255 episodes
How To Fail With Elizabeth Day Failing With Friends
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- Society & Culture
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4.8 • 8.5K Ratings
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How To Fail with Elizabeth Day is a podcast that celebrates the things in life that haven’t gone right and what we might learn from them along the way. Every week, Elizabeth’s guest explores three failures, and what these failures have taught them about how to grow and succeed, better. We’d love to hear from you! Get in touch with Elizabeth to share your failures, problems or questions - anonymously or otherwise. She'll go through these each week with the help of her very special guests. And remember: a fail shared is a fail halved. https://forms.sonymusicfans.com/campaign/how-to-fail-uk-2023/ An Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Original Production. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow @sonypodcasts To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email podcastsales@sonymusic.com
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Dating advice, professional bullsh**ers and some of the best writing advice you’ll ever hear.
Sir Salman Rushdie moved to a new country on his own as a teenager, won a Booker prize, has been married 5 times and has narrowly escaped death. Turns out he’s a brilliant Agony Uncle. He gives us his magic hack for writers who are stuck; explains why even the most celebrated novels are imperfect and why the film industry is full of it.
As ever, I’m so thankful to you for taking the time to write in and please keep them coming. I love hearing from you and my guests are often surprised at how good they are at giving advice!
Do you have something to share of your own? Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com
Production & Post Production Manager: Lily Hambly
Studio and Mix Engineer: Gulliver Tickell and Josh Gibbs
Senior Producer: Selina Ream
Executive Producer: Carly Maile
Head of Marketing: Kieran Lancini
How to Fail is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Production.
Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts
To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email podcastadsales@sonymusic.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoice -
S20, Ep 20 Salman Rushdie - ‘I’d rather have had a different life’
TW: this episode contains graphic descriptions of violence and injuries.
Two years ago, Sir Salman Rushdie, one of the most celebrated and famous authors in the world was on stage at the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York, when a figure dressed in black clothes and a mask rushed onto stage and stabbed him numerous times. He nearly died.
Today, I’m so honoured that this extraordinary man joins me to talk about what this experience taught him - and how the forces of love ultimately triumphed over the forces of hatred. We talk about his new book, Knife: Meditations on an Attempted Murder, as well as his early failures at boarding school where he was bullied for being a foreigner who was too clever and bad at games. Plus his failure to be an actor and his early writing rejections. There is some amazing advice in here for anyone involved in the act of creativity about leaning into the messy imperfections and getting to understand who you really are in the process. And…what Margaret Thatcher was *really* like.
As always, I’d LOVE to hear about your failures. Every week, my guest and I choose a selection to read out and answer on our special subscription offering, Failing with Friends. We’ll endeavour to give you advice, wisdom, some laughs and much, much more.
Knife by Salman Rushdie is available to buy now.
Have something to share of your own? I'd love to hear from you! Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com
Production & Post Production Manager: Lily Hambly
Studio and Mix Engineer: Gulliver Tickell and Josh Gibbs
Senior Producer: Selina Ream
Executive Producer: Carly Maile
How to Fail is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Production.
Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts
To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email podcastadsales@sonymusic.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
How to stand up for yourself, avoid social media pressure and ignore the pressure to drink
Louise Thompson has been to hell and back, so is perhaps the best person to give advice on how to live life - having almost had hers taken away from her. Listener questions this week include: a failure to stand up for yourself, avoiding fomo on social media, and how to get around the societal pressure to drink alcohol.
As ever, I’m so thankful to you for taking the time to write in and please keep them coming. I love hearing from you and my guests are often surprised at how good they are at giving advice!
Do you have something to share of your own? Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com
Production & Post Production Manager: Lily Hambly
Studio and Mix Engineer: Gulliver Tickell and Josh Gibbs
Producer: Hannah Talbot
Executive Producer: Carly Maile
Head of Marketing: Kieran Lancini
How to Fail is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Production.
Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts
To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email podcastadsales@sonymusic.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
S20, Ep19 Louise Thompson - ‘I asked myself: Am I alive?’
TW: this episode contains graphic descriptions of birth trauma and PTSD.
