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In our latest podcast we hear about the Gender Disparity Report on Irish radio, compiled by the Why Not Her? collective. It outlines a continuing gender disparity among the 20 most-played songs by Irish artists on Irish stations between June 24th and December 24th, 2020. On today’s podcast, Roisin Ingle speaks to activist and Why Not Her? founder Linda Coogan-Byrne about the report’s findings, where improvements have been made and what she believes needs to be done to achieve greater gender and racial diversity on Irish Radio. The hugely successful singer-songwriter RuthAnne also gives her reaction to the report and describes her own experience as an artist trying to break through what she describes as the “lad sound” on Irish Radio. Later in the show, we speak to Marin Alsop, a groundbreaking orchestra conductor considered to be one of the best in the world. Marin was recently a guest tutor on the National Concert Hall's award-winning Female Conductor Programme. Our co-producer Jennifer Ryan caught up with her afterwards.

Five Minute Therapy is the first book by Dublin-based psychotherapist Sarah Crosby. Packed full of practical exercises and powerful insights, it provides readers with the tools to reflect on their life experiences and explore who they are and who they might like to be. Think of it as your own pocket therapist. In today’s episode, Crosby speaks to Róisín Ingle about her journey from archaeology to psychotherapy, her early struggles with an eating disorder and how the Instagram page @theMindGeek set the wheels in motion for the book. From boundary setting, the joys of self discovery and how to be a good friend to others, Sarah shares some excellent tips on how to mind your mental health during another tough lockdown. Also, a reminder that Winter Nights is kicking off on Monday 25th January. It’s a five-day online festival of conversation, culture and ideas. Amongst the events, Roisin Ingle will be joined by Holocaust survivor Edith Eger as they explore ways to change the thoughts and behaviours that can keep us prisoners of our past. More information and tickets can be found here: https://www.irishtimes.com/winter-nights

This Friday, Trinity College Dublin professor Jane Ohlmeyer will deliver the Ford Lectures at the University of Oxford in England. Just ten women have delivered the prestigious lectures since they were founded in 1896 and prof Ohlmeyer will be the first woman from a university in Ireland to be invited to do so. Born in what was then Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) to a Northern Irish mother and a South African father, Ohlmeyer grew up in Belfast at the height of the Troubles. On today's podcast she talks to Kathy Sheridan about the last impact witnessing that violence has had on her. She also speaks in detail about her career, her fascination with the British Empire and Ireland's place in it, the experience of being a woman bashing on the glass ceiling in higher education and how she is feeling about the Ford Lectures. Rumour has it prof Ohlmeyer will be in the running for the soon-to-be vacant provost job at TCD. But as she explains in this podcast, she can't really go into that at the moment. Watch this space.... If you'd like to see prof Ohlmeyer deliver The Ford Lectures, they begin on Friday 22 January at 5pm online. Tune in by following the link on the Oxford website - https://www.history.ox.ac.uk/james-ford-lectures-british-history

Raw, tired, angry and emotional. That’s how our guests on today’s podcast feel. It’s as they attempt to digest the government-commissioned report from the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes released this week. It found a shocking number of deaths and widespread abuses at religious institutions for unmarried mothers and their children in this country. Set up in 2015 following revelations about the deaths and burials of hundreds of children in Tuam, Co Galway, the commission was charged with examining what happened to vulnerable women and children in mother and baby homes in the State during the period from 1922 up to 1998. It found that 9,000 children - most of them babies - died in these institutions during that time. On Wednesday, Taoiseach Mícheál Martin apologised to survivors on behalf of the State saying, "we embraced a perverse religious morality and control, judgementalism and moral certainty, but shunned our daughters." To talk about the report, Kathy Sheridan is joined today by Rosemary Adaser, survivor of the industrial school and mother and baby home system, Noelle Brown who was adopted from Bessborough mother and baby home as an infant, and legal academic Mairead Enright, who has written extensively on law and feminism, reproductive justice and historical injustice.

Author and podcaster Caroline Foran took the world by storm in 2016 with the release of her best selling self-help book, Owning It: Your Bullsh*t-Free Guide to Living with Anxiety. Now, she’s back with her third book Naked: Ten Truths to Change Your Life, which challenges readers to explore, embrace and expose their vulnerability. From realising that you’ll never really have it all figured out to accepting that someone else’s success doesn’t take from yours, the truths featured in this practical guide will help produce positive change in your life. In today’s episode, Foran sits down with Róisín Ingle to discuss the power of your own vulnerability, how to deal with imposter syndrome and what life is like as a new mother in the middle of a pandemic.

In our first book club of 2021, Róisín, Ann Ingle, Bernice Harrison and Niamh Towey discuss Untamed, a memoir by American author Glennon Doyle. This is Doyle’s third memoir, which follows on from her two previous best sellers, Love Warrior and Carry On, Warrior. Untamed is the story of how Doyle left her troublesome marriage, fell head over heels in love with soccer star Abby Wambach, found her inner voice and eventually learned how to stop pleasing and start living. The book has garnered many famous fans all over the world, with the singer Adele announcing to her 39 million Instagram followers that “this book will shake your brain and make your soul scream. I am so ready for myself after reading this!” So, is this the perfect ‘New Year, New You’ guide to motivate you through January? Let’s see what our book clubbers have to say.

If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that the future is never certain. But with a number of vaccines against Covid-19 on the way, there is some light at the end of the tunnel. Last year we learned how to live in a pandemic, somehow managing to keep the show on the road in ways we never thought were possible before. We learned that, for many of us, working from home is possible. We found ways to keep in touch with friends and family, even though we couldn’t physically be with them. We got used to wearing masks and keeping our distance. How much of this will we have to carry through this year? What does our ‘new normal’ look like in 2021? What can we look forward to? To discuss this, and more, Kathy Sheridan is joined once again by Irish Times journalists Jennifer O’Connell and Kitty Holland, and performance artist, poet and writer, Felicia Olusanya, to look ahead to what’s in store this year.

At the start of 2020, as we began a new decade, we were caught up with news stories about the Australian bushfires, the seemingly never-ending Brexit talks, a then-looming Irish general election, and students from 72 schools around the country began opening time capsules sealed in 1996 containing their hopes and dreams for 2020. How many of them could have guessed what lay ahead? Bubbling away in the background, further down the news agenda here, the World Health Organisation was dealing with the emergence of a ‘novel coronavirus’ in Wuhan, China, a disease that would dramatically change our lives. Covid-19 is the prism through which 2020 will forever be viewed and while it has swept across the world devastating communities, killing millions and bringing the world’s economies to their knees, life has somehow carried on. In today’s podcast Kathy Sheridan is joined by Irish Times journalists Jennifer O’Connell and Kitty Holland, and performance artist, poet and writer, Felicia Olusanya to take a look back at the year gone by. Stay tuned to the end for a performance by Felicia of her beautiful pandemic poem, Still.

