206 episodes
How To Fail With Elizabeth Day Elizabeth Day
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- Society & Culture
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4.8 • 8.2K Ratings
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How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is a podcast that celebrates the things that haven’t gone right. Every week, a new interviewee explores what their failures taught them about how to succeed better.
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S18, Ep4 Arlo Parks on the impossibility of perfection
Arlo Parks is a singer, songwriter and poet. Her debut album, Collapsed in Sunbeams was released when she was just 21 and earned her two Grammy nominations, a BRIT Award and the Mercury Music Prize. Her second, My Soft Machine, came out earlier this year. This month also marks the publication of her first volume of poetry, The Magic Border, a collection of never-before-seen poems and song lyrics.
Parks joins me to talk about her faiure to create a perfect piece of work, her failure to save others, her failure to fit into what other people think of her - and why Phoebe Bridgers epitomises 'big brother energy'. I loved talking to this beautiful human - her thoughtfulness and her lyrical expression will soothe you and make you think.
Enjoy!
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Arlo's poetry collection, The Magic Border, is out now.
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I'm going on tour! To AUSTRALIA, mate! You can now purchase tickets to see me live at Sydney Opera House on 26th February 2024 or the Arts Centre Melbourne on 28th February 2024.
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How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted and produced by Elizabeth Day. To contact us, email howtofailpod@gmail.com
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Social Media:
Elizabeth Day @elizabday
How To Fail @howtofailpod
Arlo Parks @arlo.parks -
S18, Ep3 Rory Stewart on why politics is broken - and what to do about it
Rory Stewart is a bestselling writer, podcaster, former politician, adventurer and charity boss. You might know him from his chart-topping podcast, The Rest is Politics, which features Stewart and Alastair Campbell disagreeing agreeably about issues of the day.
After Eton and Oxford, Stewart briefly joined the army and then the diplomatic service. In his 30s, he was elected as an MP, rising to become the Secretary of State for International Development. He stood - unsuccessfully - against Boris Johnson for leadership of the Conservative Party (a failure which haunts him still and which he discusses in this episode). Now, having resigned from politics entirely, he has published a book, Politics on the Edge, about his decade in parliament.
He joins me to talk about the failure of the political system, his own failure to solve it and I explain the rules of 'Shag, Marry, Kill' - never let it be said that I can't lower the tone, eh?
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Rory's new book, Politics on the Edge, is out now and available to order here.
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I'm going on tour! To AUSTRALIA, mate! You can now purchase tickets to see me live at Sydney Opera House on 26th February 2024 or the Arts Centre Melbourne on 28th February 2024.
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How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted and produced by Elizabeth Day. To contact us, email howtofailpod@gmail.com
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Social Media:
Elizabeth Day @elizabday
How To Fail @howtofailpod
Rory Stewart @rorystewartuk -
S18, Ep2 Sara Pascoe on fertility, fear and what success really means
TW: fertility and miscarriage
Sara Pascoe is a critically acclaimed comedian, writer and actor. Her latest stand-up tour is called - aptly enough for this podcast - Success and her debut novel, Weirdo, is published tomorrow. It's a dark, funny, stream-of-consciousness narrative ride through the internal machinations of Sophie, an anxious, sometimes obsessive, often unhappy woman trying to feel less lost. I gobbled it up.
Sara joins me to talk about failing at acting, why every year she promises herself she'll never do the Edinburgh Fringe again (and every year breaks that promise) and, in a heartbreaking third failure, she talks candidly about failing to get pregnant for over a decade, suffering a miscarriage, doing IVF and eventually having a baby but remaining in a state of high anxiety throughout her pregnancy. It's a beautiful conversation, and I am so grateful to Sara for talking about something that is very difficult to put into words. I know her courageous vulnerability will help so many people.
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Weirdo by Sara Pascoe is out tomorrow.
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I'm going on tour! To AUSTRALIA, mate! You can now purchase tickets to see me live at Sydney Opera House on 26th February 2024 or the Arts Centre Melbourne on 28th February 2024.
