Aisling Bea, Profile of Yulia Navalnaya, Carmen Smith, Wellness v stoicism

The comedy and acting star Aisling Bea grew up in County Kildare in Ireland and in 2011 became the first woman for 20 years to win the prestigious stand-up competition So You Think You’re Funny? Her Bafta-winning sitcom This Way Up firmly established her as a presence to be reckoned with on our TV screens- last year she played the lead in the film based on Take That’s music, Greatest Days, and she regularly pops up on US TV and movies. She joins Emma Barnett to discuss her latest show, Alice and Jack, which has just begun on Channel 4.

Following the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, we look at the role of his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, and whether she might become the new face of the opposition. Yulia is due to speak with European foreign ministers in Brussels today. To discuss, Emma is joined by the Spectator's Russia correspondent, Owen Matthews, who was Bureau Chief for Newsweek in Moscow for more than a decade, and Sarah Rainsford, BBC Eastern Europe Correspondent who was expelled from Russia after many years, and is now based in Warsaw.

Carmen Smith is 27 and set to become the youngest peer in the House of Lords. Carmen will replace Plaid Cymru’s only member of the Lords,  Dafydd Wigley (the Rt, Hon Lord Wigley) who is retiring aged 80, and was a previously leader of Plaid.  Carmen will be known as Baroness Smith of Llanfaes, the village where she grew up. She joins Emma to talk about the challenges ahead, the reaction to her selection and why she wants to join a body she believes should be abolished.

Can Ancient Greek theories revolutionise our modern day lives? Australian author Brigid Delaney seems to think so. She talks to Emma about swapping wellness for stoicism, alongside classicist Professor Edith Hall.

Presenter: Emma Barnett Produced by: Louise Corley Studio engineer: Steve Greenwood