Listen Now

Welcome to ‘Breaking Up’ - a podcast about break-ups, love, and pop culture. I’m your host, Isabella Shields and this week I’m joined by Demi Rodriguez!   Demi is the digital marketing coordinator at Anime Limited, the UK's largest independent anime distributor. She’s been working in film marketing for the past five years, with her previous home being Park Circus Films, who bring Hollywood classics back to the big screen.   Today we’re talking about Noel Coward’s classic of British cinema Brief Encounter (1945) and Sofia Coppola’s critically acclaimed recent classic Lost in Translation (2003). !SPOILERS AHEAD! So watch the films and come back to hear us talking about them.   You can catch Demi on instagram @demileerod.   If you'd like to send in an agony aunt questions, any recommendations, or any sponsorship offers, please contact  breakinguppodcast@gmail.com or you can follow us @breakinguppodcast and can dm us questions there. 

Welcome to ‘Breaking Up’ - a podcast about break-ups, love, and pop culture. I’m your host, Isabella Shields and this week I’m joined by the artist Eden Dodd (@edengrantdodd)to discuss toxic and fragile masculinity and how that reverberates in relationships.    We answer questions about: - A bisexual boyfriend who keeps making misogynistic and homophobic jokes - How to feel and communicate loneliness and difficult feelings as a man without seeming like an incel - Whether or not it's a red flag that his favourite film is Fight Club.    CONTENT WARNING: Mental health conditions/Suicide/Incels/Violence Today’s show centres on toxic masculinity and incels. I and every guest I’ve had on the podcast condemn the mentality and behaviour of incels and we have from very early on in production. Nothing in this episode is intended to excuse or make reasonable the violent actions of hate-filled men. We discuss misogyny, suicide, and mental health problems so if these discussions might upset you in any way I would give this episode a miss. My condolences to all the families and people affected by violence committed by male perpetrators, and to those affected by the horrific attack committed by incel Jake Davidson in Plymouth, which took the lives of six people. This episode was recorded a month ago and I hadn’t anticipated that the context for its release would be so upsetting.    Eden and I hope that this episode is respectful and that it’s obvious that we are criticising and denouncing the cultural conditions that lead people to these groups and communities.    Eden’s work centres on the redetermination of masculinity & Welsh identity, mental health and catharsis from trauma, escapism and mythology and that’s why we’re talking all about fragile and toxic masculinity.    If you'd like to send in an agony aunt questions, any recommendations, or any sponsorship offers, please contact  breakinguppodcast@gmail.com or you can follow us @breakinguppodcast and can dm us questions there. 

Welcome to ‘Breaking Up’ - a podcast about break-ups, love, and pop culture. I’m your host, Isabella Shields and this week I’m joined by artist and web designer Rush Johnstone to chat all about relationships.   In this episode artist and web designer Rush Johnstone and I are chatting about: • telling your partner you don’t want to use your vibrator with them • dating someone you work with and the awkwardness and anxiety that comes with that • ways to create intimacy with a partner who doesn’t have the same libido as you   This episode was sponsored by @wore - use the discount code breakingup30 for 30% off your purchases!   You can catch Rush on instagram @ruth.wtf and on their website at https://ruth.wtf/.   If you'd like to send in an agony aunt questions, any recommendations, or any sponsorship offers, please contact  breakinguppodcast@gmail.com or you can follow us @breakinguppodcast and can dm us questions here 💚

Welcome to ‘Breaking Up’ - a podcast about break-ups, love, and pop culture. I’m your host, Isabella Shields and this week I’m joined by the lovely Matthew Rimmer. Matthew’s an incredible artist who recently exhibited at 16 Nicholson Street and who’s here with me today to talk all about relationships and about being intersex.   After we’ve spoken about Matt’s experience with intersexuality we answer some agony aunt questions about:    Introducing the exes you’re still friends with to your new partner How to tackle your partner having a friendship you find weird and unpleasant for your partner Being a tall girl in high school and feeling like you have no dating options You can catch Matt on instagram at https://www.instagram.com/matthewrimmer_/ and on his website at https://www.matthewrimmer.net/   If you'd like to send in an agony aunt questions, any recommendations, or any sponsorship offers, please contact  breakinguppodcast@gmail.com or you can follow us @breakinguppodcast and can dm us questions there

