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 womenâs magazines to find out what's still hot, and what's definitely not.
â¨As featured in â¨
Podcast Episodes
Travel back in time to check out your favourite title!
Minx, November 1996
Are you MAD FOR IT?? This week, the Mag Hags are in 1996, scaling Peak Britpop and working their way through a magazine determined to prove that women can objectify men too. Sex by the inch! Tastiest man in the world stripped bare!! In entirely coincidental timing, the Mag Hags meet some real...
Sidebar: Tough love
Embarrassed to go to the doctor? Cheating on your boyfriend with another man? Worried you might be a nympho? Put your Big Girl pants on, weâre diving into the world of magazine problem pages. Welcome to Mag Hags âSidebarâ where we talk about the stuff we couldnât fit into the main episode. Or else ...
Over 21, March 1974
Itâs March 1974 aka the last moment in history before anyone had heard of ABBA! Striking coal miners have brought down a Conservative government and the UK is gripped by its first post-war recession⌠but the Mag Hags are boldly wading in, armed with a copy of Over 21 magazine. This week, we come to...
Sidebar: Magazine lingo cheat sheet
Do you know your masthead from your standfirst? Could you make a pull quote out of a vox pop? And what, oh what, is a slug? Welcome to Mag Hags âSidebarâ where we talk about the stuff we couldnât fit into the main episode. Or else go off on a mad tangent about something thatâs sparked our int...
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. âThis would make a great podcast,â 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
![I think the word youâre looking for, ladies, is PHWOARRR!
Weâre back in the 90s this week on Mag Hags and if thereâs one lesson we learnt from this decade itâs that women can objectify men too.
I mean... if they want to. No pressure. But, you know... feel free. [Iâm now holding my breath to see if this post stays up on IG!]
đ§ Minx, November 1996 - out now! Go listen! đ§
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