Our movie podcast recommendation of the week features a whole lot of facts, and a title lifted from When Harry Met Sally.
There’s a scene in When Harry Met Sally when the titular best friends are sitting in a deli. Sally (Meg Ryan) starts to moan, Harry (Billy Crystal) asks if she’s okay. This is Sally winning an argument that yes, women can and do indeed fake certain acts of coital pleasure, much to the amazement and disbelief of her arrogant male friend. There’s a good chance you remember the scene. It would be director Rob Reiner’s mother, Estelle Reiner, who utters the immortal line “I’ll have what she’s having”.
Like the industry we regularly feature on this site, movie podcasting remains an overwhelmingly male dominated arena, but as all genres of film are for everyone, it’s important to have as much diversity behind the mic, too. I’ll Have What She’s Podcasting is hosted by Louise Oliver and Jackie Farmer (one works in showbiz, the other is an accountant). They’re not only best friends in the real world, but also share a passion for promoting diversity in the media, with Louise actively running Persistent and Nasty, which aims to amplify the voices of women, as well as other marginalised groups in theatre and film.
It’s something we’re always mindful of here at Film Stories; we want to promote as much diverse podcasting content as possible. Louise and Jackie are brilliant, not only for the fact they share that passion, but because they’re a fantastic partnership behind the mic. Helping them bring I’ll Have What She’s Podcasting to your earbuds/speakers is editor/producer Chris Gorman, who also makes the little jingles for each episode, such as for whenever Jackie brings out one of her facts (just listen, the jingles are worth the price of admission alone!).
While Chris is indispensable, he can’t make them sound like they have authentic chemistry – they genuinely have that! They’re also incredibly astute, intelligent and hilarious. Each episode shines with a genuine warmth and affection for each other, as well as the movie they’re discussing.
But why are there so few women in film podcasting? As they’re the experts, we wanted to ask them how they thought we could change that. Their response was, honestly, as intellectual and awesome as they both are. The way we make change is by actually taking the time to support content currently made by women, as well as other marginalised groups. If we all took the time to make space in our listening schedules, then more marginalised groups will be encouraged to take up podcasting about topics that might have previously been seen as white male-dominated mediums. We all need to take down the barriers, stop the gatekeeping and give the support necessary for everyone to benefit from the wealth of knowledge and experience that everyone, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity or religion, brings to the podcasting table.
It’s not a radical choice to listen to a podcast about movies hosted by women, and we’ve featured many amazing women on this feature before, but we can all do more. It’s never too late to start.
Should you be listening to I’ll Have What She’s Podcasting? Unequivocally YES! YES! YES!
Recommended episode: Episode 10 – Aliens – (8 June 2021) – https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/episode-10-aliens/id1551725395?i=1000524703945
I’ll Have What She’s Podcasting can be found at https://linktr.ee/ShesPodcasting
And followed at:
Twitter – https://twitter.com/ShesPodcasting
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/shespodcasting
All episodes of I’ll Have What She’s Podcasting are available and can be listened to or downloaded from Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Are you a British movie podcast who would like to be featured on Film Stories? We welcome all suggestions and requests, but we especially want to hear from you if you’re female, POC, non-binary, LGBTQIA+ or have a disability. Email Em – verbaldiorama at gmail co uk (Just remove the spaces and add the ‘@’ and the dots, but don’t send spam. She’s vegetarian.)
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