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From school dinners to sofa snacks – food has a huge part to play in shaping our story – and your favourite celebs have some delicious tales to tell. Join Guardian food critic and her celebrity guests, as she throws the cupboard doors open and chats life through food. Grace’s new Comfort Eating book, inspired by the podcast, is out now. It’s a wonderfully scrumptious, life-affirming journey through the foods that really mean the most to us. On the podcast, expect to hear from guests (actors ...
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The Golden Point Podcast

Golden Point Productions

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Weekly Sport and Pop culture podcast presented by Jackson Cassidy and featuring many guests along the way. Listen in for a light-hearted and possibly educational take on many sports and topics in the world around us.
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DNA Surprises

Alexis Hourselt

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Welcome to DNA Surprises, a podcast that delves into the world of unexpected DNA discoveries. I'm your host, Alexis Hourselt. In July 2021, my life took a surprising turn when I found out I'm an NPE—a person who's experienced a non-paternal event. In other words, my biological father isn’t who I thought he was. Join me as we explore the stories of NPEs, adoptees, and donor-conceived people and their families. Get ready to unravel the astonishing journeys that begin with a simple DNA test —th ...
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Mango: Dead Serious is an action-packed feature-length audio drama written, produced, directed, edited and sound designed by Ben Conley. Storyline: After saving virologist Dr. Charlotte Fox from a vicious attack in the mountains outside Los Angeles, a mine-dwelling recluse named Mango learns a virus has swept the globe causing a worldwide zombie outbreak. In order to continue her work on the vaccine, Dr. Fox must find her uncle whose last known whereabouts were 100 miles away in Joshua Tree. ...
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Hello I’m Sophie Ellis-Bextor and this is my new series Spinning Plates where I speak to busy working women, who also happen to be mothers, about how they make it work. I am a singer and have released 7 albums in-between having my 5 sons who are aged between 1 and 16 so I spin a few plates myself. Being a mother can be the most amazing thing.. but it can also be hard to find time for yourself and your own ambitions. I want to be a bit nosy and see how other people balance everything. Join me ...
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If you never met me or got to hear my story, most people would just assume that I’m the typical grown version of the white girl next door, all though, I may look the part and yes, I defiantly live a pretty boring life as a mother of two, with a husband and family dog, I have secrets and shame that have held me down for far too long. Real Life Shhh is about reclaiming our light, power, and WORTH! Some say, that I’ve been through hell and back, I say, I’ve just walked through many voids that h ...
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During this bonus episode of DNA Surprises, I interview advanced yoga teacher Lanita Ugstad. Lanita will facilitate a gentle movement session at the DNA Surprise Retreat, September 19-22, 2024 in Phoenix, AZ. We discuss how yoga is beneficial for people who have experienced trauma, and what it means to facilitate a session through a trauma lens. La…
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Did you grow up feeling different from your family? That feeling of being inexplicably out of place haunts many people in the DNA surprise community throughout childhood and adulthood - before they uncover the truth. In this week’s episode, Sarah shares how while she always felt different from her family - she was more sensitive and had a different…
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Katherine Ryan joins Grace this week to share her favourite comfort foods. The Canadian comedian, writer, presenter and actor is best known for her deliciously wicked comedy, delivered with a side dish of couture. Katherine shares memories from her past, including her father’s attempts to bring Indian food to Canada via Ireland, her difficult early…
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In this bonus episode of DNA Surprises, I speak with therapist Venessa De La Cruz about betrayal trauma. Venessa will facilitate a session on Betrayal Trauma at the DNA Surprise Retreat, September 19-22 in Phoenix, AZ. She defines what betrayal trauma is and how things like DNA surprises can manifest for us both physically and mentally. We also div…
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So many DNA surprises start with a gift. Mothers Day. Fathers Day. Prime Day. Christmas. Almost every month, consumer DNA testing companies offer deals encouraging people to give a DNA test as a present. If you’re listening to this podcast, you know how this sometimes turns out. In this week's episode, Shannon shares how after receiving a DNA test …
