Lyn Slater and I have met several times over the years, in New York - and she attended both my book launches with her partner Calvin. The former professor, writer, activist and 'reformed cultural influencer' is an impressive woman. A social worker for 45 years, she has a PhD in Social Welfare. While lecturing at university, 61-year-old Lyn started her fashion blog Accidental Icon and subsequently became a massive social media star. Now she's published her first book How To Be Old: Lessons in...

Concerned about social justice from an early age, Stella Creasy rallied friends to protest about animal cruelty in her teens. Before making her way to Westminster via Walthamstow Council, London (where she's lived since 1998), Stella was employed as a youth and a charity worker. 'Politics seemed like a productive place to make change happen,' the 46-year-old tells me, 'In my head I'm still that 15 year-old burnished with injustice at the world and excitement about what can be achieved.'...

If you’re a fan of BBC2’s Secrets of the Museum, the series filmed behind the scenes at the V&A, then you will recognise my latest podcast guest. Dr Christine Checinska is the Senior Curator of Africa and Diaspora: Textiles and Fashion, and Lead Curator of the Africa Fashion exhibition, currently showing at the museum. ‘ We had to do the show now because the contemporary fashion scene on the continent is so inspirational, so innovative – we couldn’t wait,’ she says, ‘African creatives and...

Emma Kennedy is quite possibly the most multi-talented podcast guest I've interviewed. The 55-year-old is an accomplished author, producer, playwright, TV scriptwriter, she wrote The Kennedys, a 2015 BBC comedy based on her memoir of family holidays in the 1970s, The Tent, The Bucket and Me, and has contributed to numerous other shows including Miranda and Jonathon Creek. She has acted in sitcoms, worked with Mel & Sue, holds a Guinness Record and is a Celebrity Masterchef winner (2012)....

*Trigger Warning - discussion around breast cancer diagnosis, treatment and recovery* My latest podcast guest is an extraordinary woman. A consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon, Liz O'Riordans world turned upside down in 2015 when she was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer, the very illness that she'd spent years treating as a surgeon. She chronicled her treatment and experience as a doctor-turned-patient in a series of honest blog posts, detailing everything from the bewildering side...

For my latest podcast episode I'm delighted to introduce a very special guest; esteemed costume designer, and dear friend, Edward K Gibbon. As a costume designer, he's managed the wardrobe department on everything from historical dramas to Hollywood movies: including War & Peace, The Honourable Woman, Black Mirror and Oscar-nominated The Lost Daughter. In this episode, Edward joins me to talk about filming The Lost Daughter as we came out of the first lockdown, the role costume plays in...

It is my absolute pleasure to introduce you to 50-year-old Olympian-turned-personal trainer and lifestyle coach, Michelle Griffith Robinson. The very first Olympic athlete to be featured on That's Not My Age. Whoop! As a triple jumper, Michelle represented Team GB at the 1996 Olympic Games and was the first woman to jump over 14-metres at the Commonwealth games. Here, Michelle talks about her incredible career, both on and off the track, and shares how she found the determination, focus and...

For this episode, I'm delighted to introduce a woman who I've been following online for ages - mainly because she exudes positive energy and is excellent fun -  flower farmer, florist and author Georgie Newbery of Common Farm Flowers. Turns out Georgie is much more glamorous than I first realised....she spent her twenties working in Paris for American Vogue and John Galliano, returning to London in her thirties to continue working as a writer. It was only when she turned 40 that Georgie 'woke...

Esme was seven when she made her first garment at school, a hand-sewn red gathered skirt, and she's had an extraordinary career in sewing and fashion design ever since. In this episode Esme joins me to talk about her career highlights - from launching Swanky Modes in the early 80's which was beloved by celebrities such as Cher and Julie Christie, to creating iconic costumes for films such as The Beach and Bridget Jone's Diary. We talk about how she felt moving into a TV career in her sixties...

Producer and audio engineer: Linda Ara-TebaldiHost: Alyson WalshGuest: Orsola De CastroMusic: David SchweitzerArtwork: Ayumi TakahashiDigital technician: Tom Hole at StirtingaleCoordinator: Helen Johnson 

Orsola de Castro is the global creative director of Fashion Revolution a not-for-profit organisation formed in response to the Rana Plaza factory disaster in 2013. We first met at London Fashion Week a year earlier, when Orsola was managing Esthetica the showcase for sustainable designers - and I (very superficially) stopped to ask her about the fabulous gold trousers she was wearing. A leading pioneer in the sustainable fashion world, 54-year-old Orsola created the label From Somewhere in...

My guest on today's podcast is the wonderful garden designer, writer and TV presenter, Arit Anderson. Who I'm sure you recognise from BBC Gardener's World  and Garden Rescue. In this podcast, Arit Anderson explains her career trajectory from fashion retail and events, to finding happiness in horticulture. We talk about how being in nature can restore our mental health, what makes a good garden and what she's doing to stay positive during the pandemic (clue: it's much more adventurous than...

Alyson speaks to multi-talented actor and writer Amelia Bullmore about her brilliant career, how she feels about ageing and feeling confident in midlife

Alyson Walsh chats to supermodel Jan De Villeneuve about her magnificent career

An award-winning author, columnist, journalist, activist and a pioneering voice on immigration, diversity, and multiculturalism, Yamin Alibhai-Brown is arguably one of the most influential women in Britain. A self described 'leftie liberal, anti-racist,...

After a longer than intended hiatus (it was meant to be a 'slow' podcast, but not this slow...), the That's Not My Age podcast is back with a magnificent guest. One of my Style Heroines, the Academy-Award-Winning costume designer Sandy Powell. With...

This is not my usual podcast but as it's Christmas, I thought it would be good to talk about peace and calm. So today I'm with yoga, meditation and mindfulness instructor Meredith Gunderson to talk about chilling out, feeling happy and how to stay calm this festive season.

Caryn Franklin, 61, is a brilliant woman. One of fashion's tribal elders, the professor, journalist, stylist, producer, author, campaigner and activist has worked in the industry for nearly 35 years.Believing that confidence and authenticity come with age, in this outstanding podcast episode Caryn Franklin talks about the power of grey, the representation of older models and the joy of ageing. We also discuss sustainability in the fashion industry, the power of social change and how we can...

In this That's Not My Age podcast episode, Debbie talks movingly about having breast cancer, we discuss hot flushes (aka power surges), the joy of spending time offline and the benefits of being kind. Plus we chat about how she runs her business and what knitting means to her.

In this episode, Patrick Grant joins me to talk about men's style, facial hair, the Great British Sewing Bee, big pants and implementing social change. Along the way, we discuss why we should care where our clothes comes from and the importance of restoring the UK manufacturing industry. I loved this interview, it moved me and made me think about the enormous social changes that losing our factories has caused. I hope it does the same to you.

In this episode, make-up expert and beauty industry maverick Ruby Hammer MBE chats to Alyson about xxxxxx, and the launch of her new capsule collection of beauty essentials

We are busy recording series two of That's Not My Age: The Podcast, and as a small but delicious taster of what's to come, I am delighted to introduce the legendary fashion designer Dame Zandra Rhodes. we discuss what Zandra Rhodes has been up to - curating her exhibition, appearing on Celebrity Masterchef, and collaborating with Ikea, for starters. Oh, and her fondness for throwing dinner parties and making bread and butter pudding. Stay tuned, because Zandra's best advice comes right at the...

See you in September!

For this podcast episode, That's Not My Age visits the House of Lords to talk to the brilliant Baroness Young of Hornsey OBE about social justice and fashion sustainability.