Woman's Hour

A new Netflix series, Kaos is a modern, darkly comic retelling of Greek mythology that will perhaps have you seeing the gender politics of ancient Greece in a new light. Stage and film actor Janet McTeer stars as the Queen of the gods, Hera. Janet joins Anita to talk about Hera’s sexual power as well as her previous roles and what has changed in the industry.If you were watching the Paris Olympics, you might have spotted identical twins Lina and Laviai Nielsen taking to the track. The Olympic duo join Nuala to discuss competing together at an elite level in athletics, winning bronze side-by-side for Team GB, and navigating triumphs and challenges in the public eye after Lina’s Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis.Protests have been happening across India after a 31-year-old junior doctor was raped and murdered in a hospital in Kolkata earlier this month. Her death prompted marches and strikes nationwide over safety issues for female doctors and this soon developed into a talking point for women’s safety in general. B

Nicki Chapman is well-known for presenting shows like Escape to the Country and Wanted Down Under and also a regular presenter on BBC Radio 2. She started out as a record plugger in the music industry – and now she’s written a memoir, So Tell Me What You Want, which lifts the lid on what it was like managing and touring with the likes of David Bowie, Take That, and S Club. She joins Anita Rani to talk about her career so far and her recent cancer diagnosis.Two sisters, Eileen Macleod and Maureen Bedford, are to receive honorary degrees at the ages of 90 and 95, more than 60 years after they finished studying. The pair trained at the Bedford College of Physical Education in the 1940s and 1950s, but did not receive formal degree qualifications. Anita talks to them both about gaining qualifications in their nineties.The Post Office Horizon scandal has been described as the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British legal history. One of those impacted was Ravinder Naga. In 2009, he falsely confessed to s

Protests have been happening across India after a 31-year-old junior doctor was raped and murdered in a hospital in Kolkata earlier this month. Her death prompted marches and strikes nationwide over safety issues for female doctors and this soon developed into a talking point for women’s safety in general. BBC Delhi Correspondent Kirti Dubey joins Anita Rani to report on the latest news, along with Dr Aishwarya Singh Raghuvanshi, a female doctor in India.A new Netflix series, Kaos is a modern, darkly comic retelling of Greek mythology that will perhaps have you seeing the gender politics of ancient Greece in a new light. Stage and film actor Janet McTeer stars as the Queen of the gods, Hera. Janet joins Anita to talk about Hera’s sexual power as well as her previous roles and what has changed in the industry.In a new analysis, researchers from Imperial College, London estimate that the number of people living with food allergies in England has more than doubled since 2008, with the largest increase seen in y

The Real Thing is a play within a play currently on stage at the Old Vic in London. It encourages the audience to question why we fall in love, what is fact and what is fiction. And can we can ever really know if the love we are experiencing is the real thing? Actors Susan Wokoma and Bel Powley star in the production and join Nuala in the Woman’s Hour studio to discuss.Over the summer Woman’s Hour is taking a deep dive into the world of “genre” fiction and today we are entering the gripping and shady world of spy fiction and thrillers. Ava Glass joins Nuala to discuss her new spy novel The Trap. She is joined by Charlotte Philby, author and granddaughter of infamous double-agent Kim Philby, who has also written books about spies but her latest The End of Summer falls firmly in the thriller genre.Omulbanin Sultani was studying medicine at Kateb University in Kabul when the Taliban banned women from universities in 2022. Last week, she arrived in Scotland, along with eighteen other female medical students from

The Paris Paralympic Games begin tomorrow. Nuala is joined by Paralympian turned broadcaster Rachael Latham to talk us through the women we should be looking out for over the next 12 days.Composer and singer-songwriter Errollyn Wallen joins Nuala after being appointed the new Master of the King's Music. The position has existed since the 17th century and is awarded to musicians who have added to the musical life of the nation, but Wallen is only the second woman to hold the post. Her work is some of the most performed among living composers, and includes 22 operas. The play Shifters follows former children friends Des and Dre, they are first loves whose relationship twists and turns over a decade. Currently on at the Duke of York’s Theatre, is the third play in the West End to be written by a black British woman. The writer Benedict Lombe joins Nuala, along with Heather Agyepong who plays Des.

