The Story of Woman

In this episode, I speak with one of the top ski racers of all time, Lindsey Vonn. Olympic gold medalist with 82 World Cup championships, Lindsey has the third highest super ranking of all skiers, men or women. In our conversation, we talk about Lindsey’s journey going from a 9 year old dreaming of being an Olympian to the most decorated American skier of all time - her role models, double standar...

In this episode, I speak with one of the most decorated American distance runners of all time, Lauren Fleshman. Throughout her career, Lauren saw how the sports systems - originally designed by men, for men and boys - continued to fail young women and girls as much as empower them. Girls drop out of sports at alarming rates once they hit puberty, and female collegiate athletes routinely fall victi...

In this episode, I speak with Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg, Co-Founders and Co-CEOs of theSkimm - a non-partisan digital media company dedicated to succinctly giving women the information they need to make confident decisions. Carly and Danielle disrupted the male-dominated media landscape and defined a new category altogether when they launched theSkimm. In the past decade, they have grown i...

In this episode, I speak with Jacqueline Novogratz, Founder and CEO of Acumen, a global organization that invests in for-profit companies that are tackling poverty and building a world where everyone has the opportunity to live with dignity. For too long, businesses and corporations have put profits above everything else, to the detriment of people and the planet. Jacqueline Novogratz has pioneere...

In this episode, I speak with Reshma Saujani – a leading activist, lawyer, politician, and the founder of Girls Who Code and Moms First (previously Marshall Plan for Moms). Reshma has spent more than a decade building movements to fight for women and girls’ economic empowerment, working to close the gender gap in the tech sector, and most recently advocating for policies to support moms impacted b...

In this episode I speak with Tawakkol Karman, a human rights activist, journalist and politician who is known as the “mother of the revolution”, “the iron woman” and “the lady of the Arab Spring,” for her key role in the 2011 pro-democracy uprisings in Yemen, also known as the Arab Spring. She was awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for this work, making her the first Yemeni, the first Arab woman,...

In this episode I speak with Jess Phillips, UK Member of Parliament for Birmingham Yardley. Jess is also the Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguarding and a fierce defender of women and girls, especially when it comes to men’s violence against women, domestic abuse, sexual and reproductive health, childcare, and maternal and paternal rights. Every year, Jess she reads out the names of...

In this episode, I speak with former mayor - and Afghanistan’s youngest ever female mayor - Zarifa Ghafari. After the Taliban returned to power in August of 2021, the question on everyone’s mind was ‘What’s going to happen to all the women and girls now?’ Zarifa has answers. From 2018 until August 2021, Zarifa was mayor of the Maidan Wardak province, located in the heart of Taliban territory. Duri...

In the first episode of season two of the podcast, I speak with former US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Cherie Blair, CBE KC in their first-time ever, exclusive joint podcast interview! Hillary Clinton and Cherie Blair have pioneered positive change for women for decades. They have worked as lawyers, politicians, activists, and business leaders - and also both had husbands in charg...

We are thrilled to announce season two of the podcast, The Story of Woman: Changemakers - exploring how women make change happen. In this 14-episode series, I'll be talking to women at the top of their industries who are bringing about social and cultural change, despite the (many) obstacles they have faced. You'll hear from activists, politicians, athletes, environmentalists and more.⁠ We’ll disc...

The Story of Woman podcast is nearly one year old! In this rare solo episode, I reflect on the close of the first chapter of the podcast, and I also talk about what’s to come in 2023. This year we’ve been highlighting the work of some incredible non-fiction writers whose work focuses on the subject of women. From medicine to myths, authority to advocacy, and weddings to the workplace, their books...

In this episode of The Story of Woman, I chat to not one but TWO amazing authors, Karrie Fransman and Jonathon Plackett about their books, Gender Swapped Fairy Tales and Gender Swapped Greek Myths.  Fairytales and Greek Myths have been told and re-told for thousands of years, but never like this. Taking these well-known stories that form the archetypes we still see today, Karrie and Jonathon make...

In this episode, I talk with author, speaker, activist and mother Cynthia Changyit Levin about her book, From Changing Diapers to Changing the World: Why Moms Make Great Advocates and How to Get Started. If you’re looking for practical inspiration on how to make effective change in your local community, then this is the episode for you! Advocacy is a great way to get involved in driving change in...

In this episode, I talk with Pragya Agarwal about her book, Hysterical: Exploding the myth of gendered emotions. The experience of emotions is universally human, but our ability to display and act on them is heavily gendered. Despite improvements in societal equality, women are still often labelled ‘hysterical’, ‘bossy’ or emotional’. Pragya examines the impact this has on women - and men - includ...

In this episode, I talk with content creator, author, podcast host and public speaker Natalie Lee about her book, Feeling Myself: How I Shed My Shame To Find Sexual Freedom and You Can Too. Natalie is an honest, frank writer, who describes herself as ‘on a liberating road of disruption to challenge and help you shed your shame’.  Sex remains an enormous taboo, and is still a source of shame and em...

If women have equal leadership ability, why are they so under-represented at the top in business and society? Why are we still living in a world where virtually all the top jobs are occupied by men? And why do we accept it? Gill Whitty-Collins asks these questions in her book, Why Men Win at Work, and provides some answers for us in today's episode.  Some topics of discussion include: The current...

The authors we feature come from a huge range of sectors and industries, but they all have one thing in common: they’re using their voices to create societal change, and that change means elevating the role and the story of woman. In this special episode, we’ve compiled past interview responses to the podcast’s recurring questions: What does feminism mean to you - 5:40 What is the story of woman t...

Do you even wonder what else is out there for you? How often do you experience fear of missing out?  In this episode, I talk with Lucy Leonelli about her book, A Year in the Life. Feeling stuck in her career and suffering from a very bad case of FOMO, Lucy quit her 9-5 and spent one year living with 26 different British subcultures: aristocrats, battle re-enactors, circus performers, naturists, ze...

REPLAY OF EPISODE ONE In this episode, I talk with journalist, broadcaster and non-executive director Mary Ann Sieghart about her book, The Authority Gap: Why Women Are Still Taken Less Seriously Than Men and What We Can Do About It. Unbelievably, there is still a huge gulf between men and women in the workplace when it comes to pay, promotion and authority. Referred to as “the mother of all gende...

Back by popular demand! In this episode, I talk (again) with Arab gender researcher and poet Farida D. to answer listener questions, and discuss her book, The List of Shit That Made Me a Feminist. Writing under a pen name to protect her identity, Farida D. writes about everyday oppressions from an Arab feminist's perspective while demonstrating how we are all connected under the one patriarchal sy...

In this episode, I talk with gender equality champion Virginia Mendez about her book, Childhood Unlimited: Parenting Beyond the Gender Bias From films and books to toys and clothes to the language we use, our world is extremely gendered, making raising a child beyond the limitations placed on them by gender incredibly difficult. Virginia breaks down what gender bias is, how the stereotypes we abso...

In this episode, I talk with Christian reproductive justice advocate and abortion provider Dr Willie Parker about his book, Life’s Work: A Moral Argument for Choice Morals, religion and the principles of right and wrong are often cited by the anti-abortion community as a reason to deny women and pregnant people this basic medical care. Using his personal experience and a deep understanding of the...

Abortion is a topic that generates a lot of emotion, so in this episode we’re looking at the facts. Today I talk with Carole Joffe and David S. Cohen about their book, Obstacle Course: The Everyday Struggle to Get an Abortion in America Getting an abortion in the United States of America can be a monumental challenge. From forced ultrasounds and dishonest medical information, to arbitrary waiting...

Koa Beck’s reporting and analysis on gender, identity, race, and culture have won her international acclaim, and in this episode, I talk with Koa about her book, White Feminism: from the suffragettes to influencers and who they leave behind This book is an important addition to the conversation around race, empowerment and inclusion in the United States. Not to be confused with feminists who happe...

In this episode, I talk with Asha Dahya about her book, Today’s Wonder Women. Not all superheroes wear capes! Many of them are everyday women challenging the status quo with love, determination, vision and grit. In Asha’s book, a compilation of the stories of 50 female identifying people, you’ll meet the everyday superheroes who are changing the world. They’ve identified a problem and taken it upo...