Ctrl Alt Delete

Recorded live at Waterstones, London on May 11th, 2017. Emily Reynolds is a writer and author, based in London, specialising in features and opinion on mental health, tech, science and gender. She has bylines at NY Mag, the Guardian, Times Literary Supplement, New Statesman, BBC and many more. She has appeared on Newstalk, the FiveThirtyEight podcast, Radio 4's Today Programme and Woman's Hour. Her first book, A Beginner's Guide To Losing Your Mind, was released in February 2017. In 2016 she co-founded the Words by Women Awards, the only general UK awards for women journalists. It received thousands of nominations and had press coverage on Radio 4 and in the Telegraph, Guardian, Spectator and more. The Society of Editors formed an advisory group to deal with diversity following the success of the awards.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I interviewed Daisy Buchanan for episode #71 and we also did a Twitter Q&A around her book How To Be A Grown-Up which is out NOW. So, enjoy this bonus extra episode from that interview! We talk about the phrase "real women", femvertising, activism as a trend, male feminism, freelancing advice and more. Daisy Buchanan is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and author. Last year she won the Words by Women Lifestyle Journalist award and Dating Journalist of the Year at the UK Dating Awards. She was Grazia’s agony aunt and is the author of How To Be A Grown Up which is out now with Headline. She writes regularly for the Debrief, Esquire, the Guardian, the Sunday Times and The Telegraph.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This episode was audio produced by Shola Aleje and Marcus Hessenberg. In this episode, I sat with Gemma Cairney in the basement of Tottenham Court Road Waterstones and we talked about the ups and downs of *life* and all the important themes in Gemma's new book. We discuss how to deal with toxic friendships, how to work professionally with friends, how to deal with life and work "overwhelm", how to create boundaries, GIRL POWER, period leaks, heart-ache and heartbreak, mental health, empathy, anger management, how we can look after our bodies, teens, activism...THE LOT. Hope you enjoy the episode. It was a big open-hearted chat and I loved it.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Seth Godin is a legend. The author of 18 books that have been bestsellers around the world and have been translated into more than 35 languages. He is something spreads ideas and writes about marketing, leadership and change. Some of his most well-known books are Linchpin, Tribes, and Purple Cow which I mention on this podcast in conversation. It's a book that has really inspired me - it's all about how to be remarkable and stand out. His blog (which you can find by typing "seth" into Google) is one of the most popular in the world. Seth is well-known in the publishing industry, mainly since launching a series of four books via Kickstarter. The campaign reached its goal after three hours and ended up becoming the most successful book project ever done this way. His newest book, What To Do When It's Your Turn, is already a bestseller. We talk about personal branding, fear, education, making decisions and teaching yourself. I hope you enjoy this episode. He's a real hero of mine.  See acast.com/privac

