"At present, our country needs women's idealism and determination, perhaps in politics more than anywhere else."
-Shirley Chisholm, Democratic Party, 1972
From outsiders to insiders, and outsiders again, these are the women who ran.
A Simple Herstory isa theatrical and high concept podcast series about the women who have run for President of the United States.
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 this 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 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 this 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 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.
Season 1 has dropped!
Take a listen... (And rate and review us on iTunes and Amazon).
Produced by The Muse Project + Presented by The Tank
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.