Standard Issue Podcast

Iranian-American author Laleh Khadivi’s latest novel, Female Life on Planet Earth, centres on a mid-life woman, Heti, who comes up against some new information about her recently dead mum that questions everything she thought she knew about her. Or does it? From there, Laleh explores how an individual woman can be a multitude of women, and the distinctively female ability to regenerate.

She chats to Mick about motherhood, daughterhood, legacy, heritage, female voices, and how well we ever really know a person.

Female Life on Planet Earth is published by Oneworld and out now.
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In 2013 director Grace Harper Brighouse began work on a film about her dad Richard’s dying dog, in a bid to heal their fractured relationship. Over the course of filming, tragic events unfolded within the family, changing the nature of the film and the discussion about Richard’s long-standing drug addiction. More than a decade later, the finished film became her debut feature documentary Dependence, which is set to make its international premiere at the BFI London Film Festival, as part of the Grierson Award documentary competition.



Jen chats to Grace about the film, representations of addiction, grief, love, and finding the funny.

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In this month's Outside The Box, Jen and Hannah have been busying themselves watching Slow Horses, Youth, The Blame and Vigil, plus they look forward to the annual Autumn Drama Drop.

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A romance/fantasy/drama/comedy, there's a lot going on in Terry Gilliam's New York-set classic. But does the story of grief, guilt and forgiveness still have something to say today? Hannah and Jen tuck in.

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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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