Miss Me? - Sheeran, Strictly & SNL

Episode Date: September 24, 2026

There’s apologies, and then there’s apologies… Jordan and Miquita debate the politics around Ed Sheeran saying sorry on stage after his support acts left his Loop tour in solidarity with Macklemore, who was previously removed from Ed’s line-up by US stadium owner Robert Kraft. There’s been a lot going on. Meanwhile on Saturday night TV, Miquita considers the true meaning of Strictly with its new hosts Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and Johannes Radebe, plus Jordan finds comedy in Rizzle Kicks being spoofed by SNL UK.Get weekly recommendations for things to watch or read or listen to from the Miss Me? Library every Friday at patreon.com/missmeFollow the show on instagram and TikTok @missme.4evaYou can contact Miss Me? on email at [e-mail] Presented by: Miquita Oliver and Jordan StephensProducer: Natalie JamiesonTechnical Producer: Oliver Geraghty Assistant Producer: Katie-Louise Buxton Video Editor: Danny PapeProduction Coordinator: Tom JacksonExecutive Producers: Sam MichellMiss Me? is a Persephonica show Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everyone and welcome to Miss Me. How are you doing Sugar Plum? I actually only shave my moustache off. Oh, that's what's different about you. You look innocent. Yeah, it's not ideal. So were you going, because I feel like maybe you were cultivating a goatee before this mistake. A goatee?

I'm not cultivating a goatee, no. I just have a bit of hair on my chin and a mustache. Okay. It always is a bit of a shot to just take off the hair. But it's all right, I'll grow back. I bet it is. Do you feel vulnerable? Do you feel a bit exposed?

I used to. When I was younger, it used to kill me because it would take longer to grow back, but now I actually just don't really care. But it was just frustrating. I just did it and looked and went, oh, fuck God. And I looked at the clip and went, fuck it. And then you were like, oh, thank God I'm not on camera. Oh, no shit. Literally moments before going on camera, yeah. We got some feedback last week about Holly Valance. Wow. People have been upset that I recounted the story about playing on the same pool team.

Yes, I remember it was quite the story. You, Jimmy Carr, Matthew Freud, Holly Valance. And she was, I guess she was married to Nick Candy Hu, like, just loves really questionable and very destructive politics, likes funding. Lives for them. Loves for them. Loves funding, really regressive, like separatists and damaging political parties. And I think people were frustrated at my enthusiasm about Holly Candy's pool ability rather than her political stance. She is very good at Paul.

I'm sorry, she happens to be very good at Paul. Both things exist at the same time. I was at a party where I was robbed by a billionaire, Matthew Freud, and I was also playing alongside Holly Candy, who was at the time and has now also further blossomed into a world of regressive political hatred. And, you know, I am not aligning myself with her politically. And listen, no one saw it coming.

If you were there for Holly Valance, kiss kiss, you did not see this coming. Although there was an energy of appropriation because wasn't it an old like Indian... Yeah. Maybe she was a cunt then. Loll. Yeah, I mean, to be honest, the whole party was at least 40% cunts.

Yeah, that wouldn't expect anything less of Jimmy Cot. I was like 22, man. 40% cunts, sounds about right. Genuinely, genuinely. The only one up was like really on my radar was Jeremy Clarkson because I've never liked Jeremy Clarkson. I think he's a twat. Oh, I thought you were going to say he was one of the good. I was like if, if the... Jeremy Clarkson. Yeah, I was going to say the room must have been pretty bad if Jeremy Clarkson was one of the good ones, but no, that's not what you're saying at all. I was at a screening once for this film called Pacific Rim. I don't know if you said it was Gellimo Datoro starring Idris Elba about these huge robots and IMAX, right?

And this kid had come over to me and he goes, oh my God, can I get your autograph? And I went, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I wrote a autograph. And he went, do you want to come meet my dad? I went, who's your dad? It was Jeremy Clark. And I went, no, you're all right. No, you're right.