Lilly Singh is an extremely popular and talented entertainer who has found worldwide fame through her YouTube channel which currently has over 11 million subscribers. She has interviewed everyone from Michelle Obama to Bill Gates and makes amazing weekly videos. She was featured in Forbes' 2016 30 Under 30 and in 2016 was named the top earning female YouTuber in the world. Lilly’s book teaches readers how to be their own bawse, a person who exudes confidence and reaches goals. Inspired by hilarious and honest stories from Lilly's own experiences and life achievements, this book proves that becoming a bawse requires hard work and dedication – and that there are no shortcuts to success.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Victoria is one of the top bloggers and YouTubers in the luxury fashion space - her blog In The Frow is an award-winning blog which has a huge global audience. Victoria has a PHD in fashion, started her career as a Fashion Marketing Lecturer at the University of Manchester and is now a L’Oreal Paris hair ambassador. She was also in a huge Princes Trust L’Oreal campaign alongside people such as Helen Mirren, Katie Piper and Cheryl Cole. In 2016, Victoria was also nominated for a Glamour Woman of the Year Award and won Best UK Fashion Blog in the Vuelio Blog Awards. Victoria has worked with a huge number of established fashion and beauty brands, including Burberry, Dior, Armani, Coach, Clarins, Net-A-Porter, Selfridges. In this episode we break some YouTuber myths, talk work life balance, self doubt and how having your own platform can give you so much opportunity.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Daisy Buchanan is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and author. Last year she won the Words by Women Lifestyle Journalist award and Dating Journalist of the Year at the UK Dating Awards. She was Grazia's agony aunt and is the author of How To Be A Grown Up which is out now with Headline. She writes regularly for the Debrief, Esquire, the Guardian, the Sunday Times and The Telegraph. We talk about book writing, jealousy, creating boundaries, why quitting can be a good thing and whether or not any of us ever feel like a grown-up.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Melissa is a food lover and one half of the Hemsley+Hemsley sisters. She is a cookbook author with a London cafe ‘HEMSLEY + HEMSLEY at Selfridges’ and a Channel 4 TV series that celebrates great ingredients and easy home cooking. Melissa’s new book ‘EAT HAPPY: 30 minute Feelgood Food’ is out Jan 2018 and she is committed to bold, simple, healthy food based around accessible ingredients and innovative recipes that everyone can cook. Melissa is passionate about cutting down on food waste, transforming leftovers and spreading love through food and is proud to have worked with CookforSyria.com, Headtalks.com a place where you can find inspiring talks on mental health and wellbeing and is a judge for the YBFs (Young British Foodies).  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Bryony Gordon is a writer and columnist at the Telegraph and a Sunday Times bestselling author of two memoirs, The Wrong Knickers and Mad Girl. The Wrong Knickers came out in 2014, a memoir of "hedonistic antics" during her single life and Mad Girl picked in the most recent Richard and Judy Book Club is an honest account of life living a mental illness specifically OCD. Last year, Bryony founded Mental Health Mates a regular meet-up for people with mental health issues, where they could walk and talk without fear of judgement. It’s grown hugely and is now situated in several locations around the UK and in America. We talk about how running has helped Bryony’s mental health, how she works and writes, what it means to have a book about mental health in mainstream book clubs, and why it’s OK to have bad days, weeks or years sometimes.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I met Lena Dunham in 2014 when I interviewed her for an online magazine about her book and since then we’ve kept in touch. She has been a huge supportive influence, also having generously given me a quote for my book. She needs no introduction really but here it is. It is safe to say she is one of the most successful women in the biz right now. Lena Dunham is a Golden Globe winner, best known for writing, directing, producing and acting in Girls HBO. Her first big break was in 2010, when her film Tiny Furniture and won the South by Southwest Film Festival's best narrative feature award. In 2014 she released her book Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's Learned which went on to be a New York Times Bestseller (no surprises there.) In 2015 she founded the online feminist Lenny Letter with her creative partner Jenni Konner. They have an advertising partnership with Hearst and they now have their own imprint at Penguin Random House. Her podcast Women of the Hour is also one of my favourites wh

Alice Lowe is a director, actress and writer, mainly in comedy. She is best known for her roles in the Garth Marenghi series and as the lead and co-writer of the 2012 film Sightseers. Her new film is out NOW (in UK and now America) called Prevenge, a comedy-slasher film about a pregnant woman seeking revenge. Alice appeared in the action comedy film Hot Fuzz, and took a lead role in the 2012 film Sightseers, the third production from director Ben Wheatley. Sightseers was written by Alice with Steve Oram, with additional material by Amy Jump. Alice also had a role in the Edgar Wright-directed film The World’s End. We recorded this podcast at the BFI with a live audience which was so much fun. It’s a little longer than my usual episodes. We LOVED recording it with a crowd and thank you to the BFI for hosting Ctrl Alt Delete.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Imrie Morgan is the Co-Founder and CEO of the ShoutOut Network and the Co-host of the Melanin Millennials podcast. This podcast is one of the first UK podcasts to be made by and for black British women - it’s been covered by places like The Debrief and Refinery 29 and is expanding into live events and sponsorship with big brands. All the podcasts on the Shout Out next work are hosted by people from underrepresented backgrounds - it now has 5 podcasts on the roster, covering pop-culture, history, books, comedy, philosophy, theatre, film and music and it’s growing. The books podcast is called Mostly Lit and was one of iTunes best podcasts of 2016. I really love and respect what Imrie is doing and wanted to talk to her about how she founded the network, the power of podcasting, the challenges along the way and why it’s so important to have a platform and a voice online.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Today's episode is with Gilllian Anderson and Jennifer Nadel. Gillian is an actress, activist and writer, probably best known for her iconic roles in the X Files and The Fall. Jennifer is a qualified barrister who, after reporting for the BBC and Channel 4 News, became ITN’s Home Affairs Editor. She has also written a non-fiction book which was made into a channel 4 documentary and a novel called Pretty Thing. They’ve together written a book called WE: A Manifesto for Women Everywhere. Gillian and Jennifer are two good friends who for the last decade have stumbled along together, figuring stuff out, learning, failing, crying, laughing and trying – WE is a not a big heavy theoretical read but instead a rallying cry to create a life that has greater meaning and purpose. It combines tools which are practical, psychological and spiritual, to find a more fulfilling way of living life. It’s a really wonderful book which lots of advice that I feel the authors are passing on to their selves.  See acast.com/

