If you're in the mood for a deep and meaningful then this is the podcast for you.
Every week, broadcaster and journalist Emma Gunavardhana has an intimate conversation with her guest about the risks they've taken, struggles they've had to overcome, successes they are proud of and much more before they tell us about a time when they were wrong, and what they learned from it.
Watch clips from the show on Youtube The Emma Guns Show
Follow Emma on Instagram @emmaguns
Join the podcast's Facebook group The Emma Guns Show | The Forum
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
If you're in the mood for a deep and meaningful then this is the podcast for you.
Every week, broadcaster and journalist Emma Gunavardhana has an intimate conversation with her guest about the risks they've taken, struggles they've had to overcome, successes they are proud of and much more before they tell us about a time when they were wrong, and what they learned from it.
Watch clips from the show on Youtube The Emma Guns Show
Follow Emma on Instagram @emmaguns
Join the podcast's Facebook group The Emma Guns Show | The Forum
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week, I’m diving into a fascinating piece of research I spotted in The Week; a meta-analysis of 82 studies from University College London looking at how physical activity affects menstrual pain and PMS. The findings are striking: women who move less have a 67% higher risk of painful periods and a 22% higher risk of PMS symptoms.
But this episode isn’t just about the data, it’s about how it intersects with real life. I’m sharing my own PCOS story, from being diagnosed at 17 and barely moving, to being 47, active, and experiencing far fewer symptoms. We’ll also unpack the confused (and sometimes misleading) world of cycle-syncing advice online, including what’s genuinely helpful and what’s been oversimplified by social media.
Plus, I’m talking about the growing role of GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy: where they can fit into women’s hormonal and metabolic health, and why it’s not a choice between medication or movement. For many women, the two work beautifully together.
Whether you experience period pain, PMS, PCOS, or you're simply curious about how movement and hormones overlap, this episode is all about giving you tools, not rules. Think of it as a realistic, compassionate look at women’s health, packed with evidence, lived experience, and nuance.
In this episode:
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Creatine isn’t just for gym bros and bodybuilders, it’s one of the most researched, safest, and most effective supplements for supporting strength, energy, and brain health.
In this episode, I break down a brand-new study that found women in perimenopause and menopause who took a small daily dose of creatine saw faster reaction times, better cholesterol levels, and even a 16% increase in brain creatine.
We’ll cover:
💪 Why creatine matters for women over forty
⚡ What ATP is, and how creatine helps your body make more of it
🧠 What the latest science says about brain and bone health
🥄 How much to take, which form works best, and when to use it
✅ My own four-year experience with daily creatine use (and what I’ve learned through The EC Method with Emma Storey-Gordon and Chloe Madeley)
Whether you’re in perimenopause, postmenopause, or simply want to age stronger, this is your guide to understanding one of the most underrated supplements out there.
🎧 Listen now, and discover why one small scoop could make a big difference.
This is the Creatine Monohydrate I take.
Mentioned in this episode:
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This week, I’m talking about food noise... That constant chatter about what, when, and how much to eat. The kind that has you circling the kitchen even when you’re not really hungry.
I share how a simple early dinner (yes, an enormous salad out of a mixing bowl) completely quieted the noise in my head, and what that moment taught me about feeding myself properly instead of fighting myself.
As someone in recovery from binge eating disorder, I also touch on how GLP-1 medications like Ozempic have changed the conversation around food noise, and what it’s like to re-learn peace around food without them.
It’s about nourishment, compassion, and remembering that healing isn’t linear, but it is possible.
🎧 Listen for:
✨ Follow & Connect:
Substack: The Emma Guns Show
Instagram: @emmaguns
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Have you noticed that success has started to look… uniform? The slick-back bun, the gold hoops, the structured blazer, and the calm, composed tone of someone who’s perfectly 'aligned'. In this week’s episode, I look at how ambition has become an aesthetic, how this new era of women is blending success with balance, and what that says about the pressures we still carry.
From the 1980s dream of 'having it all' to Gen Z’s obsession with boundaries and self-care, I explore whether this polished image of success serves us or simply hides the work still happening beneath the surface.
It’s not a critique as such, more a reflection on what success really looks like when we strip away the uniform.
🎧 Listen for:
✨ Follow & Connect:
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Recently, we talked about how wellness has become performative. How it was more about looking serene than actually feeling or being it.
This week, I’m taking that idea further. Because wellness isn’t just performative, I think it has become exclusive. It’s a club with an unspoken dress code, a price tag, and a very specific aesthetic.
From £300 yoga mats to Alo tracksuits and the sacred Stanley cup, the modern wellness world isn’t about health, it’s about belonging. We’ll talk about:
This isn’t a takedown of self-care, it’s a reality check on what wellness culture has become: a glossy performance that often leaves people out.
Maybe real wellness isn’t something you can buy, post, or prove.
