Strong Opinions Loosely Held
by Refinery29
Refinery 29's award-winning podcast is back for season 4! In this five-part capsule collection, host Elisa Kreisinger dives into the world of the professional female athlete to explore how they've survived and thrived in a sports-loving country that doesn't alway love them back. Did you know that the highest grossing sport for women is tennis? Or that the US exports many of our best female athletes to China and Russia because they pay them a livable wage? This season we talk with soccer legend Abby Wambach, WNBA superstar Swin Cash, world renowned ballerina Isabella Boylston and sports journalists from around the country to unpack what it means to be a female athlete representing a country that doesn't support women.
Episodes
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S4E5: The Problem With Perfect
Ballet, figure skating and gymnastics are sports with some of the most vigorous physical and psychological training regimes and yet they’re often dismissed because the star athletes are young women in leotards with big smiles and sparkles, striving for perfection. What does our lack of respect…
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S4E4: WTF Is A "Good Sport"?
There was one event this year in particular that put the topic of what it means to be a "good sport" into the cultural conversation: the women's singles final at the US Open between Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka. The match put the question of women’s anger and specifically, black women’s anger,...
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S4E2: The State of Pay - Part 1
Despite bringing in more money and winning more games (including four Olympics and 3 World Cups), the U.S. women's national soccer team was paid nearly four times less than the men’s team. But two years ago, the team made headlines when they started a very public fight for equal pay. Since then,...
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S4E3: State of Pay - Part 2
Here's my conversation with soccer legend Abby Wambach on how the US Women's National Soccer Team became fair-pay role models and the unique terror female athletes face when they retire. Have strong opinions? Send 'em: Instagram: @popculturepirate Twitter: @popcultpirate Hashtag: #SOLHpod...
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S4E1: Future of the Fan
College football has everything: devoted female fans, camaraderie and game day rituals. But the players aren’t paid, the coaches make millions and there’s a pattern of disregard for sexual assault allegations. Why do young women gravitate to college football and what feelings are they negotiating...
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S3E5: Mind Behind The Meme: Quinta Brunson
Quinta Brunson became obsessed with comedy as an undergrad at Temple University. She initially felt like the internet wasn't for her until her friend uploaded what would be Instagram's first viral video, "Butt Won't Clap". From there, she went on to BuzzFeed to make memes on a large scale. Quinta...
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S3E4: The Great Firewall of China
Memes in China are silly, they're based on puns, and they're driving the government crazy. Chinese memes are flourishing under the country's censored internet and, despite the risks, memes are used to communicate political dissent. Harvard researcher and technologist An Xiao Mina explains how the...
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S3E3: Minds Behind The Meme: Woke Charlotte
Chelsea Fairless and Lauren Garroni run the very popular Every Outfit on Sex and the City Instagram account. But after rewatching SATC for the clothes, they realized how the show focused mainly on the stories of privileged white women. So they created Woke Charlotte - a meme within a meme account...
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S3E2: Peaches On Fleek
Peaches, a young woman of color, uploads a video of herself to Vine. She's impressed with her eyebrows. They're on fleek. The Vine goes viral. Everyone from Ariana Grande to Kim K starts using the word. IHOP uses it to sell pancakes. Denny’s uses it to sell hash browns. Peaches doesn’t make a…
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S3E1: Digital Black Face
Even though Tiffany Pollard's appearance on VH1's Rock Of Love was 12 years ago, GIFs of her grandiose reactions are still used to respond to everything from an email about the broken copy machine at work to a group text about bad Tinder dates. GIFs that feature the reactions of black women from...
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Welcome to Season 3!
Welcome to the world of memes. Where nuance means nothing and images are everything! This season, we find out what happened to Peaches Monroee after she coined On Fleek, dive into the reaction GIFs selection on Giphy, and talk to meme maker Quinta Brunson. In this trailer, Elisa talks with UC...
