How To Fail With Elizabeth Day

Andy Burnham is the first Prime Minister on How to Fail. Past leaders have run scared of doing a podcast with ‘fail’ in the title - but not this one. As he says in this conversation: ‘if you’ve not succeeded, you have to understand why it happened, and what you’re going to do about it.’ Wise words from a global leader.

Burnham is now our 7th Prime Minister in 10 years, having won a decisive by-election in Makerfield and having received nominations from 94% of Labour MPs in an unopposed leadership contest.

In this exclusive episode, recorded at No. 10 North, Andy talks about growing up, how his Catholic faith has shaped his outlook (and whether or not he snuck some communion wine as an altar boy). Plus: imposter syndrome, what he learned from his past failed leadership bids, friendships within politics, how his wife responded to his desire to run for PM, the meaning of ‘home’ and whether or not his dad, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, knows his son has become Prime Minister.

A must-listen, even if we do say so ourselves.

IN THIS EPISODE:

00:00 Introduction

03:12 Imposter Syndrome and Authenticity

06:13 Faith and Catholic Roots

08:32 English Degree and Power of Words

10:19 Failed Leadership Bids

16:50 Politics Friendships and Family

21:07 Post Cambridge Job Hunt

25:06 What Home Means

26:26 Hillsborough and Two Britains

27:36 Number 10 North Vision

28:43 Building Safety and Hope

32:49 Radical Yet Sensible Politics

35:35 Fixing Social Care

38:16 Roy and Alzheimer’s

43:10 Faith Power and Farewell

LINKS + MENTIONS:

Join the How To Fail community: www.howtofail.supportingcast.fm/#content

Elizabeth’s Substack: www.theelizabethday.substack.com

WANT MORE?

Ed Miliband - swap.fm/l/YTnZMo8h78DZNf7ZmKnF

Sadiq Khan - swap.fm/l/FcuzDh396Ul76Sc46KRb

Jess Phillips - swap.fm/l/EHHLbfGCH6oBDbOaMhbX

LOVE THIS EPISODE?

Subscribe on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts

Leave a 5⭐ review – it helps more people discover these stories

Follow How To Fail & Elizabeth:

Instagram: @elizabday

TikTok: @howtofailpod

Podcast Instagram: @howtofailpod

Website: www.elizabethday.org

Guest bookings for How To Fail only come from official @sonymusic.com emails

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 and Jen Mistri

Sound Engineer: Ed Gill

DOP: Keith Gubbins

Assistant Camera Op: Charlie Painter

Assistant Producer: Shania Manderson

Senior Producer: Hannah Talbot

Executive Producer: Alex Lawless

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

Before becoming a No. 1 New York Times bestselling author, and one of the most widely read poets on Instagram, Nikita worked as a cleaner and carer while sharing her poetry online. She moved from New Delhi to Britain in her early twenties to study for a master's degree at the University for the Creative Arts, and felt she ‘disappointed’ her parents and faced repeated rejection and misogyny in the process.

In this episode, she tells Elizabeth about her unusual childhood at sea, growing up in places marked by contested borders, where bomb scares at school felt routine, and the many obstacles she faced throughout her career. She also reflects on the power of poetry to connect us, why myths still resonate today and how writing became both a form of resistance and survival.

IN THIS EPISODE:

00:00 Introduction

03:10 Archivist Heart

04:33 Unheard Voices

07:10 Borders Bomb Scares

09:49 Childhood

11:30 Mythical Power

13:52 Rejection To Breakthrough

25:51 Success Highs and Lows

26:31 Rejection as Return

27:45 Dating and Being Returned

28:11 BuzzFeed Fame Backlash

33:36 Shame and Misogyny Online

34:51 Surviving Internet Pile Ons

39:16 Chronic Pain Finally Named

48:34 Family Grief and Goodbye

LINKS + MENTIONS:

Nikita’s new book, Styx: The River is out this Autumn: www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Styx-The-River/Nikita-Gill/9781398537194

Join the How To Fail community: www.howtofail.supportingcast.fm/#content

Elizabeth’s Substack: www.theelizabethday.substack.com

WANT MORE?

Michael Rosen - swap.fm/l/TCjvDZaxrZsq4iZRCccm

LOVE THIS EPISODE?

Subscribe on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts

Leave a 5⭐ review – it helps more people discover these stories

Follow How To Fail & Elizabeth:

Instagram: @elizabday

TikTok: @howtofailpod

Podcast Instagram: @howtofailpod

Website: www.elizabethday.org

Guest bookings for How To Fail only come from official @sonymusic.com emails

Elizabeth and Nikita answer listener questions in our subscriber series: www.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

Engineer: Matias Torres

Assistant Producer: Shania Manderson

Senior Producer: Hannah Talbot

Executive Producer: Alex Lawless

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

Miquita Oliver is a podcaster, TV presenter and all-round brilliant woman. She was just 16 when she burst onto our screens co-hosting Channel 4’s cult music show Popworld alongside Simon Amstell. Twenty-five years later, she’s still one of Britain’s most distinctive broadcasters and interviewers. She co-created Miss Me?, with Lily Allen, and now co-hosts it with musician Jordan Stephens of Rizzle Kicks.

You may also know Miquita from the acclaimed BBC series The Caribbean with Andi and Miquita, in which she and her mother, Andi Oliver, travelled to Antigua to reconnect with their family, heritage and identity.

