Reeta Chakrabarti on growing older & bolder

The Shift with Sam Baker

Sam Baker Ltd

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Personal Journals

4.8 • 525 Ratings

🗓️ 27 May 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

My guest this week is the journalist and broadcaster Reeta Chakrabarti. After two decades producing and reporting for the BBC, Reeta became a news presenter at the age of 49. She was the main BBC presenter in Lviv in Western Ukraine and is now one of the chief presenters of BBC news at 6 and BBC news at 10. Brought up in Birmingham, as a teenager Reeta went to school in Calcutta before returning to the UK to go to university. She joined the BBC in 1992 where she started on Radio One Newsbeat and presented news bulletins for the legendary Radio 2 DJ Steve Wright in the Afternoon. (Just talk amongst yourself kids!) Heading into 50 she took an a whole new role and at 60 she’s done it again, only this time she’s written a book, a novel, Finding Belle, that takes us from Mombassa to Milton Keynes to Calcutta. Reeta (and the builders next door!) joined me to talk about family, belonging, growing up the only brown girl in the class and being a lifelong good girl. We also discussed the importance of failure, learning to become a yes person, in the best possible way, getting bolder as she gets older and why she has no plans to be in the newsroom at 70. * You can buy all the books mentioned in this podcast at ⁠⁠⁠The Shift bookshop on Bookshop.org⁠⁠⁠, including Finding Belle by Reeta Chakrabarti as well as the book that inspired this podcast, The Shift: how I lost and found myself after 40 - and you can too, by me. * If you enjoyed this episode and you fancy buying me a coffee, pop over to my page on ⁠⁠⁠buymeacoffee.com⁠⁠⁠. • And if you'd like to support the work that goes into making this podcast and get a weekly newsletter plus loads more content including exclusive transcripts of the podcast, why not join The Shift community, come and have a look around at ⁠⁠⁠www.theshiftwithsambaker.substack.com⁠⁠⁠ • The Shift (on life after 40) with Sam Baker is created and hosted by Sam Baker and edited by Juliette Nicholls at Pineapple Production. If you enjoyed this podcast, please rate/review/follow as it really does help other people find us. And let me know what you think on twitter @sambaker or instagram @theothersambaker Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a paid message from GoFundMe.
0:02.9	My name is Ashley Kane.
0:04.6	I'm the daddy of a little girl in heaven and a father to two boys on earth.
0:09.9	I've got an incredible relationship with GoFundMe, both personally and via our daughter's foundation, the Azalea Foundation.
0:17.4	GoFundMe has allowed me, the foundation, and thousands of people out there to give hope to others in need.
0:25.5	You'd actually be surprised how many people out there are willing to show love and support you in your time of need.
0:33.3	My advice for anyone that needs to stop a GoFundMe would be do it.
0:38.6	You don't need to feel shame.
0:40.1	You don't need to feel guilt.
0:41.3	You don't need to feel embarrassment.
0:43.1	If you need GoFundMe, use GoFundMe.
0:46.8	Start your GoFundMe today at gofundme.com.
0:50.7	That's gofundme.com.
0:56.7	This message reflects one. That's go fund me.com. G-O-F-U-N-D-M-E.com.
0:59.8	This message reflects one person's experience.
1:11.1	Hello and welcome to The Shift, a podcast that aims to tell the no-holds bar truth about being a woman post-40,
1:15.3	created and hosted by me, writer and broadcaster, Sam Baker.
1:20.1	My guest this week is the journalist and broadcaster, Rita Chakrabati.
1:25.7	After two decades producing and reporting for the BBC, Rita became a news presenter at the age of 49.
1:29.8	She was the main BBC presenter in Leviv in Western Ukraine and is now one of the chief presenters on BBC News at 6 and 10. Brought up in
1:37.1	Birmingham as a teenager Rita went to school in Calcutta before returning to the UK to go to
1:42.0	university. She joined the BBC in 1992, where she started on Radio One Newsbeat
	...

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