Not Another Mummy Podcast

My guest today is presenter, author and speaker Andrea McLean, best known for over a decade on Loose Women.

Her new book, Shameless, details how she left her TV career to build a business with her husband Nick, and watched it collapse - with a bailiff turning up at the door, debt, and eventually having to sell their home. She talks to me about applying for jobs in coffee shops and hearing nothing back, what she told her kids when the money ran out, and the health scare that nearly killed her and changed everything. She also opens up about finding out who her real friends were, and why she and Nick packed up the car and moved to Spain to start again.

On the episode we also talk about:

Why she used her own savings to fund the business instead of bringing in outside investors, and what she'd tell her 2020 self about that decision
The moment a bailiff turned up at her front door, and how she ended up making him a cup of tea
The friend who pulled a work offer at the worst possible moment, and what that taught her about who shows up
Being told she was 24 hours from death, and how that reshaped the way she works and lives now

You can find Andrea on Instagram @andreamclean1 and her book, Shameless, is out now wherever books are sold: https://link.amazon/B0f2y45Yg

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a rating and review - it really helps other mums find the podcast. Not Another Mummy Podcast is brought to you by me, journalist and author Alison Perry. I'm a mum of three and I love interviewing people about parenthood and confidence on the podcast. You can check out my other episodes and come chat to me on Instagram: @iamalisonperry or on Threads: @iamalisonperry. You can buy my book OMG It's Twins now.

Music: Epidemic Sound
Artwork: Eleanor Bowmer
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/notanothermummy.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is the always fantastic Dr Louise Newson. Louise is a GP, hormone specialist, and the woman described as the medic who kickstarted the menopause revolution. She's just come off the back of a sell-out UK theatre tour, and her new book, The Power of Hormones, is out now.

Louise talks to me about something that might surprise you - how the contraceptive pill doesn't actually contain any real hormones at all. We talk about what's really in it, why she believes we're not being warned properly about the risks, and why she thinks there's a link between the Pill and cancer that's being ignored.

We also chat about:

Why so many women are handed antidepressants when what they actually need is hormones, and how to tell the difference
Progesterone for PMS and PMDD in teenagers, and why her own 15 year old takes it
Why HRT should be seen as a basic health essential, not a last resort
What really happened after the Panorama programme, and how her clinic ended up rated Outstanding by the CQC
Whether all of us should be on testosterone, and why the UK's "licensing" of it hasn't actually made it any easier to get

Follow Louise on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/menopause_doctor/
Listen to The Dr Louise Newson Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@menopause_doctor
Order The Power of Hormones: https://link.amazon/B05wPyPsU

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a rating and review — it really helps other people find the podcast. And you can follow the podcast to ensure you don’t miss future episodes. Thank you!

Not Another Mummy Podcast is brought to you by me, journalist and author Alison Perry. I'm a mum of three and I love interviewing people about parenthood and confidence on the podcast. You can check out my other episodes and you can come chat to me on Instagram: @iamalisonperry or on Threads: @iamalisonperry. You can buy my book OMG It's Twins now.

Music: Epidemic Sound
Artwork: Eleanor Bowmer
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/notanothermummy.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is the brilliant Amy Hart. Best known for hitting our screens on Love Island, Amy is a TV personality, content creator and host of The Mums Club podcast.

Amy had her eldest son Stanley at 30, has just had her second boy Dexter, and is very much in her mum era. But she's very honest about the fact that the second time around has been harder than she expected - not because of Dexter, but because of the identity wobble that comes with spinning more plates and stepping back from some of the regular work she loved.

We also chat about:

Why she froze her eggs at 26 after a fertility MOT revealed she might be following her mum and nan into early menopause - and why she'd tell every woman in her twenties to do the same
The moment she seriously considered becoming a solo mum by choice, and what changed
Why she has absolutely zero mum guilt about working, going away for the weekend or leaving the kids with their dad (and why she thinks the backlash is pure double standards)
The day she took a three-month-old Dexter to a Downing Street garden party and why she'd do it again without hesitation
Her honest assessment of her own podcast... what she got wrong, what she'd do differently and how she's planning to refocus it when she comes back

Follow Amy on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amyhartxo/?hl=en and on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/AmyHart

If you enjoyed this episode then please leave a rating or review - and you can follow the podcast to ensure you don’t miss future episodes. Thank you!

