Doing It Right with Pandora Sykes

Alain de Botton is a philosopher who has written on work, sex, leisure, architecture - and every other subject in between. I first discovered Alain's work in the early noughties, when I inhaled his debut novel, Essays in Love, which he wrote aged just 23 and which sold over 2 million copies. Whether you're a fellow fangirl, or new to his philosophy, you're in for his treat - Alain's pragmatism (and his vast bank of wisdom) are so extremely comforting and clarifying in these muddling times. We discuss the difference between interior and exterior progress, the perils of instant gratification and why no-one is Yoda, all of the time. Not even Alain.
How Do We Know We're Doing It Right is out now in both hardback and audiobook, narrated by Pandora.

Julia Samuel is a psychotherapist, the founder/patron of Child Bereavement UK and the author of two acclaimed non-fiction books, Grief Works and her new one, This Too Shall Pass. A book about why human beings find it so hard to navigate change, it could not have landed at a better time: when choice has been removed and major change forced upon us, by the pandemic. We discuss why resisting change only makes its impact worse, the impossibility of ever fully 'knowing yourself' and the scourge of comparisonitis.
How Do We Know We're Doing It Right is out now in both hardback and audiobook, narrated by Pandora.

Sinéad Burke is a force for good. An educator and disability advocate in the field of fashion and design, she is solutions-driven in her desire to make society more inclusive. The first little person to appear on the cover of Vogue, to attend the Met Gala and to give a TED Talk, she is fast becoming one of the most important voices in conversations around social change.

How Do We Know We're Doing It Right is out now in both hardback and audiobook, narrated by Pandora.

Jessica DeFino is not your regular beauty journalist. After finding her pieces were regularly rejected from newspapers and magazines for being too incendiary, or dissing beauty brands who advertised, she founded her newsletter, The Unpublishable, where, in her own words she “dismantles beauty standards, debunks marketing myths and explores how beauty culture impacts people”. It now has 40,000 readers.

The Huffington Post once described her as “giving the middle finger to the entire beauty industry”.

Jess and I discuss why clear skin isn’t a health objective but an aesthetic one, the evolution of a tan, the explosion of celebrity makeup and skincare lines and why we’re at a tipping point in beauty.

Subscribe to The Unpublishable

Follow Jess on Twitter and IG @jessicadefino_

Hosted & Exec Produced by Pandora Sykes

Production by Joel Grove

Pooja Lakshmin MD is a psychiatrist and writer, specialising in women's mental health. The founder of digital women's health platform Gemma, she is a regular contributor to The New York Times, where she writes about wellness and self-care (amongst other subjects) about which she is currently writing a book. We talk about what the business of wellness gets wrong, what real self-care looks like and the difference between burnout and despair.

Follow Pooja's work, here: https://www.instagram.com/womensmentalhealthdoc/

Gemma's first all digital course on dealing with mom guilt, martyr-mode, and perfectionism can be found here: https://gemmawomen.com/unloadmomguilt