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How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted and produced by Elizabeth Day. To contact us, email howtofailpod@gmail.com
--
Social Media:
Elizabeth Day @elizabday
How To Fail @howtofailpod
Sara Pascoe @sara.pascoe -
S18, Ep1 Miriam Margolyes on not marrying a nice Jewish doctor
WAHOOOOO! A whole new season of How To Fail, and WHAT an opening guest we have for you. Yes, it's the one and only Miriam Margolyes: actor, bestelling author and the nation's favourite talkshow guest. She's been described by Vogue as 'Britain's mischief-maker in chief' and started her career in radio and theatre, before moving into films (she won a Bafta for her role in Martin Scorcese’s The Age of Innocence and is beloved by legions of younger fans for playing Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter movies). Margolyes is a TV regular in shows such as Blackadder and Call the Midwife and is just about to publish the second instalment of her memoirs, Oh, Miriam!
Today, she joins us to talk about letting down her parents, the joy of friendship, her fear of letting her body down and the lifelong regret she has over telling her mother the truth of her own sexuality. A poignant, provoking and - yes - hilarious conversation. Enjoy!
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You can order Miriam's new memoir, Oh, Miriam! here.
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How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted and produced by Elizabeth Day. To contact us, email howtofailpod@gmail.com
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Social Media:
Elizabeth Day @elizabday
How To Fail @howtofailpod
Miriam Margolyes @mmargolyes -
The F-Word Miniseries: Mo Gawdat and Elizabeth Day on Friendship
Welcome to The How To Fail F-Word miniseries! Three days, three guests, three different F-words.
In this final episode, the tables are turned and I’m the one being interviewed on...friendships. My interviewer is non other than my dear friend and beloved How To Fail repeat guest, the wonderful Mo Gawdat. And, as ever with us, the conversation goes both ways. This was recorded for Mo’s own podcast, Slow Mo, and released on his channels last month. Enjoy.
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You can find Mo's own podcast, Slo Mo, here.
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How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted and produced by Elizabeth Day. To contact us, email howtofailpod@gmail.com
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Social Media:
Elizabeth Day @elizabday
How To Fail @howtofailpod
Mo Gawdat @mo_gawdat -
The F-Word Miniseries: Nigel Morris on leaving school at 15 and becoming a billionaire
Welcome to The How To Fail F-Word miniseries! Three days, three guests, three different F-words.
Today, we have Nigel Morris...on fuel.
Nigel Morris is the definition of a self-made man: born in Essex, the son of an army sergeant father and a Welsh mother, he left school at 15 before going on to co-found one of the biggest banks in the world, Capital One. How did he do it? What motivates him? How does he manage his ambition?
A slightly different How To Fail episode from usual, but perhaps an even more interesting one because of it. We don't get that many business people offering to share their failures in such an open way and I'm very grateful to Nigel for doing so.
This episode was recorded in front of a live audience at an annual event hosted by Clearscore, the free credit score app. Full disclosure: Clearscore is my husband's company. I was not paid a fee so this is not a branded episode (but they're really good fyi).
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How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted and produced by Elizabeth Day. To contact us, email howtofailpod@gmail.com
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Social Media:
Elizabeth Day @elizabday
How To Fail @howtofailpod
Customer Reviews
Beautiful conversation with Meg Mason
I have listened to many, many episodes of How to Fail. I love Elizabeth’s compassionate, intelligent and well-researched interviewing.
Meg Mason suggests at the end of the podcast that your listeners may well scroll past her episode to more famous names. Which is why I was compelled to write this review. In truth, I had not heard of her before, but this is one of my favourite episodes. I loved her honesty and integrity talking about lost friendship and the difficulties around permanence of her past writing. I found it very moving. I will most definitely be reading Sorrow and Bliss.
To listen to Elizabeth Day is like listening to a delightful, intelligent friend…
Elizabeth Day interviews with such compassion and insight, skilfully drawing people out; it’s such a refreshing change from the classic adversarial interview. I particularly loved the interviews with Dr Gladys McGarey - so inspiring and Greta Thunberg - informational and truly touching. I am making my way back through all the others. What a wealth! Thank you Elizabeth 💛
Rory Stewart
What a fabulous interview, and I’m so devastated we never got to have Rory as our Prime Minister… yet 🤞
Another 5* guest, thank you Elizabeth.