Whether you have a sister or not, it’s a relationship that has long fascinated us. In this special edition of Woman’s Hour, Nuala McGovern explores what makes the female sibling dynamic so compelling.If you were watching the Paris Olympics, you might have spotted identical twins Lina and Laviai Nielsen taking to the track. The Olympic duo join Nuala to discuss competing together at an elite level in athletics, winning bronze side-by-side for Team GB, and navigating triumphs and challenges in the public eye after Lina’s Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis.Psychotherapist Jennifer Gledhill joins Nuala to talk about the psychology of sister relationships. What pushes you apart, and what brings you together? She also gives her tips on how to have a better relationship with your sister.How do you deal with the grief of losing a sister? British-Kurdish activist Payzee Mahmod’s joins Nuala to talk about her beloved sister Banaz, who was murdered aged 20 in a so-called 'honour' killing. Their father and uncle are serving li

Listener Week is when all the topics, interviews and discussions are chosen by YOU!We hear from listener Siobhan Daniels. She wrote to us on Instagram: 'I would love you to talk about van life and an alternative way of living.' Siobhan is 65 years old and after selling her home and possessions has lived in her motorhome for five years. She joins Nuala McGovern on the programme.Listener Kitty Dowry wanted us to take a look at so called 'risky' sports, and to encourage us all to look at them in a different way. Kitty is a climber; she has been doing it for 10 years and wants to see more women give it a go, even those who might have written it off for fear of it being too dangerous. Kitty joins Anita, as does Hazel Findlay, a professional climber and coach.As part of Listener Week we have been asked by widows to discuss one side effect of bereavement – hyper-arousal, and the term ‘Widow’s Fire’. Nuala McGovern explores these ideas with listener Lizzie, Stacey Heale, who has written a book – Now is Not the Time f

Listener Week is when all the topics, interviews and discussions are chosen by YOU!Woman's Hour listener Elaine asked the programme to discuss the issue of having sex in later life. Elaine is in her seventies and her partner would like to resume a sexual relationship. They are both negotiating medical conditions and she feels reluctant. Elaine would like to know what is typical or normal in your seventies. Sex and relationship therapist Charlene Douglas and Dr Clare Gerada, former President of the Royal College of General Practitioners, explain the medical and emotional challenges around intimacy in later life and the accommodations that can be made if older couples want to have sex.Listener Teigan Banks got in touch. ‘I would love to talk about how losing my mum at 11 has led to attachment to maternal figures throughout my life and sometimes this can be negative. In all the grief media I see this is something I never see spoken about and it can be quite isolating. I’m sure other people who have lost parents

Listener Week is when all the topics, interviews and discussions are chosen by YOU!What is it like to parent a neurodivergent child when you are neurodivergent yourself? Anita Rani speaks to listener Rachel, who discovered she had ADHD after her daughter was diagnosed, and Jo, whose children have dyslexia.How one moment or person can change your life’s trajectory. Listener Bettie tells Anita how a childhood invite to a friend's house introduced her to a new way of life—one she says saved her. The menstrual cycle, periods, time of the month. One listener, Tracey, wanted to know what things were like for women dealing with this in centuries past. Anita finds out more from Dr Sara Read, who is a Senior Lecturer in English at Loughborough University, with a specific focus on women’s reproductive health and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.A listener asked us on social media: How can childless people leave a legacy? Statistics from the Office for National Statistics found that more than half (50.1%) of wom

Listener Week is when all the topics, interviews and discussions are chosen by YOU!As part of Listener Week we have been asked by widows to discuss one side effect of bereavement – hyper-arousal, and the term ‘Widow’s Fire’. Nuala McGovern explores these ideas with listener Lizzie, Stacey Heale, who has written a book – Now is Not the Time for Flowers - about her experience of being widowed, and also by the psychotherapist Lucy Beresford, who can shed some light on what might be going on.DNA testing for family ancestry is becoming more popular, with some companies having millions of users. A listener we are calling Sarah wrote: ‘I would like to hear about non-paternity events. This is when you discover that a parent is not your biological parent often via a DNA test. I made this discovery in my fifties. Increasing we are hearing about the impact of these discoveries but until it happens to you it is incomprehensible to understand. I would like to hear these issues explored.’ Nuala speaks to her and also to La

