The High Low

The Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to another baby prince, but all anyone’s talking about is that bouncy blow dry, that red dress and those heels - a mere 7 hours after she gave birth. Is this glamorous portrayal of new motherhood doing a disservice to mothers and the trauma of birth? Why is it an inevitable part of Kate’s role as a princess? And could it in fact be a form of protection?Also today: we discuss Millie Bobby Brown’s inclusion on Time’s 100 Most Influential List. The 14 year old actor has over 16 million Instagram followers and is currently producing her first film. Is she too young for such adulation? You can email us thehighlowshow@gmail.com or tweet us @thehighlowshow. Links:- Lovesick on Netflix https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/80041601 - The Week Unwrapped, hosted by Olly Mannhttps://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-week-unwrapped-with-olly-mann/id1185494669?mt=2&i=1000409321265- When Beauty Is A Troll, by Me

Some excellent e-mails on voice notes in The High Low mailbag this week - turns out The HL listeners are more than a little bit obsessed with voice notes. On this week’s agenda: a butt-load of article recommendations from Pandora (Christie Watson’s book about the NHS had Pandora in a puddle), some stellar advice from Dolly on how to survive your social life sober, a hefty discussion on miscreditation and appropriation in the internet age and - the big stuff - why we all love to hate Coachella (it’s not just the headdresses, people.)You can e-mail us any thoughts on this week’s episode at thehighlowshow@gmail.com or tweet us @thehighlowshow.ReadingAnatomy of a Scandal, by Sarah Vaughan https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anatomy-Scandal-bestseller-everyone-talking/dp/1471165000Falsely accused of rape: is the justice system biased against men? - by Katie Glass, for The Sunday Times Magazine https://www.thetimes.co.uk/magazine/the-sunday-times-magazine/falsely-accused-rape-men-reveal-deepest-s

Well, THANK YOU High Lowers - last week’s episode pushed us over 2 million downloads and up to No.3 on the iTunes podcast charts. The mailbag was also bulging this week: some helpful kind corrections; some not-so-helpful - and we’ve got a little something to say on that....This week we discuss the results of The ONS’s report into loneliness, which has revealed that - contrary to popular belief - it is not pensioners who are society’s most lonely, but 16-24 year olds. Is social media to blame? Has celebrity replaced community? And what will Tracey Crouch do about it?Also today, we talk about former Everton footballer Neville Southall who has been lending his Twitter platform (with its associated 127,000 followers) to minorities less privileged than him. Pretty great, huh? Well, apparently not. We talk about criticism, the liberal echo chamber and why curiosity is something to be prized not derided. Ultimately, we could all be a bit more Neville.And on a lighter note: there’s Cardi B; the fragrance that ‘s

The High Low is back! Where did those 6 weeks go? Dolly’s been on a nationwide book tour; Pandora’s birthed a tiny dictator. We round-up all the articles, programmes and podcasts we’ve been enjoying during our hiatus, as well as the topics that made us miss The High Low.On today’s agenda: the depressing arc of the weightloss celebrity and the esoteric nature of reality TV (Dolly compares it to an old-fashioned Italian family - Pandora wonders if that is a good thing); and the controversial verdict of the Ulster Rugby rape case, which concluded last week, after a 42 day trial, with an innocent verdict. 2018 may have been a year of MeToo; but does the disappointing denouement to this case suggest that it’s all just hot air?You can tweet The High Low @thehighlowshow or e-mail us thehighlowshow@gmail.com.ReadingHow A Young Woman Lost Her Identity - byRachel Aviv for The New Yorker https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/02/how-a-young-woman-lost-her-identityWill Ferrell interviews Joaquin Phoenix -f

The High Low is going on maternity leave - or maturity leave, as Pandora accidentally e-mailed someone this week - for 6 weeks, so we’ve decided to go out with a bang, with an interview with the Oscar nominated actor and producer, Margot Robbie. We discuss I, Tonya, about American figure skater, Tonya Harding, with the Australian A-Lister, how she plans to put women centre stage via her production company, LuckyChap productions and what Hollywood really looks like, post MeToo. Also this week, Pandora champions the feel-good, feminist Amazon Prime drama about a women’s glossy, The Bold Type (like a ‘woke' How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days) and a brilliant new podcast series produced by Save The Children. If you’re looking for some powerful, real-life story-telling, please give it a listen. Meanwhile, Dolly has weaned herself off Mad Men, in order to discover the Instagram account skewering men’s pointed shoes (Sniper Watch, if you’re interested) and read a new book that promises to reduce y

