The Conversation

Kim Chakanetsa talks to two women about the joys and challenges of parenting a disabled child.Gopika Kapoor is a writer, neurodiversity consultant and parent advocate. Her son Vir was diagnosed with autism at 3 years old. Gopika told her story in a book: Beyond the Blue: Love, Life and Autism. She lives and works in Mumbai.Julie Jones is an accessible and inclusive travel writing specialist from Sydney in Australia. She’s a mum of two and she cares for her disabled adult son, Braeden, who lives with cerebral palsy. She writes a blog, Have Wheelchair Will Travel, and co-founded a magazine called Travel Without Limits.Produced by Hetal Bapodra and Alice Gioia(Image: (L) Julie Jones and her son Braeden, credit courtesy of Julie Jones. (R) Gopika Kapoor, credit courtesy of Gopika Kapoor.)

Kim Chakanetsa meets two writers who, in their work, explore the themes of love, identity, belonging and inter-generational trauma. Min Jin Lee is a South Korean American author who wrote two novels, Free food for Millionaires and Pachinko, a multi-generational saga following the story of a Korean family in Japan. Pachinko was a New York Times bestseller and was nominated for the National Book Award for Fiction, and it’s recently been turned into a TV series. Min is currently working on her third novel, American Hagwon. Elif Shafak is a Turkish British writer. She has written 19 books, most of them novels, which have been translated into 55 languages. She is a Booker prize finalist, and her most recent novel - The Island of Missing Trees - tells the forbidden love story between a Greek Cypriot man and a Turkish Cypriot woman.Produced by Alice Gioia(Image: (L) Elif Shafak, credit BBC. (R) Min Jin Lee, credit Getty Images)

Tennis has a level of equality that women in other many other sports must envy, with equal prize money and media coverage at many top tournaments. Much of this is down to the work of the Women's Tennis Association, founded in 1973 by Billie Jean King and other players to unite all of women's professional tennis in one tour. To mark the 50th anniversary, Kim Chakanetsa talks to WTA president, Micky Lawler and top player, Johanna Konta about how the game is changing on the court and off it: the great steps made towards equality, and the challenges and the progress still to be made.Former British No1 Johanna Konta won three WTA Tour titles. She also played for Great Britain in the Davis Cup and Olympics and was semi-finalist at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and Roland Garros. Born in Australia she moved to train in Spain at 14 and her parents settled in the UK. She’s one of only five British women to gain a world top-ten ranking in the open era – reaching No 4 in the world in June 2017. She retired from professional tennis in December 2021, before getting married and starting a family.Micky Lawler was born in Holland, and while her father’s job took the family to live in Argentina, Bolivia and Kenya sport played an important part of her life growing up. A multi-linguist, she was teaching English and planning to be an interpreter when she got her first job in tennis. A highly successful sports agent before moving to the WTA, she’s helped build tournaments in countries around the world as a way of increasing opportunities for players.Produced by Jane Thurlow(Image: (L) Johanna Konta, credit Made Nagi/EPA. (R) Micky Lawler, credit Radka Leitmeritz.)

Kim Chakanetsa talks to two women who’ve chosen a life not on the ocean wave, but under it. Chief Petty Officer Sara Ryman is currently serving on board a submarine in the Swedish Navy as a sonar officer. She operates the kind of equipment that’s essential to a submarine’s ability to track other vessels underwater, while remaining undetected.Lieutenant Commander Rochelle Egan leads a team of engineers and technicians who maintain the Royal Canadian Navy’s Atlantic submarine fleet in tip top condition. She joined the submarine service in 2015, where she became the first female Combat Systems Engineering Officer to serve on Canada’s Victoria Class submarines.Produced by Fiona Clampin. (Image: (L) Lieutenant Commander Rochelle Egan, credit Sailor First Class Bryan Underwood/Royal Canadian Navy (R) Chief Petty Officer Sara Ryman, credit Försvarsmakten/Swedish Armed Forces.)

Artificial intelligence is changing the way we live and work. Should we accept it, or push back? Kim Chakanetsa meets two women pioneers in the field of AI and ethics. Aleksandra Przegalińska is a philosopher and data scientist. She’s the vice-rector and the head of the Human-Machine Interaction Research Center at Kozminski University in Poland and a Senior Research Associate on AI, Robots, and the Future of Work at Harvard University in the USA. Mia Shah-Dand is the founder of Women in AI Ethics, a non-profit aiming to increase female representation in the field of artificial intelligence. She is also the CEO of Lighthouse3, a consulting firm based in California that helps large organisations deploy new technologies responsibly.Produced by Alice Gioia(Image: (L) Aleksandra Przegalińska, credit courtesy of Aleksandra Przegalińska. (R) Mia Shah-Dand, credit courtesy of Mia Shah-Dand.)

Kim Chakanetsa is in the heart of Los Angeles' comedy district to meet two stand-up comedians who recently opened their own venues. Jiaoying Summers is a stand-up comedian, a social media star and the owner of The Hollywood Comedy Club and the Pasadena Comedy Club. Originally from China, she moved to the US when she was 18. She studied theatre and drama, but after director John Singleton failed her at an audition and suggested she should try comedy instead, she gave stand-up a go. She says comedy saved her life and helped her through her post-partum depression and her divorce. Nthenya Ndunda is an actor and comedian who, in 2021, opened The Comedy Nook, a venue promoting the work of black artists. She was born in Kenya and grew up in Canada, and decided to open her business after her best friend passed away. Nthenya draws inspiration for her jokes from her personal experience as a black woman living in the US and as the mother of a one-year-old.Produced by Alice Gioia(Image: (L) Nthenya Ndunda, credit Getty Images. (R) Jiaoying Summers, credit courtesy of Jiaoying Summers.)

Kim Chakanetsa hears about the awe-inspiring journeys of two white-water kayakers from the US and France, and the resilience that's kept them at the top of their discipline. Nouria Newman is the first and only woman to run a 30-metre waterfall, a feat captured in the film Wild Waters which charts some of her most audacious expeditions. After a career on the canoe slalom competition circuit, she left that behind to explore her love of the great outdoors, a passion which has taken her to some of the world's most remote and challenging rivers. Having heard many times what small, slight women like her weren't expected to do, Darcy Gaechter set out to prove them wrong. Her memoir, Amazon Woman, describes the 4,300-mile long perilous journey she undertook in 2013 from one of the sources of the Amazon to where it meets the Atlantic Ocean.Produced by Fiona Clampin(Image: (L) Nouria Newman, credit Getty Images. (R) Darcy Gaechter, credit Matt Power. Background image: East Fork Kaweah River, credit Don Beveridge.)

In many societies there are misconceptions about disability and sex. Beatriz de la Pava meets two activists from Pakistan and Nigeria who break taboos and help disabled women access family planning services. Abia Akram is chief executive of the National Forum of Women with Disabilities in Pakistan. She was on the BBC's 100 Women list in 2021 and has spoken out about the unique disability challenges faced by women in Pakistan. Abia is also a trustee with international charity Sightsavers. Lois Auta is the founder and chief executive officer at the Cedar Seed Foundation, an organisation that promotes the participation of women with disabilities in human rights-based development in Nigeria. She focuses on inclusive legislation for people with disabilities. Lois also works on an inclusive family planning project in northern Nigeria run by Sightsavers and BBC Media Action.Produced by Hetal Bapodra and Jane Thurlow(Image: (L) Abia Akram, courtesy Sightsavers. (R) Lois Auta, credit Sejoro Ekundayo.)

Kim Chakanetsa talks to two women who help save cultural heritage in areas afflicted by conflict and natural disasters.Kateryna Goncharova has a Ph.D. in Museum and Monuments Studies. She joined the World Monuments Fund in April 2022 as Ukraine Heritage Crisis Specialist and she works on the ground to safeguard the country’s cultural heritage. Some of the sites she’s currently working in are the Khanenko Museum in Kyiv, the Library of Youth in Chernihiv, and the Local History Museum in Okhtyrka, which have been severely damaged by missile attacks. Aparna Tandon leads the First Aid to Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis Programme at Iccrom, the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property. She has worked in countries afflicted by conflict and natural disasters – like Haiti, Nepal, Japan, Italy, and more recently, in the areas of Turkey and Syria hit by the 2023 earthquake. Produced by Alice Gioia(Image: (L) Kateryna Goncharova, credit World Monument Fund. (R) Aparna Tandon, credit courtesy of Aparna Tandon.)

Kim Chakanetsa talks to two Paralympic wheelchair rugby players from UK and Denmark about competing at the top level in this mixed-gender, adrenaline-filled, high-impact sport – that used to be known as murderball.Kylie Grimes is an Paralympic gold medallist, competing at three Paralympics for Great Britain. As a teenage athlete and show jumper, Kylie had a life-changing spinal injury in 2006 but her passion for sport remained. Within three years she was cycling 450 km, from Vietnam to Cambodia, to raise money for charity and was playing wheelchair rugby. In 2012 she qualified for her first Paralympics in London she helped Team GB win its first Paralympic gold in the sport at Tokyo 2020.Sofie Skoubo helped the Danish wheelchair rugby team qualify for their first Paralympics in Tokyo. She has Muscular Dystrophy and has also fought off the court to focus on the special needs of para-athletes. Alongside her sports career she works for the Muscular Dystrophy Foundation on an initiative supporting disabled children access education.Produced by Jane Thurlow(Image: (L) Sofie Skoubo, credit D Echelard. (R) Kylie Grimes, credit Megum Masuda.)