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The writer Eve Ensler is internationally renowned for her play The Vagina Monologues. She also launched V-Day to campaign for ending violence against women and has written numerous plays and books on themes of psychological damage and recovery. She talks to Cathy about the moments that have shaped her life and her new book The Apology, the imagined apology from her father for the sexual abuse and violence he inflicted on her.

Sikhs and Hindus have scattered ashes of the dead in the River Ganges for centuries. Inverclyde Council has designated a stretch of river at Port Glasgow for Scottish Sikhs to use in the same way and Trishna Singh, Founder & Director of Sikh Sanjog, explains the ritual and why it’s important to have this provision in Scotland.

Who should or should not be allowed to have a child? Dundee Council is trialling a new initiative where the provision of drug addiction services and mental health support is conditional on women accepting contraception, with the aim to reduce the number of children being taken into care. Gina Menzies, theologian and medical ethicist, and Maggie Mellon, an independent social worker involved with the Scottish group P.A.R. (Parents, Advocacy and Rights) reflect on the ethical issues posed by The Pause Initiative.

Cathy is joined by theatre critic Gareth K Vile, and Luke Devlin, a member of the Catholic Worker Movement, to discuss the new TV adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s novel ‘Good Omens’, starring Martin Sheen and David Tennant.

The recent history of South Sudan has been a cycle of conflict and famine, weakening the country and its people. Photojournalist Kate Holt joins Cathy to talk about her current exhibition showing in Edinburgh, ‘Childhood Disrupted’, which tells stories through the eyes of the children of South Sudan.

What is it that draws people to visit places where dreadful atrocities have occurred, such as the site of the former concentration camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau, or the killing fields of Cambodia? Kathy Galloway, Church of Scotland minister and member of the Iona Community, and Luke Devlin discuss if there is anything to be learnt from visiting places where historical cruelty and inhumanity has taken place.