The Women's Podcast

When Maryam Mohitmafi arrived in Ireland with her husband two years ago, she was seeking a better life. A life where she could be free to choose what to wear, where to work and what religion to practice. A life with “basic freedoms” that are not available to women in her home country of Iran. From her new home in Dublin, the 31 year-old watches on as the women of Iran fight for those freedoms. Over the past month, thousands have taken to the streets to protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who died while in the custody of the country’s ‘morality police’. In this episode, the Persian-Iranian speaks to Róisín Ingle about her own personal run-ins with the morality police and why she made the tough decision to leave her homeland. We also hear from Iranian journalist Yeganeh Rezaian, who lives in Washington DC with her husband and son. She explains that the protests come as a result of pent up frustration and anger towards the strict regime which rules the Iranian people. Both women talk about their hopes for peace and equality and why they believe that change is finally on the way. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Total is the brand new book from author and filmmaker Rebecca Miller. It has just been released, but the wheels were set in motion for this collection of short stories, almost two decades ago. It was during the pandemic, when Miller, the daughter of playwright Arthur Miller and acclaimed photographer Inge Morath, finally found the time and space needed to flesh out and expand her ideas. In Total, there are seven short stories, many exploring themes of motherhood, family and creativity, often with women at their core. In this episode, the pair discuss Miller’s connection to Ireland through her marriage to actor Daniel Day-Lewis, her own journey through motherhood and what she plans to do next. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kate Ewart-Biggs was just eight years-old, when her father, Christopher Ewart-Biggs, the former British Ambassador to Ireland was assassinated by the IRA, just two weeks after the family arrived into the country. Looking back on that day in 1976, Ewart-Biggs says she spent “a lovely morning” with her father, before he left their home to attend an official meeting. Minutes later, the explosion from a bomb which detonated underneath her father’s car could be heard as she played in their front garden. Following the death of her mother to cancer more than a decade later, Kate left Britain and took off to Africa, where she lived and worked for many years. She also spent time in Brazil working with street children and disadvantaged groups. It was these experiences which ultimately reshaped her view of the world and paved the way for her current role as Deputy Chief Executive of the British Council. In this episode, she tells Kathy Sheridan about the work and global reach of the British Council, her life growing up in a diplomatic family and the brief time she spent in Ireland before her father was murdered.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Alice Ryan began writing her first novel There's Been A Little Incident, a debut about familial love and lifelong friendship, it was an "act of hope" in the face of terrible loss. 11 years ago, her mother, former literary editor of The Irish Times Caroline Walsh, died by suicide while suffering from a debilitating illness. Ryan, a grand-daughter of the late writer Mary Lavin, was initially rejected by publishers but persevered until her book "a novel about grief, that is hopeful" won her a book deal. It was written, she told Roisin Ingle, almost entirely on her phone in the early hours of the morning or while "the fish fingers were burning." The mother of one also spoke about suffering from post-natal anxiety, finding solace in her late mother's book collection and the support of family and friends at the worst times in her life. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Edwina Dunn was a young girl, she dreamed of becoming a long distance truck driver and living a very glamorous life on the road. While she didn’t quite achieve that goal, she did go on to become a very successful business woman and the brains behind the Tesco Clubcard. In the early 1990s, she and her husband Clive brought their expertise in data science to the boardroom of Tesco and helped them become one of the most successful retailers in the world. After selling their stake in Tesco for a cool 93 million pounds and taking a bit of time out to enjoy the payout, the pair set up their next company Starcount. In that time, Edwina also created The Female Lead, a non-profit organisation dedicated to offering women alternative role models to those presented by popular culture. In this episode, she tells Róisín Ingle about her career journey and what it’s been like working alongside her husband through the years. They also discuss the great work being done by the Female Lead and why it’s time for women to shake the ‘unentitled mindset’. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Girlcrush is the brand new novel from writer and illustrator Florence Given. It follows the journey of Eartha, a young woman fresh out of a relationship, coming to terms with her sexuality and dealing with her growing online fame. It’s the second book from the writer who brought us Women Don’t Owe You Pretty which explores all corners of the feminist conversation. Given speaks to Róisín Ingle about her move to fiction, how she deals with her own success, creating online boundaries for herself and what she’d like to do next. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s Fringe time again and as usual, the Dublin Fringe Festival has a host of female-led art and showomanship to discover. In today’s episode we highlight some of the brilliant events by women taking place in venues across the capital from the 10th to the 25th of September. (You won't want to miss Growler, the story of an 82-year-old inner-city vulva for just one brilliant example). Róisín Ingle is joined in this episode by the women of Hive City Legacy: Dublin Chapter, a project from the Hot Brown Honey collective, a group of women of colour disrupting the arts industry. The show was created by director  Lisa Fa'alafi and music maestro “Busty Beatz” aka Kim Bowers and they talked to Róisín about the joy of being disruptive and exploring gender, class and identity through art. Also on the podcast is dancer and stylist Andrea Williams, who features in the show in collaboration with seven other Irish women of colour reclaiming their narrative through dance, song, poetry and performance. For more see fringefest.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Factory Girls by Michelle Gallen is the latest book up for discussion on the book club. Set in the summer of 1994, the story follows the lives of Maeve and her two friends, who begin working in the local shirt factory in a small border town in Northern Ireland, while awaiting their A-Level results. As the summer unfolds, tensions rise in the factory between the Catholic and Protestant workers and the young women dream of lives elsewhere. Our book clubbers Bernice Harrison, Róisín and Ann Ingle all loved Michelle Gallen’s debut ‘Big Girl, Small Town’, so will her second book live up to expectations? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We cannot resolve the climate emergency without fighting for gender equality. Women, especially poor women of colour, are suffering most as a result of the climate crisis, our highest-profile climate activists are women and girls and yet, at the top table it is men who are deciding the earth’s future. In her latest book, How Women Can Save the Planet, award-winning journalist Anne Karpf argues that when it comes to fighting climate change we are not all in it together, but we could be. In today’s podcast she joins Róisín Ingle, Sadhbh O’Neill, policy coordinator with Stop Climate Chaos, and Catherine Cleary, writer and founder of the Pocket Forests initiative, to talk about many of the issues raised in the book, the debate about women and climate change and what we can all do to help. This episode was originally published in September 2021. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the 1960s and 70s, the name Karen was one of the most popular baby names for girls. Now, not so much. With the rise of the Karen meme, the name has gradually become associated with obnoxious and entitled behaviour, usually demonstrated by a white, angry, middle-class woman. In this episode, Róisín Ingle speaks to two Irish Karens, Karen O’Donoghue and Karen Hand, about how their once loved name evolved into a meme and an insult. They also examine which particular qualities of the stereotypical Karen, might actually be used for good. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.