Standard Issue Podcast

A hugely important work when it first ran on Broadway, it’s taken 50 years for Ntozake Shange’s seminal choreopoem For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuf to get a major revival in the UK. Overseeing that is director Diane Page, who’s brought it to The Yard Theatre, Hackney, for its grand reopening.

Jen catches up with Diane to find out more about the play, why it’s taken so long for the UK to pay attention, and whether or not black women are getting a fair deal when it comes to cultural recognition.

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Painter Beryl Cook divided the art world when she burst into the public consciousness in 1976. This year, she would have celebrated her 100th birthday, so Hannah grabbed some time with Hilary Bracegirdle, writer of new biography, Beryl Cook: Life and Art, and Teresa Cook, Beryl’s daughter-in-law, to find out more about the artist's life, work and legacy.

You can grab a copy of Beryl Cook: Life and Art here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beryl-Cook-Life-Hilary-Bracegirdle/dp/1805702629

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This week, Hannah and Jen are talking about a Hyrox horror, Carers UK's new report, unrest in the countryside, a drug hoping to stave off Alzheimer's, bad behaviour at Flushing Meadows (no pun intended) and, inevitably, Sydney Sweeney's tits.

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2025 was a big year for horror, with the genre not only having some big releases, but also taking home some big awards. Including an Oscar for Amy Madigan for her role in Zach Cregger’s supernatural mystery horror, about a community left questioning WTF is going on when all but one child from the same classroom disappears at exactly 2.17am, running into the night like demented penguins. Hannah, Yosra and Mick share their thoughts.
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Many parents are moving away from the more authoritarian ideas of previous generations. But is it possible so-called “gentle parenting” has passed the point of being useful? Dr Siggie Cohen, a leading child development specialist, Instagram sensation, and author of new book You Are the Parent: Becoming the Calm Confident Leader Your Child Needs, thinks there is another way.

Jen chats to Dr Siggie about the concept of over-parenting, why it can be damaging to our kids, and why owning our own shit helps us to be better parents.

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