Hello and welcome to Women with Balls, where I, Katie Balls, speak to her day as trailblazers.

My guest today is Scottish by birth, but her parents left for England when she was just out

to primary school. Growing up in Devon, she was the first in her family to go to university,

where she studied international relations. In the lead-up to

the Scottish referendum, my guest surprised her family by opting to vote leave, citing the need for

Scotland to have more democratic choice. Her first array into politics came when she returned

to Scotland and worked for a pro-independence think tank, solidifying herself as a campaigner. She stood

for election in the East Edinburgh seat,

where she won a majority of more than 5,000 over Labour's Keziah Dugdale.

Her first two years in the Scottish Parliament was spent on the backbenchers.

She has since set as a minister for multiple departments and developed a reputation as an

SMP rebel.

Now she's running to lead the party, just a few weeks time we'll find out

if she has been successful. My guest today is Ash Reagan. So Ash, thanks so much for coming on this

podcast when I find the time. I realize you were very busy in what is quite a tight time-wise

leadership contest. Yes. And the question we begin before we get to leadership by asking everyone is, did you have a

happy childhood? I mentioned you're a Norwegian parents, but you spent your early life and bigger.

I did. I enjoyed living and bigger when I was small. So I lived there until I was about 10.

I just have one sister who's younger. It was a nice childhood where we were out, I think it was in those days, parents let kids roam a bit more.

So we just used to roam around on our bicycles and riding horses and, you know, kind of doing all that kind of stuff.

And it was lots of outdoor fun. So it was good.

And I did miss Scotland when I moved away, when I first moved down to England.

...