Elan has worked in the film industry for years and is best known for writing the award-winning screenplay for What If? starring Daniel Radcliffe, Zoe Kazan and Adam Driver. All Our Wrong Todays is Elan’s debut novel and the film rights for the adaptation have been secured by Paramount and producer Amy Pascal (who produced the female Ghostbusters). Elan is currently writing the screenplay for film development. So the premise of the book? It’s 2016 and in Tom’s world, technology has solved all of humanity’s problems – there’s no war, no poverty, no under-ripe avocados. Unfortunately, Tom isn’t happy. He’s lost the girl of his dreams. And what do you do when you’re heartbroken and have access to a time machine? Something very stupid indeed. Want to know more - you'll have to buy the book.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Liv is a popular YouTuber, blogger, Instagrammer and is currently nominated for a GLAMOUR Woman Of The Year Award. Her blog ‘What Olivia Did’ has grown into an outlet for everything from personal style, travel, food, music and beauty, as well as interviews with inspiring women who she admires. Mixing ethereal photography with her instinctive style and beautiful attention to detail. Olivia has recently collaborated with Lancôme at the Bafta’s, Boden, Miss Selfridge, Kate Spade, Estee Lauder to name a few and is represented by Storm Models. In this episode we talk about comparing ourselves to other people online and how to deal.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Tiffanie Darke is someone I've admired for years. She was the editor of Sunday Times Style for 12 years, then the creative content director at News UK. She has a new book that has just come out called "This is 40: whatever happened to Generation X", where she has interviewed some of the most iconic Gen X’ers such as Pearl Lowe, Richard Reed and Blur’s bassist Alex James to look at how Gen X live their life in between being young and old. She's also written two novels - her first novel, MARROW, was shortlisted for the WH Smith Fresh Talent award. In this episode we talk about the myth of "having it all", burn-out, the differences between Gen X and Millennials and how to go after the life you want.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Grace Victory is an award-winning blogger, YouTuber and TV presenter and soon to be author. She was voted best YouTuber for Cosmopolitan Magazine and was awarded Most Inspiring Role Model by InStyle Magazine. Grace is an inspiration to thousands of young people around the world and hailed as the “most inspiring person on the net” and the “Internet's Big Sister”, being one of the only mainstream fashion and beauty bloggers to cover mental health issues. Last year Grace made her BBC 3 documentary debut called Clean Eating’s Dirty Secrets. The documentary was one of the most watched shows on BBC Three Online, achieving over 1.5 million views. Grace's second documentary for BBC Three, The Cost of Cute: The Dark Side of The Puppy Trade is a hard hitting look at the designer dogs industry. Grace has exclusively presented London Fashion Week and has worked with brands including Clinique, L'Oreal, ASOS, Rimmel and New Look, the list goes on. She speaks about bullying, anxiety and body image and i respect her hugely a

Sophie Kinsella is an international bestselling author - she has sold 7 million copies of her books worldwide and is a household name after finding fame with her hugely popular Shopaholic series in 2000. Her novels have been translated into 30 languages and her Shopaholic novels were made into films starring Isla Fisher. Last year, she made her first foray into the YA world with Finding Audrey - which was chosen by Zoella in her WHSmith 2017 book club. Her new book, My Not So Perfect Life is about the way that social media makes us feel. The way we look at other people’s Instagram feeds and think ‘god, their life is perfect’ and comparing ourselves to others and have “perfect” role models on the other side of a computer screen. In this episode we talk about our addiction to social media, Sophie’s writing process, how to find and commit to new ideas and the temptation of online comparison.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We talk about campaigning, collaboration and the influence of having parents who are very active in the charity space - the filmmaker Richard Curtis and script-writer Emma Freud - they play a big role in not-for-profit organisations such as Project Everyone and the Global Goals. Although they are many dark corners of the Intenet, we talk about the positives: how communities you create via Internet and blogging can help save your life. Scarlett has launched an initiative recently called Un-Idle Collective. They will be hosting meet ups to discuss political and personal issues affecting the world and this week was the first one, we discussed things such as intersectional feminism, the refugee crisis, sustainability, politics, working parents and lots more. It’s about doing something, however small, and about incorporating activism into your daily life.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Bridget Minamore is a writer. She has written for the Guardian, The Pool, The Debrief, Pitchfork and others. She writes about pop culture, race, and feminism – and the intersections between them. She is part of the creative team behind Brainchild Festival and works with the charity My Body Back, a project to empower women who have experienced sexual violence. She also a poet and runs poetry workshops – mostly for young people – around the UK. Her poetry book called ‘Titanic‘ came out last year. She has worked with the National Theatre and the Royal Opera House, and read her poems at places including the Roundhouse, Latitude Festival, the Bristol Old Vic and the Southbank Centre. She was chosen as one of The Hospital Club’s Emerging Creatives in 2015. We talk about pitching ourselves, using Twitter to further your career, changing your mind and the importance of forgiving yourself. The title of this episode "How Much Would It Cost To Delete Your Twitter Account?" is inspired by a tweet from @NotAgainBen.