The Women: Season 1

Episode 1 - Valerie Plame: From the CIA to Running for Congress

Valerie Plame served as a covert CIA operative for almost two decades. In 2003, the Bush administration blew her cover in retaliation for a critical op-ed written by her husband. Her safety was threatened, her career was upended, and she had to decide when, and how, to use her voice.

Episode 2 - Exposing the Flint Water Crisis

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha was tipped off to look deeper at Flint's water in 2015. What she found shocked a nation, rocked a community, and challenged authority. 

Episode 3 - A Lifelong Fight for Civil Rights

Andrea Young marched in Selma at 9 years old and is now protecting women's right to choose, working on prison reform, and defending voter's rights as the Director of the ACLU of Georgia.

Episode 4 - From Mandela's Protégé to Leader of UN Women

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka grew up under the apartheid regime that restricted almost every aspect of her life and person. Mentored by Nelson Mandela, she served in his cabinet as a minister and later became the Deputy President of South Africa. As the Executive Director of UN Women & Under-Secretary General of the UN, she has brought her mission of championing women and girls to a global stage. 

Episode 5 - Comedy, Improv, & Democracy

June Diane Raphael honed her comedic improv talents at Upright Citizens Brigade and is now starring in the hit TV show Grace & Frankie. She was inspired to create a women's coworking space called The Jane Club and co-wrote a guidebook to run for elected office, called Represent. 

Episode 6 - Life After Miseducation

Nan Orrock was a teenager when she heard the Martin Luther King Jr. speak and that day changed her life. Nan has served over 30 years in both the Georgia Congress and Senate, where she created a women's caucus in both. She has mentored dozens of women in politics and was an early supporter of Emily's List.  

Episode 7 - Reporting Beyond Borders

Beena Sarwar is a Pakistani journalist and filmmaker. She reports on the fast-paced and at times, dangerous, state of politics and justice in her home country of Pakistan. Beena's documentary films and writing look at how gender, power, & peace collide, and probes into how they can better co-exist.

Episode 8 - Becoming My Own Woman

Charlotte Clymer’s life changed completely when she announced to the world that she would present herself outwardly as the person she knew herself to be inside, a woman. Charlotte is an army veteran, and one of the most prominent transgender activists in the United States. She is the Rapid Response Secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, or HRC, which is the nation’s largest LGBTQ civil rights organization.

Episode 9 - “Can I Get Some Effort In This Hate?”

Ronja von Rönne @sudelheft is a Berlin-based writer and TV host who was thrust into fame & controversy after her 2015 article "Why Feminism Disgusts Me" was featured in a major German publication, Die Welt (The World). The title wasn't her choice, but the outrage made her an instant media sensation. Since, Ronja has built her career based on radical transparency. She mixes reporting, poetry and witticisms to comment on the world at large and to illustrate the journey of the human experience, her experience. 

Episode 10 - “I’m a Lone Voice”

Marjorie Margolies was the first woman elected to represent Pennsylvania in the House of Representatives. She joined Congress in 1992, during the "Year of the Woman," and casted the tie-breaking vote for President Bill Clinton's budget and tax bill. A proud grandmother of 20, she may also be America's most famous mother-in-law (to Chelsea Clinton). Marjorie started as a reporter and became the first unmarried U.S. citizen to adopt a foreign child, and helped reform adoption law for single parents. She is the founder of Women's Campaign International, and has taught at University of Pennsylvania for more than 20 years. Rose talks to Marjorie about her push for a moderate middle, and navigating the joys and heartaches of family life throughout a political career. 

Episode 11 - “I Became Public Enemy #1”

Yassmin Abdel-Magied (@Yassmin_a) is a Sudanese Australian engineer-turned-writer. She recently published her first novel, You Must Be Layla, after a tumultuous year when, as she describes, became "the most hated Muslim woman in Australia." She talks to Rose Reid about starting over, and why she left race cars & oil rigs to begin writing, speaking, and doing Tedx Talks about unconscious bias. 

Episode 12 - “Radical Change is Scary”

Liz Plank is a Quebec-born, American-based journalist Liz recently published, "For the Love of Men: A New Vision of Mindful Masculinity," which asks, how can we make it ok for men to have their social revolution too? Rose and Liz discuss how feminism can positively impact men, tackle the divisive state of the media, and explore how to battle our deepest insecurities. Pew Pew Pew! This is a special episode!! Following the interview, Rose takes a petite dive into women in history, in a conversation with Jenny Kaplan, the podcast host of Encyclopedia Womanica, from Wonder Media! bit.ly/EncyclopediaWomannica History, women, and journalism, oh my! You can get Liz's book and follower her @feminstabulous. 

