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Radioactive chapatis, Hostage negotiation, Non-birth mothers, Japanese women in politics Sep 04, 2023

Show notes

In 1969, migration to the UK was increasing with Britain becoming home for thousands of foreign settlers. In Coventry, 21 women of Indian origin booked what were supposed to be routine appointments with their local GP. Little did they know that these appointments would result in them becoming subjects of a controversial medical experiment, in which they were given chapatis laced with radioactive components. Over the next 50 years, memories of the experiment have continued to resurface as campaigners, such as Labour MP Taiwo Owatemi, try to track down participants and their families whilst calling on Parliament to open an inquiry into the findings.

Nicky Perfect knows what it’s like to live much of her life on high alert. From joining the police at the age of 18, working in the Met Police Firearms unit to eventually joining the elite New Scotland Yard Hostage and Crisis Negotiation Unit. She’s brought people safely down from rooftop stand-offs, worked to resolve gang kidnappings and terrorist incidents. Now she’s written about her experiences in Crisis: True stories of my life as a hostage negotiator.

Listener Carla Mercer contacted Woman’s Hour asking for a discussion on parenting from the perspective of a non-birth mother in a single-sex relationship. She is the non-birth mother to her seven-year-old daughter and five-year-old twin boys. She is separated from her ex-partner who is the children’s birth mother. Author and journalist, Lotte Jeffs is the “other mother” to a four-year-old girl with her wife, who gave birth to their daughter. She is co-author of The Queer Parent: Everything You Need to Know From Gay to Ze.

Political parties in Japan are boosting their support to get more women into office. The country’s ruling party and opposition party are both offering financial incentives- pledging a million Japanese Yen, about £5400, in aid for each new female candidate. And many would say the country sorely needs more women in politics- with the World Economic Forum showing only 10% of the country’s parliamentary positions are held by women. Rei Murakami is the President of the Murakami Foundation, and has set up a politics training school with this goal in mind. Hanako Montgomery is a Tokyo-based journalist.

Presenter: Nuala McGovern Producer: Kirsty Starkey

Opener 00:00 Radioactive Chapatis 02:12 Nicky Perfect 12:16 Women on Wheels 30:20 Non-Birth Mothers 35:44 Japanese Women in Politics 46:45

DIY fertility tests, Sudan conflict, Rebuilding my life Sep 04, 2023

Show notes

A BBC investigation has found that at least five women have died after family courts allowed fathers accused of abuse to apply for contact with their children. Some took their own lives, and one had a heart attack outside a court. Nuala McGovern is joined by Dr Elizabeth Dalgarno who led the research in to this.

We often talk to women about the immediate impact of traumatic life-changing events. But what happens after the dust has settled? This week on Woman’s Hour, we are inviting you to listen to three women’s experiences of picking up the pieces. Claire Russell lost her partner Mark to suicide in 2018, and miscarried their baby a few weeks later. Claire tells Nuala about how she began to recover.

Since the conflict in Sudan erupted again in April, there have been reports of the increased use of sexual violence against women and girls. More than four million women and girls are at risk of sexual violence across Sudan, according to the World Health Organization. Nuala speaks to CNN’s Nima Elbagir and to Duaa Tariq who is in Khartoum.

How reliable is DIY fertility testing in helping you plan for a baby? A recent report in the British Medical Journal has found that some DIY tests that were sold in the UK to measure oestrogen levels may have given misleading results. The report's author, Emma Wilkinson, joins Nuala alongside Dr Ippokratis Sarris, Consultant in Reproductive Medicine and Director of King’s Fertility.

Have you ever been in a 'situationship'? It's sort of a relationship but you're not exclusive. It's the subject of the debut novel of Taylor-Dior Rumble. The Situationship is published by Merky Books and it's been termed the label's first Rom-Com. Taylor-Dior joins Nuala in the studio.

Presenter: Nuala McGovern Producer: Emma Pearce

Hostage negotiator Nicky Perfect, Sarah Beeny, Chelsea Women Manager Emma Hayes, Mothers with bipolar, Bad lists Sep 02, 2023

Show notes

Nicky Perfect has spent most of her life in highly fraught and dangerous situations, working as a hostage negotiator. Now she’s written about her experience in a new book: Crisis: True Stories of my Life as a Hostage Negotiator. She joins Nuala McGovern to talk about some of the things she learnt along the way.

