How To Fail With Elizabeth Day

How To Fail With Elizabeth Day

How To Fail with Elizabeth Day is a podcast that celebrates the things in life that haven’t gone right and what we might learn from them along the way. Every week, Elizabeth’s guest explores three failures, and what these failures have taught them about how to grow and succeed, better. We’d love to hear from you! Get in touch with Elizabeth to share your failures, problems or questions - anonymously or otherwise. She'll go through these each week with the help of her very special guests. And remember: a fail shared is a fail halved. https://forms.sonymusicfans.com/campaign/how-to-fail-uk-2023/ An Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Original Production. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow @sonypodcasts To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email podcastadsales@sonymusic.com

Episodes

September 21, 2025 24 mins
Welcome to another special edition of How to Fail, where I revisit conversations from the How to Fail archives. Each week, we shine a light on a particular theme, hopefully offering inspiration, perspective and comfort through the words of past guests. This week’s theme is on writing - appropriately, because my new book ‘One of Us’ is out this week (25th September)! So it felt only fair that I re-shared a couple of my favourite au...
Mark as Played
Content Warning: This episode contains mentions of drug use. Mark Ronson is the hitmaker behind some of the most iconic music of the past two decades. A nine-time Grammy-winning producer, DJ, and Oscar-winning songwriter (yes - he wrote “I’m Just Ken”), Ronson has collaborated with legends like Lady Gaga, Paul McCartney, Miley Cyrus and Duran Duran. He also produced Amy Winehouse’s era-defining album Back to Black, and his 2014 s...
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September 14, 2025 13 mins
Welcome to the newest evolution of How to Fail! Each week, I’ll be diving into the archives to spotlight key themes that have come up throughout my conversations with How to Fail guests. I’ll be sharing bite-sized takeaways every Monday to support, inspire and help with whatever you might be going through. This week’s theme is a big one: we’re talking all about grief. First, you’ll hear a moving excerpt from my 2019 conversation...
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‘I didn’t think I had that confidence, so I turned those roles down.’ Robin Wright is the legendary star of The Princess Bride, Forrest Gump, House of Cards, and Amazon’s gripping new thriller The Girlfriend. An Emmy-nominated actress, Golden Globe winner and now an acclaimed director, Wright joins How To Fail to talk about fear, self-worth, womanhood, motherhood - and what it means to start over later in life. She reflects on mi...
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Welcome to this brand-new concept for How to Fail – where I dive into the back catalogue of the How to Fail archives, highlighting specific themes each week to bring you bitesize takeaways! Hopefully these episodes can bring some clarity on similar issues you’re facing or great stories that you might find comfort from. This week we’re looking at heartbreak. You’ll hear a highlight from my conversation with philosopher Alain de Bo...
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You may know Tom Ellis as the devilishly charming lead in Netflix’s Lucifer, or as the lovable Gary in the BBC sitcom Miranda. He's also made waves in the U.S., starring alongside Gina Rodriguez in Players, and appearing in Hulu’s Tell Me Lies, created by his wife, Meghan Oppenheimer. In 2023, Tom and Meghan welcomed a daughter via surrogate, adding to his role as a proud dad of four. Now, his next big project is the star-studded ...
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August 27, 2025 58 mins
Jameela Jamil is an actor, activist, and founder of the I Weigh movement. From teaching English to starring in The Good Place, Jameela shares the highs, lows, and radical honesty that define her journey. This episode first went out in February 2021. We talk about: Her struggle to be a "good" celebrity Body image battles and self-kindness Financial missteps and learning to thrive Calling out media hypocrisy and sparking global...
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August 20, 2025 67 mins
Author of Untamed and fierce truth-teller Glennon Doyle joins me for a raw and revelatory episode, first recorded in July 2020. We dive into: Why we chase approval instead of trusting our inner voice Her struggles with body image, love, and emotional resilience The failures that shaped her—from family breakdowns to learning self-protection Every moment is unscripted and packed with wisdom. No edits. No filters. Just Glennon, ex...
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This week we revisit one of my all-time favourite guests: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, recorded in July 2021. Best known for Americanah and her globally resonant TED Talks, Chimamanda opens up about the profound grief of losing both her parents within a year—and the raw journey of coping in its aftermath. We talk candidly about: Her essay Notes on Grief Being a daughter and the complexities of motherhood Fertility struggles and wr...
