The Conversation

Datshiane Navanayagam

Booking Overview

This is an interview series focused on women’s lives, expertise, and cross-cultural experiences, typically featuring two external guests with established professional expertise and a compelling personal or social-impact story. Credible pitches include women scientists, humanitarian leaders, artists, advocates, authors, and skilled professionals with distinctive achievements or firsthand experience; booking is likely high difficulty because of the BBC World Service’s international editorial standards.

Metrics

Episodes: 596

Frequency: Weekly

Rating: 4.6/5.0

Estimated listeners: 1k-10k

Gender skew: Female

Location: United Kingdom

Contact Information

Publicly listed emails

podcast.support@bbc.co.uk

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Host

Datshiane Navanayagam - BBC journalist and presenter specializing in international stories and conversations about women’s experiences, expertise, and achievements.

Booking Intelligence

Booking Requirements

high

Typical Credentials:

Established subject-matter expertise, professional leadership, recognized creative or academic work, or substantial firsthand experience in an issue affecting women and communities internationally.

Required Achievements:

Founded or led an organization or major initiative, Published a book or conducted significant academic research, Held a senior role in humanitarian, scientific, or cultural institutions, Created notable public or international work, Demonstrated direct experience in crisis response or social-impact work

Recent Guest Discussions

Charlotte Lusty - Wild Seed Conservation, Biodiversity, And Protecting Threatened Flowering Plants.

Gloria Otieno - Crop Diversity, Seed Banks, Food Security, And Preserving Plants For Future Generations.

Lori Demontigny - Medical Humanitarian Work, Disaster Response, And Caring For Communities Affected By Crises.

Claudia Gonzlez - Earthquake Response, Disaster Coordination, And Supporting Affected Communities.

Renee Preston - Women In Construction, Skills Shortages, Vocational Careers, And Hands-on Industry Experience.

Recent Topics

Women, Gender Equality, Science, Humanitarianism, Art

Episodes

Here's the recent few episodes on

The Conversation

Cricket’s top women umpires

September 21, 2026

Datshiane Navanayagam talks to women from India and the UK who officiate international and domestic matches for the women’s and men’s games. They’re both on the ICC’s development panel for umpires. Vrinda Rathi is an Indian cricket umpire. She was one of the first female umpires to stand as an on-field umpire in a men's domestic fixture in India. Earlier this year she became the first Indian woman to officiate in a Women’s World Cup final as one of the two on-field umpires for the final betw...

Women bringing science to social media

September 14, 2026

While the proportion of girls studying science subjects beyond high school is going up, physics, maths and engineering are still dominated by men. Ella Al-Shamahi talks to two women from Sweden and the UK who are using social media platforms to try and encourage greater equality in STEM subjects.Eleonora Svanberg is a half-Swedish and half-Persian mathematical physics PhD student at the University of Oxford. With over three quarters of a million followers on social media platforms, @eleonoras...

What is a joyful life?

September 07, 2026

Datshiane Navanayagam talks to two women from Sweden and the United States about what they've learned about treasuring moments of joy.Kate Bowler is an historian, podcaster and author. She wrote Joyful Anyway after a stage IV bowel cancer diagnosis. Kate says joy isn't something that can be sold by influencers or found in daily journaling. It comes in both the surprising and the expected moments life brings us - and it's perfectly possible to be unhappy and filled with joy at the same time.Ma...

Publicly listed emails

podcast.support@bbc.co.uk

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