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

Bella Freud - Learning To Trust Herself

December 17, 2025 • 52 mins
Fashion icon Bella Freud on abandoning psychics, learning to trust herself and realising that what happens next is entirely up to her. Freud is a designer and creative whose clothes have adorned the likes of Zadie Smith, Kate Moss, Little Simz and…well…me. She’s also a cult podcaster with her hit show, Fashion Neurosis, where guests are invited to examine what clothes mean to them. She’s lived a fascinating life: the daughter of...
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ON FRIENDSHIP… With Dawn French and Vogue Williams

December 14, 2025 • 24 mins
I’ve always been obsessed with friendship - how it shapes us, challenges us and often goes uncelebrated. In this episode, both Dawn French and Vogue Williams get honest about the beauty and the messiness of it all. Despite being surrounded by great friends, Vogue explains why she worries she’s not the best friend back - although she’s definitely working on it. Dawn then reflects on growing up as an RAF kid. Repeated moves meant sh...
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Alex Hassell - Rivals, Rejection and Taking Acid at Alton Towers

December 10, 2025 • 45 mins
You might know the star of Rivals for his revealing role in the hit Disney+ show, but did you know about his dramatic allium allergy?! I thought not. Alex Hassell might be best known for his portrayal of the dashing bounder, Rupert Campbell-Black in the Emmy-Award winning TV adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s Rivals but his career spans the Royal Shakespeare Company, a leading role opposite Anya Taylor-Joy in The Miniaturist, HBO’s...
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ON PERSPECTIVE… With Adeel Akhtar and Pat Cummins

December 7, 2025 • 12 mins
Perspective is something we all chase - because when it slips, life can feel chaotic and overwhelming. But when we find it again, everything becomes a little clearer. In this episode, actor Adeel Akhtar reflects on a time when he lost sight of perspective and how becoming a parent helped him rediscover what truly matters. Cricketing great Pat Cummins shares how the loss of his beloved mum reshaped his relationship with sport and ...
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Mo Gawdat - The 3 BIGGEST Mistakes We Make In Finding Love

December 3, 2025 • 62 mins
I don’t often have repeat guests on How To Fail but Mo Gawdat is the exception. When he first came on this podcast in 2019, he fundamentally changed my mindset and my approach to life. Back then, he was on a mission to make 1 billion people happier. Now, he returns to focus his brilliant philosophical and analytical brain to the perpetual human question: how to find true love, then nurture and sustain it. He joins me to d...
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ON IVF… With Jessel Taank and Paloma Faith

November 30, 2025 • 35 mins
We don’t talk about this enough, even though so many of us face it personally or through someone we love. Real Housewives of New York star, Jessel Taank, opens up about her three-year journey to become a mum; the strain it put on her marriage, the financial toll and the moments during five rounds of IVF when she questioned everything - even whether she truly wanted motherhood. And then… she had twins. Paloma Faith also shares her...
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Ruth Wilson - Be Challenged By What Disgusts You

November 26, 2025 • 44 mins
Ruth Wilson MBE has made a habit of tackling psychologically demanding roles. You’ll know her from playing a mother grieving the loss of her child in The Affair, a sociopathic research scientist in Luther or even from her acclaimed stage performances in Anna Christie and King Lear. Now, Wilson is back with Apple TV's Down Cemetery Road, based on novels by Mick Herron. She stars opposite Emma Thompson, as an art restorer swept...
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ON REJECTION… With Mel B and Nicole Scherzinger

November 23, 2025 • 19 mins
We all face rejection, no matter who we are. In this episode we revisit conversations with two extraordinary women who have faced rejection and overcome it: Spice Girl Mel B opens up about her unsuccessful audition for The Sound of Music and the pain of feeling like she didn’t fit the mould because of how she looked while Nicole shares what life was like before the Pussycat Dolls - the endless auditions, doors slammed-shut and the ...
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Michelle Yeoh - On typecasting, fertility and THAT Oscars speech

November 19, 2025 • 53 mins
Michelle Yeoh has created a legendary body of work that defies easy categorisation. You’ll know her from cult classic Kung Fu Cinema, Everything Everywhere, All At Once - the film that made her the first Asian woman to be given the Academy Award for Best Actress at the time. She was cast as a Bond girl in Tomorrow Never Dies, then starred in the global box office hit Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and the brilliantly chilling future...
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ON PARENTING…with Andy Cohen and Caitlin Moran

November 16, 2025 • 13 mins
Today, we’re chatting all about parenting on How To Fail! We’ll be revisiting some of the most meaningful moments from the archive - the ones that can bring a fresh insight, thoughtful perspective and a sense of comfort through parenting’s tougher challenges. First, you'll hear from the Daddy of Reality TV, Andy Cohen, who speaks about a time he felt he failed as a parent in the playground and how he worried he’d let his son down....
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Kelly Brook -  I’m In My Don’t Give A Damn Era!

