PODCAST · society
Straight Up
by Straight Up
The pop culture podcast with no filter, brought to you by besties and journalists Kathleen and Ellie. New episodes out every Thursday! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
-
The Victoria’s Secret fashion show, Sally Rooney and the Girls reboot
The Victoria’s Secret fashion show is back and seemingly more popular than ever, just years after it was dismissed as sexist and outdated. So how did we get here, and why are we suddenly celebrating a version of femininity we thought we’d left behind? Also this week: the newly-announced reboot of...
-
Elizabeth Day’s TV thriller, Mark Zuckerberg and when comedians go too far
Elizabeth Day’s bestselling novel The Party has been turned into a glossy new TV thriller with Luke Evans, exploring toxic friendships and the dark side of the British upper classes. Plus, a comedian has sparked a furious backlash after calling women in gym shorts “whores” on SNL. Is misogyny…
more -
The Celebrity Traitors, Sienna Miller’s War and when Hollywood divorces get ugly
Sienna Miller and Dominic West play a celebrity couple at war in Sky’s hyped new divorce drama, so this week we’re getting into some of Hollywood’s messiest breakups – not to mention the stars’ own experiences with relationship scrutiny – from Halle Berry’s current custody battle to how Olivia...
-
Taylor Swift’s Encore, Amelia Dimoldenberg and the female rivalry trap
Miquita Oliver went on Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place pod this week, marking the end of a decades-long feud fuelled by the toxic tabloid culture of the early noughties. We debrief on their heart-warming reconciliation and how female rivalry is so often rooted in insecurity. Also on the show: Amelia...
-
Ed Sheeran, Lena Dunham and the ethics of surrogacy
From Lena Dunham announcing the birth of her baby girl via surrogate in a fashion piece for Vogue, to Ed Sheeran’s PR disaster over Palestine and free speech, this week both celebs have found themselves at the centre of debates they’d tried to side-step. Is commercial surrogacy inherently...
-
THERAPY: ChatGPT, false memories and weaponised ‘therapy speak’
This week we’re revisiting our ep on the dark side of the therapy boom, from unqualified therapists planting false memories in vulnerable people and an obsession with labels to ‘therapy boasting’ on Hinge and the weaponisation of ‘therapy speak’. Plus, what makes a good therapist, and can AI…
more -
Alix Earle, her Alex Cooper feud and the business of influence
Mega-influencer Alix Earle’s new reality show has dropped on Netflix and so we’re unpacking it all, from all the details of her feud with Alex Cooper to the family’s bizarre dynamics. Could Earle Meets World be Gen Z’s answer to The Kardashians? Also this week: series two of The Gentlemen…
more -
Ali G, the Met Gala backlash and cleavage’s big comeback
Ali G is back after more than 20 years, sparking a backlash over the character’s racist stereotypes with cinemas saying they’ll boycott the new film. And speaking of controversial comebacks, the planned John Galliano exhibition at the Met has been pulled, so this week we’re discussing cancel...
-
North West, Meghan Markle’s return and the man-child epidemic
Why do so many adult men seem stuck in arrested development? We review the buzzy new novel from the “male Sally Rooney” Jem Calder, whose rom-com I Just Want You to Be Happy charts a dysfunctional age-gap relationship between a 35-year-old man-child and 23-year-old woman. Also on the show: our...
-
The Ariana Grande discourse, ACOTAR and Nicole Kidman’s Vogue backlash
Ariana Grande’s tour has been getting rave reviews, but the increasingly feverish discussion around her weight has us asking whether it’s more harmful to comment or stay silent, and what this and the tragic case of Jason Arday tell us about how journalists can lose sight of the real people behind...
-
Nara Smith, the tradwife discourse and this year’s buzziest crime thriller
Nara Smith came on Call Her Daddy to rebuke her status as “poster girl” for the tradwife movement, but do we buy her rebrand? We discuss whether her content glamourising hyper-feminine domesticity causes real-world harm or whether she’s being held to unfair standards. Plus, rave reviews of...
-
FRIENDSHIP BREAKUPS: ghosting, group dynamics and comparison culture
This week we’re revisiting one of our most popular episodes on a topic that still feels like a taboo despite its clear universality, with the help of lots of deeply honest and moving DMs from the huns. A friendship ‘breakup’ is an experience more than 80% of women have been through and it can be...
