Dolly talks bird-feeding and rabid Game of Thrones fans who want to re-make the ending; Pandora ponders what Spice Girl merch to get her hands on; and we discuss Oxbridge's first appointment of its first black female master.

In this episode, a talk-gone-viral from Hay Festival, by behavioural scientist and LSE scientist Paul Dolan, who claimed that women without a spouse and children are happier. We call on the words of Grace Dent, Corinne Fisher and Terri Gross; Simone de Beauvoir and Jacqueline Rose in order to try and determine what makes a happy woman (and is it ever possible to contrast two very different lives?)

We also muse upon the Moby vs. Natalie Portman row, after the musician claimed in his memoir that they dated when she was 20; she says they didn't date - oh and she was 18. What does this story tell us about about entitlement, fact-checking and truth-telling?

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The Salt Path by Raynor Winn

Years and Years, on BBC iPlayer

Mothers, by Jacqueline Rose

Hadley Freeman on the pro-life lobby, for The Guardian https://bit.ly/2HFQmjg  

Eva Wiseman on why life is shades of grey, for The Observer magazine https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/may/26/why-are-arguments-always-so-black-and-white-reality-television

Terri Gross on not having kids, on The Longest Short podcast https://longestshortesttime.com/episode-79-terry-gross-on-not-having-kids/

The C Word on Luminary: https://bit.ly/2HHhVsz

The Scarcity Mindset by Octavia Bright: https://www.elle.com/uk/life-and-culture/a27527675/scarcity-mindset-competition-women/ 

Laura Snapes reviews The Spice Girls reunion show: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/may/25/spice-girls-review-nostalgia-live-croke-park-dublin

Nina Stibbe on The Adam Buxton podcast: https://soundcloud.com/adam-buxton/podcast-ep90-nina-stibbe 

Wait by Galway Kinnell: https://poets.org/poem/wait 

Grace Dent and Sian Harries on not having children: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09jd32d 

Arwa Mahdawi on Moby and nice-guy misogyny: https://bit.ly/2HDM7op  

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