Woman's Hour

The long summer holidays have started and you'll have heard by now that the runner-up of The Fortnite World Cup was Jaden Ashman, a British 15-year-old who won nearly a million pounds. In the run up to the computer tournament he was spending more than eight hours a day in front of a screen. We know that screen time already causes lots of family arguments so what will happen now when your child says gaming could win them a fortune, just like Jaden? We talk to Mark Griffiths, Professor of Behavioural Addiction at Nottingham Trent University and Belinda Parmar who campaigns against tech addiction.Food writer, MiMi Aye’s new book ‘Mandalay: Recipes and Tales from a Burmese Kitchen’ is a celebration of Burmese food, history and culture. Along with recipes, she shares stories about her family and her culinary travels around Burma. She joins Tina in the studio to Cook the Perfect… Red Prawn Curry.This week's Woman's Hour drama is about the care workers who visit old and vulnerable people to look after them, and

The UK’s second female Prime Minister stepped down last week after a turbulent three years in office. In the last few weeks commentators have picked over Theresa May’s failure to deliver Brexit, her loss of the Conservative majority in the 2017 General Election and her limited progress in tackling the burning injustices she described on the steps of Downing Street in 2016. Today, we turn to a subject that Woman’s Hour first interviewed Theresa May about nearly 20 years ago, encouraging women to stand as MPs and to get on in the Conservative Party. We discuss her legacy for women in politics and look at how women will fare under Boris Johnson’s premiership. Angélique Kidjo is a singer from Benin who’s won three Grammys and made 13 albums. This year she makes her Proms debut with her nine-piece band in a late-night tribute to the celebrated salsa songstress Celia Cruz.Anna ‘Delvey’ Sorokin tricked New York’s city’s elite into thinking she was a wealthy German heiress. In reality she was a fraudster with no tr

Dany Cotton the Commissioner of the London Fire Brigade talks about how she dealt with trauma in her years as a firefighter. Dr John Green Chief Psychologist for Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust and Gill Scott-Moore CEO of Police Care UK discuss how best to help first responders with their mental health.We discuss the power of grime music to politically engage young people with the campaigner Amika George, Dr Joy White who has a Phd in Grime and the author and performer Debris Stevenson.The Great British Bake off winner from 2015 Nadiya Hussain talks to us about how her pets help her relax. Dr Katherine Garzonis a psychologist, the author of gardening books Hollie Newton and the food writer Bea Wilson tell us how they switch off.Children’s Laureate Cressida Cowell tells us why we all need to find someone like us in literature and why more diversity is needed in books - especially for children. We also hear from Aimee Felone a publisher and the author Patrice Lawrence.Harriet Wistrich, the la

Dany Cotton says, 'I was thrilled to take part in this year’s Takeover and talk about topics I’m passionate about - I have managed to include something tasty, something fluffy and something serious! I will be explaining to the listeners the benefits of therapy dogs and why I will be getting one for London Fire Brigade. I also wanted to talk about an issue I have seen throughout my 32 year career – mental health and how it can affect first responders. I love cooking and I’m sure I was a mouse in a previous life, so I will also be talking about the looming Halloumi shortage.'

Cressida Cowell says, "I will be talking about the thoroughly modern magic of reading and how that magic can and must be made accessible to absolutely everybody. Also I'll be talking exclusively to Woman's Hour about lost ancestors including an extraordinary but forgotten relative of mine, plus the vital importance of diverse authors and heroes for children, and funny words for the countryside, the words we are losing and our worrying disconnect with nature."Presenter: Jenni MurrayInterviewed guests: Cressida Cowell, Children's Laureate David Tennant, actor Jonathan Douglas, director, National Literacy Trust Claire Williams, deputy head, Kenilworth Primary School Patrice Lawrence, author Aimee Felone, publisher Jackie Morris, writer and illustrator Dr Kate Lewthwaite, citizen science manager at the Woodland Trust