But anyway, so for anybody who was concerned about where my political stance is, apparently Holly Valance is transphobic. I'm so pro-trans. Fuck Holly Valance. Fuck Holly Candy. Fuck, Holy Candy. Your opinions matter, Jordan. Look, you went bloody viral last week with your opinions.

I thought it was very interesting seeing the reaction to all of that, actually. Yeah. And, of course, we went out before Ed had. actually started to verbalise his response. So it was quite an interesting time, I think, because we're doing this every week, suddenly that so much more can happen in a week and so much more has unfolded from that moment and from what we were talking about. I've been, it's been tough because obviously we recorded last week and then Ed released a statement like four hours later to which I wanted to respond to the statement,

maybe add it into the show. It was hard because I was busy. I mean, we were both busy. Oh yeah. And then since then he's gone on stage, he's spoken on stage like three or four times. I've emailed him. I was kind of, I've been... Did you email him? Yeah. I've been conflicted about discussing like me and Ed's friendship. Obviously, people assume that I am, that it's contextualising my response is like my friendship with him. Jordan, politics in friendships is fucking murky. There's stuff going on in our family with it right now with this particular situation. It's dividing people. When I looked at the comments from the video last week,

I was fascinated for a number of reasons. Firstly, I had kind of naively forgotten the belief of those who somehow have this idea that Israel, the Israeli government, are working in accordance with fairness or they are simply defending themselves. I just could really, you know, I've been keeping track of like what's happening generally, but I guess I hadn't publicly commented on it. Certainly not on Miss me. Obviously, when we're on the BBC, if people hadn't figured that out yet, you know,

you can't talk about that kind of stuff on a BBC and now we can. And it just brought up a lot of, yeah, I've then ended up battling with people in my DMs because, as you know, I do this, I do that kind of thing. some people had like conspiracized that we had like conveniently recorded before Ed statement like I knew he was going to release the statement four hours later which just isn't true and also I think people should note that all of the support acts outside of Maclemore remove themselves after Ed statement which is which is very which is an important thing for people to realize that yes the closeness with Ed goes in so far as we were wanting to give him space

to respond and see if there was something to come from that response. And it's very clear that in spite of the fact that Ed is a very kind person and has helped many of these artists of their career, it was unacceptable how we chose to respond because this whole political neutrality, total playing down of what's happening in Gaza, the use of the word conflict in his statement was appalling. Him saying, like, it's a genocide.

He knows it's a genocide as well. I won't get into that. but like it's a genocide. I even was using the term asymmetrical warfare a little more than genocide last week because I was just wanting to really, yeah, because I was wanting to be really clear about the, for me, it's also important just to remind people

that it's an absolutely, like, David and Goliath doesn't even put it into perspective what the people of Palestine are up against. It's like one of the most advanced militaries on the planet backed by the biggest military on the planet. It's just insane. That was even a good. conversation. And he also bizarrely claimed that he's not complicit, which I can't even begin

to break down how wild that is to put in a statement. It was an appalling statement. And how do you feel when it's your friend saying that, Jay? I feel what's happened with Ed, right? And look, let's be clear, right? I want to start with a desire for connection. Okay. Like, Ed is a really, really, really, really, really rich pop star, which is why many people have little sympathy for how he's feeling right now, right? That's the main context for it. Obviously, it's my understanding that he, you know, he's a human being and money doesn't provide you with emotional resilience. It certainly doesn't provide you with the ability to be able to hold, you know, big life shifts in a, in a healthy way, I think. And he would have had one of the most hellish weeks. He would have been having people,

I mean, he said it on stage, right? He said on stage that he's been, people have walked away from him. He actually claimed that people had abandoned him, which, again, I'm not sure what's happening because... Yeah, but it is a bit messy. There's like, you know, this idea of like, making a statement to book McElmore, retreating from said stance by allowing himself to be...

allowing that guy we were talking about last week, to silence McElmore. Now coming back out of said retreat to now backtrack on previous retreat. It's like, it's a fucking mess. Every time he speaks on stage, it gets worse. Like, I can't. Absolutely.