Listener Week is when all the topics, interviews and discussions are chosen by YOU!Why do so many of us feel bad about our tummies and why are the rounded or wobbly ones never celebrated? That’s what listener Carole wants to know. Content creator Lottie Drynan created the IBS blog The Tummy Diaries and #mybloatedwardrobe and has learned to love her rounded stomach. She joins Nuala McGovern, along with Charlotte Boyce, Associate Professor in Victorian Literature and Culture at Portsmouth University, and columnist Pravina Ruda to discuss our historical and cultural relationship with our tummies.Four years on from the start of the Covid 19 pandemic, many listeners have contacted Woman’s Hour to tell us about their experience of Long Covid. Nuala hears from Lexi Boreham who says she’s been “flattened” by the condition and speaks to respiratory physician Dr Melissa Heightman about the latest treatments and research. Listener Lottie contacted Woman’s Hour because she wanted us to discuss later in life lesbians and

Welcome to Woman's Hour's Listener Week, when all the topics, interviews and discussions are chosen by YOU!On today's programme, we hear from listener Siobhan Daniels. She wrote to us on Instagram: 'I would love you to talk about van life and an alternative way of living.' Siobhan is 65 years old and after selling her home and possessions has lived in her motorhome for five years. She joins Nuala McGovern on the programme. A message from a listener raised his concerns about the amount of time it had taken for his daughter’s case to get to trial after she was sexually assaulted. He asked Woman’s Hour to speak to the Crown Prosecution Service about why these delays occur. The CPS were unavilable for an interview and have sent us a statement. To discuss this topic we are joined live by Rape Crisis CEO, Ciara Bergman and barrister and author, Harriet Johnson.What’s it like being a cathedral stonemason? After a listener asked to hear more about women working in heritage crafts, reporter Martha Owen went to meet Ra

Fresh from the Paris Olympic Games, the Team GB weightlifter Emily Campbell joins Jessica Creighton on the programme. Best known for her no-nonsense attitude, fabulous hair and of course, lifting extremely heavy weights, she joins Jessica to discuss adding bronze to her silver medal from Tokyo.In 2020, Jade Blue McCrossen-Nethercott had the case against her alleged rapist dropped by the CPS. They said that the defence had suggested she suffered from ‘sexsomnia’, where a person performs sexual acts in their sleep. Jade Blue put in a Victim’s Right to Review and received an apology from the CPS for dropping the case, which cannot be re-opened. Jade Blue then sued the CPS – and has now received £35,000 in compensation for damages. Jade joins Jessica to tell her how it feels to have that compensation.Throughout the summer we’ve been taking a look into the world of 'genre fiction' – the women who read it and the women who write it. In the latest of this series, we discuss science fiction. Seen by some as 'a genre

A new study just published says that perimenopausal women are more likely to experience bipolar and major depressive disorder. Cardiff University academics worked with charity Bipolar UK and the UK Biobank, a large-scale biomedical database, to look at nearly 130,000 UK women and focused on the four years around the last menstrual period. Dr Clare Dolman, an ambassador for Bipolar UK and patient and public involvement lead on the project, joins Jessica Creighton.We Might Regret This is a brand new BBC comedy that has been pegged by reviews as ‘the next Fleabag’. It centres on Freya, who is an artist and tetraplegic, as she moves in with her partner and hires her best friend to be her personal assistant. The series is partly based on the experiences of Kyla Harris, the co-creator who stars as Freya. She joins Jessica to talk about everything from having a third person in a relationship to misconceptions around disability.What do you think of maternity clothes? For mums-to-be in 2024, it's apparently all about

Fresh from the Paris Olympic Games, the Team GB weightlifter Emily Campbell joins Jessica Creighton on the programme. Best known for her no-nonsense attitude, fabulous hair and of course, lifting extremely heavy weights, she joins Jessica to discuss adding bronze to her silver medal from Tokyo. A Glasgow parents group is taking legal action against the city council over planned education cuts. It is calling on the council to halt implementation of reductions to teacher numbers and a mentoring scheme. The Glasgow City Parents Group says the council failed to carry out an equality impact assessment. The group's chair Leanne McGuire joins Jessica to discuss. In 2020, Jade Blue McCrossen-Nethercott had the case against her alleged rapist dropped by the CPS. They said that the defence had suggested she suffered from ‘sexsomnia’, where a person performs sexual acts in their sleep. Jade Blue put in a Victim’s Right to Review and received an apology from the CPS for dropping the case, which cannot be re-opened. Jade