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Kirsten Lane is a freelance music supervisor who negotiates the deals that make it possible to put music into films, TV and adverts. She was the music supervisor for Saltburn and so that is how we met. She is now part of Murder on the Dancefloor’s journey and helped make its inclusion in the film’s soundtrack possible, naked dance and all! We talke…
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This special episode of DNA Surprises features Megan Irwin, a licensed therapist specializing in grief, loss, trauma, and PTSD. Megan will facilitate a session on parts work at the 2024 DNA Surprise Retreat, September 19-22 in Phoenix, AZ. During our discussion, we covered what parts work is (and isn’t) and why people typically think of it in terms…
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Race. Ethnicity. Heritage. These are complex topics without the added nuance of a DNA surprise. Author Janeen Jackson grew up with two younger brothers and her parents in an African American household. In this week’s episode, she shares how, through a DNA test, she not only learned that she is adopted, but that her biological father is a white man.…
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Anne Twist is a first time writer and a long-term philanthropist who has two very succesful grown up children. Her eldest is podcaster and writer Gemma Styles, and her youngest is the singer, Harry Styles. I spoke to Anne, not long after she’d become a grandmother for the first time, which sounds like a very special feeling indeed. She’d also just …
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If there is one thing I hope we can all agree on, it’s that families come in all shapes and sizes. Many people with DNA surprises end up with two, three, or more fathers and just as many mothers, too. When Steve experienced his DNA surprise, he already had two men in his life that he called “Dad.” After he learned the truth about who his biological…
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Rachel Jackson is a jewellery designer whose work I particularly love. We even collaborated with on a necklace design once. She discovered her passion for her career while solo travelling in South America where she made a good friend Ali in Brazil and then spent 2 months living with his mum Cinderela (yes that really was her name!) who taught her h…
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Most of the time, when I speak to people on the podcast, we learn that the reason they took the test was out of curiosity or for fun. Maybe they were given the DNA test as a gift from a friend or significant other. So imagine my surprise when I learned that this week’s guest was given her Ancestry DNA kit by her mother. Welcome to Season 8 of DNA S…
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Natalie Cassidy is familiar to us all from EastEnders where she's been playing Sonia since the age of 10! When we met she told me about her love of growing up on a TV set, where age meant nothing and her best friend was June Brown, who was 50 years older than her! Natalie is a mum of two daughters, Eliza and Joanie. My heart melted when she describ…
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Bat For Lashes aka Natasha Khan is a singer, songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist and a mum to a three year old. She has just brought out her 6th album and this one is inspired by the birth of her daughter and is called The Dream of Delphi. She was pregnant in LA during Covid and the album recalls how she reconnected with nature during that …
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Vicky Gill is the Wardrobe Lead for Strictly Come Dancing, amongst many other things! We first met when I appeared on the show in 2013. She is passionate about merging fashion and performance. I can vouch for the fact that she is supremely talented at making costumes that people can dance in - and her sparkly leotards are still part of my onstage e…
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Michelle Ogundehin is best known as the head judge of Interior Designs Masterclass on BBC 1. It’s a programme I am utterly addicted to, and I was therefore delighted to have been asked to join as a guest judge for semi finals week, this week (TX 23/4/24). I have been a fan of Michelle’s expert eye when it comes to interiors for a long time, having …
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Joining Grace this week is the multi-talented actor, comedian and rapper, Kiell Smith-Bynoe. Long before becoming a household name as the exasperated boyfriend in the hit series Ghosts, Kiell (AKA MC Klayze Flaymz) tells Grace how, as a teenager, he combined his performance skills in the ultimate London arena: the chicken shop. With the taste of su…
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Heather James is best known to us all as the mum of Deborah James, the beautiful bowelbabe, who I interviewed for Spinning Plates 3 years ago. That was the year before her premature death at the age of 40, from bowel cancer. Heather explained how she is grieving but working. Not only working in her day job as a gymnastics teacher, but also doing ev…
