Hello Friend

In this episode, I talk to my old friend Dominic about our shared experiences of homophobia at secondary school, the world of drag and how badly work can affect your mental health.

Dominic performs as Cola Phalquero and can often be found at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern. He tweets at @errorfied.

In this episode I talk to comedian Sofie Hagen because she's someone I like a lot, and appearing on her podcast was at least partly the inspiration behind starting a podcast of my own.

We discuss her past misdeeds, and misdeeds done against her by people in the standup world, bad fatphobic jokes, people she thinks are funny and her passion for Cujo the dog.

In this episode, I talk to Jools Walker, aka VeloCity Girl. She blogs at velocitygirl.co.uk and describes herself as a cycle-style blogger, and while I thought I wanted to talk to her about cycling (because it terrifies me), what I really wanted to hear about was making your way in an industry that doesn't represent you. Here, Jools talks often about how she still suffers from impostor syndrome as a black woman in the cycling world, even though she's considered an expert in her field. We also discuss her other great love: the jewellery brand Tatty Devine.

In addition to the usual weekly episode of chat between a friend and I, this week I'm bringing you a shorter, special episode with four guests.

In this episode, I talk to four amazing female authors ahead of the 2017 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction. You can see the full list of 6 shortlisted authors at www.womensprizeforfiction.co.uk.

Those authors are: Madeleine Thien, author of Do Not Say We Have Nothing Linda Grant, author of The Dark Circle Ayobami Adebayo, author of Stay With Me Naomi Alderman, author of The Power

In this episode, I talk to my longtime friend Alice Slater about two great things: LiveJournal and books. She's a bookseller at Waterstones Gower Street and has flawless literary taste. We talk you through the appeal of now-dead journalling platform LiveJournal, go deep on thrillers, talk about Erin Kelly too much and Alice confesses a book-related crime she committed that endured for many years.

Alice blogs at https://smokintofu.com She tweets and Instagrams at @smokintofu

Books we talked about:

Exquisite by Sarah Stovell

I Love Dick by Chris Kraus

Carol by Patricia Highsmith

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

Paulina & Fran by Rachel B. Glaser

Marlena by Julie Buntin

The books of Margaret Atwood

The End We Start From by Megan Hunter

Diary of An Oxygen Thief by anonymous

Milk & Honey by Rupi Kaur

The Poison Tree // The Burning Air // He Said/She Said by Erin Kelly