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Sam McAlister is a British journalist, producer, and author best known for her work as the interview booker for BBC Newsnight. Over more than a decade at the BBC, she secured many of the programme’s most high-profile and challenging interviews, including the landmark 2019 interview with Prince Andrew about his association with Jeffrey Epstein.

A former criminal defence barrister, McAlister moved into journalism with a talent for negotiation, persistence, and building trust with hard-to-reach guests. Her memoir, Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews, published in 2022, gives a candid account of her experiences securing exclusive interviews and navigating the pressures of broadcast journalism.

Today, she works as a speaker, consultant, and media strategist, sharing her insight into journalism, negotiation, and crisis communication.

Key points of the episode:

• How she got the man "Formerly Known As Prince Andrew" onto the Newsnight interview that started somewhat of a chain of events....
• Where it all started, in the earliest days...
• How her original home was a very limited world.
• Her former legal background - how she loved the job, but found it professionally arduous.
• The sartorial vibe she immediately adopted after she left the bar. (and the unconventional reason why)
• The good working relationship she had with the actress Billie Piper.
• The massive career choice and dilemma she faced.
• The fascinating process of writing her book.
• Her experience with Elon Musk and Julian Assange.
• How she is an "experience billionaire"
• The acid test of the groups she chooses to associate with.
• Her insistance on professional self promotion.
• Her life now and how full of awe she is at what she gets to do.
• What she would say to the little girl (her younger self) on Guernsey.
• The most important relationship in her life.

Check out the book and Netflix series - "Scoop"

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On:http://www.lucycavendishlovecoach.com/

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Monique Roffey (born 1965 in Port of Spain, Trinidad) is a Trinidadian-British writer and memoirist whose work spans novels, essays and literary journalism.

She studied English & Film at the University of East Anglia and earned a PhD in Creative Writing from Lancaster University.

Her novels often explore themes such as identity, colonial legacy, sexual awakening, otherness, and the relationship between people and place — frequently drawing on her Caribbean heritage.

Her notable works include Sun Dog (2002), The White Woman on the Green Bicycle (2009), Archipelago (2012) — which won the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature — House of Ashes (2014), The Tryst (2017), and The Mermaid of Black Conch (2020), which won the Costa Book of the Year award.

She is also a lecturer in creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University and is active in supporting emerging writers in Trinidad and the Caribbean.

Key points of the episode:

• Mermaids, and when and why they were dreamed up. Hint- it goes back a long way!
• How she does not always trust her feelings about her new book.
• How a small indie publisher took her book, and how she crowdfunded the publicity!
• Her connection to Trinidad, and its problem with femicide.
• Her current activism.
• The "Hey!" Festival she co-created and what it is.
• Her ongoing journey into Tantra and why she did it.

www.moniqueroffey.com

Insta: @moniqueroffey

Support the show

Has this podcast inspired you and would you like to learn more?

You can reach out to Lucy, love coach, relationship counsellor, couples counsellor extraordinaire and author of "How to have extraordinary relationships with absolutely everybody".....

On:http://www.lucycavendishlovecoach.com/

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Lucy Easthope - The UK's Number One Disaster Recovery Expert!

Easthope is one of the UK’s foremost experts on disaster recovery, emergency planning and the long-term aftermath of major incidents.

Among her roles, she has been:

• Professor-in-Practice of Risk & Hazard at Durham University.
• Visiting Professor (Mass Fatalities & Pandemics) at the Centre for Death & Society, University of Bath.
• Research Associate at the Joint Centre for Disaster Research, Massey University in New Zealand.

Her work spans the real-world consequences of disasters: implementation of recovery, supporting bereaved families and communities, and critiquing the “recovery myth” (the assumption that communities return to “normal” after a disaster) in her academic writing.

Major works & impact

In March 2022 she published her memoir When the Dust Settles: Stories of Love, Loss and Hope from an Expert in Disaster, which brings together her experiences with major incidents (including 9/11, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 7/7 London bombings, the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire and the COVID-19 pandemic) and reflects on what recovery really means.

Her work emphasizes how disasters reshape lives permanently, how response must account for human and social dimensions (not just infrastructure) and how voices of impacted people must be heard.

From interviews, she speaks candidly about hope, fragility and the human dimension of her work. For example, she says:

Lucy and Lucy dive deep into a fascinating conversation here:

Key Points of the Episode:

• How she got into this line of work.
• A typical week in her life (it won't be like yours!)
• How she loves advocacy and social media.
• How there are more emergency planners than you might think!
• How some disasters are political.
• The "Reasonable Worst Case Scenario"
• How there has been an attitudinal shift towards her work.
• Her thoughts on Grenfell.
• How she feels like a "Cassandra" or seen as a "Debbie Downer"
• How her work has been seen as "foresight", not "hindsight"
• How children respond and engage differently to crisis, and the different help they need.
• What she has learned.
• Mental health maintenance and self care.
• "Fallow" time, and the use of it.
• How a "slump" is a natural part of healing and it to be expected.
• The difference between "Hope" and "Hopeium"
• First response to disasters.
• Potential disasters people worry about.

Reach Out To Lucy On:

www.whatevernext.info

Insta: @whenthedustsettleslucy

Support the show

Has this podcast inspired you and would you like to learn more?

You can reach out to Lucy, love coach, relationship counsellor, couples counsellor extraordinaire and author of "How to have extraordinary relationships with absolutely everybody".....

On:http://www.lucycavendishlovecoach.com/