Woman's Hour Folgen

All week our drama has been about a woman bringing up her son who has cerebral palsy and learning disabilities. Today we hear from the real people behind the story: Alison White and Louis, who's an adult now. And afterwards we hear from Mencap about life during lockdown for adults with learning disabilities and their carers. We continue our Corona Diaries. Today we have Kate Tudge who breeds pigs in Herefordshire. We go to America to speak to Alix Kates Shulman, author of "Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen" who's making face masks. "A midlife crisis" is often used to describe middle-aged men being indulgent or irresponsible. But before it became a cliché, the term was a feminist concept. In 1976, a journalist called Gail Sheehy used it to refer to both men and women who might be reassessing their life and their choices and looking for a change. Susanne Schmidt, a history lecturer at Freie University in Berlin has written a book about Sheehy and her ideas. It's called Midlife Crisis: The Feminist Origins of a Chauvinist Cliché.

How are young carers coping in the lockdown? We hear from 17 year old James who looks after his mum and grandma. And Dr Kate Blake-Holmes joins us too. She's a social worker at the University of East Anglia and is carrying out research into this area. As we experience lockdown, how true is it that women comply with public health messages more obediently than men? Dr Michelle Harrison sets out the facts and figures when it comes to gender difference and public health messages.There's another chance to hear Jane's interview with the American author, Elizabeth Strout. Loads of you suggested her Olive Kitteridge novels for the lockdown. And who was Matilda McCrear? She was the last-known survivor of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. She was put on a boat to America in 1860 and she lived until 1940. She still has living relatives. The historian, Hannah Dunkin from the University of Newcastle, tells us about her.

The Commons Home Affairs Committee warned that without urgent steps to address the issue of domestic violence, families and communities would be dealing with the "devastating consequences" for a generation to come. Jane hears from Yvette Cooper, Chair of the committee. From the bald-headed white uakari to the Tapanuli orangutan - Nikki Waldron, a producer and director of BBC1 series Primates talks about capturing rarely seen species on film. We also hear from the primatologist Dr Cat Hobaiter, who is studying the gestures of chimpanzees. How do you care for your mental health when the normal support services are no longer available? Lindsay lives in Glasgow, and for today’s Woman’s Hour Corona Diaries she talks about the difficulties of helping her mum cope with bipolar from a distance – and how she’s been dealing with her own anxiety while adapting to home schooling two young children.Glenda Young published her debut novel, a saga called Belle of the Back Streets set in her hometown of Ryhope, aged 54. She explains why all her books are set in the same year, the influence of Coronation Street on her writing and how she stopped hiding her writing at the back of her knicker drawer. Some people are experiencing fitful nights in lockdown, with a number of social media users reporting unusually vivid dreams. What is the science behind dreaming? Dr. Megan Crawford from the Sleep Research Unit at Strathclyde University, and the psychotherapist Lucy Beresford discuss. Presenter: Jane Garvey Producer: Dianne McGregor