Standard Issue Podcast

Jesse Eisenberg’s Oscar-winning comedy drama received an embarrassment of plaudits from the industry and critics. Now it’s time to get the ones that really matter: Mick, Hannah and Yosra watch American-Jewish cousins Benji (Kieran Culkin) and David (Eisenberg) as they embark on a Jewish heritage tour of Poland, following the death of their Holocaust-surviving grandmother. Feel-good film? Mismatched buddy comedy? Devastatingly bittersweet? All of the above? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's the first BT of 2026, so Mickey and Hannah have some catching up to do. This time, they're talking about failure: Grok user failures, women's health study failures and child benefit failures. Still, elderly nuns are making a reappearance, so it's not all bad.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thomas Carter’s teen dance film helped launch the career of Julia Stiles, but has she been wronged by public perceptions of her dance skills in the years that followed? How many tropes are too many tropes? And can it hold a torch to 1983's Flashdance? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Holocaust Memorial Day is coming up later this month (Tuesday 27 January), so Hannah's been on the Zoom with historian Elizabeth Hyman to talk about her non-fiction book The Girl Bandits of the Warsaw Ghetto. They talk about five very different women who lived there, the work they did for their people and the tough choices they made. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feeling bogged down by meetings and out of her depth at work, travel writer Laura Hall quit her job and embarked on a fresh challenge to get her life back on track. Her new book, The Year I Lay My Head in Water: Swimming Scandinavia in Search of a Better Life, documents the year that followed, spent cold-water swimming around Scandinavia. Jen chats to Laura about the book, the appeal of the sea, the insanity of cold-water swimming, and the absolute joy of taking on a daft challenge. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices