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To the Woman (Season 2)
Praise for series 1
Don't miss out on the first series. Click on the reviews below to find out more.
Last year I was lucky enough to join a panel of inspiring women on International Women’s Day to launch series one of this brilliant podcast. This year, I’m delighted to be taking the reigns as host of series two.There’s nothing like the power of a collective, and when women come together, when we support one another, something truly magical happens. Through our bonds with the women who loved us, shaped us, heard us, saved us and surround us – we can begin to create a world that unleashes the full potential of everyone regardless of gender.
- June Sarpong OBE
About the host
June Sarpong OBE is an author, diversity advocate and one of the most recognisable faces on British television. Currently the BBC’s Director of Creative Diversity, June began her career at Kiss 100 and later became a presenter for MTV UK & Ireland. At Channel 4’s T4 she interviewed and introduced some of the world’s biggest names including HRH Prince of Wales, Bill Clinton, Al Gore and George Clooney. June has worked extensively with HRH Prince Charles as an ambassador for the Prince’s Trust. June is a regular panellist on Sky News’ weekly current affairs discussion show The Pledge and the author of two award winning books; Diversify: Six Degrees of Integration and The Power of Women.
Meet the 20 contributors
Alix Fox
Alix Fox is an award-winning writer, broadcaster and sex educator. A presenter for BBC Radio 1, a script consultant on hit Netflix series Sex Education, and answers listeners' most intimate questions on The Modern Mann podcast.
She's an Ambassador for the charities Brook, Bloody Good Period and The Eve Appeal, and is an energetic activist with a particular focus on sexual wellbeing and HIV awareness. Currently writing her first book, Alix believes in being 'indecently decent' in everything she takes on.
Anita Sarkeesian
Anita Sarkeesian is an award-winning media critic, host, and the creator and executive director of Feminist Frequency, an educational non-profit that explores the representations of women in pop culture.When Anita called out the video games industry for its sexist portrayal of female characters in their games she became the target of a misogynistic pile on. Trolls hunted her down online and sent her a torrent of abuse in what’s become known as the Gamergate scandal.
Bonnie Greer
Bonnie Greer is an American-British playwright, author, critic and commentator, raised on the Southside of Chicago; and a former New Yorker. She has lived in the UK since 1986. Her plays have been performed on the London stage including the West End and on BBC Radio. She has appeared as a panelist on television programmes such as Newsnight Review and Question Time and on CNN.She has served as Deputy Chair of the British Museum, and has served on the Boards of the Royal Academy Of Dramatic Art; the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; and the London Film School. She was awarded an honorary doctorate in Drama from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. In 2010, she was made an OBE by the Queen for her services to the Arts.
Deborah Coughlin
Deborah is a writer, artistic director, broadcaster and contributing producer on Woman’s Hour, where she leads special multi-media projects and also presents arts documentaries across Radio 4. She founded punk feminist performance group Gaggle – which was included in NME’s Most Innovative Ever list – and contributes to platforms like the Guardian, Stylist, Elle and more. Deborah is the author of Outspoken: 50 Speeches From Incredible Women and the founder of the Wakey! app.
Gina Martin
Gina Martin is a political activist, writer and law changer. Gina successfully campaigned to make upskirting (the act of taking a photo up someone’s skirt without their consent) an illegal offence. Gina regularly writes for publications such as Grazia, Glamour, The Telegraph, and Refinery29 and speaks at Government events, panels and workshops as well as in schools and for charities such as Girlguiding.Her first book, Be The Change, is an essential handbook for the modern activist.
Helen Lederer
Helen first tapped into the public’s funny bone with her Sloaney girl at the bar in the BBC comedy Naked Video. Then came Saturday Night Live, The Young Ones, French & Saunders and Bottom with Rik Mayal. She’s best known as Catriona – the dippy journo in the TV series of Absolutely Fabulous and more recently the movie.Helen’s novel Losing It was nominated for the PG Wodehouse comedy literary award. Helen is founder of The Comedy Women In Print Prize.
Jada Sezer
Jada is a model and body acceptance activist. Campaigning on Instagram, with more than 270K followers, she was one of UK’s first plus size models to promote improved self-esteem, body confidence and mental wellness through the platform.Jada has shot for Nike, ASOS, Vogue, Mango, Women’s Health, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and L’Oreal.
Jen Agg
A Canadian restaurateur, Jen Agg is known for her frank, crystal-sharp and often hilarious observations and ideas on the restaurant industry and the world around her.Her book, I Hear She’s a Real Bitch, is an international bestseller and was shortlisted as a Best Book of 2017 by The Globe and Mail and the National Post.
Jess Phillips
Jess Phillips has been the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Yardley since 2015. She is currently running to be the next leader of the Labour Party.Before working as an MP Jess worked for Women's Aid, supporting women victims of domestic abuse.
Laura Bates
Laura Bates is the founder of the award-winning Everyday Sexism Project, an ever-increasing collection of more than 100,000 testimonies of gender inequality, which has been described as 'one of the biggest social media success stories on the internet'.Laura was awarded a British Empire Medal in the 2015 Queen’s Birthday Honours List. She has been named a Woman of the Year by The Sunday Times, Cosmopolitan and Red magazine and was named ninth on the BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour Power List 2014. Her first book Everyday Sexism, was published by Simon and Schuster in 2014.
Miranda Kane
Miranda Kane is a comedian, columnist, campaigner, former dominatrix, the creator and performer of Audible’s Slaving Away podcast and the host of Metro's Good Sex Bad Sex podcast. A former TEDx-alum, she advocates for the rights of sex workers through comedy and performance.
Munroe Bergdorf
Familiar for her honest insight into matters of inclusion, feminism, and the transgender community, model, activist and Doctor of Letters, Munroe Bergdorf has proven herself as the brave and bold voice which society needs. Bergdorf uses her profile to advocate for a fairer world and to empower individuals to fight for positive change and regularly features on national and international news outlets to comment on race, diversity, gender and LGBTQ+ topics and most recently was appointed an UN Women UK Changemaker.
Nora Monsecour
Nora started dancing at the age of four, training professionally in ballet when she was nine. The passion and aim to become a dancer grew when she started training in contemporary dance at MUDA (the Institute for Dance and Drama) in Belgium. After graduating Nora wanted to explore English dance culture and entered the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Leeds in 2015. She has worked with artists such as Gary Clarke, Anna Williams and Antonio Boriello. Nora’s life, her story and her experience as a trans-performer inspired the Golden Globe-nominated and multiple Cannes Award-winning film Girl.
Rose McGowan
Rose McGowan is a writer, director, musician and feminist whistle-blower. Rose gained recognition as an actress who held lead roles in films such as The Doom Generation, Scream, Jawbreaker and Planet Terror. She starred on the hit series Charmed, one of the longest-running female-led shows in TV history. Her directorial debut, Dawn, was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Her memoir, Brave, is an international best-seller.
Ruth Davidson
Ruth Davidson is a British politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party from 2011 to 2019, and has served as Member of the Scottish Parliament for Edinburgh Central since 2016.
Sabrina Mahfouz
Sabrina Mahfouz is a playwright, poet, screenwriter and performer who has recently been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and is the recipient of the 2018 King's Alumni Arts & Culture Award for inspiring change in the industry.Sabrina was raised in London and Cairo and is the editor of Things I Would Tell You: British Muslim Women Write, a 2017 Guardian Book of the Year and Smashing It: Working Class Artists on Life, Art and Making It Happen. She has won a Sky Arts Academy Award for Poetry, a Westminster Prize for New Playwrights, a BBC Radio & Music Award for Best Drama Production and a Fringe First Award.
Sinéad Burke
Sinéad Burke is an Irish activist, academic, influencer, and broadcaster. Burke started her career blogging about the exclusionary nature of the fashion industry. Sinead has achondroplasia, and her work emphasises the need to design for, with and by disabled people. Burke has made a number of prominent appearances and has been featured in a variety of media outlets – in 2018 she appeared on the cover for The Business of Fashion alongside Kim Kardashian and in 2019 she was the first little person to attend the Met Gala. Burke has a podcast called As Me with Sinead that features candid conversations with guests like Victoria Beckham, Riz Ahmed, and Jamie Lee Curtis. She is currently pursuing a PhD at Trinity College Dublin on human rights education that explores the voice of the child in school.
Sophie Scott
Sophie Scott is a neuroscientist and Wellcome Trust Senior Fellow at University College London (UCL). Her work looks into the cognitive neuroscience of voices, speech and laughter. She has toured science fairs and exhibitions as part of the Laughter Lab project. In 2012 she was elected to be a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) and in 2016 Scott was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA).Scott is also known for her standup comedy, and in 2016 appeared on the BBC TV series Horizon, The Science of Laughter with comedian Jimmy Carr.
Zing Tsjeng
Zing Tsjeng is the executive editor at Vice, the author of the Forgotten Women series and she regularly hosts live events, documentaries and podcasts.Her most recent podcast work includes Obsessed With...Killing Eve (BBC Sounds), My First Time (Vice), Career Girls (Ace & Tate), the Women's Prize for Fiction and an upcoming series for BBC Sounds that explores her British citizenship.
Summary
To the Woman is Audible UK’s flagship podcast series for International Women’s Day.
Celebrated as “utterly gripping, brave, honest” (Sunday Times), “poignant” (Financial Times), “a heart-warming display of sisterhood” (Elle) and “inspirational” (Grazia), season two is hosted by June Sarpong OBE - a former To the Woman (Season 1) contributor and the BBC’s first Director of Creative Diversity.
In this series, June brings together a group of exceptional women from both sides of the Atlantic to celebrate inspirational women from around the world. Each episode begins with a prompt: “To the woman …” followed by five themes - “To the woman that shaped me,” “To the woman that loved me,” “To the woman that heard me,” “To the woman that saved me,” and “To the women that surround me.” What begins as a simple prompt becomes a larger narrative of love, friendship and a celebration of women.
Contributors for To the Woman (Season 2) include: Rose McGowan, Jess Philips, Ruth Davidson, Munroe Bergdorf, Bonnie Greer, Gina Martin, Anita Sarkeesian, Jada Sezer, Rosie Jones, Helen Lederer, Laura Bates, Sinéad Burke, Miranda Kane, Nora Monsecour, Jen Agg, Zing Tsjeng, Sabrina Mafouz, Sophie Scott, Deborah Coughlin and Alix Fox.
This is an Audible Original Podcast. Free for members. You can download all 5 episodes to your Library now.
June Sarpong talks about To The Woman Season 2
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What listeners say about To the Woman (Season 2)
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Kindle Customer
- 25-03-20
Elderly? Not while i draw breath!
l loved this, I have been listening to it in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, retired, feeling isolated, a bit sorry for myself, inside I feel in my 30s, so much I still want to do with my life, and yet it's people's attitudes to someone of my age that annoy me! The other day a friend made the comment re isolating yourself and said in all seriousness "you and other elderly", to say I was affronted and annoyed is to put it mildly, cheeky cow! Some of the letters have reaffirmed my belief that just because you are a woman of a certain age, you should not let others opinions, actions or beliefs lead you to act or be, less than you know you are, I have no intention of ever being "elderly" or of being who I am not just to fit in with their presumptions. if that makes me a "difficult" woman, then so be it, it has taken me a very long time to get this confident and comfortable in my own skin and I will allow no one to undermine me however well meaning they may be.
33 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 27-04-20
Inspirational and comforting.
This podcast serves as a reminder of just how blooming lucky we are to be surrounded by powerful women. I listened to it during lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic and when you are already missing those closest to you, the letters feel all the more personal and really hit a nerve. I have been inspired to write to my women. To the women that matter to me. Thank you for the reminders, the inspiration and the comfort in knowing that I too am blessed with such wonderful, wonderful women.
4 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
- Jennifer Langan
- 05-09-20
munroe bergdorf is not a woman
do we really need a man who's pushing a vapid hypersexualized pantomime version of our sex representing us? we are not a costume. Sick to death of men opting in to tell us how it's done. women are adult human females not the current or formerly bepenised no matter how made-up and splattered with glitter.
3 people found this helpful
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- ina busuttil cazac
- 31-05-20
Empowering women book
It's a strong book, at some point felt my tears rolling down my cheeks. Strongly recommend buying it
2 people found this helpful
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- Kimberley
- 10-05-20
Inspirational and Incredible celebration of women
Just what I needed on a dreary Sunday. To the Women had me laughing, crying and thinking about and loving even more, all the incredible women in my life. loved this
2 people found this helpful
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- Teresa G. Knight
- 17-03-20
nice audio book
can people please stop complaining about the timeline being confusing? It was very clearly colored differently in the past. The film was very well done in all technically aspects, plus some very fine acting and lines that land very powerfully. The overall story is compelling and well paced, with a strong willed heroine to boot.
1 person found this helpful
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- Alison Mary Victor
- 24-09-20
To the women
I just really enjoyed the stories .thank for sharing. brave to sharing your stories please do some more
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- European female
- 09-09-20
I needed this!
I did not realise that I needed to hear these. AMAZING I am the better for coming across this series. Thank you xx
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- Eleni Tsiakaliari
- 02-08-20
Amazing
Amazing, inspiring, moving, funny... heartfelt! I loved this podcast so much and the letters read were diverse, interesting and felt as honest as possible.
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- c m nicholls
- 31-07-20
inspirational and amazing
inspirational and amazingly refreshing to be reminded of how formidable women are. A very moving and motivational listen.