{"podcast":{"title":"The Shift with Sam Baker","slug":"the-shift-with-sam-baker-1305838","podcast_index_feed_id":1305838,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/AUDD5911261185","website_url":"https://theshiftwithsambaker.substack.com/","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/ca307044-48da-11ef-bc54-4b542b9ff10c/image/eb51c7bae8ff572c9c63cd96c36f576f.jpeg?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"Sam Baker Ltd","episode_count":296,"summary":"The Shift is a podcast that aims to tell the truth about being a woman post-40, created and hosted by writer and broadcaster, Sam Baker. Did you ever wonder why you stop hearing so many women's voices once they pass 40? That's where The Shift comes in - a frank, funny, sometimes heartbreaking, always honest look at what it means to be a woman in midlife and beyond. Work, life, love, health, sex, money, identity, body image... What does it all mean when everything around you (and inside you...) is changing? Each week, award-winning author and journalist Sam Baker asks a different woman how she got here, where she's going - and how it feels to be where she is right now. Expect intimate conversation, big laughs, occasional tears and an awful lot of ripping up the rule book and stamping on it... Past guests have included Nicola Sturgeon, Marian Keyes, Guilty Feminist Deborah Frances-White, Minnie Driver, Philippa Perry, Anita Rani, Tracey Thorn, Isabel Allende, Bobbi Brown, Barbara Blake-Hannah and many more, talking everything from confidence to career reinvention, mental health, menopause and so much more. If you enjoy The Shift podcast, and you'd like to show the love, you can buy…","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-shift-with-sam-baker-1305838"},"episode":{"title":"Margaret Busby: Britain's first black female publisher on the power of passing it on","slug":"margaret-busby-britain-s-first-black-female-publisher-on-the-power-of-passing-it-on","published_at":"2026-04-21T00:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-shift-with-sam-baker-1305838/margaret-busby-britain-s-first-black-female-publisher-on-the-power-of-passing-it-on","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-shift-with-sam-baker-1305838","url":"https://theshiftwithsambaker.substack.com/","audio_url":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.megaphone.fm/AUDD7842041223.mp3?updated=1776675523","summary":"My guest today is the pioneering publisher, Margaret Busby. It is safe to say that without Margaret’s lifelong work the publishing industry today- and indeed our bookshelves - might look very different. In 1965, at just 22, she became Britain’s youngest first black female publisher, when she formed Allison and busby with Clive Allison, who she met at a party at university. Margaret was editorial director there for 20 years - when the business was bought, the buyers retained Allison, but not Busby. Hmmm... Since then she has been a publisher, editor, writer, interviewer, scriptwriter, presenter and awards judge, including chairing the Booker Prize. She has also compiled two groundbreaking anthologies to champion the work of women of African descent, Daughters of Africa and New Daughters of Africa. “[She] helped change the landscape of both UK publishing and arts coverage and so many black British artists owe her a debt. I know I do,” wrote Zadie Smith Her career has been the very definition of paying it forward, or as she puts it passing it on. At her home in North London, Margaret took me back through the incredible life she documents in her autobiography Part Of The Story. She told me about a lifetime spent being the only Black woman in the room and constantly being mistaken for an old white man! The importance of picking your battles, the women who shaped her, Why she will never stop opening the door for other black women, the irrelevance of age, why marriage is the least interesting form of emotional connection and loads more. If you’d like to see the pictures discussed in this episode, you'll find them here - https://theshiftwithsambaker.substack.com/ * You can buy all the books mentioned in this podcast at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Shift bookshop on Booksh…","meta_description":"My guest today is the pioneering publisher, Margaret Busby. It is safe to say that without Margaret’s lifelong work the publishing industry today- and ind…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":4143,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-shift-with-sam-baker-1305838/episodes/margaret-busby-britain-s-first-black-female-publisher-on-the-power-of-passing-it-on/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-shift-with-sam-baker-1305838/margaret-busby-britain-s-first-black-female-publisher-on-the-power-of-passing-it-on.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}