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Woman's Hour
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  • Elaine Paige, Nova Reid on Jocelyn Barrow, Pauline Collins
    NB: The music in this broadcast has been removed from this podcast for rights reasons.A grande dame of musical theatre, Elaine Paige made her West End debut in the 1960s and shot to fame in 1978 playing Eva Perón in Evita, going on to star in Cats, Chess, Sunset Boulevard and many more. She talks to Anita Rani about becoming an actual Dame this week, and how she’s fostering the next generation of talent.American author Gish Jen and her mother never got along. In her latest novel Bad Bad Girl, Gish tries to figure out why that was. Reconstructing, then fictionalising her mother’s life as she moves from a wealthy childhood in China to an up-and-down immigrant existence in the US. Gish joins Anita to talk about the real life events behind her book.Restaurant chain McDonald's has announced it will bring in new sexual harassment training for managers. These are strengthened measures that were agreed with the Equality and Human Rights Commission to protect McDonald's staff from abuse. A BBC investigation that started two years ago found that workers as young as 17 were being groped and harassed. Anita gets an update from BBC reporter Noor Nanji.Writer and producer Nova Reid joins Anita to talk about the late Dame Jocelyn Barrow, the race relations campaigner and the first black female governor of the BBC whose story Nova tells in her new podcast, Hidden Histories with Nova Reid. The interview includes a clip of Jocelyn from 2017 sharing her thoughts with The University of Law on what she considered to be the greatest improvements in diversity.Pauline Collins, the star of the film Shirley Valentine, for which she was Oscar nominated in 1990, has died at the age of 85. Her career spanned stage and screen but she will be best remembered for her portrayal of disgruntled housewife Shirley, in the award-winning film, based on the stage play by Willy Russell. It won Pauline a Golden Globe and a BAFTA. We hear a clip of Pauline Collins playing Shirley in Lewis Gilbert's 1989 film, Shirley Valentine, distributed by Paramount Pictures, and also part of an interview Pauline recorded with Jane Garvey on Woman's Hour in 2017. Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Rebecca Myatt
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  • Cat Burns, Pakistan's period tax, Mary Earps
    NB: The music in this broadcast has been removed from this podcast for rights reasons.You might recognise Cat Burns from The Celebrity Traitors, where she’s been cunning and inscrutable as a Traitor, winning over audiences with her strategic gameplay. The Mercury Prize-nominated singer-songwriter has also just released her new album, How to Be Human. Ahead of the show’s final, Cat joins Anita Rani in the studio.Mahnoor Omer is a young lawyer taking the Pakistan government to court over its unfair ‘period tax’ which she says adds 40% to their costs. She wants to create public pressure on them to make sanitary products affordable in a country where they cost too much for most women. Mahnoor joins Anita to discuss her campaign.Goalkeeper Mary Earps played a pivotal role in England’s Euro 2022 win and helped the Lionesses reach the final of the 2023 World Cup, earning the Golden Glove after standout performances, including a heroic penalty save against Spain. In May 2025, just weeks before the Lionesses began their defence of the Euros, Mary announced her retirement from international football. Twice named FIFA’s Best Women’s Goalkeeper and BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2023, she’s now shared her story in her autobiography, All In: Football, Life and Learning to be Unapologetically Me.Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Corinna Jones
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  • Margaret Atwood memoir, Racism in public services, Is having a boyfriend embarassing?
