Dig It with Jo Whiley and Zoe Ball - Dig In: Love, Loss & Ligaments

Episode Date: October 20, 2025

This week, Jo and Zoe tackle love, loss and ligaments - from whether you should keep a diary for your kids, to how to honour a loved one’s memory at Christmas. Plus, “Shredded Tendons”: a great band name, a terrible medical condition. SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE SUBSTACK Stay up to date with Dig It — new updates every Friday straight to your inbox. 👉 https://digitpod.substack.com/subscribe GET IN TOUCH 📧 Email us: [e-mail] 📱 Text or Voice Note: 07477 038795 💬 Or tap here to send a voice note or message on WhatsApp:⁠ ⁠https://wa.me/447477038795⁠⁠ GET EARLY AND AD-FREE EPISODES Become a member of The Potting Shed for early and ad-free episodes and bonus content 👉⁠ ⁠⁠⁠https://digit.supportingcast.fm/⁠⁠ SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS This episode is brought to you by QVC. ✨QVC - Click below to discover QVC’s range of menopause products and support. And don’t forget to use the code QDIG10 for £10 off your first purchase (minimum spends apply, see QVC website for full terms and conditions) - https://www.qvcuk.com/content/menopause-your-way.html?cid=PR-PR-Digit&e22=Digit CREDITS Exec Producer: Jonathan O’Sullivan Assistant Producer: Eve Jones Technical Producers: Oliver Geraghty Video Editors: Connor Berry and Jack Whiteside Dig It is a Persephonica production

Coming up on ticket. I haven't experienced the same kind of loss as you have, Zoe, with losing your mum. There's a lot to be dealing with them. My goodness me. And Christmas, it can be so hard for so many people. I walked into M&S the other day, saw Christmas decorations and burst into tears immediately.

I have written a book. Have you? Yeah, and I had a book out. Oh, God, I'm really sorry. I'm a really bad friend that I have no recollection of this. The Anna is six foot two, which is the height of Henry the 8th. Oh my God, Disco Steve is going to be so happy.

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I haven't put, I put some mascara on, but my eyes are like piss holes in the snow. And my glasses have got a big scratch over the eye. I'm in bed socks and a cardigan, but I am wearing clean pants, which is, you know, that's something to be said. I'm really happy to know that. I need to get a Hollywood facelift. I put eyepatches on this morning because I was like, somehow I've got a make them go away, I put eye patches on and then started to dry my hair. But then there's all the gloop that goes with those eye patches. And so then my hair started sticking to that. So then the hair started being really sticky and slimy. And so that's why I'm wearing my hair up today because it's covered in slime. Because it's all covered in slime. And I've still got bags.

You do one thing and then the other thing pops. Yeah. I'm surprised that you haven't noticed how radiant I look because I've been using my red light mask every day that I've been ill. And I think it's made absolutely no difference whatsoever. Apart from terrifying. various members of my family when they walk in the room and go, because I'm just sat there in this red light mask. You're poorly. Does it work? Can someone tell us?

You've got an amazing cardigan on, which is very much like Paul Michael Glazer, as in Starsky from Starsky and Hutch. So I'm very much in love with you this morning because you look amazing. It looks so cosy, which is what you need when you're feeling poorly. It is so cozy at any point I may go into a hot sweat. He popped up in, I've been watching those Diane Keaton films because obviously she passed away last week.

And he popped up in something he's got to give. He's her ex-husband who's marrying someone who's two years older than her daughter. And he looks good. I think that film might be 20 years old. Good grief. I know. He just has as well as great knitwear, but he also had a really lovely twinkle in his eye. That's why I love him.

It was just something in the eyes with Starsky and Starsky and Hatch. In the eyes. But apart from that, I can't believe that we're midway through October. Coco is going to be 17 on the 26th of October. I can't, Emily makes me feel sick. Oh my goodness me. Your baby is going to be 17. How has this happened?

I don't know. All these kind of huge big moments for our kids. I keep, I'm very much going through the thing about worrying about becoming obsolete with my kids because they're growing up and they're not going to need me much anymore and what am I going to do? I'm going to have to get a life very much considering that at the moment. she's going to be driving. I just keep saying this is my last child that I'm going to be the parent taxi for so I just want to, I want that role for a really long as you can.

