Emma-Jean Thackray, Dr Pamela Warner, Charlotte Edwards and Niki Adams, Judith Heumann

Anita Rani talks to Emma-Jean Thackray about her debut album Yellow, which has debuted at number one on the Jazz & Blues Chart.

Will the young women smashing it at the Olympics in the new urban sports of BMX freestyling, Skateboarding and Sport Climbing inspire a new generation of girls to follow in their footsteps? We talk to skateboarder Hannah Shrewsbury and BMX freestyler Kayley Ashworth.

Cricket legend Baroness Rachel Heyhoe-Flint is to be honoured with a gate named in her memory at Lords and we hear reaction from her son Ben Heyhoe-Flint.

A drug that has been used to treat critically ill patients suffering from Covid may also help women who struggle with heavy periods. A small trial, in development long before the pandemic, has found that the steroid Dexamethasone, a cheap anti-inflammatory drug, could help reduce heavy menstrual bleeding. We hear from Dr Pamela Warner, the lead author of the research.

Sex worker Charlotte Edwards explains how she applied via her bank for the government’s Bounce Back Loan, which is available to small business and the self-employed but she was initially declined due to her occupation. The Equality Act 2010 protects people from discrimination, harassment and victimisation, although profession is not currently a ‘protected characteristic’. We explore the implications of financial exclusion for sex workers with Charlotte and to Niki Adams of the English Collective of Prostitutes.

And we hear from the American disability rights activist Judith Heumann. Paralysed from polio at eighteen months, she has campaigned tirelessly for decades in the Disability Rights Movement, both at home and abroad.

Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Lisa Jenkinson Studio Engineer: Gayl Gordon

Photograph by Joe Magowan