The Conversation

Datshiane Navanayagam talks to women from India and the UK who officiate international and domestic matches for the women’s and men’s games. They’re both on the ICC’s development panel for umpires.
Vrinda Rathi is an Indian cricket umpire. She was one of the first female umpires to stand as an on-field umpire in a men's domestic fixture in India. Earlier this year she became the first Indian woman to officiate in a Women’s World Cup final as one of the two on-field umpires for the final between England and Australia at Lord’s. Vrinda was a medium-pace bowler who represented the Mumbai University women’s team for four years. She couldn’t break into Mumbai’s senior side as a player so became a scorer before eventually switching to umpiring.
Anna Harris took up umpiring as a teenager to earn extra pocket money on the advice of her mother Yolanda, who's also an umpire. At age 22 she became the youngest ever umpire to officiate in an international match for a women’s one day international between England and New Zealand. Anna has played domestic cricket for Wales, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire. She also works as an NHS doctor in Hampshire.
Produced by Jane Thurlow
(Image: (L) Vrinda Rathi, credit Matthew Lewis - ICC. (R) Anna Harris, credit Uganda Cricket.)

While the proportion of girls studying science subjects beyond high school is going up, physics, maths and engineering are still dominated by men. Ella Al-Shamahi talks to two women from Sweden and the UK who are using social media platforms to try and encourage greater equality in STEM subjects.
Eleonora Svanberg is a half-Swedish and half-Persian mathematical physics PhD student at the University of Oxford. With over three quarters of a million followers on social media platforms, @eleonorasvanberg discusses topics related to science, education and equality. Her first book in 2024 was about mathematical confidence, mainly aimed at young girls.
Dr Clara Nellist is a particle physicist and science communicator. She’s from the UK and has studied in France, Germany and the Netherlands. Clara’s work has focused on pixel detectors, the properties of the Higgs boson and the top quark, the heaviest known particle. She’s now working on the ATLAS experiment at CERN she’s has over a quarter of a million followers on social media where she posts videos @particleclara.
Produced by Jane Thurlow
(Image: (L) Eleonora Svanberg, credit Laura Smith. (R) Clara Nellist, credit Clara Nellist.)

Datshiane Navanayagam talks to two women from Sweden and the United States about what they've learned about treasuring moments of joy.
Kate Bowler is an historian, podcaster and author. She wrote Joyful Anyway after a stage IV bowel cancer diagnosis. Kate says joy isn't something that can be sold by influencers or found in daily journaling. It comes in both the surprising and the expected moments life brings us - and it's perfectly possible to be unhappy and filled with joy at the same time.
Marit Kapla is a Swedish author and journalist. For two of her books she's listened to hundreds of people talk about their lives. Her prize-winning Osebol is based upon interviews with almost all the residents of her home village. Love in Swedish consists of interviews with people all over Sweden about love. Marit says finding joy in one’s life can be difficult and complicated, and the people she's spoken to have many different approaches.
Produced by Jane Thurlow
(Image: (L) Marit Kapla, credit Ola Kjelbye. (R) Kate Bowler, credit Michaella Jelin.)

Why does it become much harder for older women to become pregnant? And how does fertility treatment differ from one country to the next? Ella Al-Shamahi finds out what women need to understand about their bodies.
Ella speaks to Sarah Allison who underwent fertility treatment in India, Spain and Greece. Sarah is now a fertility advocate and writes under the name Solo Fertility 40s.
She also talks to Dr Alison Campbell, a clinical embryologist and chief scientific officer of the Care Fertility Group, and a fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists.

Presenter: Ella Al-Shamahi
Producer: Hannah Sander
(Image: (L) Sarah Allison, courtesy Sarah Allison. (R) Alison Campbell, courtesy Alison Campbell.)

Datshiane Navanayagam discusses the impact of toxic masculinity in South Africa and South Korea. The United Nations has raised concern about online communities promoting misogynistic and anti-feminist views saying they’re a serious threat to gender equality. 
 
Kutlwano Mokgwathi is a doctoral researcher from Botswana, studying at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa - a country with some of the world's highest levels of gender-based violence. Her work is examining the emergence of the “Africana Manosphere” – with a focus on South Africa and Botswana.
Seungsook Moon is Professor of Sociology at Vassar College in New York State. She grew up in Seoul, and her research includes gender and social change in South Korea. In particular, she focuses on the remaking of masculinities shaped by neoliberal transformation of economy, politics, and culture locally and globally. South Korea ranked the highest out of 30 countries for how citizens perceive tension between men and women, according to a study by King’s College London. But what is driving the country’s gender-divide and how is misogyny taking shape online?
Produced by Elena Angelides
(Image: (L) Kutlwano Mokgwathi, courtesy Kutlwano Mokgwathi. (R) Seungsook Moon, courtesy Seungsook Moon.)