Throughout the summer we’ve been taking a look into the world of 'genre fiction' – the women who read it and the women who write it. In the latest of this series, we’re going to discuss science fiction. Seen by some as 'a genre for men,' there are lots of women authors and readers who think otherwise. Bafta-nominated screenwriter and playwright, Moira Buffini, who's written The Dig and TV series Harlots, joins Nuala to discuss her debut science fiction novel, Songlight. Larissa Lai, science fiction novelist and professor at University of Toronto, with two novels shortlisted by the Otherwise Award joins Nuala to discuss the genre.Say She She is a female-led band based out of Brooklyn, New York led by Piya Malik Sabrina Mileo Cunningham, and Nya Gazelle Brown. Their sound has been described as ‘disco-delic with dreamy harmonies’, and they have been crowned one of BBC 6 Music’s Artists of The Year. They are now in the UK to perform at Camp Bestival and All Points East. They join Nuala McGovern to discuss their

Annie Ernaux’s Booker-nominated book, Les Années, traces her journey from childhood in post-war France to old age in the post-9/11 era. Now adapted for the stage, Gina Mckee, Deborah Findlay and Romola Garai, alongside Anjli Mohindra and Harmony Rose-Bremner, are the five actors portraying different stages in the life of an ‘unnamed’ French woman. Romola Garai joins Nuala McGovern in the Woman’s Hour studio. We talk to Regina Barzilay, a Professor of AI & Health in the Department of Computer Science at MIT, about how her own breast cancer diagnosis shifted her research to predicting cancer. Regina and her team have built an Artificial Intelligence system that can predict almost half of all incidences of breast cancer up to five years before they happen. And author Rebecca Watson on her latest novel I Will Crash - a unique take on sibling torment. Presenter: Nuala McGovern Producer: Lisa Jenkinson

For the first time in history, the Paris 2024 Olympics saw an equal number of men and women competing. But that's not always been the case - in fact, back in 1912, the father of the Olympic games Pierre de Coubertin said that having women compete in the games would be 'impractical, uninteresting, ungainly and, I do not hesitate to add, improper'. Luckily, the Olympics didn’t just have the father of the games – it also had the MOTHER of games, Alice Milliat. BBC Mundo’s Laura Garcia tells us all about this sometimes forgotten figure behind the Olympics.One of the most influential women in the tech industry has died. Susan Wojcicki, the former CEO of YouTube and one of Google’s earliest employees, died on Friday at the age of 56 from lung cancer. Sheryl Sandberg, the former Chief Operating Officer at Meta, paid tribute to Wojcicki on Instagram, writing: "As one of the most important women leaders in tech — the first to lead a major company — she was dedicated to expanding opportunities for women across Silicon

Lottie Tomlinson rose to fame as the younger sister of One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson. At 16, she went on tour with the band as a makeup artist and a decade on, has become an entrepreneur. Lottie’s mother and sister died within a few years of each other, when she was just 20-years-old. She joins Anita to talk about her experience of grief, which she’s written about her new memoir, Lucky Girl.Madwomen of the West is currently on stage at the Riverside Studios in London. Set in a suburban mansion - a group of women gather for an eventful birthday brunch and discuss topics ranging from gender politics to professional expectations, shifting marital relationships, menopause and womanhood. With four leading women over the age of 70 it stars stage and screen luminaries Marilu Henner, Caroline Aaron, Brooke Adams, and Melanie Mayron. Caroline and Marilu join Nuala.New figures released today suggest that children under two are present at 13% of police call outs to domestic abuse incidents in England, amounting to aro

This evening at the Olympics, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif will fight for a gold medal in the women’s welterweight event. Tomorrow, Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting will compete for gold in the final of the women’s featherweight boxing. Both boxers have faced serious controversy over their eligibility to compete. To take us through what’s going on, Anita Rani speaks to the BBC’s Sport Editor, Dan Roan.Lottie Tomlinson rose to fame as the younger sister of One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson. At 16, she went on tour with the band as a make-up artist and a decade on, has become an entrepreneur. But Lottie’s mother and sister died within a few years of each other, when she was just 20-years-old. She joins Anita to talk about her experience of grief, which she’s written about her new memoir, Lucky Girl.When writer and counsellor Lucy Cavendish split up from her partner it took her a while to realise that the friends she had believed she shared with him were now his and his alone. She joins Anita, along with Rosie Wilby, comedian