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Elizabeth Day on Rock Bottom, Societal Pressures On Women & Failure

The Pieces with Bimini

Tuesday, 19 May 2026 - 39 minutes

Elizabeth Day is a bestselling author, award-winning journalist and the creator and host of How To Fail, one of the UK's most beloved podcasts.

With over 300 episodes and millions of downloads, Elizabeth has built a global community around the radical idea that failure isn't something to be ashamed of — it's what makes us human. From her novels including One Of Us and Magpie to her Sunday Times bestselling memoir How to Fail: Everything I've Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong, Elizabeth's work centres on the messy, complicated, beautiful truth of being alive.

Beyond her creative output, Elizabeth is a fierce advocate for redefining success, challenging societal expectations around relationships and motherhood, and celebrating the power of chosen family.

On this episode of The Pieces, Bimini and Elizabeth dive into the formative moment that changed everything: being dumped three weeks before her 39th birthday, staring down the barrel of her 40s alone after a decade of intense transition — divorce, failed fertility treatment, three miscarriages, and the collapse of what she thought would be her second chance at love.

They discuss how sometimes you have to hit rock bottom to break through, why failure is what happens when life doesn't go according to plan and how that heartbreak led to the creation of How To Fail.

The conversation touches on the time limits society places on women having children, redefining family as chosen rather than conventional, and why the Virgin Mary is the ultimate IVF queen.

Elizabeth and Bimini also bond over their shared love of Real Housewives before Elizabeth reveals where she finds her power...

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