The Emma Guns Show

Recently, I’ve had a few of those awful dark nights of the soul. The ones where you can’t sleep because your brain is on that setting where it’s showing you all the mistakes you’ve made, all the things you did and are doing wrong and all the ways in which you are screwing up. Spoiler alert - your thoughts are not facts.However, that’s not to say that life’s experiences don’t all add up to series of lessons and while it can be unpleasant to revisit the parts of yourself riddled with error, that can often be where you find the really helpful, enlightening and magical stuff.I was on the brink of being drowned by my negative thoughts when I remembered my conversation with Daniel Pink. You may have heard him on one of the many huge podcasts lately, but back in 2022, Daniel and I unpicked the many ways in which regret leads to growth. It was a helpful conversation then and I believe it is just as helpful now.Don’t fear regret, embrace it. It might be an unconventional view, but it sure beats staring at the ceiling at 2am feeling rubbish about yourself…

In this week’s Bullet Points, I take a look at the incredible ‘come back’ of Lindsay Lohan. She once was troubled but now she’s the most poised star you’ll find on a red carpet. It struck me that no one is asking about what happened for her to be able to come back from the brink and that perhaps, because she’s now arguably more beautiful than she’s ever been, that’s enough for people to assume she’s well and fully recovered. Also this week, how I’m sad about the demise of And Just Like That, despite everything I’ve said. Why the Idaho Murders, which were brilliantly covered here on Redhanded, got under my skin and a little trailer swap with my friends over at the Straight Up podcast. 

In response to the article I wrote in The Times about whether I was daft for not using skinny jabs to lose weight, I thought revisiting my conversation with Johann Hari about his book Magic Pill, which extensively researched the benefits, limitations and risks of GLP-1 Agonist drugs such as Ozempic, Semaglutide, Wegovy and Mounjaro.Johann is thorough and meticulous in his research and this interview, originally broadcast in 2024, was before weight loss drugs became as mainstream and as widely prescribed as they are today.One of the experts Johann interviewed during his years of research, stated that the cultural impact of GLP-1s was as significant as the smart phone. At the time, it seemed like a very bold statement, but in the year since we spoke, I think it's hard to argue that they haven't completely changed the way we talk about weight, weight loss, diets, food and more...I'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode. Email me at office@emmaguns.com or Subscribe to my Substack and join the chat there.

Yes, you read that right... Ok, maybe not 'defence' but I'm curious about the wider social context and why it is that this person, at this time has generated so much interest and intrigued when porn has lived so comfortably out of public view.This is the brilliant piece in The Times by Janice Turner that's well worth a read for the wider context of this 'phenomenon'. 📧 Contact me:office@emmaguns.com👓 Read me:Subscribe to my Substack: https://emmaguns.substack.com/Follow me:📱 https://www.instagram.com/emmaguns/

I wrote 'I Regret not Taking Ozempic' on my Substack and after the HUGE response, I thought it'd be prudent to revisit this conversation with the addiction, parenting and relationship expert Mandy Saligari.In it we discuss the complicated relationship we can have with food and our bodies. Whether it's food addiction or something a little more complicated and why a distorted relationship with food can also show up in how you manage love and money...📧 Contact me:office@emmaguns.com👓 Read me:Subscribe to my Substack: https://emmaguns.substack.com/Follow me:📱 https://www.instagram.com/emmaguns/

In this episode of Bullet Points, you can join me on the rollercoaster of cutting my own fringe, plus why I've decided to put a paywall on my Substack. Yep, I've been writing and posting on my Substack for free and as someone said to me recently, 'how are people going to know your time and effort are worth anything if you're constantly giving it away for free?'📧 Contact me:office@emmaguns.com👓 Read me:Subscribe to my Substack: https://emmaguns.substack.com/Follow me:📱 https://www.instagram.com/emmaguns/

Anxiety is a huge subject yet it's only really in recent years that we've started to accommodate as a very natural and normal emotional state. In the past, being anxious might have been seen as not being able to cope, being sensitive or needing to 'buck up' and 'get on with it'. In fact, you could argue that the world has gone from being fairly intolerant of it to being hyper aware of it. Dr Tracy Dennis-Tiwary is an expert on the subject and has written an excellent book Future Tense: Why Anxiety is Good for You (even though it feels bad) and it makes an excellent case for reframing your anxiety so you can use it to your advantage.This conversation was originally recorded in 2022.📧 Contact me:office@emmaguns.com👓 Read me:Subscribe to my Substack: https://emmaguns.substack.com/Follow me:📱 https://www.instagram.com/emmaguns/

I've just finished reading The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga so thought this Bullet Points could be a book review of sorts. I've summarised what I think they key takeaways are and how I think it can be helpful and if you'd like to me to do something similar/the same for another book, let me know by emailing me at office@emmaguns.com📧 Contact me:office@emmaguns.com👓 Read me:Subscribe to my Substack: https://emmaguns.substack.com/Follow me:📱 https://www.instagram.com/emmaguns/

I had a huge response on Instagram when I shared the best information I’ve ever heard when it comes to why protein is such an important macro nutrient. For that reason, I thought I’d share it with you again in case you missed it first time around.Right now, you can’t move for protein printed across most food packaging. Even chocolate bars have got in on the action, producing ‘high protein’ varieties of their sweet snacks to try to sell them as a key component of a healthy, balanced diet. How can this be junk food when it contains protein?What’s the truth? In 2021 I interviewed Dr Gabrielle Lyon, a double-board certified family physician trained in geriatric nutritional sciences who focuses on skeletal muscle to support longevity. It was her work with geriatric patients that highlighted the importance of maintaining lean muscle in order to live well into older age and to avoid a plethora of health issues.The fact this conversations pre-dates the obsession with protein adds, I think, real value to Gabrielle’s expertise because it was long before every ‘health expert’ was talking about protein on podcasts. This conversation actually fundamentally changed how I eat and, since we spoke, I’ve been focusing on a high protein diet for all the reasons she describes during this conversation - not least to get lean while building muscle.