsored by Sceptre, publishers of The Scriptures by Phoebe Waller-Bridge. This is the complete Fleabag. Every word. Every side-eye. Every fox. Out now. Available from Waterstones, online, and all good bookshops.

Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Lemn Sissay @lemnsissay

Sceptre Books @sceptrebooks

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S6, Ep7 How to Fail: Fearne Cotton

6 november 2019 | 58 min

Fearne Cotton blazed the trail for podcasts like mine. When she launched Happy Place in March 2018, it went straight to the top of the iTunes chart and has seemingly stayed there ever since. It has done so much to bring discussions about mental health into the mainstream, partly because Fearne has also been honest about her own experiences with panic attacks and anxiety.

So when I started How To Fail in July 2018, I always knew Fearne would be top of my list of dream guests. A few months later, we ended up sitting next to each other at the British Podcast Awards (spoiler alert: neither of us won but embarrassingly, we both presented awards to other winners) and having a good old natter, and then I was sent to interview her for a magazine and we got on so well that we hatched the idea of doing each other's podcasts now HERE WE ARE.

What makes Fearne so special is not just her impressive broadcasting career as a TV and radio presenter, or her bestselling books or the fact that she turned Happy Place into a full-blown festival, complete with yoga workshops and inspiring talks. No, it's that she is unafraid to be honest. She believes, as I do, that true strength comes from true vulnerability, and it's these qualities that make her a phenomenal guest.

Fearne joins me to talk about failing most of her GCSEs, a failed engagement and, in one of the most powerful passages of any interview I've ever had the privilege of doing, about her failure to be herself in her 20s and how she lived with an eating disorder for years. This is the first time she has ever spoken about it, and I am so truly grateful that Fearne felt this was a safe enough space to bare her beautiful soul.

Thank you, Fearne. Your words and your courage will help a great many people.

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The How To Fail Live tour is almost over. SNIFF! There are limited tickets left for Belfast with Sinead Burke (14th November) and Gateshead with Jess Phillips MP (8th December). Dublin with Amy Huberman (15th November) has SOLD OUT! Thank you! These events are not recorded as podcasts so the only way to be there is to book tickets via www.faneproductions.com/howtofail

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The Sunday Times Top 5 bestselling book of the podcast, How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong by Elizabeth Day, is out now and is available here.

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You can listen to Fearne Cotton's Happy Place here

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This season of How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and Chris Sharp and sponsored by Sweaty Betty. Sweaty Betty are offering listeners 20% off full-price items with the code HOWTOFAIL

To contact us, email [email protected]

*

Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Fearne Cotton @fearnecotton

Sweaty Betty @sweatybetty

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S6, Ep6 How to Fail: George Alagiah

30 oktober 2019 | 48 min

For 15 years, George Alagiah has been a familiar face on our television screens as the presenter of the BBC's Six O'Clock News. Before that, he was one of the corporation's most respected foreign correspondents. Before that, he was born in what was then Ceylon, the only boy in a family of four sisters, and was sent to boarding school in England at the age of 12.

George joins me to talk about his self-perceived failures at fatherhood, the challenges of reporting from the front-line in times of humanitarian crisis, his nuanced relationship with racial identity and how he dealt with racist incidents in his youth. He also talks movingly about his bowel cancer diagnosis in 2014, which has seen him undergo over 40 rounds of chemotherapy and make his peace with death. What struck me most about George was his elegance: in person, but also in expression. He has no anger or bitterness or stored-up resentment, and this to me is the definition of a quiet sort of heroism.

(Obviously I also asked him about BBC equal pay and if he'd watched Anchorman.)

I loved this interview. It moved me and made me think. I hope it does the same to you.

*

The How To Fail Live tour is almost over. SNIFF! There are limited tickets left for Belfast with Sinead Burke (14th November) and Gateshead with Jess Phillips MP (8th December). Dublin with Amy Huberman (15th November) has SOLD OUT! Thank you! These events are not recorded as podcasts so the only way to be there is to book tickets via www.faneproductions.com/howtofail

*

The Sunday Times Top 5 bestselling book of the podcast, How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong by Elizabeth Day, is out now and is available here.

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George Alagiah's novel, The Burning Land, is out now and available here.

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This season of How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and Chris Sharp and sponsored by Sweaty Betty. Sweaty Betty are offering listeners 20% off full-price items with the code HOWTOFAIL

To contact us, email [email protected]

*

Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

George Alagiah @BBCAlagiah

Sweaty Betty @sweatybetty

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S6, Ep5 How to Fail: Shirlie Kemp

23 oktober 2019 | 57 min

Today, I welcome Shirlie Kemp to the podcast. She was an 80s icon: a backing dancer for Wham! who ACTUALLY APPEARED IN THE MUSIC VIDEO FOR 'LAST CHRISTMAS', as well as being a best friend to George Michael until his untimely death in 2016 at the age of 53. She was also one-half of the pop duo Pepsi & Shirlie and the wife of Martin Kemp, of Spandau Ballet fame (fun fact: their son, Roman, is the Capital Radio DJ).

Shirlie joins me to talk about what went on behind the scenes of fame and her memories of George, including the last conversation they ever had. She talks about her challenging council estate upbringing, feeling a failure at school and developing an eating disorder in her teens. We also discuss her long journey to self-confidence as a woman and how she and Martin coped with his brain tumour diagnosis in 1995, and what got them through those tough times as a couple. And we touch on the mean photography teacher whose criticism she will NEVER FORGET (but more fool him, because now she's an amazing photographer so there).

Thank you for coming on How To Fail, Shirlie: you are truly the loveliest woman.

*

The How To Fail Live tour has now started! I will be at various venues around the UK and Ireland over the next two months, sharing my failure manifesto with the help of some very special guests. Limited tickets left! These events are not recorded as podcasts so the only way to be there is to book tickets via www.faneproductions.com/howtofail

*

The Sunday Times Top 5 bestselling book of the podcast, How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong by Elizabeth Day, is out now and is available here.

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Shirlie and Martin Kemp are releasing a joint album, In The Swing of It, next month. You can pre-order it here.