Amika George is a 19 year old student, activist, and founder of #FreePeriods. She's been campaigning to combat period poverty in schools. 200,000 signed her petition and almost 2,000 teenagers protested outside Downing Street. Two years on, the government has pledged to end period poverty by offering free menstrual products in all English primary and secondary schools by 2020. Amika George says "I’m so thrilled to be a guest editor of Woman’s Hour'. Her chosen topics range from access and diversity in higher education, to why young people are so fascinated by Love Island, to why grime and hip hop artists have more power to influence young people than MPs. Access, diversions and inclusion in higher education for BAME and state school students. What's the nature and extent of the problem and what needs to be done about it? We talk to Ore Ogunbiyi, one of the authors of 'Taking up Space' and Laura Bruce, Head of Programmes at the Sutton Trust. What's the appeal of Love Island? What does it tell us about youn

Harriet Wistrich is a human rights lawyer and founder and director of the Centre for Women's Justice. Her cases are consistently in the news – the fight to keep the so-called ‘black cab rapist’, John Worboys in prison and the release of Sally Challen, who had been imprisoned for the murder of her abusive husband. As part of our Takeover week Harriet discusses surviving a disabled sibling, her admiration for Claudia Clare a ‘subversive ceramicist’, the treatment of women accused of lying about a rape allegation, and why Zem Zem Mohammed, an Eritrean refugee, is someone she holds in great esteem.She may not be a household name but we know her cases well. How does a feminist lawyer relax who works tirelessly for the good of women she believes are being mistreated by the criminal justice system? And what compels her to continue to seek justice? When Harriet Wistrich was just eleven years old her disabled brother, Matthew, died. It was the 1960’s and a time when disabled people were institutionalised, shut away an

Nadiya Hussain says, "My edition of Woman’s Hour focuses on time, and our lack of it! Having enough ‘time’ for everything feels like a constant battle. We're juggling childcare and career demands and I wonder whether women are feeling the pressure more than ever before, and more than men. I'm looking at what we can do to relax and switch off, and tell you what works for me!"To talk a bit more about Nadiya's ideas we're joined by the food writer Bee Wilson, gardener Hollie Newton and psychologist, Dr. Katherine Garzonis from the Mental Health Foundation.

Black women are five times more likely to die in childbirth compared to white women. We hear the personal experiences of two women: Candice Brathwaite who got sepsis after her caesarean section and Remi Sade who felt she was pushed towards a more medically managed birth than she wanted. We also hear from Daghni Rajasingam a consultant obstetrician from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.Clinical psychologist Jessamy Hibberd on her book, The Imposter Cure and listener, Claire Poole who runs two businesses on how she sometimes fears being found out as not really good enough despite doing her job extremely well. As the Netball World Cup draws to a close this weekend we talk about how the game has changed over the years with the BBC presenter Hazel Irvine and the former England player Sara Bayman. Three volunteers from the tournament, Caswell Palmer, Mandy and Hannah Cripps tell us why they love the game so much.The owner of Zara has announced that all the cotton, linen and polyester it uses wi

How best can we harness the huge amount of interest created by recent big sporting moments to inspire more women and girls to take up sport? Jenni is joined by Dame Katherine Grainger who is Britain’s most decorated female Olympic athlete of all time and Chair of UK Sport. Ali Oliver is the current CEO of Youth Sport Trust and has worked in education and sports development for 20 years and Iqra Ismail a 19-year-old football player and the Founder of NUR (‘Never Underestimate Resilience’) Women’s Football Club, an organisation that aims to increase BAME females’ participation in football.A new report has found that female Muslim offenders face very real challenges returning to their communities after release - particularly due to honour and feelings of shame - and that attitudes to men are more forgiving. Jenni speaks to Sofia Buncy, who is the Founder and Coordinator of the Muslim Women in Prison Rehabilitation Project and is author of the report, Sisters in Desistance: Community-based Solutions For Muslim W

