The Mummafesto

Joining me on The Mummafesto this week is Arooj Shah. Arooj is a Labour politician and has been the leader of Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council in Great Manchester since May 2023. Arooj has had a a long and varied career in local Government and was the first Muslim woman to charge of a council in the north of England. Arooj, welcome to The Mummafesto.  

Joining me on The Mummafesto this week is Guardian columnist and

political correspondent, Gaby Hinsliff. Gaby is the former editor of

The Observer and editor at large of Grazia magazine. In 2012 Gaby

published 'Half a Wife:The Working Family's Guide to Getting a Life

Back'. Half a Wife is based on Gaby's own experience of trying to

balance a family life with a rewarding career. Gaby, welcome to The

Mummafesto.

Joining me on The Mummafesto this week is Bev Craig. Bev is a Labour politician, serving as the leader of Manchester City Council. Bev is the city council’s first female and LGBT leader and during her time as leader has made significant strides in provision for children and young people in Manchester. Bev is also a founder and co-chair of Open Labour.  

Joining me for The Mummafesto Mother's Day special, and the one year anniversary of the podcast, is author and campaigner Laura Bates. Laura is the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, an ever-increasing collection of over 200,000 testimonies of global gender inequality and author of several books on misogyny and sexism. Her most recent book, Fix the System, Not the Women was named one of Waterstones' best books of 2022. In May, Laura will publish her latest book 'The New Age of Sexism - How the AI revolution is reinventing misogyny'. Laura, welcome to The Mummafesto. 

My guest this week is Beverley Pannell. Beverley is the founder of Motherhood Uncensored and mum to a toddler. After facing fertility issues, baby loss and a traumatic birth Beverley felt there was so much missing from our conversations around motherhood. Motherhood Uncensored began as a platform to share stories and collectively work through the misogyny that surrounds modern motherhood but has grown into much more. This week Beverley has published her first book, ‘Motherhood Uncensored’, a collection of 35 stories and essays from mothers sharing their experience. Beverley welcome to The Mummafesto. 

My guest this week is Marvyn Harrison. Marvyn is the father of two small children and the  founder of Dope Black Dads. Beginning as a solidarity whatsapp chat with fellow fathers, Dope Black Dads has now grown into a global community with over 250,000 members in the UK, US and South Africa, helping dads with everything from new fatherhood to finances to problems your child may face at school. Marvyn, welcome to the Mummafesto 

This week's guest is Ashley James, the TV presenter and DJ. Ashley started out her career in Made in Chelsea but has now moved into being a commentator and journalist on a number of platforms, including on the Jeremy Vine Show, GB News, and indeed This Morning. Ashley is a fearsome campaigner for women's rights, having spoken out on a range of issues, including sexual harassment, the rights for single women to have IVF on the NHS, and indeed on reproductive rights. Ashley, welcome to the Mummafesto.

You can find out more about Ashley and her work here.

My guest this week is broadcaster and journalist Jemma Forte. Jemma has been a professional presenter for over twenty years and began her career at Disney Channel. Jemma is now a regular on Sky News, BBC, Jeremy Vine and was formally a presenter and panelist on Channel 5’s current affairs show ‘The Wright Stuff’.  

For the last two years Jemma has hosted popular politics podcast, The Trawl, with journalist Marina Purkiss. On The Trawl Jemma and Marina scroll through social media so their listeners don’t have to – discussing global politics and interviewing some of the UK’s top politicians.  

You can find out more about Jemma's work here and listen to The Trawl on Apple and Spotify.

Joining me this week is journalist and author Rachel Johnson. Rachel was the first female graduate trainee at the Financial Times and has since written weekly columns for the Sunday telegraph, daily telegraph and evening standard. She is a contributing editor of The Spectator and now writes a weekly column in the The Mail on Sunday. From 2009-2012 she was editor of The Lady, Britain’s longest-running women’s magazine. Rachel, welcome to the Mummafesto.  

My guest this is blogger, campaigner and founder of grassroots organisation Five X More, Tinuke Awe. Five X More is an organisation committed to changing and highlighting Black maternal outcomes in the UK and was founded following Tinuke’s own experience with traumatic birth. She's also a campaigner on Autism in the black community. In April this year, Tinuke received an Inspirational Women Award for her campaign for quality maternity care. 

You can find out more about Tinuke's work via her Instagram and fiveXmore's website.