The Broad Experience
October 16, 2015 11:04 PM   Subscribe

If you spend any amount of time thinking about the business world and how women work within it, you must listen to The Broad Experience podcast. There are currently 70 episodes, hosted by the very smart, inquisitive, and (perhaps most importantly?) British, Ashley Milne-Tyte. I feel like I have never heard these kinds of discussions between women that are as erudite, insightful and pull no punches like these conversations that she is hosting.

Start at the very beginning and work your way through or check out my listing of favorites below. They are only 15-20 minutes long, perfect commute fodder!

And, while there are many, many fantastic discussions about the balance of home life with work life, Milne-Tyte is herself without children and I loved her episode about fellow childless women in the workplace.

Ok, here's my primer:

Episode 4: Getting Ahead
Mrs. Moneypenny discusses why more women aren't reaching the "c-suite" and wonders why the hell we don't actually expect men to "have it all" when such a goal is pretty nigh unreachable for any person. Also: just what does the "glass ceiling" mean today?

Episode 10: Selling Stereotypes
What is the relationship between how women are portrayed in popular media and how we see them out in the real world?

Episode 13: When women ask women for a raise
Is a female manager less likely to advocate for a female employee than a male boss? Also touches on emotional labor and the trials of negotiating if you are a woman.

Episode 32: Home as career-killer
Great discussion with Liz O'Donnel who wrote Mogul, Mom & Maid on aspects of the "lean in" philosophy that were not covered by Sandberg – namely the real pressures of maintaining a home life and raising children. (Reminds me of a great weekend retreat I went on with a bunch of moms where one mom said that her life is being completely run by the school calendar. As someone who is coming up on kindergarten age I am very, very afraid.)

Episode 33: What is success?
"The women I work with are what I call 'perfectionistic over-functioners' - they need to get an 'A' in everything, they do more than is necessary, more than is appropriate and more than is healthy." - Kathy Caprino

Episode 46: Communication at the office
Why are women always apologizing? Why don't men hear women at the boardroom table? How do women get misread so much? Do men and women actually use language differently in the workplace?

Episode 47: Authenticity vs. conformity
I loved the interview with Lauren Tucker – "I’m an African-American female, an SVP, and a director of a data sciences team at a creatively driven ad agency. I’m an urban myth come to life. While I embody the spirit of “We’ve come a long way baby!” and “We shall overcome,” my very existence, while exhilarating for some, is confounding and intimidating to quite a few white males who dominate the agency business."

Episode 50: Starting a business
The number of women entrepreneurs is steadily rising, but why are so many of them 'solopreneurships' – they don't have any employees and they don't bring in much money. Includes another great interview with a woman of color (Denise Barreto) who makes the profound point that she hates it when people say they "don't see color." Please, she says, see my color – see that I am a woman of color who is sitting at this table and bringing value.

And one of my all-time favorites:

Episode 52: When women work for free
"If you don't believe in yourself, if you don't believe you're worth what you're charging, other people won't - they'll smell that fear and they'll try to haggle you down." - Adrienne Graham
posted by amanda (14 comments total) 73 users marked this as a favorite
 
thank you so much for introducing me to this show!
posted by cendawanita at 12:30 AM on October 17, 2015 [1 favorite]


I listened to the first one you listed (#48).. and it certainly throws some light on my cognitive dissonances about work and life balance... it made be very uncomfortable.... I'll now have to wait and see how it feels in a day or so.

Prior to becoming a parent, I was told that it's a whole new world, parallel with the one I already knew, in plain sight, but unseen. I get that now (sproutlet - my daughter who is never referred to by name on the internet, nor pictured - is 9).

I worry a lot about "womens issues" because of her. Otherwise I'd probably be just another old white guy.
posted by MikeWarot at 2:46 AM on October 17, 2015 [2 favorites]


I really like this series, and I think it's one of the best things out there on women and work in any media.

That said, after listening for a while, I drifted off of it. The world of work she talks about is primarily professional. It's important to talk about that world, but I was finding it quite distant from my semi-professional but not really world of work (where you don't negotiate salaries but are told the hourly).
posted by jb at 5:04 AM on October 17, 2015


From Ep #32: "School drives her crazy in other ways, too.

“I don’t have working mother guilt, as the breadwinner I will never feel guilty about earning a living for my family, I’m fairly organized, I can get it all done, but the times you’ll find me in tears about being a working mother, it’s usually related to the schools – it’s related to the lack of communication or yet another opportunity to have to tell my children no. “

No, because yet again she’s been told about some school event at short notice and it’s too late to cancel a client meeting and get there. She tells the story of one of the professional women she talked to for the book and how that woman has her child in a school that has half days one day each week. As if arranging pickup and childcare around that half-day weren’t hard enough, the woman noticed that during one particular week the school had moved the half-day from its regular slot. Liz says this kind of last minute logistical hurdle is the kind of thing women juggle in their heads every day…"


Amen, Liz O'Donnell. Amen!
posted by hush at 6:16 AM on October 17, 2015 [3 favorites]


Oh thank goodness there are TRANSCRIPTS! Yay! Thanks for this recommendation!
posted by brainwane at 6:31 AM on October 17, 2015 [6 favorites]


The world of work she talks about is primarily professional. It's important to talk about that world, but I was finding it quite distant from my semi-professional but not really world of work (where you don't negotiate salaries but are told the hourly).

JB, you are really right. The podcast does seem to be more organized around the "lean in" crowd and the woman small business owner. In fact, without the existence of Lean In, I don't think this podcast exists. I think your topic would be a good one for the show. I think the hourly worker if she is a woman or minority is even more marginalized. To negotiate $15.25/hour vs $15 per hour seems monumental and nearly impossible. It's like trying to negotiate a $50k salary into a $100k salary with 3 weeks vacation and full benefits.
posted by amanda at 7:41 AM on October 17, 2015 [3 favorites]


Uh, where are the transcripts?
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:44 AM on October 17, 2015 [1 favorite]


It looks like the later episodes have transcripts. I'm not sure where they start exactly, but Episode 13 doesn't have one but 32 does (just scroll down).
posted by peacheater at 9:02 AM on October 17, 2015


Is there a RSS feed for the episodes?
posted by severiina at 11:38 AM on October 17, 2015


Just because it's aimed at a certain sort of worker doesn't mean it's not valuable; as someone who's switching careers and looking at what working for yourself/freelancing means as a woman in the field, I'm glad this podcast was brought to my attention here.

Just the link about working for free was a revelation. We give so much away, and we shouldn't.
posted by Electric Elf at 12:13 PM on October 17, 2015 [2 favorites]


Signed in specifically to say thank you for posting, this is fantastic.

(I say as I sit in the business class lounge waiting to fly home from a work trip, and I am the only woman here...)
posted by susiswimmer at 12:19 PM on October 17, 2015 [3 favorites]


Just because it's aimed at a certain sort of worker doesn't mean it's not valuable; as someone who's switching careers and looking at what working for yourself/freelancing means as a woman in the field, I'm glad this podcast was brought to my attention here.

Absolutely - like I said, I really like this podcast and have listened for many hours. I especially liked the episode where she interviewed trans people about their experiences before and after transition.

It's just that I've been more engaged in research on employment recently, and becoming aware that there are as many, if not more, differences by class as by gender. And I would have appreciated if she had branched out more to people of different classes, as she has done with trans issues and issues for people of colour.
posted by jb at 5:57 PM on October 17, 2015


My thoughts after the one about apologizing:

Every time I say "I'm sorry" at work, what I'm really saying is "Please don't yell at me/report me/hurt me."
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:30 PM on October 17, 2015


In her email newsletter, the Broad Experience just promo'd Brown Ambition, a "weekly podcast about career, business, building wealth and living in this brown skin." Looks interesting!
posted by amanda at 11:30 AM on October 27, 2015


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