Week five of Stylist’s podcast – Working from Home with Stylist – is here and this week the team are talking about how to deal with tricky conversations in a virtual world, and how to tackle feelings of guilt in a lockdown world. Editor-in-chief Lisa Smosarski and editor-at-large Alix Walker are joined by career and presentation expert Russell Amerasekera, broadcaster Angela Scanlon and Stylist’s Gemma Crisp.

Career expert Russell kicks off the podcast talking to Lisa about why we’re all finding work conference calls so draining. “We’re used to connecting as human beings to energy…when we’re in the same room as someone we’re transferring energy. And that’s the thing that connects us most, we feel a tremendous sense of reassurance when we have that. The difficulty with this medium is, you don’t have that.

“Essentially, we’re having to over-compensate in a number of ways. Because we’re not getting that sense of reassurance that the other person is responding to us in the same way is quite fearful for us as human beings.”

He adds: “So what do we do? We start to work harder. We work harder with our voices, and that’s partly because we’re trying to convey emotion through the voice. The other thing we’re doing is we’re having to observe more because we’re trying to pick up those visual cues that are very easy when we’re in the same room. 

“All of that becomes incredibly tiring for us as human beings.” 

Amen, Russell. Scroll down to listen to the podcast and hear Russell discuss how we can read people through a computer screen, and what to look for during a Zoom call with work. 

Also in the podcast this week, Stylist’s Gemma Crisp shares her alternative entertainment recommendations for those big nights in and broadcaster Angela Scanlon talks gratitude and ranks her favourites cheeses.

Plus, Lisa and Alix delve into feelings of guilt in a lockdown world.

Check back every week for the latest news from our podcast, and listen to it on Spotify, Acast and Apple. Click here to read more about best podcasts in town, the hottest to listen to right now and the biggest celebrity interviews going. 

And for those missing the print edition, a digital edition of Stylist magazine has also been made available on the Apple News+ subscription channel, with a stand-alone app launching for this week’s issue.

Episode five: our recommendations

Here you can find the links to all the content we discuss in this week’s podcast. 

Russell Amerasekera, career and presentation expert

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Secret Sofa from Secret Cinema

The Big Book Weekend

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Laithwaites wine tasting

The Great British Charcuterie x L’Atelier Du Vun

Work/Life Interview: Angela Scanlon

Cheese

Mont Dor 

Pie D’Angloys

Eat / Shop / Do

Pizza in a Pan

Send the NHS a card

Picante de la casa cocktail

GizNGreen’s Monday Night Fakeaway 

Eastern Standard cocktail 

Pasta evangelists