Yassmin Abdel-Magied: the courage to speak up

Yassmin Abdel-Magied: the courage to speak up

Summary How do you speak the truth when nobody wants to hear it? In this episode of How You Find Your Voice, Jessie Huth speaks to writer, activist and broadcaster Yassmin Abdel-Magied about her debut adult novel, At Sea. Set aboard an offshore oil rig on the brink of catastrophe, At Sea follows expert driller Zainab as she navigates a high-stakes world of danger, power, ambition and masculine hierarchy. But beneath the thriller lies a deeper story about belonging, courage and what it costs to speak when nobody is listening. Drawing on her own experience as a drilling engineer, Yassmin reflects on life in one of the world's most male-dominated industries and the invisible emotional labour involved in being heard. She explores the strategies women develop to survive hostile environments and the exhaustion of constantly having to prove yourself. The conversation also moves beyond the novel into Yassmin's own life. She reflects on experiencing public backlash at a young age, what it taught her about shame, and how she learned to distinguish between the shame that belongs to us and the shame that belongs to others. They discuss identity and growing up with a powerful sense of possibility; the appeal of engineering and certainty in an uncertain world; and why finding your voice is accessing who you already are. This is a conversation about power, prejudice and belonging, but also about resilience and the courage to keep speaking when the cost feels high. Topics covered * The inspiration behind At Sea * Life as a drilling engineer on offshore oil rigs * Why technical disasters are often human disasters * Being a woman in a male-dominated workplace * The hidden labour of being heard * Belonging, exclusion and workplace power dynamics * Gender, authority and emotional labour * Public shame and learning not to carry what isn't yours * Backlash, resilience and surviving difficult public experiences * Faith, confidence and growing up with a sense of possibility * Finding your voice when nobody wants to listen * The tension between truth, loyalty and self-preservation * Engineering, certainty and the appeal of systems that make sense * Writing fiction as a way of exploring power and human behaviour About Yassmin Abdel-Magied Yassmin Abdel-Magied is a Sudanese-born writer, broadcaster and award-winning author. Raised in Australia, she trained as a mechanical engineer and worked as a drilling engineer on oil rigs across Australia, Europe, Asia and the United States before turning her attention to writing full-time. She is the author of numerous books for children and young adults, a memoir, essays and screenwriting projects. Her latest book, At Sea, is her first adult novel: a gripping literary thriller exploring gender, power, capitalism and the culture of the oil industry. Yassmin now lives in London, where she also writes for television, including Emmerdale. You can find out more about Yassmin and her work at yassminam.com. There is more on At Sea here. [https://canongate.co.uk/books/5416-at-sea/] About the podcast How You Find Your Voice is the podcast that asks brilliant guests, mostly women, how they found or reclaimed their voices, on and off the page. Through conversations with writers, artists, thinkers and entrepreneurs, we explore the work they have made, the lives they have lived and the inner transformations that made it possible. We talk about turning points and resistance, silence and expression, creativity and courage, and the often messy journey of becoming. Listen and follow If you enjoyed this conversation, please follow the podcast and leave a review. It really helps more people discover the show and supports independent podcasts like this one. If you'd like to stay connected to these conversations and hear about upcoming events, podcasts, salons and gatherings, you can join the How You Find Your Voice mailing list. [https://mailchi.mp/624c1ced4411/9iaxie3hg9] You can also find us on Substack [https://substack.com/@howyoufindyourvoice] for behind-the-scenes reflections, extra conversations and explorations of voice, identity and transformation. Keywords Yassmin Abdel-Magied interview, At Sea novel, Yassmin Abdel-Magied podcast, women in engineering, offshore oil rigs, women in male-dominated industries, gender and power, emotional labour, public shame, resilience, backlash and recovery, finding your voice, women and leadership, literary fiction, eco thriller, identity and belonging, workplace discrimination, female authority, courage and self-trust, How You Find Your Voice podcast

Tahmima Anam: "I think after the age of 40, you should have a funeral for yourself every 10 years." + female friendship, protest and power