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Welsh standup, podcast host and panel show queen, Kiri Pritchard-McLean, brings her finest bowl of scran to Grace’s house. Over this steaming ultra-value concoction, she reveals how her upbringing on a Welsh sheep farm led to a hankering for performance, humour and cheap noodles. Cutting her teeth on the Manchester comedy circuit and finding solace…
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Natasha Bedingfield is a New Zealand-UK singer and songwriter who started out in the business at a similar time to me. Another shared link is that we are both currently on a new adventure with songs we brought out originally in our early 20s! How's that for a coincidence? We've each been on an unexpected and exciting journey with our old songs... b…
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Comfort Eating’s culinary standards might have been permanently raised after two-Michelin-star chef Tom Kerridge’s visit. But he’s not exactly one to show off. Growing up in Gloucester, Tom always wanted to recreate the homely meals he’d find at his local pub or at his mum’s on Sundays. With a brief detour on to the acting stage, Tom started his ca…
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There is never a good time to discover that the man you’ve called “Dad” for your entire life isn’t biologically related to you, but I imagine that having this realization as he lays in a hospital bed, dying, must be among the worst. In the season 7 finale of DNA Surprises, Dana Schmalenberg shares how she uncovered the truth that both of her parent…
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Platinum-selling singer songwriter Cat Burns cosies up with Grace for a warm plate of nosh and some deep chats. The biggest-selling British female artist of 2022, who won three Brit award nominations after her single Go went viral on TikTok, reveals how she went from shy schoolgirl to stadium gigs in just a few years. While Covid put an end to busk…
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How do you define family? For so many of us, DNA surprises have made us reflect deeply on this question. For Wyatt, Cassidy, Cody, and Angela, the answer is different depending on who you ask. Twenty-plus years ago when Wyatt, Cassidy, and Cody were born, fertility clinics didn’t advocate for disclosure. So when their mother and father asked Angela…
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Sliding into Grace’s sitting room this week is rising star and multitalented comedian, playwright and musical theatre creator, Daniel Foxx. Bringing his concoction of gunk meant only for solo consumption in the small hours, there’s nowhere left to hide. Buckle up and join Grace and Daniel as they go on a tour of the ins and outs of life in the fast…
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Many of us who have had DNA surprises spend some time wondering “What if?” What if we’d been raised in a different house, with our newly discovered biological parent? What if we’d known the truth from the beginning? What would our lives look like now? Would they be better? Or…would they be worse? In this week’s episode, Lisa shares how she uncovere…
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It’s tough presenting BBC radio’s top morning news programme, hosting the nation’s brainiest quiz show and being a devoted dad to four young children. But someone’s got to do it. And that person is none other than the broadcaster Amol Rajan. Having risen through the ranks of the Independent newspaper to be its youngest editor at the age of 29 and n…
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Picture this: you grow up with a sibling who is convinced they are not your dad’s biological child. No one knows about DNA surprises or NPEs or anything like that, but they just know their dad isn't THEIR dad. Years later, after commercial DNA testing becomes commonplace, you offer them some peace of mind. All of your siblings take a test to prove,…
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Dropping by this week for a spot of comfort eating is the legendary glamour model turned reality TV star, Katie Price. One of the most photographed and filmed women of our times, splashed across page 3 and lads mags as Jordan 30 years ago, then in six of her own TV series, multiple documentaries and reality shows, everyone thinks they know her. But…
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This week, the world learned of the sad passing of a true British icon, TV cook and hairy biker, Dave Myers. To celebrate his life, we wanted to bring you this episode from January 2022 where Dave tells Grace about – ironically – losing all his hair aged eight, his years as a makeup artist, working in the steelyards of Barrow-in-Furness, and the co…
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Secrets. Secrets are often at the beginning of a DNA surprise. But after the surprise is uncovered, is that the end of them? In this week’s episode, Ryan shares how on one fateful Thanksgiving, his mother confessed the truth about his paternity. When he spoke to his birth certificate father and his biological father, they both requested that he con…
