Podcast
Katy Balls speaks to women at the top of their respective games, about their passions, their battles, and what makes them tick. Katy is Political Editor of The Spectator.
Katy Balls speaks to women at the top of their respective games, about their passions, their battles, and what makes them tick. Katy is Political Editor of The Spectator.
Women With Balls
Kate Forbes is an SNP MP and the Scottish Finance Secretary. She stepped in at the last minute when her predecessor, Derek MacKay, was suspended from the party on the day of the Budget. On the podcast, she talks about her international upbringing and how that relates to her nationalism, what it was like to
Play 37 mins
Women With Balls
Ruby Wax is an actress, comedian, and mental health campaigner, for which she received an OBE. On the podcast, she tells Katy about her difficult upbringing which put Carrie Fisher’s to shame, the moment she realised she couldn’t act, and her campaigning work, especially during these stressful times.
Play 27 mins
Women With Balls
Lisa Nandy is the Labour MP for Wigan and former shadow energy secretary. She is one of the remaining three contenders for Labour leader. On the podcast, she talks to Katy about her childhood ambitions, cross-party friendships, and the worst advice she’s ever been given.
Play 30 mins
Women With Balls
Emily Thornberry is the shadow Foreign Secretary and former contender for the Labour leadership. On the podcast, she talks to Katy about her challenging childhood, what practising law taught her about politics, and her bid to succeed Jeremy Corbyn.
Play 37 mins
Women With Balls
Prue Leith is a restaurateur, Bake Off judge, and advisor to the government’s review on hospital food. On the podcast, she talks to Katy Balls about growing up in apartheid South Africa, how she got her first Michelin star, and having breakfast with Boris Johnson in Downing St. Prue Leith will be live in conversation
Play 32 mins
Women With Balls
Thérèse Coffey is the MP for Suffolk Coastal and the work and pensions secretary. On the podcast, she talks about her famous karaoke parties, the importance of her Catholic faith to her, and that picture from one Spectator party.
Play 28 mins
Women With Balls
Ayesha Hazarika is a journalist and comedian, and a former Labour advisor to Harriet Harman and Ed Miliband. On the podcast, she talks about growing up in Glasgow, vetting Ed Miliband for Prime Minister’s Questions, and the stand-up jokes that bombed the most.
Play 36 mins
Women With Balls
Joanna Cherry is the SNP’s Justice and Home Affairs Spokesperson and a prolific QC, known for her successful legal challenge against the government over its decision to prorogue parliament. In the end, Boris Johnson’s prorogation was declared unlawful. On the podcast, she talks to Katy about her Scottish Labour days, the misogyny she identifies in
Play 34 mins
Women With Balls
Why would any woman want to be an MP in this general election? In recent years, parliament has been plagued by horror stories of abuse against MPs, especially female ones, with a number of them leaving the job before their time. So does parliament have a woman problem? Katy Balls speaks to a series of
Play 34 mins
Women With Balls
Nicky Morgan is the Secretary of State for Culture, and former Conservative MP for Loughborough. Despite her success in Boris Johnson’s cabinet, she announced that she’d be standing down at this election. On the podcast, she talks about student politics in Oxford with Dan Hannan, filling in Michael Gove’s shoes as Education Secretary under David
Play 27 mins
Women With Balls
Katharine is the headmistress of Michaela Community School, dubbed by some as ‘Britain’s strictest school’. She talks to Katy about why she regrets speaking at Conservative Party Conference, her school’s ‘tiger teacher’ philosophy, and why she would ban smartphones for everyone under the age of 18. Presented by Katy Balls.
Play 26 mins
Women With Balls
Lynn Barber is an award-winning journalist known for her incisive interviews and her best-selling books An Education and How to Improve Your Man in Bed. On this episode, she talks to Katy about her lifetime of interviewing the great and the good, from Salvador Dali to Katie Price; the death threats she received from Rafa
Play 26 mins
Women With Balls
Liz Truss is the Secretary of State for International Trade and holds the Women and Equalities brief. On the podcast, she talks about why Boris picked her for the job (having heard her speech about cheese exports), the limitation to trans rights, and how punchy language is all just a part of politics. Presented by
Play 26 mins
Women With Balls
Margaret Hodge is the Labour MP for Barking and Dagenham, and well-known for her role as former head of the Public Accounts Committee, in which she scrutinised senior civil servants and politicians alike. She has also been one of the most vocal critics of Labour’s anti-Semitism problem. On the podcast, she tells Katy about how
Play 34 mins
Women With Balls
Katy talks to Amber Rudd, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, about walking in Theresa May’s shoes, No 10’s SpAd jihad, and the government’s whip withdrawal for the 21 Tory rebels this week. Presented by Katy Balls.