We talk about Miquita surviving the 2004 tsunami in Thailand, the shame she associates with going bankrupt, her struggle with alcoholism in her thirties, love, family, and why she still can't quite conquer her driving theory test. She even opens up about her hopes and fears around motherhood. This is an essential conversation for any one who survived the noughties diet culture or who has grappled with financial hardship. Frank, funny and unexpectedly moving: just like Miquita herself.

IN THIS EPISODE:

00:00 Introduction

02:42 Heritage and Caribbean Roots

04:19 Tsunami Trauma and Healing

07:04 Iconic Co-Hosts and Craft

10:51 Losing Home

13:03 Miss Me Origins and Honesty

15:26 Bankruptcy Shame and Survival

30:58 Weight and Work Comeback

32:02 Second Reinvention Switch

33:01 Money Lessons After Bankruptcy

34:21 Why Aren’t We Taught Tax

35:50 Alcoholism

39:19 Leaving Richmond and Getting Clear

43:12 Motherhood Without Shame

48:03 Driving Test Fail

LINKS + MENTIONS:

Listen to Miss Me? wherever you get your podcasts

Join the How To Fail community: www.howtofail.supportingcast.fm/#content

Elizabeth’s Substack: www.theelizabethday.substack.com

WANT MORE?

Andi Oliver - swap.fm/l/kcBWNXdPsg7LhgcGhvoF

Lily Allen - swap.fm/l/8Otj3tpmbH5SF4xjVHTJ

Neneh Cherry - swap.fm/l/r5YD9vNivp5t6yw1gN1U

Mabel - swap.fm/l/bfOzGVjFFpo13LK7MHUu

LOVE THIS EPISODE?

Subscribe on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts

Leave a 5⭐ review – it helps more people discover these stories

Follow How To Fail & Elizabeth:

Instagram: @elizabday

TikTok: @howtofailpod

Podcast Instagram: @howtofailpod

Website: www.elizabethday.org

Guest bookings for How To Fail only come from official @sonymusic.com emails

Elizabeth and Miquita answer listener questions in our subscriber series: www.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

Engineer: Matias Torres

Assistant Producer: Shania Manderson

Senior Producer: Hannah Talbot

Executive Producer: Alex Lawless

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

What connects Barack Obama, a tabloid sting and Love Islander Alex George? Have a Blue Peter badge if you were thinking of Richard Bacon...



While the broadcaster and producer is perhaps best known for the time his Blue Peter contract was terminated - following a tabloid reveal of his cocaine use - there is so much more to the man. His storied time in television led to him founding a production company and creating numerous TV shows on both sides of the Atlantic. He credits this restless creativity to his ADHD, a diagnosis he only received later in life.



We discuss how neurodivergence fuels him; how the cocaine exposé in the 90s impacted who he is; his relationship with his parents; his failed move to America, landing an interview with Barack Obama... and being tracked by the Secret Service.



Richard talks movingly about being an addict, going to AA, his failure to quit drinking and a near-death experience that could have been averted by a certain doctor on Love Island. Trust me, an hour with Richard Bacon is quite the ride - strap in!

IN THIS EPISODE:

00:00 Intro

03:57 Defining Success Today

04:15 Botox Water And Moisturizer

05:32 Parents And Upbringing

10:05 ADHD Intelligence

11:38 Blue Peter Cocaine Exposé

21:06 Fallout Press And Shame

25:42 Dad Crying in Secret

26:35 Public Humiliation to Resilience

29:01 Trust After Betrayal

30:05 America Move

32:37 Woody Harrelson

33:30 Obama Interview Whiplash

35:36 Work as Identity and Failure

37:53 Addiction Coma and Gratitude

LINKS + MENTIONS:

Richard’s podcast ‘Why Are You More Successful Than Me?’ is available now

Join the How To Fail community: www.howtofail.supportingcast.fm/#content

Elizabeth’s Substack: www.theelizabethday.substack.com

WANT MORE?

Claudia Winkleman – swap.fm/l/Q65AatVGMWgB27BoS0g2

LOVE THIS EPISODE?

Subscribe on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts

Leave a 5⭐ review – it helps more people discover these stories

Follow How To Fail & Elizabeth:

Instagram: @elizabday

TikTok: @howtofailpod

Podcast Instagram: @howtofailpod

Website: www.elizabethday.org

Guest bookings for How To Fail only come from official @sonymusic.com emails

Elizabeth and Richard answer listener questions in our subscriber series: www.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

Engineer: Matias Torres

Assistant Producer: Shania Manderson

Senior Producer: Hannah Talbot

Executive Producer: Alex Lawless

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

It was a privilege to have Bonnie Tyler on How to Fail back in 2024 - and we are heartbroken to hear of her passing today.

Bonnie was open, funny and moving when she joined me on How to Fail. Total Eclipse of the Heart made her a global star, and at the time of this recording, she managed to squeeze in an hour on How to Fail between gigs and the release of her new album, In Berlin. It was also her first ever podcast interview.

You might want to bring the tissues for this one, as we have a bit of a weep when Bonnie talks about losing her amazing mum. We also touched on miscarriage and a childfree life. Plus her failure at elocution lessons, the fascinating story behind her friendship with Tina Turner, performing for Putin (no, really), being a bit of a hoarder and the secret to a 50-year marriage.

We love you Bonnie Tyler, rest in peace.

Production & Post Production Coordinator: Lily Hambly

Engineer: Gulliver Tickell and Josh Gibbs

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 podcastadsales@sonymusic.com

Guest bookings for How To Fail only come from official @sonymusic.com emails

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices