Anita Rani launches a new podcast featuring Gisèle Pelicot and Anoushka Shankar as guests
Rani said the podcast is about the honest stuff that rarely gets discussed and the moments that disrupted the plan
British broadcaster and presenter Anita Rani is launching a new podcast, Sisters of Defiance, next week through her newly established production house, Illuminaunty Productions.
The guests
The series features an impressive line-up of women who have each, in their own way, refused to conform. Among those lined up are Gisèle Pelicot — the French woman who waived her right to anonymity in one of the most harrowing rape cases in history to stand in solidarity with fellow victims — alongside 13-time Grammy nominee Anoushka Shankar, entrepreneur and chief executive Emma Grede, comedy actress Meera Syal, and comedian Fatiha El-Ghorri.
What the podcast explores
Sisters of Defiance will see Rani — host of BBC Radio 4's Women's Hour and long-running television programme Countryfile — in conversation with women who have pushed themselves well beyond conventional boundaries.
Recorded at Rani's home studio, the discussions will explore how culture shapers, trailblazers, and female icons have responded in moments that demanded they reject conformity and defy expectations — from quiet, personal acts of rebellion to moments that shifted the course of history.
Rani's vision
"This podcast is another moment in which I'm breaking free to do things my own way, and to shout about people I see as fellow defiant ones, who've taken risks, broken rules and quietly or loudly changed the shape of things," Rani said.
"It's about the moments that disrupted the plan and what it really took to keep going when things got complicated. The honest stuff we don't often get to talk about."
She added: "I am building community for the people who want to belong. It has purpose, to fuel and recharge and inspire. To lead with integrity and to listen to the voices of powerful women with stories to share."
Partnership and launch date
The series has been created in partnership with Ancient + Brave, a female-founded wellness company. The first episode launches on Tuesday, 26 May.
About Anita Rani
Rani's television credits include more than a decade on BBC One's Countryfile, as well as My Life at Christmas and The Brontës for Sky Arts.
She was also a competitor on BBC's Race Across the World and has authored two books — memoir The Right Sort of Girl and novel Baby Does a Runner.