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This season of How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and Chris Sharp and sponsored by Sweaty Betty. Sweaty Betty are offering listeners 20% off full-price items with the code HOWTOFAIL

To contact us, email [email protected]

*

Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Shirlie Kemp @shirliekemp

Sweaty Betty @sweatybetty

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S6, Ep4 How to Fail: Lisa Taddeo

16 oktober 2019 | 49 min

S6, Ep3 How to Fail: Cush Jumbo

9 oktober 2019 | 58 min

[TW: suicide]

If you're a fan of The Good Wife or The Good Fight (and if not, why not?) you will know Cush Jumbo as Lucca Quinn, the whip-smart, ambitious lawyer who speaks with a flawless American accent. But Cush was actually born in South London, the daughter of a British mother and a Nigerian father and the second of six children. She took dance classes from the age of three, and went on to study at the Central School of Speech and Drama. An award-winning stage actress who wrote and starred in her own highly-acclaimed one-woman show, Josephine and I, she is returning to the theatre next year to play Hamlet at the Young Vic.

Way back in the mists of time (well, ok, 2012), I interviewed Cush for the Observer. I was struck then by how impressive she was, as well as being nice and funny. We stayed in touch over the years as I proudly watched her ascent from afar, and now I'm delighted to get the chance to interview her again because she is unafraid to talk honestly and beautifully about her most vulnerable moments.

She joins me to talk about her fears of letting her family down, the self-perceived failure to 'have it all' as a working mother, plus the rejection and sense of terrible failure she felt as an actress starting out and the spiral of depression that ensued, during which she thought 'obsessively' about suicide, before seeking medical help (and getting a dog). Thank you Cush, for being fearless in your honesty and generous with your talent. Also thank you for bringing me delicious cakes from Gail's when we recorded. You really are a gem.

ALSO, TODAY SHE COLLECTS HER O.B.E. It's almost as if I'd planned the timing (I hadn't).

I hope you enjoy listening, and if you do, I'd love it if you felt moved to rate, review and subscribe.

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The How To Fail Live tour has now started! I will be at various venues around the UK and Ireland over the next two months, sharing my failure manifesto with the help of some very special guests. Limited tickets left! These events are not recorded as podcasts so the only way to be there is to book tickets via www.faneproductions.com/howtofail

*

The Sunday Times Top 5 bestselling book of the podcast, How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong by Elizabeth Day, is out now and is available here.

*

This season of How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and Chris Sharp and sponsored by Sweaty Betty. Sweaty Betty are offering listeners 20% off full-price items with the code HOWTOFAIL

To contact us, email [email protected]

*

Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Cush Jumbo @cushjumbo

Sweaty Betty @sweatybetty

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S6, Ep2 How to Fail: Alain De Botton

2 oktober 2019 | 55 min

This week on How To Fail, we are doing something slightly different. I know, I know, we don't like change, but sometimes IT'S GOOD FOR US. It's especially good for us when it comes in the form of Alain de Botton, one of the most intelligent, eloquent and thoughtful people on the planet.

And because it's Alain de Botton, modern philosopher, founder of The School of Life and bestselling authors of life-changing books such as Essays In Love, I decided to allow him a little leeway. Instead of choosing personal failures, Alain wanted to talk about three philosophical 'failure concepts' and I'm so glad he did, because it led to one of the most fascinating and enlightening discussions I've ever had on the topic.

We discuss the idea that we can be good people and yet fail, and the concept (which I'm forever banging on about) that failure is the norm, and that we should find contentment in the average rather than constantly expecting the exceptional. He also has brilliant insights into why romantic break-ups are not, in and of themselves, tragic, because each relationship teaches you something you need to know, and when the time is right, it is ok to move on. Along the way, I also ask him about X Factor, so fear not, I'm there to pepper his brilliance with my usual lowbrow content, as per.

It was such a delight to meet Alain. An hour in his company left my brain fizzing with new (and reassuring) ideas, and I hope it has the same effect on you.

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The new book from The School of Life, co-authored and introduced by Alain de Botton, is out now and available to buy here.

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I am thrilled to be taking How To Fail on tour around the UK in October, sharing my failure manifesto with the help of some very special guests. These events are not recorded as podcasts so the only way to be there is to book tickets via www.faneproductions.com/howtofail

*

The Sunday Times Top 5 bestselling book of the podcast, How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong by Elizabeth Day, is out now and is available here.

*

This season of How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and Chris Sharp and sponsored by Sweaty Betty. Sweaty Betty are offering listeners 20% off full-price items with the code HOWTOFAIL

To contact us, email [email protected]

*

Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Alain de Botton @alaindebotton

Sweaty Betty @sweatybetty

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S6, Ep1 How to Fail: Camilla Thurlow

25 september 2019 | 59 min

We're back! Did you miss us? Go on...say you did. I'm really very, very needy.

It's such a treat for me to be opening season six with a truly fantastic guest: Camilla Thurlow. Camilla was always one of the most genuine and impressive contestants on ITV2's hit reality show, Love Island. A former bomb disposal expert who worked in life and death situations in Cambodia and Afghanistan, she came second in the 2017 series. Instead of launching a clothing line or advertising detox tummy teas, Camilla went on to use her new-found public platform to talk about issues close to her heart: namely, the immigration crisis and mental health. Her first trip after Love Island was to a refugee camp with the contestant she coupled up with, Jamie Jewitt (oh, and by the way, they are still together).

Set aside any preconceptions you might have about reality TV and listen to the wisdom this extraordinary woman imparts about love, loss and human connection. We talk about her periods of extreme anxiety and panic as she was forced to confront who she really was rather than the Camilla she was trying to be. We talk about the challenges of public expectation and the fear of not living up to other people's idea of her. We talk about social media, turning 30 and her ingrained fear of making a fool of herself. We also talk about a near-fatal car accident and the unexpected lessons it taught her.

I am so grateful to Camilla for opening up to me and for showing that strength comes through an acknowledgement of - and respect for - vulnerability. I know that you will find so much to relate to in what she says.

Thank you for listening. It's great to be back.

*

I am thrilled to be taking How To Fail on tour around the UK in October, sharing my failure manifesto with the help of some very special guests. These events are not recorded as podcasts so the only way to be there is to book tickets via www.faneproductions.com/howtofail

*

The Sunday Times Top 5 bestselling book of the podcast, How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong by Elizabeth Day, is out now and is available here.

*

This season of How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and Chris Sharp and sponsored by Sweaty Betty. Sweaty Betty are offering listeners 20% off full-price items with the code HOWTOFAIL

To contact us, email [email protected]

*

Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Camilla Thurlow @camillathurlow

Sweaty Betty @sweatybetty

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S5 BONUS EPISODE! How to Fail: Philippa Perry and Sadie Jones

21 augusti 2019 | 47 min

S5, Ep8 How to Fail: Jess Phillips

14 augusti 2019 | 48 min

Well, old friend, here we are again. The end of another season. Where does the time go?

I saved this guest for the finale because she's bloody spectacular. Jess Phillips is the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, a campaigner on women's rights, an outspoken critic of Brexit, anti-semitism and the politics of the hard-left, and the author of an acclaimed book, Everywoman: One Woman's Truth About Speaking The Truth.

She joins me to talk about coping with failure in politics, living with daily death threats and how she stays sane by prioritising her female friends. She talks about the failure in contraception (!) that resulted in her eldest son, her failure to get on the Home Office Fast Track scheme and, in an extremely moving admission, her self-perceived failure to fix her brother's drug addiction.

This makes it sound pretty heavy, but Jess is so naturally funny and such a self-deprecating force of nature, that I promise you this interview will leave you feeling energised and quite possibly punching the air.

That's it for season five (apart from one bonus live record COMING SOON. Make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss out). I'll be back in the autumn with eight brilliant new guests.

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A THANK YOU FROM ME:

Thank you so much for subscribing and rating and reviewing and for all your lovely messages over this season and all the others. It really does mean the world to me. Truly. And if you don't like me / this podcast / actually took time out of your day to leave a one-star review / worry that my guests all went to Oxbridge (they didn't) / are too middle-class (they aren't) / think I'm too gushing (well...ok, maybe you have a point there, but I genuinely mean it when I say someone's amazing...) then please know that however angry or sad or lonely or un-heard you feel, I send you nothing but love in return. Bet that winds you up, doesn't it?

To the rest of you: I feel so blessed for your companionship on this crazy, beautiful journey. You have helped me make sense of things. You have met me in a place of vulnerability and made me feel so much stronger. You have shown me that love, compassion and kindness is strength. You have taught me what I always suspected: that failure does not have to be an end point, but can instead be a stepping stone on a journey towards greater understanding. Thank you.

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Jess Phillips's new book, Truth to Power, is out in October and available to pre-order here.

*

I am thrilled to be taking How To Fail on tour around the UK in October, sharing my failure manifesto with the help of some very special guests. These events are not recorded as podcasts so the only way to be there is to book tickets via www.faneproductions.com/howtofail

*

The Sunday Times Top 5 bestselling book of the podcast, How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong by Elizabeth Day, is out now and is available here.

*

How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Chris Sharp and Naomi Mantin and sponsored by Teatulia. To contact us, email [email protected]

*

Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Jess Phillips @jessphillips

Chris Sharp @chrissharpaudio

Naomi Mantin @naomimantin

Teatulia @TeatuliaUK

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S5, Ep7 How to Fail: Meera Syal

7 augusti 2019 | 47 min

S5, Ep6 How to Fail: Samin Nosrat

31 juli 2019 | 56 min

Oh, Samin Nosrat! Where do I start? With her ebullient personality and wildly infectious laugh? With her four-part Netflix show, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat where she travels the world eating freshly baked focaccia and Japanese seaweed? Or with the award-winning, bestselling cookbook of the same name, that revolutionised the way we thought about food?

I don't know where to start. So let me just tell you that she is one of the bubbliest, most open and generous interviewees I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. She joins me to talks about growing up in San Diego, the child of Iranian parents, who was 'the only brown kid' in her school, and what this sense of outsidership taught her. She talks about overnight fame, and the weirdness that comes with that, as well as failing to write, what happens when your business fails and the one memorable time she burned the sauce for a dinner she was cooking for Hillary Clinton. Oh, and the story of how she got the description of osmosis wrong in the science part of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat and was berated by critics. Also the way she talks about cassoulet will probably leave you feeling very hungry.

Thank you so much Samin for coming on my podcast!

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Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat is published by Canongate and is available to order here

*

I am thrilled to be taking How To Fail on tour around the UK in October, sharing my failure manifesto with the help of some very special guests. These events are not recorded as podcasts so the only way to be there is to book tickets via www.faneproductions.com/howtofail

*

The Sunday Times Top 5 bestselling book of the podcast, How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong by Elizabeth Day, is out now and is available here.

*

How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Chris Sharp and Naomi Mantin and sponsored by Teatulia. To contact us, email [email protected]

*

Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Samin Nosrat @ciaosamin

Chris Sharp @chrissharpaudio

Naomi Mantin @naomimantin

Teatulia @TeatuliaUK

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S5, Ep5 How to Fail: Dame Kelly Holmes

24 juli 2019 | 47 min

I'm so delighted to welcome my first ever OLYMPIC ATHLETE onto the podcast this week. And not just any Olympic athlete, but double-gold medal winner, Kelly Holmes, who also just so happens to be my first DAME on How To Fail too.

Dame Kelly joins me to talk about how her single mother was pressurised to give Kelly up for adoption as a baby and how she refused to do so, teaching her daughter about what it is to be truly strong. We also discuss Kelly's 'failure' at school and how she joined the army at 16 but then failed her first Physical Training Instructor selection (I mean, who would fail Kelly Holmes? Come on, now. Have you seen the size of her biceps?) She also talks openly about coming second in the 1995 World Championships because of her spiralling anxiety and discusses her ongoing mental health issues, including her diagnosis with clinical depression, her grief over her mother's death and [TW] her experiences of self-harm.

For me, Dame Kelly epitomises the kind of empowerment that comes from being open about your own vulnerabilities. Her strength is forged through her resilience. As she puts it: 'You train for the outcome.' I know I use the word a lot in the context of this podcast, but Dame Kelly truly is inspiring in the most profound ways.

[Trigger warning: this episode contains descriptions of self-harm]

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I am thrilled to be taking How To Fail on tour around the UK in October, sharing my failure manifesto with the help of some very special guests. These events are not recorded as podcasts so the only way to be there is to book tickets via www.faneproductions.com/howtofail

*

The Sunday Times Top 5 bestselling book of the podcast, How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong by Elizabeth Day, is out now and is available here.

*

How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Chris Sharp and Naomi Mantin and sponsored by Teatulia. To contact us, email [email protected]

*

Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Kelly Holmes @damekellyholmes

Chris Sharp @chrissharpaudio

Naomi Mantin @naomimantin

Teatulia @TeatuliaUK

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S5, Ep4 How to Fail: Francesca Segal

17 juli 2019 | 49 min

This week, my guest is the writer Francesca Segal whose recently published memoir, Mother Ship, details the birth of her twin daughters 10 weeks prematurely. Her first failure is, in Segal's own words, her failure 'to stay pregnant' and the feeling of shame that came from not having managed to provide the requisite 40-week gestation period. 'I felt I had failed at my first ever task of motherhood,' she explains. 'That my body could not be a safe space for them felt a spectacular failure.'

