PodcastsSociedade e culturaHow To Fail With Elizabeth Day

How To Fail With Elizabeth Day

Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment
How To Fail With Elizabeth Day
Último episódio

387 episódios

  • How To Fail With Elizabeth Day

    Kristin Scott Thomas – ‘Having children allowed me to see where I’d gone wrong’

    24/06/2026 | 52min
    In a career spanning four decades, Dame Kristin Scott Thomas has become one of Britain’s most celebrated actors: Four Weddings and a Funeral, The English Patient, The Horse Whisperer, Tell No One and Slow Horses, alongside acclaimed stage work including her Olivier‑winning performance in The Seagull.

    Yet her path was far from straightforward: discouraged at drama school, she moved to Paris as an au pair and rebuilt her training from scratch. Her childhood had already been shaped by profound loss after the deaths of her father and stepfather in near‑identical accidents. She has now channelled these experiences into her directorial debut, My Mother’s Wedding, which she also co‑wrote and stars in, alongside Scarlett Johansson, Sienna Miller and Emily Beecham.

    We talk about her early grief, the emotional armour she built as a teenager, the chaotic experience of filming with Prince, making My Mother’s Wedding, the power of women writing women, her unforgettable Fleabag monologue and the joy and clarity she has found in her 60s.

    ✨ IN THIS EPISODE:

    00:00 Intro

    03:15 Reclaiming a Tragic Narrative

    04:59 Joy in her 60s

    06:22 Co Writing With Her Husband

    07:03 Animation and Childhood Memory

    09:07 Casting and Creative Reunions

    12:23 Failure One: Prince Film Debut

    17:06 Fame Theater and Radical Roles

    24:09 Under the Cherry Moon Lessons

    25:28 Failure Two: Teenage Grief

    26:24 Childhood Losses

    27:58 Eldest Sibling Burden

    28:37 Acting Through Sadness

    29:59 English Patient Reflections

    33:19 Four Weddings Role

    36:39 Therapy and Healing

    43:41 Grief Advice and Faith

    45:45 Football and Identity

    49:16 Aging and Gratitude

    💬 QUOTES TO REMEMBER:

    “I wanted to take my past and make it into something positive.”

    “If people enjoy what you do, it’s not bad.”

    “Having children allowed me to see where I’d gone wrong and where I was beating myself up.”

    🔗 LINKS + MENTIONS:

    Kristin’s directorial debut, My Mother’s Wedding, is now available in UK cinemas and streaming platforms such as Amazon Prime and Apple TV

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

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

    📚 WANT MORE?

    Rosamund Pike - this episode explores how her career has resisted tidy narratives, how she’s navigated fame without reading reviews for 25 years and how her so‑called “failures” – not getting married, struggling with fear, raising two sons while working, even a disastrous attempt at cooking a rabbit – have shaped her. It’s ultimately about a woman interrogating identity, courage and the stories she tells herself:http://swap.fm/l/tePOA4HZ2PoaBBwudnv7

    💌 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 Kristin 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
  • How To Fail With Elizabeth Day

    Patrick Radden Keefe - ‘Lying Is More Prevalent Than People Think’

    17/06/2026 | 56min
    What draws an award-winning writer to the darkest corners of human behaviour? Patrick Radden-Keefe is a New York Times bestselling author and staff writer at The New Yorker. He is known for his acclaimed books, including Empire of Pain and Say Nothing - the latter was adapted into a BAFTA and Emmy-nominated drama series.

    Radden Keefe’s latest book, London Falling, investigates the life and untimely death of Zac Brettler, a North London teenager drawn into the criminal underworld. In this conversation, Patrick reflects on why he is so fascinated by “the bad guys”, how the extraordinary story behind London Falling unfolded and his unconventional writing process.

    Patrick also talks about the years of rejection that preceded his success and how it has shaped him. I hope you enjoy this conversation with one of the world’s finest narrative journalists (oh, and Patrick). JUST KIDDING.

    ✨ IN THIS EPISODE:

    03:25 Why He Writes Bad Guys

    05:12 London Falling Origin Story

    08:01 Reinvention and Secret Lives

    10:06 Holocaust Legacy and Lying

    14:58 Carrying Grief and First Failure

    31:47 Parents Read First Drafts

    33:13 Family Themes And Fixations

    34:22 Chasing The New Yorker Dream

    36:49 Rejection Resentment And Drive

    41:14 What To Leave Out

    43:28 Research Outline

    48:13 Screenplays That Never Get Made

    50:51 Growth Outside Comfort Zone

    💬 QUOTES TO REMEMBER:

    I tend to look at people, even people who do pretty monstrous things, as human beings... The question for me is always, how did they get there? And usually they got there by degrees.

    I'd like to think that the sense of who you are as a person isn't contingent on the dopamine hit of people telling you you've done a good job.

    🔗 LINKS + MENTIONS:

    London Falling is out now: www.patrickraddenkeefe.com

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

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

    📚 WANT MORE?

