The Conversation

An Indian chef who opened a patisserie in Jaipur and a Syrian chef with two pastry shops in the heart of Paris tell Datshiane Navanayagam about adding new layers to French classics. After training at le Cordon Bleu school in Paris Tejasvi Chandela returned to her hometown of Jaipur to open Dzurt, the first pastry shop in the city. She also teaches masterclasses at cookery schools around the world...

Two women from Hungary and the UK talk to Datshiane Navanayagam about the intensity, skill and resilience required for modern glassmaking. Mira Davida is a Hungarian glass artist based in Stockholm, Sweden. She specialises in flameworking, a technique that uses a high-temperature hand torch to shape borosilicate glass. Her sculptural works often draw inspiration from botanical forms and the natura...

Two women in Iceland and Bolivia talk to Ella Al-Shamahi about creating female-centred walking tours that help people get to know the cities of Reykjavík and La Paz. Tinna Eik Rakelardóttir from Iceland says that the urban planning of her country's capital doesn't necessarily reflect its progressive values. Inspired by a tour she took in Ljubljana in Slovenia, Tinna combined her expertise in anthr...

Ella Al-Shamahi speaks to an ex-circus performer from Bulgaria and a skydiver from France to find out what it takes to achieve some of the world’s most extreme records. Bulgarian Getti Kehayova grew up performing in the circus alongside her world-record-holding family. Inspired by her sister, who once held the record for spinning 97 hula hoops at once, Getti wanted a record of her own. After a yea...

Whitley Fund for Nature 2025 winners from Brazil and Nepal tell Datshiane Navanayagam about their efforts to save the plants and animals they love from extinction. Reshu Bashyal is working to stop illegal poaching of wild orchids and Maire’s Yew trees in Nepal. Both plants are prized for their medicinal properties. Reshu is the research lead at Kathmandu-based Greenhood Nepal and has interviewed h...

What happens when children break the law - and how does juvenile punishment vary across countries? Ella Al-Shamahi speaks with two women from the Netherlands and Finland about what’s working, what isn’t and what needs to change to better support young people in the justice system. Marlen Salonen from Finland used to be a personal trainer but two years ago became a prison officer at Vantaa Prison i...

Ella Al-Shamahi speaks to professional wrestlers Xia Zhao from China and Divya Aale from India about their passion for the sport and what it’s like to be a woman in this industry. Xia Zhao from China started martial arts at eight years old and later became a professional athlete in Chinese martial arts, known as wushu, including kung fu and kick-boxing. In 2016, she attended wrestling try-outs in...

Datshiane Navanayagam talks to women from Nigeria and the UK who are trying to ensure what we throw away doesn’t go to waste. Esther Fagbo is a partner at Wecyclers in Nigeria – a for-profit social enterprise that pays waste pickers and households for their recyclable rubbish in densely populated Lagos. Alongside her work at Wecyclers she has carried out projects with Fair Plastic Alliance, an NGO...

Spoken word poetry is a powerful tool for storytelling, activism and self-expression. Ella Al-Shamahi speaks to two award-winning poets who use the craft to amplify issues they care about. Sofie Frost is a Norwegian actor, slam poet and spoken word artist. She won the Norwegian Poetry Slam Championship in 2017 and was a finalist for Norway's Got Talent the following year. Sofie's poems have repeat...

How does it feel to meet someone who connects you to a darker chapter of your family history? Datshiane Navanayagam is joined by two women whose experience of this has led them to delve deeper into their own family’s ties to both slavery and enslavement. Diana McCaulay is a Jamaican novelist. She discovered that she’s related to both enslaved people and enslavers when an ancestry-tracking TV progr...

A Muslim woman from South Africa and Christian from Kenya talk to Ella Al-Shamahi about how their faith influences their thoughts on addressing climate change, inequality and restoring nature. Dr Najma Mohamed grew up in South Africa and made a link between her faith and nature early in life. She writes often about the ecological message of Islam, supporting faith-based climate and environment act...

A Mongolian and a South African palaeontologist speak to Ella Al-Shamahi about dinosaurs and education, as well as the fight to preserve their prehistoric legacy and stop illegal fossil trade. Dr Bolortsetseg Minjin from Mongolia is the director of the Institute for the Study of Mongolian Dinosaurs. She is renowned for her discovery of 67 dinosaur fossils in the Gobi Desert within just one week. B...

An academic from India and writer from Denmark talk to Ella Al-Shamahi about how the way economies are measured influences policy and undervalues both unpaid and paid care work, and affects the lives of women on every level. Emma Holten is a Danish feminist commentator whose book, Deficit: how feminist economics can change our world, became a best seller in her home country. It highlights how econ...

Datshiane Navanayagam is joined by two women from the UK and Australia whose personal experience of menopause and perimenopause has led them to advocate for better support at work. Madhu Kapoor is a writer and menopause awareness campaigner. She experienced a range of physical and psychological symptoms during perimenopause in her early 40s which led to her resigning from her senior position in a...

Datshiane Navanayagam talks to controllers from the UAE and Sweden about guiding aeroplane take-offs and landings and dealing with the extreme stress of the job. Helena Sjöström Falk is the first woman president of the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers' Associations. She's from Sweden and recently retired from Stockholm Air Traffic Control Center. During her career she had many h...

From breaking bones to trudging through snow – it is a Foley artist's role to reproduce the everyday sound effects that are added to film, TV and games. By using a variety of unconventional props and their own bodies, the goal is to create an authentic soundscape that will enhance our auditory experience. If the Foley goes unnoticed then they’ve done their job well! Datshiane Navanayagam speaks to...

Datshiane Navanayagam talks to two women from Brazil and the UK who have online businesses buying and selling second hand clothes. Ana Luiza McLaren is a co-founder of Enjoei, the biggest second hand selling site in Brazil. She started selling her own clothes through a blog she wrote over fifteen years ago and it wasn’t long before friends were asking her to sell their clothes too. The blog became...

Millions of children globally are separated from their birth families. For many, foster care is the best option. Foster carers from Moldova and the US speak to Ella Al-Shamahi about the realities of caring for vulnerable children and why they’re pushing for change in the system. Alina Druță is the president of Moldova Without Orphans, the Christian Alliance for Orphans Moldova and the national coo...

Ella Al-Shamahi talks to women from Egypt and the US about their work detecting fraud, bribery and corruption for multi-national corporations and law enforcement. Yousr Khalil is from Egypt, after 20 years working in the United States she now heads the Paris Office of Forensic Risk Alliance, a company specialising in in complex, cross-border forensic investigations, regulatory compliance matters a...

Datshiane Navanayagam hears from two women in Nigeria and Denmark to discuss how they teach consent as part of sex education. Mette Øyås Madsen is an award-winning Danish sexual health educator and author. She has incorporated sexual education into the Danish folk high school system for the past ten years. Mette is passionate about promoting topics such as consent, sexuality and gender identity in...

Datshiane Navanayagam talks to two women about prostheses for amputees in Ukraine and children with limb difference in the UK. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Olga Rudnieva felt she had to do something to help those wounded in the conflict. She set up the Superhumans trauma centre in Lviv, which she runs as CEO alongside a team of specialists, providing prosthetic limbs to patients. It has...

Datshiane Navanayagam speaks to two academics dedicated to uncovering the vital role of women in shaping philosophical thought, both past and present. Dr Giulia Cavaliere is an Italian philosopher who lectures at University College London. Her research focuses on infertility, assisted reproductive technologies and the desire to have genetically related children. Dr Sabrina Ebbersmeyer is a German...

Telephone helplines support millions of children every year with issues ranging from serious abuse to children who just want someone to chat to on the way home from school. Ella Al-Shamahi talks to two women from South Africa and Greece about supporting children through round-the-clock helplines, counselling and outreach. Dumisile Cele, a trained social worker, is the Chief Executive Officer of Ch...

If you're planning a big celebration, the idea of having someone else handle all the cooking might feel like a dream...but for some it's a worthwhile indulgence. Hiring a private chef means enjoying delicious, personalised food with minimal effort in the comfort of your own home. Ella Al-Shamahi speaks to two private chefs from India and France who create unforgettable culinary experiences. Indian...

Datshiane Navanayagam speaks to Angie Chioko and Nika Kokareva about clearing landmines and unexploded ordnance, in order to return safe land to their communities. At the end of 2024, The Landmine Monitor Report revealed that children suffer disproportionately from landmines across the world. The remnants of war remain in the ground for decades, claiming civilian lives, long after the fighting had...