This episode of The Standard Issue Podcast is sponsored by AJ Bell Money Matters,

helping women to feel good investing. No doubt you'll have heard us talk about the gender pay gap,

but did you note there's also a gender investment gap in the UK of £1.65 trillion.

So, after spending our whole working lives worse off the men through lack of pensions,

savings and investments, we're more likely to be worse off in retirement too. AJ Bell think

women need to talk more openly about money. It shouldn't be embarrassing or confusing and I agree.

The AJ Bell Money Matters campaign was founded in 2021 and offers a range of educational material,

including in-person events, podcasts, articles and more to help get women talking about money.

The AJ Bell Money Matters podcast has all the news, information and inspiring interviews you need

to take control of your financial future. Listen to it wherever you found this podcast. AJ Bell

Money Matters helping women to feel good investing.

Standard Issue for all women. Hello Hannah here and welcome to this week's Sunday Chops. It's our

last chops before our run of international women's day podcasts. I could for certain listed here for

you all and this is a way easier for both of us in fact. If you just press subscribe

wherever it is you listen to your podcasts, they'll just turn up and you can listen to them,

but what I can assure you is they're all great. And this last chops before International Women's Day

is also a cracker. I am talking to Francesca Specter who is the host of the podcast

Alonement. Her new book Alonement came out on Friday. You should definitely give it a read.

It is really interesting. In this interview we talk about being alone, be that physically or

emotionally. Why that gets such a bad rap in this country? Why Francesca is trying to change it?

We talk about lockdown in which living alone was really really hard but also not getting

in it to yourself which is something that lots of people also experienced. How that was really hard,

...