Politicians in The Gambia are debating whether to overturn the ban on female genital mutilation. Activist Fatou Baldeh MBE tells Anita Rani about the impact this discussion is having on the ground and in other countries around the world.
Dr. Janine Bradbury is an award-winning poet and critic and a Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Writing and Culture at the University of York. She is also one of the 2024 cohort of ten New Generation Thinkers announced by the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council last week. She joins Anita Rani to discuss her current work which explores the relationship between love, feeling, and reading and her debut poetry pamphlet, Sometimes Real Love Comes Quick & Easy.
Singer Abi Sampa has become the first British woman to perform qawwali – a form of Sufi devotional music typically performed by men – at the Royal Albert Hall. Abi, who is also a trained dentist, talks to Anita about her genre-defying Orchestral Qawwali Project which mixes South Asian traditions with western choral music and balancing her careers in music and dentistry.
Amanda Ross is best known as TV’s Queen of Books – she’s also co-founder and CEO of Cactus TV and Executive Producer of Between The Covers on BBC Two. She’s created and produced many major book-based campaigns on TV over the last 20 years, including Richard & Judy’s Book Club. She personally selects the books featured and has been responsible for launching the careers of many bestselling authors, including Kate Mosse, David Nicholls and Victoria Hislop. Amanda is hosting the Between the Covers Live! UK Tour 2024 and joins Anita Rani to discuss.