Culture, news and jokes with sharp elbows.
Standard Issue Podcast mixes sharp women-led conversation with interviews, film chat, news riffs and cultural detours. Its regular rhythm swings from Rated or Dated movie arguments to Bush Telegraph current-affairs panic, with room for opera, folk art, Virginia Woolf and whatever fresh nonsense has arrived.
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Standard Issue Podcast is a sprawling, quick-witted culture show built around women talking seriously, irreverently and often all at once about whatever has earned their attention. It has structure, but it does not feel over-managed. Recent episodes show a format that can carry film reviews, author interviews, theatre conversations, art history, politics and odd news without pretending those subjects live in separate rooms. Rated or Dated brings the sharpest pub-table energy, sending films such as Escape to Victory and Josie and the Pussycats through memory, casting, politics, box-office trivia and personal irritation. Flicking adds another film lane, with Left-Handed Girl taking the place of an unavailable documentary and becoming its own argument about access, expectation and second choices that are not really second choices. The Bush Telegraph gives the news cycle a frazzled, funny treatment, especially when American politics, AI alarm and general public madness pile up together. The interview episodes slow the rhythm without sanding off the personality. Rebecca Waite’s Havoc opens into talk about hysteria, teenage anxiety, Picnic at Hanging Rock and enclosed communities. Leyla Nazli and Lisa Logan’s opera conversation uses Greta Thunberg and contemporary subject matter to push against old assumptions about the form. Ila Colley’s episode on Elizabeth Allen moves through folk art, prophecy, absurdity and a life that seems too strange to flatten. Flora Wilson-Brown’s discussion of Virginia Woolf’s The Waves makes space for intimidation, affection and adaptation. The show is not trying to be tidy. It is trying to be alive. Tangents matter here, because they often reveal the point more clearly than a straight explanation would. The tone is warm, dry and occasionally blunt, with comic swerves sitting beside real cultural curiosity. Listeners get a panel that can joke about football goalkeeping one minute and talk about artistic legacy the next. It is a good fit for people who want film, books, theatre, politics and women’s lives treated as one messy conversation. Standard Issue Podcast’s strength is range with a recognizable social rhythm. It sounds broad because the world it is describing is broad.
Made for: For listeners who like brisk women-led conversation about films, books, theatre, politics, art and the odd absurd headline. It especially suits people who prefer cultural criticism with jokes, detours and lived-in opinions.
What sets it apart: Standard Issue Podcast stands out by making its recurring formats feel loose and sociable rather than segmented and stiff. Film chat, interviews and current-affairs riffs share the same quick, funny, culturally alert pulse.
By women. For women. About everything. Standard Issue is a podcast championing women's voices, and packed with interviews, news, film, opinion and humour. For advertising enquiries, email [email protected]
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Sharp rewatch conversations test beloved films against craft, cultural change and the hosts' unruly collective memory.
Standard Issue Podcast turns a film review into a lively test of memory, craft and changing standards. In "Rated or Dated," Hannah, Jen Offord and Mickey revisit familiar movies with an eye for what still works and what has aged badly.
Dolly Parton, Greta Thunberg and a shaved Ramsgate cat walk into your listening queue.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A lively film-and-football chat that keeps circling back to World Cup memories.
The episode frames Escape to Victory as a knowingly ridiculous watch, with Michael Caine and Sylvester Stallone giving the discussion plenty of room for jokes from the opening minutes.
A book chat that circles atmosphere, memory and a very mad ending.
Standard Issue uses Rebecca Waite's return to Havoc to frame a conversation about atmosphere, the removed ending, and the sealed-off worlds where oddness can take hold.
A clear, thoughtful review of how Greta Thunberg, subtitles, and a heatwave become part of opera's accessibility argument.
Opera can still look, from the outside, like a closed room: ornate, formal, and full of inherited distance. This single-episode review finds a more immediate way in, placing Greta Thunberg at the centre of a discussion about whether a contemporary subject can sit naturally…
A funny, affectionate culture roundup where theatre, film and future plans share the same table.
Standard Issue Podcast's Review of the Year 2025 treats the roundup less as a ranked list than a lively wander through the culture that stayed with Hannah, Jen Offord and Chopsy O'Hara.
A 9 to 5 rewatch where workplace sexism meets faulty plot memory, screwball detail, and Dolly Parton's fingernail-set beat.
Rated or Dated revisits 9 to 5 as a workplace comedy about sexism, then follows the stranger pieces that memory tends to smooth away. Hannah Dunleavy, Jen Offord, and Bikinona set the film's reputation against its stolen corpse, hand-gliding suit, animated rabbit, and stoned…
Faithful fatherhood for hard family moments.
Real-life health for busy moms.
Hannah Dunleavy, Jen Offord, and Bikinona review the 1980 comedy '9 to 5' starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton.
This episode features an interview with Holocaust historian Elizabeth Hyman about her book 'The Girl Bandits of the Warsaw Ghetto,' which tells the stories of five Jewish women during World War II.
Hannah hosts a year-end review with Jen Offord and Mickey, focusing on personal highlights rather than news.
Andy Burnham's first Labour conference speech prompted Hannah Dunleavy to welcome public control of housing, water and energy, closer ties with Europe and proportional representation.
Standard Issue Podcast’s “The Bush Telegraph: Wait… Andy Burnham?!?” covers Andrew and Tristan Tate’s arrests, the 59 UK charges they face, and commentary on Andrew Tate’s clothing.
Standard Issue Podcast host Miki interviews Addy E Kitchens about Dominion, a debut novel set in the Mississippi Delta at the turn of the century and shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction.
The panel opens with jokes and costumes, then settles into the glorious daftness of Escape to Victory.
Hannah kicks off with the weather and what's coming up this week.
Standard Issue Podcast host Jen talks with Arcola Theatre executive director Leila Nasli and composer-librettist Lisa Logan about the 19th year of the Arcola's Grimeborn opera festival in Dalston.
The hosts discuss their shift from watching an unavailable Iranian documentary to reviewing the Taiwanese family drama 'Left-Handed Girl', exploring themes of women's roles in film.
Two hosts discuss the overwhelming sense of modern madness, covering Trump's inflammatory social media posts and AI companies' warnings about dangerous technology updates.
This episode reviews the 2001 film 'Josie and the Pussycats', discussing its cast, box office performance, and cultural impact as a teen movie.
This episode explores the fascinating life and work of artist Elizabeth Allen through an interview with curator Isla Colley about the exhibition 'Troublemakers and Prophets' at Compton Verney.
This episode features a chat with playwright Flora Wilson-Brown about her adaptation of Virginia Woolf's novel 'The Waves' for its upcoming opening at London's German Street Theatre.
This episode features an interview with journalist Catherine Carr about her new book 'Who's the Favourite', which explores the topic of siblings and family dynamics.
This episode features an interview with playwright Catherine Dyson about her latest play, 'The Last Picture', which explores themes of empathy, anti-Semitism, and emotional support dogs through a school trip narrative.
This episode features an interview with sustainability expert Ilana Adamson, who discusses implementing science-based sustainability practices in businesses and non-profits.
This episode features an interview with former GB snowboarder Aimee Fuller and GB Snowsport CEO Vicky Gosling discussing the Winter Olympics, the British team's performance, and the TNT sports documentary She Who Dares.