The Labour government has confirmed that it will act on its manifesto commitment to change the way private school fees are taxed across the UK. The current exemption from VAT will be removed, in order to fund 6,500 new teachers in England, and the change is coming in January next year, sooner than previously thought. Nuala McGovern gets the latest from the BBC’s Education Correspondent Elaine Dunkley, then speaks to Sarah, a parent whose son is at private school, and is also joined by Sarah Cunn...
Jul 31, 2024•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast A stabbing attack in the Southport area of Merseyside has, at the time of going to air, killed a number of children and critically injured others. Nuala McGovern is joined by BBC Home Affairs Correspondent Lauren Moss to give us the latest. She also hears from the Labour and Cooperative Party Police and Crime Commissioner for Merseyside, Emily Spurrell, and the Reverend Marie-Anne Kent on how the community are coming together to support each other. NB. The number of fatalities and injured was co...
Jul 30, 2024•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Irish novelist Edna O'Brien has died aged 93. President of Ireland Michael D Higgins said she was "one of the outstanding writers of modern times". She is perhaps best known for her portrayal of women's lives against repressive expectations in Irish society. Her first novel, The Country Girls, was published in 1960 and became part of a trilogy that was banned in Ireland for their references to sexual expression and social issues. Nuala McGovern speaks to Irish novelist Eimear McBride, who kn...
Jul 29, 2024•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Paris 2024 Olympics start this evening with the opening ceremony. It's the first time an equal number of men and women will compete in a summer Games. To discuss the sportswomen you should keep an eye out for, Anita Rani is joined by Jeanette Kwakye, a former Olympian herself and now BBC pundit, and also BBC Sport reporter Laura Scott. A new film, The Commandant’s Shadow, follows Hans Jürgen Höss, the 87-year-old son of Rudolf Höss, the camp commandant of Auschwitz who masterminded the murde...
Jul 27, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Paris 2024 Olympics start this evening with the opening ceremony. It's the first time an equal number of men and women will compete in a summer Games. To discuss the sportswomen you should keep an eye out for, Anita Rani is joined by Jeanette Kwakye, a former Olympian herself and now BBC pundit, and also BBC Sport reporter Laura Scott. Adoption England have described an ‘unprecedented’ decline in adoption rates. For the first time in recent years, there are now more children in need of adopt...
Jul 26, 2024•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kamala Harris has spoken about making childcare and eldercare more affordable, securing universal paid maternity leave and signing into law a bill that would restore and protect the right to abortion. So could these policies win her female votes, and how does this fit in with her strategy to try and beat Trump in the US presidential election? Anita Rani speaks to Dr Leslie Vinjamuri, director of Chatham House's US and Americas programme. Zara Sehar recently won the audience vote at the Roundhous...
Jul 25, 2024•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign has been inspired by Charli XCX and her recent album release, brat. The link between the two is all over social media – but what does it all mean? Nuala McGovern is joined by former Editor-in-Chief of Vice and co-host of the Good Bad Billionaire podcast on BBC World Service to explain the trend, and columnist for The Times, Alice Thomson on Kamala Harris’ appeal to women. A new film, The Commandant’s Shadow, follows Hans Jürgen Höss, the 87-year-old son of Ru...
Jul 24, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast What makes women become whistleblowers? And what happens after they’ve brought wrongdoing to light? Nuala McGovern talks to lawyer-turned-author Megan Davis about her experience blowing the whistle on financial crime, how it inspired writing her new thriller Bay of Thieves, and how a whistle-blower can make the perfect character for crime fiction. When is it socially acceptable to bring your partner to hang out with your friends? According to academic and writer Kate Lister the answer is never. ...
Jul 23, 2024•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast President Biden has bowed to pressure and made the decision to drop out of the US presidential race. He’s endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the potential Democrat Party nominee to run against Donald Trump – but is America ready for another female presidential nominee? Nuala McGovern is joined by Kelly Dittmar, Director of Research at the non-partisan Center for American Women and Politics and Kimberly Peeler- Allen, co-founder of Higher Heights, an organisation that works to mobilise blac...
Jul 22, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Portuguese-Canadian singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado has sold more than 40 million records worldwide and won awards including a Grammy. Her upbeat, genre-defying pop music dominated the charts in the 2000s, from her break out hit I’m Like A Bird to her 2006 album Loose and its stand out hit Maneater. After finding that her music had been rediscovered by a whole new generation of fans on social media, she’s back with 7, her first album since 2017.In February 2021, a coup returned Myanmar to mi...
