Unstable but not unfriendly (with Zac Goldsmith)
Off Air with Jane & Fi
The Times
4.6 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 11 February 2026
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This podcast is the living embodiment of managing your expectations - please keep them low… at all times. In today’s episode, Jane and Fi chat piles, the questionable nature of freestanding baths, the danger of paving stones, the similarities between CoolCat and Kim Jong Un, and estate agent jargon… Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
Plus, Zac Goldsmith, sculptor and former Tory minister, discusses his latest collection.
Our next book club pick is 'A Town Like Alice' by Nevil Shute.
Our most asked about book is called 'The Later Years' by Peter Thornton.
You can listen to our 'I'm in the cupboard on Christmas' playlist here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1awQioX5y4fxhTAK8ZPhwQ
If you want to contact the show to ask a question and get involved in the conversation then please email us: janeandfi@times.radio
Follow us on Instagram! @janeandfi
Podcast Producers: Eve Salusbury
Executive Producer: Rosie Cutler
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Can you hear yourself? |
| 0:09.1 | Yes, thank you. |
| 0:10.1 | Oh, thank you. Jane's already been called unstable today by Eve. |
| 0:16.4 | She said, to quote her, you're not the most stable. |
| 0:19.4 | I meant on your feet. She came in quick with her, had she? But I'm not sure. I don't know, Jane. I'm not sure. Jane falls over in the office quite a great. I trip over things. It's not my fault. I've always been a bit prone to accidents. Though fortunately for me, and it is fortunate, never anything remotely serious. Shouldn't have said that? Shouldn't have said it? Don't say it. Don't say it. We've got a family member who literally can just be walking down the street and suddenly she's not there anymore. She's got, what's happened there? It's like, go right, well, just get back up, it's fine. |
| 1:12.5 | There wasn't a crack pavement. There wasn't anything. What? What happened? Paving stones are, you know. Oh, paving stones. They can really, they can. Yeah, well, they can. At the moment, because there's so much rain around. The wobbly ones, you know, you tread on the first bit, and this roosh of water just comes up and hits you as it tips over. |
| 1:12.4 | We haven't actually mentioned that at the moment, well, actually I'm looking out, |
| 1:15.9 | oh no, it looks like it could rain at any moment. |
| 1:18.2 | It just hasn't stopped raining in England for what seems like months. |
| 1:23.1 | Well, I think there's a village in Cornwall, isn't that? |
| 1:25.5 | And the whole of Aberdeenshire, which has had 46 days of rain on the trot. |
| 1:30.7 | Okay. |
| 1:32.6 | I did look and Sunday in London, a Saturday in London is really bright and sunny. |
| 1:37.4 | But that's it then, and then there's another week of rain. |
| 1:39.4 | Well, go outside. |
| 1:40.4 | I will. |
| 1:41.1 | Sit with your face tipped to the sunshine. Soaking up the vitamin D. Soak up your vitamin D. |
| 1:46.3 | Yeah, absolutely. But the poor little crocuses and the snowdrops and the little daffs, they struggled to get through and they're just all sitting in great big puddles of water in London's parks, aren't they? |
| 1:56.9 | I know this is probably a terrible challenge to farmers, but won't this mean that when spring does finally come in this part of the country, |
| 2:04.1 | wherever it comes, it will come everywhere, I hope. |
| 2:06.5 | It will be glorious because of all the rain. |
| 2:08.9 | I don't know, because I was listening to a report yesterday |
... |
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