Episode 13 - The Iconic Songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie

Buffy Sainte-Marie is a singer-songwriter known for her powerful protest songs and touching love songs. She started out in the 1960s, and was blacklisted by two presidential administrations, so much of her legacy has been hidden. Her songs have been covered by dozens of artists including Elvis, Joe Cocker, Barbara Streisand, and the Indigo Girls, to name a few. She was the first indigenous person to receive an Academy Award, as well as a Golden Globe in 1983 for the song, "Up Where We Belong." And hark! It's Valentine's Day this week, and so for the love of music, folk artists, and Buffy, Rose's mom, Gail Reid, moonlights on this episode. Gail explains Buffy's songs and plays a little guitar...and Rose gets her mom to chat with Buffy on the phone!

Episode 14 - “She Wanted an Abortion. I Wanted to Help.”

Heather Booth got a call in 1965 that a friend was in desperate need of an abortion. She started an underground abortion clinic in Chicago called the JANE, that provided over 11,000 abortions before Roe v Wade was passed in 1973. Heather has continued to organize, across sectors and issues, consulting with President Obama's administration to creating the consumer protection agency alongside Elizabeth Warren.

Episode 15 - Introducing Next Question with Katie Couric

This week we are sharing another iHeart podcast that we love! In this episode of Next Question with Katie Couric, Katie sits down with filmmaker Ava DuVernay. Ava is a writer, producer, and director, and the force behind films and series like A Wrinkle in Time, SELMA, 13th, When They See Us. In this conversation with Katie, they discuss #OscarsSoWhite, criminal justice reform, and what it's like to be friends with Oprah.

Episode 16 - A Doctor Who Listens

Dr. Leana Wen is an emergency physician, public health champion, and visiting professor at George Washington University. She served as President and CEO of Planned Parenthood from 2018 to 2019. Her tenure and her departure highlight a philosophical divide that goes beyond just one organization, but across the entire country. She asks, "Can we put aside partisan differences to do what is best for the people we serve?" Dr. Wen describes to Rose how her driving mission is to serve both the patient and community at every level - whether in the ER, as a mom to young children, daughter to a sick parent, or as Baltimore's Health Commissioner fighting the opioid epidemic. You can read more about her work on transparency, prevention, and currently responding to the #coronavirus #covid19 @DrLeanaWen. 

Episode 17 - International Women’s Day!

Welcome to a special International Women's Day episode featuring women from around the world, brought together by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). From Tunisia, to Ireland, Panama, the United States, Sri Lanka, Denmark, & Australia...Rose Reid interviews women tackling the globe's greatest humanitarian issues: Aya Chebbi, the African Union Special Envoy on Youth Senator Alice Mary Higgins and Senator Colette Kelleher of Ireland, who campaigned to amend Ireland's constitution to legalize abortion in 2018  Dr. Natalia Kanem, the Executive Director of UNFPA Jayathma Wickramanayake, the UN Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, Patron of UNFPA All interviews were recorded in front of a live audience at the 2019 Nairobi Summit, where more than 10,000 people gathered to demand, and work towards, gender equality.  Special thanks to Julius Okoti and his team, for engineering & recording live in Nairobi, Kenya.  And a very special thanks to Etienne Leue,

Episode 18 - COVID-19: On the Front Lines

Everything has changed. We are switching from our regular programming to cover the women who are on the frontlines fighting the Coronavirus and COVID-19.  Recording from home, Rose interviews Dr. Antoinette Ward, who is leading the COVID-19 testing at a major hospital in Atlanta. Antoinette is one of many healthcare providers who are treating a rapidly increasing number of patients at the same time they learn more about the Coronavirus, how to treat it, and continue to ration tests for it. This episode also features Physician Assistant Sonya Green, who leads a primary care practice in Atlanta.  

Episode 19 - COVID-19: The Worst Is Yet To Come

Covid-19 cases are rising in the United States and globally. Many healthcare workers are struggling to keep up. And everyday people who are asymptomatic are learning to cope with lost jobs, postponed plans, and living in isolation. Dr. Jill Bresler, licensed psychologist, describes how she is adjusting her practice to address the pandemic, and bracing herself for what's to come. 

Episode 20 - I Think I Have COVID-19, But I Can’t Get Tested

What does COVID-19 feel like? What do you do if you can't get tested? Why is getting a COVID-19 test so hard? Erica Roth is a public defender in Nevada and she is experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, and struggled to get access to testing, which worries her, as her work in the courthouse and jail has her come in contact with hundreds of people throughout a single day. 