-
Our plastic surgery nightmare, Love Island and marital misery in The Invite
This week we’re diving into Jia Tolentino’s viral essay on the new age of cosmetic enhancement, from how algorithms are changing our faces to whether Botox really helps women get ahead at work – and why our own feelings on tweakments have recently radically changed. Also on the show: Olivia…
more -
Katie Price’s doc, The Odyssey and Justin Bieber vs Madonna
We are so excited to be reunited and resuming normal service this week with a very overdue pop culture catch up! First up: reviews of Christopher Nolan's much talked-about Hollywood epic The Odyssey and "perimenopausal" crime caper Ride or Die starring Hannah Waddingham, before we dive into the...
-
The best books of 2026 so far
This week we’re sharing our favourite reads of the year so far, from the novels we couldn’t put down and 2026’s most-talked about titles to the memoirs that kept us up at night. Consider this your summer reading inspo: including the ultra-hyped Strangers by Belle Burden, Lost Lambs by Madeline…
more -
Why we’re all bored of everything
We have more entertainment than any generation in history, so why does everything feel boring now? Fatigue, the death of originality and digital overwhelm are things we’ve been mulling over a lot recently, after finding ourselves sick of the onslaught of mid-level media, the memeification of...
-
Taylor Swift’s wedding, Olivia Wilde and the rise of singles nights
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are supposedly getting married this weekend, so we discuss how much of a spectacle it will be. Plus, what Olivia Wilde’s unfiltered Call Her Daddy episode says about the demonisation of mothers, what the glamourisation of smoking says about today’s weight-loss era…
more -
Ariana Grande, Brooklyn Beckham’s ad and reporting a police officer
Did Brooklyn Beckham just blow up any chance of a family reunion with his controversial $1m Door Dash ad, or is it straight out of the Victoria Beckham playbook? Also this week: the increasingly fraught discourse about Ariana Grande's weight loss, and whether Emily Ratajkowski is ragebaiting us...
-
Margot Robbie, Emma Grede and the politics of pregnancy
Pregnant women are being unfollowed in their droves on social media, but at the same time, pronatalist messaging has never been harder to escape. So why is it that both the child-free community and parents alike feel so under siege? We take a look at the celebs at the centre of the discourse…
more -
Dua Lipa's wedding, the Alex Cooper backlash and sex therapy
Did Dua Lipa just host the celebrity wedding ‘of the decade’? We rake over all the gossip from the three-day bash in Palermo and debate over whether Callum Turner’s status as ‘Mr Dua Lipa’ is reductive and career-damaging. Also on the show: how former ‘kidfluencer’ Piper Rockelle monetises a…
more -
ASK US ANYTHING: Tweakments, body image and gender disappointment
Insecurities from body image in the Ozempic era to aging and whether we’d have cosmetic surgery are first up on the agenda today, huns, as we answer all your juiciest questions! We get deep into changing our minds about having children, gender disappointment, pregnancy, the single life and…
more -
Married at First Sight, Rivals, and Maya Jama's break up
The BBC’s disturbing new Panorama documentary about Married at First Sight’s abuse allegations should be a watershed moment for reality TV, but will anything actually change? Plus, the problem with Harper Beckham’s new skincare line, the rise of tween skincare influencers and the ‘toe-dipping’...
-
Deborah Frances-White: dating apps, manosphere ideology and Steven Bartlett
The Guilty Feminist, aka Deborah Frances-White, is on the show this week and we couldn’t be more excited! In this fascinating chat with the OG podcasting queen, we get into everything from whether feminism is currently on the defensive in mainstream culture and the eroding of women's rights, to…
more -
Dua Lipa’s lawsuit, Britney Spears and the peptides craze
Dua Lipa and Britney Spears have been embroiled in very different legal dramas this week, so we’re breaking down exactly what’s going on with both. Kris Jenner has been raving about peptides – but what actually are these supplements and why are celebs and biohackers alike so obsessed? Plus: the...
-
The Devil Wears Prada 2, Anna Wintour and the Met Gala
The Devil Wears Prada 2 is out and so ofc we had to review it on today’s show! From how the sequel compares to the 2006 cult classic to Vogue’s piggy-backing of the promo cycle, we’re diving into its very timely depiction of billionaire influence over fashion and the decline of glossy magazines –...
-
Half Man, Harry Styles’ engagement to Zoë Kravitz and Russell Brand’s bible
Baby Reindeer creator Richard Gadd is back with a divisive new series about toxic masculinity: should Half Man be mandatory viewing for men or is it just trauma porn? Also on the show: Harry Styles and Zoë Kravitz seem to be engaged, what the explosive I’m a Celeb live show fallout says about...
