Epstein Files, Plane spotting, Janie Dee, South Asian female DJs

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 24 December 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The US Department of Justice released another batch of documents related to the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Many of the pages are heavily redacted and represent only a fraction of the number held by the FBI. Marina Lacerda met Epstein when she was 14 years old in New York around 2002 and was abused by him. She gave her reaction to the last Friday's release of documents.

South Asian women have long been underrepresented in the DJ scene - largely due to a combination of cultural expectations and gender stereotypes but that’s starting to change. Every Saturday, Asian Network’s DJ Kizzi bring us a House Party show. This Saturday - the final one of 2025 - she’s ending the year in style with a special House Party featuring five South Asian female DJs in back-to-back sets. They will be representing the different diasporas and Asian cultures, from Punjabi and Pakistani to Bengali and Tamil. DJ Kizzi and DJ Manara join Krupa to talk about what it means to be a female South Asian DJ in a male-dominated industry and why they’re passionate about championing female DJ talent.

‘Fly girls love planes’ - that’s the motto of Gloria Amponsem, founder of a plane spotting group for women. After her videos went viral on social media, The Plane Spotting Club has organised group socials and built an online community with hundreds of women. Founder Gloria and member of the club Michelle Fradgley join Krupa to discuss why they love plane spotting and how their group is challenging stereotypes.

Brahmacharini Shripriya Chaitanya, a spiritual leader at Chinmaya Mission London, shares the wisdom of Advaita Vedanta, the Hindu philosophy of non-duality that teaches all existence is one interconnected reality. After studying in India, she returned to the UK and has spent seven years guiding her community through talks, writings, and her podcast, as well as appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Prayer for the Day. This festive season, her message is simple - pause, practise mindfulness and gratitude, and reconnect with the stillness within to find calm and light amid the celebrations.

As Noel Coward’s funny, shocking play Fallen Angels is revived one hundred years after it was first performed, actress and singer Janie Dee joins Krupa to talk about how the play almost didn’t make it past the censors, and Noel Coward cabaret night, plus she performs a Noel Coward song live in the studio.

Presenter: Krupa Padhy Producer: Dianne McGregor

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:07.0	Hello, Greg Jenner here, host of You're Dead to Me, the comedy podcast that takes history seriously and then laughs at it.
0:13.4	This Christmas, forget about socks. We've got the best present of all.
0:17.2	Dead people!
0:18.2	All that sounds like zombies. Sorry, it's not zombies. Let me start again.
0:21.8	In our new family-friendly podcast series, dead funny history, historical figures come back to life
0:26.8	but just long enough to argue with me, tell their life stories and sometimes get on my nerves.
0:31.8	You're dead to me.
0:32.8	Dead funny history.
0:34.1	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:36.2	Hello, this is Krupa Party and you're listening to the Women's Hour podcast.
0:40.8	Good morning. Thank you for being with us. There is a strong theme across the program this morning,
0:46.3	one of women following their passions, sometimes against the odds, no matter what people think
0:51.1	or say, sticking to their convictions. A couple of those women are members
0:55.5	of the UK's first all-female plain spotting club. Within a matter of month, the founder Gloria
1:01.5	Amponsim welcomed hundreds of women into her community and received thousands of views across social
1:07.6	media. Gloria is also an artist and one of her posts that caught my attention was all
1:13.3	about how plain spotting has helped her with the art of noticing and how she puts her inspiration
1:19.0	onto a canvas. Amid the hustle of daily life, especially at this time of the year, many of us
1:24.9	could do with slowing down and paying more attention to the natural world around us.
1:30.3	What do you want to notice more? What is already catching your attention?
1:35.3	The moon, the swaying of the clouds, the sound of birds, the laughter of children.
	...

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