Cynthia Nixon - ‘Being brave is feeling scared and doing it anyway’

In this special live edition of How to Fail, Elizabeth is joined by comedian Suzi Ruffell. Suzi has performed five sellout runs at the Edinburgh Fringe, as well as appearing on live at the Apollo and filming an Amazon special of her show ‘Dance Like Everyone Is Watching’. She was nominated for Best standup show in the National Comedy Awards and has just written her first book ‘Am I Funny Now?’. Suzi opens up about her sexuality, her Kate Winslet obsession and talks about her totally relatable failures in this entertaining and hilarious, but moving episode.  Elizabeth and Suzi answer YOUR questions in our subscriber series, Failing with Friends from a live audience in Cardiff. Join our community of subscribers here: https://howtofail.supportingcast.fm/#content Have a failure you’re trying to work through for Elizabeth to discuss? Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com  Production & Post Production Coordinator: Eric Ryan   Live Sound Engineer: Will Kontargyris Studio & Sound Engineer: Matias Torres Assistant Producer: Suhaar Ali Senior 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 [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I can’t believe I get to say this but…PAMELA ANDERSON! ON HOW TO FAIL! The one and only!  A woman I grew up watching on TV, Pamela was an icon of a generation…But the second act of her career has been the most powerful and Anderson joins me for a  vulnerable chat about her long journey of embracing beauty on her own terms, understand her self-worth, embracing self-acceptance and how it was never about being pretty for her - it was always about being brave.    Together, we unpack the beauty ideals of early 2000s that continue to shape how women view themselves today. Backed by Dove’s Self Esteem Project body confidence science and exercises, this episode dives deep into Pamela reflecting on being the poster girl of an era and shares how she’s reclaimed her image, her narrative and what beauty means to her.    Have a failure you’re trying to work through for Elizabeth to discuss? Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com    If you want more support, Dove has created a journal designed to help you reflect, reset, and take control of how you engage with beauty and your body. You can find it at dove.com/why2k. Production & Post Production Coordinator: Eric Ryan   Mix Engineer: Matias Torres Studio Engineer: Gulliver Tickell Assistant Producer: Suhaar Ali Senior 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 [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Melinda French Gates studied computer science and economics and completed an MBA before joining a tech start-up called Microsoft, in 1987. She rose through the ranks to become Manager of Information Products and married the boss in 1994. His name was Bill Gates. Together, the couple founded and co-chaired the Gates Foundation, where, for more than two decades, she set the direction and priorities of the world’s largest philanthropic organisation. Today, a divorced French Gates heads up Pivotal, which works to advance women’s power and influence in the U.S. and around the world. Along the way, she has raised three children and written two bestselling books - The Moment of Lift and her latest, The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward. It is an astonishing journey: from the normality of a middle-class childhood to becoming one of the wealthiest women in the world and one of our most influential philanthropists. French Gates joins me for an open conversation about her divorce, ensuring her children never became spoiled, being strict about smartphones and surviving the death of a friend. Plus: the importance of empathy in the workplace and whether we should be scared of AI. Elizabeth and Melinda answer YOUR questions in our subscriber series, Failing with Friends. Join our community of subscribers here: https://howtofail.supportingcast.fm/#content Have a failure you’re trying to work through for Elizabeth to discuss? Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com  Production & Post Production Coordinator: Eric Ryan   Studio & Sound Engineer: Matias Torres Assistant Producer: Suhaar Ali Senior 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 [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices 1x pre-roll 2x Mid-roll 2x Mid-roll 1x Mid-roll 1x post-roll Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Monica Lewinsky is an activist, podcaster and producer.  At the age of 24, Lewinsky, a White House intern, found herself in the eye of a global scandal. She was subjected to a mass public shaming -  losing her livelihood, her anonymity and the future she had once imagined for herself. Now, 51 Lewinsky has garnered a new generation of admirers, who with the advent of social media and shifting cultural tides, have rightly reinterpreted the shocking way she was treated. Her podcast, which launched earlier this year, is called ‘Reclaiming’ and features interviews with guests who are in the process of reclaiming their own narratives, just as she was forced to do. She joins us to talk about her experiences with shame, her perfectionism and why the pain she went through has given her purpose. Elizabeth and Monica answer YOUR questions in our subscriber series, Failing with Friends. Join our community of subscribers here: https://howtofail.supportingcast.fm/#content Have a failure you’re trying to work through for Elizabeth to discuss? Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com  All episodes in June are brought to you by @arlalactoFREE - all the taste, easier to digest. Listen to our bonus episode brought to by ArlaLactoFREE with Vicky Pattison here: https://link.chtbl.com/VickyPattison  🌎 Get an exclusive 15% discount on your first Saily data plans! Use code [howtofail] at checkout. Download Saily app or go to to https://saily.com/howtofail ⛵ Production & Post Production Coordinator: Eric Ryan   Mix Engineer: Matias Torres Studio Engineer: Gulliver Tickell Assistant Producer: Suhaar Ali Senior 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 [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rapping phenomenon and Tottenham Hotspur superfan AJ Tracey joins us this week to talk about supporting his mum through her cancer journey, the pressures of staying an independent artist and what football has taught him about failure. AJ Tracey has been rapping since the age of four. He dropped out of his Criminology degree at London Metropolitan University and started uploading tracks to SoundCloud in 2011, achieving five Platinum singles and over two billion Spotify plays as an independent artist. His first studio album debuted at number three in the UK Albums chart and his breakthrough hit, Ladbroke Grove, became the unofficial summer anthem of 2019. Now, after a three-year hiatus, marked by leaked songs and pandemic delays, Tracey has just released his third album, Don't Die Before You're Dead. It’s his most vulnerable and personal work yet and as well as being a love letter to the UK, the album fuses grime, garage, and R&B with themes of trauma, mental health, faith and love. Elizabeth and AJ answer YOUR questions in our subscriber series, Failing with Friends. Join our community of subscribers here: https://howtofail.supportingcast.fm/#content Have a failure you’re trying to work through for Elizabeth to discuss? Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com All episodes in June are brought to you by @arlalactoFREE - all the taste, easier to digest. Listen to our bonus episode brought to by ArlaLactoFREE with Vicky Pattison here: https://link.chtbl.com/VickyPattison 🌎 Get an exclusive 15% discount on your first Saily data plans! Use code [howtofail] at checkout. Download Saily app or go to to https://saily.com/howtofail ⛵ Production & Post Production Coordinator: Eric Ryan Mix Engineer: Matias Torres Studio Engineer: Gulliver Tickell Assistant Producer: Suhaar Ali Senior 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 [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cynthia Nixon joins Elizabeth to answer YOUR questions and failures including: whose failures would you most like to hear (dead or alive) how to cope with a friendship break up and how to know when to have kids. Elizabeth then takes a moment to reflect on meeting Cynthia, and everything they covered. To hear Cynthia tackling your failures join our community of subscribers here: https://howtofail.supportingcast.fm/#content Do you have something to share of your own? Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com Production & Post Production Coordinator: Eric Ryan Mix Engineer: Matias Torres Studio Engineer: Sam Bair Senior 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 [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Whilst Cynthia Nixon’s versatility is beyond question, it's fair to say that she has become permanently associated with one character, Miranda Hobbs, in Sex and the City and its companion piece, And Just Like That. She won an Emmy for her performance and a generation of fans who identified with the ambitious type-A lawyer whose cynicism disguised as vulnerability has grown markedly through the decades. Nixon is also a political activist and vocal advocate for progressive causes. She even met her wife at an education rally in 2002. In 2018, she ran unsuccessfully for the governorship of New York. More recently, she has repeatedly spoken out in support of a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. Nixon's political conscience recalls perhaps the legacy of her journalist Father Walter, who won awards for his coverage of the Civil Rights Movement. An uplifting, smart and enlightening woman - what a joy it was to meet her. Elizabeth and Cynthia answer YOUR questions in our subscriber series, Failing with Friends. Join our community of subscribers here: https://howtofail.supportingcast.fm/#content Have something to share of your own? Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com All episodes in June are brought to you by @arlalactoFREE - all the taste, easier to digest. Listen to our bonus episode brought to by ArlaLactoFREE with Vicky Pattison here: https://link.chtbl.com/VickyPattison 🌎 Get an exclusive 15% discount on your first Saily data plans! Use code [howtofail] at checkout. Download Saily app or go to to https://saily.com/howtofail ⛵ Production & Post Production Coordinator: Eric Ryan Mix Engineer: Matias Torres Studio Engineer: Sam Bair Senior 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 [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TW: discussions around anorexia and sexual abuse. In an incredibly powerful episode (and a How To Fail first), Christine McGuinness speaks publicly about her sexuality for the first time. She reveals she had a long-term relationship with a woman before her marriage to comedian Paddy McGuinness and that she’s now dating women again. She refuses to label her sexuality - as she puts it: ‘I want love for me’. What an honour to be part of Christine’s journey to live her truth! You will already know Christine as a TV personality, author, businesswoman and prominent autism advocate. The mother of three autistic children, she has made critically acclaimed documentaries including Our Family and Autism, with her then-husband, as well as penning a series of autism-inclusive children’s books and launching a range of sensory-positive clothing. Despite serious adversity (her father was a heroin addict, she endured bullying at school and suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a family member), Christine is a total inspiration and has achieved so much. She’s about to launch her first podcast, Situationships, in which she and her co-host Sophie Gravia delve into listeners’ dating and relationship dilemmas. Elizabeth and Christine answer YOUR questions in our subscriber series, Failing with Friends. Join our community of subscribers here: https://howtofail.supportingcast.fm/#content Have something to share of your own? Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com All episodes in June are brought to you by @arlalactoFREE - all the taste, easier to digest. Listen to our bonus episode brought to by ArlaLactoFREE with Vicky Pattison here: https://link.chtbl.com/VickyPattison 🌎 Get an exclusive 15% discount on your first Saily data plans! Use code [howtofail] at checkout. Download Saily app or go to to https://saily.com/howtofail ⛵ Production & Post Production Coordinator: Eric Ryan Mix Engineer: Matias Torres Studio Engineer: Gulliver Tickell Assistant Producer: Suhaar Ali Senior 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 you Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Vicky Pattison was 22 when her life changed and she was cast in reality TV show Geordie Shore. She was on the show for nine seasons between 2011 and 2014, during which time the cameras followed her falling in love, becoming engaged, then breaking up. Now 37, Pattison has rarely been off our screens - whether it’s as a finalist on Celebrity Masterchef or winning I’m A Celebrity in 2015. She’s a radio presenter on the Heart network, is fronting a new Channel 4 dating show called The Honesty Box and has a new podcast, Get A Grip, which she co-hosts with Angela Scanlon. In this candid episode, Vicky talks openly about her lifetime struggle with PMDD and how it affects her every day, fighting the fear of becoming an alcoholic and how so much has changed since the days of Geordie Shore. This bonus episode is brought to you by @arlalactoFREE - all the taste, easier to digest. 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 Coordinator: Eric Ryan Studio and Mix Engineer: Matias Torres Sole & Gulliver Lawrence-Tickell Senior 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 [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In her most revealing interview to date, Dannii Minogue talks openly about the pressures of fame, the relentless comparisons with her sister, Kylie, and navigating a divorce that left her broke. It’s an extraordinary conversation with a woman who found fame as a 10-year-old in her native Australia. As a  teenager Dannii, signed a record deal and acted in Home and Away. In her early 20s her debut album went Gold in the UK, and she went on to have 9 top 10 singles. Over the course of her music career she has spent over 200 weeks in the official UK chart, sold in excess of seven million records worldwide, and scored a record-breaking 19 Number One dance singles. After a four year stint on The X Factor UK, she now hosts her own queer dating shows ‘I Kissed a Girl’ and ‘I Kissed a Boy’, on BBC3 and iPlayer. How to recover a broken heart - Elizabeth and Dannii answer YOUR questions in our subscriber series, Failing with Friends. Join our community of subscribers here: https://howtofail.supportingcast.fm/#content Have something to share of your own? I'd love to hear from you! Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com 🌎 Get an exclusive 15% discount on your first Saily data plans! Use code [howtofail] at checkout. Download Saily app or go to to https://saily.com/howtofail ⛵ Production & Post Production Coordinator: Eric Ryan Mix Engineer: Josh Gibbs Studio Engineer: Mathias Torres 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 [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices 1x Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices