Yes, your workplace is sexist. KUOW is launching a new podcast to help you do something about it.
KUOW Puget Sound Public Radio’s newest podcast Battle Tactics For Your Sexist Workplace aims to explore sexism in the modern workplace and empower listeners with practical “battle tactics” to fight back. The podcast is hosted by Eula Scott Bynoe, a doula, equity trainer for schools and host of Hella Black Hella Seattle and Jeannie Yandel, an award-winning KUOW host, reporter and producer. Listeners can subscribe now in Apple Podcasts, or other podcast sources.
KUOW’s Jeannie Yandel first got the idea for a podcast about combating workplace sexism while interviewing The New York Times Gender Editor and Feminist Fight Club author Jessica Bennett in late 2016. (Bennett will appear as a guest on the podcast).
“I read her book and I thought, ‘Why are we not having more conversations about this?’” said Yandel. “We’re all having hidden conversations about inequity, and they shouldn’t be secret.”
[asset-images[{"caption": "'Battle Tactics For Your Sexist Workplace' is available now wherever you get your podcasts.", "fid": "144891", "style": "placed_left", "uri": "public://201805/BTSW.Logo_.RGB_.LowRes.jpg", "attribution": "Credit KUOW/Teodora Popescu"}]]During each 20-30 minute episode, the two hosts take a deep, evidence-based look at how sexism manifests in the workplace, covering topics such as imposter syndrome, being a working parent and manterruption. The first episode on the gender wage gap features guests Ijeoma Oluo, Ruchika Tulshyan and Jacqueline Twillie and breaks down misconceptions about pay, gender and race while offering listeners practical tactics to better advocate for themselves and their coworkers.
“There’s so much research out there, but at the same time, everything we deal with on a daily basis isn’t studied,” said co-host Eula Scott Bynoe. “And a lot of the research is still in the context of white women. It’s a starting place, but we all need to take the conversation further and figure out who else we can pull up.”
Battle Tactics For Your Sexist Workplace represents a shift for KUOW, which has until now focused on news podcasts. While the team approaches each episode with journalistic rigor, the podcast medium has allowed the hosts more freedom to express their own experiences and advice for women in the workplace.
“Like every other industry, public media has had its own #metoo reckoning during the last year. We were intrigued by the idea of a podcast that could pivot from just focusing on the problem to helping people do something about it,” said KUOW Managing Producer Brendan Sweeney.
For the hosts, the podcast is about the path forward. They want to empower everyone, not just those who identify as women or feminists, to take responsibility for workplace sexism and eradicate it. At the end of each episode, the hosts will award merit badges to listeners who try the tactics at home.
“My goals are high. I see this as a starting place. If we can first get everyone to understand that this is not about individuals, but an entire system, we can start going to battle with it and eradicate it. And then we can start attacking more systems,” said Scott Bynoe.
“I hope this podcast is a space for us to all be able to better identify and talk about and push back against all of these weird, hidden tentacles of gender bias and discrimination. It’s not obvious. That makes it so much harder to see. If you’re going to fight a problem, you have to be able to name it,” said Yandel.
Learn More
Instagram: @BTSWpodcast
Twitter: @BTSWpodcast
Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/BTSWpodcast/
Web: kuow.org/btsw
Email: btsw@kuow.org
KUOW is a founding NPR member station, bringing sound stories and sound voices to the Puget Sound Region and beyond since 1952. With a weekly audience of over 500,000 listeners and over 50,000 contributing members, KUOW seeks to create and serve a more informed public. Tune in at 94.9 FM, visit KUOW.org, or tell your smart speaker to "Play KUOW."