Episode 21 - Katie Couric on COVID-19, Grief, & Sexism

Katie Couric is no stranger to reporting in a crisis, and she is one of many journalists on the frontlines asking tough questions to keep institutions responsible, and governments responsive.  Rose gets Katie’s perspective on how the outbreak of the CoronaVirus and response to COVID-19 compares to other major events she has covered, and finds out how Katie has navigated her own moments of crisis and challenge. Katie also opens up about what she's learned from grief, and how she responds to sexism. You can follow Katie's coverage on the pandemic on her iHeartRadio podcast, Next Question with Katie Couric. 

Episode 22 - Pregnant Women Face Tough Choices During COVID-19

Pregnant women all over the world are facing tough choices as concerns rise around giving birth in a hospital where they are more likely to get exposed or contract the CoronaVirus. What are the options for changing a birth plan? Can newborns contract COVID-19 from their mothers? As many hospitals are limiting laboring women to have only one support person in the delivery room, expecting parents are wondering if they should avoid the risk and restrictions at hospitals and give birth at home, or elsewhere? Rose talks to Kate Dirks, a nurse practitioner & midwife in Atlanta, Georgia who works in one of the busiest birthing centers in the United States about how COVID-19 has changed her practice, and what medical professionals are doing to protect new moms, new babies, and their staff.

Episode 23 - Betrayed Nurses, Global Scientists Explain Our Future with COVID-19

How did this virus begin? How did it jump from animals to humans? Why do we not have testing available so we can resume our lives? We're at least a year away from a vaccine, and we are still filled with questions, and some people are filled with anger. In this episode we will hear from hospital staff, epidemiologists, & biosecurity experts who are working tirelessly to relieve the patients and the workers of this crisis from around the world:  Dr. Emma Hodcroft is a molecular biologist in Switzerland tracking the CoronaVirus in real-time. Her work reveals how the CoronaVirus jumped from animals to humans, and can distinguish if a COVID-19 patient caught the virus from someone in China, Seattle, or in their own neighborhood.  Professor Raina MacIntyre is a biosecurity expert in Australia and explains why testing is paramount to our safety and the superiority of N-95 masks.  Dr. Saskia Popescu is a senior infection prevention epidemiologist in Arizona who explains how much more social distancing we can expect.

Episode 24 - Stacey Abrams on Her Future - and America’s

Stacey Abrams speaks with Rose Reid on the importance of family, friendships, and voting rights during COVID19. After Stacey lost the 2018 Georgia Governor's race to Brian Kemp, she created Fair Fight Action, focused on voter protection. There is a lot of speculation on whether Stacey will be Joe Biden's Vice Presidential running mate on the Democratic ticket in the 2020 elections, but Stacey's priority is to make sure every vote is counted. Stacey became a tax attorney after attending Spelman College and Yale University, but has had many careers. Rose and Stacey have a candid and intimate conversation about hard lessons learned from the Governor's race, the curious life of introverts during quarantine, and what the future holds for this entrepreneur-turned-politician-moonlighting-romance novelist.

Episode 25 - Wendy Zukerman from Science Vs!

Science journalist Wendy Zukerman began reporting on the CoronaVirus in January, before "social distancing" and "flatten the curve" became a part of everyday conversation. Host and executive producer of the podcast Science VS, Wendy blows up opinions and replaces them with science, with puns and fun along the way!  Wendy first created the show in 2015 after Gwyneth Paltrow's aspiring health guru website, GOOP, suggested women could steam clean their vaginas. Since then, Science VS has moved from Australia to New York, from Gimlet Media to Spotify, and has published over 100 episodes pitting facts against hot topics and fads, from Climate Change & Fracking, to Diets & Essential Oils. Rose surprises her pal Wendy with voice memos from her family members with their favorite "Wendy Memory!" 

Episode 26 - Library of Congress: Freedom of Speech Starts Here!

Dr. Carla Hayden became the 14th Librarian of Congress in 2016. Nominated by President Barack Obama, Carla is the first woman and the first African American to lead the national library. Carla runs the largest library in the world! She has set out to make its treasures more accessible, so you can see a portrait of a young Harriet Tubman or read Frederick Douglas' journal entries online. Carla is also in charge of the US Copyright Office and selects the Poet Laureate, and Gershwin Prize. Carla describes how libraries serve as sanctuaries during national crises, and how she and her colleagues are navigating the COVID-19 pandemic.