Weekend Woman's Hour: Naga Munchetty, Women designing for women, How we learn from our mistakes, Bristol sex workers doc

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Personal Journals

4.2 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 10 May 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Four years ago the broadcaster Naga Munchetty spoke out on air about her own awful experience of getting a coil fitted, and received a huge response from listeners. It led to her talking about her debilitating periods and an eventual diagnosis with adenomyosis aged 47. She’s written about this and included the experiences of other women. Naga spoke to Anita Rani to discuss her book ‘It’s Probably Nothing’.

A wave of female designers have been appointed to some leading high street brands - including Jacqui Markham at Whistles, Maddy Evans at M&S, and Clare Waight Keller, the former Givenchy designer, to Uniqlo. So how much of a difference does it make for consumers that women are at the helm? Nuala McGovern spoke to Jacqui Markham, creative director at Whistles and Catherine Shuttleworth, CEO and founder of Savvy Marketing.

A BBC documentary The Sex Detectives: Keeping Kids Safe follows a ground-breaking project in Bristol which engages the help of street sex workers to protect children and young people at risk of sexual exploitation. Avon & Somerset Police have teamed up with charity Barnardo’s and partnered with Bristol’s street sex workers to gather intelligence about dangerous offenders and paedophiles. Nuala was joined by social worker Jo Ritchie, at Barnardo’s, and sex work liaison officer Rose Brown.

In a special programme exploring 'mistakes' and our relationship with the word, Nuala McGovern speaks to journalist Nicole Mowbray who tells about the mistake she made at The Observer newspaper which caused an 'international incident'.

A new report by HSBC looks at the obstacles and opportunities facing midlife women entrepreneurs. With more midlife women starting businesses than any other demographic, what is it like to be a female founder at 50+? Author of the report, Eleanor Mills, owner of her own company Noon and Helen Lord, co-founder of Rehome, a UK-based business specialising in the resale of used and ex-display kitchens, join Kylie Pentelow to discuss.

Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Annette Wells Editor: Emma Pearce

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to introduce myself.
0:03.7	My name's Stevie Middleton and I'm a BBC Commissioner for a load of sport podcasts.
0:08.4	I'm lucky to do that at the BBC because I get to work with leading journalists, experienced
0:12.2	pundits and the biggest sports stars.
0:14.3	Together we bring you untold stories and fascinating insights straight from the player's mouths.
0:19.1	But the best thing about doing this at the BBC
0:21.6	is our unique access to the sporting world.
0:24.8	What that means is that we can bring you podcasts
0:27.2	that create a real connection to dedicated sports fans
0:30.1	across the UK.
0:31.4	So if you like this podcast,
0:33.0	head over to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more.
0:37.1	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:40.8	Hello, I'm Anita Rani and welcome to Woman's Hour from BBC Radio 4.
0:45.9	Hello and welcome. Over the next hour, you're going to hear a few choice highlights from the week.
0:51.2	Coming up, broadcaster Naga Munchetti on her new book, It's Probably Nothing.
0:56.4	Naga examines what's been called a crisis in women's healthcare and talks about her own
1:01.2	experience of getting a diagnosis for something she'd suffered with her entire adult life
1:05.9	at the age of 47. We'll hear about an initiative in Bristol where female sex workers are working closely with the police to help safeguard children at risk of sexual exploitation. And we look at a report showing that more middle-aged women are starting businesses than any other demographic. Why is this? And how easy is it? Somebody said to me when I was about 40, other people do this, so why can't we?
1:31.3	It kind of just switched a light bulb on in my head, you know, the fact that I'm female
1:35.8	shouldn't matter.
1:37.3	The fact that I'm older shouldn't matter.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 1 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

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.