Last week, Hillary Clinton became the first woman nominated for president by a major political party. But what about other women making their mark on the fight for equality in the workplace—including the edibles market? This week, we’ve got podcasts (and potcasts!) about female entrepreneurs, from tech startups to San Francisco’s “original brownie lady.” We’ve also got shows on science, from Bill Nye on climate change to Gimlet on fracking, and a look at how polling worked in Jed Bartlett’s White House, from the minds behind The West Wing Weekly and the FiveThirtyEight Elections Podcast. There’s like two months until the first presidential debate; you’ll need something to tide you over.
The West Wing Weekly, Live With FiveThirtyEight
Credit: The West Wing Weekly
Fans of Jed Bartlett and Aaron Sorkin should listen to the whole season of The West Wing Weekly, where Hrishikesh Hirway (host of Song Exploder) and Joshua Malina (who played Will Bailey) dissect each episode of the show. But everyone should listen to this special partnership with the FiveThirtyEight Elections Podcast, in which Hirway and Malina come together with Nate Silver and his team to investigate how much The West Wings depiction of polling mirrors reality. Do Democrats actually vote early? How does the wording of a poll manipulate its results? How much do pollsters actually use data to make sexual innuendos? (Warning: There are spoilers for The West Wing in this episode, in case you’re one of those people who think the statute of limitations is more than 20 years.) Listen here.
Science Vs, Fracking
Credit: Gimlet Media
Wendy Zukerman, host of Australian podcast Science Vs, brings her show, and her inimitable delight for asking questions about science, to Gimlet. In the first episode, Zukerman tackles fracking, with enthusiasm and wonder. Should we actually worry about fracking chemicals in our drinking water? Why does it cause earthquakes? How can we figure out whether natural gas is better for the environment than coal? Plus, a prog rock song about oil. Listen here.
Note to Self, Taking the Lead: The Partnership
Credit: WNYC
In this four-part series from Note to Self, two working moms come up with a tech platform to solve a problem they face daily: How can women balance work and the logistics of raising a kid? The full series is one piece StartUp, two pieces applied lessons of Lean In, but the last episode, where the women reflect on feminisms role in the tech industry, is particularly worth a listen—as is the bonus episode about lead parenting with Princeton political scientist Andrew Moravcsik. Listen here.
Criminal, Brownie Lady
To launch her startup, Meridy Volz didnt court angel investors—instead, she tossed a hexagram and consulted the I Ching, an ancient divination text. Thats what to expect from San Franciscos original brownie lady. This 1960s-flower-child-turned-entrepreneur spent the 1970s baking marijuana brownies and delivering them in elaborate costumes, flouting the law. Hear from Volz and her daughter, Alia, brought back to childhood by the smell of pot cooking with chocolate—and read Volzs original recipe here.
Star Talk All-Stars, Understanding Climate Change with Bill Nye
Star Talk, the chart-topping science podcast where astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson answers listeners cosmic queries, has its first spinoff, hosted by beloved science guy Bill Nye. In the first episode, Nye talks to Gavin Schmidt, climatologist and director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, about climate change: which ancient organisms are brought to the surface by melting glaciers, why we shouldnt expect any more ice ages, how molten salt can harness energy, and whether champagne may soon come from England.