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One of the UK’s most loved and versatile actors, Kathy Burke, lands in Grace’s sitting room this week. Transitioning from punk teenager, to award-winning actor and then taking on comedy, Kathy has loved almost all of it. She talks to Grace about her career highlights and when her personal life sometimes got in the way, recounting the food that got …
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Toni Nagy is an influencer, content creator, actress, director, screenplay writer, comedian, founder of Cavelight Productions and owner of Side Stream Studio, a creative movement and event space in Vermont. Toni shares her message of creative angles and approaches to serious topics with dance, shaking and comedy as her vehicle in a successful attem…
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Something that I’ve heard more than once on this podcast is a situation that goes something like this: people are having an argument. A mother and child. A husband and wife. Both parents with their child, or some other combination. And then, in the heat of the moment, someone reveals the truth. So and so isn’t your real dad anyway. And then, just a…
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Model-turned-standup Michelle De Swarte knows how to make an entrance. And arriving at Grace’s with her eat-it-or-climb-it comfort snack of choice, she doesn’t disappoint. For the woman who left school at 14, signed as a model at 19, fell on the Gucci catwalk a month later, modelled for years in New York afterwards and then changed tack to become a…
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Tina grew up believing that her biological father didn’t want to be part of her life. Imagine her shock when, after taking a DNA test, she found out that her biological father is someone else altogether. In this week’s episode, Tina shares how she found her biological father and then quickly lost him. She also reveals her family history of NPEs, in…
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Pulling up a pew at Grace’s house to launch a new season of Comfort Eating is the legendary comedian and author, David Baddiel. With a career spanning 40 years on TV, stage and radio, not to mention coining anthemic football songs and writing multiple bestselling books for adults and children, David has a unique place in our nation’s popular cultur…
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Trinny Woodall is the CEO of the beauty brand Trinny London - she's an entrepreneur, businesswoman and author. She became a household name in the late 90s when she teamed up with Susannah Constantine to present the TV makeover show What Not to Wear. Last year she published her book Fearless about how to find your style and boost your confidence. Sh…
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It can seem like a scary world we live in today, with endless exposure to the media who drives fear down our throats with stories on violence, murders, disease, war, financial crisis, and so and so on, yes, the world can indeed be a scary place to live in, possibly causing you to live in a constant state of fear or anxiety… In this episode of Real …
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The thing about DNA Surprises is that they can happen to anyone. It doesn’t matter your race, socioeconomic status, politics, or background. In this week’s episode, my guest, author Robin Schepper, shares her DNA surprise story. For more than thirty years, Robin served at the highest levels of American politics and government. including on four pre…
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Michelle Kennedy is a tech entrepreneur and businesswoman. She is CEO of Peanut App, and mum to two young children, Finlay and Nuala. Michelle started her working life as a corporate lawyer and became interested in tech when she worked for Badoo and then Bumble. She set up Peanut after she gave birth to her first child and felt lonely and isolated.…
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Mango: Dead Serious is an action-packed feature-length audio drama written, produced, directed, edited and sound designed by Ben Conley. Storyline: After saving virologist Dr. Charlotte Fox from a vicious attack in the mountains outside Los Angeles, a mine-dwelling recluse named Mango learns a virus has swept the globe causing a worldwide zombie ou…
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After the holidays I admit that it took me a good 3 weeks of recovery in order to find my rhythm again, during the last week of December and 1st 2 weeks of January I struggled with feelings of disappointment, victimhood, depression and even anger. I actually felt all the other feelings of the spectrum as well leaving me quite tired and confused abo…
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Imagine being 16 and witnessing your parents’ divorce. Imagine finding out at this time that the man who raised you is not your biological father. After finding your biological father and failing to connect, you go through the next three decades just living your life. You have a child. You get married. You get divorced. And then you take a DNA test…
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