Mag Hags
The culture and history podcast that every modern woman should know.
Join Franki and Lucy as they dive into the glossy archives of women’s magazines to find out what's still hot, and what's definitely not.
Podcast Episodes
Travel back in time to check out your favourite title!
19, June 1986
Kicking off the new year with a bang, the Mag Hags are manifesting the season they want… with a June magazine issue. Franki is taking us back to the 80s to 19 magazine – a sister title to Honey that’s ticking all the women’s mag tropes. Directive diet features! Reductive psychology quizzes! &n...
Company, December 1979
Burn your bras, lads: we’re back in the 70s this week – only this time the magazine under the spotlight *has* caught up with the decade’s radical social progress. Lucy is leading the way through a tour of Cosmo’s little sister mag: the recently launched Company. There’s a report into how technology...
Marie Claire, May 1998
Gather round, high-flying spinsters! The Good Friday Agreement has been signed, the US president is definitely *not* having sexual relations with that woman, and we are hitting New Labour's economic zenith : it’s 1998 and the Mag Hags are reading Marie Claire. Franki is in the driving seat as...
Tatler, December 1980
Grab your Barbour and don your wellies – it’s time for Tatler! Lucy is taking the Mag Hags back to Tina Brown’s formative career years and a festive issue of the high society bible. Here, Franki and Lucy learn some valuable lessons in how to *really* show off one’s status and discuss the Brit...
Who We Are
Journalists, magazine readers, and IRL mates
CO-HOST
Lucy Douglas
Lucy is an award-winning editor. Before moving into the less-sexy-but-better-paid world of brand content, she wrote for the likes of The Guardian and The Telegraph, and edited indy magazines including Positive News.
She came up with the idea for Mag Hags while brainstorming with Franki for an upcoming job interview. One of the tasks the recruiters had set was to suggest features for the forthcoming 50 year anniversary edition of the publication. As they went through the archives, looking for ideas, they were gripped by the stories they encountered, by turns fascinating, twee, hilarious, and problematic. “This would make a great podcast,” she said. Three years later, Mag Hags was born.
Like many Millennial women, Lucy can trace her love of glossy mags back to poring over the problem pages of Sugar and Just 17 in the mid-90s. Graduating to titles such as New Woman and Cosmopolitan, her passion took hold and from then on, she knew was going to work in journalism. 
CO-HOST
Franki Cookney
Franki has been a reporter and features writer for over 15 years, writing for The Guardian, The Mirror, The Independent, The Sun, Cosmopolitan, The Sunday Times, Forbes, WIRED, and many more.
She got the podcasting bug in 2016, making her first show at her kitchen table, and hasn't looked back. In 2019 an episode of her sex and relationships podcast The Second Circle was shortlisted for an MJA Award. In 2021 she successfully crowdfunded a limited documentary series, which allowed her to outsource the editing to focus on reporting, writing and hosting. With Mag Hags she's excited to be back in the audio production seat again.
From being inspired by the investigative reporting in Marie Claire, to obsessing over the sex tips in More (and eventually going on to write a fair few sex tips herself), magazines have played a huge role in Franki's life. While she may have moved on from free lip gloss and hair mascara, she still enjoys the occasional DIY face mask.We're On Instagram
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Or maybe you just want to share your magazine memories with us.
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