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S2E10: Why Male Bosses Don't Get It
You #LeanIn. You #AskForMore. You #SideHustle. Yet you still feel like an imposter, even though you're pretty sure you know more than your male boss. How do you survive being manterrupted, passed over, and side-eyed at work when even Senator Kamala Harris and Arianna Huffington have to put up…
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A Conversation with Aubrey Plaza
Elisa talks with comedian and actress Aubrey Plaza about her latest film and how Instagram has influenced her in her newest role and in real life. This conversation was recorded in front of a live audience after the LA screening of Plaza's latest film, "Ingrid Goes West". What are your Strong...
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S2E9: When Your Pop Culture Doesn't Match Your Politics
What do you do when you love the beat but the lyrics aren't quite....liberating? If you're ashamed of your music choices, don't be. Elisa talks with "Trainwreck: The Women We Love to Hate, Mock, and Fear, and Why" author Sady Doyle and "Call Your Girlfriend" podcast host Aminatou Sow about…
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S2E8: Why Are We Still Not Happy?
The main consumer of self-help products in the US are women living in coastal cities. So how have decades of encouragement to "find our best selves" and "live our best lives" affected us? And why are we still looking for happiness in self-help books when the world’s happiest countries don’t sell...
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S2E7: How HGTV Explains America
HGTV is known for its unique audience that reaches millennials, feminists, queers, conservatives and Christians. That’s because the one thing we can all agree on is homeownership. But while HGTV’s homeowner-focused programming unites us, it also plays a role in dividing us. Elisa talks with “No...
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S2E6: Selling Squad Goals
Can you sell female friendship after you've put women down? Who did Taylor Swift vote for? Did she vote? Why does she represent our general distrust in well-intentioned white women? Elisa talks to "Stuff Mom Never Told You" podcast host Bridget Todd and BuzzFeed's senior culture writer Anne Helen...
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S2E5: Teenage Girls Are Magic
Historically, young women have set all the trends: the Beatles, Instagram, and Snapchat just to name a few. But they are always discounted as silly, cute, or frivolous. Why do we discount young women but embrace "early adopters"? Elisa talks to Muhlenberg College professor Dr. Francesca Coppa and...
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S2E4: Little White Lie
How do we come to terms with the lies our families tell us? Are we really an extension of our parents? How do we define our identities if we aren't? This week’s episode is dedicated to finding personal truth, inspired by the film "Little White Lie" by director Lacey Schwartz. The film is a…
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S2E3: Please Exit Through the Feminist Gift Shop
Hold onto your pussy hats. Tuck in your Future is Female T-shirts. We are doing a deep dive into the buying and selling of feminism! Beyoncé, Emma Watson and Taylor Swift have all come out as feminists in a time when feminist themes sell everything from wireless plans to cigarettes. Are these…
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S2E2: Why the F*$% Are We Still Having Kids?
Having kids seems like the worst career move a woman could make: the US lacks paid parental leave, working moms are less likely to be hired. And when they are, they make 4-6% less than women without kids. The motherhood penalty is real. But don't worry, what's lacking in social and political...
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Too Good to Cut: More with Ashley Ford
There was so much in Elisa's interview with Ashley Ford that we couldn’t let it go to waste. Here is their full conversation on Ashley's love of Roxanne Gay, her best full-time job, and how her mentee mindset failed her. What are your Strong Opinions? Let me know! Instagram: @popculturepirate...
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S2E1: Famous on the Internet, Broke IRL
Welcome to Season 2! The creative entrepreneurs we see across social media may have a ton of followers, but are they making any money? Should they? How do you maintain your creativity while still supporting yourself? Is selling out such a bad thing? Elisa talks to popular YouTuber and podcaster...
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Celebrity (Activist) Industrial Complex: SOLH @ SXSW
Who's woke and who's just an opportunist trying to stay relevant? How can we tell and where's the line? And who did Taylor Swift vote for? It's our 1 year anniversary and to celebrate, we are airing Elisa's conversation with Medium's Bridget Todd, NPR's Glen Weldon, and BuzzFeed's Anne Helen...