Maybe it’s the small, unfiltered things that actually keep you human.
🎧 Listen now for a wry, honest look at the business, aesthetics, and quiet absurdities of modern wellness culture.
🌿 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/emmaguns/
📰 Substack https://emmaguns.substack.com/
🎧 Listen to past episodes https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-emma-guns-show/id1102982843
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Worry can be motivating. It can be a driving force that spurs you into motion but then worry can also bring you to a sudden and grinding halt. In this episode, I talk about what happens when worry tips from useful to paralysing, and how I’ve been learning to worry less and act more.
I explore:
A calm, honest reflection on overthinking, stillness, and quiet courage.
Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or read more on Substack: https://emmaguns.substack.com/
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This week, I did something I’ve never done before - I walked out of a sound bath halfway through. Then I went to a breathwork session that felt eerily like a cult. Both experiences made me realise how far modern wellness has drifted from its purpose.
In this episode, I unpack why so many wellness practices now feel performative rather than healing; more about being seen to be “working on yourself” than actually feeling better. I talk about the way movements like clean eating and body positivity started as genuine acts of self-care, only to be hijacked by branding, aesthetics, and algorithms.
What happens when wellness becomes performance? And what would it look like if no one could see it?
Connect with me:
🌿 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/emmaguns/
📰 Substack https://emmaguns.substack.com/
🎧 Listen to past episodes https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-emma-guns-show/id1102982843
Hey! Why not share your thoughts and insights to make your listening experience even better. Complete this listener survey to tell me what you want to hear: http://bit.ly/theemmagunsshow-survey
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On my last trip to San Francisco, something unexpected happened: I didn’t get jet lag. Normally, I’d spend the first few days wide awake at 3 a.m. and desperate for a nap by lunchtime — but this time, my body adjusted almost instantly.
In this episode, I share the two surprisingly simple things that made all the difference: moving my body and drinking chia seeds. We’ll talk about why exercise acts like a reset button for your internal clock, how chia seeds can keep you hydrated and regular while travelling, and the three “anchors” your body uses to sync with a new time zone — light, movement, and meals.
Plus, I share practical, easy-to-remember travel habits that genuinely make you feel human again:
Whether you’re crossing continents or just hopping time zones, this episode is your quick, no-nonsense guide to beating jet lag without expensive supplements or rigid routines.
Hey! Why not share your thoughts and insights to make your listening experience even better. Complete this listener survey to tell me what you want to hear: http://bit.ly/theemmagunsshow-survey
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Failure. We all fear it, but what if it isn’t the end? What if failure is the secret ingredient to resilience, confidence, and real personal growth?
In this episode of The Emma Guns Show, I explore why failure doesn’t have to derail you and how to use setbacks as stepping stones. Whether it’s in your career, relationships, or personal goals, learning how to fail well is the ultimate self-development tool.
Here’s what you’ll hear in this episode:
✨ This episode is for you if:
Failure isn’t fatal, it’s formative. And once you stop being felled by it, you’ll see that every setback carries the seed of progress.
Resources & Links:
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Polly Vernon has written the most incredible book and, if you are a woman, you should probably read it. Sooner rather than later. In this episode, Polly and I discuss the female body in all its weird, wonderful and miraculous ways and how getting to know it better is a wonderful journey on which to embark.
How the Female Body Works by Polly Vernon is available now.
Follow and subscribe to Polly over on Substack -- Broad with Polly Vernon.
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Of all the podcasts I’ve ever recorded, it’s this one with motivational speaker, celebrity therapist and pioneering hypnotherapist that has generated the most feedback from listeners saying ‘this conversation changed my life’.
Indeed, when I left Marisa’s house, I immediately bought all her books from my parked car and devoured all of them in a matter of days.
Marisa uses her various skills to help people become ‘unstuck’ from the patterns that cause stagnation, frustration and in action. And, while you might think this would involve deep work, some of her observations and techniques can be quick and easy to apply. It’s why her technique has been dubbed ‘rapid transformational therapy’.
At the core of her messaging is this idea of ‘being enough’ something which many of us don’t feel as has almost becoming a belief that we just aren’t good enough. Marisa explains how to untangle that untrue belief and move forward believing that you are not only enough but you are worthy.
This conversation was originally published in 2017.
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I'm reading two snippets from the internet to you today. One, from the brilliant Holly Tucker about podcasts and why she believes they are so strong as an audio-only medium and secondly something I read on Substack about how to properly relax. I'd love to hear your thoughts on both of these.
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It’s handy to look on the bright side of life, right? Who doesn’t love an optimist? But, what if by always looking for a fix or the silver lining, you’re actually invalidating perfectly reasonable and logical emotions.
More than that, what if being positive is actually making you toxic?
In this conversation with Whitney Goodman, the radically honest psychologist, we explore how always being hopeful or trying to be helpful can actually be confusing and dissatisfying.
