SIM Ep 889 Pod 270: Policing, poetry, and pooh-poohing

09/06/23 • 92 min

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ITV crime drama The Tower is back on our screens for a second series, presenting our Hannah with an excellent opportunity to jump on the Zoom with Gemma Whelan, who plays DS Sarah Collins. They chat about the reputation of the Met, telling women’s stories, Gentleman Jack, Upstart Crow and what exactly Gemma was doing with that fox.

Jen's chatting to poet Maggie Smith about how when her career took off, her marriage declined, something she charts in her gorgeous new memoir, You could Make This Place Beautiful. They're also talking mumming, wifeing, and the division of labour.

In Jenny Off The Blocks, Jen’s talking about the US Open, among other things. And get your strategically placed Chelsea buns out for the lads, as the team revisit 2003’s Calendar Girls. Plus, in the Bush Telegraph*, Britain’s schools are crumbling, but won’t somebody think of Gillian Keegan? Yeah, not even Mick's got the sarcasm levels to sell that one.

*If you want to read the story Hannah references in BT about parental alienation, you can do so here.

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*If you want to read the story Hannah references in BT about parental alienation, you can do so here.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast.

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

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

Previous Episode

SIM Ep 888 Chops 270: Wifedom

Anna Funder’s Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life is, ostensibly, a biography of Eileen Blair, nee Eileen O’Shaughnessy, aka the first Mrs George Orwell. And indeed, Anna tells Eileen’s story beautifully, using Eileen’s own words from letters to friends and to her husband, with added judicious fiction, as she imagines scenes from the Orwells’ lives, and from Eileen’s life.

Turns out, Eileen played a vital role in Orwell’s writing and in his life (in actually saving his life – and indeed in keeping alive many others during the Spanish Civil War) and yet she’s mostly absent from Orwell’s own writing and from his biographies, which are all written by men.

And so, as well as shining a light on one woman’s hitherto hidden life, Wifedom is also a polemic against the patriarchy and an examination of what it meant and means to be a wife.

In this Chops, Mick chats to Anna about all of this, about wife-ing, about Eileen, about Orwell, and, not unrelated to that last name, a lot about arseholes.

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Next Episode

SIM Ep 890 Chops 271: A good Samaritan and some excellent company

Preventable deaths by suicide remain the biggest killer of young people under the age of 35 in the UK and continue to rise across the population. Though men account for 75% all suicides, the biggest increase in 2021, according to the most up-to-date Government statistics, was in women and girls aged 24 and under. Keen to bring these numbers down, is the suicide prevention charity, Samaritans*, and for those already bereaved by a loved one taking their own life, Suicide & Co** provides help and support.

For World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10, Jen caught up with CEO and co-founder of Suicide & Co, Amelia Wrighton, to talk about stigma, shame, the specificities of dealing with such a bereavement, and the help available to those in need. She also spoke to Samaritans volunteer, Roxy McCarthy, about her experience of both using the charity’s services, and becoming a volunteer.

Whatever you’re going through you can contact Samaritans at any time via the phone on 116 123, or via email at [email protected].

** You can find out more information about Suicide & Co via its website, or by contacting [email protected].

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/standardissuespodcast.

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