Yeah, I don't want to give it up yet. That's my only thing moving back to the city. Nell can now walk everywhere. Yeah. So I don't get to drive her as much already. No, I'll take the bus. I'll take you. No, I'll get the train.

I'll take you. The only time it's difficult is if she's coming back late because I have trouble staying awake. Late at night. You set an alarm to go and pick her up. I set an alarm to go and get her. It's like, oh my goodness me. You won't be obsolete, Zoe.

Can I just say, Woody called you last time we were doing the pod and we were chatting. And they still need you. India is like 33. She still needs me very much. You will definitely not be obsolete. I've worked out that.

I basically need to do what my mum used to do when my mum lost her lovely husband, Rick. She would always plan her Sundays. And she'd always be like, what are you doing in two Sundays's time? I'd be like, why are you asking that? I don't even know what I'm doing tomorrow, Mom. And now I understand, because now Nels with her dad quite a lot.

Woody's in Bristol, I need to make plans on Sundays. Sorry, can I just say it really is like a therapy session, isn't it for us? We haven't spoken for a week and we're like, oh God. Can I just say thanks to all the diggers for listening to mine and Joe's little therapy session once a week? Yes. And getting involved with that, I think that's what our lovely podcast has become. It's like a little place for us all to offload and share and help each other out. If you're loving Digit, all you need to do is hit follow on Apple or Spotify to make sure that you never miss an episode. They will download to your phone as soon as they're out. No hassle, simple as. So from our problems to yours, first question is an email from Sandra. Hello, Sandra.

She says, thank you so much for your wonderful show. I would love to know if either of you keep diaries or ever have done. I have some diary entries from the night I met my husband, which are basically just me talking about how fit he was, all the important stuff. They are. Hilo. hilarious to read now. Also, I'm thinking of writing a bit of a memoir to pass onto my children. What great idea, as there are so many things I wish I'd asked my parents. Would either of you ever write a memoir or autobiography for either just your family or to publish? Sandra, I think this is a wonderful idea, actually. I really do. I have written a book. Have you? Yeah, no, I had a book out. Oh, God, I'm really sorry. I'm a really

bad friend that I have no recollection of this. It's fine. It didn't sell very well. It didn't sell that well. No, it did all right. It did okay. But it was 17 years ago. I mean, I remember writing it. I just had cocoa. 16 years ago. I just had cocoa and then I'd agreed to write a book. So it was the worst possible time. I used to come down really bleary eyed with her in my arms and then be writing. And it was quite tough to do. And also tough to remember stuff and remember the people and then worry about saying things about people. So I found the whole process really quite hard. But I talked to about Francis quite a lot and what it was like growing up with her. And I've had a fair number of people say over the years how much it's helped them and now

interesting they found it. I guess now we talk about it on the pod and we document it in social media and there's less of a reason to write a book. Is this book still available? Yeah. Can you get me one for Christmas? Will you sign it? I'll give you mine. I've got it on the shelf. Yeah, I'll sign it for I'm more than happy to. You've got a kitchen to decorate, Joe. I'm more than happy to support. This is fantastic.

Couldn't remember the title of the book, but I've just been prompted. And it was My World in Motion, because I, New Order, I've always been my favorite band in the world. My World in Motion, da da, would you write a book? You know, people have asked me. I always joke and say I could barely write a pamphlets. When I worked with the breakfast show team, because they're all so much younger, my lovely gang who worked on the breakfast show, I love them. I really miss them all. and I would obviously things would happen that would prompt stories of mine.

Like, oh yeah, the time wins all. And they're like, you've got to write a book. But the problem is a lot of the stories, A, I can't remember the whole truth. Exactly. Does anyone remember the whole truth? And secondly, sometimes I think it's that massively libelous. But I think there are ways that people do it. I love that some people just do books.