Jul 20, 2024•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Vula Malinga started out as one of the lead singers for the London Community Gospel Choir, before becoming a lead vocalist with Basement Jaxx and she has also collaborated with the likes of Adele, Dizzee Rascal and Beverley Knight. Tomorrow night Vula will don her flares and sequins as one of the soloists at the BBC Prom – Everybody Dance! The Sound of Disco, at the Royal Albert Hall. Along with the BBC Concert Orchestra will perform iconic disco classics from the late 1970s Studio 54 era. She j...
Jul 19, 2024•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Portuguese-Canadian singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado has sold more than 40 million records worldwide and won awards including a Grammy. Her upbeat, genre-defying pop music dominated the charts in the 2000s, from her break out hit I’m Like A Bird to her 2006 album Loose and its stand out hit Maneater. After finding that her music had been rediscovered by a whole new generation of fans on social media, she’s back with 7, her first album since 2017. North East Lincolnshire and Blackpool are the ...
Jul 18, 2024•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today, Woman's Hour comes live from Lord's Cricket Ground as England face New Zealand for the culmination of a five-match T20 International series. To talk us through the upcoming game we are joined by Ebony Rainford-Brent MBE. Ebony is a World Cup-winning cricketer, now turned presenter and pundit. We begin by looking at the grassroots game which is growing at a fast rate. We hear from girls at Carlton Cricket Club about why they love the sport, also from 16-year-old Honor Black who’s clothing ...
Jul 17, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast One of the most iconic musicals of all time, Hello, Dolly!, has returned to the London Palladium, with Jerry Herman’s unforgettable score including Put On Your Sunday Clothes, Before the Parade Passes By, It Only Takes a Moment and Hello, Dolly! It’s a huge, no-expense-spared production, with a cast of 40, and the legendary Imelda Staunton as the witty and charming matchmaker Dolly Levi. Jenna Russell plays the millineress Irene Molloy. Jenna is well known for her TV roles in Call The Midwife an...
Jul 16, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Former Old Bailey judge, Her Honour Wendy Joseph KC, lifts the lid on our legal system. Having worked in criminal courts for almost half a century, she is still asking: what is justice? She tells Nuala McGovern some of the ways women and children struggle through the legal system - and why she wanted to highlight these issues in her latest book, Rough Justice. Twisters – the sequel to 1996 disaster-tornado film Twister – has been accused of playing into sexist tropes about storm chasers and mete...
Jul 15, 2024•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast A record-breaking number of women MPs have been elected following Labour's win at the general election. It's also the first time in parliamentary history that the proportion of women elected is more than 40%. Harriet Harman, the now ex-Labour MP and former Mother of the House, gives her reaction. Three women who say they were the victims of a racial attack have had the charges of assault made against them by their assailant discontinued by the CPS. Selma Taha, the executive director for advocacy...
Jul 13, 2024•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Three women who were the victims of a racial attack have had the charges of assault made against them by their assailant discontinued by the CPS. Selma Taha, the executive director for advocacy group Southall Black Sisters, and Danae Thomas, two of the women, join Anita Rani to talk about what impact the charges being dropped has had, and how they’re hoping this might impact further action against racist violence against women and girls. Saturday’s Wimbledon champion will be a first time winner ...
Jul 12, 2024•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Department for Work and Pensions has just published statistics on the number of people affected by the so-called two-child benefit cap, which restricts child tax credit and universal credit to the first two children in most households. Some campaigners have called the cap the biggest driver of the rise in child poverty in the UK and are demanding the new Labour government scrap it immediately. So what is the future of the policy? Anita Rani talks to BBC political correspondent Hannah Miller,...
Jul 11, 2024•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast Irish soldier Cathal Crotty was given a three-year suspended sentence after beating Natasha O'Brien unconscious in May 2022. Now, in the latest development, he is due to be formally discharged from the Defence Forces. Nuala hears Natasha's reaction and speaks to Diane Byrne, a spokeswoman for the Women of Honour group, to hear what impact this could have. Hannah Mills is the most successful female sailor in Olympic history, having won medals at the London, Rio and Tokyo Olympic Games. Now she’s ...
Jul 10, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Former Chief Prosecutor Nazir Afzal speaks to Nuala McGovern about his independent culture review of the Nursing and Midwifery Council, which is the independent regulator for nurses and midwifes in the UK. The report is highly critical, finding that a "dysfunctional culture" at the council has "threatened public safety and puts nurses at risk." Sir David Warren, Chair of the Council also joins them to respond to the findings of the report. Women are turning to increasingly risky ways to get weig...