It’s something we’ve seen creep into our vocabulary more and more with things like manifesting, but actually all this ‘looking on the bright side’ can make you vulnerable to failures and make you wonder what you’re doing wrong.
Fear not though, in this conversation, we explore some valuable tools to help you eradicate toxic positivity, the ways in which you can be helpful and constructive and why a little negativity isn’t actually a bad thing…
This conversation with originally published in 2022.
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Sure, I may be a little late to the party on this one but when Rylan Clark spoke about immigration on This Morning, why did no one in government use the opportunity to state facts and finally put to bed some of the falsehoods and misconceptions around asylum seekers and immigration? I'd love to hear your views on this.
Also, why are women so judgemental about what other women eat? And I'm being specific here because it's a women-on-woman crime...
This is brilliant feature Polly Vernon wrote on the subject that you may find interesting.
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Raphael Rowe has every right to be the most bitter man in Britain. Convicted for a crime he didn’t commit, despite eye-witness evidence that couldn’t have possibly put him near the scene of the crime, Raphael spent 12 years in prison with no hope of parole.
While his story is jaw-dropping, it’s actually Raphael’s resolve, how he maintained hope and how he has been able to make peace with what happened to him and more forward positively.
If you listen to our conversation, you can’t hear an ounce of hate, regret or bitterness in his voice and I wonder if I’d be able to be the same if I had walked in his shoes. Could you?
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You could be fooled into thinking Keeley Hazell’s memoir, Everyone’s Seen My Tits, would be a nostalgic romp through the Noughties, featuring salacious gossip and saucy behind-the-scenes insights from a time when the Red Tops - the tabloid newspapers - loomed large.
What you actually get is a soul-bearing account of what it was like to grow up in a tough environment, both behind closed doors and on the streets of South East London, navigating revenge porn before people really knew was revenge porn was and what it was like to have the world open up to you in ways you could have never imagined only for the way you’d made that happen be the reason that all the doors you wanted to open, seemed firmly locked to you.
As soon as I started reading Keeley’s book, I found it a challenge to put it down. I was hooked. I was stunned by the honesty and, more than once, was waiting for the bit at the end of the chapter where she either apologised for her feelings or somehow minimised them to make her real feelings more palatable for an audience. Spoiler alert - that moment never came.
And it was this that made me admire her and enjoy the book even more. She welcomed me, the reader, into her circle of trust.
So, I couldn’t wait to interview her and, as you’ll hear, she’s as unedited and unreserved in person as she is in the book.
Buy Keeley's book here: Everyone's Seen My Tits.
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I recently stopped watching TV in the mornings, and it surprised me how much calmer and more spacious my day felt. It made me realise how many little habits quietly drain our time and attention, often without us noticing. In this episode, I’m exploring the hidden ways our hours get pinched, and sharing small, gentle swaps that can help us feel like the day belongs a little more to us.
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The world feels pretty divided right now, doesn’t it? I’m convinced the mere fact so many people feel comfortable listening to music without headphones on public transport is a sign of the apocalypse.
When it can often feel as though we’re surrounded by conflict, injustice and hatred, we are all people who fundamentally want the same things. That’s what Anjali Kumar discovered when she went on a search to find God. In her book Stalking God: My Unorthodox Search for Something to Believe In, she stumbled across something truly fascinating about what human beings want, need and desire.
How she came about this was, as you’ll hear in our conversation, a happy accident but it was the beginning of a truly inspiring journey.
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On a global scale, we can probably all identify that people such as Donald Trump and Meghan Markle polarise opinion to such an extent that they are the subject of millions of social media posts, podcasts, Youtube videos and media column inches.
But what about your regular local emotional vampire? The friend, colleague, neighbour, acquaintance who somehow manages to occupy your thoughts, always be front of mind and somehow manipulate you without being anywhere near you.
In this episode, I ask if someone is living rent-free in your head. (Quite possibly) Plus, how you can break their spell and focus on the people who deserve your mental, emotional and physical attention.
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Recently, I’ve had a few of those awful dark nights of the soul. The ones where you can’t sleep because your brain is on that setting where it’s showing you all the mistakes you’ve made, all the things you did and are doing wrong and all the ways in which you are screwing up. Spoiler alert - your thoughts are not facts.
However, that’s not to say that life’s experiences don’t all add up to series of lessons and while it can be unpleasant to revisit the parts of yourself riddled with error, that can often be where you find the really helpful, enlightening and magical stuff.
I was on the brink of being drowned by my negative thoughts when I remembered my conversation with Daniel Pink. You may have heard him on one of the many huge podcasts lately, but back in 2022, Daniel and I unpicked the many ways in which regret leads to growth. It was a helpful conversation then and I believe it is just as helpful now.
Don’t fear regret, embrace it. It might be an unconventional view, but it sure beats staring at the ceiling at 2am feeling rubbish about yourself…
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