The TV presenter Sarah Beeny has spent much of her life in the unpredictable world of property renovation. Her latest book, The Simple Life - How I found Home, is about the many homes she's lived in. While she was writing it, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Sarah speaks to Nuala about her perspective on language around cancer, and why she loves having a chaotic home.

Emma Hayes is the manager of Chelsea Women Football Club. In her time, they have won six Women’s Super League titles, five FA Cups and two League Cups. Emma joins Hayley Hassall to discuss football, motherhood, women's health, and leadership – which is the subject of her new audiobook, Kill the Unicorn.

The Pulitzer prize-winning production Next to Normal is currently on stage at the Donmar Warehouse in London. It features a suburban wife and mother living with bipolar and haunted by her past. Actor Caissie Levy, who plays Diana, and birder and environmentalist, Mya-Rose Craig, share their experiences with Nuala.

Did you hear our special Bank Holiday programme about lists? They pop up everywhere in life – and can be good, or bad. Nuala discusses some historically bad lists with authors Helen Lewis and Anne Sebba.

Presenter: Nuala McGovern Producer: Lottie Garton

Opener 00:00 Nicky Perfect 01:23 Sarah Beeny 10:41 Emma Hayes 23:10 Bipolar Mothers 35:49 Bad Lists 44:09

Emma Hayes, manager of Chelsea FC Women, Karis Anderson on Tina Turner, Rose Matafeo and Emma Sidi on Starstruck Aug 31, 2023

Show notes

Emma Hayes has been manager of Chelsea Women football team for more than a decade, a reign made remarkable by six Women’s Super League titles, five FA Cups and two League Cups. Emma joins Hayley Hassall to discuss leadership in football and beyond, motherhood and women's health. Emma Hayes’ new audiobook, Kill the Unicorn, explores how her experience coaching elite female athletes has lessons for all of us.

On 24 May, the iconic singer Tina Turner died at the age of 83. For the last five years her life and music have been portrayed on stage in London’s West End to endless audiences keen to continue to enjoy her songs and watch the highs and lows, particularly of her early life, marriage to Ike Turner and then the revival of her career as a solo artist. Karis Anderson has recently taken on the role of Tina and joins Hayley in the Woman’s Hour studio.

Women in Afghanistan are turning to nursing as one of the few remaining professions they are permitted to do under the Taliban. But nursing itself is facing a crisis in the country. Former BBC Persia journalist Bahaar Joya is now a nurse in London. She describes the training she wants to provide for nurses in Afghanistan, and what the women there are telling her.

The hit BBC Three and HBO rom-com series Starstruck is back on our screens with its third season - following the main character Jessie and her best friend Kate through their late 20s and early 30s in London. Rose Matafeo has co-written the show and plays Jessie and Emma Sidi plays Kate. They join Hayley to discuss their characters and their friendship.

Presented by Hayley Hassall Producer: Louise Corley Studio Engineers: Andrew Garratt & Sue Maillot

00:00 OPENER 02:38 EMMA HAYES 23:52 TINA TURNER 36:45 AFGHAN NURSE 47:19 ROSE MATAFEO AND EMMA SIDI

Scottish rape survivors, Writer Natasha Walter, New research on the Y chromosome and male infertility Aug 30, 2023

Show notes

A group of women who were raped by the same man are now coming together to campaign for better treatment for survivors of rape in the Scottish justice system. After his sentencing, the women were photographed arm-in-arm outside the high court in Glasgow, having forged a close bond. Catriona Renton, reporter and presenter for BBC Scotland, joins Nuala. Writer and activist Natasha Walter joins Nuala to discuss her new, very personal book, Before the Light Fades: a memoir of grief and resistance. One day in December 2017 Natasha's mother Ruth took her own life. Natasha overwhelmed, by grief and guilt starts to look back through Ruth's history, trying to understand how her life led to this death. Last week scientists in America announced that they have taken an important step in understanding the human genome- our genetic blueprint- by decoding the Y chromosome which is passed from male parent to male offspring and determines biological sex and fertility. Professor Chris Barratt, head of Reproductive Medicine at Ninewells Hospital and the University of Dundee Medical School explains the implications of this research in relation to male infertility. Next to Normal is a Pulitzer prize-winning production currently on stage at the Donmar Theatre in London. At its heart Diana Goodman is a suburban wife and mother living with bipolar and haunted by her past. We speak to actor Caissie Levy playing Diana and birder and environmentalist, Mya-Rose Craig whose recent book Birdgirl talked about the impact on her and her family of having a mother with the same diagnosis. Presenter: Nuala McGovern Producer: Lucinda Montefiore