Ahead of the world premiere of ’Earthward’ at the Proms, young composer Alexia Sloane talks to Jenni about the upcoming performance and the causes that inspire the music. David Trimble, a leading figure in Northern Irish politics and joint Nobel Peace Prize Winner, now sits in the House of Lords. Last Wednesday it came as a surprise when he stood up in the House - during a debate about Northern Ireland - to say that his eldest daughter got married to her girlfriend, even though, in the past, he was opposed to same-sex marriage and voted against it. The party he used to lead – the UUP – used to be against it too. Vicky Trimble married her girlfriend, Roz, two years ago. Jenni talks to Professor Dame Sally Davies as she prepares to leave her post towards the end of the year as the Chief Medical Officer for England to take on the role of Master at Trinity College Cambridge,. Do you ever feel like a fraud, waiting to be found out? Clinical psychologist Jessamy Hibberd has a cure for “imposter syndrome”. And we

We'll be taking a closer look at The Squad: the Congresswomen at the centre of Twitter comments made by President Trump. Who are Alexandra Ocasio Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar? Why are these four politicians of colour causing such a stir, not just with Republicans but also in their own Democratic Party? Professor of Women’s Gender & Sexuality Studies, Wendy Smooth and journalist for USA Today and Washington Post and a former House Committee Republican Counsel, Sophia Nelson join Jenni.Could the law around abortion and same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland change this week? We find out with Jayne McCormack, BBC political reporter in Belfast. Today the House of Lords decides on the Northern Ireland Bill which includes recent amendments to these two important social issues. The Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) Centre for Social Justice says women’s work is most at threat from advances in automation, but it also say robots and AI could create opportunities to make things bett

Live from Liverpool's M&S Bank Arena for the Netball World Cup, we're joined by BBC Sport's Hazel Irvine, former player Sara Bayman and Commonwealth gold winning England Netball captain Ama Agbeze to discuss the tournament so far, predictions for the rest of the week and prospects for the growing popularity of the game. We'll also be talking to CEO of Scotland Netball, Claire Nelson.What does it take to organize a World Cup? We’ll be talking to the Event Director, Lindsay Impett. We're also joined by volunteers at the event to tell us about what they love about the game and why they're getting involved.And we hear from under 11s in Hertfordshire learning netball on a Saturday morning - and Laura Vila and Corinne Askey who set up Mighty Netball to encourage girls to love playing sport.Presented by Jane Garvey Produced by Jane Thurlow

Black women in Britain are now five times more likely to die during pregnancy, birth or postpartum than white women. This is according to the latest study from MBRRACE-UK (Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries across the UK). And the risk has been increasing year on year. On today’s Woman’s Hour we concentrate on these disturbing statistics – released late last year, but receiving very little attention.We discuss why this could be happening with Elsie Gayle, an independent midwife and nurse with 30 years’ experience in the NHS; Daghni Rajasingham, a consultant obstetrician who speaks for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists; Jenny Douglas, the founder and chair of the Black Women’s Health and Well Being Research Network and a senior lecturer at the Open University; and Mars Lord, a doula.We also hear the birth experiences of some of the many women who contacted us, and are joined in the studio by Remi Sade, a writer and podcaster, and Candice Brathwaite,

Cash Carraway tells us about her life as a working class woman and mother living in poverty today.We discuss the importance of parental leave policy transparency and why only 23 FTSE 100 companies make their maternity and parental leave policies available to the public with Jo Swinson the Liberal Democrat MP, Mairead Niger the chief Human Resources Officer for one of the 23, Diageo and Deborah Hargreaves the founder of the think tank, the High Pay Centre.The novelist and writer Sohaila Abdulali who was gang raped as a seventeen year old in Mumbai talks about the continued assumptions around rape and consent.The teacher and author Emma Kell offers advice around the move from Primary to secondary school and we hear from listeners Jane, Tony and Velda.We discuss girl code, what it is, how it’s broken and whether it has a place outside the tv show Love Island with freelance writer Moya Lothian-McLean and Lifestyle editor at the Metro Ellen Scott. And the Lebanese songwriter Tania Saleh and Palastinian poet Farah

