About this episode

Dua Lipa and Roxane Gay discuss the relevance of 'Bad Feminist' in today's climate, exploring themes of feminism, media, and community.

For March’s Monthly Read – and in time for International Women’s Day – we are thrilled to be featuring Bad Feminist by American writer, professor, editor and social commentator Roxane Gay. In this podcast episode, Dua picks some of her favourite essays from Roxane’s 2014 collection, which spans everything from pop culture and politics to race, body image, sexual violence and the complicated expectations placed on women. The pair unpack how the landscape of feminism has shifted in today’s climate but also (and perhaps more importantly) how so much of Roxane’s commentary feels just as relevant today as it did when she first wrote it: “One of the saddest things about Bad Feminist is most of the essays are still timely.” Please be warned, this episode is heavy, with discussions of child sexual violence and rape. But it is an incredibly important conversation, confronting today’s relentless news cycles: from the ongoing uncovering of the Epstein files to the wider state of global media reporting and the ways in which coverage of violence against women continues to fall devastatingly short. There are also lighter moments, where Dua and Roxane bond over their shared love of book clubs…

People in this episode

Host: Dua Lipa

Guest: Roxane Gay

Topics covered

• feminism
• media
• misogyny
• pop culture
• community
• book clubs

Keywords

• Roxane Gay
• Bad Feminist
• feminism
• media coverage
• book clubs
• misogyny
• child sexual violence
• joy
• community

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: International Women’s Day, Epstein

Books & works: Bad Feminist

More episodes of Service95 Book Club With Dua Lipa

• So Late In The Day: Dua Lipa & Claire Keegan On Everyday Misogyny · May 5, 2026 · 42 min
• All About ‘Jerusalem’: Jez Butterworth Answers Your Questions · April 21, 2026 · 7 min
• Jez Butterworth Reads The ‘Jerusalem’ Passage He Found Hardest To Write · April 14, 2026 · 6 min
• Jerusalem: Jez Butterworth on Real Life Inspirations, Creative Instinct & The Myth of Rural England · April 7, 2026 · 1h 2m
• The Archive Episode: Dua & Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie On Half Of A Yellow Sun · March 24, 2026 · 35 min
• You Asked, She Answered: Roxane Gay Addresses All Your Questions · March 17, 2026 · 8 min

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