Full Disclosure with James O'Brien

When she was a teenager, Caroline Criado Perez found feminism embarrassing. But then she read a book which changed her life. It documented how our language is used to make women invisible, and set her on a mission to make the specifics of the female experience as self-evident as men's. Her book, Invisible Women is a #1 Sunday Times best-seller and you can sign up for the Invisible Women newsletter at carolinecriadoperez.com

He was nearly shot on one of his first jobs as a 25 year old, and throughout his illustrious career, John Simpson has continued to dice with death, reporting from thirty war zones and most recently during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. In the context of his early years it looks like fate; whilst Simpson was still in the womb, a V-1 bomb fell on his neighbour’s house but within a week of his life he had returned to the site. His latest novel, Our Friends in Beijing is the second in his Jon Swift series and is out now.

The Leader of the Opposition, Sir Keir Starmer has had a meteoric rise from his humble beginnings in a small Surrey town. The Starmer household was a busy three-bed occupied by his parents’ four children and four dogs, and in 1985 he became the first to graduate in his family. In this episode of Full Disclosure, James speaks to Starmer live at the Leicester Square Theatre in support of Global’s Make Some Noise, LBC’s charity that supports small charities in local communities across the UK. To donate go to makesomenoise.com

Known across the world for fearlessly holding dictators to account, Christiane Amanpour, as a young staffer at CNN found herself kicked off the network after a disastrous first attempt at reporting. The knock-back did not stop her; Amampour went on to cover conflict hotspots in the Gulf and Balkans, later the humanitarian crises of Hurricane Katrina and the 2011 Japanese tsunami. She is now the Chief International Anchor for CNN and will be honoured with the Larry Foster Award for Integrity in Public Communications.

Born to Jamaican parents, Beverley Knight grew up in a dedicated Pentecostal household where church attendance and music performance were inextricably linked and singing was an act of devotion to God. By the time Knight was a young adult she regarded her passion as a serious professional prospect, and as she completed her philosophy degree her records played in the clubs of Cheltenham. She’s now starring in The Drifter’s Girl at the Garrick Theatre in London.

As the younger son, Adil Ray was given more freedom to pursue his creative instincts than his older, more academic sibling. Before moving into the mainstream, Adil spent his student days in an elderly Jamaican woman’s loft hosting a pirate radio show. He now appears on millions of television sets across the country presenting ITV’s Good Morning Britain, hosting the revival of game show Lingo, and is the creator and star of sitcom, Citizen Khan.

Charlotte Church was catapulted into the spotlight at the age of 11 after singing down the line on television show, This Morning. Within two years Church had performed at Rupert Murdoch’s wedding to Wendi Deng, opened for Shirley Bassey and played the Royal Albert Hall. As a teenager she had her phone hacked and was hounded by the tabloids - but these experiences also helped her find her political voice. Her new TV show, Charlotte’s Dream Build, sees her transform the former home of Laura Ashley into a wellness retreat in Wales and is available on Really and Discovery+

When ‘Teenage Kicks’ by The Undertones was released in 1978, legendary DJ John Peel took the unprecedented step of playing it back to back on Radio 1. The lead singer was 20 year old Feargal Sharkey and the band were formed out of a desire to prove that five young men growing up in the Derry conflict zone could successfully learn to play instruments, write their own songs and hit the big time. Taking action is a thread which runs throughout Sharkey’s life, and after a successful solo career and time as chief at UK Music, he now plays a pivotal role in the campaign against the pollution of Britain’s rivers and seas.

Despite being named by The Times as the best current English-language comedian in the world, Stewart Lee insists that nobody really knows who he is. His absence from the panel show circuit, resistance to social media and use of multiple on-stage personae may be contributory factors. In the first Full Disclosure of 2022, James tries his hand at getting to know the man behind the accolades. Tickets for his autumn show, Basic Lee are available now.

Realising there was nothing he could not do, Johnny Vaughan left school and did nothing. Before becoming the presenter of the Big Breakfast and the drivetime host on Radio X, Vaughan spent much of his life navigating a host of hostile institutions and forming unlikely friendships. In this week’s episode, James speaks to Johnny about his life before broadcasting. Johnny Vaughan presents on Radio X, 4pm - 7pm, Monday - Friday.