Welcome to ‘Breaking Up’ - a podcast about break-ups, love, and pop culture. I’m your host, Isabella Shields, and in this episode I’m rejoined by Debbie Young! You can hear all about Debbie and the amazing things she’s doing in our Achilles Heel episode but today we’re all about Cher!    We’re discussing the films Mermaids (Dir. Richard Benjamin; 1990) and The Witches of Eastwick (Dir. George Miller; 1987) so watch the films and come back to hear us talking about them!   Links to Debbie’s websites here: http://www.debbieyoung.space/   https://www.studiomama.co.uk/   Links to Debbie’s socials here: https://www.instagram.com/debbieyoungart/?hl=en   https://www.instagram.com/debbies_breath/?hl=en   https://www.instagram.com/studiomamaishome/?hl=en   If you'd like to send in an agony aunt questions, any recommendations, or any sponsorship offers, please contact  breakinguppodcast@gmail.com or you can follow us @breakinguppodcast and can dm us questions there

Welcome to ‘Breaking Up’ - a podcast about break-ups, love, and pop culture hosted by Isabella Shields.  In today’s release the gorgeous Tamara MacArthur and I are talking about performing heartbreak. Tamara is a visual artist whose works explore yearning, futility and the boundaries of intimacy. In this episode we’re answering questions from people who are struggling through heartbrokenness by telling them what’s worked for us and by appropriating anti-terror slogans as relationship advice

Welcome to ‘Breaking Up’ - a podcast about break-ups, love, and pop culture. I’m your host, Isabella Shields. In today's episode I’m joined by Tineka Smith to discuss the trials of and tribulations of interracial relationships. Tineka is a racial equality advocate and founder of Huetribe, a diverse greetings card company and author of ‘Mixed Up: Confessions of an Interracial Couple’. In ‘Mixed Up’, Tineka and her husband Alex Court explore what it means to be an interracial couple in a world in which the Black Lives Matter movement and racial tensions are at the forefront of the international agenda. The Audible Original audiobook, Mixed Up: Confessions of an Interracial Couple is out now, and the hard copy will be released on the 22nd of April 2021. Pre-order via this link.     We're talking about: Trying to get back with your ex when they broke up with you for not understanding their perspective as a black person Caring for your partner when you're concerned about the effect the news about police brutality and racial injustice is having on their mental health Tension around introducing your white partner to your family and how to manage it And what to do when your partner is silent when you bring up issues of race.    You can find Tineka on Instagram, and read her articles in The Independent and The Guardian. You can listen to Audible Original audiobook via this link: Mixed Up: Confessions of an Interracial Couple. And you can pre-order the hard copy which will be released on the 22nd of April 2021 via this link.     If you'd like to send in an agony aunt questions, any recommendations, or any sponsorship offers, please contact  breakinguppodcast@gmail.com or you can follow us on instagram at  @breakinguppodcast and can dm us questions there.

Welcome to ‘Breaking Up’ - a podcast about break-ups, love, and pop culture hosted by Isabella Shields.    Today I’m joined by Debbie Young, a very close friend of mine who exhibited her first solo show at the gallery back in 2019! She got her degree in fine art from the The Hague’s Royal Academy of Art and has been producing incredible paintings, ceramics, textiles, performance works and sculptures ever since. She also runs Studio Mama from 16 Nicholson Street and she’s the jewel in my crown!   What to do when a guy’s perfect on paper but there’s no tension in the relationship What to do when your partner keeps comparing you to films and tv shows What to do if your partner takes no pride in their appearance and is a bit of a slob, but is otherwise pretty great And what’s going on when a partner’s getting on your last nerve.   If you'd like to send in an agony aunt questions, any recommendations, or any sponsorship offers, please contact  breakinguppodcast@gmail.com or you can follow us on instagram at  @breakinguppodcast and can dm us questions there.   Links to Debbie’s websites here: http://www.debbieyoung.space/   https://www.studiomama.co.uk/   Links to Debbie’s socials here: https://www.instagram.com/debbieyoungart/?hl=en   https://www.instagram.com/debbies_breath/?hl=en   https://www.instagram.com/studiomamaishome/?hl=en

