Episode description

Helping start the Women's Liberation Movement in Britain is just one of the key moments in Sheila Rowbotham's life. This year she published Daring to Hope: My Life in the 1970s and she compares then and now talking to Rana Mitter. Also a discussion of early Buddhism and new research uncovered by Sarah Shaw and Kate Crosby.

The Art of Listening: A Guide to the Early Teachings of Buddhism by Sarah Shaw is out now

Esoteric Theravada is a book Kate Crosby exploring the Southeast Asian meditation tradition

Sheila Rowbotham's Daring to Hope: My Life in the 1970s is out now. Her other books include Dreamers of a New Day: Women Who Invented the Twentieth Century; the biography Edward Carpenter: A Life of Liberty and Love and Rebel Crossings: New Women, Free Lovers and Radicals in Britain and the United States

Producer: Luke Mulhall

On the Free Thinking programme website you can find a playlist exploring religious belief featuring a range of interviewees including Giles Fraser, Francesca Stavrakopoulou, Yaa Gyasi, Shelina Janmohamed and Haemin Sunim. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03mwxlp