Jul 09, 2024•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast There are a record number of women MPs in the new parliament. Nuala McGovern is joined by former Mother of the House and now chair of the charity the Fawcett Society, Harriet Harman, who wants to set up a Women’s Caucus made up of female MPs. We also have political reaction from journalists Rachel Cunliffe and Caroline Wheeler. Is sports day something that teaches children invaluable life lessons, or simply an annual event that demoralises? Nuala is joined by journalist Esther Walker and comedia...
Jul 08, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast A new series was released this week on Netflix. It is called Man with 1,000 Kids, and Netflix is billing it as the true story of Jonathan Meijer, a man accused of travelling the world, deceiving women into having his babies - via sperm donation - on a mass scale. Nuala McGovern talks to Jonathan Meijer, the sperm donor, to mums Natalie and Suzanne, who had a baby conceived with Jonathan’s donor sperm, to Natalie Hill, the executive producer who pitched the original idea for these films to Netfli...
Jul 06, 2024•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast It’s 25 year since the New York Times’ best-selling author Lisa Jewell published her first novel, Ralph’s Party. Since then she’s written another twenty-one novels, and more recently a number of dark psychological thrillers, including Then She Was Gone, The Family Upstairs and the award winning None of This is True. She joins Krupa Padhy to discuss her latest work – Breaking the Dark – which is a Jessica Jones Marvel crime novel, exploring the world of the private detective and former superhero....
Jul 04, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast A new series has been released this morning (3 July) on Netflix. It is called Man with 1,000 Kids, and Netflix is billing it as the true story of Jonathan Meijer, a man accused of travelling the world, deceiving women into having his babies - via sperm donation - on a mass scale. Nuala talks to Jonathan Meijer, the sperm donor, to mums Natalie and Suzanne, who had a baby conceived with Jonathan’s donor sperm, to Natalie Hill, the executive producer who pitched the original idea for these films t...
Jul 03, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast British scientist Dame Carol Robinson, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oxford and a trailblazer in the field of mass spectrometry, will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award during this year’s European Inventor Award 2024 ceremony. She will be first ever British winner. She is receiving the award not just for her outstanding work but also for championing women in STEM. She joins Nuala McGovern to explain why she’s passionate about women in science. Woman’s Hour has already spoken to...
Jul 02, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Gabby Logan joins Krupa Padhy to talk about her new book The Midpoint Plan. She’s challenging the stereotype of middle age. With fewer insecurities, children leaving home and perhaps a bit more money in the bank, she believes we should see it as the best point in our lives. Plus, if we look after ourselves in midlife, we’ll be happier in old age. Monday 1st July marks the first day of this year’s Wimbledon. Players will be donning their whites to play at the All England Club. Molly McElwee, free...
Jul 01, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Girls Just Want to Have Fundamental Rights' has become a popular placard at women's rights events around the world. The singer behind the anthem that inspired it is none other than Cyndi Lauper. She joins Anita Rani to reflect on her 40-year career, becoming a feminist figure and performing on the iconic Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury. Wimbledon starts next week and amongst the usual pre-match discussions about favourites and performances, there’s also been a serious conversation about how top-lev...
Jun 29, 2024•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast 'Girls Just Want to Have Fundamental Rights' has become a popular placard at women's rights events around the world. The singer behind the anthem that inspired it is none other than Cyndi Lauper. She joins Anita Rani to reflect on her 40-year career, becoming a feminist figure and performing on the iconic Pyramid Stage. Corinne Bailey Rae's latest album is a complete departure from her previous work. Black Rainbows is inspired by a trip to Stony Island Arts Bank, a Chicago-based archive of black...
Jun 28, 2024•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the next of the Woman’s Hour interviews with the leaders of the main political parties in the run-up to the General Election, Clare McDonnell speaks to John Swinney, Scotland’s First Minister and leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party. What does it mean to be an adult orphan? Does the term still apply if you lose both parents when you’re no longer a child? Playwright Naomi Westerman was writing about death rituals when she lost her whole family, turning the academic into the deeply personal...
Jun 27, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Woman’s Hour has invited the leaders of all the main political parties for an interview in the run-up to the General Election. Today, in place of the Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, Nuala McGovern is joined by Christine Jardine, the party’s Women and Equalities spokesperson. Danish actress Sofie Gråbøl is best known to British viewers for her role as Sarah Lund in Scandi Noir crime drama The Killing. Now she’s returning to our cinema screens in a new film, Rose. Sophie plays Inger, a woman...
Jun 26, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
