Weddings and hen parties as comic devices

The last year has seen the election of several women to positions of political leadership: Sanae Takaichi as Prime Minister of Japan, Catherine Connolly as President of Ireland, and Jennifer Geerlings-Simons as President of Suriname. But, a recent report has suggested that trust in women leaders is declining globally. The Reykjavik Index For Leadership measures how women and men are perceived in terms of their suitability for leadership, not just in politics but across many sectors of society. So is this part of a trend of declining trust in women in positions of power? Kylie Pentelow is joined by Lois Taylor, Global Marketing Director of Verian Group who published the report, and BBC business journalist and presenter of Moneybox Live Felicity Hannah to discuss.

Columnist Sarah Vine started losing her hair as a teenager and was eventually diagnosed with female pattern baldness, a hormonal condition. But now she has decided, after 15 years of wearing wigs, to reveal her own hair on the front cover of a national newspaper. She spoke to Kylie about her decision to bare all.

According to a recent poll by US analytics firm Gallup, 40% of American women aged 15 to 44 would move abroad if they had the opportunity, with the desire to migrate among younger American women quadrupling in the past decade. Kylie talks to Josephine Harmon, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Northeastern University in Boston, and Bonnie Medina – now 45 with two young children - who lives in London having left Seattle one-and-a-half years ago.

Four-time Olivier Award-winning actress, singer and director Maria Friedman is still best known to many as the narrator in the film of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. But this Christmas, her hugely acclaimed Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim’s musical Merrily We Roll Along, starring Daniel Radcliffe and Jonathan Groff, is coming to cinemas. And Maria also stars in Tinsel Town, which sees Kiefer Sutherland play a washed-up Hollywood actor who ends up in a small town pantomime. Maria joins Kylie to talk about more than three decades on stage and screen, and spreading joy at Christmas.

A quirky new romcom novel set against the sapphic dating scene is out. My Ex-Girlfriend’s Wedding is about Hope, a folk musician who feels that she has nothing going for her: She's in a job she hates, has had to quit her band after losing the ability to play guitar; her very recent ex-girlfriend is now getting married. And so, she resolves there’s nothing for it, but to accept an invitation to the wedding and try to win back the love of her life. Kylie asks Sophie Crawford about relationships with an ex, dating within the queer community and magic- all themes in her book.

Presenter: Kylie Pentelow Producer: Corinna Jones