Opener 00:00 Rape 01:20 Natasha Walter 10:32 Y Chromosome Breakthrough 22:23 Bipolar Mothers 30:19

Sarah Beeny, Rebekah Staton, Spanish football kiss update, Deborah Bonello on Narcas Aug 29, 2023

Show notes

The TV presenter Sarah Beeny has spent much of her life in the unpredictable world of property renovation. You'll find her in programmes such as Help! My House is Falling Down and Sarah Beeny’s New Life in the Country. Her latest book, The Simple Life - How I found Home, is about the many homes she's lived in and her latest move to a former dairy farm in Somerset. While she was writing it she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Sarah joins Nuala McGovern.

Nuala speaks to actor Rebekah Staton, who stars in the new BBC drama The Following Events Are Based on a Pack of Lies. It follows two women who have nothing in common - except conman and celebrated so-called ecopreneur Rob. Staton plays Alice Newman, who had been trying to move on from Rob’s schemes that left her family penniless and his subsequent disappearance - until she sees him one day by chance.

The Spanish Football Federation's regional leaders have called on their president, Luis Rubiales, to resign. He faces widespread criticism for kissing footballer Jenni Hermoso on the lips at the World Cup ceremony in Sydney just over a week ago. Hermoso has said the kiss was not consensual. Now his mother has gone on hunger strike in protest against the treatment of her son. Nuala speaks to Semra Hunter, Spanish football journalist.

VICE Journalist Deborah Bonello has written about the hidden power women wield in Latin American drug cartels for her first book, Narcas. It is the first in-depth exploration of these women. She joins Nuala to discuss.

And the next in our series Women on Wheels - where we hear women speak about the cars that mean or meant a lot to them. Today, we hear from listener Rachel. Her choice of a Morris Minor bemused her friends and family but the adventures she had in it still make her smile.

00:00 OPENER 01:54 JENNI HERMOSO 13:57 SARAH BEENY 29:14 LAS NARCAS 41:58 WOMEN ON WHEELS 46:41 REBEKAH STATON

Lists: How and why we make them, The psychology behind list-making, Lists in the public domain, Music and lists Aug 28, 2023

Show notes

To discuss the how and why of lists, Nuala is joined by Joanna Nolan, author of the book, Listful, and Lucy Ireland Gray, who put together a collection of about 200 shopping lists that she found discarded over the course of nearly 20 years in and around Hertfordshire, where she lives.

We consider the psychology of lists - in particular why and whether lists are good or bad for our mental health and creativity. Artist Alice Instone, Joanna Nolan, author of Listful, and Madeleine Dore, the author of, I didn’t do the thing today: On letting go of productivity guilt, join Nuala.

Lists in the public domain - with Nuala to discuss the good and bad of lists historically and in contemporary times, are journalist and writer Helen Lewis, author of Difficult women: A history of feminism in eleven fights, and writer Anne Sebba, author of 10 non-fiction books. Her most recent book is Ethel Rosenberg: A Cold War Tragedy.

The place of lists in music - songs with lists, the charts, playlists and more. Nuala is joined by Grammy-winning singer and songwriter Corinne Bailey Rae, whose album, Black Rainbows, is out in September, and music journalist Jude Rogers, the author of The sound of being human: How music shapes our lives.

Presenter: Nuala McGovern Producer: Lucinda Montefiore

Listener Week: Psychedelics, Strongwomen, Kleptomania, Living funerals, Being a refugee, Women in heavy metal Aug 26, 2023

Show notes

A Listener Week Weekend Woman’s Hour Special, where you – our listeners – decide what you want to hear on the programme.

Our listener Rachel asked us to explore the potential of using psychedelic drugs in medicine, and whether these drugs might affect women differently to men. Anita Rani is joined by Professor David Nutt, Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London; and Catherine Bird, Senior Clinical Trials Manager at the Centre for Affective Disorders at Kings College London.

Eric, a listener, suggested we find out more about Vulcana, the Victorian strongwoman known for her 'jaw-dropping feats of strength and her breath-taking beauty'. Author Rebecca F John and Sam Taylor, Britain’s Strongest Woman 2020, join Nuala McGovern to talk about strongwomen past and present.

A listener who we’re calling Jane tells Nuala about her addiction to shoplifting. She wanted to highlight her experience and her struggle to cope with her compulsion - and explains her anxiety about regularly breaking the law.

