The Women I Work With
When I think about marking International Women’s Day, I am left feeling very grateful for all the women who choose to work with me every day. Without setting an intention to do so, my project list at the moment is 95% women-led podcasts. And honestly, the line-up keeps me inspired to create stories driven by women storytellers.
And so, I thought I might share with you a few episodes I’ve made with these women creators that are some of the favourite things I’ve ever made. This is a day to uplift and celebrate women, and so — I am intent on uplifting the women I work with who all use their platforms to uplift others too. There is power in storytelling and in women sharing their experiences confidently and out-loud for the world to witness. And so here goes…
Dr. Rishma Walji is a ND, PHD who left her fertility practice to take on a journey in creative scientific storytelling that I know is already changing women’s lives for the better. On XO Conversations she builds community, breaks down barriers to information we all need to know and gives us research-backed strategies and action items to improve our lives and connect with each other. She is one of the most incredible women I’ve ever met and I am grateful to now also call her a friend. And I am more than convinced that one day everyone will know her name.
Here’s an episode of her podcast I will never forget creating — I think about it all the time.
Claudia Williams is a former senior advisor to the Obama White House, an entrepreneur and a healthcare executive who is sparking conversations about health equity in the United States. I was floored when she asked me to be her podcast producer for The Other 80. So, here I am — a Canadian podcast producer — learning about whole person health in the US and the need to drive change towards a more equitable approach to keeping people healthy. Claudia is an inspirational figure who lifts up others in her circle and is committed to an equitable lens when it comes to storytelling.
She just launched her podcast The Other 80 in February and it’s already making waves in her industry. Here’s her most recent episode where she interviews the incredible Dr. Mini Kahlon about building “health ecosystems” in the US.
Megan Haynes and Jessie Park are, like me, alumni of the Carleton University School of Journalism. It’s one of the reasons we work so well together - we speak the same storytelling language. I am always in awe of their ability as co-executive producers to script a narrative-style podcast episode with so much clarity and finesse. Their podcast The Executive Summary is excellence in academic storytelling from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. Not only are they incredible women creating audio stories that have their podcast ranking worldwide, but they are incredible people to work with as well.
Here’s an episode to the Rotman Executive Summary that features the research of Assistant Professor Rachel Ruttan.
Speaking of academic podcasts — Dr. Carrie Sanders took a chance on me when I first started my podcasting business and I will be forever grateful. I was the newly-minted Podcaster-In-Residence at Wilfrid Laurier University (where I now teach) and she had a vision of telling the story of research from a criminological lens. Alongside Dr. Bree Akesson and Samantha Henderson, Dr. Sanders led the creation of CRSP Talk and gave me enough rope to run with it in the direction I thought worked best for every episode. These three women are incredible leaders in their field and are committed to storytelling in academia in a really special way.
Here’s a recent episode we created with CRSP researcher Dr. Katrin Roots about her research on human trafficking in Canada.
I also have some podcast/audio work coming up with some incredible women leaders that I can’t link, because they aren’t ready for publishing just yet. But, that means there’s so much more good to come. So, a note about a few of those women too.
Sarah Thompson is a creative learning strategist and executive leadership coach with a brain that buzzes so quickly I can barely keep up with all her phenomenal ideas. We are working on something VERY cool that will change the conversation in the world of work in Canada. I love people like Sarah who are committed to thinking differently and ready to act on their gut instincts with creative bravery. I can’t wait to tell you about her podcast project in the weeks to come.
I am working on the children’s podcast project of a lifetime led by the incredible Dorothea Gillim and top notch senior producer Agerenesh Ashagre. It’s been so eye-opening working with these two leaders in their industry. The commitment to creative storytelling, the leadership in children’s programming and Aggi’s endless dedication to reworking a very complicated living, breathing, always changing production schedule have made this process a delight. Can’t wait to tell you about this one too.
Kara Davey is an incredible leader in my local community who is always open to creative collaboration and using storytelling to strengthen community. I pitched her one of my bucket-list storytelling projects and she took it and ran with it. Can’t wait to show you what we have cooking.
There are so many more projects to come, with incredible women who deserve to be uplifted every day. I can’t wait to witness all the women-led storytelling to come.
Also, I really don’t want to leave out some of the amazing podcasts I listen to that are led or hosted by women or gender diverse people, so here’s my short list — some of my all-time faves.
The Assignment by Audie Cornish
Articles of Interest by Avery Trufelman
Gracefully and Frankly by Lisa Brandt and Erin Davis
The Aunties Dandelion by Kahstoserakwathe Paulette Moore and Tamara Louks
A Slight Change of Plans by Maya Shankar
Still Here, Still Healing by Jade Roberts
Archetypes by Megan, the Duchess of Sussex
Professional Troublemaker by Luvvie Ajayi-Jones
Every Little Thing by Flora Lichtman and Annette Heist
So, Happy International Women’s Day — and amid all this uplifting… uplifting — a reminder that women working part time and full time in Canada make 89 cents to the dollar men make. And, more importantly to note, racialized women make only 59.3% of white men’s earning in Canada. Additionally, only 16% of women and gender diverse people with a physical disability report being fairly paid compared to their peers. If present trends continue it will take 267.6 years to close the economic gender gap worldwide. That’s according to the Canadian Women’s Foundation.
If you’d like to know more about the work they do — listen to their podcast Alright, Now What?, which takes an intersectional, feminist lens on stories that make you wonder “why is this still happening?”. The episode they released today called “Indigenizing International Women’s Day” with Dr. Dawn Levell-Harvard is a must-listen.
Scan your podcast library and let me know what women-led podcasts you’re listening to.