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Recorded with a live audience in Cambridge, this captivating conversation delves deep into the life and career of a cultural force of the last half-century. Known of course for his iconic role as Baldrick in Blackadder, Sir Tony's sharp intelligence and dry humour have had a formative influence on generations.  In this candid discussion, he opens up about the unexpected turns and profound challenges that have shaped his extraordin...
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In this searingly funny and deeply affecting live conversation, Elizabeth speaks to stand-up comedian, author and Taskmaster favourite Fern Brady about her autism diagnosis, her working-class roots, and the failures that shaped her award-winning memoir Strong Female Character. Fern opens up about late diagnosis, social masking, and stripping to fund her education - all delivered with the brutal honesty and whip-smart humour that’s...
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What happens when the life you thought you’d built - the one with love, money, recognition - seems to slip away? This week, Elizabeth speaks to Dorinda Medley, author, TV personality and iconic former Real Housewife of New York, about reinvention, resilience and learning to be okay with not being liked by everyone. Dorinda opens up about the loss of her husband, the loneliness that followed fame, and why her departure from Housewi...
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As a recording artist, Vanessa Williams has earned 13 Grammy nominations and racked up over 212 million digital streams over the course of her eight albums. Her most popular hit, Save The Best For Last, was Number 1 for five weeks in 1992. She is also a highly successful stage and screen actor, appearing in Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty. She is currently starring on the West End stage as Miranda Priestly in the musical adapt...
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In this special live edition of How to Fail, Elizabeth is joined by comedian Suzi Ruffell. Suzi has performed five sellout runs at the Edinburgh Fringe, as well as appearing on live at the Apollo and filming an Amazon special of her show ‘Dance Like Everyone Is Watching’. She was nominated for Best standup show in the National Comedy Awards and has just written her first book Am I Having Fun Now?’, an instant Sunday Times Bestselle...
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I can’t believe I get to say this but…PAMELA ANDERSON! ON HOW TO FAIL! The one and only!  A woman I grew up watching on TV, Pamela was an icon of a generation…But the second act of her career has been the most powerful and Anderson joins me for a  vulnerable chat about her long journey of embracing beauty on her own terms, understand her self-worth, embracing self-acceptance and how it was never about being pretty for her - it w...
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Melinda French Gates studied computer science and economics and completed an MBA before joining a tech start-up called Microsoft, in 1987. She rose through the ranks to become Manager of Information Products and married the boss in 1994. His name was Bill Gates. Together, the couple founded and co-chaired the Gates Foundation, where, for more than two decades, she set the direction and priorities of the world’s largest philanthrop...
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Monica Lewinsky is an activist, podcaster and producer.  At the age of 24, Lewinsky, a White House intern, found herself in the eye of a global scandal. She was subjected to a mass public shaming -  losing her livelihood, her anonymity and the future she had once imagined for herself. Now, 51 Lewinsky has garnered a new generation of admirers, who with the advent of social media and shifting cultural tides, have rightly reinterpre...
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Rapping phenomenon and Tottenham Hotspur superfan AJ Tracey joins us this week to talk about supporting his mum through her cancer journey, the pressures of staying an independent artist and what football has taught him about failure. AJ Tracey has been rapping since the age of four. He dropped out of his Criminology degree at London Metropolitan University and started uploading tracks to SoundCloud in 2011, achieving five Plat...
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Cynthia Nixon joins Elizabeth to answer YOUR questions and failures including: whose failures would you most like to hear (dead or alive) how to cope with a friendship break up and how to know when to have kids. Elizabeth then takes a moment to reflect on meeting Cynthia, and everything they covered. To hear Cynthia tackling your failures join our community of subscribers here: https://howtofail.supportingcast.fm/#content Do ...
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Whilst Cynthia Nixon’s versatility is beyond question, it's fair to say that she has become permanently associated with one character, Miranda Hobbs, in Sex and the City and its companion piece, And Just Like That. She won an Emmy for her performance and a generation of fans who identified with the ambitious type-A lawyer whose cynicism disguised as vulnerability has grown markedly through the decades. Nixon is also a political ...
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