Rachel Johnson's Difficult Women - podcast cover

Rachel Johnson's Difficult Women

Globalwww.lbc.co.uk
Well-behaved women rarely make history – as someone once said – difficult women do. In this new LBC new podcast, Rachel Johnson's Difficult Women, Rachel will be talking to women who had to be a pain in the backside to get where they are today. Women who take the word difficult as a compliment not an insult. And women who had to fight, resist, insist, or otherwise be badly behaved in order to get things done. Listen and subscribe on Global Player, or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow Rachel on Twitter: @RachelSJohnson For advertising opportunities on this podcast email: dax@global.com
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Episodes

65 - Patience Wheatcroft

Rachel Johnson speaks to Patience Wheatcroft, a British journalist and life peeress, who was editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal Europe.

Sep 12, 202233 minSeason 1Ep. 65

64 - Baroness Beeban Kidron

Baroness Beeban Kidron is the filmmaker turned internet safety activist, whose time in the silver screen boasts directorial credits on Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit. Her latest mission, described as "one middle-aged woman's campaign against Silicon Valley", has influenced tech policy on both sides of the Atlantic - and last week, California introduced its own online safety bill based on her work in the House of Lords.

Sep 05, 202236 minSeason 1Ep. 64

63 - Dame Maureen Lipman

There really ain't nothing like DAME MAUREEN LIPMAN CBE 1999 Dame Commander of the order of the British Empire in the 2020 birthday honours for services to charity, entertainment and the arts, Mo is a zionist, royalist, actress, writer, comedian who is never out of the headlines.

Aug 28, 202237 minSeason 1Ep. 63

62 - Minette Batters

Minette Batters is president of the National Farmers Union and has repped the interests of 55,000 farmers in England and Wales through arguably the industry’s biggest upheaval in living memory. Her intray is Upheaval – and unprecedented and monumental challenges. On top of Brexit. A humanitarian food crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The worst drought for 500 years. The twin peak challenges of global warming and global feeding. It’s her daily bread as she too is a farmer. Minette...

Aug 21, 202232 minSeason 1Ep. 62

61 - Rachel de Souza

It is almost impossible to think of a more important role in modern life than the one held by RACHEL DE SOUZA. Made a dame in 2014 for services to education last year she took up the post of Children’s commissioners. Only this morning - we are recording this on Monday 8 August Dame Rachel was denouncing the Metropolitan police’s record on child protection after new data revealed that 650 children were strip-searched over a two-year period and the majority were found to be innocent of the suspici...

Aug 14, 202233 minSeason 1Ep. 61

60 - Frances Morris

One of the most overused words in modern life - curate - when we curate our scatter cushions and sandwiches this must be galling for this week’s Difficult Woman who is unquestionably this nations foremost curator First British and first female director of Tate Modern, Frances Morris is - no way of avoiding it - a curator par excellence and art world royalty. Her opening night of Tate modern - the most visited modern art museum in the world - was attended by 300 black cabbies and a huge spider.

Aug 07, 202227 minSeason 1Ep. 60

59 - Shelagh Fogarty

Shelagh Fogarty’s name and voice will need no introduction to many listeners and subscribers - she left the BBC and became the host of the lunch to teatime Slot on LBC back in 2014 and her warm tones and confiding and empathetic yet always authoritative manner have won her record audiences. As devotees will know, she comes from a large Liverpudlian family of Irish extraction and her many siblings all seem to work as nurses or coppers which came in useful when something truly difficult happened t...

Aug 01, 202244 minSeason 1Ep. 59

58 - Barbara Amiel

Barbara Amiel, Lady Black, started life as a journalist, producer, writer, whatever and whose midlife marriage to a Canadian press baron Conrad Black was a great glass elevator into the social and financial stratosphere - the power couple’s Icarus-like fall when Lord black was jailed was equally precipitate as she documents in her magnificent score settling eye popper of a memoir, Friends and Enemies.

Jul 11, 202228 minSeason 1Ep. 58

57 - Lynn Barber

This week’s Difficult Woman Lynn Barber is a journalism legend and grand dame. Winner of the Interview of the Year press Oscars a record six times, pen name the Demon Barber and when she asked to interview me this year I only agreed on condition that she would do this podcast. She is a widow who says some her jolliest conversations are now about not sex but dying but enjoyed a teenagerhood so fascinating a movie has been made of her memoir of that time, called An Education, which is not about go...

Jul 04, 202235 minSeason 1Ep. 57

Coming Soon : The Followers

Hey Difficult Women listeners, here’s a brand new podcast we think you’d like, called The Followers. Shelagh Fogarty began her LBC career as a guest presenter in 2014, and her balanced and calm presenting style soon earned her a permanent role. Heartbreakingly, it was this calm approach which led to the most harrowing ordeal of Shelagh's life, when a man stalked her for nearly 2 years. In 2017, Shelagh began to notice the same face appearing in crowds, on the tube, outside her work. She dismisse...

