How To Fail With Elizabeth Day Failing With Friends

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

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

This week I’m joined by Arlene Phillips to provide advice and thoughts on your questions and failures. We dive straight into how to shift your mindset away from the negative - and practical tips that will help (Arlene is a true expert at this). We also chat about how to land your dream job as a dancer, as well as how to be a good friend (one that’s right up my alley). Finally we answer a listener’s question regarding how to launch a career in TV.
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

Oh my. I can’t tell you how moving I found this interview. That doesn’t mean it’s a weepy one - sometimes, the most powerful exchanges are the ones where you witness the sheer strength it takes someone *no*t to cry.

Dame Arlene Phillips is defined by her strength: strength of mind and of body (at 80, she’s still hard at work as a hit choreographer). You’ll know her as an internationally celebrated jazz and musical theatre legend, who has worked on some of the biggest-selling musicals in West End and Broadway theatre, as well as a number of blockbuster movies. But you might not know she lost her mum to leukaemia when she was just 15, had a challenging upbringing and had her second baby when she was 47 years old (she thought the pregnancy symptoms were signs of perimenopause). 

Then in 2008, Dame Arlene was unceremoniously dropped as a judge from Strictly Come Dancing amid accusations of ageism. She only found out when it was reported on the next day’s radio news. We talk frankly about how this affected her - and how she’s never had an apology from the BBC. We also discuss Dame Arlene’s failure to become a ballerina and how this made her feel about her body, her fear of flying and her past inability to stand up for herself.

WHAT. A. WOMAN.



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

Today I’m looking at some of your failures solo as my esteemed guest Henry Winkler had to dash.
I look at a listener’s self-professed failure to heal childhood trauma before entering a relationship, failing too late (is there such a thing?) and trusting too much.
As ever, I’m so thankful to you for taking the time to write in and please keep them coming. I love giving advice and my guests are often surprised at how good they are at it too!
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/adchoices

When Henry Winkler played Arthur Fonzarelli (The Fonz) on Happy Days, he was treated like a rock star. Afterwards wasn’t so easy though. Winkler couldn’t get work as an actor and his career as a director failed at the first hurdle. He tells me how he endured emotional abuse from his parents and had to cope with undiagnosed dyslexia at school, all of which led to lasting low self-esteem. I learn how he came to terms with these old demons through therapy and, with newfound self-knowledge in his 70s, was able to turn in award-winning performances in shows like Arrested Development and the critically acclaimed Barry.  It’s a WINKLENAISSANCE and we are so here for it.

For Henry's tour dates go to: https://www.fane.co.uk/henry-winkler

As always, I’d LOVE to hear about your failures. This week, I have chosen a selection of them to reflect on for 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

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/adchoices
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices