12 episodes
Feminist Files Leigh Fondakowski, Frequency Machine
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- History
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5.0 • 22 Ratings
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Activist Pauli Murray said that all you needed to start a revolution is a typewriter… And a lot of guts.
This is the story of how Title IX came to pass and how the women behind the scenes in Washington, D.C. created the academic sex revolution. The nerdy revolutionaries: Bunny Sandler, Patsy T. Mink, Edith Green, and Pauli Murray, among others—women who left behind clues about their lives, not just what they achieved, but how they did it, and who they were, little pieces that we pick up and find along the way.
The Feminist Files is a series that digs down into the nitty-gritty of change and mobilization: how it actually happened, how women organized and how the opposition organized against them. The blood, sweat, and tears of that movement. The revolution which led in 1972 to the passage of Title IX: 37 words that changed the world.
Host Leigh Fondakowski and an all-star cast led by Jodie Foster and Samira Wiley, dig deep into the archives to uncover and reveal the secret origin of Title IX.
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EP 1: Great Aunt Bunny
What happens when nobody is left who remembers a story? We bridge the generational gap to resurrect a lost part of the history of Title IX.
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EP 2: You Come On Too Strong... For a Woman
Bunny Sandler (Jodie Foster) discovers the footnote that will become the legal basis for Title IX - and uses it to start taking on the most powerful universities in the nation.
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EP 3: Bunny Goes to Washington
Representative Edith Green of Oregon, wants to hold hearings about sex discrimination, but she doesn’t think she has the evidence she needs to do anything about it – until she meets Bunny Sandler.
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EP 4: On the Record
As the hearings continue, Edith Green dives into territory beyond education and leading to tense testimony about a loaded question - which is worse: sexism or racism in America?
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EP 5: Pauli, Roy & Tim, and The Mysterious Tape Recording That Shouldn’t Exist
There were no official audio or video recordings of the Edith Green hearings on sex discrimination... or were there?
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EP 6: Under the Radar
Leigh returns to the Schlesinger Library and discovers letters chronicling the growing friendship between Bunny Sandler and Pauli Murray - all against the backdrop of the stealth campaign for what would become Title IX.
Customer Reviews
So beautiful.
What a remarkable story, and I just love how the past and the present come together. It’s so relevant - I had no idea. I didn’t really understand what Title IX was before this. I love that this wasn’t just a straight history podcast - I mean, those are great, but also predictable. This was a unique and special way to tell the story. And Jodie Foster is amazing.
Amazing!!
So very much I didn’t know and it left me wanting to know more! Someone has got to make a movie about Pauli Murray’s life starring Samira Wiley.!
Totally engaging storytelling
There’s so much I did not know about Title IX - like, EVERYTHING. It’s incredible to listen to both this story of activism AS WELL AS how stories like this get made…there’s insider info about how documentarians and dramatists create, which adds a whole addition layer of story on top of this critical piece of mostly unknown history. This is the perfect podcast to listen to especially right now - because despite all the odds and everything against them, they got it done. They made the world different. We’re at another crossroads, and there’s a lot to learn from this story about how we do what we need to do to go where we need to go now. Jody Foster, Margo Hall, and Mercedes Ferrero are AMAZING.