Jun 28, 20227 min

56 - Julia Hobsbawm

It’s hard to sum up Julia Hobsbawm. When I asked my husband he said “human dynamo” and “tireless promoter” She was the first ever professor of Public Relations who started her career as the publicist for Maya Angelou. She describes her career as “atypical.” She’s fund raised for the Labour party, she’s introduced Sarah to Gordon Brown and ran a company with her, Hobsbawm Macaulay, she’s experienced bankruptcy and corporate cancellation –and is a content provider and convenor par excellence, whos...

Jun 27, 202237 minSeason 1Ep. 56

55 - Rosie Boycott

I only invite women I admire to guest and I have admired Rosie Boycott, the co-founder of both the feminist magazine Spare Rib and the feminist publishing house Virago, then ground-breaking national newspaper editor, from afar and near for several decades now. As difficult women ie women celebrate the 50th birthday of Spare Rib, Rosie - now Baroness Boycott, as she entered the Lords as a people’s peer four years ago - joins me to talk about her extraordinary life and career.

Jun 19, 202239 minSeason 1Ep. 55

54 - Luciana Berger

Luciana Berger was a Labour MP for Liverpool Wavertree for nine years and bears the scars on her back – in her words, it wasn’t easy being “young female and Jewish” especially when Jeremy Corbyn was leader. She has been the target of industrial and criminal abuse and threats (several men have been fined or gone to jail). Shadow minister for Mental Health under Corbyn she resigned after Brexit, joined the breakaway independent group of MPs in 2019 that became the doomed Change UK, then joined the...

Jun 14, 202231 minSeason 1Ep. 54

53 - Tina Brown

If anyone ever asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up I would answer Tina Brown, the magazine editor’s magazine editor, she has helmed with pizzazz chutzpah and consummate professionalism many magazines and authored several huge bestsellers over the course of her singularly successful career- born in Britain she was editor of Tatler aged just 25 and was talentspotted to take Manhattan, where inter alia she led Vanity Fair and the New Yorker. Author of the Palace Papers, inside the house of ...

Jun 06, 202227 minSeason 1Ep. 53

52 - Abi Morgan

Abi had early ambitions to be an actress and asked her mother to judge her prospects, her mother said no darling, which lead her to an incredibly successful writing career. We owe Abi Morgan a huge corpus of hits from the hour to the split and now she has written an account of her husband's near death experience and her own breast cancer candidly called this is 'Not A Pity Memoir'

May 29, 202232 minSeason 1Ep. 52

50 - Alison Jackson

The artist Alison Jackson, 61, grew up in the shires among the landed gentry but its been rock n roll and upsetting the establishment applecart since she studied sculpture at the Chelsea College of Art and then photography at the Royal College of In 1999 her photographs of a lookalike Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed with a mixed-race child caused a storm and in 2003 she made Doubletake, a BBC2 series that won a Bafta . In November 2016 she staged a rally featuring a Donald Trump doppelganger and w...

May 17, 202234 minSeason 1Ep. 50

49 - Kemi Badenoch

The Spectator magazine has anointed this week’s Difficult Woman as not only a possible saviour of the Tory party but also a future PM. “ The current equalities and levelling-up minister Kemi Badenoch is made of the right stuff and is creating a buzz in the Tory grassroots with her fearless fightback against the leftist onslaught,” it purred. Kemi Badenoch was re-elected in 2019 as the MP for the Saffron Walden constituency. She’s held several government jobs but is currently Minister of State at...

May 09, 202239 minSeason 1Ep. 49

48 - Gabby Bertin

Gabrielle Louise Bertin, Baroness Bertin is a British Conservative member of the House of Lords and political aide best known for her association with David Cameron during his term as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

May 03, 202242 minSeason 1Ep. 48

47 - Carole Cadwalladr

Carole Cadwalladr is a British author, investigative journalist and features writer. She is a features writer for The Observer and formerly worked at The Daily Telegraph. In this LBC podcast, Rachel Johnson's Difficult Women, Rachel speaks with women who had to be a pain in the backside to get where they are today. Women who take the word difficult as a compliment not an insult. And women who had to fight, resist, insist, or otherwise be badly behaved in order to get things done. Listen and subs...

Apr 26, 202230 minSeason 1Ep. 47

46 - Dame Evelyn Glennie

Solo percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie is a double GRAMMY winner, BAFTA nominee, recipient of the Polar Music Prize and the Companion of Honour. In this LBC podcast, Rachel Johnson's Difficult Women, Rachel speaks with women who had to be a pain in the backside to get where they are today. Women who take the word difficult as a compliment not an insult. And women who had to fight, resist, insist, or otherwise be badly behaved in order to get things done. Listen and subscribe now on Global Player...

