Reflecting on a year of phenomenal guests, we are bringing you a selection of the Best Conversations of 2024.
Anita Heiss is a Wiradjuri woman and a prolific author. Her latest novel, Dirrayawadha, brings together Indigenous and colonial history, as well as Wiradjuri language, into a 19th century love story between an Irish convict and a brave Wiradjuri wom ... Show More
Nov 20
How Aunty Rhonda learnt to cry
<p>Artist, author and Stolen Generations survivor, Rhonda Collard-Spratt, on bush hugs, beehives, emu bumps, and finding peace.</p><p>Aunty Rhonda Collard-Spratt is a Yamatji-Noongar elder and Stolen Generations survivor who grew up on the Carnarvon Native Mission in Western Aust ... Show More
51m 12s
Nov 19
From democracy to dictatorship and back again—how freedom falls and tyranny takes hold
<p>Dr James Loxton on how modern democracies can crumble as authoritarian regimes take hold, but also how freedom and democracy can rise again, from the Americas to Europe and into Asia.</p><p>James grew up in stable Canada, where he spent his summers herding sheep in the middle ... Show More
53m 30s
Jun 2024
Wordsmiths: Anita Cornwell
Anita Cornwell (1923-2023) made history as the first Black woman writer to openly identify as a lesbian in her published essays. From the 1950s to the 1980s, she wrote passionately about Black power and Black lesbian identity in magazines like Negro Digest, The Ladder, and Femini ... Show More
6m 31s
Sep 13
Weekend Woman’s Hour: Davina McCall, Papua New Guinea, Jung Chang, Fawning, Sophie Ellis Bextor
Davina McCall, one of TV’s most popular presenters has a new book out, Birthing, co-written with the midwife, Marley Henry. Davina joined Anita Rani to talk about her stellar career so far, including hosting Big Brother for 10 years, campaigning for better menopause care and buil ... Show More
55m 13s
Oct 2022
British Academy Book Prize 2022
Deafness and communication, writing Chinese, women as killers in Chile, German postwar history, testimony from a Swedish village and a global history of science are the topics explored in the books shortlisted for this year's prize for Global Cultural Understanding run by the Bri ... Show More
45m 2s
Jun 2017
Free Thinking: Churchill, Pocahontas and The Idiot
Anne McElvoy is joined by screenwriter Alex von Tunzelmann who discusses her new film, Churchill. New Generation Thinker Christopher Bannister, an expert on the propaganda unit The Ministry of Information, reveals the influence it still wields today. Academic Nandini Das and Step ... Show More
44m 13s
Dec 2024
Weekend Woman’s Hour: Keira Knightley and Sarah Lancashire, Sutara Gayle, Uterine fibroids, Surviving grief, Josie Lloyd
Powerhouse actors Keira Knightley and Sarah Lancashire are starring alongside Ben Wishaw in new Netflix spy drama Black Doves. It follows the story of a female spy seeking revenge for the murder of her lover – whilst outwardly being married to a high-ranking politician. Keira and ... Show More
54m 38s
Aug 2024
Iman Mersal, "Traces of Enayat" (Transit Books, 2023)
Traces of Enayat (Transit Books, 2023) is a work of creative nonfiction tracing the mysterious life and erasure of Egyptian literature’s tragic heroine. It begins in Cairo, 1963. Four years before her lone novel is finally published, the writer Enayat al-Zayyat takes her own life ... Show More
1h 1m