Welcome to ‘Breaking Up’ - a podcast about break-ups, love, and pop culture.   I’m your host, Isabella Shields, and in this episode I’m joined by one of the most beautiful, gazelle-like people I’ve ever seen in my life - Thomas D. Thomas works with me at 16 Nicholson Street contemporary art gallery in Glasgow and has also worked in media in Athens and an archivist at Spirit of Revolt Archives, having graduated from Cambridge University in History of Art. But today we’re all about sex, romance and heartbreak.   Whether you can really know someone within the first five minutes of meeting them What to do for your romantic life when you're a single key worker Whether or not it’s ever appropriate to tell your partner that they’re getting too close to your friends And whether or not you should tell your partner you want to have a threesome with your partner and her best friend   If you'd like to send in an agony aunt questions, any recommendations, or any sponsorship offers, please contact  breakinguppodcast@gmail.com or you can follow us on instagram at  @breakinguppodcast and can dm us questions there.

Welcome to ‘Breaking Up’ - a podcast about break-ups, love, and pop culture hosted by Isabella Shields.    In this episode I’m joined by the lovely Regina Sinnott, an illustrator based in upstate New York who I met the other week over Instagram. I’ve followed Regina for a while thanks to the algorithms, and I put a call out for guests on the podcast Instagram and Regina slid into my DMs.   Regina identifies as a late single and for that reason we're answering questions from perpetual singles and people who are yet to be in relationships!      We're talking about a single who doesn't like the way their friends in a relationship speak to one another, someone who's tired of third wheeling, someone who really wants their friends to matchmake for them, and someone who wants to know what our favourite parts of being single are.    You can find Regina on instagram here - @reginasinnott - and you can find her art instagram here - @reginaaustinart.    If you'd like to send in an agony aunt questions, any recommendations, or any sponsorship offers, please contact  breakinguppodcast@gmail.com or you can follow us on instagram at  @breakinguppodcast and can dm us questions there.

Welcome to ‘Breaking Up’ - a podcast about break-ups, love, and pop culture hosted by Isabella Shields.      This agony aunt episode is all about dating as a fat person and I’m lucky enough to be answering your questions with an expert on the representation and misrepresentation of fat bodies. Abi Jenkins-Menzies is a doctoral candidate at the University of Glasgow primarily researching how fat people exist in the cultural imagination through the lens of British and American film and TV. She’s also a guest contributor to She’s All Fat, another great podcast about body positivity and radical self love.     We're answering questions about fearing rejection while online dating because of your weight, jealousy over your partner's ex's body, friends being cruel about your partner's weight, dating as a fat body without fatness being fetishised, and getting comfortable with full nudity when you're self-conscious about being fat.     You can find Abi on Instagram here: @abinormalcy and catch up on what she's doing on She's All Fat through their instagram here: @shesallfatpod     If you'd like to send in an agony aunt questions, any recommendations, or any sponsorship offers, please contact  breakinguppodcast@gmail.com or you can follow us on instagram at  @breakinguppodcast and can dm us questions there.

Welcome to ‘Breaking Up’ - a podcast about break-ups, love, and pop culture. I’m your host, Isabella Shields, and in this episode we’re all about Jane Austen. I’m thrilled to be joined by three very lovely friends of mine Hannah Campbell, Nell Cardozo, and Rowan Charleson.     We’re talking about romance and heartbreak in four of Austen’s six major novels and their film adaptations: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Northanger Abbey.     Support Hannah’s project Birds with Words - https://www.instagram.com/birdswithwords_uk/ - here and the gallery Nell and I are directors of here - https://instagram.com/16nicholsonstreet?igshid=ngtu75trpw9y     Please support Glasgow Night Shelter if you can too: https://glasgownightshelter.org     If you'd like to send in an agony aunt questions, any recommendations, or any sponsorship offers, please contact  breakinguppodcast@gmail.com or you can follow us on instagram at  @breakinguppodcast and can dm us questions there.