You might know Louise Thompson as the former Made in Chelsea star. Or the fitness influencer who launched two businesses and graced the cover of Women’s Health magazine twice. But when she gave birth to her son Leo, all that changed. She experienced a series of life-threatening haemorrhages before ending up in Intensive Care, absolutely convinced she was going to die. Since then, she has suffered PTSD, panic attacks and countless further complications, resulting in being fitted with a stoma in January this year.
And yet she has managed to turn her pain into something deeply inspiring. Her story is extraordinary - harrowing, yes, but also uplifting and always unfailingly honest. She talks about her failure to get a ‘proper job’ (one for Made in Chelsea fans…), her failure to advocate for herself during a traumatic birth and the difficult experience of her body failing her in the most painful ways. I’m truly honoured that she has chosen to come on How to Fail to share her story.
As always, I’d LOVE to hear about your failures. Every week, my guest and I choose a selection to read out and answer on our special subscription offering, Failing with Friends. We’ll endeavour to give you advice, wisdom, some laughs and much, much more.
Have something to share of your own? I'd love to hear from you! Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com
Production & Post Production Manager: Lily Hambly
Studio and Mix Engineer: Gulliver Tickell and Josh Gibbs
Producer: Hannah Talbot
Executive Producer: Carly Maile
How to Fail is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Production.
Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts
To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email podcastadsales@sonymusic.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
Surviving hen-dos and listening to your inner voice
I had limited time with Shania, so this week I’m flying solo to answer your questions and respond to your failures. Today I cover the difference between having a failure and feeling like a failure, the importance of listening to your inner voice, a failure to conceive and navigating the mindfield that is the FULL WEEKEND HEN DO - and how to say no.
As ever, I’m so thankful to you for taking the time to write in and please keep them coming. I love hearing from you and my guests are often surprised at how good they are at giving advice!
Do you have something to share of your own? Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com
Production & Post Production Manager: Lily Hambly
Studio and Mix Engineer: Gulliver Tickell and Josh Gibbs
Producer: Hannah Talbot
Executive Producer: Carly Maile
Head of Marketing: Kieran Lancini
How to Fail is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Production.
Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts
To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email podcastadsales@sonymusic.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices -
S20, Ep18 Shania Twain - ‘There is no man that intimidates me’
Today’s guest has the biggest selling studio album ever in the UK by an international female artist. She has won five Grammys, sold more than 100 million albums worldwide and, at 58, remains the top-selling female country pop artist of all time. This year, she makes her Glastonbury debut in the coveted Legends slot, undertakes a new tour of the UK and Ireland and returns to Las Vegas for her third residency.
And yet Shania Twain has battled adversity from a young age; her childhood was challenging and impoverished. From the age of eight, she was helping to support her family by singing in bars. Today, she is a cultural icon who has influenced a new wave of artists including Taylor Swift and Harry Styles.
Shania and I talk about her inability to remember song lyrics, her failure to stick to the rules and the grief she felt after her parents died in a car accident. Plus, why recording Man, I Feel Like A Woman, was a transformative experience for how she felt about her own body and her own femininity. It was such an honour being in the same room as this total icon, and I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did.
As always, I’d LOVE to hear about your failures. Every week, my guest and I choose a selection to read out and answer on our special subscription offering, Failing with Friends. We’ll endeavour to give you advice, wisdom, some laughs and much, much more.
Have something to share of your own? I'd love to hear from you! Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com
Production & Post Production Manager: Lily Hambly
Studio and Mix Engineer: Gulliver Tickell and Josh Gibbs
Producer: Hannah Talbot
Executive Producer: Carly Maile
How to Fail is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Production.
Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts
To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email podcastadsales@sonymusic.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Customer Reviews
Proud to Fail
Elizabeth is probably the best interviewer there is. Others could learn from her - knowing when to ask and when to listen. That is, letting the interviewee speak. This podcast makes me feel better about having failed in my life and is so refreshing. But to feature a fake like Katie Price… 🤮
Love
Love the podcast and Elizabeth. The sweaty Betty as is very annoying. I don’t want to be told to wear shorts, I want tops that are not cropped please, I would like freedom to choose style.
Bonnie Tyler
Just listened to the episode which had me in floods of tears. She spoke so beautifully about her family and especially her mother. I know her music but didn’t know very much more and this was a lovely insight to the person she is.