Greg James has just written a fantastic book. And you can share stories. incidents of things that have happened. But I think a lot of my stuff, I think, is possibly best left in the past. I always used to keep a diary. And it was always the teenage years when it's just literally about who you fancy, who you've spotted in the school corridor or in the town centre, how many times you've walked past them and whether they looked at you or not and whether you've actually got to snog them at the school disco, never did. So I used to write all that stuff down. And then also I did it when I had the kids too. I found I was.

went to look and see if I could find any diaries. And when I had India, I wrote down everything. I wrote down all the feelings of when I got pregnant and then throughout the pregnancy and then when I had her. And I've always found it incredibly helpful. I find it very cathartic to write down your feelings. When your head is in a jumble and you are just trying to make sense, I think writing it down is a cathartic experience and you feel a lot clearer. There's some kind of clarity that happens. You feel like you've got stuff out of your system as well. So I'm a massive fan of diaries. I stopped in the end because I've got so many years under my belt and I just thought, whoever's going to read these diaries

there's just literally no point anymore. So I did stop. But I will occasionally just write stuff down. I think Chris from Colplay, Chris Martin is a big advocate of just getting up in the morning, writing down like six bullet points of what's going on in your head. And then that's it. You've documented it. And then you can get on with the rest of your day.

So I think writing stuff down is really good. So I have a diary pretty much from when I was 16. They tend to just be cinema tickets, gig tickets. One diary has a list of boys' names and a record that reminded me of each of them because they were just all desperately unrequited loves. But the thing I found, there's not massively feelings in them, but they are quite good for me to reference what I was doing, where I was, where my head was at a little bit. I can see the jobs I did, the people I was hanging out with, the events that happened,

the places that I went to. And they're quite a good reference looking back over the years to be like, oh, God, that's when I did that job. And that's when I met so and so. And this is when things really took off for me. And this is when I moved from Manchester to London. And they're quite lovely like that. Obviously, they're pretty hopeless for the rest of the family. But it's quite poignant to answer this because I've been slowly going through some of my mum's stuff.

I've got all her diaries. And I'm thinking, well, what do I do with them? A file of facts. because she was a real business woman and she had file of facts. And she's kept them all all tied together and I'm looking at them thinking, what do I do with these? The thing that I did find that I really loved, she'd written down some stories about me when I was young, me bearing the bracelet story and there's, and I thought that's a really lovely idea. So kind of what Sandra's saying, to write down some stories about your kids, I think is such a lovely idea. You know,

just for your children to be able to read to their children. My, kids were always obsessed with hearing stories about my brothers and the things we got up to when we were young. And my brother Jamie, he always had schemes. You know, he set up the entire house as a sort of Christmas grotto once. And my mum had come home from work and there was a queue of kids around the block like, what the hell is going on? And he turned that whole house into a Christmas grotto. It was always amazing schemes. Such a brilliant mind. And my kids love hearing those stories. And how me and my brother Nick always used to fight and end up, you know, getting into mayhem and my brother Nick famously kicking my brother Dan out of the tree house. But luckily he fell in the bear trap. Obviously

there were no bears in Buckinghamshire growing up. But these stories and the kids love those. Surely bookcases will always exist. Yes, they will. And when you do find these diaries, then, you know, don't throw them away. Due to generations at some point will pull out that little book and that diary and they'll sit there and they'll read their stories about your grandma or your granddad and things that happened and they'll have those memories and they'll learn something. Also, what my mum did, which is really clever, is she wrote on the back of every photograph who people are. Yes. And that is something really helpful because you look at pictures and then, well, who were these people? I don't know who they were. So I, you know, right on the back, who the photographs

were and I'm just starting that process of right. I've got all these fantastic photographs and I'm going to do my family, the Book of Granny for this, you know, for Christmas, there's Christmas presents, great pictures of my mum through her life. In fact, there's so, you know, there's so. many. I don't know if I can get them in one book. And also just going through those things of my mum's, I have to do it stage by stage. And I've got all her love notes between her and Rick, who is my stepdad. And they are so precious. And I, you know, I'd sort of felt like, oh, maybe I shouldn't even read these. But what I did find in reading them is like, what a love to have. The love they had for each other is so wonderful. And in the sadness of losing people to know

that they're together again somewhere is actually a really lovely thing. So, you know, it's hard going through things like this, but also, yeah. So Sandra, totally write down those stories for your kids and your grandchildren. With my grandma, we recorded, or my auntie, her daughter, recorded her talking about the past because that was a really lovely thing to do just to have her talking about the war, how she met my granddad about, you know, just telling the whole story because she was very forgetful by that time and everything was a little bit confused, but just to, just prompting her and gently just getting these stories out,

that was a really, really important thing to do so that we don't forget. at the past. Talking about Christmas presents, you can buy those books. And it is getting your mum or your dad to write down, document their lives. You can be quite factual. You can just say, born here, did that, met them, went to school here, but still it's there. It's evidence of what you've done, the life that you've lived. Both my mom and my dad and my grandparents have had incredible adventures. Things have happened to them that would never happen to us, you know, and not think about our grandparents growing up at the, you know, the end of the war. My dad was born just at the end of the war. He was there on VE Day as a little born.