-
OnlyFans, Margo’s Got Money Troubles and the D4vd charges
OnlyFans, motherhood and sex work are in the spotlight this week as one of our fave novels, Margo’s Got Money Troubles, gets an Apple TV+ adaptation starring Elle Fanning. Also on the show: the murder charges against alt-singer D4vd dominating the pop culture news cycle, a first look at the new...
-
Lena Dunham’s memoir, Euphoria and the Katy Perry allegations
This week we’re diving into Lena Dunham’s brilliant but provocative new memoir Famesick, about chronic pain, the toxicity of fame, and the turbulent making of GIRLS. Why is it that Dunham gets so much hate from the media, and is she a reliable narrator? Also on the show: our reviews of Euphoria…
more -
Zendaya’s The Drama, Kanye West and a tradwife nightmare
The drama surrounding Zendaya and Robert Pattinson’s new rom com The Drama is first on the agenda this week, alongside the hugely hyped, Ballerina Farm-inspired tradwife thriller Yesteryear. Plus, the latest in the Blake Lively vs Justin Baldoni case, the Kanye West Wireless controversy and our...
-
Harry Potter, The Pitt and Sydney Sweeney's latest controversy
Should stars get a say in who plays them and how they’re portrayed? We’re diving into the debate this week after actor Kim Novak called Sydney Sweeney “totally wrong” for her upcoming biopic, and Daryl Hannah spoke out about her reputation-ruining portrayal in Love Story. Also on the show: the...
-
The Chappell Roan controversy, Barry Keoghan and SNL UK
Chappell Roan’s in the news after being accused of making Jude Law’s 11-year-old daughter cry, so this week we’re diving into the debate around celebrity boundaries vs fan behaviour. Do stars have a right to set limits when it comes to fame? And is the kind of brutal trolling Barry Keoghan has...
-
Louis Theroux, the manosphere and the hell of being a teenage girl
Did Louis Theroux’s Inside the Manosphere go far enough? That's the big question on the show this week as we review his divisive new Netflix doc about male alt-right influencers. We discuss misogyny vs ragebait, the manosphere’s influence on politics and how this all affects young women and…
more -
Harry Styles, Sarah J. Maas and the Timothée Chalamet backlash
Harry Styles has dropped his long-awaited album, ACOTAR author Sarah J Maas went on Call Her Daddy and Timothée Chalamet is facing backlash for his comments on ballet and opera – it’s been a busy week in pop culture! Plus: Rachel Weisz and Leo Woodall’s sexy new series Vladimir has landed on...
-
Love Story: JFK Jr & Carolyn Bessette, Olivia Dean and the Jay Shetty cult
Love Story: John F Kennedy Jr & Carolyn Bessette has us all hooked, from the Sex and the City-style NYC setting to its retelling of the 90s' most iconic romance. But how much of it is dramatised vs what actually happened? Also this week: star of the moment Olivia Dean’s BRIT Awards sweep, why Jay...
-
America’s Next Top Model, Gordon Ramsay and the BAFTAs
The new America’s Next Top Model doc has everyone talking about the ethics of reality TV and just how bonkers the 15-year phenomenon really was, so this week we’re diving into everything from how things have changed since the noughties to how terribly Tyra Banks comes across. Also on the show:...
-
Gisèle Pelicot, celeb power couples and splitting the bill
Symbol of survivor-led justice Gisèle Pelicot has released her memoir, so this week we’re discussing some of the most powerful and inspiring interviews from her press tour. Also on the show: hologram concerts, Dua Lipa and Callum Turner top the Standard’s list of London’s 25 power couples, Cruz...
-
WUTHERING HEIGHTS: chemistry, controversies and our honest review
Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Wuthering Heights is the most talked about and divisive film of the year, so obviously we had to race home from the cinema to record our review for you as a special bonus episode! From Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi’s chemistry to the many controversies that have...
-
Jacob Elordi, the Wuthering Heights press tour and motherhood horrors
Wuthering Heights is out this weekend so we’re diving into some of the press tour’s juiciest moments, from Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie’s ‘affair baiting’ to Elordi’s Esquire interview with Emerald Fennell. Also on the show: Bella Hadid’s break-up, Charli XCX on her fave red carpet moments, and...
-
Chappell Roan, Kim K’s Lewis Hamilton romance and Katie Price’s scammer husband
Chappell Roan’s nipple-ring dress was the talk of the Grammy Awards red carpet, so naturally we’re debriefing on that this week, as well as the night’s other biggest moments. Also on the agenda: all things Formula 1, from Brad Pitt’s Oscar-nominated F1: The Movie to the latest rumours that Lewis...