    Jon Ronson - another journalistic hero of mine, Jon talked about his love of storytelling, what being bullied at school taught him and why truth-telling is vital: swap.fm/l/3Uwm2GCNCBpHQVZc6dwr

    Malcolm Gladwell - on being mediocre at running, failing to be a friend and whether prejudice can ever be a force for good: swap.fm/l/CxIsEyNtJcyXROPZQCvh

    💌 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 Patrick 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
  • How To Fail With Elizabeth Day

    Natalie Imbruglia - ‘I love the wisdom of being in my 50s’

    10/06/2026 | 52min
    *triggers: This episode includes discussion of depression and mental health crises.

    In 1997 Natalie Imbruglia released her first single, Torn, which sold more than 4 million physical copies worldwide. In her homeland of Australia, it became the most played song on the radio, being played an average of 75 times a day over the two decades following its release.

    She landed a part in Neighbours in 1985, when she was just 16 years old, and stayed on the hugely popular soap for two years before moving to London. Her first album, Left Of Middle, went multi-platinum. Five further albums followed but it wasn’t always easy: in 2009 she took a six-year break from music to concentrate on acting, appearing on stage and in film and also as a judge on the Australian X Factor. Since then, she has released further music, become a mother to a son and won The Masked Singer.

    Now she returns with her seventh studio album, Algorithm.

    We talk about how writing this album coincided with the perimenopause, reflect on her time in Neighbours, her experience of dating apps, going through solo IVF to have her son, the sexism she faced in the music industry, plus the wisdom she has found in her 50s.

    ✨ IN THIS EPISODE:

    03:08 Making Natalie’s new album Algorithm

    04:55 Neurodivergence and Menopause

    08:59 Death Scrolling

    10:47 Dropped by Label

    16:07 Neighbors and Rejection

    25:35 Dating in Your 30s

    27:15 Rejection Builds Clarity

    27:37 Choosing Love Over Biology

    30:47 IVF Reality Check

    34:13 Single Mother Headlines

    35:48 Manifesting With Lists

    38:11 Living After Torn

    43:53 Sexism and Aging Power

    💬 QUOTES TO REMEMBER:

    It doesn't matter who it is, never give your power over to another human being. Never think somebody knows you better than you know yourself.

    I'm quite good at being the underdog. I find it much scarier to be at the top, waiting to fall off a pedestal.

    Sometimes the universe is working for you, it just doesn't feel that way at the time.

    🔗 LINKS + MENTIONS:

    Natalie’s latest album, ‘Algorithm’ is to be released on 4th September. Pre-order here: republicofmusic.lnk.to/algorithm

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

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

    📚 WANT MORE?

    Shania Twain - this episode reflects on a childhood marked by poverty, early fame, loss and self-doubt: swap.fm/l/JyU54nvq2muyBpNFq3B9

    Lily Allen - talks about failing to be famous, body image, children, marital breakdown, addiction and songwriting: swap.fm/l/8Otj3tpmbH5SF4xjVHTJ

    💌 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 Natalie 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
  • How To Fail With Elizabeth Day

    Hannah Murray - ‘Everything Fell Apart’

    03/06/2026 | 1h 1min
    Hannah Murray found fame when she was just 17, playing the self-destructive Cassie in E4’s Skins. She juggled an English degree at Cambridge University alongside playing Gilly in HBO’s Game Of Thrones and went on to film Detroit, directed by Kathryn Bigelow.

    When the physical and mental stress required from these roles began to take its toll, Murray sought treatment from a reiki healer. From there, her life began to spiral as she became heavily involved with a ‘healing’ organisation whose promises of real-life magic and enlightenment were increasingly seductive. She ended up being sectioned after a psychotic break and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

    Now, she has written her first book. The Make-Believe: A Memoir of Magic and Madness is a deeply personal account of these events, written with compulsive lyricism. It takes readers on a journey to the edges of reality, where magic is possible, and where the liminal space between what is real and what is imagined becomes ever more porous.

    In this episode we delve into Hannah’s breakdown and what it taught her. We discuss living with BPD, her decision to quit acting and why, as a society, it’s so important to talk about severe mental health conditions - even if it makes us uncomfortable. Plus: when does our modern obsession with ‘wellness’ go too far?

    ✨ IN THIS EPISODE:

    00:00 Introduction

    04:30 Acting Roles and Emotional Toll

    07:51 The Memoir

    09:17 Traumatic Filming and Aftermath

    11:57 Failure to Be Happy Always

    16:06 Rapture Highs and Bipolar

    18:14 Reiki Rabbit Hole and Cult Questions

    28:50 Wellness as Addiction

    30:25 Hotel Breakdown Begins

    32:17 Exorcism and Delusions

    33:26 Realizing You're Sectioned

    35:18 Medication and Coming Back

    36:12 Shame to Compassion

    42:55 Bipolar Mania Explained

    48:41 Leaving Acting and Moving On

    💬 QUOTES TO REMEMBER:

    On the nature of modern mental health discourse: "What if I want to talk about when I was drinking my own urine on a psychiatric ward? You can’t really say that at a dinner party... there is still a big taboo around psychosis, bipolar, schizophrenia, and other conditions that are less palatable and less kind of cozy."