Not Another Mummy Podcast is brought to you by me, journalist and author Alison Perry. I'm a mum of three and I love interviewing people about parenthood and confidence on the podcast. You can check out my other episodes and you can come chat to me on Instagram: @iamalisonperry or on Threads: @iamalisonperry. You can buy my book OMG It's Twins now.

Music: Epidemic Sound
Artwork: Eleanor Bowmer
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/notanothermummy.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest on this episode is Ben Cajee - CBeebies and CBBC presenter, BBC Sport broadcaster and now debut children's picture book author. His book, The Panda-Badger, is an uplifting story about a little character who doesn't quite fit into a world of pandas or badgers - and what happens when he realises that being both is actually his greatest strength. It's inspired by Ben's own experience of growing up mixed heritage, and it is already a firm favourite with my kids.

Ben chats to me about what it was like to be asked, in 2020, to speak publicly about his own experiences of racism. He explains how the viral CBeebies link he wrote himself, came about, and the harder, more personal one that followed... and the online pile-on that came with it.

Ben also talks about:

Being physically sick with nerves before a live half-hour BBC broadcast - in a wetsuit, in October, with nowhere to hide
Presenting Blue Peter, achieving the thing he'd always aimed for, and sitting on his sofa afterwards thinking it didn't feel how he thought it would
Why he refuses to let anyone describe him as just one thing (and the conversation with a former NBA star that helped him see why)
What it felt like watching his own links back to improve, and why he thinks not everything should be perfectly polished
The celebrity author narrative, and why he's not remotely bothered by it

Find Ben on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ben_cajee/?hl=en-gb
Buy The Panda-Badger: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Panda-Badger-Ben-Cajee/dp/0241562600

If you enjoy the podcast, please do leave a rating and review - it really helps other people find it. Not Another Mummy Podcast is brought to you by me, journalist and author Alison Perry. I'm a mum of three and I love interviewing people about parenthood and confidence on the podcast. You can check out my other episodes and come chat to me on Instagram: @iamalisonperry or on Threads: @iamalisonperry. You can buy my book OMG It's Twins now.

Music: Epidemic Sound
Artwork: Eleanor Bowmer
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/notanothermummy.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm joined on this episode - for the fourth time - by awesome psychotherapist and bestselling author Anna Mathur. Her new book How to Stop Snapping at the People You Love (as Well as the Ones You Don't) is a brilliant exploration of why we snap and how to respond when it happens.

We kick of by chatting about what it's like to be the expert on rage when you're also the person in the car park crying over a WhatsApp group message asking for a fiver.

We also cover:

Why snapping is rarely about the thing that triggered it - and what the carrier bag metaphor tells us about how we actually reach our limit
The difference between anger and rage, and why anger is more useful than we think
Why the shame spiral after a snap keeps your body in the same stressed state, making another one more likely, not less
How being a "good girl" becomes a survival strategy, and why it turns into resentment
What Anna's ADHD diagnosis taught her about her own nervous system - and how she parents a child with big feelings when she has them too
The perimenopause connection: what's actually happening hormonally, and why Anna started HRT
What a real apology looks like (and the version that actually makes things worse)
Anna's own burnout - what it felt like, and how it changed the way she lives now

Follow Anna Mathur on Instagram at @annamathur and check out her new book here: https://amzn.to/4btSdF6

If you enjoyed this episode then please leave a rating or review - and you can follow the podcast to ensure you don’t miss future episodes. Thank you!

Not Another Mummy Podcast is brought to you by me, journalist and author Alison Perry. I'm a mum of three and I love interviewing people about parenthood and confidence on the podcast. You can check out my other episodes and you can come chat to me on Instagram: @iamalisonperry or on Threads: @iamalisonperry. You can buy my book OMG It's Twins now.

Music: Epidemic Sound
Artwork: Eleanor Bowmer
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/notanothermummy.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.