She most recently presented The Leisure Society on BBC Radio 6 Music where she interviewed cultural icons including Goldie, Tracey Emin, Kelley Deal, Laurie Vincent from Slaves and Cosey Fanni Tutti.
More recently she has regularly covered for Lauren Laverne, Mary Ann Hobbs, Chris Hawkins, Steve Lamacq, Cerys Matthews and Craig Charles on BBC Radio 6 Music.
[3] In April 2015 it was announced that Cairney would take over The Surgery on Wednesday evenings from former presenter Aled Haydn Jones and that Adele Roberts would replace her as the early breakfast show host.
Cairney has presented a number of radio documentaries, including Amazing Grace (2015), What the F: the Story of Feminism (2014), Mali Music (2014),Tempted by Teacher (2014) and Bruising Silence (2013).
Boom Shakalaka produced a successful punk musical about depression at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2015 called My Beautiful Black Dog.
[7] In autumn 2008 and spring 2010 Cairney was the roving reporter for T4's Frock Me, hosting alongside Alexa Chung and Henry Holland.
Other TV appearances have included reaching second place on Pick Me MTV and a regular slot as a co-presenter of Channel 4's online series Bite.
[3] On 9 March 2017, Cairney's debut book, Open: A Toolkit for How Magic and Messed Up Life Can Be was published by PanMacmillan[13] with an accompanying podcast series.