#142 - Believe Me: Why trusting women is essential for collective well-being with Jaclyn Friedman and Jessica Valenti

I'm joined by Jaclyn Friedman and Jessica Valenti editors of a new anthology Believe Me: How Trusting Women Can Change the World. We discuss why we need a book about believing women’s experiences are as credible and reliable as men. Believing women starts with believing ourselves and caring for our personal well-being.

Samantha Irby contributes an essay about her chronic illness which you can read on Elle.  Anuradha Bhagwati, author of the memoir Unbecoming, writes about the disbelief of her disability from countless others. Soraya Chemaly, author of Rage Becomes Her, writes about the lack of C-level women in technology jobs and how it leaves us more vulnerable to online harassment.

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About Jaclyn
Jaclyn Friedman is an educator, activist, and the force behind four hit books: Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape (one of Publishers’ Weekly’s Top 100 Books of 2009), What You Really Really Want: The Smart Girl’s Shame-Free Guide to Sex & Safety, Unscrewed: Women, Sex, Power & How to Stop Letting the System Screw Us All, and the forthcoming anthology Believe Me: How Trusting Women Can Change the World. Her podcast, also called Unscrewed, is paving new paths to sexual liberation, and was named one of the best sex podcasts by both Marie Claire and Esquire. Friedman is a popular speaker on campuses and at conferences across the US and beyond. She has been a guest on the Today Show, Nightline, PBS News Hour, Call Your Girlfriend, and numerous other audio and TV shows, and her commentary has appeared in outlets including The New York Times, Vox, Refinery 29, The Washington Post, Glamour, and The Guardian.

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About Jessica
Jessica Valenti - called one of the Top 100 Inspiring Women in the world - is a columnist for Medium and a feminist author. Her most recent book, Sex Object: A Memoir, was a New York Times bestseller. In 2004, Jessica founded the award winning blog Feministing.com, which Columbia Journalism Review called “head and shoulders above almost any writing on women’s issues in mainstream media.” Jessica’s articles have topped the most-read lists at The New York Times, The Atlantic, the Guardian, and The Washington Post. She's also written for Salon, Bitch, Ms. Magazine and The Toast. Jessica has been interviewed on The Colbert Report, profiled in The New York Times magazine, and is a widely-sought after speaker.

Website | Instagram | Twitter

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