Mag Hags

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 “Sidebar” where we talk about the stuff we couldn’t fit into the main episode. Or else go off on a mad tangent about something that’s sparked our int...

The Mag Hags are back! It’s July 1987 - aka Lucy’s birth month - and to kick off the new season she’s leading a voyage of “style with content” to Elle magazine! The contradictions of the late 80s are writ large: we’ve got innovation and progress (portable CD players!! Iced coffee!!!) alongside depr...

Mag Hags is back! We've got smashing financial advice, explosive relationship drama, and the latest shoulder pad discourse. If you love magazines, 20th century pop culture, and questionable life advice, then join us every week to find out what’s still hot, and what’s definitely not. First episode d...

It’s the end of season one! And what better note to end on than right back where we started: with the OG of having it all, Cosmopolitan. It’s October 1992 and Lucy is at the helm as the Mag Hags navigate post-Thatcher pre-Loaded gender politics to explore the timeless editorial territory of: has fe...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Welcome to Guess The Meat with Lucy and Franki! ... Only joking! That would be insane.  This episode, Franki is taking the Mag Hags deeper into the archives than they have gone before… to Woman’s Own, November 1972. A relic of the mid-century suburban housewife, this mag is serving up hobby ho...

Dig out your Union Jack tea-towel dresses, girls! This time, Lucy is leading the way through a magazine that’s channeling all the Girl-Powered benign anarchy of Spice World: The Movie. It’s New Woman, September 1997.  There’s a ‘how-to’ for spying on your boyfriend, bafflingly horny ads and – ...