An explosive Quincy Jones interview via Vulture; an even more explosive Sex and The City row via Kim Cattrall (just try and get Dolly to shut up about it); and some fun Valentine’s Day facts for you: did you know that 5% more babies are conceived during Valentines week than any other time (Christmas comes second); and that 52% of people are choosing to stay at home for Valentine’s - or Galentines - this year? Also, old people are having more sex than ever and Dolly’s very happy about it.Much has been happening in the world of celebrity, but we’ve also been reading some great new books (Pandora recommends Zadie Smith’s short story anthology, Feel Free; whilst Dolly’s pick for this week is Bad Romance, by Emily Hill) and The Reading Cure, by journalist Laura Freeman, who is also our guest today. A lyrical book from a former anorexia sufferer, on how books restored her appetite, Laura compares a disordered mind to that of a disordered library: where the books have flown off the shelves, the pages

Your usual mixed bag this week: Cheddar Man, Nutella fights and Lady Doritos.It’s the 100 year anniversary of the Suffragettes! We deliver to you some facts and a round-up of this week’s celebrations. We discuss Kylie Jenner’s secret pregnancy (her daughter, Stormi Webster was born this week.) How did the world’s most famous 20 year old - Kylie has over 100 million followers and is the richest of all of the Kardashian/Jenners - hide her pregnancy from the paps for an entire 10 months? Is it yet another PR ploy; or a genuine bid for privacy from a young woman long uncomfortable with her own, inherited fame?Also today, some discussion of Woody Allen - mainly via some excellent journalism, links below - and the latest Hollywood MeToo, via Uma Thurman. This one’s a little different though… it’s more about Quentin Tarantino than it is Harvey Weinstein. And, a first: Tarantino replies, at length. Both articles, below, are well worth reading.Plus, a bit on food snobbery, after the wonderful writer and form

Kim Kardashian is making all kinds of headlines this week; not because her new baby boy, Chicago, arrived via surrogacy - but because she’s sharing dozens of pics of herself in the nuddy with what she has called ‘Bo Derek’ braids aka: cornrows or Fulani braids. We discuss the knotty issue of cultural appropriation, how it exists within fashion and beauty and speak to Sharmadean Reid, the founder of WAH Nails and Beauty Stack, on why she isn’t offended by Kim’s appropriation of a black hairstyle - but how offence is not a blanket thing. How can and should we navigate the nuances?Also today, we discuss Trump’s assertion that he isn’t a feminist (snore), why the world’s gone mad for Tupperware (and why no-one has written about this?) and the brilliant Radio 4 show that had us both wincing: are women sexist towards other women? Before you shake your head - take a listen (link in the show notes.) We plunge deep into our unconscious bias and try to be as honest as possible.A note from Pandora (who writes

First thing’s first: 1 in 4 women are still skipping their smear test - please don’t be one of them. Dolly talks to Kate Sanger from Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust who emphasises the importance of smear tests in preventing cervical cancer.Also today, we discuss the UK’s newly appointed Minister for Loneliness, Tracey Crouch - and why loneliness is not just a problem in the elderly ; new evidence which suggests that psychologically we are all children until the age of not 18, but - duh duh duhhhhhh - 25; and why “well-intentioned racism” is still, well, racism.NB: Courtesy of our kind sponsors, Treatwell, you can get yourself £10 off a £25 treatment with the code HIGHLOW10. Visit treatwell.co.uk to book!Reading:The linguistic evolution of ‘like’, by John McWhorter for The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/11/the-evolution-of-like/507614/Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, by Gail Honeyman https://www.netflix.com/title/80133311Money Diary: A freelance writer l

Episode 43 is a pretty exciting one for The High Low - a bit of a pinch-me moment, if you will. One minute we were begging Faber & Faber for an advance copy of French novelist Leila Slimani’s cult read, Lullaby - a troubling but beautifully written read about a nanny who murders her two young charges - the next, we had Leila in our studio.The twelfth woman to win the Prix Goncourt, last year (the highest literary prize in France, previous winners include Proust) Lullaby sold a whopping 600,000 copies in Leila’s native France (under the title, ‘Chanson Douce’), led to Emmanuel Macron asking Leila to be the Minister for Culture (she turned it down) and the movie rights have, unsurprisingly, been snapped up. Comparisons with Gone Girl and Girl on a Train are crass - but indicative of the book’s breathtaking success. Leila talks to us about finding unexpected success with her “ little book” (“I thought my great book would be about war”), the societal role of working motherhood and the nanny (who is both

Hello, you stable geniuses! (Or as the pedants may prefer, genii.) The Golden Globes happened on Sunday night in Hollywood and The High Low has many a point to discuss:Does the #TimesUp movement - where actors wore black dresses on the red carpet, in solidarity with victims of sexual harassment - convey a real and true political message? Can a gown be a harbinger for social change? The New York Times’ T Magazine Fashion Critic, Alexander Fury, provides an eloquent argument in favour. Or, is it mere Hollywood “fakery’ - as actor Rose McGowan denounced it.Self-deprecating and woke as he was, should Seth Meyers have been the host... or should it have been a woman? And what about Natalie Portman, who pointed out that no female directors were nominated for best director? No amount of black gowns can cloak that. Either way, Justin Timberlake *perhaps* missed the point. “Damn my wife looks hot! #timesup” the Trousersnake tweeted. From Hollywood, to Westminster. Also on this weekend agenda, journa

Happy 2018! It's the first High Low episode of the year. We've got some books, shows, podcasts and articles to recommend to you, a Queens impression from Pandora (that's the suburb in New York, not the royal OAP) and a reader question about what to do when you're a Hot Mess.In this week's episode, we discuss the shocking - or is it so shocking? - new research from Kings College London, which reveals that 27% of pregnant women suffer from mental health problems. Is the 'pregnancy glow' myth to blame? Pandora - who at 8 months pregnant, believes the 'glow' to have passed her by entirely - speaks from experience; whilst Dolly muses upon the fetishisation of pregnant women in the media. Also in today's episode, we talk Dry January, Veganuary and other zeitgeisty lifestyle trends. Should we stop being so negative about 'new year, new me'?Thank you to our sponsors Google Pixel 2 and Treatwell plus Acast, for letting us use your studio.E-mail us thehighlowshow@gmail.com or tweet us @thehighlowshow.LinksListeningRome

Happy New Year High Lowers! 2017 has been the year of covfefe, Dr Robert Kelly and of course the birth of yours truly. We have friend of The High Low’s and Guardian journalist Stu Heritage on to review the highs and lows of the past year, including Pandora’s very own and rather difficult Big Fat Quiz of the year which listeners can play at home. We talk resolutions, New Year plans and Stu’s fantastic book published earlier this year called Don’t Be A Dick, Pete. The book is a very funny and often moving memoir, told through the story of Stu’s relationship with his brother Pete. We sort of wish we’d invited Pete on too, tbh. Finally, we answer listener questions with Stu as our visiting agony uncle. Including one of our own: who is responsible for those slightly dismissive reviews of The High Low from The Guardian, Stu? Hmmmmm? Happy New Year High Low listeners. We end on a compilation of the best bits of our first year, one that we couldn’t have done without you and your support. Thank you - an

It’s a festive episode with a special High Low nativity play; written by professional screenwriter (as you will be able to tell) Dolly - and sponsored by frankincense and myrrh. As Amazon and John Lewis declare ambitions to open their end of year sales on Christmas Day itself, and the Bishop of Cambridge descends into outrage, we talk the evolution of ‘family time’ and whether online shopping during a day of rest (and/or religion) is a moral issue or merely one of ease and convenience. What about all the people that don’t celebrate Christmas? And side note: HOW has Amazon only just launched in Australia? Also up for discussion, Twitter finally rules against hate speech - with the leaders of far right party Britain First suspended from Twitter for Islamaphobic fake news (which was retweeted by Covfefe Trump - natch.) We discuss censorship versus the oft hackneyed cliché of free speech: and why a bigot is not one size fits all. Two book recommendation via Pandora:Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan

Pandora's been moving house and Dolly's been hosting Pretendmas (don't ask; she'll tell you all about it anyway) but there are still plenty of water cooler topics to discuss this week. From some brilliant pieces of journalism (including a heart-breaking piece by Empire Editor Terri White on the vital role a woman's refuge played in both her own childhood and in British society as a whole) to plenty of podcast recommendations from the ultimate podcat, Dolly, this week we discuss 'Cat Person', the New Yorker short story that went viral - and what this piece of fiction tells us about modern relationships; toxic masculinity; bad sex and female pleasure. We also play you an excerpt of the shocking and riveting speech given by former Facebook VP Chamath Palihapitiya at Stanford University, on how Facebook is ripping society apart. In light of this and plenty of other disclaimers from both former and present tech execs, we discuss the dangers of social media in both a personal and a social context. Fr

