Rachel Johnson's Difficult Women

This week Rachel is joined by Julia Perowne, the founder and CEO of Perowne International, a global PR and marketing consultancy that specialises in luxury travel and hospitality. Having worked in the industry for 20 years, Julia is the 'PR's PR' when it comes to travel. Julia and Rachel discuss the complexities of her job in today's chaotic world as well as what it's like to be a woman working in what is still a male-dominated industry. Julia also reveals the staggering story of how her life was saved by a doctor she was working with while on a job in Germany.

This week's Difficult Woman is Kathryn Stockett, who, 17 years after the release of her hit novel 'The Help', joins me to talk about her long-awaited second book, 'The Calamity Club'. Kathryn tells Rachel why characters are so central to her process of writing and what she wants readers to take away from the novel. They also discuss the parallels between the 1930s and today's society when it comes to women's rights.

This week's difficult woman is the Scottish journalist, producer and TV show host, Isla Traquair. Best known for her work in true crime, Isla's reported on countless cases throughout her career, and was even known in the early days as the "queen of the death knock". Together, Rachel and Isla talk about her smash hit true-crime series 'The Storyteller: Naked Villainy'. Isla also tells Rachel what it was like when she went from reporter to victim, after her neighbour stalked her.

This week Rachel is joined by the historian, bestselling author and award-winning producer Philippa Langley, who discovered the remains of Richard III beneath a car park in Leicester back in 2012. Philippa tells Rachel what it was like when her instinct kicked in and she decided to make it her mission to find the King, a moment that inevitably changed her life.

Penny East is the Chief Executive of the Fawcett Society, the UK’s foremost campaigning charity for women’s rights, working against misogyny. A seasoned charity boss and campaigner, she helped shape the Domestic Abuse Bill 2021 and launched the UK’s first domestic abuse perpetrator programme. Together, Rachel and Penny discuss how the ever changing scene of social media is affecting misogyny, as well as how a disparity in how seriously women's pain is being taken has resulted in their trust in the medical system being damaged.

This week's Difficult Woman is the journalist, author, academic and historian, Zoe Strimpel, whose new book 'Good Slut' argues that women's liberation comes from the intertwined forces of money, power, and sex. Together, Rachel and Zoe discuss the culture of victimhood in conversations around women. They also talk about the rise of open antisemitism in the UK, and Zoe's recent ill-fated visit to a gallery in Margate.