Thank You Saturn

Millie Gooch is the founder of The Sober Girl Society, a hugely popular Instagram community of over 100k and one of the leading voices pioneering the sobriety movement in the UK. High-profile followers include Sam Smith, Bryony Gordon, Zoe Ball & Jameela Jamil's iWeigh. As a journalist, she has written for a range of publications, and her campaigning work has been featured everywhere from Elle and Stylist to the BBC and Evening Standard. Her first book, The Sober Girl Society Handbook - an empowering guide to living hangover free, offers tips and advice on how to stay sober in a world that revolves around drinking. This handbook will empower you to transform your relationship with alcohol so you can lead your most fulfilling life. It is out today and can be bought from all good bookshops and online retailers. Millie is the first TYS guest to be going through her Saturn Return right now! From the moment lockdown began, Millie's Saturn Return did too, and it also coincided with her landing a book deal. We discuss how she navigated meeting her deadlines, learning to love isolation and looking after her father, all while in the midst of a global pandemic. Instagram: @milliegooch and @sobergirlsociety Twitter: @milliegooch Link to Aliza Einhorn's Little Book of Saturn https://www.amazon.co.uk/Little-Book-Saturn-Astrological-Challenges/dp/1578636280 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Lizi Hills - the "Accidental Accountant" - is the Commercial Finance Director of Burger King, as well as one of my closest friends. Lizi is rare, because she first became Finance Director at aged TWENTY NINE (what!?) but also has a Sense of Humour (myth busted!), is always up for a laugh and still has the lovable traits of being scatty (and sometimes late for work, at least when I worked with her) that made me stare at her in wonder over my cup of morning coffee about how on Earth she managed to be both a genius and a social butterfly. Anyway, as discovered in this episode, Lizi has many more strings to her bow and was in the Junior British rowing team 2003-05, winning the junior World Cup regatta, Henley and competing at the world championships. as well as being National Champion with her club. She is changing the idea of accounting with her refreshing perspective of putting her team's wellbeing before the financial gain, and challenging why accountants need to work full-time instead of being entitled to flexible working like employees from "less-pressured" jobs. She explores the duality of wanting two separate career paths and the struggle to reconcile the two, and interestingly, like many of us, she still doesn't know what she "wants to do" despite being high up on her own career ladder. Lizi's Saturn Return saw her have a "funny five minutes". Without anything particular being wrong per se, she began to doubt her career path, the direction of her relationship, and her sense of self in general. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Arrows is a model, vlogger & film producer. Their latest projects include a queer virtual blind date show called Butterflies, a new episode of which drops every Sunday; Drag Me, King! A drag king competition incorporating 3 categories, the past, the future & Daddy; and Link in Bio, talking about the confidence, safety, censorship and money involved in sex work. These can all be found on the Whatta Weekend YouTube channel. Arrows and I discuss polyamory and its opposite: learning to turn all that love onto yourself for healthier relationships, the morning ritual that helps them start their day, and how the constant need to “check in” as a boss could actually come from a place of insecurity (this blew my mind). This is my favourite episode mainly for the fact that when we started Arrows was sleep as fuck because it was early, and by the end they were literally dancing around their apartment. Instragram: @angryarrows @whattaweekend See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

TW: Mild abuse reference. Aaron Kent is a poet and director of independent poetry publisher Broken Sleep Books feat. the Legitimate Snack imprint. He is also the epitome of a multi-hyphenate, considering his full-time job as a GCSE & A Level English & Drama teacher. Not only that but Aaron is a house master, is also qualified to teach Film & Media Studies, and was a submariner in the Navy. We discuss his Saturn Return involving his move from Cornwall to Wales, cynicism with compliments about one's own work, patience, night terrors and how group therapy saved his life. You can get a copy of Aaron's latest poetry pamphlet "Perfect Reasonably Justifications for Nuclear Apocalypse" due out next month through And False Fire at Fathomsun Press www.fathomsun.com Twitter: @GodzillaKent @BrokenSleep Instagram: @BrokenSleepBooks See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Trigger warning: Mild suicide reference. NSFW. September means back to Saturn School & first on the roll call is sex educator and adult toy consultant Topher Taylor, discussing his Saturn Return with the rare vulnerablity that benefitted his life (and even career), teen loneliness, internalised homophobia, the infamous Channel 4 Love in Lockdown mini doc that racked up 4.3 million views (and with it, some despicable comments paired with curious DMs) and becoming a better person despite the trolls. Show Notes Channel 4 Love in Lockdown mini doc - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjJflgsbuIc Sex with Topher podcast on all platforms including Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4e1XTohIt9VpojBLt8QKgJ Instagram: @tophertaylor Twitter: @iamtophertaylor See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Blimes Brixton is a hip hop artist from the Bay Area, California. Her debut album under the Blimes Brixton moniker was Castles, released in 2019 on her own all-female record label, Peach House, and her most recent album with musical partner Gifted Gab is out now! Talk About It includes hit singles Magic, Shelly's & Hot Damn feat. Wu Tang's one & only Method Man. Blimes started her music career as a battle rapper and has now progressed into a fully-fledged artist with a backlog of hits, cementing a name for herself in hip hop. She is an incredible lyricist with the biggest heart and toughest work ethic I know. We talk about Blimes' conflict between battle rap (which heavily relies on insulting your opponent) vs her warm-natured, empathetic personality, learning to stand up for yourself both personally and professionally, and the call from Method Man that changed her life just as she was considering quitting music. Listen to Talk About It by Blimes & Gab on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/7MGeQ8aDEq0OHPpIxykQtZ?si=OeLMsQqaRh-OxGF3KuK3wg Blimes Brixton on social media: @blimesbrixton / @blimesandgab BLM petitions that still need signing: https://www.change.org/p/department-of-justice-mandatory-life-sentence-for-police-brutality https://www.change.org/p/govia-thameslink-justice-for-belly-mujinga-justiceforbellymujinga https://www.change.org/p/andy-beshear-justice-for-breonna-taylor https://www.change.org/p/prefeitura-do-rio-de-janeiro-justice-for-joāo-pedro https://www.change.org/p/alabama-governor-kay-ivey-willie-simmons-has-served-38-years-for-a-9-robbery https://www.change.org/p/us-senate-hands-up-act https://www.change.org/p/department-of-justice-investigate-the-killing-of-tamir-rice https://www.change.org/p/texas-governor-i-want-sandra-bland-s-case-reopened https://www.change.org/p/department-of-justice-police-accountability-act-of-2020 https://www.change.org/p/united-states-supreme-court-justice-for-kendrick-johnson https://www.change.org/p/justice-for-regis-korchinski-paquet https://www.change.org/p/it-s-never-your-fault-raise-the-age-of-consent-in-nigeria-from-11-to-18 Black literature: Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie “The only reason you say that race is not an issue is because you wish it was not,” says Ifemelu, the protagonist of Adichie’s 2013 novel, an engrossing story and sharp-eyed look at the non-American black experience in the United States, in Adichie’s native Nigeria, and beyond. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness By Michelle Alexander Alexander is an American civil rights lawyer and legal scholar; in her ground-breaking book she analyses the rebirth of a race-based caste in the United States: millions of Americans are locked behind bars and relegated to second-class citizenship by the criminal justice system. Devastating. The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin First published in 1963, Baldwin’s book was a bestseller in its day and is just as necessary now – alas. Taking the form of two essays, one a letter to his then 14-year-old nephew, Baldwin’s voice is as powerful and influential as it ever was in looking at systemic racism in the United States. Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge Gal-Dem called this debut “the black British bible”. It began with a 2014 blog post addressed to those who refused to recognise the structural racism of British society, to those who “truly believe that the experiences of their life as a result of their skin colour can and should be universal.” It’s a dramatic recognition of what she calls “white denial”. Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo Winner of the 2019 Booker Prize, Evaristo’s novel follows the lives of a dozen British people, predominantly female, predominantly black. The different storylines of the characters – who range in age from 19 to 93 – are engrossing and empathetic, portraits of struggle, imagination and perseverance. Brit(ish) by Afua Hirsch Hirsch is the daughter of a black Ghanaian woman and a white English man; her book is part memoir, part history, part polemic, an interrogation of her own identity and an examination of the roots of prejudice, taking to task those progressives who claim they “don’t see colour”. Barracoon: The Story of the ‘Last Black Cargo’ by Zora Neale Hurston Hurston is best known for her novel Their Eyes were Watching God, first published in 1937. She was an anthropologist as well as a novelist: Barracoon is the fruit of Hurston’s interviews with Cudjo Lewis, née Oluale Kossola, the last survivor of the Atlantic slave trade. Hurston couldn’t get it published in her lifetime; it first appeared in print in 2018. Citizen by Claudia Rankine “Part documentary, part lyric procedural,” wrote Dan Chiasson in the New Yorker of this book-length poem which won the 2014 National Book Critics’ Circle Award for Poetry. Haunting, personal, closely-observed, Rankine brings contemporary American racial politics into tight focus. “Because white men can’t/ police their imagination/ black men are dying." The Good Immigrant ed. Nikesh Shukla These 21 essays by black, Asian and minority ethnic writers comprise “a document of what it means to be a person of colour” in Britain today, writes Shukla. Published by Unbound, the crowdfunded website, the book received a huge boost with a £5,000 donation by J. K. Rowling; a companion volume for American writers was published to great acclaim last year. There is a terrific diversity of voices and experiences in both. Write Bloody UK news: Pre-order Ollie O Neill's debut full-length poetry collection here! First 100 copies sold with a 10% discount. Out in Autumn. writebloodyuk.co.uk Instagram & Twitter: @writebloodyuk Ollie O' Neill: Instragram: @ollieoneill Twitter: @olliecmoneill See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Vangelis hasn't had his Saturn Return yet, so we take a look at his birth chart to see what lessons are store for him: whether he is on the right career path, has successfully embraced his inner freak (which Vangelis associates mainly with whether or not he feels comfortable wearing make up in public), is comfortable expressing his own ideas, and feels able to prioritise love over work. Hear him take the piss out of me as usual, and tally how many times the both of us say "like", bearing in mind I've already edited around five minutes worth of that word alone. Show Notes Vangelis performs Here Comes the Rain Again on The Voice UK 2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfsa2fG85yg Instagram: @vangelispoly Twitter: @vangelispoly See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Katie Lowe's Saturn Return initially presented as a health problem, but this led her to assess what was important in her life and how she could pass the time while experiencing debilitating pain. This culminated in Katie quitting her day job in events and ultimately writing The Furies, gaining her a major book deal and setting her on a brand new career & life path. Katie is now a full-time writer, and has even returned to university to study for a PHD in a female rage in literary modernism and contemporary women’s writing, a subject she is passionate about, which she may not previously have had the opportunity to pursue had she not been "forced" to manoeuvre. Show Notes The Furies: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-furies/katie-lowe/9780008289010 My "friend who's a music producer" I mention in reference to Paloma Faith's Stone Cold Sober is the producer & songwriter Paddy Byrne. Follow Katie on social media Instagram: @fatgirlphd Twitter: @fatgirlphd See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.