Fans of bestselling novelist Emily Henry will devour the juicy first episode. Plus, Women’s Euros 2025 and Christine McGuinness delves into dating!

If you too have raced through Emily Henry’s moreish romcom novels, you’ll want to tune in to this new podcast from Reese Witherspoon’s book club. Henry is the first guest, along with director Yulin Kuang, who is bringing her stories to the big screen. They’re talking all things romance with host Danielle Robay, who will continue to meet authors in a series made for listening to in a sunny park. Hollie Richardson
Widely available, episodes weekly

Actor and musician Joe Keery made his name on the Netflix hit as lovable jock Steve Harrington, but he never stopped making music. He discusses anxiety, his earnest new record and why he and his castmates are ‘bonded for life’

“It was a crazy situation – this song that I wrote was being linked to the head of the Catholic church!” Joe Keery sounds incredulous as he recalls his latest viral moment. The track in question was End of Beginning, the wistful indie anthem from his 2022 album Decide. It first became an online hit last year, taking on a new life soundtracking TikTok users’ videos of their home towns. As it happens, the home town – or university town, in Keery’s case – that he sings about in the song is Chicago. Fast forward to this May, when Illinois native Robert Francis Prevost was elected as the new pope. The song began to do the rounds all over, with fans overlaying the lyrics (“And when I’m back in Chicago, I feel it!”) over videos of the new pontiff.

It was just the latest surreal chapter in the 33-year-old’s career, which has seen him juggle musical success with acting megastardom, thanks to his breakout role as villainous jock, and later beloved fan favourite, Steve Harrington in Netflix’s retro sci-fi smash Stranger Things. Performing under the name Djo, he has released two albums of hazy psychedelic rock and angular electro respectively, plus that aforementioned, absolutely inescapable viral hit, which peaked at No 4 in the UK charts. He’s now on tour in support of recent third album The Crux, aptly named as he reaches the end of a nine-year stint in Stranger Things, whose extremely long-awaited final season will be released on 26 November.

As my friends started getting married and having kids, I’d have to wait for anyone to be free to go away with me. So, I started booking solo jaunts and I’ve not looked back

I used to find airports stressful. I mean, I still do – I’m the sort of person who glides mindlessly through security only to be swiftly apprehended (“Er, madam, why is there a litre of water and four bottles of sun cream in your bag?”). But I find them a little less stressful these days. I put it down to the fact that I mostly travel alone. I can arrive as early or as late as I want, drink as many overpriced coffees as I fancy and not go into total unadulterated panic mode when I grossly underestimate the distance to the gate. Because this is my holiday – and my holiday only!

Travelling solo is a pleasure, a tonic, and occasionally a character-building experience (more on that later …). I started doing it by accident. I was 29 when a friend couldn’t make a trip to Paris at the last minute. I went anyway, and also decided to make my life 500% harder by only speaking French, which I hadn’t done since I’d left university several years earlier. Having this goal also distracted me from the fact that I was visiting museums, galleries and restaurants alone, something that can seem almost taboo in a world set up for couples, pairs and groups.