She and her husband, Gabriel, were pitched into a nightmarish situation where they did not know whether their baby girls would survive. When they were born they weighed only 2lbs each. The girls could not do anything on their own and they suffered harrowing, life-threatening infections. Segal joins me to discuss what happened next.

Even if you are not one of the 100,000 women in the UK who, every year, give birth to premature babies and even if, like me, you are not a parent at all, I promise that you will find Segal's insightful eloquence both enlightening and moving.

We also talk about her failure to be a rebellious teenager, her conflicted attitude to social media and how, as a writer, she deals with the eternal nagging of her fractious internal critic. Listen, be moved and then order her wonderful book via the link below.

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I am thrilled to be taking How To Fail on tour around the UK in October, sharing my failure manifesto with the help of some very special guests. These events are not recorded as podcasts so the only way to be there is to book tickets via www.faneproductions.com/howtofail

*

The Sunday Times Top 5 bestselling book of the podcast, How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong by Elizabeth Day, is out now and is available here.

*

How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Chris Sharp and Naomi Mantin and sponsored by Teatulia. To contact us, email [email protected]

*

Francesca Segal's memoir, Mother Ship, is out now and available to order here

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If you were affected by any of the issues raised in this podcast, help is available via Bliss, the charity for babies born premature or sick.

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Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Francesca Segal @francescasegal

Chris Sharp @chrissharpaudio

Naomi Mantin @naomimantin

Teatulia @TeatuliaUK

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S5, Ep3 How to Fail: Emeli Sandé

10 juli 2019 | 45 min

This week, I chat to the chart-topping singer Emeli Sandé about life, love, fame...and all the nitty gritty bits in between. Emeli has sold over 19 million singles, won four Brit Awards and is about to return after a three-year break with her hotly anticipated third album, Real Life. Her rise to fame was rapid and overwhelming. Celebrity, she says, took some time to get used to.

She joins me to talk about her body image and the long journey to self-acceptance in an industry that frequently made her feel like she was never 'enough'. She talks about letting go of the need to be perfect, and embracing failure. Plus we discuss her visit to Zambia to reconnect with her family there, and what impact that had on her. Emeli also opens up for the first time about the breakdown of her marriage, to a man she had been with from the age of 17, and the feeling of shame she had about admitting she was getting divorced before being forced to confront herself as she really was.

Emeli speaks as powerfully as she sings: like an old soul channeling all sorts of wisdom. I'm so grateful she came onto the podcast and I hope you get as much from it as I did. Thank you Emeli!

*

I am thrilled to be taking How To Fail on tour around the UK in October, sharing my failure manifesto with the help of some very special guests. These events are not recorded as podcasts so the only way to be there is to book tickets via www.faneproductions.com/howtofail

*

The Sunday Times Top 5 bestselling book of the podcast, How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong by Elizabeth Day, is out now and is available here.

*

How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Chris Sharp and Naomi Mantin and sponsored by Teatulia. To contact us, email [email protected]

*

Emeli Sandé's forthcoming album, Real Life, is out in September and is available to pre-order here

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Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Emeli Sande @emelisande

Chris Sharp @chrissharpaudio

Naomi Mantin @naomimantin

Teatulia @TeatuliaUK

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S5, Ep2 How To Fail: FLEABAG IS BACK

3 juli 2019 | 58 min

Yes. That's right. Phoebe Waller-Bridge is back.

One year on from her debut appearance on How To Fail With Elizabeth Day, my first ever guest returns to talk about the craziness of her last 12 months, during which she has written and starred in Fleabag 2 (described as a televisual masterpiece by...well...almost everyone), made Killing Eve (described as a televisual masterpiece by...well...almost everyone) and been brought in by the James Bond producers to work her magic on the franchise.

It's a year that, from the outside, has seemed to many of us to be the epitome of success. But what failures lie underneath the surface? What about those private moments of vulnerability and self-doubt we are so rarely privy to?

Phoebe joins me to talk about three failures from the past year, including her failure to connect with her family, her failure to speak up for herself and her failure to Marie Kondo her bedroom. Along the way, we discuss what makes the perfect water bottle, filming THAT final scene in Fleabag (apparently the foxes were total divas), sexuality, exhaustion and why female creators are often unfairly assumed to be writing autobiography. And yes, the Meryl Streep apple crumble anecdote makes an appearance.

Thank you, Phoebe, for coming back onto the podcast and being such a generous and wonderful friend.

If you haven't already listened to her first episode, you can do so here

***SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT KLAXON***

I am thrilled to be taking How To Fail on tour around the UK in October, sharing my failure manifesto with the help of some very special guests. These events are *not* recorded as podcasts so the only way to be there is to book tickets via www.faneproductions.com/howtofail

How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Chris Sharp and Naomi Mantin and sponsored by Teatulia. To contact us, email [email protected]

The Sunday Times Top 5 bestselling book of the podcast, How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong by Elizabeth Day, is out now and is available here.

Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Chris Sharp @chrissharpaudio

Naomi Mantin @naomimantin

Teatulia @TeatuliaUK

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S5, Ep1 How to Fail: Nigel Slater

26 juni 2019 | 54 min

We’re BAAACK! As House of Pain once rapped in their immortal hit Jump Around, ‘Just like the Prodigal Son I’ve returned’. Yes, here we are for Season 5 of How To Fail With Elizabeth Day: eight sparkling new episodes featuring eight marvellous guests.

And for our opening episode, I could not be happier to welcome the legendary Nigel Slater to the podcast. The bestselling and beloved cookery writer, whose books have adorned every kitchen worth its (Maldon) salt for decades, joins me to talk about his failure to be a proper chef, his fear that he let his father down and his failure to be a good friend. We also talk about sexuality, children, neatness, ceramics and whether or not he believes in an afterlife. Nigel was an utter joy from beginning to end and arrived in my flat for the recording bearing a bunch of flowers he had picked from his garden and a packet of green tea so delicious I promptly devoured it and had to order a massive packet of it online.

Thank you Nigel, for being so lovely. I hope you all enjoy the episode as much as I enjoyed doing the interview - and if you do, I’d be so grateful for any ratings or reviews you’d like to give us.

***SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT KLAXON***

I am thrilled to be taking How To Fail on tour around the UK in October, sharing my failure manifesto with the help of some very special guests. These events are not recorded as podcasts so the only way to be there is to book tickets via www.faneproductions.com/howtofail

How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Chris Sharp and Naomi Mantin and sponsored by Teatulia. To contact us, email [email protected]

The Sunday Times Top 5 bestselling book of the podcast, How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong by Elizabeth Day, is out now and is available here.

Nigel Slater’s latest (wonderful) book, Greenfeast, is published in two volumes. Spring / Summer is out now and available to order here. Autumn / Winter is out later this year and available to pre-order here.

Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Nigel Slater @nigelslater

Chris Sharp @chrissharpaudio

Naomi Mantin @naomimantin

Teatulia @TeatuliaUK

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S4, Ep8 How to Fail: Jamie Laing

22 maj 2019 | 59 min

'And now, the end is near / And so I face the final curtain...'

Yes, it's the SEASON FINALE! I know, I know: it's gone so fast hasn't it? What's that they say about time flying when you're having fun calling your brain Becky? (That's a podcast in-joke, peeps, don't panic if you're a new subscriber and you haven't got a clue what I'm on about, but do check out my episode with Mo Gawdat, S4, Ep4).

Anyway, don't be too sad because I have one solid-gold, cast-iron, brilliant guest for you to usher out this season. Step forward, Jamie Laing. Some of you might know him from E4's structured reality show, Made In Chelsea. Some of you might not watch reality television and believe it to be ushering in the end of days. But I implore you, even if you have no interest in the show and even if you've got preconceptions of who Jamie is, to give this episode a listen. He is such an sincere, funny, generous and self-aware person and so willing to talk openly about the times in his life when things didn't go according to plan that I truly think you will get a lot from it.

Jamie joins me to talk about he impact of parental divorce, panic attacks, anxiety, sporting injury and what happens when your idea of your entire future seems to collapse. We also talk about why he's never managed to have a lasting long-term relationship. Along the way, he quotes life lessons learned from Socrates, William Blake and, that seminal 21st century philosopher, Lucy Watson.

I hope you enjoy the final episode in this season. Thank you for all your incredible support. We'll be back in July with eight new fantastic guests for season five. In the meantime, if you felt like rating, reviewing and subscribing, I'd be eternally grateful.

How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, recorded by Chris Sharp and sponsored by 4th Estate Books

The Sunday Times Top 5 bestselling book of the podcast, How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong by Elizabeth Day, is out now and is available here.

You can buy Jamie's delicious all-vegan Candy Kittens sweets here and you can listen to his and Frances Boulle's podcast, Private Parts, here.

Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Jamie Laing @jamielaing_UK

Chris Sharp @chrissharpaudio

4th Estate Books @4thEstateBooks

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S4, Ep7 How to Fail: Nesrine Malik

15 maj 2019 | 47 min

S4, Ep6 How to Fail: Andy McNab

8 maj 2019 | 48 min

You could say that my guest this week became famous because of failure. Andy McNab led the Bravo Two Zero SAS mission during the first Gulf War but his team was compromised soon after they were dropped into Iraq in 1991. This was the most horrific kind of failure. It resulted in the deaths of three of the squad, a cat-and-mouse chase across the desert and McNab's eventual capture. He withstood six weeks of torture and imprisonment, later turning his harrowing experiences into the bestselling book, Bravo Two Zero. He was also awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his courage behind enemy lines. In 2017, he was awarded a CBE.

But this SAS hero did not have the most auspicious start in life: abandoned as a baby in a carrier bag on the steps of a London hospital, he was brought up by adoptive parents on a Peckham council estate and dropped out of school as a teenager, barely able to read or write. He fell into a life of petty crime. After an arrest for burglary at the age of 16 he decided to turn his life around, and joined the British Army.

Andy joins me to talk about the failure of that Bravo Two Zero mission, about what the SAS taught him about how to fail, about how someone who struggled with literacy managed to make a career as a bestselling author, about why he's been married so many times (four, since you ask) and about how he's now found lasting happiness with his wife Jenny (partly to do with a laminated strip in his wallet...listen to find out more). Oh, and he tells me he's a certified psychopath, but not - apparently - one of the bad ones. So that's a podcast first.

Andy McNab's books are available to buy here

How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, recorded by Chris Sharp and sponsored by 4th Estate Books

The Sunday Times Top 5 bestselling book of the podcast, How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong by Elizabeth Day, is out now and is available here.

Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Andy McNab @the_real_mcnab

Chris Sharp @chrissharpaudio

4th Estate Books @4thEstateBooks

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S4, Ep5 How to Fail: Charly Cox

1 maj 2019 | 51 min

I have my FIRST POET on the podcast this week - and my, what a poet. Charly Cox is not only a beautiful soul but a beautiful chronicler of what it is to be human. Her first collection, She Must Be Mad, became the bestselling poetry debut of 2018 and Cox was named by Elle magazine as one of their 20 ‘power players’ of the year.

Although still only 23, she's accumulated an astonishing store of wisdom and I was so, so happy to have her on the podcast because what Charly has to say is deeply important for anyone struggling with how to value themselves for who and what they are rather than how they aspire to be perceived. She's been dubbed an Instagram poet for the millennial generation, but I think her work has relevance for all ages.

We spoke about anxiety, depression and her diagnosis with PTSD and Bipolar II disorder. We also discussed dropping out of school and failing to find lasting romantic love (and her fear that she is ultimately unloveable. AS IF, CHARLY). And we chat about a career failure that left her on a hotel bathroom floor in the grip of a panic attack at which point she remembers thinking: 'I will never work again. I can't believe it's taken this long for everyone to finally see I'm an imposter. I can't do this.'

One of my favourite things about Charly is that she made me realise that the personal can be universal - that by being open about our vulnerabilities, the things we feel most shame about, we not only diminish the shame, but we connect with others who experience exactly the same emotions. And that, my friends, is what creates SOLIDARITY as a force for meaningful change.

Charly Cox's bestselling She Must Be Mad is available to buy here

Her brilliant new collection, Validate Me, is out in October and available to pre-order here

How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, recorded by Chris Sharp and sponsored by 4th Estate Books

The Sunday Times Top 5 bestselling book of the podcast, How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong by Elizabeth Day, is out now and is available here.

*IMPORTANT NEWS KLAXON*

I’m doing a live How To Fail With Elizabeth Day event on 5th May at The Bridge Theatre in London with ZAWE ASHTON (who is amazing). There are still some tickets available here. This is NOT being recorded, so the only way to be part of it is to be there or...erm...be square?

Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Charly Cox @charlycox1

Chris Sharp @chrissharpaudio

4th Estate Books @4thEstateBooks

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S4, Ep4 How to Fail: Mo Gawdat

24 april 2019 | 61 min

Just occasionally in life, you meet someone who changes your way of thinking about the world. The shift might be subtle or it might be seismic, but afterwards, you are never quite the same again.

This is what happened to me when my path crossed with that of Mo Gawdat who spoke to me about what it is to live a contented life in a way that had an immediate and practical impact on my outlook. Gawdat is the former chief business officer at Google X (Google's so-called 'moonshot factory' responsible for off-the-wall ideas such as self-driving cars and a balloon-powered internet) but for a long time in his life, despite having professional, personal and material success, he realised he wasn't happy. So he set about solving this problem by applying his scientific research skills to the issue: how can one individual be happy?

After 12 years, he developed an algorithm for happiness, eventually arriving at an equation which states simply that happiness is greater than, or equal to, your perception of the events in your life minus your expectation of how life should be. He even wrote a book about it, Solve For Happy, which became an international bestseller.

Gawdat joins me to talk about how that algorithm was put to the ultimate test when his beloved 21-year-old son Ali died in tragic circumstances. We talk about how to survive depression and grief; how happiness is like fitness; how to cope with break-ups; why social media is driving us further apart and what to do about it; why life is like a computer game; the illusion of time and why we should always, always be polite to Siri.

This episode is slightly longer than normal just because I didn't want to cut any of it. I hope you take as much from Mo's words as I have.

Solve For Happy: Engineer Your Path To Joy by Mo Gawdat is available to order here.

How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, recorded by Chris Sharp and sponsored by 4th Estate Books

The Sunday Times Top 5 bestselling book of the podcast, How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong by Elizabeth Day, is out nowand is available to pre-order here.

*IMPORTANT NEWS KLAXON*

I’m doing a live How To Fail With Elizabeth Day event on 5th May at The Bridge Theatre in London with ZAWE ASHTON (who is amazing). There are still some tickets available here.

Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Chris Sharp @chrissharpaudio

4th Estate Books @4thEstateBooks

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S4, Ep3 How to Fail: Tracey Thorn

17 april 2019 | 45 min

My guest this week is the fantastic Tracey Thorn, who I basically grew up listening to. She was one-half of Everything But The Girl, guest vocalist on Massive Attack's phenomenal Protection album and lately has launched her own solo career alongside writing three critically acclaimed memoirs, the latest of which, Another Planet: A Teenager in Suburbia has won rave plaudits from Julie Burchill, David Nicholls and Dolly Alderton, to name but a few.

Tracey joins me to talk about failing to get into the university of her choice (but meeting her husband as a consequence so...y'know...swings and roundabouts), being an utterly terrible driver, as well as living with stage fright and bouts of serious anxiety that have shaped much of her life. Our chat also takes in the jostle between career and motherhood (three kids, including twins), the difficulty of understanding our own parents, the experience of ageing as a woman and why she'd never, ever consider growing her hair long.

I'm so grateful to Tracey for being so warm and generous and to Teatulia in Covent Garden for lending us their beautiful tea-shop for the recording. Teatulia sells a wonderful range of teas, some of which you can buy online here, and also makes absurdly good tea-based cocktails. Do pay them a visit if you're ever in the area.

Tracey's Sunday Times Top 10 bestselling memoir, Another Planet: A Teenager in Suburbia, is out now published by Canongate and is available to order here

How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, recorded by Chris Sharp and sponsored by 4th Estate Books

The Sunday Times Top 5 bestselling book of the podcast, How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong by Elizabeth Day, is out nowand is available to pre-order here.

*IMPORTANT NEWS KLAXON*

I’m doing a live How To Fail With Elizabeth Day event on 5th May at The Bridge Theatre in London with ZAWE ASHTON (who is amazing). There are still some tickets available here.

Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Tracey Thorn @tracey_thorn

Chris Sharp @chrissharpaudio

4th Estate Books @4thEstateBooks

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S4, Ep2 How to Fail: John Crace

10 april 2019 | 48 min

My guest this week is John Crace, one of our foremost journalists and critics. Probably best known for his role at the Guardian as parliamentary sketch-writer (it was he who famously coined the term ‘Maybot’ to describe our besieged Prime Minister’s rather…um…mechanical response to crisis) and as the author of the brilliant Digested Read column, which takes the book of the moment and distils it into a hysterically funny parody.

John joins me to talk about being a heroin addict for 10 years. He describes the chaos and constant sense of failure that plagued him throughout his period of addiction with such candour and bravery that it moved me to tears halfway through the interview. There’s a school of thought that says interviewers shouldn’t show emotion, but I’m not sure this is always right.

John spoke about heroin, about how he failed to have ‘any sort of career until my mid-30s’, about living his life on the verge of a panic attack and sometimes struggling to get out of bed in the mornings, about his tricky relationship with his father and about how he finally managed to speak to his children about his past. And, for light relief, John also discusses supporting a football team ‘whose most notable achievement has been disappointment’ (it’s Spurs, by the way).

This is one of the most extraordinary interviews I’ve ever had the privilege of doing. Thank you, John, for your beautiful vulnerability. Listen and feel less alone.

You can read the article I mention John writing for the Guardian about heroin addiction here

How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Chris Sharp and sponsored by 4th Estate Books

The book of the podcast, How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong by Elizabeth Day, is out nowand is available to pre-order here.

*IMPORTANT NEWS KLAXON*

I’m doing a live How To Fail With Elizabeth Day event on 5th May at The Bridge Theatre in London with ZAWE ASHTON (who is amazing). There are still some tickets available here.

Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

John Crace @johnjcrace

Chris Sharp @chrissharpaudio

4th Estate Books @4thEstateBooks

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S4, Ep1 How to Fail: Vicky McClure

3 april 2019 | 48 min

S3, Ep9 How to Fail: Haemin Sunim

27 februari 2019 | 39 min

Sniff. Sob. Wail and gnashing of teeth. Yes, it’s the SEASON THREE FINALE already - how did that happen? For our final episode in this series, I had the great privilege of talking to Haemin Sunim, one of the most influential Zen Buddhist teachers in the world.

