The School for Dumb Women

To help you survive the difficult holiday season, we've put together a compendium of the very best life advice from our favourite self-help guru, Dr Jane Frail. She discusses meditation, breathing, sleeping, and self-care, and even has some tips on how to deal with tricky family members. Contact: dumbwomenpod@gmail.com Music by Harry Harris, artwork by Gavin Day. Recorded at Soho Radio Studios.

Christmas is a time for overindulgence, so this week we present you with not one but two dumb guests, some bad crackers (mostly Alex’s) and a few vagina jokes just for Christmas seasoning. Alan Maguire of Roast Chestnuts and Juvenalia podcast fame talks to Caroline about made-for-TV Christmas movies and why they’re having a resurgence this year, Hannah finds out the frankly heartwarming story behind Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and Alex gifts us a special Christmas poem and forces us to play games together (but it’s Christmas bingo, so it’s fine). Dr Jane Frail is also on hand with some useful advice about dealing with difficult family members when you’re in close proximity with them, and finally trend reporter Lucy Vine joins us to tell us what we should be looking out for this winter.  Contact: dumbwomenpod@gmail.com Music by Harry Harris, artwork by Gavin Day. Recorded at Soho Radio Studios.

We're clogging up your podcast box with something a bit different today – a taster of Sentimental Garbage, a new podcast about chick-lit and the "guilty pleasures" you're done feeling guilty about. Created and hosted by certified Dumb Woman Caroline O'Donoghue and produced by Dumb Host Hannah Varrall, Sentimental Garbage celebrates classics of "commercial women's fiction" by authors such as Marian Keyes, Jill Mansell and Helen Fielding. In this first episode, Caroline chats to journalist and author Lauren Bravo about The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice, a book which contains plenty of spangly dresses, glamorous Americans and female friendship. If you enjoy Sentimental Garbage, remember to subscribe to it wherever you get your podcasts for new episodes throughout December. Music by Harry Harris, artwork by Gavin Day. Recorded at Acast and produced by Hannah Varrall.

In episode 62, special guest Monica Heisey (Baroness Von Sketch, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Better) joined us for a Smart Lesson on how to break up online, using Instagram Stories of bubble baths and strange Icelandic horses. In this bonus episode featuring the full conversation, we discuss ill-advised tattoos, Jennifer Garner and Alex's 'slut spiral'. Contact: dumbwomenpod@gmail.com Music by Harry Harris, artwork by Gavin Day. Recorded at Soho Radio Studios.

Is pizza really God’s gift to bad restaurants or is it just over-hyped cheesy bread? This week, Hannah gets to the bottom of this deep dish problem while Caroline tries to fix the economy by investigating inflation and realising that actually, it doesn't make any damn sense. Meanwhile at the Women Who Code mixer Alex gets to know AI lie detectors - or perhaps they get to know her. Finally special guest Monica Heisey (Baroness Von Sketch, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Better) joins our Smart Lesson to teach us how to break up online, using Instagram Stories of bubble baths and strange Icelandic horses. Contact: dumbwomenpod@gmail.com Music by Harry Harris, artwork by Gavin Day. Recorded at Soho Radio Studios.