-
Taylor vs Blake, the future of Brand Beckham and Sophie Turner’s Steal
The Beckham feud rolls on and of course we have a big juicy update for you! We comb through everything that’s happened over the last week, from wedding witness DJ Fat Tony setting the record straight on Victoria’s “inappropriate” dance, to weigh-ins from Brooklyn and Nicola’s exes. So what’s the...
-
Harry Styles, Heated Rivalry and Paul Mescal in Hamnet
Harry Styles has new music out, ‘Skins meets Succession’ show Industry is back for season four and Paul Mescal is playing Shakepeare in tear-jerker Hamnet – it’s a good week for pop culture! Also on the show, we’re debriefing on Amazon’s first-look at Sophie Turner as Lara Croft, the ice hockey...
-
BROOKLYN BECKHAM: the family feud goes nuclear
Brooklyn Beckham has broken his silence on the family feud and so *obviously* we had to record an emergency episode for you huns! In an utterly jaw-dropping statement, Brooklyn has accused his parents Victoria and David of putting brand Beckham above absolutely everything, with allegations…
more -
Timothée Chalamet, Steven Bartlett and Kendall Jenner’s plastic surgery
Timothée Chalamet won Best Actor at the Golden Globes so it’s time for our Marty Supreme review! Also on the show: Kendall Jenner has set the record straight on her sexuality and plastic surgery in her most candid interview yet. But could her nose really have changed shape from acne medication?...
-
The Traitors, new Bond Callum Turner and The Housemaid
The Traitors is back with a whole new twist and we have thoughts! Also this week, we review Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried’s wild thriller The Housemaid and Callum Turner’s afterlife romcom Eternity. Speaking of, Mr Dua Lipa looks set to be the next James Bond… but would he make a good 007 or...
-
The 10 best books of 2025
Happy almost New Year, huns! We’re rounding off 2025 with our list of the top ten books of the year, from award-winning heavyweights to addictive romantasy and some stand-out non-fiction. We’re reviewing the reads that dominated group chats, the ones recommended by you guys, and the…
more -
The 10 best TV shows of 2025
Happy Christmas hunnies and here’s a little treat from us: our definitive list of the top 10 TV shows of 2025. From thrillers to comedies and coming-of-age dramas, these should keep you entertained throughout the Christmas hols. We've kept our main list to original shows of the year, but with...
-
Taylor Swift’s Eras doc, Bonnie Blue and the biggest film of 2025
Taylor Swift’s The End of an Era documentary is already breaking Disney records, so we review the first two episodes. Is it pure hagiography or genuinely insightful? Also on the show: why Bonnie Blue wrote a Spectator op-ed backing Nigel Farage, George Clooney’s new marital rule, and the…
more -
The Diddy documentary, Sydney Sweeney and Miley Cyrus’ younger man
50 Cent’s explosive Diddy documentary is dominating the headlines, so this week we’re unpacking the most shocking moments from Sean Combs: The Reckoning. Also on the show: Sydney Sweeney finally addresses her “great jeans” ad controversy, Margot Robbie has given a wonderfully juicy Vogue…
more -
Ed Sheeran, Wicked 2 and the new British ‘Gossip Girl’ Wild Cherry
Ed Sheeran’s new songs hint at cracks in his seemingly perfect, previously ultra-private marriage, while Jessie J has had to set the record straight on her breakup with Channing Tatum. So just how literally should we take pop stars’ lyrics? Also this week, we’re diving into the BBC’s Gossip...
-
Jennifer Lawrence, Charli XCX on pop stardom and The Beast In Me
The Beast in Me is the buzzy new Netflix thriller everyone’s talking about, so this week we’re sharing our (spoiler-free!) review and the standout moments from its star Claire Danes’ latest interviews. First, though, we dive into Jennifer Lawrence’s career-defining performance in Die My Love…
more
We're indexing this podcast's transcripts for the first time — this can take a minute or two. We'll show results as soon as they're ready.
No matches for "" in this podcast's transcripts.
No topics indexed yet for this podcast.
Loading reviews...
Loading similar podcasts...
Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Straight Up have?
Straight Up currently has 267 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Straight Up about?
The pop culture podcast with no filter, brought to you by besties and journalists Kathleen and Ellie. New episodes out every Thursday! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
How often does Straight Up release new episodes?
Straight Up publishes regularly with 267 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Straight Up?
You can listen to Straight Up on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Straight Up?
Straight Up is created and hosted by Straight Up.
URL copied to clipboard!