He is a Korean ‘super-monk’ - so-called because he has over one million followers on Twitter and because his books have become instant global bestsellers. His latest, Love For Imperfect Things, is a guide to self-acceptance in which Haemin beautifully explores the idea that it is only by exercising compassion for our own vulnerabilities that we can pursue truly meaningful relationships with others. I read it in that fallow period between Christmas and New Year and it was a wonderful way to set my intentions for 2019. So much of what Haemin says chimes with the themes of this podcast, especially the concept that failure is a lesson, not a wholesale definition of self. ‘Life teaches us through errors,’ he writes. ‘When we accept the lesson from our mistake with humility and gratitude, we grow that much more.’

It was such an honour to meet Haemin, and to ask him more about his philosophy of failure. We discuss his self-perceived failure to be a good son, a failure of patience, romantic failures, break-ups and how resistance to a situation can often expend more energy than acceptance. He also manages to make me feel better about my repeated failures to meditate regularly. Apparently, just by observing my irritation at not being able to meditate, I AM ALREADY MEDITATING.

I really love this episode and I hope you will too.

We'll be back in April, but if you’re missing us terribly, don’t forget you can pre-order the book of the podcast, How To Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong by Elizabeth Day here.

It would be amazing if you felt able to rate, review and subscribe to the podcast. This helps things like chart position and is good for attracting sponsors, which means I’ll be able to afford to carry on doing it!

Thank you so, so, so much for listening. Your messages, your likes, your Tweets, your emails and your love continue to mean the absolute world to me.

I’ll see you in April.

How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Chris Sharp and sponsored by 4th Estate Books

Love For Imperfect Things by Haemin Sunim is published by Penguin Random House

Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Haemin Sunim @haeminsunim

Chris Sharp @chrissharpaudio

4th Estate Books @4thEstateBooks

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S3 BONUS EPISODE How to Fail: Kristen Roupenian

22 februari 2019 | 51 min

S3, Ep8 How to Fail: Pandora Sykes

20 februari 2019 | 53 min

S3, Ep7 How to Fail: Sharmaine Lovegrove

13 februari 2019 | 44 min

S3, Ep6 How to Fail: James O'Brien

6 februari 2019 | 45 min

S3, Ep 5 How to Fail: Raven Smith

30 januari 2019 | 45 min

S3, Ep4 How to Fail: Deborah Frances-White

23 januari 2019 | 48 min

S3; Ep3 How to Fail: Jonny Benjamin

16 januari 2019 | 46 min

Ok, so full disclosure: I cried during this interview. You will quite possibly cry too. You will quite possibly need a box of tissues next to you as you listen. And you will quite possibly leave feeling enlightened and uplifted by the magical, gorgeous man that is Jonny Benjamin, MBE.

Jonny is a mental health campaigner and someone with a truly extraordinary story to tell. In 2008, Jonny was 20 and standing on the edge of Waterloo Bridge about to jump. A passing stranger noticed his distress and stopped to talk to him. It was a momentary decision that saved Jonny’s life.

We talk about his journey to track that stranger down and about what Jonny has learned about himself along the way. We also talk about Jonny's diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder and his experiences of living with 'The Truman delusion' (so-called because the person believes that their lives are staged reality shows being filmed on camera). We talk about mental health in the workplace and being open about our fallibilities. I am so grateful that Jonny also chose to talk about Irritable Bowel Syndrome and the realities of living with that when you're just trying to get on with life (it makes dating a bit of a nightmare and a lot of people don't really understand what it means). Along the way we chat about Amy Winehouse, feeling left behind in your 20s, the importance of self-compassion and why love isn't ever conditional on whether you succeed or not.

I hope you are moved as much as I was by this episode.

Also if anyone has any single gay men wanting a set-up with an incredibly handsome, funny and sensitive individual then feel free to DM us - details below ;)

How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Chris Sharp and sponsored by 4th Estate Books

The Stranger on the Bridge by Jonny Benjamin is out now published by Pan Macmillan.

Beyond Shame, Beyond Stigma is a new mental health charity for young people co-founded by Jonny.

You can learn more about the WRAP (Wellness Recovery Action Plan) by visiting the Rethink website.

If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this podcast, you can call the Samaritans on 116 123 or visit their website.

Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Jonny Benjamin @mrjonnybenjamin

Chris Sharp @chrissharpaudio

4th Estate Books @4thEstateBooks

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S3, Ep2 How to Fail: Chris Patten

9 januari 2019 | 41 min

S3, Ep1 How to Fail: Lily Allen

2 januari 2019 | 41 min

How to Fail: End of Season Two

22 november 2018 | 13 min

S2, Ep8 How to Fail: David Baddiel

21 november 2018 | 50 min

S2, Ep7 How to Fail: Tara Westover

14 november 2018 | 51 min

S2, Ep6 How to Fail: Farrah Storr

7 november 2018 | 44 min

S2, Ep5 How to Fail: Alastair Campbell

31 oktober 2018 | 50 min

S2, Ep4 How to Fail: Otegha Uwagba

24 oktober 2018 | 53 min

S2, Ep3 How to Fail: James Frey

17 oktober 2018 | 42 min

S2, Ep2 How to Fail: Mishal Husain

10 oktober 2018 | 41 min

S2, Ep1 How to Fail: Jessie Burton

3 oktober 2018 | 57 min

How to Fail: End of Season 1

30 augusti 2018 | 4 min

S1, Ep8 How to Fail: Elizabeth Day

29 augusti 2018 | 71 min

For the last episode of the first season of How To Fail With Elizabeth Day, our interviewee is…well…Elizabeth Day. Which means I’m currently writing shownotes about myself in the third person. Which is weird. Let me stop doing that.

Over the course of the last eight weeks, I’ve been lucky enough to interview some truly wonderful, interesting, successful people, all of whom have opened up to me and made themselves vulnerable by discussing the place failure occupies in their lives. It seemed only fair to turn the tables on myself.

In this episode, I’m truly honoured to have my brilliant friend Dolly Alderton interviewing me. Dolly is not only the author of the bestselling memoir, Everything I Know About Love, but she’s also a super-talented journalist and co-host of the iTunes-topping The High Low podcast. The way she interviewed me is really quite spectacular because she made it feel like a conversation, sharing her own excellent insights and humour along the way. As a result, I ended up being far more honest than I’d intended, opening up about everything from infertility and grief to intimacy and regret. I also talk about my conspicuous failure to be good at sport, despite lots of people assuming I must be good at things like tennis and running because I’m tall. I know, it makes no sense to me either.