Someone needs to stop him doing that. He spoke on stage on the Saturday with a teleprompter, which is a bad start. You know, it would be nice to come from the heart. And he has, again, in an attempt to make things better, firstly apologised, then said it's an incredibly complex situation, which it's not. And also, you know what? The other thing that bugs me about it as his friend is let's just park this kind of bizarre attempt to try and gain some credibility. back in this space. The initial ask of him with McLemore

didn't even require him to take a stance. That's what's so stupid. Yes, that's fucking true. All he had to do is have a backbone and say, I'm not going to carry on playing if you're taking one of my mates off. Why have you booked McLemore if you're not willing to stand by him?

Why have you booked Irish artists? But this is what I mean. What we're seeing isn't really like where Ed's political stance lies. We're just seeing how many other people are in charge. of what Ed does next. Yeah, which doesn't have to be the case. You know, like, you do have power in that position.

Of course. And also the thing that's annoying is, like, yes, this is the benefit, right, of this supposed political neutrality is that you get to basically just earn money. It's like you're literally saying, I want to remain politically neutral to maximize the amount of people who are going to invest in my music, right? And come on this tour with me. and claim that it's a whole thing of hope and unity.

Just to clarify the whole genocide thing, right? Like, I watched this guy, Elon Levy. He used to be a spokesperson for the Israeli government, right? Just after the attacks of October the 7th, he was in his debate. And Elon Levy referred to the October 7th attacks in which 1,200 people were murdered as genocide. There's been about over 70,000 Palestinians. have been murdered. So the idea, and counting, by the way, 1600 in the last year. And for the people

to say, I don't believe it's a genocide, but claim that October the 7th is, is, it's delusional. Yeah. And the people who have been in my DMs since even my statement last week, like, pushing forward these same bizarre ideas, like, oh, but it's, it's Hamas. Hamas are putting kids in front of these bombs. Like, why, like, that's not enough of a excuse by one of the most advanced armies in the world. It is appalling. And also the other thing I want to be clear about, sorry, I feel like I'm going to run here, but I have to say it because I do feel passionately about this, is that this, what I, what I really fucking hate is when people say to me and, you know, and Ed knows about this about me, I've been free Palestine my entire fucking life. This idea that

all of this shit just came out of nowhere on October the 7 does my fucking head in. I spent my entire life. I meet, like we did, Rizzle kicks did fundraisers for Palestine like 12 years ago, hoping for Palestine with Bella Freud, right? We were raising money. And during that time, we're seeing videos of people going into the Gaza border, like, between Israel and Palestine, the West Bank, seeing these Palestinians being spat at, treated as second-class citizens, many Israelis just openly decrying for like the complete annihilation of Gaza, just on the street, way before October the 7th.

This is something that's happened for decades and decades, right? it's a complete degradation of a fucking people. And just to say that out of nowhere, out of nowhere, this shit happened, that it is, first is, it's dishonest, is it's disingenuous. And I actually feel a deep sadness for the, I guess, like the British Jewish population who have fallen into believing that Israeli government, that the Israeli government are acting in accordance with justice and fairness. It's not true.

The concept of a great power. occupying a lesser power and dictating whether or not that place that place can industrialize, whether it can create opportunity for itself, whether it can even control its own water supply and electricity. That is like a deep spiritual representation, I think, of a battle that many people across the world feel, right? Yes, technically, I will, I will be experiencing some kind of occupation on the basis that, yes, I don't, I am part of a grid. I don't have control over the, water supply, my energy supply, I have to engage with a whole other infrastructure in order to guarantee that I can have that. And I think the more and more people that realize that we are in

