Ready to Talk with Emma Barnett

After BBC local news anchor Polly Evans found herself unable to speak while doing a live broadcast, she disappeared from screens overnight. Polly had been having trouble with her voice for months following a virus and believed the stresses of a high-pressure workplace and a busy home life were to blame. But unknown to her she had a serious neurological disorder. She explains how coming to terms wi...

After years of trying to have a baby and unsuccessful IVF treatment, Caroline Stafford and her husband decided to build a future without the thing that they wanted the most. Long After years of trying to have a baby and unsuccessful IVF treatment, Caroline Stafford and her husband decided to build future without the thing that they wanted the most. Caroline shares the couple’s difficult experience...

After a cardiac arrest brought on by a hereditary heart condition and the stress of work, Patrick Charnley was clinically dead. He came back to life a changed man. Patrick suffered a brain injury that affects his sight and stamina. He is no longer able to work or live as he did before and he cannot remember nearly a year of his life before the heart attack. Despite these impairments, he prefers th...

Journalist Archie Bland talks about his son, Max, who nearly died one night when he was just seven weeks old. Archie shares the extraordinary ordeal his family went through that night, as his home filled with police and paramedics, and the extreme circumstances of the following weeks. Max survived, but his life was forever changed. Archie now says Max is “more interesting than anyone he’s ever met...

Tulisa Contostavlos spent a decade fighting court battles, from an ex releasing a sex tape to being caught up in an elaborate tabloid sting. She shares what life has taught her. Tulisa rose to fame in UK R&B and hip hop trio N-Dubz and became a judge on The X Factor aged just 23. She talks candidly about some of the desperate lows she has suffered since, how she has processed being targeted by...

Yoni Finlay was shot as a synagogue in Manchester was attacked on Yom Kippur, 2 October 2025. The synagogue was Yoni's place of worship, but it had also been Emma's synagogue when she was a child. He talks to her about that day, and how it has affected him, his family, and his community. Yoni was hit by a police bullet which first passed through the attacker and went on to kill Adrian Daulby, one...

When she was 15, Georgia Barrington discovered she has been born without a womb. Then her best friend, Daisy Hope, made her an extraordinary promise that she fulfilled over a decade later. As a child Georgia always dreamt of being a mother, and even after her rare diagnosis she went on to become a midwife. She and Daisy share the story of a surrogacy that changed both their lives and created a uni...

Katherine Ryan has learned not to care about not being liked as she’s risen from single mum on the poverty line to become one of the most successful comedians working in the UK. In a conversation just two and a half weeks after Katherine gave birth to her fourth child, she discusses plastic surgery, working in Hooters, and how she developed her caustic onstage persona. But she also reveals how her...

Comedian Chris McCausland discusses how he got past perfectionism and blindness to dance on live TV in front of millions of viewers. Chris explains how a rare condition meant he gradually lost his sight over 25 years, and how he performed his first stand-up comedy as a dare. He talks about appearing on Strictly Come Dancing against all his instincts, calling it the scariest thing he’s done in his...

Emma Barnett talks to her friend, journalist and presenter Kate Thornton, about something she’s been experiencing but has never spoken about publicly before. Sometimes a person comes into your life at exactly the right moment to help you through something major. Kate is one of those people for Emma. She’s been guiding her through perimenopause. In the UK, 13 million women are currently experiencin...

From presidents to popstars, award-winning broadcaster Emma Barnett has interviewed thousands of fascinating people live on radio and television. But now she’s ready to talk to her guests much more deeply, about the profound experiences that shaped their lives. In this special preview episode, Emma reveals more about the bold, honest conversations coming up in the series. Ready to Talk with Emma B...