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Making Trouble with Molly Naylor
The Trouble with Flow, featuring Anna Jordan
A treat for the ears! It's Anna Jordan (Yen, Lost Atoms, Succession, Killing Eve)!
Anna made her name as a scriptwriter, but has now also published her debut poetry collection DECADE.
She co-runs runs Support Playwrights with Morgan Lloyd Malcolm; a group of theatre artists finding ways to support playwrights and create community - which can be found on Substack.
Join Anna and Molly for a conversation about CREATIVE FLOW. Find out what the optimum conditions are to find and help us figure out how to maintain it. Hear Anna's theory on 'us' writers versus 'them' writers. We also discuss alcohol, painting, approaches to planning and how to have a hobby over the age of 40.
Lovely stuff! Enjoy! Buy Decade this week - it's brilliant.
Generous, visceral and darkly comic. I love Anna’s huge-hearted writing — Sara Pascoe
These poems of love, of loss, and of longing are at once extraordinarily moving and exhilarating. There is an energy in the language and a richness of feeling that consistently move you forward and lead you inexorably from poem to poem. It’s called Decade for a reason but this collection seems to encompass lifetimes. I found it totally compelling — Timberlake Wertenbaker
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34. The Trouble with People-pleasing, featuring Mark Haddon
01:03:47||Season 3, Ep. 34This week we welcome Mark Haddon (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, A Spot of Bother, The Porpoise) to the podcast for a chat about people-pleasing. Find out where Mark's people-pleasing tendencies come from, what people-pleasing gives us versus what it takes away, and why artists might be particularly prone to it. We also chat about the impact of having a keen sense of smell on dating, how to write for yourself as well as other people, and why the word 'playwright' is spelled like that. Mark talks about his struggle with long covid, and we discuss how he learned to breathe properly.You'll also find out who Mark thinks is the best person on Instagram, and why he likens them to a camp vicar. Buy Mark's hilarious and heartbreaking new memoir (in full colour!) LEAVING HOME. Or wet your whistle with this Guardian extract.
32. The Trouble with Self Belief, featuring Harry Baker
56:43||Season 3, Ep. 32It's Harry Baker day! Harry is a poet with a background in MATHS. His poems have been watched by millions of people online, and his new collection TENDER was an instant Sunday Times Best Seller.Join Harry and Molly for a chat about self belief. We need it as artists, even when we don't know where to get it or how to sustain it. What do we do when we're the only ones who believe in our work during those early days of being a maker? What do we do when others believe our work should be different to how it is in order to be more 'successful'? How do we sustain self belief in a light, easy way? All this and lots more.Buy Harry's book!Catch him on tour!
31. The Trouble with Isolation, featuring Benedict Lombe
59:13||Season 3, Ep. 31It's Benedict Lombe (Shifters! Lava!) day!Bene is an award-winning Congolese British playwright and screenwriter. Her work includes the hit play Shifters, which transferred to the West End in Summer 2024, marking a ground-breaking moment as Benedict Lombe became the third Black British female playwright to have a play staged in the West End. Shifters went on to have another sell-out run at the Duke of York’s Theatre, earning two Olivier Award nominations in 2025, including an Olivier nomination for Best New Play - making Benedict Lombe the first Black British woman to be nominated in this category.Join Bene and Molly for a chat about isolation. How we balance the time we need to spend alone as makers with not going stir-crazy or alienating ourselves from community. We talk about how to bounce back from rejection, the impact of getting to be in the room where it happens, white chocolate and much more.Molly also reveals her biggest kink.PLEASE RATE THIS PODCAST ON YOUR PODCAST APP, IT MAKES SO MUCH DIFFERENCE IN THIS OVERSATURATED, UNDERPAID FIELD! THANK YOU!
30. The Trouble with Structure, featuring Lizzy Stewart
01:07:01||Season 3, Ep. 30Lizzy Stewart! Illustrator and writer! Molly's past collaborator!Maybe you've seen her pictures in there's a Tiger in the Garden, or Lights, Planets, People!Or perhaps you've read her book Alison? Her new book, The Wreck, is out NOW. It's a glorious genre-defying illustrated novel about the messy tangle of love, envy and desire that underpins our most precious relationships, and the difficult paths we must take to discover our true selves.Join Lizzy and Molly for a chat about STRUCTURE. Mainly as it refers to the notion of building a fulfilling, successful, functioning life as a maker, but we also touch on structure and planning in relation to specific projects.Learn about the magical joys of something called WEEKEND CLUB. Learn why Lizzy and Molly are terrified of group trips. Is living a creative life just about running full pelt up hills, or can they learn to ride the worms? All this and more.
30. The Trouble with Perfectionism, featuring Jessie Burton
01:02:20||Season 3, Ep. 30It's Jessie Burton! is the multi-million best-selling author of four novels: The Miniaturist, The Muse, The Confession and The House of Fortune – all instant Sunday Times bestsellers. Her novels have been published in 40 languages.The Miniaturist was adapted as a BBC One miniseries, starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Romola Garai. Join us for a chat about PERFECTIONISM. Where it comes from, what it feels like, how it helps and hinders our process and our lives. We also chat about ageing, mortality, Sylvanian Families and how writers are master manipulators (in a good way?).The book Jessie recommended was The Maps We Carry by Rose Cartwright.
29. The Trouble with Getting Older, featuring Athena Kugblenu
56:55||Season 3, Ep. 29Today we welcome the scriptwriter, comedian and journalist Athena Kugblenu for a chat about getting older. Which is good, because Molly needed to hear all this. We also talk about procrastination, what you get out of having a day job, industry rudeness and where Athena gets her ideas from. You can buy Athena's latest children's history book History's Most Epic Fails here! The book she recommended was Heiresses by Miranda Kauffman.
28. The Trouble with Focus, featuring Tim Clare
01:10:14||Season 3, Ep. 28This week I'm delighted to welcome Tim Clare, writer of fiction and non-fiction, for a chat about focus. We talk about planning, fractured focus & intense focus, confidence, editing and the theory that attention is the purest form of compassion. Tim opens up about the specific pleasures and pitfalls of deep focus for neurodivergent people. We talk about experimental French literature group The Oulipo, we disappear up our own bumbles but we do come out again. Tim's latest book is The Game Changers is published by Cannongate. He also wrote Coward, in which he explores all possible cures for anxiety. Check out his podcast Death of a 1000 Cuts, it's an amazing resource for writers!
27. The Trouble with Self Promotion, featuring Alice Fraser
52:40||Season 3, Ep. 27Alice is an award winning comedy writer, Broadcaster, and performer. Listed in the Telegraph’s 50 Funniest Comedians of the 21st Century, her solo comedy shows have been commissioned as TV specials on Amazon Prime, NextUp and the ABC. She has made four documentaries for Audible: Meditation 101, Habit Change, Wellness and Work Life Balance. She also co-hosted BBC Radio 4 series Stranger Than Sci Fi, about ongoing conversations between science and science fiction.Alice recently published her first book A Passion for Passion: A Delirious Love Letter to Romance. It's a glorious homage to genre fiction, celebrating the solemn silliness of romance novels.She has an excellent Patreon, where she writes a brilliant blog. She also hosts creative retreats in Switzerland! Let's all go!