Listener Week: Widow's Fire, DNA discoveries, Decluttering backlash

Woman's Hour

Listener Week is when all the topics, interviews and discussions are chosen by YOU!

As part of Listener Week we have been asked by widows to discuss one side effect of bereavement – hyper-arousal, and the term ‘Widow’s Fire’. Nuala McGovern explores these ideas with listener Lizzie, Stacey Heale, who has written a book – Now is Not the Time for Flowers - about her experience of being widowed, and also by the psychotherapist Lucy Beresford, who can shed some light on what might be going on.

DNA testing for family ancestry is becoming more popular, with some companies having millions of users. A listener we are calling Sarah wrote: ‘I would like to hear about non-paternity events. This is when you discover that a parent is not your biological parent often via a DNA test. I made this discovery in my fifties. Increasing we are hearing about the impact of these discoveries but until it happens to you it is incomprehensible to understand. I would like to hear these issues explored.’ Nuala speaks to her and also to Laura House, genetic genealogist at Ancestry, and Lucy Beresford.

A listener who tried decluttering and didn't like it asked us to look into 'the craze of removing any superfluous stuff in their house.' Nuala is joined by journalist Rebecca Reid and professional organiser Jenn Jordan to discuss if household streamlining has become an additional burden for women, or a helpful tool to stay on top of life admin.

There is an iconic spot in Ireland called the Forty Foot and it's where people go to swim in Dublin Bay. If you watched the Apple TV series Bad Sisters, you might have seen it. But 50 years ago, women ‘weren’t allowed’ to swim there, so a group took to the waters in their bikinis – and had a less than welcome reaction from the men. Listener, journalist and feminist Rosita Sweetman suggested we discuss this on the programme. She joins Nuala, as does one of the women who mounted the invasion - activist, writer and poet, Mary Dorcey.