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Woman's Hour

Hadley Freeman, Baroness Warsi, Derry Girls' actors Siobhan McSweeney and Louisa Harland on the London stage, AI, Emma Booth

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture

4.22.9K Ratings

🗓️ 15 April 2023

⏱️ 56 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The writer Hadley Freeman stopped eating when she was 14, and spent the next three years in and out of hospital, battling with anorexia. Now in her mid-forties, she says she didn’t completely close the door on the disease until relatively recently. In Good Girls – A Story and Study of Anorexia, she gives an unflinching account of what happened to her and looks at what happens to girls who become anorexic now; what we know and what we don’t about the mental illness.

Brian Friel’s classic play Dancing at Lughnasa has opened at the National Theatre. Telling the story of the five Mundy sisters, two of the actors, more recently on our screens in Derry Girls - Siobhan McSweeney and Louisa Harland - discuss their new roles.

Emma Booth is on the Woman's Hour Power List, this year focussed on women in sport. Emma impressed the judges as she took a public stand against major golf brand TaylorMade and their lack of female imagery and golf products for women. She reflects on speaking out against such a well-known company and how it is to be a woman in golf.

The conservative peer Baroness Sayeeda Warsi has criticised the home secretary Suella Braverman for using "racist rhetoric". She says her recent comments on small boats and grooming gangs have "emboldened racists". We ask her why she's decided to speak out.

Have you ever heard an interview with a robot on the radio? We speak to the world’s first ultra-realistic artist robot, Ai-Da, and her creator, Aidan Meller.

What’s it like to become a pop star at almost 46? Twenty years ago Alexis Strum had a record deal and achieved her dream to make an album, but then it was pulled. She walked away from music – until now. She shares her story with Nuala.

Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Lucy Wai Editor: Louise Corley

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hello and welcome to Weekend Woman's Hour with me and Nita Rani.

0:04.4

Grab a copper, settle in, open the biscuits.

0:07.4

Coming up, the conservative peer Baroness Vassie

0:10.2

on why she's speaking out against the home secretary,

0:12.9

Suella Braverman.

0:14.2

Plus,

0:14.9

I am Ada.

0:16.8

I'm the world's first ultra-veeristic artist robot.

0:20.8

I draw using cameras in my eyes.

0:23.8

My AI algorithms and my robotic arm.

0:27.3

Our robots able to exhibit creativity.

0:29.9

We chat to Ada, the world's first ultra-realistic,

0:33.9

humanoid robot artist.

0:36.8

And we catch up with Derri Gilles' actors,

0:39.0

Shivon Makswini and Louise Harland,

0:41.2

who've reunited for a new production of Dancing at Lunar Sir.

0:45.6

But first, journalist and writer Hadley Freeman

0:48.9

stopped eating when she was 14

0:51.3

and spent the next three years in and out of hospital,

0:54.4

battling with anorexia.

0:56.5

Now in her mid-40s, she says she didn't completely close

0:59.8

the door on the disease until relatively recently.

...

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