Paralympian Jodie Grinham, The Wicker Man, Singer Mary Bridget Davies
Woman's Hour
BBC
4.1 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 12 August 2024
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For the first time in history, the Paris 2024 Olympics saw an equal number of men and women competing. But that's not always been the case - in fact, back in 1912, the father of the Olympic games Pierre de Coubertin said that having women compete in the games would be 'impractical, uninteresting, ungainly and, I do not hesitate to add, improper'. Luckily, the Olympics didn’t just have the father of the games – it also had the MOTHER of games, Alice Milliat. BBC Mundo’s Laura Garcia tells us all about this sometimes forgotten figure behind the Olympics.
One of the most influential women in the tech industry has died. Susan Wojcicki, the former CEO of YouTube and one of Google’s earliest employees, died on Friday at the age of 56 from lung cancer. Sheryl Sandberg, the former Chief Operating Officer at Meta, paid tribute to Wojcicki on Instagram, writing: "As one of the most important women leaders in tech — the first to lead a major company — she was dedicated to expanding opportunities for women across Silicon Valley. I don’t believe my career would be what it is today without her unwavering support." Professor Gina Neff, executive director of the Minderoo Centre for Technology at University of Cambridge, discusses her impact.
The Paris Paralympics are two weeks away, and Nuala is joined by archery champion Jodie Grinham. Having already won a silver medal in Rio and a gold at this year's European Para Cup, Jodie will be looking to win a medal again this summer. She has already broken one record, being the first member of Team GB's para team to compete whilst pregnant.
The Wicker Man is regarded as a masterpiece of British cinema. But when the film was first released in 1973, it was a flop, and the director Robin Hardy was secretly relying on his wife Caroline to bankroll the entire production. Their son Justin Hardy talks to Nuala about the cache of long lost letters that revealed his mother’s hidden role and about his documentary, Children of The Wicker Man.
Mary Bridget Davies is playing Janis in A Night With Janis Joplin. It's a biographical musical about the life of Janis Joplin and her musical influences. It includes all the big Janis hits, including Piece of My Heart, Cry Baby, Me and Bobby McGee performed by Mary - a role she was Tony-nominated for in the Broadway version of the musical.
Presenter: Nuala McGovern Producer: Kirsty Starkey
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Rory Stewart and I want to talk about ignorance. I will die without having read |
| 0:08.2 | everything that was written in classical Latin. Because ignorance isn't simply the opposite of knowledge. |
| 0:14.7 | It's part of what it means to be human. |
| 0:17.5 | Just about every game I can think of involves ignorance. |
| 0:22.1 | There's no adventure without ignorance. There's no there's no narrative. |
| 0:25.0 | The long history of ignorance from Confucius to Kianan |
| 0:29.0 | with me Rory Stewart, |
| 0:31.0 | listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:35.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:38.0 | Hello, I'm Nula McGovran and welcome to Woman's Hour from BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:43.0 | Just to say that for rights reasons, the music in the original radio broadcast has been removed for this podcast. |
| 0:49.0 | Hello and welcome to Woman's Hour. |
| 0:51.0 | Yes, indeed, the Olympics has come to an end. |
| 0:54.2 | But if you're feeling at a loss, don't worry. |
| 0:56.3 | The Paralympics are just around the corner. |
| 0:59.2 | Paralympian Archer, Jody Grinnam, will be with us, who's excited to get going in Paris. |
| 1:03.2 | Jody is also 26 weeks pregnant. |
| 1:05.8 | So quite a different picture from 1922 when French woman Alice Miliet, dubbed the |
| 1:11.4 | mother of the Olympics was fighting to have women included |
| 1:14.6 | in any Olympian sport. |
| 1:16.6 | We're going to chat about the evolution of women in the games in a moment. |
| 1:19.9 | Also, I want to know, do you have a female athlete that you have become a huge fan off during these Olympics? |
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