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BBC Radio 4


What do you really know about the menstrual cycle? In this award-winning podcast India Rakusen explores the whole bloody story, discovering facts that could change your life. Periods are just the beginning.


28ish Days Later

Through this series we have demonstrated how inequalities in research and persistent myths about women's bodies have led to inequalities in healthcare. In this episode, India talks to someone who has the power to influence change. Dame Professor Lesley Regan has dedicated the last decade of her career to fighting for better health outcomes for women all over the world.

Credits: 
Presented by India Rakusen. 
Producer: Ellie Sans.
Assistant Producer: Jorja McAndrew. 
Executive Producer: Suzy Grant. 
Original music composed and performed by Rebekah Reid. 
Sound Design by Charlie Brandon-King. 

Special thanks to all contributors and audio diarists. 

A Listen production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

Day Twenty-Eight: New Power

India travels back to the Victorian Age to probe at the use of the vaginal speculum and considers its link to menstrual shame and embarrassment, particularly in education. India then meets Chella Quint, founder of the Period Positive Movement, and also Professor Chris Bobel, who are the women at the forefront of revolutionising menstrual education both within school and the home. 

Credits: 
Presented by India Rakusen. 
Producer: Ellie Sans.
Assistant Producer: Jorja McAndrew. 
Executive Producer: Suzy Grant. 
Original music composed and performed by Rebekah Reid. 
Sound Design by Charlie Brandon-King. 

Special thanks to all contributors and audio diarists. 

A Listen production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

Day Twenty-Seven: The Lessons We Learn

India considers the role of the femcare industry in perpetuating menstrual stigma and single use products with Chris Bobel, an Associate Professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston and Co-Editor of the Critical Guide to Menstruation. 

We also meet Dr Sharra Vostral, a Professor of History at Purdue University in Indiana, to discuss the rise of Toxic Shock Syndrome in the 1970s and 80s and how this healthcare event shaped the tampon industry today. 

Later India considers the rise of reusable products with Alec Mills, the founder of the sustainable period product brand, DAME. 

Credits: 
Presented by India Rakusen. 
Producer: Ellie Sans.
Assistant Producer: Jorja McAndrew. 
Executive Producer: Suzy Grant. 
Original music composed and performed by Rebekah Reid. 
Sound Design by Charlie Brandon-King. 

Special thanks to all contributors and audio diarists. 

A Listen production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

Day Twenty-Six: The Shock

How long is too long for a menstrual cycle? And what can be the causes of irregular periods? India talks to Dr Anita Mitra and Dr Dornu Lebari about what's 'normal' as well as the hormonal imbalance that arises from the condition polycystic ovary syndrome. India also finds out about some unusual animal cycles. 

Credits: 
Presented by India Rakusen. 
Producer: Ellie Sans.
Assistant Producer: Jorja McAndrew. 
Executive Producer: Suzy Grant. 
Original music composed and performed by Rebekah Reid. 
Sound Design by Charlie Brandon-King. 

Special thanks to all contributors and audio diarists. 

A Listen production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

Day Twenty Five: Why 28 Days?

Millions of women across the world take hormonal contraception either as birth control or to help with problem periods - but do we know how much they might be affecting our brains? 

In this episode India asks Dr Jackie Maybin from the University of Edinburgh, whether there is a physiological need for women to have their periods whilst on the contraceptive pill. Dr Katy Vincent explains how women today have far more periods than our recent ancestors ever did and Dr Sarah Hill, author of How the Pill Changes Everything: Your Brain on Birth Control, joins to discuss the effect of the pill on women’s brains. 

Credits: 
Presented by India Rakusen. 
Producer: Ellie Sans.
Assistant Producer: Jorja McAndrew. 
Executive Producer: Suzy Grant. 
Original music composed and performed by Rebekah Reid. 
Sound Design by Charlie Brandon-King. 

Special thanks to all contributors and audio diarists. 

A Listen production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

Day Twenty Four: To Bleed or Not to Bleed

India meets performance physiologist Dr Stacy Sims who offers key advice on how best to tailor your eating and exercise routine to certain points of your cycle whether you’re a regular cycling women, experiencing the menopause or on hormonal contraception. They also discuss data bias in the diet and exercise world. 

Credits: 
Presented by India Rakusen. 
Producer: Ellie Sans.
Assistant Producer: Jorja McAndrew. 
Executive Producer: Suzy Grant. 
Original music composed and performed by Rebekah Reid. 
Sound Design by Charlie Brandon-King. 

Special thanks to all contributors and audio diarists. 

A Listen production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

Day Twenty Three: Exercycle

India sits down with her husband Mark to talk about the cycle and their relationship. They also meet a couple - Bill and Amy - who tailor their life based around Amy’s cycle. India and Mark try to decide if this sort of lifestyle is for them. 

Credits: 
Presented by India Rakusen. 
Producer: Ellie Sans.
Assistant Producer: Jorja McAndrew. 
Executive Producer: Suzy Grant. 
Original music composed and performed by Rebekah Reid. 
Sound Design by Charlie Brandon-King. 

Special thanks to all contributors and audio diarists. 

A Listen production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

Day Twenty-Two: Love and the Cycle

We find India at the top of the cliffs of Folkestone in South East England to meet a group of women who swim under the light of the full moon. Meanwhile. on the other side of the world in Australia, the coral of the Great Barrier Reef is spawning to coincide with the full moon. Professor Oren Levy of Marine Biology at Bar Ilan University talks us through this wonder.

Credits: 
Presented by India Rakusen. 
Producer: Ellie Sans.
Assistant Producer: Jorja McAndrew. 
Executive Producer: Suzy Grant. 
Original music composed and performed by Rebekah Reid. 
Sound Design by Charlie Brandon-King. 

Special thanks to all contributors and audio diarists. 

A Listen production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

Day Twenty-One: In the Moonlight

India meets with the founder and director of Chem Trust, Elizabeth Salter Green, and Shruthi Mahalingaiah Assistant who is a Professor of Environmental Reproductive and Women's Health at the Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health, to discuss the implication of modern day synthetic chemicals on the menstrual cycle and the natural world. 

Credits: 
Presented by India Rakusen. 
Producer: Ellie Sans.
Assistant Producer: Jorja McAndrew. 
Executive Producer: Suzy Grant. 
Original music composed and performed by Rebekah Reid. 
Sound Design by Charlie Brandon-King. 

Special thanks to all contributors and audio diarists. 

A Listen production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

Day Twenty: Chemical Disruption

India speaks with Kenny Ethan Jones, the first transgender man to front a period product campaign. They talk about Kenny’s experience with menstruation, and transitioning. As well as Kenny's work as an activist, and his journey to peace. 

Credits: 
Presented by India Rakusen. 
Producer: Ellie Sans.
Assistant Producer: Jorja McAndrew. 
Executive Producer: Suzy Grant. 
Original music composed and performed by Rebekah Reid. 
Sound Design by Charlie Brandon-King. 

Special thanks to all contributors and audio diarists. 

A Listen production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

Day Nineteen: Kenny

For years the female body in athletic performance has gone understudied, until recently. 

India meets Richard Burden from the English Institute of Sport who is researching the effect of hormones on female performance whilst also building key technology in the field to do onsite hormone testing. India is also joined by GB pentathlon athlete Jess Varley who is part of this research and who has tailored her training around her menstrual cycle to reap extraordinary results. 

Credits: 
Presented by India Rakusen. 
Producer: Jorja McAndrew. 
Series Producer: Ellie Sans.
Executive Producer: Suzy Grant. 
Original music composed and performed by Rebekah Reid. 
Sound design by Charlie Brandon-King. 

Special thanks to all contributors and audio diarists. 

A Listen production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

Day Eight: Hack it to Win it

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