“Why are we always rushing?” Slowing down by writing by hand and lying in

There’s probably a bit too much pressure on reaching a definitive state of happiness isn’t there? It’s not realistic gang! So Fearne’s dropping into your feed every week for some candid chat about what’s making her feel great, and what’s making her feel completely rubbish ...and this episode is brought to you by new original Paramount Plus show The Madison. This is the cosy little corner where all of us can explore what’s been on our minds, what’s been getting us down, inspiring us, and making us laugh. Want to join the chat? Send us a voicenote, DM, or comment on Instagram @happyplaceofficial! In this chat, Fearne covers: -The joy of having a great TV series on the go -Dreaming of escaping to a hazy golden farm in Montana -The small but delicious joy of beautiful stationary -The frustration of waking up too early at the weekend -The debate about whether to feed foxes or not -How to toilet train kittens -The madness of how much we all rush through the day -BTS of some of the roles on Team Happy Place Episodes 1-3 of The Madison are available to stream now on Paramount Plus. Episodes 4-6 will be available to stream on 21 March. Child on the line is a three-part documentary podcast series celebrating the Volunteer Counsellors of Childline, and the brave children & young people who contact the helpline service. Listen here: https://www.childonthelinepodcast.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Hi, I'm Natalie Dormer and I'm proud to be an ambassador for Childline. This year, Childline turns 40. To mark it, I've made Child on the Line, a three-part documentary podcast. We hear why children needed a helpline in 1986, how it was built against the odds and the challenges children face today, from abuse and mental health to social media and AI. Search Child on the Line and listen wherever you get your podcasts.

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• 1:00Fearne Cotton?

  Hello, this is Susie Ruffel.

• 1:01Speaker 03

  And Maisie Adam.

• 1:02Fearne Cotton?

  And together we host Big Kick Energy. Hey Mais, what is it?

• 1:05Speaker 03

  Only the best podcast ever.

• 1:07Fearne Cotton?

  Yes!

• 1:07Speaker 03

  A comedy, entertainment podcast with a focus on all things women's football, all things hilarious, all things friendship. It's a laugh is what it is, Ruffel.

• 1:17Fearne Cotton?

  Yeah, and a fair bit of gossiping too.

• 1:19Speaker 03

  Oh, and a lovely bit of gossip. Chow down on the gossip.

• 1:21Fearne Cotton?

  Nom, nom, nom, nom, nom. You can listen wherever you get your podcasts, just need to search Big Kick Energy.

• 1:27Speaker 03

  Grab a knife and fork and tuck in, baby.

• 1:33Fearne Cotton?

  I'm not quite out of hibernation yet. I'm still kind of like a little baby mole appearing from their hole. So one day, when I'm old and irrelevant, I can look back and go, oh, look, I interviewed Alicia Keys and Hillary Clinton. And I just kept thinking through the first three episodes, how do I get time off so I can just go to a cabin in Montana and roll in the hay? Why are we always rushing? We need a day where we don't rush. Can we all promise that we're going to do that soon? Have an anti-rush day. They dine at his back door and then shit on my doorstep. Bloody pissing me off, that is. Hello guys, it's Fern Cotton here. Welcome to Happy Place. I hope that you're all doing okay.

• 2:15Fearne Cotton?

  Once again, I'm here with a list of things that are making me and team Happy Place feel happy and good and boosted and buzzed. And also, we're chatting about what we're putting in the bin, what can piss right off. And this episode of Happy Place is brought to you by Paramount Plus's brand new show, The Madison. Now, this is heavily going in to my making me feel very happy boxes. This show is exactly what I needed. I had a really shit Saturday last weekend for various reasons. I was just feeling down in the dumps and I just needed a bit of a pick-me-up and I watched the,

• 2:56Fearne Cotton?

  I binged the first three episodes of The Madison and it was exactly what I needed. Let me run through why I love this show. First of all, Michelle Pfeiffer is queen. She is so fantastic in this TV show alongside Kurt Russell, who plays her husband. And it's an actual really heavy female-led cast because I don't want to give anything away. What can I say? Kurt Russell is in and out of the show in moments, but it's mainly a female-heavy cast. And it's just a bevy of brilliant women, incredible actors, in the most stunning scenery. You've either got like

• 3:35Fearne Cotton?

