Steph chats with Rob and Josie da Bank about what it’s like to run a festival with your partner, and how they make it work alongside having four children. After 32 years together, and many festivals under their belts, they talk about the difficult bits, how they divide and conquer, and how helping people escape real life, screens and make some IRL memories is what drives them.   With Camp Bestival around the corner, in Dorset and then Shropshire, Rob and Josie share what they’re excited...

Feel like you do everything at home, or at least more than is your fair share? This one’s for you. Steph speaks with Eve Rodsky - Harvard-grad lawyer, activist and New York Times Bestselling author of Fair Play.   Eve is working to change society one partnership at a time by coming up with a new 21st-century solution to an age-old problem: women shouldering 2/3 or more of the unpaid domestic work and childcare for their homes and families. Eve and Steph talk about the massive impact this has...

Steph talks with author, journalist and mental health campaigner Bryony Gordon about her new book Mad Woman, an account of her life and challenges over the last few years.   With a live audience at Henley Literary Festival, in classic Bryony-style, she brings lots of energy, honesty and humour to the conversation, in which they discuss depression, OCD, Bulimia and Binge Eating Disorder, addiction and alcoholism and being perimenopausal and a woman in her 40s.   Bryony’s Instagram Mental...

Steph talks with Dr Kirren Schnack, Clinical Psychologist and author of Ten Times Calmer, a book with tools to help beat anxiety.   The conversation starts by understanding what anxiety is, what happens when we’re anxious, what are the triggers and what is happening to our nervous system. They discuss the impact having children can have on anxiety, and with the festive season around the corner, they also talk about how to avoid Christmas anxiety. Steph and Kirren then chat about some of the...

Recorded Live at the Henley Literary Festival, Steph interviews Louise Boyce AKA Mama Still Got It, Gill Sims and Clara Batten live from a Town Hall full of women out for a Friday night! Join them as they discuss the rollercoaster of motherhood - the first year of being a mum, identity, holidays with kids, the PTA, and Louise’s gross middle-of-the-night payback on her husband. Expect some swearing, some drinking and a touch of raucous.   This episode is sponsored by Ancient + Brave, who...

Ahead of the release of her new book, Clinical Psychologist Dr Karen Gurney returns to the DBHF podcast after her previous episode about sex in long term relationships became the most downloaded to date, resulting in at least two pregnancies (that we know of!) and Steph received hundreds of messages from women and couples that felt huge relief in what Karen said about desire in long term relationships.   Now Karen, AKA The Sex Doctor, has written a book specifically for parents - How Not to...

Steph chats with broadcast LEGENDS Fi Glover and Jane Garvey about their move after thirty years (each!) from the BBC to Times Radio, where they host a radio show and the Off Air podcast.    Fi and Jane describe how they found juggling a broadcast career with small children, with Fi owning that hers ‘ground to a halt’ for a period, but that she now has a job she loves that may not have been where she’d have ended up without the career break. They discuss phones, teenagers, teenagers with...

In this episode we're looking back at a brilliant episode with Helen from January 2022... Steph talks with bestselling author, journalist and speaker Helen Russell about how and why so many of us try to bury sadness, and the harm that causes. After eight years of researching happiness, Helen realised that most of us desperately want to avoid sadness, but all the experts have said we can’t, so we need to work out how to be sad, better. Helen and Steph talk about grief, infertility,...

Steph chats with brilliant comedian Kelly Convey about motherhood; it’s all very fresh for Kelly as she has had two babies with a fifteen month gap, her second still only seven months old. Steph and Kelly discuss those early months of motherhood, flashing the postman, feeling annoyed with your partner and navigating advice from others. Kelly talks about baby group blunders and making mum friends (or not!).    As a stand up, they discuss the pros and cons of Kelly being back onstage supporting...

Steph talks with writer and speaker Brigid Schulte about Overwhelm, where it comes from and what we can do to rally against it. Brigid brilliantly uses research and history to understand how we got here, and reassures that when it feels hard, it’s because it is.   Brigid explains why women feel they don’t deserve free time, why we feel we have to ‘excel’ at motherhood and importantly, what all this pressure and juggling does to women’s physical and mental health, careers and relationships....

Jo Tutchener Sharp, Founder and CEO, tells Steph about how life-changing brain surgery led to her hugely successful purpose-led fashion brand Scamp & Dude. From childrenswear to now 95% womenswear, a shop in Marlow and two more opening this Summer 2023, Jo’s PR background and desire to ‘do better’ have combined to create powerful partnerships, charity work and donations, alongside much-loved clothing.   Jo talks about setting up and then leaving her previous PR business, in a not ideal...

Psychotherapist Siobhán Murray talks with Steph about Burnout. Originally coined in the 1970s to describe an occupational phenomenon, recent decades have seen an increase in people experiencing burnout as we’re ‘nearly always switched on’. Siobhán and Steph talk about why this is, what makes women in the Rush Hour susceptible to burnout, and the signs and symptoms to identify it.   Siobhan goes into ideas on how to manage burnout, and gives some detail on the tools that will help, which are...

