Rambling with Dolly Parton and meditative strolls: the best podcasts for walks

From a trip down memory lane with celebs to adventures in remote Scotland: if you’re looking for company on your next walk, there’s a podcast for that

Most people flee the suburbs, but nowhere land is the perfect backdrop for my novels

Suburbia is neither glamorous nor picturesque. But this is precisely what makes it rich terrain for my books

The Sweet Spot by Paul Bloom review – the pleasure of pain

An intriguing scientific investigation into why suffering, from mountaineering to BDSM, so often leads to satisfaction

Glennon Doyle: ‘So many women feel caged by gender, sexuality, religion’

Glennon Doyle’s memoir inspired Adele – but do we all need to be ‘untamed’?

Goop’s sex therapist on her radical approach to sexual pleasure

Avila’s work, illegal in every US state except California, helps her clients ‘experience genuine arousal, desire and pleasure’

Five of the best podcasts: sleep-inducing sounds and stories

Crashing bores, perfectly dreary reads – and a natural soundscape that hits all the right night-time notes

Being an only child made me fascinated by siblings – and means I’ve had to learn to share my life

My debut novel is full of the brothers and sisters who were absent through my childhood

The big idea: Is it your personality, or a disorder?

Psychological diagnoses offer an easy way in to understanding character – but our habit of using them comes at a cost

The Joy of Small Things by Hannah Jane Parkinson review – a compendium of delights

The Guardian writer’s collection of her columns is a droll and open-hearted bite-size read

Jimmy Carr on booze, taxes and being a virgin at 26: ‘Do I sound like an incel elder?’

The controversial comic’s new book is a surprising mix of memoir and self-help. Has having a baby softened his edges? He talks about depression, anxiety, punching down and his friend Sean Lock