Jordan North and William Hanson on why you should always take your Big Issue: ‘It’s a bloody good read’

When Jordan North needs a little good karma, he buys a copy of Big Issue.

The podcaster, radio DJ, and I’m a Celebrity runner-up currently finds himself in this position, after he accidentally ate a little girl’s birthday cake.

“I was at a restaurant, I was with some friends, the waiting staff came over with a cake and started singing happy birthday to me,” he said on his podcast, Help I Sexted My Boss.

“It wasn’t my birthday, but I thought it was [my friends] pulling a prank. I blew it out and started eating the cake… turns out it was for the girl on the table next door.”

“I need to do another good deed. I’ll buy a Big Issue.”

Co-host – and etiquette expert – William Hanson chipped in, revealing he never actually takes the magazine.

“The nicer thing to do is – sometimes what I do with Big Issue vendors – just give the money and say keep the magazine,” he said.

While well-intentioned, acts like this can undercut the magazine’s mission. “The whole point of the Big Issue was never charity,” Big Issue founder John Bird said this month. “It was bringing homeless people to the marketplace to earn their own money through trade. Our vendors aren’t beggars. Please take your magazine.”

We reached out to William and Jordan to see if they’d be up for a chat about this – and their work more broadly. Here’s what they had to say.

Big Issue: The way the Big Issue works is the vendor buys the magazine off us, and they sell it on for double the price, and they make that profit. So it’s really important to take the magazine, because that’s part of the micro-business element of the Big Issue.

Jordan: I always used to buy one off George outside New Broadcasting House when I worked for the BBC, a Scottish fellow that I used to speak to a lot, and his patch was just outside the All Souls church. It’s actually a bloody good read, especially on your commute. Some of the interviews you got. I remember you had one with Daniel Day-Lewis. I was like, fair play to them. And there’s a lady. I don’t know her name, but she’s outside the tube, which is down the road from my house. So I tend to buy one off her on a Friday. Not every week. I’m making myself out to be like a saint, but I do!

William: Growing up, I remember my mother would buy it at Broadmead Shopping Center in Bristol. A lot of my childhood was spent there.

Jordan: I just knew they got it from the company, but I didn’t really know the ins and outs were working. But now a lot of the vendors have those little card machines that connect to your phone. I don’t think enough people know that you don’t need to pay by cash.

William: I didn’t know exactly how it worked. I think giving them the sort of the incentive to sell it and to presumably get good numbers and distribute it. I guess it’s a friendly competition with other vendors, as well, as to who can shift the most copies.

William, you’re an etiquette expert. Our vendors often get ignored by people who just pass them in the street – completely blanked. What would you say is the appropriate response, if someone offers you a Big Issue and you don’t want one?

William: ‘Oh no, thank you very much,’ is absolutely fine. You should definitely not blank someone. They’re a human being. Just ‘no thank you’. And that’s all you need to say. You don’t need to repeat it. And definitely make eye contact.

We also recently commissioned some research: In any given week, more than 40% of people don’t have any real interactions with people they don’t know. For someone who might be nervous about starting a conversation with a stranger, what are some etiquette tips?

William: Really, you want to find something that is common ground, that’s the best way into a conversation, a shared experience. And often, if you’ve got nothing else, or you don’t know what else you have in common with them, what you do have is the environment that you’re in. So if you are standing outside, All Souls outside the BBC, then you could talk about, ‘Gosh, what a beautiful church. Have you ever been in?’ Or the weather – as sort of slightly trite as that is it is a good springboard into slightly more interesting conversation. It is a shared experience, because whether you are four years old, 40 years old, a wheelchair user, city banker, a Big Issue seller, whoever, we all experience the weather and have an opinion on it, and it’s safe.

What’s been your standout moment this year?

William: My book came out in America. My book came out in this country last year, but that was big for me. And I went to a very close friend’s wedding – as did Jordan eventually, when he turned up – of our producer on the podcast. I moved house, as we both did.

Jordan: I treated myself to Le Creuset pan that I’ve always wanted.

What’s your big issue for 2026?

Jordan: I’m going to try and eat less processed foods. That’s going to be my big thing for 26. I’m going to try and start trying to cook from fresh. Last night I got packet mash.

William: I need to finish my novel. I’m writing a novel at the moment that’s due in start of next year.

Jordan: More chance of finishing War and Peace.

William: I had a nine month gestation period, yes.

William: Oh and then together, we’ve got our arena tour. That’s our big thing for 26. We’re doing arenas in March 2026.

Do you have a big idea to save the world?

William: We are now in this sort of bizarre mindset, which is wrong in my opinion, that all your friends have to think exactly like you. You can’t be in a relationship with someone who might have a different opinion – actually, difference needs to be celebrated. No one is going to think the same as all of us. And yes, there are people that have really terrible views out there, but you know, we’re all entitled to our views. We are living in a country where we are very fortunate that we’re able to, and difference should be celebrated and not sort of shot down so quickly as it seems to be now. People just need to be nicer to one another.

Jordan: I just think we need to keep our eye out on what’s happening in America more, because people tend to laugh it off, especially in Britain, and it’s pretty serious and not good.

Jordan North and William Hanson are taking their podcast Help I Sexted My Boss across the country from March. Tickets are available now.

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