Fierce

Meet Clementine Paddleford, the forgotten food journalist who elevated food writing from dull and mundane to a delicious art form. The way we write about food today is largely due to Clementine, the roving reporter who taught herself to fly a plane so she could report on every aspect of food across the country and around the world.

Afterwards, hear Jo’s conversation with Yasmin Khan, the best-selling food writer whose books on m...

Blackbeard and Jack Sparrow can’t hold a candle to Cheng I Sao. Ferocious and ambitious, the most successful pirate in the South China Sea innovated the piracy business model, and inspired fear around the world even as she established strict rules about the treatment of women on her ships. The Chinese government enlisted foreign powers to take Cheng I Sao, a former prostitute, down,, but she had other plans.

Afterwards, we'll be...

Phillis Wheatley’s real name is lost to history. The young girl was named for the slave ship that carried her to the United States from West Africa. Purchased as a house slave in Boston, Phillis defied all the odds to become a prolific poet celebrated around the world and the first African American woman to publish a book of poetry in the United States. Eventually, she used her considerable talents to convince the people who owned ...

You might not know the name Grace Hopper even though it’s hard to imagine our lives without her work. Born in 1906 to a family of engineers, Grace was fascinated with the mechanics of objects from a young age. She was a no-nonsense dynamo, driven by guts and determination, so when the US entered World War II, Grace knew she had to join the war effort even though the military held few places for women. She nevertheless joined a team...

Dorothy Arzner wasn’t the first woman to direct films in Hollywood, but she was one of the few who endured. A female director who managed to succeed, for a time, in a man’s world. She worked her way through the studio system, first as a typist, then an editor, until she was trusted as a director. Between the silent era of the twenties and the early forties she made 16 films, and pioneered the use of the boom mic in the process. 

Born to freed slaves in 1867, Sarah Breedlove used her creativity, determination and brilliant mind for business to transform herself into the mogul, Madam C.J. Walker. Traveling the country with her hair products, Madam Walker employed legions of saleswomen to both grow her business and to give thousands of black women the skills and confidence to create generational wealth and follow in her footsteps.

Following Madam Walker’s empo...

Christine Jorgensen never intended to become a celebrity. In 1951, Jorgensen traveled to Europe to obtain special permission to undergo a series of operations, which would help complete her medical transition from male to female, becoming the first American woman to publicly receive this type of surgery. When she returned to the states, the New York Daily News wrote about her under the headline: ’EX GI BECOMES BLONDE BEAUTY.’ Chris...

Years before the United States ratified the 19th amendment, a woman from Montana had already infiltrated Capitol Hill. Jeannette Rankin rose through the ranks of the women’s suffrage movement, bringing an electric energy to every town she visited. Her activism earned her a place on the ballot in 1916, and she landed a seat as a congressional representative for Montana - the first woman to ever achieve this distinction in the United...

In July of 1848, four women sat around Mary Ann M’Clintock’s kitchen table in upstate New York to draft the Declaration of Sentiments to proclaim that all women and men should be equal. In this bonus episode of Fierce we talk to former White House Communications Director Jannifer Palmieri about how she is carrying on M’Clintock’s legacy with her new book She Proclaims: Our Declaration of Independence from a Man's World.

Tribeca Talks is a compilation of the most engaging conversations recorded live at the Tribeca Film Festival. In this episode, you’ll hear Barbra Streisand in conversation with Robert Rodriguez at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, where the two discussed how she got her start in the industry, the moment she knew she wanted to direct, the power of the will, and so much more.

To listen to this episode, visit https://tribecafilm.com/podc...