You know, these stories just, yeah, we need to remember them. So that's a great, great Christmas present idea. The books and you can just fill them out. Family folklore. That's what you're documenting. Family folklore. Sandra, this has been a great question. Yeah, thank you, Sandra.

For so many reasons, Sandra. Anyway, you can expect my book, Zoe Ball, always on the wrong page. Ah, you've got the title already. I'll be hitting bookstores sometime next summer. Love that. We're going to take a quick break for some ads. If you'd like these episodes add free, then why not become a subscriber to the potting shed?

You'll get longer episodes, bonus content, and access to our members chat room where we can share tips. But most importantly, you'll be supporting our show. To subscribe, head to dig it's pod.com.ukuk. Or simply tap the link in the show notes. This episode of Digit is brought to you by QVC. You know, Joe, anxiety was the hardest part of men and pause for me. That's why the articles and videos

on the Menopause Your Way section of QVC's website really struck a chord. One was from Olympian, Michelle Griffith Robinson, who shared simple everyday hacks to boost confidence. And another from Karen Arthur, all about finding joy in what you wear. And it reminded me that getting older isn't about becoming invisible. It's an opportunity to rediscover your style and your spark. I've really enjoyed the sleep content. Dr. Kat Liedler explains how our circ. stadium rhythm shift and that we don't all need the mythical eight hours.

It gave me permission to find my own sleep window and it made me realize how in tune I need to be with my body. And there's loads more on QBC's website. Nutrition tips from Karen Newby, articles from psychotherapist, Holly Rubin, even fitness and confidence advice from Kate Roham. Plus, the shot by symptom tool makes it so simple to find the relevant product, supporting you wherever you are in your menopause. Take a look, just search Menopause at QVC UK.com. And don't forget to use the code, QDIG 10 for 10 pounds off your first purchase over 30 pounds.

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and opening your first RBC business account starting at just $6 a month. Visit rbc.com forward slash your business to learn more. Next up we have a voice note from Kaya. Hi there. My name is Kaya and I'm from a place called Welsh pool and I'm just out doing my gardening at the moment listening to you guys and I thought I'd send a voice note to ask for some advice. I sadly lost my partner on the 12th of February this year. We have twin daughters that are they've turned 14 in June and I have

two stepchildren and one is 19 year old boy called Griffin and my stepdaughter Polly and my stepdaughter Polly who is 16, soon to be 17. So as you can imagine, it's been a really, really challenging time. He passed away very, very suddenly, and it wasn't even from his condition, which was MS. He had a bleed on the brain. And basically, I am dreading Christmas. This is the first Christmas without him. And obviously, I still want it to be special for my children.

and my stepchildren but I'm kind of like absolutely dreading what has always been a really exciting time is not so I was just wondering have you got any advice on what I can do to make it special for my children and myself

okay thank you bye oh my darling girl my heart honestly it just makes your heart bleed for her doesn't it you've had such a tough time Cairo you really have and you're obviously a wonderful mother and step mother to all those kids that you're looking after and you're trying to prepare for the festive season. There's so much there, isn't there? Yeah. So you're obviously facing Christmas this year without your mum, so I'm sure you get this. Goodness me. It's so tough, isn't it? Kyle,

it's so recent for you as well. I think, you know, you're in that, you're still in the first year and you'll be dealing with your own grief, which will be enormous. And then worrying about for kids as well. That's so much to cope with, darling girl. So we're sending you so much love and strength. And there's a lot to be dealing with them. My goodness me. Yeah. And Christmas, it can be so hard for so many people, Christmas. You know, it's almost like torture sometimes Christmas. I think. It's that, hey, lovely, happy music and every family getting together and da-da-da-da-da. and there are so many people going through a really tough time. And Christmas just feels sometimes like you're turning that notch up

because of, you know, what Christmas really means to people and it all being about family and being together and stuff like that. And it really can be a tough, a tough old time. What we've found, because we lost a few of our friends at the same time, and what we've done is acknowledge that they're not here anymore and acknowledge the hilarity of their personalities and what they brought to our families. And we would spend a lot of time with them around part of the time. and festivals and celebrations and Christmas was inevitably that.

