My Unlived Life

Andy and Miriam discuss what might have happened if his father - who was incarcerated when Andy was 12 - had in fact not gone to prison, and stayed in his life throughout his teenage years. Along the way they talk about what it means to break intergenerational cycles, the fine line between our lives and those of others, male friendship and a little something called positive catastrophising. Andy West has taught philosophy in prisons since 2015. He holds a BA in philosophy from the University of London and has written for 3AM, The Guardian, The Times Education Supplement, The Millions and more. His first book THE LIFE INSIDE: A memoir of prison, family and learning to be free is out now and available in all good bookshops.Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 4 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives. Produced by Neil Mason

Dr Jandel Allen-Davis and Miriam discuss what might have happened if, only a few years ago, she’d walked away from her highly successful career to pursue her art full time. Along the way they talk about what it means to risk it all for your passions, the difference between seeing and looking, and whether it’s always necessary to pick a lane. Jandel is also a wildly prolific artist, and so they talk about pretty much every material under the sun.Dr Jandel Allen-Davis is the President and CEO of Craig Hospital in Denver, Colorado, a world-renowned rehabilitation hospital that specializes in patients with spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injuries. Before this, she was Vice President of Government, External Relations and Research for Kaiser Permanente Colorado. Jandel is board certified in obstetrics and gynecology and was in active practice for 25 years. She is also one of Miriam's mother’s closest friends, who she's known since she was a teenager, which made this episode a particularly special one.

Jackie and Miriam discuss what might have happened if Jackie had learned to play the violin as a teenager, and used her skills to busk as a traveling storyteller across Spain, Africa, Mongolia and beyond. Along the way they discuss what it takes to become an artist, the joys and perils of traveling alone and how learning languages is a lot like inhabiting other lives. Jackie also encounters a lot of fabulous wildlife, and learns to ride a motorcycle.Jackie Morris is an author and illustrator. She studied illustration at Hereford College of Art and Bath Academy and has illustrated many books, and written some. The Lost Words, co-authored with Robert Macfarlane, won the Kate Greenaway Medal 2019, and she was nominated again for The Unwinding in 2021. Her accordion books - Fox and Otter - are out now with Unbound.Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 4 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives. Produced by Neil Mason

Alice and Miriam discuss what might have happened if she hadn’t accepted a job offer in Poland in her twenties, and had stayed living and working in London instead. Along the way they talk about the perspective you get from travel, how to step back and examine the system you're living in and the pros and cons of mainstream publishing. Alice also has a very scandalous home counties affair.Alice Jolly is a novelist and playwright Alice Jolly. She won the 2014 V. S. Pritchett Memorial Prize with one of her short stories, ‘Ray the Rottweiler’, and her memoir Dead Babies and Seaside Towns won the 2016 PEN Ackerley Prize. Her novel Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile was longlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize and shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize. In 2021, Jolly was awarded an O. Henry Prize for her short story ‘From Far Around They Saw Us Burn’ and the story collection of the same name is out now and available in your local bookshop.Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 4 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives. Produced by Neil Mason

*LIVE EPISODE*Lawyer and author Hafsa Zayyan and Miriam discuss what might have happened if she’d stood up to her parents at the age of 16, and insisted on attending her local school with all of her friends, as opposed to the exclusive grammar school two hours from home where she ultimately went. Along the way they talk about the friends we lose and the friends we keep, the weight of parental expectation and some particularly salient marriage advice.Hafsa Zayyan is a writer and dispute resolution lawyer based in London. She studied Law at the University of Cambridge and holds a masters’ degree from the University of Oxford, and she won the inaugural #Merky Books New Writer’s Prize in 2019. We Are All Birds of Uganda is her debut fiction novel, inspired by the mixed background from which she hails, and is available in your local bookshop.This episode of My Unlived Life was recorded live, at the Merky Books Literature Festival at the Roundhouse in London.Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 4 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives. Produced by Neil Mason

The poet Maggie Smith and Miriam discuss what might have happened if she’d left her native Ohio to go to graduate school in Tucson, and thus also left the man who ultimately became her husband. Along the way they discuss the impossible questions one gets asked in the aftermath of divorce; how writing your trauma can help you through, though not necessarily in the way you might think, and ways to find yourself when you’re far from home. Maggie also teaches Miriam a very important lesson about band t-shirts.Maggie Smith is the award-winning author of Good Bones, The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison, Lamp of the Body, and the national bestsellers Goldenrod and Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change. A 2011 recipient of a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, Smith has also received several Individual Excellence Awards from the Ohio Arts Council, two Academy of American Poets Prizes, a Pushcart Prize, and fellowships from the Sustainable Arts Foundation and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She has been widely published, appearing in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Nation, The Best American Poetry, and more. Her memoir, You Could Make This Place Beautiful, is out now and available in your local bookshop.Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 4 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives. Produced by Neil Mason