4.2 • 2.9K Ratings
🗓️ 21 August 2025
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Jess Folley has been a popstar for almost a decade and she's still only 22. At 14 she won The Voice Kids and later triumphed on X Factor: The Band, with pop group RLY. Since then she's been carving out a career as a songwriter and releasing music under her own name. Jess tells Datshiane Navanayagam about stepping into the corset and heels made famous by Christina Aguilera to play the lead role of Ali Rose in Burlesque the Musical in the West End.
Women whose data was leaked after they signed up to a dating safety app have become the target of harassment online. Tea Dating Advice, or Tea as it’s known, was set up in the US with a view to allowing women-only-users to do background checks and share their experiences of men they had been dating. But a data breach has seen images, posts and comments from more than 70,000 women who signed up leaked. Datshiane speaks to BBC World Service reporter Jacqui Wakefield and sociologist Dr Jenny van Hooff about the risks of online dating.
Research has been published which could pave the way for reducing the incidence of Alzheimer's in women. It shows women with the disease have lower levels of omega fatty acids than men. There's been debate about whether we should be taking fish oil supplements for some time, so will this answer the question? Datshiane is joined by Dr Cristina Legido Quigley, the lead researcher for this study from Kings College London and Dr Susan Kohlhaas from Alzheimer's Research UK which helped fund the work.
Former journalist-turned-bestselling-author Elodie Harper has gained a reputation for re-drafting ancient history to centre the women hidden in the margins. Her trilogy The Wolf Den breathed life into the prostituted, enslaved women whose names can still be seen graffitied on the walls of the brothel at Pompeii. Elodie talks to Datshiane about her latest book, Boudicca's Daughter, in which she’s turned her imagination to ancient Britain and the women who rose up against Roman rule in the First Century AD, led by the warrior queen Boudicca.
Presenter: Datshiane Navanayagam Producer: Andrea Kidd
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
0:00.0 | I'm Rory Stewart and I grew up wanting to be a hero and I'm still fascinated by the ideas of heroism. |
0:09.0 | In my new series, I'm taking in the long sweep of history from Achilles to Zelensky and asking, what is a hero? |
0:16.0 | Simply doing your job, being a decent human being. |
0:20.0 | A true hero is someone who just kind of shines |
0:22.9 | by their own light and that light is to be recognised by others. The long history of heroism |
0:27.8 | with me, Rory Stewart. Listen on BBC Sounds. Hello, I'm Dashiani Navanayagam and welcome to |
0:34.8 | Women's Hour from BBC Radio 4. Just to say that for rights reasons, the music in the original radio broadcast has been removed for this podcast. |
0:43.7 | Good morning and welcome to the programme. |
0:47.2 | Now, if you're a fan of burlesque, powerhouse vocals and strong women taking centre stage, |
0:53.8 | think Christina Aguilera, think share. |
0:56.6 | Well, you're in for a treat because my guest this morning is 22-year-old Jess Folly, |
1:02.3 | who's starring in Burlesque The Musical, now lighting up the West End. |
1:06.6 | She'll be here shortly to talk about what it's like leading such a bold, big-voiced show. |
1:11.5 | I should say that Jess has written some of the music for the show herself, |
1:15.4 | and she's promised to sing one of the numbers live for us, so you won't want to miss that. |
1:20.6 | But if your idea of a strong woman takes us back a couple of thousand years |
1:25.4 | and leans towards someone more ancient, more warrior-like, |
1:30.0 | well, we've got something for you too. There's a new novel about Budica's daughter. It's a powerful |
1:35.9 | reimagining of the iconic warrior queen and the life story of her little-known eldest daughter. |
1:42.6 | We'll be finding out a bit more about her, |
1:45.1 | but I can tell you there's blood, there's lust, |
1:48.7 | and yes, also some excrement too. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 19 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.