Listener Nelly has asked us to talk about living funerals. She was inspired by Kris Hallenga, the founder of the CoppaFeel breast cancer awareness charity, who has stage 4 breast cancer and who held a living funeral for herself. Nuala hears from Jenna, whose sister had a living funeral.

Franceska Murati is a 27-year-old businesswoman and this year’s Miss Central London. At four years old, she arrived in the UK having escaped war-torn Kosovo, smuggled in the back of a lorry. She shares her story.

And our listener Laura wanted us to look at heavy metal and the role women play in the scene. Nuala speaks to Lindsay Bishop, who conducted 10 years of field work for her PhD on the subject and Becky Baldwin, a bassist from the band Fury.

Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Lottie Garton

Listener Week: Generative AI, Female thatchers, Big noses, Communal living Aug 25, 2023

Show notes

For Listener Week, you, our listeners, decide what we cover on the programme.

Listener Liane has tasked the programme with a deep dive into the impact of generative Artificial Intelligence on the workforce. She’s concerned that AI risks making humans “obsolete” and “has the capacity to replace millions of people's creative ideas, artwork, writing, music, their skills in language, invention and interpretation in seconds.” We speak to Dame Diane Coyle, the Bennett Professor of Public Policy at Cambridge University, and Christina Colclough, founder of the Why Not Lab specialising in the futures of work.

Listener Deb emailed in to shine a light on the work of her daughter Daisy and her partner Anna, thatchers who have worked on rooves all over Devon. Our reporter Sarah Swadling caught up with them at work on a cottage near Okehampton.

How do you feel about your nose? Once considered a symbol of beauty and power in ancient Rome, having a slightly larger facial feature nowadays can have a different meaning for some. Do you embrace it in its natural form or have you ever thought about changing it? We speak to Radhika Sanghani, who started the #sideprofileselfie campaign; and Karolina who decided to have a rhinoplasty.

Listener Annette has often thought about living with her female friends in old age but she doesn’t know how to go about it. To answer her questions, we speak to architect Anne Thorne, who has recently built Cannock Mill CoHousing with 25 other households. And Mim Skinner, author of Living Together, a book about intentional communities in the UK and beyond.

Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Lucy Wai Studio Manager: Gayl Gordan

00:00 OPENER 02:17 AI AND AUTOMATION 17.45 TRAIL 18:57 FEMALE THATCHERS 32:00 BIG NOSES 45:51 COMMUNAL LIVING

Listener Week: Psychedelics, Peripheral friendship, Posthumous conception, Beach Guardian Aug 24, 2023

Show notes

For Listener Week, you, our listeners, decide what we cover on the programme.

Listener Rachel asked Woman's Hour to explore the potential of using psychedelic drugs in medicine and whether these drugs might affect women differently to men. Academics have been researching psilocybin as a possible new treatment for depression, PTSD and anorexia, when used in conjunction with therapy. Anita Rani is joined by Professor David Nutt, Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London; and Catherine Bird, Senior Clinical Trials Manager at the Centre for Affective Disorders at Kings College London.

Helen, a listener, wanted Woman's Hour to highlight the importance of peripheral friendships. These are casual acquaintance relationships; the people in your life that you don’t see often, or your co-workers who give you joy, or kindness, but aren’t your close family. Anita meets Helen and they talk to Dr Gillian Sandstrom, a senior lecturer in the Psychology of Kindness at Sussex University, who has studied these relationships

Posthumous conception is when assisted reproductive technology is used to establish a pregnancy and produce genetic offspring following the death of a parent. Listener, Lauren McGregor, wrote to Woman's Hour wanting to discuss the importance of having the legal paperwork properly completed and signed should you ever find yourself in a situation when you have to consider this. Anita is joined by Lauren and a family lawyer, who has experience of working with fertility law, Louisa Gheveart.

Earlier this year, research from the University of Portsmouth showed there are 100 times more microplastics in the coast around the UK than there were six years ago. Anita talks to the marine biologist and PhD student Emily Stevenson who is on a mission to clean up the patch of Cornwall’s north coast where she grew up. Emily founded Beach Guardian in 2017 with her dad to try to empower local communities to combat plastic waste along the coastline.

Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Rebecca Myatt Studio manager: Giles Aspen

00:00 Opener 02:28 Psychedlics 17:12 Peripheral Friendship 30:45 Posthumous Conception 46:18 Beach Conservation

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