all these varied states where we actually have no real power or control over our circumstances, the more we realize that, the more likely I think we are to band together and start challenging and asking questions about why it is set up that way. So I think my point I'm trying to make is I sometimes don't want people to think I'm just purely going at this based off of the identity of a people's, the identity of a country. I'm looking at it in an abstract way and thinking it's representative of something I feel deeply in my soul anyway. And that's why I might be paying more attention to that particular situation and other ones. But I don't want to sit here and not pretend I don't understand why the Israeli government is how it is. and I see some of the messages that the Israeli people are fed and told and brought up to believe in and raised feeling and there's like an intense paranoia and feeling like the entire world is looking for an excuse to to attempt to erase their existence and and persecute them and I've seen that in my Jewish friends that they have to live with this underlying fear that as a result of messages they've heard as when they're very young and I I I,

can totally understand how terrifying that would be to have to live with that and why it's important for them to find community and find reasons to explain the actions of that government. Because I think, honestly, the truth is really painful because if you identify with the country, which is, I think, a more regular occurrence between a Jewish person and Israel, it's not, doesn't have to happen with all of them. But I think there is this propensity for the, for a Jewish person to identify with Israel, then you will obviously feel like you have to defend the actions of the countries if they were your own. So I understand that. We can't just see the grave injustice for what it is, the complete imbalance of power. Like if people ask, what should you do?

The more powerful, like, entity in that situation should be taking responsible, honorable actions. And then you're talking about Ed a little bit here as well. Because he is the powerful person in this situation. You would fucking think. Well, I was talking about obviously Israel, but but yeah. But now, but to think about this situation now, like, I'm surprised that he doesn't understand how powerful he could be and suddenly he seems very

weak and full of confusing ideals. Like this idea that like, I'm here to create a safe space for people with opposing views. It's not what's happening at all. Yeah, look, this is the thing as well. The last thing I'll say about what the Ed thing is. I know it's your friend and I

know that's probably very painful. It's painful insofar as like, I wish that he had called me again. I wish that, like, I have, my email to him was very kind. He claimed on stage that his friends have abandoned him. All of those statements by the artists who came off the tour, I think, were incredibly kind towards Ed, actually. I mean, MacLamor still spoke about him wanting to be a friend. Ed actually didn't say that about McLemore, which I thought was pretty cold. Like, there was, I'm not abandoning Ed. Like, I've, I've spoken to it. Ed about this in person, right? Like, I'm not, I'm not abandoning him. What I believe has happened genuinely, and it's probably, and I will talk more about it or I'll write it out more accurately,

is that political neutrality in music is a bizarre idea that people think that they can achieve, and you can maybe get away with it, but the one way you're going to get yourself in hot water is if you start to engage with cultures that are inherently political. And I think, and I think that Ed, personally has got himself into a little bit of trouble because he has been attempting to to truly connect and identify with his Irish ancestry or his Irish roots. He believes that that is possible without engaging with the politics of Ireland. And that, for me, is the beginning of this place that he's found himself in. You simply... Right. In this political place he's found himself in today. Yes. You simply cannot just go, just just just, just,

you know, I mean, listen, to reconnect with Irish roots, fantastic, but there's no, I don't know, unless I'm completely deluded and maybe the Irish listeners can correct me here, but literally all of the Irish people in my life, like, they don't have the choice of political neutrality. Their very existence and history is defined by fighting against oppression and occupation, right? So that is why the Irish were one of the first to align themselves and fight for the rights of Palestinians because they have like actual real historical experience that parallels with the Palestinians, right? Like famine being a massive one, okay? Like and and so you sit you like it's yeah, it's tough you know to make that choice to be like wow, I really want to like go back to, you know,

it's huge on Ireland and whatever else but to bring forward these Irish bands onto your stage. Something's going to happen. Macklemore, obviously something's going to be said and those people are going to stand by it, right? Because it's the right thing to do. wonder what he thought was going to fucking happen. Yeah, yeah. If he booked MacLamore. Like, he knew where his political stance lied and lay, and maybe at that time, Ed felt like he aligned with him more.

