Driving anxiety, Erika Kirk profile, Marie Antoinette style

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Personal Journals

4.2 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 22 September 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Journalist Mary McCarthy has been avoiding motorways for years, even planning her life around how to dodge them. She tells Kylie Pentelow how she discovered it’s a far more common problem than you might think, especially among women in mid-life.

England are through to the Rugby World Cup final. They face Canada next Saturday but who will we see lift the trophy? Former player Kat Merchant gives her view.

Who is Erika Kirk? Kylie speaks to Anne McElvoy, executive editor at Politico and host of the Sam and Anne political podcast, about the wife of Charlie Kirk, American activist and influencer, who was shot dead on 10 September.

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks discusses her new adaptation of The Harder They Come, based on the classic 1972 film whose legendary soundtrack brought reggae to the world. She joins Kylie to explain her process for adapting classic stories and how she rewrote the rules for language and structure in theatre.

The UK’s first ever exhibition dedicated to the life of the French Queen Marie Antoinette has just opened at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Marie Antoinette Style explores the lasting influence of the fashionable icon, showcasing more than 250 objects, some of which have never been seen outside of Versailles. So, who was this ill-fated queen and how does her style still resonate with us today?

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, radio podcasts.
0:07.3	Right, you feeling ready? I'm feeling ready.
0:10.8	I'm Amal Rajin. Join me on my new podcast for in-depth conversations with pioneers and
0:16.0	innovators, talking about the trends and ideas that could help shape and change our future.
0:21.5	We are going to be digital citizens of this AI world, whether we like it or not.
0:26.2	From declining birth rates to disinformation online, can they solve the world's biggest challenges?
0:32.0	What I would love to do is go to the transfer and say radically cut the taxes of those with children.
0:37.3	Radical with me, Amul Rajin.
0:39.3	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:41.0	Hello, I'm Kylie Pentalo and welcome to Woman's Hour from BBC Radio 4.
0:46.3	Just to say that for rights reasons, the music in the original radio broadcast has been removed for this podcast.
0:53.7	Hello and welcome to the programme as we head into autumn.
0:58.0	Certainly feels like it this morning, doesn't it?
1:00.2	Now, there's plenty to come today, including driving anxiety.
1:05.4	I'll be talking to a woman who, after years of driving, now feels unable to drive on the motorway,
1:11.3	something that's having a huge impact on her life.
1:14.1	So we want to hear from you on this.
1:15.9	Have you found that your confidence behind the wheel has diminished as you've got older?
1:21.1	How does it affect you?
1:22.3	And maybe you might have some tips on how to overcome it.
1:26.1	So text the programme, the number's 84844.
1:29.3	On social media, we're at BBC Women's Hour.
	...

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