    In Margaret Atwood’s 64-year career she has published world-renowned, prescient novels like The Handmaid’s Tale, Cat’s Eye, Alias Grace and Blind Assassin, and now a memoir. Margaret joins Nuala McGovern to discuss Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts and reflect on her life, her work and the power of knowing her own mind. We also reflect on the impact Margaret Atwood has had on writers and academics. Author Naomi Alderman and academics Dr Rosamund Portus and Dr Megan Douglas join Nuala to discuss how Margaret has encouraged and inspired their work across literature, science and beyond. Health Secretary Wes Streeting in an interview in The Guardian today says an “ugly” racism reminiscent of the 1970s and 1980s has become worryingly commonplace in modern Britain and NHS staff are bearing the brunt of it. In recent weeks, organisations representing nurses, social workers and carers - many of those being areas are dominated by women - have been sounding the alarm saying their members are encountering unprecedented levels of racism. We talk to Patricia Marquiss, Director for England at the Royal College of Nursing, Nadra Ahmed, Executive Chairman of the National Care Association and Harvey Gallagher from the Nationwide Association of Fostering Providers.Is having a boyfriend now embarrassing? Writer Chanté Joseph recently explored this idea in an article for Vogue and on social media, observing a noticeable shift in how people - particularly heterosexual women - present their relationships online. Instead of posting clear photos of their romantic partners, many are choosing subtler signals: a hand on a steering wheel, clinking glasses, or even blurring out faces in wedding pictures. But why the change? Even Zohran Mamdani, the new Mayor of New York, was asked whether it’s still okay to use the term boyfriend. Chanté joins us.Presenter: Nuala McGovern Producer: Simon Richardson
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  • Teenage boys and AI, Lynsey Addario, Choking porn law
    A survey of boys in secondary schools by Male Allies UK has found that just over a third said they were considering the idea of an AI friend. With growing concern about the rise of AI therapists and girlfriends, Lee Chambers, the founder and chief executive of Male Allies UK, and feminist sociologist Professor Jessica Ringrose, join Nuala McGovern to discuss the potential effect these AI companions could have on the mental health of teenage boys.Pornography featuring strangulation or suffocation - often called choking - is due to be criminalised across the UK as part of government plans to tackle violence against women and girls. It follows an independent review which found depictions of choking were "rife" on mainstream porn sites and had helped normalise the act among young people. Gemma Kelly, policy consultant on the review, and Professor Clare McGlynn, leading expert on VAWG and gender equality, discuss.The latest edition of the popular Football Manager video game features female football players and managers for the first time in its history. The game has been played by 19 million people and has origins that go back 30 years. We hear from Tina Keech, head of women's football research at Sports Interactive, the company behind Football Manager. Over the past 25 years Pulitzer Prize-winning war photographer Lynsey Addario has covered almost every major conflict of the modern era. She’s been kidnapped twice - once in Iraq and once in Libya - yet continues to return to the frontlines, driven to tell the stories of those caught in conflict. A new documentary, Love + War, follows her extraordinary career and what it’s like returning home at the end of an assignment to ‘normal’ life with her partner and two children. Presenter: Nuala McGovern Producer: Kirsty Starkey
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  • Fertility treatment, Bella Culley, Traitors' fashion
    World Health Organisation figures say one in six people are affected by infertility. Fertility Matters at Work, who provide training for fertility support in the workplace, have published a cost analysis. They have explored the economic impact of not providing time off for fertility treatment - not only on those people directly involved in seeking help, but on businesses and the economy more widely. To discuss further, Nuala McGovern is joined by Alice Macdonald, MP for Norwich North, who will be asking MPs if they agree that a legal right should be given to people to take paid time off work to attend medical appointments for fertility treatment, and Natalie Silverman, co-founder of Fertility Matters at Work.Bella Culley was freed by the Tbilisi City Court today. The 19-year-old, who is eight months pregnant, is from Billingham in Teesside. She was arrested at Tbilisi airport after police found drugs in her luggage and had been held in Georgia on drug trafficking charges since May. Before news of her release, Nuala spoke to Rayhan Demytrie, BBC News Caucasus correspondent, outside the court.The case of Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing US health insurance CEO Brian Thompson, is one of the most closely followed legal cases of recent years. The 26-year old-was arrested in December and accused of shooting Mr Thompson, a father of two, outside a Manhattan hotel. He faces the charges of murder and stalking, charges which Mangione denies. While the case continues, something else has been happening. Mangione has attracted an intense, mostly female online following: people sharing pictures of him, writing letters, posting fan edits and memes, and debating his appearance and behaviour in forensic detail. So why does a man accused of violence become the object of fascination and even desire to some women? And what does that say about the digital age we’re living in? Nuala talks to Professor David Wilson, criminologist and former prison governor, and Faye Curran, journalist at The New Statesman, who has immersed herself in Mangione’s online fandom.Anyone watching Celebrity Traitors at the moment, or indeed the previous Traitors series, has probably noted Claudia Winkleman’s iconic looks that seem to sum up both chilly Scottish castle chic and punk power dressing with a smidge of sinister gothic Victorian melodrama thrown into the mix. Claudia's stylist, Sinead McKeefry, has a huge following online by people keen to pick up tips. The power of social media is such that when items are worn by Claudia and flagged online, it can have quite an impact, as small-business owner Lauren Aston found when one of her designs appeared on the show. She joins Nuala to explain what has happened, as does Alison Lynch, head of content at Good Housekeeping Magazine, who has not only written about the Claudia fashion phenomenon, but has even dressed as Claudia in the Traitors herself for a week.Presenter: Nuala McGovern Producer: Andrea Kidd
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