It sends the nation to a halt faster than a cen­time­tre of snow in Decem­ber (and divides the nation more than a jar of Mar­mite). We’re talk­ing about Love Island: the ITV2 real­i­ty show that sees a group of fit, half-naked peo­ple find­ing love. On an island (nat­u­ral­ly).Whether you like it or not, it feels like all any­one can talk about at the moment. Why? Well, mind­less voyeurism for one. But also because it’s just Prop­er Good Tel­ly. A chance to see all man­ner of rela­tion­ships and inter­ac­tions laid bare on the small screen. A great anthro­po­log­i­cal exper­i­ment you can watch with a brew and a bacon but­ty. Script­ed by Shake­speare. Dressed by Nasty Gal.Still, we have ques­tions. And while After­sun, the Love Island com­pan­ion show, gives us some­what of an overview, what we need is some­one who’ll unpack the meat in full force. A per­son unafraid to lay on the big ques­tions fac­tor 50 thick.For our final fifth episode (boo!), Raven Smith has enlist­ed the help of ser­i­al dater Amelia Dimold­en­berg. She’s tak­en a fair few of the UK’s biggest music acts on dates – to chick­en shops – so we’d like to think she knows a thing or two about the rocky path to true love. They’ll be round­ing up Love Island 2019, dis­cussing the con­tes­tants in the – gasp! – real world, the bril­liance of Amber and Greg win­ning in the shock turn-of-events and… Chris Hemsworth. Enjoy!

It Is What It Is with Raven Smith

It Is What It Is with Raven Smith | Episode 5 | Amelia Dimoldenberg

Episode 4 welcomes guest and queer heartthrob Olly Alexander, also lead singer of Years & Years. While he’s known for singing a catchy tune or two, he’s also a fierce advocate for LGBT+ rights, as well as promoting safer sex and HIV screenings. Definitely sounds like our type on paper. Each episode has been record­ed at Sound Stu­dio at The Stan­dard, London

It Is What It Is with Raven Smith | Episode 4 | Olly Alexander

For our third episode, host Raven Smith has enlisted the help of Tolly Shoneye, one third of the brains behind The Receipts: a hilarious, straight-up podcast offering advice on questions such as: “How do I turn my boyfriend into a husband?”. Perfect for this podcast, then. Crack on for yourself above.

It Is What It Is with Raven Smith | Episode 3 | Tolly Shoneye

Joining our host Raven Smith this week is Joel Golby – author of Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant Brilliant Brilliant (we think it’s brilliant) and among one of the most-read contributors at Vice, having been the brainchild behind London Rental Opportunity of the Week. Known for his sharp wit and dark sense of humour, Russell Brand described him as a “little bastard”. Expect offence.

It Is What It Is with Raven Smith | Episode 2 | Joel Golby

It sends the nation to a halt faster than a cen­time­tre of snow in Decem­ber (and divides the nation more than a jar of Mar­mite). We’re talk­ing about Love Island: the ITV2 real­i­ty show that sees a group of fit, half-naked peo­ple find­ing love. On an island (nat­u­ral­ly).Script­ed by Shake­speare. Dressed by Nasty Gal.Still, we have ques­tions. And while After­sun, the Love Island com­pan­ion show, gives us some­what of an overview, what we need is some­one who’ll unpack the meat in full force. A per­son unafraid to lay on the big ques­tions fac­tor 50 thick. Cue the host of our new Love Island pod­cast: Raven Smith. Instagram’s answer to US Week­ly with an opin­ion on all things pop cul­ture. Raven will be joined for the first episode by the hilar­i­ous writer and direc­tor Chris Sweeney, direc­tor of BBC’s acclaimed Back To Life and also co-founder of the award-win­ning pod­cast Homosapi­ens.Sounds like our type on paper, we must say. Crack on for yourself.

It Is What It Is with Raven Smith | Episode 1 | Chris Sweeney

In this podcast series, author and columnist Raven Smith asks the bigger questions about television phenomenon Love Island - the ITV2 real­i­ty show that sees a group of fit, half-naked peo­ple find­ing love. Raven Smith. Instagram’s answer to US Weekly with an opinion on all things pop culture. Sounds like our type on paper, we must say. Crack on for yourself. This series has been record­ed at Sounds Stu­dio at The Stan­dard, London.

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It Is What It Is with Raven Smith

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