That's what I mean. It's like it feels like I can't fucking believe anything, Ed Sheeran's saying at the moment. And I think that with everyone's algorithm, me and Lily were talking about this last night, actually. It's like everyone's algorithms are so polarising. And what you're being sort of fed over and over again is you're right, you're right, you're right. Yes, you're right. And the world reflects back at you. and tells you that you're right,

but it's not really the world, it's your world, it's your algorithm. But this is why I argue with people. This is literally why I go back and forth. This is why you're in brawls in the pub. No, but this is, I literally, look, there's a mis-me listener who just, I was speaking to you all yesterday,

and they've just responded to me again this morning. Jordan, all day you were commenting back. It's important for me to be able to see people's, the other side of how people feel, right? There's already like, for example, there's already agreement in this, this person is a British Jewish person, right? And they're expressing how they feel the feeling has shifted in society in the last couple of years. And I don't deny that. This is actually, this is irony. This is what we're fighting for, right? People have

been saying that Macklamour is like a genocidal maniac. He made it very clear in his statement that it's not about Jewish people. It's about Zionists. And Zionism has done more damage to the Jewish population, I think, than anything else in the last couple of years. I can understand I can empathize with the Jewish community, many of whom are pro-Palestine, by the way, but even the British Jewish community who have been conditioned to believe that Israel has to do this,

Israel has to act in this way, right? Even them, they are still conflicted about Netanyahu. Netanyahu was a fucking war criminal, right? Like, they too will be conflicted about it. We cannot deny how important all these very different lived experiences make you react to things.

And we should think about maybe Ed's lived experience. Ed apologized. Ed apologized on stage for apologising, by the way. Did you see that? The apology for the apology? No, I think I missed that. So he did the teleprompter thing, right? Oh, Ed.

He did a teleprompter thing where he said, look, I want everyone to be welcome at my gigs. That was his concept, right? Which again, questionable, Makita, because if something happened where it was more close to home, like if something was again to happen with Ireland, would he really stand on stage and go, I don't want to take a stance? I want everyone to be welcome at my gig, including it, right? Anyway. Then at the end of the show, he goes,

look, I just want to apologize for the fact I had to apologize because I don't, I know a lot of you brought your kids out here and I know they don't want to, you don't want to hear about politics at a show for kids. This is the vanilla space that Lily and I were talking about. What does that mean? But then in the comments, people have said that. People have gone, I want performers to perform.

I want the news is for politics. Yeah, but it pertains into that thing of politics affects only people. that are politically inclined. It's like it fucking affects us all, actually. It's affecting you right now today. But also last week, in the comments last week,

someone was like, they literally said, this is why, and I promise I'll leave with this, this is why I like going to Oasis because I don't have to, I don't have to listen to the people talk about politics. That's what he said, right?

And this, Macita, is it fair enough though? Because, like, correct me if I'm wrong, but one of the Gallagher sons is called Lenin, the unbelievable. political member of the Beatles. Yeah, of course, sure. You're right, actually.

He was a very political man. His most famous song being like an anti-war protest. Oasis wouldn't even be playing without the four-cord structure of many Beatles songs, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. There are politics in the background. Of course, there are politics in the background of Oasis. Also, there's politics about being working class. There's politics about fucking oppression.

What do you think cigarettes and alcohol is about? What I find so funny is that Noel Gallagher, albeit tongue in cheek, right, you know what Noel's like, has been one of the, the loudest critics of Ed throughout his whole career. And look at them now, connected by the, by the,

by the, Neutrality. The gorgeous vanilla essence of political neutrality. The gorgeous vanilla essence of political neutrality. If people want to go to a show and not have to think about this God forbidding world that we live in, please enjoy Oasis or Ed Shearing because they are currently living in the same space. And Noel, take from that what you want, mate, because it's the truth. Anyway, we can move on now.

