Makeup artist turned talent manager Lou Teasdale joins Tess to discuss make-up tutorials, social media, beauty brands and more.

Join Tess Ward each week for Season 2 of Down The Rabbit Hole! A podcast which burrows in on the weird, wonderful, spiritual, sexual and supernatural. Each week Tess will be joined by a fabulous guest to speak on a chosen subject through which they unravel everything from ideas, views, f*ck ups and personal hypocrisies.

In this episode the talented and wonderful Rebecca Newman: the Erotic Affairs Editor for GQ and I explore the super orgasm and all so many other different strands of sexual pleasure.

We talk about the way sex can open up vulnerability, create both disconnection, connection, something you do with someone you love, maybe someone you hate? It can be controversial, nihilistic, masochistic. In effect a form of communication. A synergy of two people working towards a common goal.

Reading List

-Better Sex Through Mindfulness: How Women Can Cultivate Desire. By Lori A Brotto : University of British Columbia

-Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life. by Emily Nagoski

-Article in VICE: Sex-Positive Parties Are Not the Same Thing As Sex Parties

-Berlin's nightlife scene

-"poly-motion" sex party in a clubs that are influenced by the anti-German scene

-sex positive parties, people mainly go there to party, not necessarily to specifically engage in a given sex act.

-Bad girls bible podcast : better sex through mindfulness with Lori A Brotto

-The guilty feminist Podcast - ep on ‘Nudity’

-OMG yes website :  which explores ‘The science of women’s pleasure’

This week, Tv Presenter Laura Whitmore and I discuss and disagree on the parameters of feminism, talk about female CEOS, delight over the bill against upskirting. I also share an ironic poem, which I hope you will enjoy

Reading List

Forbes: How 20-Year-Old Kylie Jenner Built A $900 Million Fortune In Less Than 3 Years

Feminasty by Erin Gibson

Simone de Beauvoir: The second sex. 

Jean paul sartre’s pupil

Simone de Beauvoir, wrote in the 40s a book that explores the treatment of women throughout history. The myths that define women in many cultures 

The abstract notion of the ‘ideal’

Was certainly controversial as she expressed some highly negative views on marriage, defends contraception and abortion and discusses the idea of women having younger lovers 

My Glamour column: 

Can you really objectify yourself on social media and then call yourself a feminist?

Tess is joined by actor Jack Brett Anderson, Jack has been involved in a wide range of theatre and film including ‘Edward II’ on Southbank, two roles in Tina Jay’s play ‘Held’ and con artist/thief Géry Pieret in National Geographic’s ‘Genius: Picasso’.

CONTENT WARNING: This episode includes references of rape and sexual assault.

In this episode award winning author and TV chef Gizzi Erskine and I discuss three reasons our food is killing us (or will soon) because of the way we create, sell and consume it.

It explores rising allergy rates, the obesity crisis, environmental damage and our own personal relationships with what we eat and why. Touching also upon some more personal notes such as body image, our outlook for the future and food elitism.

Reading List

• Meatonomics  - David Robinson Simon- About agribusiness and congress  - well intentioned federations try to do well in the US they can fail - its all a game of power. much of the meat in the US is government subsidised.

• FOOD RULES - Michael Pollen - This is an easy read, short, user friendly guide. Its 64 food rules and logical tips and advise on what to eat and what to avoid. E.g avoid foods with the OH sound. Doritos cheetos, wheetos,  tostitos

• Claude Lévi-Strauss : The Raw and the Cooked- was one of the first people to look into food and culture and our relationship with food. Its one of the original anthropological explorations into the way humans have marked their difference or excellence on the natural world, - since no animal cooks its food, but all human societies do  

• Guardian article : the future of food - discusses that by 2050 there will be another 2.5 billion people on the planet. How to feed them? Science's answer: a diet of algae, insects and meat grown in a lab

• TED talk : Mark bittman ’whats wrong with what we eat’ talks about the way we eat as global warming of another kind. After energy production livestock is the second highest contributor to atoms changing gases . more energy is used fr meat production than than transportation

Ever wondered what happens behind the scenes at Kim and Kanye's wedding... ? In this Episode I welcome celebrity photographer, WWF and Nikon ambassador Conor McDonnell to talk about life behind the lens and unpick many of the cultural ideologies around celebrities in the western world today

We look at the world of voyeurism, surveillance, selfies and celebrity culture, where a photograph says more than a thousand words. 

Cameras have been at the pinnacle of media, news and also art for little more than a century but yet its hard, now with the prevalence of iphones and digital click bait advertising to imagine a world without them. 

Reading/ Watch List

Helmut Newton

‘Any photographer who says he is not a voyeur is either stupid or a liar’

ID MAG : the cult of celebrity: how sinister is our obsession with fame?

the seeing and being seen

It explores the darker side to our fascination with celebrities , questioning whether it speaks more broadly of our own fears.

Adam Buxton Podcast : with Jon Ronson 

This is an episode where Spiritual and holistic expert Alex and I talk about the language of femlish and manish (the secret tongue unknown to the other sex), feminism, multitasking, topics of transgender, good and bad sex, and that fucking nightmare of why so bad at DIY? 

Recommended this week:

• Podcast : The Guilty Feminist
• High Low : Why we should be cautious of banning sounds & the Internet’s abuse against women
• The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine MD
• Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump by author Harry Hurt III
• In Defence of Adulterers By Zoë Heller TED: The left brain vs. right brain myth - Elizabeth Waters : TED ed

The amazingly talented, brilliant and scientific genius Tim Spector joins Tess to discuss gut health, fasting, faecal transplants and more.

He’s the youngest comedian ever to become a regular at The Comedy Store, Tom Lucy joins Tess to discuss weird shit including sociopaths and more.