Sonia Sodha

Saturday

Sonia Sodha

Mums for Reform?

14 min listen

Britain’s mums are backing Nigel Farage. One in five Mumsnet users intend to vote for Reform at the next general election, the first time a party other than Labour has topped its poll. Having been more negative towards Farage and the right in the past, why are its politically engaged users changing their minds? Are they swayed by issues like single-sex spaces, or does it reflect a wider collapse of confidence in the establishment? James Heale speaks to Tim Shipman and Sonia Sodha. Produced by Megan McElroy.

Monday

Sonia Sodha

What now for the BBC?

12 min listen

It seems that the BBC is once again setting the news agenda – via tales of its own incompetence. The Corporation has spent days battling accusations that it aired a doctored clip of a speech by President Trump in a Panorama documentary back in January 2021. The White House Press Secretary has called the Beeb ‘100 per cent fake news’ while Kemi Badenoch has demanded that ‘heads must roll’ ... and now they have. For Tim Davie, the Director-General of the BBC, announced his resignation, alongside Deborah Turness, his senior colleague and CEO of News. But will two scalps be enough? James Heale speaks to Tim Shipman and Sonia Sodha. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Thursday

Sonia Sodha

How assisted dying changed my mind on religion

A couple of weeks ago, a friend voiced a sentiment that I wasn’t expecting. 'I think your values are quite Christian, Sonia.' What I found even more surprising was my own reaction to it. A year ago, I’d have felt patronised, maybe even a little insulted. Instead, I took it as a compliment. Growing up the daughter of East African Asian immigrants of different faiths – my father an atheistic Gujarati Hindu, my mother a lapsed Punjabi Sikh – faith wasn’t a strong feature of my childhood. As a young child, I’d quite often go to the gurdwara with my maternal grandparents, who were religious. I went to a school with an explicitly Christian ethos. But as a teenager I saw a belief in God as akin to a belief in Father Christmas.

Sonia Sodha

Gender wars: the Union’s new battle line

39 min listen

On the podcast this week:  In his cover piece for the magazine Iain Macwhirter writes in the aftermath of the government’s decision to block the Scottish Gender Recognition Reform Bill from gaining Royal Assent. He joins the podcast with Observer columnist Sonia Sodha to discuss the Union’s new battle line (01:03).  Also this week: why are our prisons still in lockdown?  Charlie Taylor, HM’s Chief Inspector of Prisons writes about some of his recent observations visiting institutions around the country. He says that control measures are failing both inmates and the taxpayer. He is joined by journalist David James Smith to examine this post-Covid inertia in UK prisons (16:48).

Saturday

Sonia Sodha

Labour’s women problem

14 min listen

The gender debate has become increasingly difficult for the Labour Party as the election campaign has rumbled on. JK Rowling has now agreed to meet with Labour to discuss gender transition policy, after writing in The Times that she'd struggle to vote for the party after feeling dismissed by them. After the election, will gender become an increasingly difficult issue for Keir Starmer?