I have loads more to say, and look, he's going to be playing more shows. If he keeps talking, it's going to get worse. Like, he really is, Ed is completely rattled. He's gone into total survival mode. All he can think about is how he's been affected by this. It's really frustrating for me to watch as somebody who's been his friend for a very long time. And I genuinely hope that he reaches out and asks questions. All right, well, let's go to a break.

Otherwise, we wouldn't have time to talk about Straitly Come Dancing. Welcome back to Miss Me. On a journey of sorts, a journey through so many things, which is my favourite way to do Miss Me. That's how I enjoy miss me the most, Jordan. What? You know, and it really takes you places. Just when you feel like you've been to so many places, you can't remember what stops you saw. You're like, tuk-t-t-tuk-tah.

Obviously, Ed Sheeran was quite a big station in part one. Yeah. But the train moves on, and we're moving into the mediocrity of Saturday night television, because we wouldn't be talking about culture if we weren't talking about Strictly Come Dancing. Okay, so the three new presenters are a bit awkward. And obviously, Jamie's in it. Isn't that beautiful? Oh, Jamie Winston.

Yeah. Is she doing well? She's doing great. She told me at this lunch at Mums the other day. She was like, don't tell anyone I'm doing strictly. And I was like, don't fucking tell me that. I can't keep a secret. And I managed to not say I'll miss me, but I did tell quite a few family members.

Did she get paid loads? Because it's the BBC on Strictly, actually, the people get paid equally. And then if you're on it longer, you get paid more. So that's quite an incentive to dance a little bit better. But I think it's a good move for Jay because Jamie would be dressing up like this and dancing like this just a party, a family party anyway. Would you do strictly?

Never. Why? Because as I said, I get really stressed about all... Like, what's the right word? Dance steps. Not dancing, dance steps. Like the candy gives me the hebi-cheebies. But I love it so much.

I promise you the dancers are harder than. Candy. I know they fucking are. You would be in heaven if Candy was the dance. She had to do it on Strictly. I love the lineage of that dance day, man. That's really held on. I know.

And it's actually like, well, it was in the 80s, right? I somehow, I can accept that. Although there is still too much reverb on the snare. Oh my God. We got a musician on the podcast. I did, there was one thing though. I didn't watch Strictly, but I did see like I was on, just went on Instagram. But you watch the internet.

Yeah. on Instagram yesterday and then there was just this like someone had boasted that Saturday Night Live had just done like an X factor spoof with heart skips to beat. Heart skips to beat Olli and Mers featuring Rizzle kicks. Your first number one. Only number one.

Jordan, you were a teenager and suddenly you were number one. We were quite bamboozled. Yeah, I was number one and number eight actually at the time. Also, people thought it was quite a wild choice for us to do the Oli Mers song but it was my decision because I knew to be number one, literally. Very clever. always listen to your gut and your instinct when it comes to your creativity and the work you want to make.

And also, if I hadn't have made that decision, I wouldn't have been spoofed by Saturday Night Live 20 years later. 15 years later. And what would your career even mean? But I wasn't personally spoofed, but they went, Rizzle kicks, yeah. I don't mean to be rude, but how did they show two young rappers of the time? That wasn't the joke. No, I know that they were spoofing OLLI, but like, who played you two?

No, no, no, no. So they weren't, they actually didn't play OLLI. Well, they did play OLLI momentarily. But it was like every four bars, I think they were a different famous X Factor contestant. Because basically in X Factor, they do these group performances, right? Where there'll be like one song and everybody takes, does a little bit of the song. Yeah, I remember that. And so they did like a rebirth spoof of like X Factor classics.

I'm assuming because X Factor's coming back, I don't know. Oh, it's fucking not. I'm leaving. Is that why? I'm assuming that's why. Well, okay. Now, this pertains to what I wanted to say about Strictly come dancing. If X Factor really does have the gall to come back.

