Margaret Atwood memoir, Cat Burns, Choking Porn Law, Dame Elaine Paige

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Personal Journals

4.2 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 8 November 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In Margaret Atwood’s 64-year career she has published world-renowned, prescient novels like The Handmaid’s Tale, Cat’s Eye, Alias Grace and Blind Assassin, and now a memoir. Margaret joins Nuala McGovern to discuss Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts and reflect on her life, her work and the power of knowing her own mind.

Pornography featuring strangulation or suffocation - often called choking - is due to be criminalised across the UK as part of government plans to tackle violence against women and girls. It follows an independent review which found depictions of choking were "rife" on mainstream porn sites and had helped normalise the act among young people. Gemma Kelly, policy consultant on the review, and Professor Clare McGlynn, leading expert on VAWG and gender equality, discuss.

The Mercury Prize-nominated singer-songwriter Cat Burns has also just released her new album, How to Be Human. She joins Nuala to discuss her new album and taking part in Celebrity Traitors.

Writer and producer Nova Reid joins Anita Rani to talk about the late Dame Jocelyn Barrow, the race relations campaigner and the first black female governor of the BBC whose story Nova tells in her new podcast, Hidden Histories with Nova Reid. The interview includes a clip of Jocelyn from 2017 sharing her thoughts with The University of Law on what she considered to be the greatest improvements in diversity.

Is having a boyfriend now embarrassing? Writer Chanté Joseph recently explored this idea in an article for Vogue and on social media, observing a noticeable shift in how people - particularly heterosexual women - present their relationships online. Instead of posting clear photos of their romantic partners, many are choosing subtler signals: a hand on a steering wheel, clinking glasses, or even blurring out faces in wedding pictures. But why the change? Anita hears more from Chante.

A grande dame of musical theatre, Elaine Paige made her West End debut in the 1960s and shot to fame in 1978 playing Eva Perón in Evita, going on to star in Cats, Chess, Sunset Boulevard and many more. Elaine talks to Anita about her damehood, fostering the next generation of talent and having stage fright.

Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Dianne McGregor

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts.
0:07.3	Hello, I'm Kimberly Wilson. I'm a psychologist, and in my new podcast, Complex, I'll be your guide
0:14.4	through all the information and misinformation that's out there about mental health.
0:19.0	I'm joined by expert guests covering topics from people
0:22.5	pleasing to perfectionism, burnout to empathy, to find tangible advice so we can understand
0:28.4	ourselves a little better. Complex with me, Kimberly Wilson. Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:35.8	Hello and welcome to the program.
0:38.3	Coming up, highlights from the Woman's Hour week.
0:41.2	In a moment, the literary icon and feminist Margaret Atwood.
0:45.0	If you're missing celebrity traitors, traitor herself Kat Burns talks about the show
0:50.2	and shares insights into her brand new album.
0:53.7	Is having a boyfriend now considered embarrassing?
0:57.0	That's the headline from a viral article.
0:59.2	We'll be unpacking what's behind it.
1:01.5	It's 60 years since the Race Relations Act came into force.
1:04.8	We hear about Dame Jocelyn Barrow, a pioneering educator and Tyler's campaigner
1:09.8	against racial discrimination,
1:11.7	and the Grand Dame of Musical Theatre herself, Dame Elaine Page,
1:16.9	reflects on what it means to become an actual dame.
1:20.5	But first, Margaret Atwood is a titan of literature,
1:24.7	whether it's dystopian futures or feminist perspectives. She started writing at
1:30.0	six, she's now 85, and in that time she's written 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books
	...

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