November 12, 2025 • 52 mins
Just a heads-up that in this episode we talk about late miscarriage. I am so grateful to Kelly for opening up about something that affects and speaks to so many of us - it’s a beautiful conversation but if you’re feeling tender around those issues for whatever reason, we’ve put in the time-stamps below in case you need to skip that bit.  Kelly is a woman whose career has reflected the shifting tides of the British media landsc...
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ON REALITY TV… With Dorinda Medley and Captain Sandy

November 9, 2025 • 14 mins
If you know me at all, you’ll know that I am a huge advocate for reality TV. So what better reason to have a little trawl through my archives than to revisit some of my favourite interviews from reality TV stars? First, we hear from Dorinda Medley, known and adored from The Real Housewives of New York. Dorinda speaks about being approached to join Housewives shortly after losing her husband. She talks about her grief as a young wi...
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Malala Yousafzai - I Am Not Who You Think I Am

November 5, 2025 • 52 mins
You might think you know about Malala. But you’d be wrong. For so many years, she stood as a symbol of resistance: the teenage girl who was shot by the Taliban for insisting on the right to go to school and who later won the Nobel Prize at 17 for her efforts to make education available for everyone. But there was another story that existed behind the headlines: the story of a young woman who was only just understanding who sh...
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ON EMBARRASSING MOMENTS… With Dan Levy and Phoebe Waller-Bridge

November 2, 2025 • 11 mins
Welcome back to this How to Fail episode where we journey through the archive to revisit some of the best bits. This week we’re keeping it light and taking a look at some of the funniest and most entertaining embarrassing moments on How to Fail. You’ll hear from Phoebe Waller-Bridge, originally released in July 2018. Phoebe talks about trying to impress Meryl Streep and her body sort of malfunctioned… involving an apple crumble! ...
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Jon Bon Jovi - Fame is a liar and a thief

October 29, 2025 • 52 mins
We have a bonafide legend on How To Fail: the American singer, songwriter, guitarist, actor and philanthropist who, along with his band, sold more than 130 million albums and performed in over 50 countries for more than 40 million fans before being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It’s ACTUAL Jon Bon Jovi - the frontman of the world-dominating rock band who released hits such as You Give Love A Bad Name, Blaze of Glory...
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ON BODY IMAGE… With Martine Wright and Paloma Faith

October 26, 2025 • 18 mins
Body image is a common theme on How to Fail. It’s something everyone at some point has either struggled with personally, or knows someone who has. We hear from Paloma Faith on the topic - she speaks about being thrown out of ballet school aged 10, because she showed signs of becoming curvy, and that wasn’t the correct body for a ballet dancer. Then we go to a part of my conversation with the incredible British sitting volleybal...
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Denise Welch - I Got Sober For Love

October 22, 2025 • 59 mins
You might know Denise from Coronation Street, Waterloo Road, or as the winner of Celebrity Big Brother in 2012 and a regular panelist on ITV’s flagship panel chat show, Loose Women, or remember when she won Celebrity Big Brother in 2012. But what you might not know is the extraordinary story that shaped the strong woman she is. It’s a story of addiction, depression, tabloid phone-hacking and the darker side of fame. It’s also the...
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ON SCHOOL… With Jamie Dornan and Bernie Sanders

October 19, 2025 • 18 mins
I’m diving into the back catalogue, bringing you moments of insight, laughter and truth from past guests. These themed episodes are a chance to reflect on the universal experiences that connect us all. This week we’re looking at school and those formative years that shape who we become. You’ll hear from actor Jamie Dornan, originally released in November 2020. Jamie and I went to the same school(!) and discuss what those years tau...
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Charlotte Church - ‘I was totally exploited. I was a commodity’

October 15, 2025 • 45 mins
Charlotte Church is currently starring in the first ever series of BBC One’s Celebrity Traitors. But she first found global fame as the young classical singer with the voice of an angel. By 22, she had sold 10 million records and performed for popes, presidents and princes. The success came at a devastating personal cost - here, she tells us what really happened and how she found her way into what is arguably her most powerful iter...
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ON BABY LOSS… With Sara Pascoe and Trinny Woodall

October 12, 2025 • 28 mins
Welcome back to this How to Fail special, where we revisit powerful moments from the archive that offer insight, perspective and - hopefully - a sense of comfort during life’s more difficult chapters. This week, to mark Baby Loss Awareness Week (9th to 15th October) and Elizabeth’s new role as ambassador for The Miscarriage Association, we're reflecting on two deeply moving conversations that explore miscarriage, fertility struggl...
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