This isn't about whether Josh Whitakum did well, guys. I'm sure he did his best. Auto-accused hard, and so is live TV. This isn't about whether Johannes and Emma have chemistry. It's not what this is about. This is about our need for connection. And the hideous sentiment of water-cooler television actually means something very deep and important,

which is we like the feeling of unity that television gives us. And I think that actually strictly come dancing isn't necessarily about what ballroom dancing means to this country. It's about what television means to this country and what it used to mean to be together. And I don't even mean in the 60s. I mean like when we were young, I mean like 10 years ago. And I think we're all striving for that somewhat

and still trying to hold on to the kind of final old relics of an old world, absolutely, but not really anymore. Like Love Island's more like now, Love Island. I sound like my grand. Love Island is more like just on now. It's still like a big show. Maya does a great job, but it's not in our consciousness.

It's not on the tip of our tongues. Too many series, know when to end things. Traitors though? Yeah. Oh mate, I've got to do that next year, bro. Yeah, you'd be so good! I know, I almost got it this year.

Oh yeah, we talked about this. You've got to do it next year. You'd be so good. I don't know if I can say this, but I literally know everything that happens this year. Who knows how you know what happens in the celebrity traitors? you must know at least 40% of the celebrities in the house this year. So who knows who divulged all the secrets to you. But I think I can guess.

I also, for the record, it's not even just the contestants. I also worked with one of the camera department. Ah, so you've got inside and outside information. Good, good. On the floor and on screen. The perks of curiosity, by the way, guys. This is what happens when you just ask a few questions. I usually ask cameramen what part of London they live in.

And then I ask if I can guess, and I very often get it right. Wow, that's cool. It's a gift. Remember, I played it, It missed me live. No. Where I can look at someone and figure out what part of England they live in, and we played it, It missed me live, and I got it right, like three out of four. No way.

Yes, it's a gift. Okay, that's cool. Anyway, back to Strictly. So really what we're all doing is harking back to the old relic of television that used to be our best friend that brought us all together. So I don't care whether the presenters were a bit nervous, or they think the magic's gone. We'll all keep watching Strictly Come Dancing until we die

because it gives us something that we feel we've lost. I don't even have a telly. Thank you, Jordan, for being so connected. I don't have a telly. I've not looked at a guide for a long time. But you do have a telly and it's called your algorithm. I've got a projector that I watch special things on. Very you.

Yeah. That's very you. I have Instagram and then I watch sort of the Godfather on my projector. I'm currently watching that YouTube film. about the indigenous Amazonians who are trying to protect the Amazon from deforestation. Do you know about this? Of course you are. My mistake, that's very easy.

No, no, but do you know about this? No, it sounds wonderful. It's dope. Strong recommend. Yeah? Yeah, I mean, I've not finished it, but like, it's just, I just love... Is it a documentary? Yeah.

Send it to me? Do you always have people over when you're recording this? Yeah, at least you did my makeup today. You know, I like, barely ever have anyone here. I know. I'm literally always, always completely on my own. You're actually on your own and I have like a kind of audience in the scene. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Laughing along, telling me I'm doing a good job. Supporting me. No, she's helping me with Zedie because Zeddy had mutering. I don't say spaded. I don't think it is spaded. No, I know. I looked it up. It's actually SPA-Y-E-D.

Spade. Oh, spade, yeah. To spade an animal. And it's to do with something, maybe 16th century. It's to do with like a sword and it was like a much more brutal thing to do and then we sort of took it into what we do to our pets. Okay. It's quite upsetting.

So there's nothing to do with a spade. It's nothing to do with like a garden spade, no. But I still feel the word. The word is quite violent. Spade to spade your dog. And it's like... You prefer neutered. No, I don't prefer neutered.