This is the final episode in this season, but How To Fail With Elizabeth Day will be BACK with a whole new selection of fantastic guests in October. In the meantime, if you’ve enjoyed listening, please do rate and review us on iTunes. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for listening, and see you in October!

How To Fail is hosted by Elizabeth Day and produced by Chris Sharp

How To Fail is sponsored by Moorish

The Party by Elizabeth Day is published by 4th Estate

Social Media:

Elizabeth Day @elizabday

Dolly Alderton @dollyalderton

Chris Sharp @chrissharpaudio

Moorish @moorishhumous

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

S1, Ep7 How to Fail: David Nicholls

22 augusti 2018 | 46 min

S1, Ep6 How to Fail: Gina Miller

15 augusti 2018 | 44 min

S1, Ep5 How to Fail: Olivia Laing

8 augusti 2018 | 48 min

S1, Ep4 How to Fail: Sathnam Sanghera

1 augusti 2018 | 49 min

S1, Ep3 How to Fail: Dolly Alderton

25 juli 2018 | 52 min

S1, Ep2 How to Fail: Sebastian Faulks

18 juli 2018 | 48 min

S1, Ep1 How To Fail - Phoebe Waller-Bridge

13 juli 2018 | 51 min

How To Fail With Elizabeth Day

How To Fail with Elizabeth Day is a podcast that celebrates the things in life that haven’t gone right and what we might learn from them along the way.

Om podden

Avsnitt

Jonathan Van Ness - 'I was one wrong thing away from losing everything'

How To Date: BONUS EPISODE - Your dating questions answered…

Sam Ryder - ‘Fame is like giving a dog a treat every single day. You get used to it.’

How To Date: The most important relationship you’ll ever have

Olivia Attwood - ‘It’s either vodka and a gay club until 5am, or hyperbaric oxygen’

How To Date: How to cope with heartbreak and rejection

Erin Doherty - ‘Lean Into Your Truth’

How To Date: Taking it to the next level

Gugu Mbatha-Raw - ‘Have I ever worked with an awful co-star? Maybe one or two’

How To Date: Red and Green Flags

Kate Hudson - ‘Fame is a tumultuous machine’

How To Date: Communication - dating dos and don’ts

Simon Callow: ‘Scottish reeling almost killed me.’

How To Date: The first date

Jessel Taank - ‘Real Housewives? It’s like Game of Thrones’

How To Date: How to meet someone

Nick Grimshaw - 'I told The Guardian I was gay before I told my parents'

Introducing How To Date: Am I ready to date?

Dame Harriet Walter - ‘I wish I’d had all this attention when I was 40’

Sharon Horgan - ‘My marriage failed but it had such a positive impact on my life’

Stephen Merchant: ‘Most famous people are f**cked up’

Failure Throwback: Geena Davis

Failure Throwback: Jamie Dornan

Failure Throwback: Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Sir Chris Hoy - ‘There’s no cure but I still find hope’

Kirsty Young - ‘The great benefit of age? You give less of a f**k.’

Luke Evans - ‘If I didn’t have to take my top off on a movie set, I’d let myself go’

Andy Cohen - ‘Madonna says I’m a trouble-making queen’

Ella Purnell - ‘Therapy changed my life’

Lashana Lynch - ‘I didn’t know when I was auditioning that I was going to be 007’

Jilly Cooper - ‘What’s a dick pic?’

James Blunt - ‘The Iraq war lost me my GRAMMYS’

Miranda Hart - 'I always knew I’d get married at 51'

Neneh Cherry - ‘My mother’s death undid me.’

Rupert Everett - 'Everyone is my Professional Nemesis'

Yuval Noah Harari - ‘AI doesn't have to end badly for humankind’

Diane Abbott - ‘I’ve never had a nice chat with Keir Starmer’

Kate Winslet - ‘I remember thinking: I do not want to be famous’

Agony Uncle Salman Rushdie – ‘I walked into a glass door and fell in love’

Ellie Simmonds - Being different is a superpower.

Guenther Steiner - F1 made me an absent father

Ade Adepitan - ‘At 16 I’d seen more violence than anyone should ever see’

Pat Cummins - 'My mother’s death taught me cricket isn’t as important as family'

Elif Shafak - ‘There’s only one thing that scares me - and that’s indifference’

Danny O Donoghue - ‘I’m finished drinking, I’m finished smoking, everything’

Introducing How To Write a Book: Episode 1 - The Idea (Part 1)

Sara Cox - ‘it made me feel a bit of a failed mum’

Danny Dyer - 'I’m a f**king legend or I’m a f**king disgrace. I suppose I divide people'

Jesse Tyler Ferguson - ‘I was caught stealing gay porn'

Sadiq Khan - ‘Had I known what it involved, I can’t say I’d have gone into politics’

Vogue Williams - ‘I love therapy’

Angel Strawbridge - No Regrets

Salman Rushdie - ‘I’d rather have had a different life’

Louise Thompson - ‘I asked myself: Am I alive?’

Shania Twain - ‘There is no man that intimidates me’

Dame Arlene Phillips - ‘I know the power of love’

Henry Winkler - The Fonz, Getting Fired and Listening To Your Gut

Bonnie Tyler - Her first ever podcast interview

Will Young - ‘I like to talk about it because I survived it’

Richard Osman on cats, crime and c**ts

Dr. Jen Gunter - Patriarchy, periods and penile failure

Adeel Akhtar - The importance of staying true to yourself

Katie Price - ‘Everything bad that’s ever happened to me is because of men’

Nicole Scherzinger - ‘I’ve never felt I’m enough’

Jon Ronson on truth-telling and the culture wars

AJ Odudu - ‘Living to tell the tale is the joyful thing’

Mel B - ‘I was a Spice Girl shouting about girl power, but I was girl powerless.’

Sabrina Dhowre Elba… I thought ‘this is how I’m going to die’

Paloma Faith… ‘I overshare by whose standards? Not mine.’

Sathnam Sanghera on why books can save us and how to understand Empire

Joe Wicks on addiction, homeschooling and body image

Dan Levy on overcoming rejection and harnessing grief

Who’s ready for Season 20?

HAPPY HIGH BETTER FAIL: The Ultimate Podcast Mash-Up with Fearne Cotton, Rangan Chatterjee, Jake Humphrey & Damian Hughes

S18, Ep10 Claudia Winkleman on the joy of imperfection

S18 BONUS EPISODE: Georgia Harrison on taking back her power

Danny Dyer - 'I’m a fking legend or I’m a fking disgrace. I suppose I divide people'