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Seven sensational downloads hosted by women

The 8th March marks International Women’s Day. What better way to celebrate than listening to one of a series of incredible downloads, hosted by inspiring women, to entertain your ears? From coming-of-age tales, to hard-hitting interviews, to insightful sessions with a relationship guru – here are seven of the best.

1. Big Girl, Small Town

In a new audiobook for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4, Nicola Coughlan (from TV hit Derry Girls) reads an abridged version of Michelle Gallen’s brutally funny novel Big Girl, Small Town.

There could be more to life – outside of her small border town – after all.

It centres around awkward, overweight, opinionated, and misanthropic 27-year-old Majella O’Neill, who lives in the stiflingly small (fictional) town of Aghybogey near the Northern Irish border. Every day is the same: she dresses in the same clothes, goes to work in the local chipper (“A Salt and Battered!”), has the same takeaway dinner (microwaved fish and chips) and watches reruns of Dallas in bed. She also looks after (and cleans up after) her alcoholic mother; her dad disappeared during the Troubles, and no one knows if he’s dead or alive.

But Majella's safe routine is disrupted when her grandmother, who was savagely beaten during a break-in, dies. Majella is desperate for things to return to normal, but the tragedy also makes her realise there could be more to life – outside of her small border town – after all.

Listen to Big Girl, Small Town, read by Nicola Coughlan

2. Fortunately

For those of us who can’t get enough of the Woman’s Hour host, Jane Garvey is the voice of another hugely popular Radio 4 podcast, along with The Listening Project’s presenter Fi Glover.

Fortunately is a frank look behind the scenes, which is as irreverent as it is intimate.

On Fortunately, the formidable pair put the world to rights, and share rambling musings on their own lives, before being joined by a guest from Radio, TV or podcasting – to share stories they probably shouldn’t.

Guests who have dropped by for a cuppa, candid catch-up, and a flapjack or two include Love Island star Dani Dyer, Strictly sensation and tennis aficionado Judy Murray, and football legend and Match of the Day regular Ian Wright.

Fortunately is a frank look behind the scenes, which is as irreverent as it is intimate – and we challenge you not to fall in love with it.

Listen to Fortunately

3. Anthems

is a new podcast by – a production company aiming to create more opportunities for minority talent, both in front of and behind the mic. With this new series, they’re turning International Women’s Day into International Women’s Month, with 31 podcasts from 31 women across 31 days.

Anthems is “a collection of original manifestos, speeches, stories, poems and rallying cries written and voiced by exceptional women” – from all works and walks of life – that celebrate and contemplate what it means to be female.

Episodes include Nourish, read by Ruby Alice Tandoh – the baker, columnist, author and runner-up on series four of The Great British Bake Off – and Sur-thrival, read by award-winning author, illustrator and performance poet, Laura Dockrill.

Other powerful voices in the series include that of Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo, Vice editor Zing Tsjeng, and Syrian poet and activist Lisa Luxx.

4. Adults

Adults is the latest, devastatingly funny and moving book from critically-acclaimed author Emma Jane Unsworth (whose novel Animals was adapted into a 2019 feature film). This Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 abridgement is read by Jessica Raine of Call the Midwife fame.

Its protagonist is Jenny, a thirty-five-year-old who’s desperately trying to find her place in the world. Sure, she’s a grown-up in theory – she owns her own house and has a job writing for an achingly hip magazine – but she certainly doesn’t feel like it. She’s broken up with her boyfriend Art (who she hoped might have been her forever man), and she’s clearly not cutting-edge enough for her role at work (and spends all day online-stalking flawless woman on social media).

Meanwhile her friend Kelly really does have grown up concerns: a son, and bills to pay. To make matters a whole lot worse, her mum has landed on her doorstep, uninvited, to save the day…

Listen to Adults, read by Jessica Raine

5. How did we get here?

In their podcast (by content company ),TV stalwart Claudia Winkleman and her good friend, clinical psychologist Professor Tanya Byron, look at the struggles and challenges people face with their families.

Tanya talks to real parents and family members in special, unscripted, often moving one-to-one sessions while Claudia listens in from the studio next door. The presenter then asks Tanya why she went down certain roots with her questions and discovers just how the psychologist unlocks the stories behind the issues, in order to help find solutions.

The podcast gives listeners, as well as Claudia, privileged access to real-life conversations with a clinical psychologist, covering a whole range of parenting and family issues from break-ups, to parental insecurities, gender identity, domestic violence, and trauma. And it offers inspiration, ideas and practical advice on resolutions for every one of us.

6. Woman's Hour

Hosted by the inimitable Jane Garvey and Jenni Murray, Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour is the rich and eclectic show that offers a female perspective on the world.

First hitting our airwaves in 1946, it’s tracked the changes in women’s lives ever since – from the introduction of the contraceptive pill in 1960 to the first lesbian civil partnership in 2005.

On feminism and shame

Why do Fleabag - and Phoebe Waller-Bridge - think they're 'bad feminists'?

Jane and Jenni interview incredible and inspiring people: from award-winning writer and actor Phoebe Waller-Bridge (who talks Fleabag, fame and female friendships), to Hollywood director Greta Gerwig, to the mothers coping with their children’s cancer diagnoses – to name just a few. And it explores big issues like loneliness, domestic violence and infertility.

Jane explains why she thinks the show is so successful: “The running order is such an incredible cocktail of things that everybody will find something they are interested in, something they want to know more about, or something they want to tell their mother, daughter or friend – that’s why it works.”

Listen to the Woman's Hour podcast

7. Where should we begin?

Esther Perel is a Belgian psychotherapist who believes the quality of our relationships determines the quality of our lives. With the success of her book Mating in Captivity: Unlocking Erotic Intelligence, which has been translated into 24 languages, she became an internationally renowned advisor on sex and relationships. Her podcast, , allows us to enter her therapist’s office and listen in as real couples anonymously reveal the raw and intimate details of their story.

Esther gives them, and us, insight into topics such as infidelity, sexlessness and loss. In one episode, a woman asks if she can satisfy her attraction to women without losing the husband she loves. In another, a husband and wife look for advice on how to help their daughter who has moved home after suffering a breakdown. And one woman comes to Esther seeking help in how to express the fact that she doesn’t want children, to a husband who is desperate to be a father.

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