  inner city in New York, sort of like high-end gorgeous New York, or Montana with these sweeping mountains and lakes. And that was the bit that really soothed my soul. There's these moments in the show, for various reasons I don't want to give away, where the whole of Michelle Pfeiffer's family are flung together in Montana. And there's obviously cowboys and horses and this scenery, and they're living quite sparsely in this cabin. And I just kept thinking through the first three episodes, I want to be there. How do I? Get time off so I can just go to a cabin in Montana and walk around with that amazing scenery

• 4:19Fearne Cotton?

  and roll in the hay and watch the sun setting with that huge 180 sky. Something so soothing about it and also the music accompanying a lot of those big sweeping shots of that scenery. It was so comforting to watch. There's a little bit of romance that I've just caught on episode three and I just loved it and I'm desperate to watch the other episodes. I wanted more desperately. I watched all three without a break. I don't think I even got up to go for a wee. It's just perfect cosy night in TV, which I am so here for. I'm not quite out of hibernation

• 4:58Fearne Cotton?

  yet. I'm still kind of like a little baby mole appearing from their hole over winter to squint into the bright lights of spring. So more good TV. If you've got any good TV suggestions, send them my way. But mine to you is the Madison. You have to watch it. It is brilliant. There's some real excellent moments of sport behaviour and entitlement being called out, which is very fun too. And some like proper fighting scenes. Oh my God, you're just gonna love it. You've got to, got to watch it. Let's have a look at what is making Team Happy Place feel happy. First two, lovely Lana. Lovely Lana. Lana's job is hard to describe. I would sort of say, this might even be a bit

• 5:41Fearne Cotton?

  reductive, sort of looking at what she does, but I would say she's the Happy Place coordinator. She makes everything happen. I have a wacky idea, she's on to it the next day. Working out what's happening with the podcast, the festival, pulling all the teams together, the marketplace. Lana is your lady. She's amazing. What's making Lana happy? Unsurprisingly, because she's the most organised human on the planet, great stationery and notebooks. I could not agree more. Let me just show you my, if you've only ever listened to the podcast and you've not watched it on YouTube, I have this beautiful leather-bound Happy Place notepad. It's got these thin paper sheets with a

• 6:24Fearne Cotton?

  gold edge. I like spending money on very nice stationery because it makes my handwriting neater. So when I go to look up my notes, it's actually legible. And it's just a lovely thing to keep. So I've now done, I think we're nearing to about 500 episodes of Happy Place, which is wild over the last eight years. And every one of them, I have handwritten out a bit of a flow for the chat. And I've kept all of the notepads. I've got tens of these. And they're all lined up in my little office. So one day, when I'm old and irrelevant, I can look back and go, oh, look, I interviewed Alicia Keys and Hillary Clinton. But I just love good stationery. So Lana, I'm with you, gal. Shall we have

• 7:06Fearne Cotton?

  a look at some dislikes? What was my own dislike? I know, this is pissing me off so much. And I don't know what to do about it. On a weekend, on a Saturday and a Sunday, obviously, that's fucking weekend. On a weekend, I wake up at half five, six. Ping, I'm awake. All the thoughts I've ever had enter my head. And by about 10 to six, I think, I'll just get up. And I'm awake an hour and a half, sometimes two hours before my kids, which is nice to have that bit of time to myself. But on a Monday morning, when I have to get up at six, because I've got to get the kids ready, got to get their breakfast made, got to get them off to school before I race back and have a shower myself and then get to

• 7:47Fearne Cotton?

  work. I am in a deep sleep. I'm having a dream when my alarm goes off. When my alarm chimed this morning at six on the dot, I was having a dream that I was in Australia, in a jungle with Deck from Ant and Dec. That's where I was at six in the morning. Unlike Saturday and Sunday, where I was fully, fully awake, where I could have had a lion. What is that about? What is that? How do I change it? How do I make that Monday morning thing a Sunday? I don't understand. I haven't achieved it ever. It is pissing me off so much. And today, because my alarm went off at six and I was in a deep sleep, I'm still a bit groggy, you know, when you're kind of like, still trying to find my feet with

• 8:30Fearne Cotton?

  the day. On a Sunday, I could have happily been in that zone all day. It wouldn't have mattered. Bloody pissing me off, that is. Marcia is a brilliant member, valued member of Team Happy Place. She works with lots of different brands that we either collaborate with, brands that we have showcased at the festival, brands that sponsor areas of the festival, brands that sit on our marketplace, brands that are in our Happy Place edit boxes. She has got amazing relationships with all these brilliant brands that we love working with, we love supporting, but we love collaborating with too. And everyone loves Marcia and Matilda from that team. Everyone's like, oh my god, Marcia and Matilda are just the best. They really are. Marcia says, my neighbour,

• 9:11Fearne Cotton?