And so it's kind of carrying on in the same tradition, still doing the same things, but also acknowledging how they would have been in that situation, what they would have done, laughing about how something stupid they did in the past or something funny that happened between you. It's just keeping them alive, keeping their memory alive, acknowledging they're not here now. And crying laughing is quite a common thing to do and a good thing to do and an inevitable thing to do. Crawfing, we call it, cry laughing. You cry so much.

that you laugh or you laugh that it makes you cry. Yeah. Yeah. So it's just, you know, you carry on and you, I guess you either do the same things. You go through the same routines. Yeah. You dress up like you used to. You watch the same films and you talk about them with fondness and keep them in your heart. Or maybe you try and do things differently. I mean, you know, I haven't experienced the same kind of loss as you have. So with losing your mum. So you probably are best to advise in this situation. We always do a thing that we put all our lost love. ones on the tree, on the Christmas tree. And we've got little baubles with pictures. And it's such a moment of decorating the tree of, you know, putting them up on the tree. And my, you know, it used to be just my grandparents. And it was Chesh, who was Woody's godfather. And, you know, and Billy goes up on the tree. And now Rick and my mom and Yoll, who was my friend, there's so many people. I mean, it's like weighted down with all our lovely, lovely friends on the tree. It's awful, isn't it? It just gets bigger and longer. There's more and more of them. But it's such a lovely thing. I'm wrapping their decorations and putting them on and always light a candle on Christmas Eve

and do a toast. I've got this lovely little star candle holder. It takes a little tea light, obviously highly flammable, so you can cheat and put a little battery operated one in. But we always like a candle on Christmas Eve. Or even, I'll just do that. And I have a thing of talking to the stars. This is something I do. I have always done it. I go outside and sometimes just have a good chat with everyone up in the stars. I mean, the list is so long. So sometimes I could be out there for a good 20 minutes just saying hi to everyone.

Was this after you saw the Lion King? No, it's not since seeing the Lion King. Did they do that in the Lion King? No, just for me, there's something so beautiful about the universe and everybody's spirits being up there, you know, because it's so final death. People are gone and it is devastating and you miss them so much. So keeping them alive through love and memory and seeing them. still talking to them, I think is so important. And so you can take a moment for yourselves to just

go out and go, hi, guess what's happened now? And you won't believe, well, you won't believe what's happened to down at number 10 and la la la la, la, la. Where the hell are you? I wish you were here. You're missing these things. Talking to them constantly, I think, is a really beautiful thing. And don't be afraid to cry. Don't be afraid to hold on to each other. And often through crying and sadness, once you've got those feelings out a little bit, you can find laughter and there can be joy. And like Joe says, share the stories of the funny things that have happened, the wonderful things they did, the annoying things about their behaviour that would drive you crazy, but you loved so much. It's like keeping those loved ones alive in your heart and not feeling guilty about still finding some joy in Christmas, even though it could be such a tough one for you. And I think other people who've gone through that, you know, do share the things that you do around Christmas time that help you a little bit. You know, I walked into M&S, the other. the other day, saw Christmas decorations and burst into tears immediately, because I'm like, of course.

You know, but then I'm laughing because I'm thinking she'd be laughing and be going, pull yourself together for God's sake, going by yourself, your favourite sandwich. Do you do something different? I mean, I'm just thinking of Kylo, and having to get the decorations out, having to put the tree up, having your Christmas dinner, your Christmas day and your loved one not being there, but the children's still being there. Do you do something completely different and do you get invited somewhere else? Bring it to the family and just say, look, kids, what you want to do? what's better? Is it better to be all together? Do you want to go out for lunch? Because the thing is, those feelings are never going to leave you. You can go somewhere different, but those feelings are still with you. And I think it's not being afraid to feel those feelings. You know, and you can do all the different things. You can change it up. You can da, da, da, da, da, but those feelings are very much going to be in your heart and everyone's going to be thinking about it. So I think, tackle it head on. Tattling it head on, I think is possibly, that's how I've always dealt with it. like, you know, the elephant in the room here, guys, the person we love most is missing.