Welcome to ‘Breaking Up’ - a podcast about break-ups, love, and pop culture hosted by Isabella Shields. This week I’m joined by one of my favourite people in the world, Cameron Mackay for a very wholesome episode.     Cameron is a filmmaker, composer, and environmentalist. His background is in climate change research and traditional Scottish music, and through short documentary films he tells stories about sustainability, Scottish culture, and the natural world. I met Cameron in first year of University in the Glasgow Uni Union through mutual friends and since then, Cameron is someone I’ve always turned to for deep cut chats on relationships and anxiety.     This week we're talking about maintaining control in your relationship, one listener's feelings of panic and relationship incompetence, anxiety post-break up over whether or not anyone will want to be with you again, and fear that your partner will get bored of you.      You can find more information about Cameron on his Website, and catch him on instagram here @cameronjmackay or on his professional page here @cmackproductions.     If you'd like to send in an agony aunt questions, any recommendations, or any sponsorship offers, please contact  breakinguppodcast@gmail.com or you can follow us on instagram at  @breakinguppodcast and can dm us questions there.

Welcome to ‘Breaking Up’ - a podcast about break-ups, love, and pop culture hosted by Isabella Shields. This week I'm joined all the way from New York City and San Francisco by the developers of Project Bluetick, Louisa and Grace.      "A couple months ago, my boyfriend broke up with me. He told me that I texted too much and was too needy, so I decided to use data analysis to prove him wrong."     Louisa is also looking for more contributors to the SMS analytics so please submit your WhatsApp chats and work out who in your last relationship texted more, who was more affectionate, who initiated more, and a number of other factors in your online correspondence!      Louisa's Medium Article: https://medium.com/swlh/improving-my-dating-life-one-text-analysis-at-a-time-a802cb8c2876     Project Bluetick   The Website: bluetick.group   The Code: https://github.com/llu13701/sms_analysis   Getting in touch with Louisa: luyilousia@gmail.com     Recommendations for heartbreak recovery from Louisa and Grace:   Louisa:   Movie - Birds of Prey (2019; Dir. Cathy Yan)   Music - 'Married Life' by from the film Up     Grace:   Movie - Say Anything... (1989; Dir. Cameron Crowe)   Music - If It Wasn't For the Nights by ABBA     Please tell all your friends if you like the podcast and give us five stars if you’re listening on iTunes so other people can find the podcast and we can get a big serotonin hit.     If you'd like to send in an agony aunt questions, any recommendations, or any sponsorship offers, please contact breakinguppodcast@gmail.com.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Radiophrenia (Listen Here) Isabella Shields and Adam Benmakhlouf - A Common Spring 22 November 2020 @ 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm   A Common Spring​ is the radio adaptation of Isabella Shields’ work-in-progress horror novel of the same name, accompanied by a sonic response from the artist Adam Benmakhlouf. A Common Spring is based on an original concept by and has been developed with Harlan McGlinchey, whose vocal performance features in this broadcast. Taking its name from Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘Alone’, ​A Common Spring follows five content creators for ​‘Interim​' magazine who have been sent to cover the village of Hareton Gowt’s annual fete. The existing romantic and resentful tensions in the group complicate their difficult engagement with the villagers, and realities and relationships become increasingly destabilised as their coverage of the fete takes increasingly horrifying turns. In its mood, the story itself is designed to create a pervasive sense of disturbance and dissonance. As it develops thematically, it becomes a consideration of personal authenticity, the erosion of individualism, and the mutability of selfhood.  In turn, Benmakhlouf's soundscape combines original composition and bootlegged mixtape  in a theme of suspense that emphasises the multiplicity and re-figurations of the story through an anxious interaction of a diversity of audio materials. For ​A Common Spring​, Adam treats the sonic and textural audio elements as a further means of creating a surprising and out of the ordinary encounter in order to facilitate a sense of leaving the rigid patterns of daily avoidance or emotional disengagement." Isabella Shields (she/her) is a writer and curator whose work revolves around the collapse of distinctions within culture, and the construction of relationships. She is director of 16 Nicholson Street, a contemporary art gallery in Glasgow which she established in 2016. She is undertaking her PhD in Literature at the University of Edinburgh, and her continued academic and critical focus is on trauma theory, intermediality, and the dissolution of boundaries within culturally prominent systems of representation. Adam Benmakhlouf (they/them) is a documentary fantasist working in drawing, sound, writing, teaching and programming. Committedly manifold, in their practice they embody and experimentally represent nuanced strategies of world-building formed out of necessity and hope by BIPOCs and queers.   https://www.isabellashields.com/      

Welcome to ‘Breaking Up’ - a podcast about break-ups, love, and pop culture hosted by Isabella Shields, and this week I’m joined by two of my best, most glamorous, and longest held friends Stephen Cunningham and Maddie Gold! You might remember Maddie and Stephen from our Bridget Jones Diary episode but this week we’re talking all about first relationships. We're answering questions about  the aftereffects of harsh criticism from your first ex  managing keeping your first ex in your life not getting an 'I love you' back the first time you've ever said it getting your first ex out of your head  losing your virginity later in life.  You can support Stephen's Movember efforts HERE.    You can follow us on instagram @breakinguppodcast and you can follow Stephen on instagram @step_hen08 and Maddie on instagram @maighdlingold.     Please tell all your friends if you like the podcast and give us five stars if you’re listening on iTunes so other people can find the podcast and we can get a big serotonin hit.   If you'd like to send in an agony aunt questions, any recommendations, or any sponsorship offers, please contact breakinguppodcast@gmail.com.

Welcome to ‘Breaking Up’ - a podcast about break-ups, love, and pop culture hosted by Isabella Shields and Adam Benmakhlouf.   This is the last week of our October spooktacular! We’re talking about another two relationship centric horror films - Jim Gillespie’s I Know What You Did Last Summer from 1997 and David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows from 2014. These films are teen psychosexual horrors which is why we’ve paired them together, and we’ve got some thematically linked questions about relationships to go along with them.   Content warning: discussion of sexual violence, and mental health issues.   If you'd like to send in an agony aunt questions, any recommendations, or any sponsorship offers, please contact  breakinguppodcast@gmail.com or you can follow us on instagram at  @breakinguppodcast and can dm us questions there.

Welcome to ‘Breaking Up’ - a podcast about break-ups, love, and pop culture hosted by Isabella Shields and Adam Benmakhlouf.   This week begins our October spooktacular! We’re talking about two relationship centric horror films - Karyn Kusama’s The Invitation (2015) and Adam Wingard’s You’re Next (2011).    Next week we're talking about I Know What You Did Last Summer and It Follows so give them a watch!    If you'd like to send in an agony aunt questions, any recommendations, or any sponsorship offers, please contact breakinguppodcast@gmail.com or you can follow us on instagram at @breakinguppodcast and can dm us questions there.

Welcome to ‘Breaking Up’ - a podcast about break-ups, love, and pop culture hosted by Isabella Shields and Adam Benmakhlouf.   This week we’re talking about worry over a partner’s eating habits, splitting the difference financially, and having a partner whose waking and baking is taking the fun out of spending time together.   James Salter reading Break It Down by Lydia Davis: https://play.acast.com/s/guardianculture/james-salter-reads-break-it-down-by-lydia-davis   Content warnings in this episode for disordered eating and exercise, and for discussion of substance abuse.   If you'd like to send in an agony aunt questions, any recommendations, or any sponsorship offers, please contact breakinguppodcast@gmail.com or you can follow us on instagram at @breakinguppodcast and can dm us questions there.

Welcome to ‘Breaking Up’ - a podcast about break-ups, love, and pop culture hosted by Isabella Shields and Adam Benmakhlouf.   We're shaking up the format this week with a slightly unusual episode made up of our movie pitches for the break up films we want to see! Next week we'll be back to agony aunt questions but catch us on Instagram or over email to let us know which of these films you would watch.   With thanks to Wild Potato Designs for our cover art. Music and production by Isabella Shields.   If you'd like to send in an agony aunt questions, any recommendations, or any sponsorship offers, please contact  breakinguppodcast@gmail.com or you can follow us on instagram at  @breakinguppodcast and can dm us questions there.