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UNLEASHED: The Game Changers is an inspiring and empowering YouTube Talk Show and Podcast hosted by Women’s Rights Activist, Author, Entrepreneur, Speaker and Host, Paola Diana.
The Talk Show recently featured Lola Shoneyin, the Nigerian literary powerhouse and founder of the
largest book festival in Africa – Ake Festival (which takes place this
year as a digital festival in Lagos, Nigeria from 22nd – 25th October
2020). Lola has just announced that her bestselling novel The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives is being adapted for Netflix, as part of their
commitment to original African content.
Lola was the latest guest to feature on Unleashed: The Game Changers, the inspiring and empowering podcast hosted by women’s rights
activist and author, Paola Diana, where the two women discussed the need for more female leaders, BLM, as well as issues around sexual abuse, gender discrimination, female perfection and the need for female role models.
An award winning African author and poet, Lola was named Africa Literary Person of the Year in 2017. Her 2010 debut novel, The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives, was nominated for the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2011 and went on to win the 2011 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award and the Ken Saro-Wiwa Award in Nigeria.
In 2018, the novel was adapted for the stage at London’s Arcola Theatre where it was described by The Guardian as “Nothing short of spectacular ★★★★★” and now it will be adapted for Netflix by Nigerian producer Mo Abudu.
In Nigeria, Lola runs publishing imprint and bookshop , Ouida Books.
UNLEASHED: The Game Changers introduces inspirational champions of change – successful women and men who have faced huge personal and professional challenges and who have all dramatically changed their lives for the better.
The Lola Shoneyin episode ran penultimate Friday, 26 June, with a new episode available each week.
Previous interviews have included: Gina Miller, Trisha Goddard, Samantha Renke, Shamim Sarif plus many more.
Unleashed: The Game Changers introduces 20 inspirational champions of change, successful women and men who have faced huge personal and professional challenges and who have all dramatically changed their
lives for the better.
The first series of Unleased: The Game Changes includes conversations with lawyer and anti-Brexit campaigner, Gina Miller; British daytime TV host, Trisha; disability champion, Samantha Renke and ITV’s Fru Hazlitt.
Claudia Doval the Jiu jitsu black belt World Champion speaks openly for
the first time about her fight with Bulimia and her experiences of
sexual abuse, with female airline pilot, Captain Brenda Riepsaame Wassink.
Wassink’s extraordinary sideways emergency landing saved the lives of her passengers. The talks will also feature award winning film makers and pioneering LGBTQ couple, Shamim Sarif and Hanan Kattan, about diversity, prejudice and religion; and with Melanie Seymour, Global Head of Black Rock and Vice President of the Advisory Board of Women in Banking and Finance, about glass ceilings and equality in the work place.
TV chef & cookery author, Ching He Huang, will also talk about how a how financial setbacks paved the way to her success and
with Neuroscientist Sarah J. Caddick, about human behaviour and the behaviour of change and challenge.
In her signature no filter, no hypocrisy style, Paola Diana speaks to leading scientists, entrepreneurs, doctors, authors, activists,
athletes, philanthropists about game changing career moves and personal changes that have transformed their own lives and the lives of others.
Subjects discussed range from mental health, relationships, discrimination, gender equality, and self-defence to business, sport, religion, neuroscience, and fake news.
Unleashed: The Game Changers explores the lives of inspirational
people who have been brave enough to change their lives more than once. The first season includes 20 episodes which feature interviews with inspirational people and leaders from the fields of Business, Sport, Science, Politics, Law, Film, and the Arts.
Unleashed: The Game Changers shows that we should not be blinded by fear, instead we
should embrace change and be brave enough to change our lives. Episodes of Unleashed: The Game Changers have been watched 200,000 times
Paola Diana: Game Changer
“I left in awe of her willingness to say the unsayable, no matter what trouble it will cause”
Helen Rumbelow, The Times
Paola Diana’s own life story is one of inspirational change and
challenge. As a child and a teenager, she suffered physical and
psychological abuse at the hands of her father, which lead to bulimia
and depression. Escaping at 19 to attend university, she never returned to her family. Instead, she carved a path for herself. Despite facing sexual discrimination, she forged a career as one of the only females in Italy working in politics.
She ran a Think Tank in support of the former Prime Minister of Italy
and President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi’s political campaign. And then went on to found her own Think Tank PariMerito (Equal Merit), which she used to lobby the Italian Government to pass new equality laws in the workplace, including a new bill requiring every company board to have minimum 30 per cent female representation.
In her personal life, she has moved to completely new cities where she
knew no one three times in her life, Bologna, Rome and London. Each
time relishing the challenge of building up a new life for herself from scratch.
A commentator and critic of sexual equality, domestic abuse, and violence against women, she is incredibly outspoken, honest and brave in tackling taboo subjects around women.
About Paola Diana
A bestselling author and political activist, Paola Diana is a mouthpiece for female equality, having experienced both domestic abuse and sex discrimination throughout her life. Now a London based entrepreneur and campaigner for equal rights, Paola has dedicated her life to championing sexual equality in business and politics.
In her home country of Italy, Paola is the founder of the organisation
PariMerito (Equal Merit), which she used to lobby the Italian Government to pass new equality laws in the work place, including a new bill requiring every company board to have minimum 30 per cent female representation.
Prior to starting PariMerito, Paola ran a Think Tank in support of the
former Prime Minister and President of the European Commission, Romano
Prodi’s political campaign, which had a focus on issues including
welfare, female employment and structural policies in favour of the
family and equal opportunities.
In the UK, Paola is also an entrepreneur starting her first business as a single mother of two, she now runs three separate businesses and has established herself as a market leader in recruitment and lifestyle
services, recognised as one of London’s most influential service
providers for high net worth individuals, families and corporations around the world.
Saving the World by Paola Diana
Part manifesto for change part historical and sociological essay,
Saving the World charts women’s condition through the centuries,
analysing their treatment within political, religious, economic and
societal contexts to form a bigger picture of their place in the world;
because to understand the present, and make a meaningful difference, we must get to grips with the past.
This is a journey that concludes with a clear vision for a better society in which all women are set free from fear, violence and oppression. Paola Diana impresses on us that this world we inhabit, dominated by men and often seemingly immutable, is far
from the only one possible.