Let's talk about them. Let's do the things they love to do. Let's find some laughter where we can. Let's not be afraid. And it's so tough for teenagers because they'll all be dealing with that in different ways, you know, and I really hope that they can talk to each other and find strength in each other. And, you know, I think it's difficult for kids, but they can see the pain you're in and they're worrying about you but also you're worrying about them and I've always loved that my kids want to talk about the people we've lost in our lives

they want to talk about Billy they want to talk about Granny and I think it's really good to encourage that and your garden is obviously important Kyya the fact that you're out in the government and you're talking to us then you can still garden on Christmas Day if they're having a moment if they're actually inside sometimes it's really good to get outside

go for a walk have a bit of time to yourself If there's a place that you can walk to for yourself, you know, I've talked about a place that I go to. And sometimes when it's really struggling, I'll just go for a little walk up there. And some days I'll get more from that than other days. Kaya, having a little place for you, for your loss, I think is really important that there's a place that occasionally you can just go and, you know, scream or breathe in and out or cry or whatever it is. You need to do, just have that for yourself. And if anyone has any great suggestions of things that they've done at Christmas time when you are really missing someone so important, do share with us. It is practical stuff, emotional support, just tips, tiny tips, whatever.

Sending you all I love, Kaya. Bless you. Okay, so you've been in touch. Last week we spoke about how painful the coil can be to get it in, to get it out. Helen has sent us a voice note. Hi, Joe and Zoe. It's Helen here from Salisbury. I love the podcast, really enjoying listening to it on my long runs. I'm a mum of a teenage boy, so really enjoying all the advice that's being given.

Thank you for that. But my day job is that I'm a sexual health and contraception and HIV doctor in the NHS. And as part of my job, I fit a lot of coils. And I listened to last week's episode, and I'm so sorry to hear that you had such a negative experience with your coil. and it is true that sometimes there are complications but I just wanted to say that coils can be absolutely amazing for so many different reasons and for so many different people and so if you are thinking of having a coil

please do talk to somebody who fits a lot of them whether that's your GP, your gynecologist, your sexual health doctor like me and make sure you have a chat with them before you have it fitted about all the different pain relief that's available. There is so much available these days and definitely have a chat before you go in to have it fitted

so you know all your options I won't lie to you it isn't the most comfortable thing in the world to have done but it can give you so many benefits and so definitely have that chat and yes that photo you saw of the baby holding the coil

is definitely AI generated but I really love the podcast thank you so much for creating it bye oh thank you Helen it's good to remind ourselves isn't it that it isn't everyone's experience You know, my experience isn't everyone else's.

I've only ever had a really good experience with the coil. I had for years and years and years and years. And it was a little bit painful to put in. It was a little bit painful to have taken out. And I was very wobbly afterwards. But it was okay for me. I mean, you know, my other people that I know's experiences have been more traumatic and more painful. But it was fine.

And it worked really, really well for a very long time. They had them put in at different times, you know, according to when I was having my different children as well. And it was all right. So yes, it can be excellent. It can be a really excellent experience and it obviously can be not so excellent for other people. Yeah, Helen, thank you for reminding us.

A lot of people have a really good experience with that and we mustn't put people off. Last week we also spoke about HRT and it's not an option for some people but we had some great non-HRT tips for menopause. Nick commented, I'm 52 and went cold turkey and came off HRT in March. I've changed my lifestyle, run, lift weights,

dramatically cut down alcohol and it all seems to be working for me. Amazing. That's so good to hear. Star also commented, I had breast cancer in 2023 and went through treatment last year. It was really hard, really, really hard. And I'm through the worst. I now use Lions Main, a protein and fibre diet, lifting weights and cardio, which has helped so much. I'm a parent of one male, and I love all your anecdotes on parenting.