The dress historian Amber Butchart has been finding out about the history of some of the summer wardrobe staples we all buy or dig out every year - today, sunglasses.Jill Halfpenny on her new role in the TV drama Dark Money. She plays Sam, the mother of up-and-coming young actor Isaac who accepts a pay-off to keep quiet about the abuse he suffered at the hands of a predatory Hollywood VIP.Cash Carraway recounts her experience of temporary housing, refuges, violence, loneliness, forced self-employment, sex work and food banks in her memoir Skint Estate, about her life as a working-class woman and mother living in poverty in Britain.And we have a round-up of the week’s news with Joy Lo Dico, columnist at the Evening Standard, Lara Prendergast, assistant editor of The Spectator, and writer and comedian Nuala McKeever.Presenter Jane Garvey Producer Beverley Purcell

Olivier, Tony and Academy Award winner Vanessa Redgrave on her new stage play, Vienna 1934–Munich 1938 – a production which she has written, devised, and performs in, and which intimately explores her family’s personal history amidst the rise of fascism in 1930s Europe. We hear about the play and her political family history that inspired it.Our listener, Sarah tells us about being in recovery from a lifetime of anorexia and disordered eating. Lebanese songwriter Tania Saleh and Palestinian poet Farah Chamma are two artists from two generations sharing their experiences as women performers in the Arab world. They are both in London this week to perform at Shubbak, London’s largest festival of contemporary Arab culture. Presented by Jenni Murray Produced by Jane ThurlowReporter: Georgina Hewes Interviewed guest: Vanessa Redgrave Interviewed guest: Tania Saleh Interviewed guest: Farah Chamma

The Girl Code: what is it and what does it include? How about "not going out with your friend's ex"? We find out with Moya Lothian-McLean and Ellen Scott.A UK refugee charity says Chinese women who’ve been traumatised because of human trafficking are being harmed even more by being put in detention centres. The charity called Women For Refugee Women says they should be housed in safe accommodation and given support rather than being sent to Yarl’s Wood Detention Centre in Bedfordshire. Last year 420 Chinese women were held in places like Yarl’s Wood, making them the largest group in detainment by nationality.Sohaila Abdulali, a writer from India, was gang-raped as a seventeen-year-old. Police ignored her and the doctor was too embarrassed to examine her properly. She wrote an article about it for a woman’s magazine which challenged perceptions about rape. Thirty years later in 2012 another young woman was raped, this time by a gang on a bus in New Delhi and she died a few days later of her injuries. It caus

Today’s we’re looking at an important milestone in a child’s life: when they move up from primary to secondary school. Can you remember how it felt? Do you have a child who is in year 6, leaving primary school or a child who is just completing their first year of secondary school. Is your Year 6 child excited and ready to go? How do you feel about them going to “big” school? Do you think your child will manage? What, if anything, are you doing to prepare them? We want to hear from you. Please do get in touch with your experiences and questions. Phone lines are open from 0800 on Monday 8 July. Call 03700 100 444. You can email now via the 'Woman's Hour Website.Presenter: Jane Garvey Interviewed guest: Emma Kell Producer: Lucinda Montefiore

O’Hooley and Tidow the English Folk duo from Yorkshire talk to us about their track Gentleman Jack and perform Beryl.We discuss how some women’s centre are being used to facilitate community payback, and how this is affecting vulnerable women with Dr Kate Paradine the CEO of Women in Prison, Nicola Harding who has a PHD in Community Punishment and is a Criminology researcher at Lancaster University and from Sharna Kennedy from the Women’s Centre Tomorrow’s Women Wirral.The Scottish American composer Thea Musgrave tells us about still working at 91, her career in music and how she copes with some hearing loss. We look at job sharing with two women Maggy Pigott and Judith Killick who job shared for 23 years and received a joint CBE. We discuss how 50 years on from the Stonewall riots whether the visability of lesbians has changed with Angela Mason former Stonewall Director 1992-2000, Kate Davies the novelist, Angela Wild the lesbian feminist activist from Get the L Out and from Phyll Opoku-Gyimah.Julie Heldman