Play 33 mins
Women With Balls
Dame Joan Collins is an actress, author, and entrepreneur. Her acting career spans three quarters of a century, including 1950s Hollywood movies, to her role as Alexis Carrington in Dynasty. In this episode, she talks to Katy about breaking into acting as a young woman, what she thinks about Love Island, and why she supports
Play 20 mins
Women With Balls
Karen Pierce is the UK’s Permanent Representative to the UN. In this episode, she talks to Katy about her career ambitions when she was young, using Lewis Carroll to combat the Russians, and what day to day life is like in the UN. Presented by Katy Balls.
Play 28 mins
Women With Balls
Jo Swinson is the current deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, but she’s running to be leader against Ed Davey. With the Liberal Democrats’ surge in the polls, Swinson’s role in the coming months could be vital for Brexit. In this special edition of Women with Balls, she talks about losing her seat in 2015
Play 19 mins
Women With Balls
Tracey Crouch MP has earned a reputation for being independently minded. She has rebelled on issues from press regulation to fox hunting; and served as a sports minister until last year until she resigned over the government’s stance on fixed odds betting terminals. In this episode, Tracey Crouch tells Katy about being the only student
Play 34 mins
Women With Balls
Broadcaster and journalist Jo Coburn tells how German got her into journalism, what it’s like to work with Andrew Neil, and what happened behind the scenes of that infamous Will Self-Mark Francois death stare. Presented by Katy Balls.
Play 34 mins
Women With Balls
Layla Moran tells Katy Balls about her childhood as a diplomat’s daughter, the social life of an MP, and getting arrested at Lib Dem conference. Presented by Katy Balls.
Play 29 mins
Women With Balls
Claire Fox, left libertarian thinker, director and founder of the Academy of Ideas, and panellist on the Moral Maze, was this week elected as an MEP for the Brexit Party. In this episode of Women With Balls, she talks to Katy Balls about her disagreements with Nigel Farage, the prejudice she has received in green
Play 41 mins
Women With Balls
Iona Craig is an award-winning war correspondent who has been reporting from Yemen since 2010. On the podcast, Iona tells Katy about her near-death experiences, dealing with survivor’s guilt, and why being a woman makes her job possible.
Play 28 mins
Women With Balls
Kate Hoey is a Labour MP for Vauxhall, having been in that role for 30 years. Hoey talks to Katy Balls about growing up in Northern Ireland, fighting to win her current seat in Vauxhall, and how she developed a reputation as a rebel in her party.
Play 32 mins
Women With Balls
Lionel Shriver is an American journalist, author and Spectator columnist. Her novel We Need to Talk About Kevin – about a mother and her son who goes on to carry out a high school massacre – won the Orange Prize for fiction in 2005. Shriver talks to Katy Balls about why she changed her name
Play 25 mins
Women With Balls
Victoria Atkins is a former barrister, a Conservative party MP, and a Minister at the Home Office. She talks about her legal career and her work at the Home Office creating legislation to protect women and vulnerable people. Hosted by Katy Balls.
Play 25 mins
Women With Balls
Kay Burley is a Sky News founding member, host of The Kay Burley Show, and holds the record for hosting more hours of live television than any other news presenter. Kay tells Katy about how she ‘knocked the rough edges’ off her accent, her love for Jane Fonda, and why the BBC couldn’t afford her
Play 18 mins
Women With Balls
Mary Curnock Cook is an educationalist and former head of Ucas. On this podcast, she talks about leaving school at 16, how boys suffer from the real gender gap in education, and why it would be ‘ludicrous’ to abolish university tuition fees. Presented by Katy Balls.
Play 27 mins
Women With Balls
Katy Balls talks to Leader of the House of Commons, Andrea Leadsom, about her childhood ambitions to prevent nuclear war, giving birth the night before a selection meeting, and going head to head with John Bercow in the Commons.
Play 28 mins
Women With Balls
Join Katy Balls as she talks to MP Jess Phillips about growing in an activist home, her life path before becoming an MP and her newfound Twitter fame. Hosted by Katy Balls.
Play 29 mins