I too garden and agree it's a game changer for mental health. Star, thank you. A lot of people who have or are experienced. in breast cancer, we're in touch and we're talking about HRT. There's a lot of debate and we do hope to come back to it. In fact, we will be coming back to it in the next couple of weeks and we'll get an expert on because, you know, we can share our experiences but we are not experts. So we need someone here who will actually explain it all to us. In fact, we've contacted Dr. Naomi Potter. She is going to come on the pod in a couple of weeks. So if anyone has any questions

on HRT, on menopause, people who can't take HRT, if you want any particular questions for us to put to Dr. Naomi, we will. She's fantastic and she makes everything seem so much more manageable. So whatever your experience, if you've got any queries on menopause-related questions, perimenopause, HLT, whether you can take things or things that are working for you, things that you've heard about, things that you are questioning, do send them into us. You can get in touch with us on the show notes. And one more thing on King Henry the Eighth's armour, we may have a definitive answer. James the QI elf has got in touch. Hi Zoe and Joe.

This is James Harkin, the head researcher at QI, one of the QI elves. And I just saw your question from Disco, Steve, about Henry the 8th armour. And here's what I think's going on here. I had a look at the clip from Apple Plus. And I also had a look at a clip online from the Royal Collections. And it does seem like the armour is six foot two, which is the height of Henry the 8th. So why does Prince William think? that it's so small. Well, I think there's a few things going on. First of all, Prince William is

taller than six foot two. He's six foot three. And he probably thinks like Henry the Eighth has got that such a massive reputation from history. He's this sort of enormous character over William's life. He probably expects him to be much bigger. And so when he's a bit smaller than Prince William is, maybe he's just surprised and kind of psychologically thinks he's smaller. And then second of all, this suit of armour was worn by Henry VIII for his marriage to Anne of Cleaves. At this stage of his life, he was kind of getting a little bit bigger. He'd had a jousting accident. And because he wasn't exercising as much like a few of us who are getting to that kind of age,

he'd got a bit of weight around his tummy. But he wasn't absolutely massive like he got later in life. And a lot of the portraits that we have of Henry the 8th show him as a really very corpulent mass. But this armor came from before then. So maybe Prince William's a little bit surprised that he's not quite as big around the waist. And the third thing is that in the clip, he's on a plinth. That is the armour is on a plinth. And what this means is that the top of it is slightly further away than the bottom, if that makes sense.

And there's a thing called the foreshortening effect, which means that when you look at something which is a little bit further away than you expect, it seems a little bit sort of, smaller. So if any of your listeners are looking outside now and they look at a building, which has got a few floors on it, they may see the windows on the top few floors look smaller than the windows on the bottom few floors, even though there's a good chance that they're actually the same size. And that's the foreshortening effect. It's basically the fact that things further away seem smaller. So yeah, three things going on there. I think the armour is not that small. If I was stood next to it, definitely will be bigger than me. But yeah, maybe Prince

Williams just has a slightly different idea of what to expect. Speak to you soon. Bye. Oh, James, thank you. Different perspective. I love James Harkin. So Disco was right. Disco was right.

Oh my God, Disco, Steve is going to be so happy. Absolutely love the QI elves. James Harkin, head elf. Thank you so very much. And I just want to say the QI elves do all the fantastic research for QI and QI Series W starts tomorrow. That's Tuesday on BBC. And of course, you can watch it on IPlayer any time. It suits you, Sandy Toxwig, and the fantastic Alan Davis.

We love the QI elves. They're so brilliant, aren't they? Isn't it handy having a QIELF's phone number? Yes. Oh my God, yeah. No, having their number on your phone. And Disco, Steve, our faith in you is redeemed. And also, let's hope that we can edit QIELF James there

so that what he has said is not treason. in any way, shape or form, and he's not sent to the tower. It's so good. And that's it, I think, for today's episode. But if you want even more questions, if you've got more questions and you need more answers, we are free, we're happy to talk. What you need to do is become a member of the potting shed, and then you will get your longer episodes.

Remember if you have any questions or comments, we love hearing from you. Details on how to subscribe to the potting shed. If you hear us talking about subscribers all the time, you're like, I just don't know what to do. Simply go to the show notes and everything is explained there. So it's all in the show notes. Become a subscriber. Become part of our family. We will see you on Wednesday.

See you Wednesday. Digit is a Persefonica production.