Broadly Meets

Rose McGowan came to rise in the late 90's after acting in The Doom Generation, pop horror hit Scream and grindhouse releases like Planet Terror for Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. She had a sordid love affair with Marilyn Manson that resulted in nearly naked red carpet appearances among other media drama. But the bombshell and took a haitus from Hollywood after an accident and realized she was tired and disturbed by her status as a sex symbol. She's now back on the scene, calling out the sexist encounters she endured, and taking her creativity into her own hands as a director.

Virginie Despentes is a radical, pro-sex feminist writer and filmmaker and former prostitute whose work has inspired hatred and country-wide censorship as well as devoted fans. Although she maintains a feverish cult status among feminists and radical/alternative groups in the United States (and although she is a huge public figure in France) Despentes has seen little media coverage in the US—and there has never been an in-depth profile or interview with her in English.

Singer, songwriter, activist, and outspoken feminist, Kate Nash is a woman with a cause. Mixing punk lyrics with a pop style, the English artist is using music and the internet alike to encourage women around the world to speak up about whatever they can and want. Empowered by the Riot Grrrl movement of the 90s, she's maintained a unique DIY ethos throughout her career, founding an all-girls after-school music program in the UK and releasing an album on her own label. Most recently, Nash launched the "female Wayne's World," an online channel called Girl Gang TV. Produced in Nash's garage with the goal of making cool shit that everyone could get involved with, Girl Gang TV is an outlet for connecting with fans and creators online. Broadly host JD Samson meets with Nash to talk about the channel, acne, the importance (or not) of being relatable, MySpace, and how women making an impact.

Melissa Harris-Perry has been called one of our foremost public intellectuals. Along with being an author, professor, mother, and unabashed feminist, she’s the eponymous host of a successful show on MSNBC where she brings social and political issues to the forefront each week. Though she writes and speaks honestly about being a black woman in America, her opinions aren’t always popular. When Rachel Dolezal’s “transracial” controversy fascinated the internet, she defended the former NAACP chapter president. In this episode of Broadly Meets, Jenna Friedman sits down with the TV pundit to talk about Sex in the City‘s racial stereotypes, thinking in public, and PC culture.

New York state senator Kristen Gillibrand has campaigned for women's equality throughout her entire political career. Once a corporate lawyer, she's now nationally recognized as a tireless advocate for human trafficking victims, a champion of paid family maternity leave, an activist in the fight to end campus rape. In 2009, she passed the historic Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the first bill signed into law by President Obama. In this episode of Broadly Meets, we join Senator Gillibrand at a human trafficking hearing in Queens, New York—where she meets with the survivors who are directly impacted by her legislation—then talk with the Senator about her commitment to pushing women's voices to the forefront in politics and how she deals with sexism in Washington.

Cris Cyborg is an MMA champion from Brazil and arguably one of the world's greatest fighters. But in 2011, Cyborg tested positive for steroids and the announcement compromised her title and eventually her career, placing her on a one year suspension. Since her return to the ring she's tested negative for perfomance enhancing drugs, though she continues to find herself vilified by the media and her peers. This type of scandal, of course, is not unique to Cyborg nor to mixed martial arts. In this episode of Broadly Meets, fighter and host Jill Morley talks with Cyborg about steroids, women fighters, and Ronda Rousey.

As a Korean-American and an openly bisexual entertainer, Cho uses her stand-up and one-woman shows as a platform to discuss her personal life and politics, bringing honesty and activism to the stage. In the past decade, she has produced a Broadway show, launched multiple national tours, and sold out rooms around the country. On stage and off she's been a perpetual voice to marginalized communities and her next show, There Is No I In Team But There Is A Cho In Psycho, is no exception.

Marilyn Minter is no minimalist. In the years since, she's moved from that controversy into both pop culture and art-world successes that include a shows at the Venice Biennale and works hanging on Jay Z and Beyonce's walls. Although her beautiful images—of lipsticked mouths sucking on jewels and pearls, of silver high heels kick through dirty water, or of purposefully grown-out pubic hair—may at times seem superficial, Minter is nevertheless constantly considering themes like imperfections, female sexuality, and the subversion of female representation in fashion. A retrospective of her work, Pretty/Dirty, is currently traveling the country and will reach the Brooklyn Museum in 2016.

Rally race car driving is a multi-million dollar industry and it is considered by many to be one of the most treacherous sports of its kind. Unlike Formula One racing, rallying doesn't take place on a track, and crashing and car flipping are common occurrences. Verena Mei is one of the only female rally race car drivers in America. A trained stunt driver, with former careers in modeling and acting, she has managed to penetrate the male dominated sport, gain respect, and become a serious threat to the competition. In this episode of Broadly Meets, Jaimie Sanchez sits down with Verena to talk about what it's like to be one of the only chicks in one of the most dangerous motor sports in the world.

The prolific British writer, TV broadcaster, and self-described "strident feminist" Caitlin Moran is one of those people who seems destined to do what she does. Growing up in government housing with seven younger siblings, Moran learned to fend for herself early on. By the time she started writing her column for the Times of London at age 18—which she still does, now, at age 40—she had written a novel, won the Observer's Young Reporter award, started working as a journalist at a weekly music magazine, and begun hosting a music television show called Naked City, peppering it all with her signature raunchy-yet-right-on sense of humor. Since then, she has gone on to interview the likes of Lady Gaga and Courtney Love, write a New York Times best-selling essay collection (How to Be a Woman), and work as a screenwriter on Raised by Wolves, a sitcom based on her apparently riotous childhood. All this while maintaining a very active Twitter presence.

Rapper Angel Haze spent a lot of her childhood homeless and she moved into her first house when she was 16. The time Haze spent in that house in rural Virginia served as the inspiration for her latest project, Back to the Woods. After she broke ties with her major record label—and her high-profile girlfriend—earlier this year, the critically-acclaimed mixtape marked Haze's stunning comeback. Before Woods, Haze was already being hailed as the new MC to watch. She collaborated with Sia and was name-checked by Kendrick Lamar. In addition to her music, Haze's former relationship with her Ireland Baldwin was the frequent subject of media attention. Now Haze has forged ahead on her own to claim her place in rap. In this episode of Broadly Meets, we talk to Angel Haze about survival, her new mixtape, and her old flame.