There is a saying that into each life some rain must fall. For Larissa Astara Gray, the storm came early. At just thirteen, her life was thrown off course by an experience that no child should have to carry, and what followed was not a straight line but an absolutely wiggly one. There are points in Larissa’s life where she is very lucky to be alive to tell her story, and that truth matters.

This is an honest and challenging conversation, not because it is sensational, but because the problems are real. This is not an academic exercise or an intellectual debate for Larissa. This subject is written into her body, her relationships, and her life experience. Drawing on that lived reality, she speaks with clarity and courage about how pornography and online sexual content are shaping young people’s understanding of consent, intimacy, and what becomes normal. Her willingness to talk openly gives us a chance to learn, not to look away. Silence has not protected young people. Avoidance has not helped. This conversation exists because the damage is already happening, and because understanding is part of how we begin to do better.

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So, as we power into a new year, 2026, Gobsmacked! serves up an incredibly compelling, and what will become a vintage episode to start us off.

You do not forget the day you meet Nicky Pattinson. She is impossible to overlook. She is life force embodied. From that flame-red hair, to those unmistakable, inimitable, deep Yorkshire tones, this is a woman forged on the anvil of life.

Nicky is a woman who has lived her life on the spin cycle. She has experienced deep tragedy, child loss, visceral grief. The kind of grief that poleaxes you. The kind that rewrites who you are.

And yet. And this matters.

What this conversation reveals is not just reflection, but momentum. Not just insight, but intent. Not just survival, but a unique perspective.

Nicky holds a worldview that is both fierce and generous. She speaks openly about how the darkest moments of unimaginable loss, resource us and can define who we choose to be

It whips along at pace. It is funny. And this is a conversation between two women who have grown in both admiration and depth, because there is no getting away from it. Our lived experience shapes us. It changes us. It forges who we are.

And as we reset, and set our course for a new year, there is no finer woman to share some wisdom with than this incomparable Yorkshire lass.

This is Gobsmacked.

And this is where we begin.

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There’s a lot in a given name.

When Zelda’s mum chose that name for her little baby girl, who could have known just how completely she would go on to embody it. Zelda is often said to derive from an old Germanic name meaning battle or warrior, sometimes described as a battle maiden, so calling her a warrior princess feels anything but accidental.

Zelda has been battling various forms of breast cancer for eighteen years. After inheriting the BRCA2 gene from her dad, she has been fighting and thriving for over a third of her life.

As Gobsmacked! approaches its fourth year, Catherine sets out in the Gobsmacked podcast van to revisit previous guests and discover what has unfolded since they last pressed record.

And for Zelda, there has been a lot. A staggering amount of life for a true warrior.

This is Gobsmacked… After the Podcast.

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