Lashana Lynch - ‘I didn’t know when I was auditioning that I was going to be 007’

It was an honour to record this episode. We overuse words such as ‘hero’ and ‘inspiration’ but Sir Chris Hoy is both. Not only is he one of Great Britain’s most successful Olympic athletes (during a record-breaking career as a sprint cyclist, he won six gold medals, one silver medal, and 11 world championships) but he’s currently living with a Stage 4 prostate cancer diagnosis. In September 2023, a seemingly routine trip to the doctor’s turned into a waking nightmare when he was given between two and four years to live. His beloved wife Sarra was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis a month later. And yet, these two extraordinary people say they are lucky. Listen to this episode if you want to feel joy, hear wisdom and learn how to live with love in the face of death. Sir Chris - you’re an amazing human being. Thank you for spending this precious time with me. If you or someone you love is going through a mental or physical health challenge, as Sir Chris Hoy says: you are not alone. You can call the Samaritans 24/7 on 116 123.` All That Matters by Sir Chris Hoy is out now. 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: Gulliver Lawrence-Tickell and Matias Torres Sole Senior Producer: Selina Ream Executive Producer: Carly Maile Head of Marketing: Kieran Lancini 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 podcastadsales@sonymusic.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When I started How To Fail, I had a list of dream guests. Kirsty Young was on it. Not only because she’s one of the greatest interviewers of all time but also because her style of broadcasting (especially during her time on Desert Island Discs) is the standard I aspire to every week on this podcast. Her intelligence, warmth and ability to listen - both to what is being said and what isn’t - are what mark her apart. It was an honour to be allowed to ask her the questions for a change and a delight to spend time in her company because she’s FUNNY too. Truly, the ideal woman. We talk about her self-stated failure ‘to excite her birth father enough for him to stick around’, her failure as a quiz-show host and her failure to meditate. Along the way, we touch on her experiences interviewing the great and the good…and some who were neither. We talk about her anchoring of the late Queen’s funeral and Kirsty’s ability to sum up the mood of a nation. We discuss step-parenting, the liberation of age, clickbait, living with a chronic illness and why she wishes she’d run off with a Guatemalan tribesman (but settled for love at first sight with her husband, Nick Jones, instead). HOW TO FAIL PRESENTED BY HAYU LIVE TOUR tickets: www.fane.co.uk/how-to-fail 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 and John Scott Senior Producer: Selina Ream Executive Producer: Carly Maile Head of Marketing: Kieran Lancini 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 podcastadsales@sonymusic.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TW: sexual assault I love Justins. I haven’t met a bad one yet. I’m even married to one. Justin Baldoni continues the trend of Great Justins. He’s intelligent, empathetic and unbelievably eloquent (honestly - it was such an easy interview because I hardly had to ask a single question; I just sat back and listened). An actor and director, Baldoni played Raphael in the rom-com Jane the Virgin for five years, before directing and starring in It Ends With Us - the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s hit novel. And don’t worry - we talk ALLLL about it. He’s also a speaker, producer and entrepreneur. His book and eponymous podcast ‘Man Enough’ both seek to reframe modern masculinity, and were inspired by his hugely successful TED talk on the necessity of deconstructing traditional stereotypes about masculinity. In doing so, he seeks to fight the oppression of all genders. Well, I think we can all say hurrah to that. NEW HOW TO FAIL WITH ELIZABETH DAY PRESENTED BY HAYU LIVE TOUR DATE Friday 28th March 2025 – The London Barbican Go to: www.fane.co.uk/how-to-fail 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: Gulliver Tickell Senior Producer: Selina Ream Executive Producer: Carly Maile Head of Marketing: Kieran Lancini 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 podcastadsales@sonymusic.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lovely, lovely, LOVELY Luke Evans. I think he’s quite possibly one of the nicest men in Hollywood - a bona fide A-Lister after star turns in Beauty and the Beast, The Hobbit, Fast & Furious, to name but a few. And yet, his early life was challenging. Raised as a Jehovah’s Witness, he was unable to be open about his sexuality for fear of banishment from the church and rejection by his parents. He left home at 16, moved to Cardiff to study singing, and eventually became a successful musical theatre actor before finally landing a movie role at the age of 30, which would change his life forever. He hasn’t stopped working since. Luke and I talked about being gay in Hollywood, his physical insecurities (despite being the embodiment of a certain kind of masculine perfection on-screen) and how his early days of knocking on doors with his Jehovah’s Witness parents prepared him for rejection in his career. His failures? To find a soulmate until his 40s, accepting success and a failure to learn what his dad knows. I also get to study his tattoo and ask him who his favourite Hollywood co-star is and why… NEW HOW TO FAIL WITH ELIZABETH DAY PRESENTED BY HAYU LIVE TOUR DATE Friday 28th March 2025 – The London Barbican Go to: www.fane.co.uk/how-to-fail 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 and John Scott Senior Producer: Selina Ream Executive Producer: Carly Maile Head of Marketing: Kieran Lancini 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 podcastadsales@sonymusic.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Andy Cohen doesn’t just shape the culture. He is the culture. And if you think I was excited-slash-terrified to interview a man who means so much to me (despite us never having met until this moment) then you would be entirely correct. In many ways, Andy is the godfather of reality TV. He’s responsible for the birth of The Real Housewives franchise, without which we would never have had some of the most iconic small-screen moments of the last 20 years or spin-off shows such as Vanderpump Rules and Below Deck. He’s also the host of the phenomenally successful late-night talk show Watch What Happens Live, the author of five New York Times bestselling books and has even appeared as Zeus in a Lady Gaga music video. We talk about…everything. I get all the tea on The Real Housewives - its inception, its stars and which housewife gives him the best gifts. We chat about that baby shower. We talk about why John Mayer would be Andy’s ideal husband. We talk about gay parenting, surrogacy and why an incident in a playground with his son left him feeling like a failure. We talk about knowing your audience, how difficult it is to deal with online trolling, why he’s never had any plastic surgery and whether he’d ever share a bath with Meredith Marks. One of my favourite ever interviews. Thank you so much, Andy! NEW HOW TO FAIL WITH ELIZABETH DAY PRESENTED BY HAYU LIVE TOUR DATE Friday 28th March 2025 – The London Barbican Go to: www.fane.co.uk/how-to-fail 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 and John Scott Senior Producer: Selina Ream Executive Producer: Carly Maile Head of Marketing: Kieran Lancini 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 podcastadsales@sonymusic.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices