Standard Issue Podcast
Standard Issue Podcast
Standard Issue
Anna Holmes turns the negative into a positive
26 minutes Posted Aug 17, 2026 at 2:00 am.
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Show notes
When it comes to saying no, journalist and author Anna Holmes has form. Back in 2007, she founded feminist website Jezebel, which at the time was a big old flip of the bird to traditional women’s media, and went on to change the entire media landscape. In her new book, The Power of No: A Celebration, she turns ideas around a presumed negative (especially when uttered by a woman) on their head.
Jen chats to Anna about “no” as a complete sentence, why when it comes from a woman, the word is often understood as a provocation, and the many other ways in which society expects us to diminish ourselves.
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