    🔗 LINKS + MENTIONS:

    The Make-Believe by Hannah Murray is available now in hardback and audio, read by Hannah https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/471422/the-make-believe-by-murray-hannah/9781529155211

    Hannah will be in conversation with Jessie Cave at Kings Place on Friday 5th June. Link to tickets here: https://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/words/hannah-murray-in-conversation-with-jessie-cave/

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

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

    📚 WANT MORE?

    Jennette McCurdy - discusses childhood fame, toxic family dynamics, eating disorders, grief and how reclaiming her own identity after her mother’s death ultimately set her free: swap.fm/l/DqqwmylXlnMvnfOmG53z

    Marian Keyes - the bestselling writer on addiction, creative insecurity and body image: swap.fm/l/3opU8XRCVTQLV4v994U5

    💌 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 Hannah 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
  • How To Fail With Elizabeth Day

    Emily Atack - ‘I’ve forgiven people for unforgivable things’

    27/05/2026 | 1h
    *triggers: contains description of physical assault

    Emily Atack left school at 16, confident she wouldn’t need a GCSE for what she wanted to do: act. It turns out, she was correct. She starred as Charlotte Hinchcliffe in the smash-hit comedy The Inbetweeners when she was just 17 and is currently on our screens as Sarah Stratton in Disney+’s hit drama Rivals, as well as co-hosting a new ITV game show, Nobody’s Fool, with Danny Dyer.

    But it hasn’t always been easy: she faced sexual harassment and abuse from the age of 10. We talk about the impact this has had on how she now understands her own capabilities and about how her unbreakable bond with her sister, Martha, has helped her survive the toughest challenges.

    ✨ IN THIS EPISODE:

    00:00 Introduction to Emily

    03:19 Learning Boundaries

    05:33 Class and Growing Up

    07:39 Paul McCartney Connection

    10:00 Failing to Believe In Herself

    14:58 Leaving Home at Sixteen

    25:10 Inbetweeners Fame Fallout

    30:18 Praise for Rivals

    31:23 Earning Creative Trust

    32:51 Emotional Regulation Struggles

    35:40 Forgiveness and Loneliness

    37:20 Childhood Trauma and Sex

    41:35 Alistair and Finding Home

    46:52 Motherhood and Body Image

    55:19 Keeping Nice Things and Goodbye

    💬 QUOTES TO REMEMBER:

    So many people don’t take responsibility for their failures…. Which is why this podcast is so great.

    Forgiveness is something you have to find in yourself

    I hate being called fat - it hurts my feelings.

    🔗 LINKS + MENTIONS:

    Emily hosts ‘Nobody’s Fool’, a brand new strategic quiz show with Danny Dyer, available to stream on ITVX, with the final three episodes airing on 30th, 31st May and the final on 1st June at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX

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

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

    📚 WANT MORE?

    Katherine Parkinson - Fresh from her latest BAFTA win, Katherine Parkinson joined Elizabeth to discuss the self-doubt, trauma, humour and resilience that shaped her journey from awkward outsider to one of Britain’s most beloved actors: swap.fm/l/CplscDFzT9oyNGV1Oan0

    Danny Dyer – the actor and national treasure on identity, anger, vulnerability and learning to break the patterns you were born into: swap.fm/l/L192dU5DZHQnCUjFWuX8

    💌 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 Emily answer listener questions in our subscriber series, Failing with Friends. Join our community of subscribers here: 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

    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
Mais podcasts de Sociedade e cultura
Sobre How To Fail With Elizabeth Day
Every success story you've ever been told is incomplete. How To Fail with Elizabeth Day is the part they leave out. Each week, Sunday Times #1 bestselling author Elizabeth Day sits down with someone extraordinary - and asks them about the moments that didn’t go according to plan and how these failures shaped them.  Kate Winslet on body image. Malala Yousafzai on rewriting her story. Pamela Anderson on refuting shame. Phoebe Waller-Bridge on creativity. Salman Rushdie on survival. Emilia Clarke on fame. What happens when the people you most admire stop performing and start telling the truth? Five hundred episodes in, we're still finding out. With sold-out nights at the London Palladium and Sydney Opera House, millions of listeners worldwide, and a British Podcast Award to its name, How To Fail is one of the UK's most successful podcasts. And yes, we're aware of the irony.  Pick an episode. Start anywhere. An Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment production. All guest booking is managed from an official Sony Music email address. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow @sonypodcastsTo bring your brand to life in this podcast, email podcastadsales@sonymusic.com
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