Summary "I feel I was sold a lie." A conversation about motherhood, female friendship, protest and finding yourself again In this episode of How You Find Your Voice, Jessie Huth speaks to novelist and journalist Tahmima Anam about her extraordinary new novel, Uprising, and the ideas that sit beneath it. Set on a remote island brothel in Bangladesh, Uprising tells the story of a group of women who have been sold into lives of servitude and exploitation, and what happens when one woman arrives and refuses to accept the future that has been laid out for her. What follows is a story of rebellion, liberation and collective power. Tahmima reflects on growing up in a family of revolutionaries and feminists, why she has become increasingly concerned about the direction of women's rights, and her feeling that she was "sold a lie" about society's progress towards greater equality. Together, they explore motherhood and matrescence, the profound loss of self that can accompany becoming a parent, and the long journey back to feeling like yourself again. They discuss female rage, storytelling as a form of resistance, and why finding your voice is often inseparable from finding your community. The conversation also touches on ageing, perimenopause, female friendship and the surprising freedoms that can come with getting older. Tahmima shares why she takes friendship so seriously, how a weekend with ten close female friends transformed her experience of turning fifty, and why she believes we need more ritual in modern life. This is a conversation about protest and liberation, but also about identity, reinvention, friendship and what it means to become yourself more fully with age. Topics covered * Uprising and the real island that inspired the novel * Growing up in a family of revolutionaries and feminists * Why Tahmima feels she was "sold a lie" about progress and equality * Protest, liberation and collective action * Female rage and writing as a way of processing the world * Motherhood, matrescence and the loss of self * The long journey back to yourself after becoming a parent * Finding your voice through storytelling * Feminist utopias and imagining different futures * Female friendship as a source of strength and belonging * Perimenopause, ageing and caring less what people think * Why modern life needs more ritual * Turning fifty and holding your own funeral * Toni Morrison and the writers who shaped her About Tahmima Anam Tahmima Anam is an award-winning novelist, journalist and anthropologist. Born in Bangladesh, she is the author of the acclaimed Bengal Trilogy and a recipient of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book and the O. Henry Award. Her short story ‘Garments’ was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award. She is a Granta Best of Young British Novelist and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, she trained as an anthropologist at Harvard University and now lives in London. You can read more about Tahmima and Uprising  here. [https://canongate.co.uk/books/5578-uprising/] About the podcast How You Find Your Voice is the podcast that asks brilliant guests, mostly women, how they found or reclaimed their voices, on and off the page. Through conversations with writers, artists, thinkers and entrepreneurs, we explore the work they have made, the lives they have lived and the inner transformations that made it possible. We talk about turning points and resistance, silence and expression, creativity and courage, and the often messy journey of becoming. Listen and follow If you enjoyed this conversation, please follow the podcast and leave a review. It really helps more people discover the show and supports independent podcasts like this one. If you'd like to stay connected to these conversations and hear about upcoming events, podcasts, salons and gatherings, you can join the How You Find Your Voice mailing list. [https://mailchi.mp/624c1ced4411/9iaxie3hg9]   You can also find us on Substack [https://substack.com/@howyoufindyourvoice] for behind-the-scenes reflections, extra conversations and explorations of voice, identity and transformation. Keywords Tahmima Anam interview, Uprising novel, Tahmima Anam podcast, motherhood and identity, matrescence, female friendship, women and ageing, finding yourself again, feminist fiction, female rage, women's rights, protest and liberation, Bangladesh literature, women and storytelling, Toni Morrison, perimenopause, female community, finding your voice podcast, women writers, identity and transformation

Jennifer Saint on myth and modern womanhood - "when a woman is powerful, people find a way to diminish her"

Summary Who gets to tell the story? A conversation about powerful women, myth and modern culture In this episode of How You Find Your Voice, Jessie Huth speaks to bestselling novelist, Jennifer Saint, about This Immortal Heart, her retelling of Aphrodite and Ares, and the enduring power of mythology to shape how women are seen. Jennifer argues that many female figures from myth have been flattened into stereotypes: Aphrodite reduced to beauty and sexuality, Pandora blamed for humanity's suffering, Helen held responsible for a war started by men. Together, they explore how these ancient narratives still echo through contemporary culture, from social media and trad-wife aesthetics to debates about women's power, agency and autonomy. The conversation ranges from Greek goddesses and Amazon warriors to Taylor Swift, AI girlfriends, feminism, publishing, creative confidence and the stories societies tell about who women are allowed to be. Jennifer also reflects on her own path to becoming a writer. After years of teaching English, she finally stopped waiting for permission and began writing Ariadne in stolen moments between work and motherhood. She talks about learning to trust her instincts, navigating criticism, and the challenge of protecting your creative voice once other people's opinions make themselves heard. This is a conversation about myth, power, storytelling, creativity and what happens when women reclaim the narratives that have been written about them. Topics covered * Aphrodite, Ares and This Immortal Heart * Why powerful women are often diminished in stories * Pandora, Helen and the myths women inherit * Trad wives, modern culture and female agency * Pygmalion as "the original incel" * Amazon warriors and women who refuse prescribed roles * Why stories shape what women are allowed to be * Greek mythology as a living tradition * Teaching, writing and becoming an author * The unexpected success of Ariadne * Reviews, criticism and protecting your creative voice * Trusted voices versus outside noise * Finding your voice through writing * Why the only way to become a writer is to write About Jennifer Saint Jennifer Saint is The Sunday Times bestselling author of Ariadne, Elektra, Atalanta, Hera and This Immortal Heart. A former secondary school English teacher, she is known for reimagining Greek myths through the perspectives of the women who have traditionally been sidelined, misunderstood or overlooked. Jennifer lives in Yorkshire, England, with her family. You can read more about Jennifer and This Immortal Heart here.  [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/468209/this-immortal-heart-by-saint-jennifer/9780241734704]    About the podcast How You Find Your Voice is the podcast that asks brilliant guests, mostly women, how they found or reclaimed their voices, on and off the page.  Through conversations with writers, artists, thinkers and entrepreneurs, we explore the work they have made, the lives they have lived and the inner transformations that made it possible. We talk about turning points and resistance, silence and expression, creative risk and process, and the often messy journey of becoming. Listen and follow If you enjoyed this conversation, please follow the podcast and leave a review. It really helps more people discover the show and supports independent podcasts like this one. If you'd like to stay connected to these conversations and hear about upcoming events, podcasts, salons and gatherings, you can join the How You Find Your Voice mailing list. [https://mailchi.mp/624c1ced4411/9iaxie3hg9] Or find us on Substack  [https://substack.com/@howyoufindyourvoice] for behind-the-scenes reflections, extra conversations and forays into voice. Keywords Jennifer Saint interview, This Immortal Heart podcast, Aphrodite and Ares, Greek mythology retellings, women in mythology, Pandora myth, Helen of Troy, feminist mythology, powerful women, trad wives, storytelling and power, women and agency, mythology podcast, writing and creativity, becoming a writer, Ariadne Jennifer Saint, finding your voice podcast, women and storytelling, Greek myths and modern culture

Naomi Ishiguro on world-building, what makes a writer and why “hope is the only logical position to hold”

Welcome to Season 2 of the How You Find Your Voice podcast. Expect more conversations on creativity, identity and voice, on and off the page. Summary What does it mean to become a writer, especially when writing can feel precarious, uncertain and difficult to sustain? And how do stories, communities and shared imagination help us find hope? In this episode of How You Find Your Voice, host Jessie Huth speaks with writer Naomi Ishiguro about her dazzling new fantasy novel The Rainshadow Orphans. Inspired by anime, Japanese folklore, yokai stories, coding clubs, bubble tea and the young people Naomi taught as a secondary school teacher, The Rainshadow Orphans blends cyberpunk and fantasy into a richly imagined world of dragons, hackers, sun spirits and resistance movements. Together, Jessie and Naomi explore the themes running beneath the novel: found family, friendship, hope, revenge, inequality, technology and the tension between individualism and community. Naomi reflects on how teaching teenagers shaped both the emotional heart and imaginative energy of the book, and how studying Jane Eyre in granular detail became an unexpected masterclass in writing fiction. The conversation also explores world-building, Japanese folklore and animism, the influence of anime and storytelling traditions, and why Naomi sees fantasy as a way of asking questions rather than providing answers. Naomi talks honestly about the realities of publishing, creative burnout, imposter syndrome and the difficulty of sustaining a writing life, even after publication. Naomi also shares why she believes being a writer has nothing to do with external validation and everything to do with the act of writing itself. This is a conversation about imagination, hope, creativity, storytelling, and what it really means to find your voice as a writer.   Topics Covered * The inspiration behind The Rainshadow Orphans * Anime, manga and Japanese pop culture influences * Yokai, animism and Japanese folklore * Building fantasy worlds and magic systems * Cyberpunk, fantasy and speculative fiction * Teaching creative writing and working with teenagers * Bubble tea, coding clubs and robotics teams * Found family, friendship and community * Collective values versus individualism * Writing across cultural influences and traditions * Worldbuilding in a culturally sensitive way * Fantasy as a way of asking questions * Revenge, justice and strategic thinking * Hope as a creative and political act * AI, technology and human creativity * Dragons, dragon pearls and mythological influences * Writing without rigid genre boundaries * Teaching Jane Eyre and learning narrative craft * Creative burnout and disillusionment with publishing * Imposter syndrome and creative identity * What makes someone “a writer” * External validation versus artistic integrity * Finding your voice through writing About Naomi Ishiguro Naomi Ishiguro is the author of the novel Common Ground and the collection of stories Escape Routes. She’s a graduate of the University of East Anglia’s MFA Creative Writing program, and has worked as both a secondary school English teacher and a freelance creative writing teacher. She also spent two lovely years in her early twenties working as a bookseller and bibliotherapist at Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights in Bath. You can find out more about Naomi and The Rainshadow Orphans here.  [https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/The-Rainshadow-Orphans/Naomi-Ishiguro/Rainshadow-Orphans/9781398544994]   About the Podcast How You Find Your Voice is the podcast that asks brilliant guests, mostly women, how they found or reclaimed their voices. Through conversations with writers, artists, thinkers and entrepreneurs, we explore the work they have made, the lives they have lived and the inner transformations that made it possible.   We talk about turning points and resistance, silence and expression, creative risk and process, and the often messy journey of becoming. Listen and Follow If you enjoyed this conversation, please follow the podcast and leave a review. It really helps more people discover the show and supports independent podcasts like this one. If you’d like to stay connected to these conversations and hear about upcoming events, salons and gatherings, you can join the How You Find Your Voice mailing list here.  [https://mailchi.mp/624c1ced4411/9iaxie3hg9] You can also follow along on Substack [https://substack.com/@howyoufindyourvoice]for longer reflections, or on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/howyoufindyourvoice/] for clips and updates. Keywords Naomi Ishiguro interview, The Rainshadow Orphans podcast, Japanese folklore fantasy, yokai and animism, cyberpunk fantasy novel, Studio Ghibli inspired books, anime influences in fiction, found family fantasy, speculative fiction podcast, writing and identity, creative burnout and publishing, fantasy world-building, dragons and mythology, hope in fiction, women and creativity, literary podcast, fantasy writing process, Japanese mythology books, finding your voice podcast, writers on writing

Alice Vincent on motherhood, listening, and the undocumented parts of women's lives

