A SIMPLE HERSTORY
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A SIMPLE HERSTORY

"I am well aware that in assuming this position I shall evoke more ridicule than enthusiasm at the outset."
​
​-Victoria Woodhull, Equal Rights Party, 1872
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A SIMPLE HERSTORY

"Reforms are slow,
​but they never go backward."
​
​-Belva Ann Lockwood, Equal Rights Party, 1884,1888
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A SIMPLE HERSTORY

"When people keep telling you that you can't do a thing,
​you kind of like to try it."
​
​-Margaret Chase Smith, Republican Party, 1964
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A SIMPLE HERSTORY

"And one day we just decided we weren't going to do that,
​and we just exchanged places."
​
​-Charlene Mitchell, Communist Party, 1968
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A SIMPLE HERSTORY

"It is easy enough to vote right and be consistently with the majority... but it is often more important to be ahead of the majority."
​
-Patsy Matsu Takemoto Mink, Democratic Party, 1972
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A SIMPLE HERSTORY

"Service is the rent we pay
for the privilege of living on ​this earth."

​-Shirley Chisholm, Democratic Party, 1972
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A SIMPLE HERSTORY

"Women share with men the need for personal success,
​even the taste for power."

​-Elizabeth Dole, Republican Party, 2000
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A SIMPLE HERSTORY

"The answer was love -
​the love that was inside the madness."

​-Elaine Brown, Green Party, 2008
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A SIMPLE HERSTORY

"The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power.
​You just take it."

​​-Roseanne Barr, Green Party, 2012
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A SIMPLE HERSTORY

"My mother had a saying: 'Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you're not the last.'"
​
​-Kamala Harris, Democratic Party, 2020, 2024
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"Haunted, Hilarious, Harrowing History!
Part ghost story, part secret history, part meta-podcast satire, A Simple Herstory was an exhilarating ride. What you assume will be a linear exploration of a little-known corner of American Presidential History explodes into a grotesque, panoramic survey of 19th-century society, mysticism, and gender inequality. It’s like reading a fat novel that surprises you with wild changes in font and typography, with startling pop-ups that come out of nowhere. If Ken Burns took a tab of acid and then went on all the rides at Coney Island, you might get something like this. Its Alice-in-Wonderland shifts in reality, its phantasmagoric ghost pageantry, its blend of voices overlapping and fighting to be heard—work brilliantly to create epic theater in our heads." ​(Read More).
-David Cote, Theater Critic
"A Simple Herstory is the podcast America needs right now — illuminating and seductive, it peels away the layers of a 'problematic' historical figure with theatrical skill and reveals the true, dark heart of American democracy."
-Cecil Baldwin, Welcome to Night Vale
From outsiders to insiders, and outsiders again, these are the women who ran. 
A Simple Herstory is an award-winning, deviant, multi-platform audio fiction podcast series about the women who have run for President of the United States.
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More than one hundred women have run for President of the United States, but their stories are rarely heard. So, what if they decided to correct the record and take matters into their own hands? A Simple Herstory might start as a polite podcast about women’s history, a cursory dip into some forgotten “badass women.” It soon (d)evolves, however, into a hostile takeover of the mic, as the first season's leading subject, Victoria Woodhull, arguably the first female presidential candidate, demands to have the entirety of her story told. This means the abuse, the narcissism, the sex, and the criminality — and not just the you go, girl bits fit for broadcast. 

A Simple Herstory is as much about these women, who have been locked inside “his story,” as it is about liberating complicated biographies from their deceptively tidy packages. It's the story of real human beings, free from the tropes and agendas that reduce complex figures to cartoons. (Or is it?) In order to win, does a woman have to be a perfect candidate? To earn our reverence, must her story be sweet and neat?

 This is an eight-part, award-winning, scripted podcast season that you'll want to devour in one gulp. Once it builds momentum, it's hard to stop. The total running time is approximately 2 hours, 40 minutes. 

More than one hundred women have run for President of the United States, but their stories are rarely heard. So, what if they decided to correct the record and take matters into their own hands? A Simple Herstory might start as a polite podcast about women’s history, a cursory dip into some forgotten “badass women.” It soon (d)evolves, however, into a hostile takeover of the mic, as the first season's leading subject, Victoria Woodhull, the first female presidential candidate, demands to have the entirety of her story told. This means the abuse, the narcissism, the sex, and the criminality — and not just the you go, girl bits fit for broadcast. 

A Simple Herstory is as much about these women, who have been locked inside “his story,” as it is about liberating complicated biographies from their deceptively tidy packages. It's the story of real human beings, free from the tropes and agendas that reduce complex figures to cartoons. (Or is it?) In order to win, does a woman have to be a perfect candidate? To earn our reverence, must her story be sweet and neat?

This is an eight-part, award-winning, scripted podcast season that you'll want to devour in one gulp. Once it builds momentum, it's hard to stop. The total running time is 2 hours, 40 minutes. 
A Simple Herstory · Victoria Woodhull - Teaser
A Simple Herstory · Victoria Woodhull - Prologue: Herding Cats
A Simple Herstory · Victoria Woodhull - Part 2: Through Other Eyes
A Simple Herstory · Victoria Woodhull - Part 3: Polite Company
A Simple Herstory · Victoria Woodhull - Part 4: Everyday Shit
A Simple Herstory · Victoria Woodhull - Part 5: Fun & Games
A Simple Herstory · Victoria Woodhull - Part 6: Serious Important Drama
A Simple Herstory · Victoria Woodhull - Part 7: Passing The Buck
A Simple Herstory · Victoria Woodhull - Part 8: Behold My Ruins
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Produced by The Muse Project + ​Presented by The Tank. ©2020-2025 The Muse Project/ASH LLC, All Rights Reserved. 

Slider Photo Credits: Victoria Woodhull, Margaret Chase Smith, Patsy Matsu Takemoto Mink, Shirley Chisholm, Elizabeth Dole, Kamala Harris - public domain; Belva Ann Lockwood - Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; neg. no. LC USZ 62 11082
; Charlene Mitchell -  Gene Koppack; Elaine Brown - Facebook (2/16); Roseanne Barr - Modified screenshot of Roseanne Barr from Jordan Brady's film "I Am Comic" (6/10), CC BY-SA 3.0.
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A Simple Herstory (@asimpleherstory) • Instagram photos and videos

Copyright ©2020-2025 The Muse Project/ASH LLC, All Rights Reserved. 

Site design by Jocelyn Kuritsky.
Original Renderings by Michelle Memran.
​Original Poster Sketch by Anna Lathrop.
Social Media Content by Jenn Allen & Grace Flavien.
Social Media Graphic Design & Video Production by Grace Flavien. 
Host of "A Walk Through Herstory" — Jenn Allen.
Narrator for A Simple Herstory's "Woman Crush Wednesday" — Grace Flavien.​​​

Want to contribute to A Simple Herstory? Your tax-deductible donation can be made here: Donate here. 
​Want to get in touch with ASH? Email here.


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​​join MP's mailing list here.

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