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What does it mean to keep making, caring and staying human when everything feels like it’s falling apart?

In this final episode of the Girls Twiddling Knobs podcast, Isobel Anderson speaks directly and unfiltered to you, the listeners, with honesty, clarity and care.

This is not a neat goodbye or a highlight reel. It is a reckoning. A permission slip. And a series of parting truths offered to women in music, male allies, music organisations and colleagues in higher education.

Isobel reflects on the wider context we are living in: dark times, eroding systems, the devaluing of art and the quiet shame so many creatives carry around money, security and survival. She argues for doing less but doing it with integrity. For making more than we consume. For listening more than we shout. And for staying close to creativity not because it will save the world, but because it keeps us human.

You’ll hear candid advice about:

The real trade-offs between making art and making a livingWhy streaming is a dead end for most musiciansWhen to treat music like a business and when not toInvesting in skills, backing yourself and stopping the wait for permissionLetting other people own their shitWhy organisations must take digital communication seriously if they want real impactThe role men must play as active, imperfect alliesThe heartbreak and hope of higher education, and when it might be time to build something elseThe episode closes with gratitude, acknowledgements and a reflection on legacy. Girls Twiddling Knobs may be ending, but listening, making, creating and caring do not.

Stay bold. Stay unapologetic. Don’t wait for permission. Stay human.

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Girls Twiddling Knobs has ended, but you can stay connected to Isobel's artistic work here.

Girls Twiddling Knobs was hosted by Isobel Anderson and produced by Isobel Anderson and Jade Bailey from Nov 2020-Jan 2026 and will remain live on all major podcast platforms throughout 2026. 

We are grateful to the British Library who have archived the podcast in their Sound and Vision Collection.

Learn more about the Girls Twiddling Knobs legacy here.

Watch this episode on YouTube

Explore more episodes here.

Listen on Spotify.

Episode ID: 1000747019933

GUID: Buzzsprout-18583934

Release Date: 29/01/2026, 00:00:00