Listen here (if you have a BBC license) or here (if you do not – -downloaded clip from BBC).
When I was asked to appear on BBC World Service to discuss women and ADHD with Kim Chakanetsa, I said yes. After all, the show’s good enough for Olympian & powerhouse (and ADHD-er) Simone Biles (as well as Nobel prize winners Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and May-Britt Moser, and world leaders Michelle Bachelet and Helen Clark). Also, this radio service was my one window to the world from a tiny tropical ‘paradise’ I grew up in last century (where ADHD, poverty etc don’t exist!). When asked whom I’d like to chat with, I named my friend Dr. Jane Sedgwick-Müller. We’d both ‘discovered’ our ADHD late in our lives. As Jane is from nursing, our views are deliciously, productively antagonistic – which makes for a lively chat (but not an easy job for Kim or the editor!). I’m lucky to often been given a platform – which I hope I use meaningfully. As the magnificent poet-teacher bell hooks says, you want to use the margin as a space of resistance, creativity and power, and transgressing ‘out of one’s place’, requires ‘pushing against oppressive boundaries’.
I discussed how more divergent body-minds must gate-crash hallowed spaces when asked to ‘stick to your own lane’ or ‘go back to where you’re from’. I also critiqued normative, ableist measures of ‘success’. I debunked myths about popular/populist narratives (haven’t we had enough of neurodivergent billionaire tech-bros and their antics?). I also talked about finishing my book Neuro-Futurising Leadership: An A-Z for Artful Movers and Shakers for 2050.
The show will be aired 2nd October at various time-zones.
Top: Two women talking in a BBC recording studio (Left: Kai; right: Jane ). Middle: Screenshot of the programme ‘The Conversation: Women living with ADHD’ on the BBC World Service website; Bottom: Three women smiling (left to right: Kai, Kim, Jane). Credits: Photos by Assistant Producer Emily Naylor. With thanks to Kim, Emily and others working behind the scenes. Note: The photos were taken early August, which was also when the recording took place.