Sarah Rossi and Steph talk about how Sarah’s online profile, where she’s known as ‘Taming Twins’, has rocketed in the last 12 months. She talks with Steph about her career so far, from starting a bakery that she loved, and recognising that she couldn’t scale the business because it relied on her being physically there too much. Sarah’s blog Taming Twins started out as a creative outlet to share about her life with twins, until she noticed that recipes she shared were getting more...

Steph chats with businesswoman Alex Depledge for a Business Special episode of the podcast.   Alex is undoubtedly a brilliant entrepreneur, having co-founded, grown and sold first business Hassle.com for €32m, before starting another tech platform – Resi.co.uk – the UK's largest and only nationwide residential architectural platform. Alex’s ‘thing’ is disrupting with a tech solution, and cutting deals, both of which she’s very good at. She appears to have no fear, has been involved with a...

Steph speaks with Illiyin Morrison and Sophie McCartney (AKA Tired and Tested) about those early days and months of motherhood, as part of the Lost For Words series. Rather than gloss over it, Sophie and Illy both have careers that centre on being reassuringly honest about motherhood, and in turn offering support to women who may be finding it tougher than expected. Illy trained as a midwife and now helps women debrief after birth, and Sophie is a comedian and bestselling author with a huge...

Each month, the DBHF podcast will speak with founders for a business episode, to find out how they’re doing it.   The strapline for Alison Burton and Natalie Duvall’s business March Muses is ‘Celebrating Diversity by Diversifying Celebrations’. It begun from a search for Christmas decorations that represented the black community, and opened up a world of possibilities with the realisation that so many celebrations are lacking that representation.   Steph talks with Alison and Natalie about...

Continuing the Lost For Words series, Steph speaks with Leanne Pero and Emma Campbell about Cancer. Both women have been diagnosed with breast cancer – Leanne is in remission and Emma continues with regular treatment after her third diagnosis in 2019. Both women are incredibly honest about their experience, struggles and the mental health impact. Sometimes the voices of cancer are either gloomy or exceptionally brave, but it is clear from this conversation that it is so much more nuanced....

For the second episode of this Lost For Words series, Steph spoke with podcast hosts The Other Mothers AKA Caro Tasker, Elle Wright and Jen Reid, three women on a mission to talk about Baby Loss, pushing through the discomfort people feel, to better support those going through it.    Through their tragic experiences of baby loss, which include stillbirth, neonatal death and SIDS (formerly known as cot death), Caro, Elle and Jen explain to Steph how those early weeks felt. The ladies talk...

This series of the Don’t Buy Her Flowers podcast is about those events that can leave people Lost For Words, kicking off with Cariad Lloyd talking about grief and death. Cariad is a comedian, actress and writer and the woman behind the award-winning and brilliant podcast Griefcast, where she speaks with guests about their own experience of grief. And rather than being depressing, it’s about life and relationships and love and even more, about opening up the conversation to try to remove shame...

Zoe Blaskey from The Motherkind Podcast joins with Steph and the Don’t Buy Her Flowers podcast for this end of year special! Steph and Zoe have each chosen three guests they spoke with on their own podcasts in 2022 to discuss and see what each other took from the guests.   The conversation centres around motherhood, identity, relationships and sex. Zoe has chosen Psychologists Dr Rick Hanson and Dr Becky Kennedy, both experts in motherhood, family and relationships, who speak brilliantly...

Steph chats with Laura Belbin AKA Knee Deep in Life and Victoria Emes, two brilliant comedians who separately have taken social media by storm, leading to hundreds of thousands of followers, books, a stage show and then together, they have created the Podcast ‘No Holes Barred’, where listeners write in with their frankly disgusting stories. Obviously Steph asks them about the grossest ones.   Laura and Victoria chat openly about how they fell in to these careers, their plans for Christmas,...

After studying Design at London College of Fashion, Beth Huett opened her clothes shop Dolly Rock in St Margarets in 2011. Beth talks with Steph about getting started and the challenges of being an independent retailer, Brexit, and the Pandemic. Beth closed her shop after almost ten years at the end of 2020, and tells Steph about how she made the decision to avoid administration and take control as much as she could.   Beth talks about the sadness she felt, like a heartbreak, but also two...

Yvonne Telford is the founder of clothing brand Kemi Telford, which she started in 2017 with £60 and some tote bags. Yvonne tells Steph about her founder story and how the business evolved into what it is now – a highly regarded fashion brand with partnerships with John Lewis and Tate, celebrity fans and featured in Vogue.   Yvonne talks with Steph about the boom Kemi Telford experienced during the Pandemic, and the importance of remembering her ‘Why?’ as retail slows down. They discuss how...

Steph spoke with James O’Hara about his life in hospitality as a serial business owner - the challenges, the peaks, managing a team and the lessons James has learned along the way. James also talks about how young people don’t drink like we did in the 90s/00s, Covid’s legacy and how belligerence has helped him as a founder.   James’ career in hospitality started with a club night in Sheffield; James has a talent for spotting what customers are after next, and now owns multiple bars and venues...