The time has finally come to say goodbye to 2020. But before we bid adieu to the longest year on record, we want to take you on a journey back through the last twelve months of The Women’s Podcast. The year 2020 will not just be remembered for the pandemic, it will also be remembered for the global Black Lives Matter movement, the historic US election result and the scandal around the sealing of the Irish Mother and Baby Home records. Róisín Ingle brings you a selection of these highlights including a conversation with Sinead O’Connor who spoke to us from her cabin in the garden, a touching interview with Dr Catherine Motherway, Intensive Care Consultant at University Hospital Limerick and a snippet from our lockdown inspired series, The Big Night In with playwright and actor Olwen Fouéré. And of course, amongst all of that, there’s not one, but two highlights from our Summer episodes on Normal People. Here’s a link to each episode mentioned in today’s podcast: Ep 387 Sinead O’Connor https://soundcloud.com/irishtimes-women/ep-386-sinead-oconnor-rosemary-smith Ep 392 Catherine Motherway https://soundcloud.com/irishtimes-women/ep-392-frontline-women-domestic-abuse-pandemic Ep 392 Domestic Abuse Pandemic https://soundcloud.com/irishtimes-women/ep-392-frontline-women-domestic-abuse-pandemic Ep 395 Mary Lou McDonald https://soundcloud.com/irishtimes-women/ep-395-mary-lou-mcdonald Ep 397 Normal People https://soundcloud.com/irishtimes-women/ep-397-normal-people Ep 405 Normal People’s Ita O’Brien https://soundcloud.com/irishtimes-women/ep-405-normal-peoples-ita-obrien-on-how-to-make-great-tv-sex Ep 406 How to be anti- racist (Black Lives Matter) https://soundcloud.com/irishtimes-women/ep-406-black-lives-matter-racism-in-ireland-and-beyond Ep 411 Big Night In - Olwen Fouéré https://soundcloud.com/irishtimes-women/ep-411-big-night-in-with-olwen-fouere Ep 423 Fat Cow, Fat Chance - Jenni Murray https://soundcloud.com/irishtimes-women/ep-423-fat-cow-fat-chance Ep 441 Sealing the Records https://soundcloud.com/irishtimes-women/ep-441-releasing-the-records-maeve-orourke-mary-harney Ep 446 US Election 2020 https://soundcloud.com/irishtimes-women/ep-446-us-election-2020-is-it-really-time-to-celebrate

In this special festive episode, we’re bringing you a story written by Maeve Binchy, first published in The Irish Times on Saturday, December 29th, 1984. Read by Róisín Ingle, the story captures the beautiful ordinariness of everyday life, the fuss and excitement of the holidays and the place of a woman at the head of her family. With true emotional tugs and important lessons to be learned, we hope this story offers you some solace this pandemic Christmas eve. So sit back, relax, wrap some presents or venture out for a walk, whatever you do, enjoy Season of Fuss by the brilliant Maeve Binchy. Merry Christmas.

Emma Gannon is a writer, broadcaster and podcaster who is best known for her podcast Ctrl Alt Delete and Sunday Times Bestselling business book The Multi-Hyphen Method. In 2020 she published her debut novel, Olive, in which she explores the lives of four female friends whose paths diverge after a close-knit college experience. The book’s protagonist is the titular Olive, whose first-person narrative focuses on her decision to not have a baby, or to be childfree by choice. It’s a timely theme and Olive has garnered high praise from the likes of Marian Keyes, no stranger to tackling meaty themes in relatable ways in her own books. In this episode, Emma chats to Róisín about the book, how she researched the theme of women choosing to be childfree and what the reaction to it has been like. Also in this episode: Highlights from the final event in our second season of the Big Night In with the broadcaster Olivia O’Leary.

Over the past year, the sale of puppies in Ireland has increased by over 200%. It’s no surprise that during these difficult times with lockdown restrictions still in place, people have opened their hearts and homes to new four-legged friends. However, many do not realise that by buying dogs online, they could be unknowingly contributing to Ireland’s illegal puppy trade. In today’s episode, Róisín Ingle is joined by model, artist and DSPCA ambassador Thalia Heffernan for an eye opening and important discussion on the reality of Ireland’s puppy farms. In recent weeks, the model has begun using her Instagram platform to warn against the online purchase of dogs and to educate people on the horrible reality of life for a breeding dog, forced to churn out litter after litter. Now, as animal shelters brace themselves for the inevitable influx of unwanted dogs in the new year, Thalia is playing her part by donating proceeds of her artwork to the DSPCA. You can follow @ThaliaHeffernan on Instagram for more details. But first, as part of our ongoing #ShopLocal spotlight, Róisín spoke to Bebhinn Flood, owner of The Design House in Temple Bar and Greystones Co. Wicklow. It’s a creative space with features a designer boutique alongside a beauty hub, with the ethos being to support and nurture Irish creators and small Irish businesses. See TheDesignShop.ie

We’ve reassembled our book club one last time before we bid adieu to 2020, to have a chat about the books they got lost in this year. Ann Ingle, Niamh Towey and Bernice Harrison join Róisín to recommend some great reads that you might consider gifting to your nearest and dearest this Christmas and to drop a few not-so-subtle hints about the books they hope to find under the tree for themselves on December 25th. Ireland’s booksellers have played a blinder throughout this pandemic, going to great lengths to get books to their customers despite a really challenging trading environment. With that in mind, please do your best to shop locally this Christmas and help to make sure our independent bookshops survive Covid-19 too. Books mentioned today: 1. Irish Country Furniture and Furnishings 1700-2000, by Claudia Kinmonth 2. A Promised Land, by Barack Obama 3. The Searcher, by Tana French 4. Big Girl, Small Town, by Michelle Gallen 5. The Lying Life of Adults, by Elena Ferrante 6. Fat Cow, Fat Chance by Jenni Murray 7. Queenie, by Candice Carty Williams 8. Intuitive Eating, by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch 9. Exciting Times, by Naoise Dolan 10. 32 words for Field, by Manchan Mangan 11. Tennis Lessons, Susannah Dickey 12. More Than a Woman, Caitlin Moran 13. A Ghost in the Throat, by Doireann Ni Ghríofa

In 2020, Irish musician Sharon Shannon was due to travel the world celebrating her 30th anniversary in the music industry. However, Covid as we know, scuppered everyone's plans. Making the most of her time in lockdown, the Clare native, set about writing and recording a brand new album called The Reckoning. It features over a dozen remote collaborations from artists in locations across the globe. In this conversation, Shannon tells Róisín Ingle all about this new found creative energy, which as well as writing a brand new album, also inspired her to pick up the electric guitar and completely redecorate her house. Surrounded by her two dogs and a sleeping cat called Lucy, the pair discuss the healing power of music and the much anticipated return of spontaneity.

Somali-Irish activist Ifrah Ahmed is one of the world's foremost campaigners against Female Genital Mutilation. Ahmed came to Ireland in 2006 after fleeing her war-torn home country and during a medical examination it was found that she had suffered terrible trauma as a result of FGM. A founding member of the United Youth of Ireland, she has been gender adviser to the prime minister of Somalia and has worked with Unicef, Amnesty International and the Irish Refugee Council. In today’s podcast she talks to Kathy Sheridan about her decision to channel the anger she felt about her experience of FGM and turn it into a force for change. “If I didn’t speak, how many more girls would be the victim of FGM today?” she says. Now her life story has been made into a film by director and producer Mary McGuckian. McGuckian joins Ahmed in this podcast to talk about that film, A Girl From Mogadishu. Before you go – A reminder that our sixth and final 'Big Night In' will happen this Saturday December 12th 2020, with the wonderful broadcaster Olivia O’Leary. If you haven’t got a ticket remember you can still get them on www.irishtimes.com/bignightin and keep an eye on our Instagram too as we’ll also be giving away some tickets.

This year marks the fifth anniversary of a pivotal moment in Irish cultural history. In November 2015, the Waking the Feminists movement emerged in response to decades of underrepresentation for women in Irish theatre and performance practice. In today’s episode, Róisín Ingle is joined by Lian Bell and Sarah Durcan, the two powerhouses behind the campaign which began on social media, gained traction all over the world, and can count Meryl Streep amongst its many supporters. The pair reminisce on a seismic time for women’s equality, the progress made and the work still to be done. But first, we’re championing #ShopLocal on The Women’s Podcast and each week in the run up to Christmas, we’ll be showcasing an Irish business that we think deserves your attention. This week, Roisin caught up with Cara Dunne from Cara Luna Designs, a small, design studio with values of eco-friendliness, inclusivity and non-binary representation at its heart. Amongst her wares are greeting cards, calendars and personalised illustrations. You can see more at www.caralunadesigns.com