Apr 17, 202242 minSeason 1Ep. 46

45 - Lucy Easthope

Professor Lucy Easthope is the country’s leading authority on recovering from disaster. In this LBC podcast, Rachel Johnson's Difficult Women, Rachel speaks with women who had to be a pain in the backside to get where they are today. Women who take the word difficult as a compliment not an insult. And women who had to fight, resist, insist, or otherwise be badly behaved in order to get things done. Listen and subscribe now on Global Player, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Apr 11, 202239 minEp. 45

44 - Sarah Sands

Rachel Johnson speaks to Sarah Sands, a British journalist and author and former editor of the London Evening Standard, she was editor of Today on BBC Radio 4 from 2017 to 2020. In this LBC podcast, Rachel Johnson's Difficult Women, Rachel speaks with women who had to be a pain in the backside to get where they are today. Women who take the word difficult as a compliment not an insult. And women who had to fight, resist, insist, or otherwise be badly behaved in order to get things done. Listen a...

Apr 04, 202228 minEp. 44

43 - Emily Thornberry

Emily Anne Thornberry is a British politician who has been Member of Parliament for Islington South and Finsbury since 2005. A member of the Labour Party, she has served as Shadow Attorney General for England and Wales since 2021, and previously from 2011 to 2014. In this LBC podcast, Rachel Johnson's Difficult Women, Rachel speaks with women who had to be a pain in the backside to get where they are today. Women who take the word difficult as a compliment not an insult. And women who had to fig...

Mar 28, 202241 minEp. 43

42 - Claire Fox

This week Rachel speaks to Claire Fox who is a British writer, journalist, lecturer and politician who sits in the House of Lords as a non-affiliated life peer. In this LBC podcast, Rachel Johnson's Difficult Women, Rachel speaks with women who had to be a pain in the backside to get where they are today. Women who take the word difficult as a compliment not an insult. And women who had to fight, resist, insist, or otherwise be badly behaved in order to get things done. Listen and subscribe now ...

Mar 21, 202241 minEp. 42

41 - Caroline Dinenage

This week’s guest is Baroness Lancaster of Kimbolton, DBE and MP Caroline Dineage. In this LBC podcast, Rachel Johnson's Difficult Women, Rachel speaks with women who had to be a pain in the backside to get where they are today. Women who take the word difficult as a compliment not an insult. And women who had to fight, resist, insist, or otherwise be badly behaved in order to get things done. Listen and subscribe now on Global Player, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Mar 14, 202229 minEp. 41

40 - Delia Smith CH CBE

This week’s guest is celebratory chef, television presenter and Norwich City F. C. shareholder - Delia Smith CH CBE. In this LBC podcast, Rachel Johnson's Difficult Women, Rachel speaks with women who had to be a pain in the backside to get where they are today. Women who take the word difficult as a compliment not an insult. And women who had to fight, resist, insist, or otherwise be badly behaved in order to get things done. Listen and subscribe now on Global Player, or wherever you get your p...

Mar 07, 202239 minEp. 40

39 - Salma Shah

This week’s guest is partner at Portland Communications, Broadcaster, Political Commentator and School Governor - Salma Shah In this LBC podcast, Rachel Johnson's Difficult Women, Rachel speaks with women who had to be a pain in the backside to get where they are today. Women who take the word difficult as a compliment not an insult. And women who had to fight, resist, insist, or otherwise be badly behaved in order to get things done. Listen and subscribe now on Global Player, or wherever you ge...

Feb 28, 202235 minEp. 39

38 - Laura Dodsworth

This week’s guest is film maker and author - Laura Dodsworth In this LBC podcast, Rachel Johnson's Difficult Women, Rachel speaks with women who had to be a pain in the backside to get where they are today. Women who take the word difficult as a compliment not an insult. And women who had to fight, resist, insist, or otherwise be badly behaved in order to get things done. Listen and subscribe now on Global Player, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Feb 21, 202242 minEp. 38

37 - Jackie Weaver

This week’s guest is Cheshire Government Official and internet sensation - Jackie Weaver. In this LBC podcast, Rachel Johnson's Difficult Women, Rachel speaks with women who had to be a pain in the backside to get where they are today. Women who take the word difficult as a compliment not an insult. And women who had to fight, resist, insist, or otherwise be badly behaved in order to get things done. Listen and subscribe now on Global Player, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Feb 15, 202228 minEp. 37

36 - Merryn Somerset Webb

This week’s guest is Editor in chief of MoneyWeek, writer for the Financial Times and commentator on financial matters - Merryn Somerset Webb. In this LBC podcast, Rachel Johnson's Difficult Women, Rachel speaks with women who had to be a pain in the backside to get where they are today. Women who take the word difficult as a compliment not an insult. And women who had to fight, resist, insist, or otherwise be badly behaved in order to get things done. Listen and subscribe now on Global Player, ...

Feb 07, 202235 minEp. 36
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