4.2 • 2.9K Ratings
🗓️ 1 November 2025
⏱️ 57 minutes
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Thrust onto the public stage at 15 years old after the Taliban’s brutal attack on her life, Malala Yousafzai became an international icon for resilience and bravery. Described as a reflection on a life of a woman finally taking charge of her destiny, her memoir Finding My Way has just been published. She joins Anita Rani in the Woman’s Hour studio.
There's a call to compensate women caught up in the scandal of faulty breast implants manufactured by a French company. The PIP scandal happened in 2012 when it emerged that the implants were filled with industrial silicone instead of medical grade silicone. The implants are far more likely to rupture than others. MPs on the Women’s and Equalities Committee have been hearing calls for compensation during their inquiry into the health impacts of breast implants and other cosmetic procedures. Jan Spivey from PIP Action Campaign and Professor Carl Heneghan from The Centre for Evidence Based Medicine join us to discuss this.
What if all your dreams come true and you still find yourself a bit grumpy? That’s the brilliantly blunt question at the heart of Laura Smyth's stand-up tour, Born Aggy. Laura’s journey into comedy wasn’t exactly textbook. She left behind a career in teaching, was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer that same year and - just two weeks after finishing treatment - was on stage in Live at the Apollo. She joins Nuala McGovern in the studio.
Choreographer and artist Amina Khayyam tells Anita about her new dance-theatre work, Bibi Rukiya’s Reckless Daughter, which opens soon in London after a national tour. It explores how patriarchy is enforced not only by men, but across generations of women, within family structures.
Singer, actor and performer, Petula Clark’s career has spanned over eight decades. She sang to wartime troops in the 40s, was a 1950s child star, became a European musical icon before conquering America with her No 1 hit Downtown. She starred in Hollywood movies alongside Fred Astaire and performed on stage in musicals including The Sound of Music, Sunset Boulevard and most recently Mary Poppins. Her autobiography - Is That You, Petula? is out now and she joins Nuala to look back at her long career.
Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Simon Richardson
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.3 | Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. |
| 0:10.5 | Evil genius. |
| 0:11.6 | He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. |
| 0:15.5 | That's like hiding at your own funeral. |
| 0:17.1 | Yeah, a bit great gig. |
| 0:18.6 | I'm Russell Kane. |
| 0:19.6 | Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps it. It's a long time ago, right? It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's out of ice cream. Listen to Evil Genius on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:42.5 | Hello and welcome to the programme. Coming up, highlights from The Woman's Hour Week. |
| 0:49.4 | Comedian Laura Smith on career success, overcoming cancer and making peace with still being grumpy. |
| 0:55.4 | We hear about a new call to compensate women caught up in the scandal of faulty breast implants. |
| 1:00.8 | Choreographer Amina Kayam discusses her new dance piece about being a reckless daughter and Petula Clark on The Secret to a Joyful Life at the Age of 92. |
| 1:05.8 | I love what I do. I love music. |
| 1:08.2 | I think I'm privileged all these years to have been doing what I love. You know, how many people can say that. And the energy that comes back to me from the audience is two-way traffic. It's a very exciting thing to do. I can't imagine my life without it. Without music and garlic, if you really want to know. |
| 1:28.2 | Singer, actor and performer, Petula Clark, coming up shortly. Lots of inspirational stories on |
| 1:34.1 | the programme, but we begin with Malala Yusuf Sae, who joined me on Woman's Hour yesterday. Malala |
| 1:40.7 | was thrust onto the public stage at 15 years old after the Taliban's brutal attack on her life in 2012. |
| 1:48.0 | Following this, she became an international icon for resilience and bravery, |
| 1:52.7 | going on to become the youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize recipients at just 17. |
| 1:57.7 | Her funny, enlightening, thoughtful memoir finding my way has just been published and we |
| 2:02.4 | began by talking about the dream that drove her for many years to get an education and to go to |
| 2:08.3 | university. I did not take my education for granted because I was only 11 years old when I saw |
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