It’s December, which means that silly season is officially upon us. Thank goodness, then, for Alabama student Kelsey who dressed up as a Christmas tree - for every single lecture. Oh, and the scientists who think they’ve found one of Santa’s bones. We discuss Christmas in all it’s technicolour madness, and whether or not it’s really anything to do with religion anymore.Also today, the hashtagged social trend of 'women spreading’ (Pandora prefers ‘fem spreading’ but also acknowledges that it sounds a little too like margarine for your vag.) Is women spreading a symbolic riposte to man spreading? Or, is it a gimmick confined to Instagram? We talk activism in it various guises. Either way, Dolly won’t be getting her gusset out on the tube this December. Sorry lads.This festive month, The High Low is sponsored by Papier. You can get 15% off their gorgeous stationary - it’s not too late for Christmas cards! - at papier.com, using HIGHLOW.This week, we are reading, listening and watching:Demi-Gods by Eliza Rob

Thank you to everyone who enjoyed our special episode with Tina Brown last week - we had a huge response. We miss her already <3This week in the Tina-free studio, we discuss whether corporations offering to pay for women to freeze their eggs - as happening in America and soon, Australia - is a generous health benefit, or a patriarchal attempt to stave off motherhood. Shouldn’t we improve conditions and parity for working mothers (subsidised nurseries, better paternity leave, flexi-hours) first?Also in this week’s episode: Taylor Swift has been accused of espousing Trumpian values, with her white feminism and political silence. We draw on several brilliant pop-culture writers, to discuss whether this theory has any value. We cannot help but wonder, in that Carrie Bradshaw way: when did it become possible for a popstar to just be, well, a popstar? Now, they must be a symbol, an icon, a vessel and a plate. As Greta Gerwig says on Fresh Air, when quizzed why she worked with Woody Allen - women are just terrifi

Welcome to our favourite *ever* episode of The High Low - as we try not to fangirl the fuck out.For those of you with short memories, the High Low is named in homage to iconic editor Tina Brown. The creator of High Low journalism - our founding ethos of merging the trivial with the political; the irreverent with the weighty - Tina became editor of Tatler aged just 25, of Vanity Fair aged 29, and then The New Yorker, before launching the short-lived Talk and then The Daily Beast.Now, in an arguably meta move, we get Tina into the studio, to discuss her hilarious, pacey and searingly honest memoir The Vanity Fair Diaries. We talk misogyny and #MeToo; Princess Diana and Trump; the Kardashians and Meghan Markle; and, of course, Weinstein - who Tina worked with for a disastrous 2 years after they launched Talk magazine together. We take a romp through the media decadence of the 80s (when having a ‘dress allowance’ and a ’social secretary' was vital for any editor worth their salt), with the thread of tragedy

No singing this week courtesy of Louis Theroux, but three different accents from Pandora in compensation.  This week on The High Low, we discuss Boris Johnson’s buffoonery - and when being a dotard can put another woman’s life in danger. Our hearts go out to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 19 months into a 5 year sentence in Iran. As Boris (finally) meets Nazanin’s husband, Richard, we discuss the Foreign Secretary and why we struggle to understand the seeming impotence of the government in scenarios such as these.Also today, the controversial new app, MakeApp, which leaves women ‘barefaced’. Dolly think it’s misogynistic; Pandora thinks it’s yet another example of tech working against cultural psychology and the greater good. BTW Pandora did it and Dolly thought she looked better than normal, so, that’s interesting.And Pandora busts the myth of tumeric lattes with the help of registered dietician Rosie Saunt.Fun fact to (slightly) bum you out: Amazon have revealed that Fifty Shades of Grey is the No1 downlo

After some disruption to the schedule (namely two live recordings in a row and an author special, whilst Dolly’s enjoyed monsoon season in Thailand and practiced wellness with a monk) The High Low is back in the Acast studio. And we’ve got tons (literally tons) of reading, listening and watching recs for you, from our sojourns away.This week we discuss Kevin Spacey’s “I’m Gay” disclaimer, Netflix dropping him and whether or not you can separate the art from the artist. Will their legacy live on? Is the whole thing a hackneyed debate? And if Frank doesn’t come back…. will Claire?Also today, we speak to a High Low listener about the difference between an arranged and a forced marriage, after the sad news story of Aasiya Bibi, the 21-year-od Pakistani girl who murdered 15 of her husband’s family with poison, in her desperation to escape her forced marriage. It’s our first official week with Google, our sexy new partner, and Dolly kickstarts our new ‘curiosity’ segment with the Google Pixel 2, by asking Pand