Iron deficiency, Malintzin, Budget lookahead, Frida Kahlo self-portrait

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Nov 24, 2025

Dr Clair Evans, a leading consultant in paediatric pathology, discusses the alarming workforce shortages and delays in postmortems affecting families. Colletta Smith, the BBC's Cost of Living correspondent, provides insights on the upcoming UK budget, highlighting its potential impacts on women and pensioners. The conversation also touches on Frida Kahlo's record-breaking self-portrait sale, underscoring the gender disparities in the art market. Listeners are left considering the broader societal implications of these critical topics.

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INSIGHT

Frozen Thresholds Are A Stealth Tax

Freezing tax thresholds is an implicit tax rise as incomes creep people into higher bands.
Colletta Smith highlights this as a common, less visible way to raise revenue over time.

INSIGHT

Huge Gender Gap In Art Prices

Female artists' auction prices trail male artists by large margins; research finds women's work sells ~40% lower at auction.
Professor René Adams argues identity and collector demographics, not just art quality, drive this persistent gap.

ADVICE

Tackle Market Bias With Education

Educate collectors, curators and the public about structural biases and pricing distortions in the art market.
Professor René Adams recommends research and awareness to decouple price from biased identity signals.

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Are you excessively tired with your hair falling out, nails always breaking, brain often foggy or sometimes, despite having youth on your side, maybe forgetting how to form a sentence? These are amongst the symptoms of iron deficiency, often underdiagnosed. Nuala McGovern will be speaking to Dr Sue Pavord, Consultant Haematologist and President of the British Society for Haematology, and freelance journalist Rose Stokes.

The Royal College of Pathologists say that a shortage of consultants means that "1 in 5 families are now waiting 6 months or more, and some longer than 12 months" for post mortems. The 'paediatric and perinatal pathology workforce' report said there were no paediatric or perinatal pathology consultants in the South West, the Midlands or Northern Ireland. Dr Clair Evans, the chair of the college’s advisory committee - a Consultant Paediatric and Perinatal pathologist explains the situation further. At lunchtime on Wednesday the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, will unveil her much anticipated second budget. How could this budget affect the lives of women in 2026? We’re joined by the BBC’s Cost of Living correspondent Colletta Smith, to talk us through what we might see in the red briefcase on Wednesday.

A self-portrait by Frida Kahlo has just sold for $55 million in New York. It is the highest price ever paid for a work by a female artist. To illustrate the magnitude of the difference, a painting by Klimt was also sold recently for $236m. Professor Renee Adams is a professor of finance at Oxford Saïd business school and researches the role of gender in the art market, where women’s works generally achieve much lower values. She explains why and what needs to change.

As part of the BBC 2 Civilisations series, tonight’s programme looks at the rise and fall of the Aztec Empire and the part that a young woman played in its demise. She was called Malintzin and acted as translator at the momentous first meeting in 1519 between Montezuma, the ruler of the vast Aztec Empire, and the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés. To find out more about Malintzin and her role in Mexican history and culture Nuala is joined by Dr Elizabeth Baquedano, from the Institute of Archaeology at University College London and Dr Jessica Fernández de Lara Harada from the University of Oxford.

Presenter: Nuala McGovern Producer: Kirsty Starkey