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Surviving a Post-Election Thanksgiving: Easing Out of the Bubble
This election opened deep-seated wounds in ourselves and our country. Add family and the holidays to that open wound and it can be a recipe for disaster. Elisa Kreisinger talks to "Man Enough" author and pioneer of gender violence prevention education in sports culture and the military, Jackson...
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S1E10: Lipstick Isn't a Sign of a Declining Mind
Fashion is often dismissed as frivolous, superficial, shallow, and in the age of global warming, even irresponsible. Yet when we look in the mirror, we still want our outside to reflect what's inside. Refinery29's co-founder Christene Barberich talks about how clothing connects us- when you find...
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S1E9: Childish Games
How far would you go to be a kid again? And why do we miss the '90s so much? Our special report on nostalgia dives into what Dream Phone taught us about dating and why some memories aren't worth reliving. This is our second to last episode of this season. Next week will be our final episode. What...
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S1E8: Faith Filled Feminist
How do you negotiate feminism and faith? Linda Sarsour talks about being a Muslim feminist and how the two aren't mutually exclusive. What are your Strong Opinions? Let me know! Instagram: @popculturepirate Twitter: @popcultpirate Hashtag: #SOLHpod #StrongOpinionsLooselyHeld
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S1E7: No Shame in a Selfie
Selfies were responsible for more deaths in 2015 than shark attacks. And 75% of those deaths were men. So why are selfies seen as an inherently narcissistic, overly feminine activity, and generally met with disgust? Can you find yourself in a selfie? Amy Jones, a therapist who knows Elisa very,...
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S1E6: Picking Up A Pick-Up Artist
Angela Washko is a feminist artist who tried to find common ground with the internet's most infamous misogynist. To say they occupy different corners of the world would be an understatement. How do you find commonality with someone who is the antithesis to your beliefs? And if you needed another...
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S1E5: Shiny Happy People
Is virality a science or a spiritual connection? And what role do women play in it? Leading virality scholar and Wharton associate professor Katherine Milkman, PhD, and Soul Pancake’s Correy Stoner O'Neal offer two different perspectives. Does positivity go viral because we want to seem like good...
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S1E4: Worst Place To Be A Woman
Michelle Byrom was on death row for 15 years. Hours before her execution, her conviction was overturned. Refinery 29’s Vanessa Golembeski talked with Byrom weeks after her release to question the bias baked into a system that’s supposed to protect women. What are your Strong Opinions? Let me…
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S1E3: Just Shut Up
Vocal fry. Upspeak. Overuse of qualifiers — it seems like we can’t open our mouths without being criticized. Elisa Kreisinger talks to public radio journalist Sally Herships and politics writer Amanda Marcotte and asks: if a woman is saying something intelligent and all you hear is the way it’s...
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S1E2: Instagram Insecurities
Women are now more likely than men to have bachelor's degrees. And childless women in their 20s currently out-earn men. So why are our Instagram feeds filled with images of date nights, engagement rings, cat eyes, cupcakes, and waist-trainers? Are we becoming Betty Draper 2.0, or are we using the...
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S1E1: The Kardashian Industrial Komplex
Sales are down on magazine covers that bear their faces. Ratings are low on their reality TV show. Seemingly no one cares about the Kardashians. So why are they everywhere, including our site? Ann Helen Peterson uses her Phd in celebrity to explain and dig into the role celebrity plays in...
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A Preview
Here's a preview of what to expect this season! What are your Strong Opinions? Let me know! Instagram: @popculturepirate Twitter: @popcultpirate Hashtag: #SOLHpod #StrongOpinionsLooselyHeld
About this show
Refinery 29's award-winning podcast is back for season 4! In this five-part capsule collection, host Elisa Kreisinger dives into the world of the professional female athlete to explore how they've survived and thrived in a sports-loving country that doesn't alway love them back. Did you know that the highest grossing sport for women is tennis? Or that the US exports many of our best female athletes to China and Russia because they pay them a livable wage? This season we talk with soccer legend Abby Wambach, WNBA superstar Swin Cash, world renowned ballerina Isabella Boylston and sports journalists from around the country to unpack what it means to be a female athlete representing a country that doesn't support women.
Hosted by
Refinery29