  I mean, we're totally calling out Marcia's neighbour, my neighbour feeding the foxes in the garden, they dine at his back door and then shit on my doorstep. I mean, that is fucking annoying. I have toyed with the idea of feeding the foxes because I saw a fox out in the day, in daylight, not long ago, and I think that means they're really hungry. So I have heard putting out dog food for them is a lovely thing to do, but the shitting issue, that is deeply annoying. And I guess this one has chimed with me today because big news, my cat stroke kitten Fig, who's the youngest of my three cats, has started going outside and it is the best thing ever. Because if you've had a kitten, you'll know

• 9:56Fearne Cotton?

  that for the first few months of their life, they stay indoors and you have a litter tray. Litter trays are the pits. Every day that I have to shovel out one of her shits, and she's this cute, tiny, pretty little angel of a cat, she does, like, her shits are like horses' shits. They are stinky, they are massive, they're outrageous for such a pretty little thing. And I have to go in, shovel it out, put it in a bag, like gagging as I'm doing it, put that in the bin, then the bin stinks, I've got to take the whole bin bag out, it's a ripe palaver. So now, I'm through it. What I've done, if anyone's got a kitten wondering what a good way is to integrate them into garden life, because I've

• 10:38Fearne Cotton?

  done this many times with many cats, is I've put the litter tray directly outside the cat flap. So she understands that she's got to go through the cat flap to get into the litter tray, which is in the garden. And eventually, that litter tray will get nearer and nearer to a flowerbed, and then it will magically disappear. The only issue is, she's worked out how to get in the cat flap when she's in the garden and she wants to come in, she's still really troubled with getting out of it. So I have to keep shoving her out of the cat flap. But we're going to get there, we're working on it. So although I don't have a fox shitting directly onto my patio, I do have a cat shitting on my patio in a litter tray. Just a lot of shitty issues. But Mars, I hear you. I feel you. I think your neighbour's trying

• 11:23Fearne Cotton?

  to do a good thing, but they're obviously causing you trouble in the meantime. And I think fox shit is the smelliest of all the shits, isn't it? I think it goes fox, dog, cat, in terms of smelliness. Fox shit's got like a tart, yet sour quality to it. And if you step in fox shit, my god, do you know about it. I may have broken a world record with saying shit more times in any podcast I've ever recorded today. Oh, this is just a nice one that I think I need to say. This is from Hannah. Hannah runs the Happy Place Book Club, which you should all be a member of. You just head to our

• 12:03Fearne Cotton?

  Instagram, our Happy Place Book Club Instagram. And she says, simply, always feeling rushed. Oh, my god. Me too. I just recorded a podcast this morning with an amazing guest, which will be out in April. One of my favourite conversations I've had in a very long time. And between that and doing this, I inhaled a lentil goat's cheese beetroot salad in about four seconds. And do you know where it is? It's sat directly on my chest. It's not even, it's nowhere near my stomach. I ate it in three goldfalls and the indigestion is real. And I will continue to rush through my day, doing a million other podcasts, and then with my kids later. So I hear you. Why are we

• 12:48Fearne Cotton?

  always rushing? We need a day where we don't rush. Can we all promise that we're going to do that soon? Have an anti-rush day, because I really, really need it. Right, that is it from me. If you've got any things that you're loving at the moment, or things that you're not loving, let us know. Head to our Instagram, slide on into our DMs, and we'll feature you in one of these podcast episodes. Let us know. It could be literally anything. I'm off to digest this food, and then what I'm going to do later, once I've recorded eight million podcasts, is watch another episode of The Madison on Paramount+. I cannot wait. I found it deeply comforting. I know you're going to love it too. So do check it out, and I'll see you soon.

• 13:58Speaker 03

  Hello, this is Susie Ruffel. And Maisy Adams. And together we host Big Kick Energy. Hey Mais, what is it? Only the best podcast ever. Yeah. A comedy entertainment podcast with a focus on all things women's football, all things hilarious, all things friendship. It's a laugh is what it is, Ruffel. Yeah, and a fair bit of gossiping too. Oh, and a lovely bit of gossip. Chow down on the gossip. Nom, nom, nom, nom, nom. You can listen wherever you get your podcasts. Just need to search Big Kick Energy. Grab a knife and fork and tuck in, baby.