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Episode details

Sounds,27 Feb 2026,52 mins,

Art, Pain, Womanhood with Tracey Emin

Ready to Talk with Emma Barnett
Contains strong language.

Available for over a year

Dame Tracey Emin discusses love, feminism, and making art after losing her bladder to cancer, ahead of the opening of her largest ever exhibition. Emin is one of the UK’s foremost visual artists, having risen to fame in 1990s. In 2020, she was diagnosed with advanced squamous cell carcinoma on her bladder. One specialist gave her six months to live. Four weeks later, a seven-and-a-half-hour surgery removed her bladder, uterus, urethra, a portion of her colon, some lymph nodes, and half her vagina. She speaks to Emma Barnett about what has and hasn’t changed in her life and her work. In Ready to Talk with Emma Barnett, the award-winning interviewer speaks to people you will know and people you should know about the experiences that are shaping their lives. If you want to join the conversation you can email the team at readytotalk@bbc.co.uk, or you can send a WhatsApp message or voice note to 08000 556 101.

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