Welcome to Season 2 of the How You Find Your Voice podcast. Expect more conversations on creativity, identity and voice, on and off the page. Summary What happens when you lose your connection to music, to sound, and to yourself? And how do you learn to listen again? In this episode of How You Find Your Voice, host Jessie Huth speaks with writer and journalist Alice Vincent about her most recent book, Hark: How Women Listen. After more than a decade as a music journalist, Alice found herself burnt out and unable to listen to music at all. What began as an attempt to reconnect with music became something much deeper; a search for meaning, identity, and a new way of listening to the world and to herself. Together, they explore how motherhood, trauma and major life transitions can fundamentally change the way we hear and process the world. Alice reflects on her experience of PTSD following her son’s illness, and how sound became both a trigger and a lifeline during that time. The conversation also looks at the idea of listening as a gendered experience, namely, how women are often taught to be good listeners, while their own voices and experiences are overlooked. They discuss the difference between patriarchal and more intuitive ways of listening, and the overlooked soundscapes of women’s lives, from baby groups to hospital wards. They also talk about matrescence, liminal states, and the cyclical nature of women’s lives, from adolescence to motherhood to menopause and how these shifts shape identity, perception and voice. This is a conversation about sound, silence, motherhood, trauma, and the process of learning to listen to yourself again. Topics Covered * Losing connection to music and identity * Burnout and stepping away from the music industry * Listening as a practice and a way of understanding the self * Motherhood and matrescence * The sensory and emotional impact of becoming a parent * Trauma, PTSD and auditory triggers * The role of sound in processing difficult experiences * Writing as a way of making sense of trauma * The pressure to “move on” after difficult experiences * Liminal states and identity shifts * Adolescence, motherhood and other transitional phases * Misophonia and heightened sensitivity to sound * Patriarchal listening vs intuitive or embodied listening * Why women are taught to be good listeners * The invisible soundscapes of women’s lives * Community, connection and shared listening experiences * Silence, quiet and the search for stillness * Nature, environment and listening beyond the human * Cyclical identity and women’s changing inner worlds * Finding your voice through listening About Alice Vincent Alice Vincent Alice Vincent is a writer, broadcaster and multi-platform storyteller fascinated by the often-overlooked parts of life. Her books include the bestselling Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival [https://canongate.co.uk/books/3926-why-women-grow-stories-of-soil-sisterhood-and-survival/], which was shortlisted in the 2023 Books Are My Bag Readers Awards and Rootbound, Rewilding a Life [https://canongate.co.uk/books/2902-rootbound-rewilding-a-life/]. Both were longlisted for the Wainwright Prize. You can learn more about her latest book, Hark: How Women Listen here [https://canongate.co.uk/books/5064-hark-how-women-listen/]. A career journalist, she was a writer and editor on the arts desk of The Telegraph before joining Penguin as an editor. Now a columnist for The Guardian [https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/feb/17/meet-our-new-gardening-columnists?CMP=twt_a-environment_b-gdneco] and Gardens Illustrated, [https://www.gardensillustrated.com/author/alicevincent/] Alice has offered readers her fresh approach to nature, gardening and life in the city as a columnist for The Telegraph and The New Statesman. She writes for titles including Vogue, The Financial Times, The Sunday Times and The Observer.   Beyond the page, Alice is the host of the Why Women Grow podcast [https://anchor.fm/alice-vincent4/] – which topped the British podcast charts during its first week and unearths stories of the land with inspiring women – and In Haste [https://inhaste.substack.com], a fresh new books podcast and platform dedicated to exploring how books really get written. Her weekly newsletter Savour [https://www.alicevincent.co.uk/savour] offers thousands of readers a moment to pause and appreciate the delicious things in life.    About the Podcast How You Find Your Voice is the podcast that asks brilliant guests, mostly women, how they found or reclaimed their voices. Through conversations with writers, artists, thinkers and entrepreneurs, we explore the work they have made, the lives they have lived and the inner transformations that made it possible. We talk about turning points and resistance, silence and expression, creative risk and process, and the often messy journey of becoming. Listen and Follow If you enjoyed this conversation, please follow the podcast for future episodes. If you’d like to stay connected to these conversations and hear about upcoming events, salons and gatherings, you can join the How You Find Your Voice mailing list here.  [https://mailchi.mp/624c1ced4411/9iaxie3hg9] You can also follow along on Substack [https://substack.com/@howyoufindyourvoice] for longer reflections, or on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/howyoufindyourvoice/] for clips and updates. Keywords Alice Vincent interview, Hark How Women Listen, listening and identity, motherhood and matrescence, PTSD and trauma, sound and perception, women and listening, music journalism burnout, finding your voice podcast, writing and identity, female experience and voice, liminal states and transformation, misophonia and sound sensitivity, patriarchal listening, motherhood and creativity, writing through trauma, literary podcast, women writers, identity and change