In today’s episode, we’re bringing you the recording from our recent Women’s Podcast Live event. On Thursday evening, in front of a very festive Zoom audience, our crack squad of Irish Times columnists presented the ultimate Christmas 2020 survival guide. Joining us on the evening was beauty reporter Laura Kennedy, who came bearing the best gift ideas this side of Bethlehem, including a pandemic themed beer and a candle which smells like the Westbury bathrooms. Advice columnist Roe McDermott came bearing insightful counsel on how to deal with everything from tricky family situations to self-care. Food writer Lilly Higgins brought us gorgeous recipes that will help make your feast the finest around. And finally, Hilary Fannin, who writes a weekly lifestyle column, came grinning and bearing it, because whatever happens this Christmas, we have to laugh. It was a wonderful evening spent in the company of four very wise women, all thanks to our sponsor Green & Black’s.

Rhonda Byrne shot to worldwide fame in 2006 with her massively successful film and book, The Secret. With fans like Oprah Winfrey, the book went on to sell more than 30 million copies, making Byrne a multi-millionaire. The Secret claimed to show us the path to create anything we want to be, do or have. Now Byrne has written its follow-up, The Greatest Secret, through which she hopes to help people learn how to find true peace without having to spend hours meditating each day. She talks to Róisín Ingle about writing her phenomenally successful first book The Secret, the 14-year search for truth which led her to The Greatest Secret, why none of us has to suffer if we stay “aware” and how the pandemic can be an opportunity to change the course of your life for the better.

In this book club podcast Róisín, Ann Ingle, Bernice Harrison and Niamh Towey discuss our latest read, Nick Hornby’s ninth novel, Just Like You. The author, known for his portrayal of the interior lives of men in books including the much loved, High Fidelity, is back with a funny age-gap love story set to a backdrop of Brexit London. In it, Hornby attempts to inhabit the point of view of a black man in his 20s and a woman in her 40s, with excursions into football and music. Does he successfully embody the lives of the two protagonists? In the era of Black Lives Matter, has the author managed to handle the issue of race appropriately? And, how does Brexit work as a literary device? As usual there were some strong opinions among our book clubbers, minor disagreements and even a slightly uncomfortable exploration of a hypothetical age-gap love story involving two of our panelists. We’ll have details of our upcoming Christmas book club meeting in a later episode and on our social media channels.

It's Food Month in The Irish Times but you might say it's been Food Month pretty much everywhere since last March when the pandemic took hold and we found ourselves spending a lot more time in our homes and particularly in our kitchens. We were delighted to welcome resident Irish Times Food Columnist Lilly Higgins back to the podcast to discuss the foods that have been keeping her and her family going over lockdown - did anybody say duck pancakes? She also made a compelling case for her one woman campaign to bring back the Vol-au-vent, the giant variety of course. Living in Cobh, Co Cork with her husband and small children, Higgins talks about the dishes that have been the crowd pleasers with her family and with readers over Lockdown including a Goan Fish Curry that takes only fifteen minutes to prepare. She's also been cooking up a storm on Instagram and she told Roisin Ingle all about building a new community of foodies on that platform. Here's the three recipes featured in this episode: Yee-Haw! Cowboy Beans with Roast Chicken https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/food-and-drink/yee-haw-cowboy-beans-with-roast-chicken-1.3869324 Goan Fish Curry https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/food-and-drink/a-quick-easy-curry-that-can-be-made-in-15-minutes-goan-so-1.3993016 One Pot Paprika Chicken https://www.google.ie/amp/s/www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/food-and-drink/recipes/one-pot-paprika-chicken-1.4071851%3fmode=amp