Fashion Neurosis with Bella Freud

Shania Twain is a Canadian songwriter and artist. She is a five-time GRAMMY Award winner, and the top-selling female country-pop artist of all time.  Born in Ontario, Shania Twain experienced a childhood fraught with deprivation. From the age of 8, her mother would take Shania to perform after hours in local bars in order to raise grocery money, but also to showcase the extraordinary talent of her daughter. Through her bold and boundary-pushing lyricism and musical style, Twain helped redefine country music for a global audience, opening the door for the genre-blending sound and cultural crossover shaping country and pop music today. Often nicknamed the Queen of Pop, Twain has released seven acclaimed studio albums, with more than 100 million albums sold worldwide. Her era-defining catalog includes timeless hits such as “Any Man of Mine,” “That Don’t Impress Me Much,” “You’re Still the One,” and “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!”. In 2022, the career-spanning documentary Shania Twain: Not Just a Girl, was released, with an accompanying Highlights album. In July 2026, Shania released her seventh full-length album, Little Miss Twain, which marks her most personal and introspective work to date, and was a special guest for Harry Styles during his Wembley Stadium residence. A renowned fashion icon and enduring cultural force, Twain continues to influence generations across music, style, and pop culture. In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Bella Freud and Shania Twain discuss taking her horse on tour, Dolly Parton, and being attracted to great hair. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Abiodun Oyewole is an American poet, painter and author, and one of the founding members of the music and spoken-word group The Last Poets. Born in Ohio, Oyewole was raised in New York by his aunt, whose love of jazz and gospel music greatly influenced him. He was given the name Abiodun Oyewole aged fifteen, by a Yoruba priest at a temple in Harlem. The Last Poets were formed by Abiodun Oyewole, David Nelson & Gylan Kain in 1968, releasing their first album in 1970. The group is credited, along with Gil Scott-Heron, as having had a profound effect on the development of the hip-hop genre. Abiodun missed the launch of The Last Poets first album after being sentenced to four years in a North Carolina prison for robbing the offices of the local Ku Klux Klan. During his time in prison he attended a nearby college where he earned his B.A. degree. He went on to earn a Ph.D. from Columbia University, where he has served as a faculty member. Oyewole rejoined The Last Poets during its 1990s resurgence, with their latest albums released in 2018 & 2024, and he has also released several solo albums. Oyewole has published two volumes of poetry, Naked, 2020, and Branches of the Tree of Life, 2020, and an essay collection titled Black Lives Have Always Mattered. Oyewole hosts Sundays @ 110 each week at his home in Harlem, opening his doors to fellow artists, encouraging performance and a shared creative experience. Oyewole is one of several poets credited for liberating American poetry by creating vocal, spontaneous, energetic and uncensored vernacular verse that paved the way for spoken word and hip-hop. He continues to write poetry every day. In this episode of Fashion Neurosis, Abiodun Oyewole and Bella Freud discuss how they first met, being treated as the Pope of Poetry, and spending time backstage with Nina Simone. Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices