The Conversation

Mountain rescue volunteers are a rare breed: they’re on call 24/7, ready to risk their lives to save hikers and skiers who get stuck on the mountains. Kim Chakanetsa meets two women who lead perilous rescue missions in Canada and in the UK.Kirsty Pallas is a mountaineering and climbing instructor based in Scotland. In 2014 she joined the Oban Mountain Rescue Team, where she’s a callout manager and a training officer. She’s also the founder of Our Shared Outdoors, an organisation set up to tackle and change the lack of diversity in the outdoors and promote underrepresented groups.Kayla Brolly is an emergency room nurse and a crew member with North Shore Rescue, the busiest volunteer search and rescue organisation in Canada. She’s been involved in countless rescue operations in the popular hiking and skiing mountains north of Vancouver. In December 2017, whilst taking part in a delicate rescue mission on a steep slope, she suffered a severe head injury.Produced by Alice Gioia for BBC World Service.

Men run most of world's cultural institutions, but in recent years more women have been given top jobs at leading galleries and museums. Kim Chakanetsa speaks to two women from Australia and Germany about the importance of getting a woman's view on what's worth displaying and history worth preserving.Margot Neale Ngawagurrawa is an Aboriginal Australian curator and one of the world's leading experts on Aboriginal history and culture. She's Head Indigenous Curator at the National Museum Australia and has spent seven years bringing together historical and cultural stories of the Aboriginal peoples which till now have only existed in oral form. The resulting exhibition, Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters is now on a global tour – and in Plymouth, UK till the end of February 2022.Dr Stephanie Rosenthal has been director of Gropius Bau in Berlin, Germany since 2018. She studied art history and her work since then has focused on contemporary art and performance. The Gropius Bau has recently tackled the subjects of humanity’s relationship to nature, exploitative extraction processes and ‘how plants practice politics’.Produced by Jane Thurlow(Image: (L) Stephanie Rosenthal, credit Mathias Voelzke. (R) Margot Neale Ngawagurrawa, courtesy Margot Neale Ngawagurrawa. Background: Maruku Arts by Niningka Lewis.)

Sound is everywhere around us: from blockbuster Hollywood films to live music events, from broadcasting the news to speaking with astronauts in space. For every broadcast, big or small, there are engineers and sound designers working behind the scenes to make sure you get the highest audio quality possible. Kim Chakanetsa explores the world of audio production with two of the best in this field. Nina Hartstone is a supervising sound editor based in the UK. Over the course of her career Nina has received some of the industry’s highest awards - including an Oscar and a BAFTA Award for the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody in 2019. She is also known for her work on the films Gravity, Cats and An Education. Alexandria Perryman is a live broadcast engineer at NASA's Johnson Space Center, where she supports astronauts with all-things audio: from helping them communicate with mission control to facilitating media interviews. She won an Emmy Award for her work on the coverage of SpaceX’s Demonstration Mission 1 – the first orbital test of the Dragon 2 spacecraft.Produced by Alice Gioia. Sound editing by Sue Maillot.(Image: (L) Alexandria Perryman, credit Norah Moran/NASA. (R) Nina Hartstone, credit Getty Images. The background image is the waveform of the opening six seconds of an episode of The Conversation.)

Kim Chakanetsa speaks to two women who are making chocolate production both more sustainable and equitable. Vicki Bain is a South African chocolatier from Johannesburg who blends Belgian chocolate with the finest local and fresh African ingredients. Five years ago, Vicki left her job in environmental consulting to learn the craft of artisan chocolate making in Brussels. Her company, Chocoloza, is staffed only by women and has environmental and social concerns at its core. Treena Tecson from the Philippines is a professional chocolate taster and tree-to-bar chocolate maker. In 2017, Treena used her social media account to document the art and science of chocolate making. What started as a hobby soon turned into a small business - True Chocolate PH - and now Treena is also involved in cacao farming and post-harvest processing.Produced by Emily Naylor and Alice Gioia(Image: (L) Vicki Bain. (R) Treena Tecson, courtesy of Treena Tecson.)

Very few people in the world are blessed with exceptional musical talent that is apparent from an early age. What is childhood like in the spotlight, especially as a young woman? To find out, Kim Chakanetsa meets two musicians whose careers began when they were children. Tosin Jegede was a child singing sensation in Nigeria in the 1980s. She released her first solo album in 1985 when just five years old, and went on to release two more before her teenage years. From hiding from adoring fans, flying all over the country to perform and singing in front of Nelson Mandela, her childhood was anything but ordinary and she had to cope with publicity which went well beyond her music and its performance. Twenty-year-old Sujari Britt is a classical cellist from the United States. She began learning the instrument at the age of four, having already studied the violin and the piano. A year later, Sujari started performing in a professional capacity with her sibling trio. By the time she was eight, she had played at the White House for President Obama. Sujari has performed at renowned venues such as Carnegie Hall and Madison Square Garden, and with reputable orchestras in Europe, Asia, Canada and the USA.Produced by Emily Naylor and Jane Thurlow(Image: (L) Tosin Jegede, credit Tosin Jegede. (R) Sujari Britt, credit Jamie Jung.)

Singing is said to improve your mood, relieve stress, help you sleep better and produce pain-relieving endorphins - as well as improving posture and boost immunity and lung function! Kim Chakanetsa finds out more about the benefits of singing together, and the strange world of choir competitions.Adwoa Dickson is from Jamaica. She is Choir Director for The Amies Freedom Choir, in the UK, which supports women who've survived trafficking. Singing in the choir helps the women relax and regain confidence as they explore songs and musical styles from each others' cultures and languages.Finnish choir director, Marjukka Riihimäki established the women’s choir, Philomela in 1984 and has taken their distinctive sound around the world, working with a composer and choreographer to give them a unique stage presence. Philomela won the Female Chamber Choir competition at the World Choir Games in Riga in 2014. Since retiring as a music teacher Marjukka also works with people in sheltered housing who have dementia.Produced by Jane Thurlow(Image: (L) Marjukka Riihimäki, credit Maarit Kytöharju. (R) Adwoa Dickson, courtesy Adwoa Dickson.)

It is not easy to be a woman on public transport. Across the world, you will hear reports of women being harassed, groped and even sexually assaulted. This has an enormous impact on women being able to take up employment and education opportunities, as well as accessing healthcare. Kim Chakanetsa talks to two women who are trying to change this. Angie Palacios is a Gender and Transport Specialist at CAF – Development Bank of Latin America. Her work focuses on researching and supporting projects that can improve women and girls’ safety on public transport. She’s originally from Ecuador but she’s now based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.Joanie Fredericks is an activist and entrepreneur from South Africa who recently set up Ladies Own Transport - an initiative providing safe transport options for women in Cape Flats, a crime hotspot in Cape Town. Joanie, a survivor of violence herself, had previously set up a women-only driving school. Thanks to her, nearly a 100 women have managed to get their drivers’ licences.Produced by Alice Gioia(Image: (L) Angie Palacios, credit Angie Palacios. (R) Joanie Fredericks, credit Joanie Fredericks.)

The first female known to have played rugby was Emily Valentine, an Irish schoolgirl, who played alongside her brothers in 1884. It took another 80 years for a women's team to be formed, and the first Women's Rugby Union World Cup was held in 1991. Kim Chakanetsa speaks to two women from Uganda and Spain about the game's increasing popularity and how it's changed them.Patricia Garcia is a profession rugby player who’s competed for Spain in World Cups, Olympics and Test series, as well as appearing in 198 games over multiple 7s tournaments for her country. She now plays in the UK for Exeter Chiefs. She's also passionate about using the sport as positive force and has set up her own charity, PGR NGO, to promote social education and values through rugby.Winnie Atyang plays rugby in Uganda and uses the sport to support and inspire young women. Winnie became a single mother to twins when she was just 17 years old, and had to drop out of school. She says the rugby community is hugely encouraging: helping her go back to school and then find work to support her family. She also believes playing the sport gives her focus, confidence and ambition.Produced by Jane Thurlow(Image: (L) Winnie Atyang, credit Denise Namale. (R) Patricia Garcia, credit FER (Spanish Rugby Union))

Nora Fakim talks to two women about the health benefits of swimming in the wild.Rachel Ashe is the founder of Mental Health Swims, a peer support community organising wild swimming or dipping events in the UK. Rachel first tried cold water swimming in 2019, shortly after being diagnosed with mental health conditions, and during the pandemic she went from organising a monthly gathering at her local beach in Wales to running a social enterprise with over 80 groups across the country. Ilse Theys Woodward is an open water swimmer, a nurse, a swimming instructor and a lifeguard. She’s based in Cape Town, South Africa and she has recently taken part in the Freedom Swim, one of the world’s toughest cold water sea swim races. She’s also a member of the Phoenix Open Water Swimming (POWS), a swimming club working with underprivileged youths in Cape Town. Produced by Alice Gioia(Image: (L) Ilse Theys Woodward, credit Ilse Theys Woodward. (R) Rachel Ashe, credit Laura Minns)

Women from Brazil and the UK tell Nora Fakim how assistance dogs are improving both their mobility and wellbeing.Maria Villela lives and works in Brazil. She has glaucoma and was blind by the time she left university. As guide dogs are rare in Brazil, ten years ago Maria decided to email every international guide dog school she could to try and get an assistance animal. She was finally partnered with her dog Spirit through Guide Dogs of the Desert, USA. She says although she lived an independent life before getting her dog, Spirit has given her peace.Alice Moore-Simmons has brittle bones, a rare condition called Ehlers Danlos syndrome and Postural Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) which causes her blood pressure to drop very suddenly. Alice was given her first assistance dog, Bella, through the charity Dogs for Good, when she was 15 years old. More recently she’s been partnered with Winter who’s trained to look out for signs of Alice passing out, makes sure she has her medication, helps her get dressed, fetches and picks things up. Alice says Winter helps calm her anxiety and gives her confidence.Produced by Jane Thurlow(Image: (L) Maria Villela and her dog Spirit, credit Maria Villela. (R) Alice Moore-Simmons and her dog Winter, courtesy Dogs For Good)