It was just a year ago that the U.S. withdrew its troops from Afghanistan. On that date, Nahid Shahalimi, an Afghan female writer living in Germany, realized that she needed to hurry to record the stories of prominent Afghan women who soon would try to escape their country, or stay and risk death. She did so, and compiled their stories in “We Are Still Here. ... Show More
Nov 20
John Irving Creates a Queen
We DO love talking to John Irving. In our winding, wandering and wonderful conversation we cover it all from his newest, Queen Esther, the art of writing backwards, skiing in Vienna and the eccentricities of bike pump usage. If this description doesn’t entice you to listen, we ... Show More
35m 8s
Nov 6
Catherine Newman and Bittersweet Motherhood
Catherine Newman’s latest, Wreck, is a beautiful meditation on the act of motherhood. Revisiting the family from Sandwich as they enter a new phase of familial life. We all know that successful parents raise kids just to lose them to the world, and that this launch into independe ... Show More
36m 30s
Aug 2022
Afghan women keep hope alive one year after the fall of Kabul
One year after the Taliban took over Kabul, Afghan-Canadian author Nahid Shahalimi says the voices of Afghan women are not being heard. In her new book, We Are Still Here: Afghan Women on Courage, Freedom, and the Fight to Be Heard, Shahalimi collects the stories and struggles of ... Show More
26m 45s
Nov 2021
The plight of girls under the Taliban
In Afghanistan, high schools are currently closed to girls, and women have been banned from TV dramas. So how hard is life for the female half of the population, as the Taliban reassert control?Tamasin Ford hears from her colleague Yalda Hakim, who recently returned to the Afghan ... Show More
18m 13s
Apr 2020
Fatima Bhutto - The Shadow of the Crescent Moon
Long-listed for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction, Bhutto’s lyrical debut novel unfolds over the course of one morning in Mir Ali, a small town in Pakistan's Tribal Areas close to the Afghan border.
Set during the American invasion of Afghanistan, it chronicles the lives of f ... Show More
49m 20s