It all sounds so involuntary on the pet's behalf. I got her neutered. I mean, it is insane. I basically gave her an involuntary hysterectomy. And as a woman, that feels quite intense. Did you walk her when she was on heat? Yeah, it was just getting too much. I was like, Jordan, I was like trying to have meetings

and said he's like humping my arm. No, no, no, no. It's absolutely, it's absolutely insane. Like a dog in season is absolutely wild. It was for the best. So then I was thinking about it. anatomy. Thinking about the fact that I just removed anatomy from my dog. And she's all like, you know, got that stupid cone for another week. And she was in pain.

It was horrible. And then that, our producer Natalie, told us about something in the female anatomy that was always there. No, sorry, is still here. Right. Were you there when she said this? Yeah, yeah. Go on. Okay. It's called the re, the rete overwrite. And it's an organ in the female body from the Latin word, for network. Jordan, it's a small structure made up of interconnected tubes

and channels attached directly to the ovary. That sounds like it's quite important, actually. So it's from the Latin word for network, it's a small structure made up of interconnected tubes

and channels attached directly to the ovary. And men couldn't figure out what it was for. So they took it out of the visual identification of our biology. But it's always been there.

Which is quite a strange feeling. Yeah. That there's something in your body that actually has always been there. But you've never seen it or known what it does. I'd like to know more about this network that's connected to the fucking my ovaries. This is really like, yeah, this is quite something. It potentially influence the ovary and its function. Isn't that really fucking important that we know about that?

Think of it as a version of cycles sinking being rooted directly to your uterus. So yeah, when I found out a little bit more about the anatomy of myself and the fact that there could be something that's always been there that we've never been told about, I did, I think I felt a little, I think I felt a little bit guilty about taking something out of Zeddy's body. Yeah, on paper, the procedure is brutal. But like I say, in the actuality of living with a dog that goes through seasons, I really can't stress enough how, like, because you,

Bloody inconvenient it is. Well, I don't want to get too deep with it, but there are other procedures that women will go through because it's thinking ahead, you know, where it's like if you're like, oh, I don't want to listen to my dog, well, you have to prepare yourself for the possibility of puppies.

And then the reality of having a pregnant dog, like it's not... Yeah, I was thinking about it, and it sounds like a nightmare. We just, we're not prepared for it. That's why breeding is like an actual job. It's like a, also a questionable job in some spaces. But it says, sorry, I just, there's a really, there's a really cool summation of what you were just talking about, the RETI over.

It says, scientists deleted a female organ from the anatomy books 150 years ago because they decided it did nothing. A Duke team just found it alive and feeding the ovary. Yeah, fucking hell. Which is mad because you, have we seen the power before? The TV show, The Power. Uh, no. You have to watch that show. What is it about? It's about a future where women,

develop this new organ and the organ can conduct electricity. And in moments of like intense, like, I guess trauma or like, or in like, you know, if like a woman's being attacked or held down or something like that, it activates in their body and they're able to electrocue. And they can also activate the organ in other women who haven't activated it yet. But like it's, but like it's about the political. fallout from the discovery of this organ and that is fascinating and it like splits society and there's people who believe that it should be policed and there's people who believe it shouldn't and people have

to hide that they've actualised it maybe that's maybe that's what will happen with the discovery of this but anyway i must go i'm uh doing the booker shortlist announcement tonight oh cool and um quite nervous oh mate that's a dream i'd love to win the booker prize it's really hard to win yeah i really like i've got a little bit of relationship with them going i went last year with autumn I'm going to go this year, but this year they've asked me to read extracts from two brilliant books. I won't say what they're called because they'll be on the short list. Actually, this will be out by then, but I still won't say. Oh, have you read the books?

Yes, I've read the books, and now I'm going to read a bit from them at the South Bank tonight at the shortlist announcement. So I've got to go, okay, because I'm very highbrow and I'm very busy. We will see if in this and Mitch, the theme is chemistry, and we'll be talking about science and the people we fuck. Obviously. We'll see you then. Bye. Goodbye. Thanks for listening to Miss Me. This is a Persephonica show.