Speaker 1: There Are No Girls on the Internet is doing a
Speaker 1: live show at Caveat in New York City on Friday.
Speaker 1: You can also attend virtually from wherever you're at in
Speaker 1: the world. We'll have super cool guests, a meet and greet,
Speaker 1: and a lot more. Go to Tango dot com slash
Speaker 1: Live to get tickets. That's t A n g O
Speaker 1: t I dot com slash Live and I cannot wait
Speaker 1: to see you there. Dannis fully served as their role model,
Speaker 1: and when we asked them why, it was because she
Speaker 1: was uh in control of her destiny. She didn't have
Speaker 1: to be saved. There Are No Girls on the Internet
Speaker 1: as a production of I Heart Radio and Unbossed Creative.
Speaker 1: I'm Bridget Todd and this is There Are No Girls
Speaker 1: on the Internet. So I was obsessed with the TV
Speaker 1: show The X Files growing up, specifically because one doctor
Speaker 1: Dana Scully. Now, I know that woman scientist is kind
Speaker 1: of a television genre now with shows like Phones and
Speaker 1: c Side, but back when I was growing up, Dana
Speaker 1: Scully was one of the only successful, capable women in
Speaker 1: stem on television that I had Before Scully, a scientist
Speaker 1: on TV was usually a loner, white dude in a
Speaker 1: lab code, and this critical lack of representation kept women
Speaker 1: and girls like me from being able to see ourselves
Speaker 1: meaningly reflected in STEM fields. According to the Gina Davis
Speaker 1: Institute on Gender and Media YEP, spearheaded by that Gina Davis,
Speaker 1: this portrayal reinforces the belief that science is a male pursuit,
Speaker 1: one that is held by many children, adolescents, and adults.
Speaker 1: Children start implicitly pairing men and math as early as
Speaker 1: age seven, a bias that continues into adulthood. The Davis
Speaker 1: Institute researches gender representation and media and advocates for the
Speaker 1: equal representation of women. Their researchers looked at the impact
Speaker 1: that Dana Scully had on women and girls in STEM
Speaker 1: and the importance of representation in media. I have the
Speaker 1: privilege of serving as the President and CEO of the
Speaker 1: Gina Davis Institute on Gender and Media. So how did
Speaker 1: an actor like Gina Davis, the woman behind iconic performances
Speaker 1: in films Like a League of their Own, come to
Speaker 1: start of institute dedicated to equity and media. Well, it
Speaker 1: actually came out of her experience as being a mom.
Speaker 1: Like any mom, she was watching content with her actual
Speaker 1: daughter at the time, it was a toddler, and she
Speaker 1: was struck by the disparity and lack of female presence,
Speaker 1: fictional presence in the content that she was showing her daughter.
Speaker 1: And like any mom, you turned to your friends, You're like, hey,
Speaker 1: did you notice in such and such show or movie
Speaker 1: there just wasn't a lot of female characters? And her
Speaker 1: friends would say, no, we didn't really notice that. And
Speaker 1: then she asked the same question when she meet with
Speaker 1: producers or other creators for potential acting work, and they
Speaker 1: would say, no, no, we had this character, we had
Speaker 1: that character, and they were naming wonderful female characters, but
Speaker 1: they were it was one. And she thought, my goodness,
Speaker 1: in the twenty one century, women and girls are fifty
Speaker 1: something per cent of the population and they're not being
Speaker 1: reflected in popular content. And the concern came because of
Speaker 1: the messaging. What's the message that not only my daughter,
Speaker 1: but my two young sons are getting about where women
Speaker 1: and girls fit and their importance. Are we saying that
Speaker 1: they don't share the sandbox? Are we saying that they're
Speaker 1: not as important? And that's what gave her the uh,
Speaker 1: the drive to say, I need to at the research.
Speaker 1: I want to know if I'm correct, you know, am
Speaker 1: I truly seeing this gap um and this disparity. And
Speaker 1: so if you hear Gina talk, she'll say, I didn't
Speaker 1: mean to start a whole institute. Once she got started, Uh,
Speaker 1: she tends to become very laser focused, like with her
Speaker 1: archery and many other things that she does. And that's
Speaker 1: how the institute came about. So it came about, you know,
Speaker 1: from her being a mom and concerned about you know,
Speaker 1: what kind of biases her daughter going to grow up with,
Speaker 1: you know, her sons, etcetera. Uh, And that's that's that's
Speaker 1: how it got started. Yeah, I'm so glad that you
Speaker 1: talked about how it's important not just for young women
Speaker 1: and girls, but also for boys, for people of any
Speaker 1: gender to understand that you know, yes, women and girls
Speaker 1: are are self actual, self actualized. We have you know,
Speaker 1: roles in society and we're in the workplace. Like it's
Speaker 1: not just important for women and girls, it is important
Speaker 1: for us, but also for everybody to see the ways
Speaker 1: that women and girls should be integrated in society and
Speaker 1: see a diverse you know, array of what that actually
Speaker 1: looks like. Yeah. So for example, if you grow up
Speaker 1: seeing say, a media landscape that is full of many
Speaker 1: diverse people. I'm not just saying boys, girls, and give
Speaker 1: any type people with disabilities at p t q A.
Speaker 1: If that's normalized in what you see in the fictional world,
Speaker 1: then it transfers into your real life. When you're at school,
Speaker 1: maybe when you're playing sports, maybe your first job. You
Speaker 1: would expect to see that flavor, those colors of the
Speaker 1: rainbows reflected in an environment, because that's all you've ever seen,
Speaker 1: that's what you've known. Now we know that's not exactly
Speaker 1: the real world, but it normalizes it. Media is playing
Speaker 1: as important of a role in influencing their societal beliefs
Speaker 1: as much as church, sports, sleeping, you know, all of
Speaker 1: those other activities. So you can't ignore it and say, oh,
Speaker 1: it's just to make believe. No, no, no no, Now, what
Speaker 1: plays out you know on screen can also transfer to
Speaker 1: real life and could be in a wonderful way, in
Speaker 1: a really positive way. Now, representation is not the end all,
Speaker 1: be all, but we do know that it matters because
Speaker 1: everyone deserves to see themselves reflected in the stories that
Speaker 1: we consume. And to that end, the Davis Institute uses
Speaker 1: technology to put some data behind who gets treated like
Speaker 1: a full main character and who has to be satisfied
Speaker 1: with just seeing themselves reflected as a side character and
Speaker 1: someone else's story. One of my on screen idols, Miss
Speaker 1: Dana Scully, put out of your organization to put out
Speaker 1: a report about the Skully Effect, which I definitely want
Speaker 1: to talk about, But I have to ask you. Know
Speaker 1: you mentioned how you know a diverse array of folks
Speaker 1: can have a diverse array of different kinds of jobs,
Speaker 1: you know, applying that to you personally, you have had
Speaker 1: this incredible career that has spanned over so many fields philanthropy.
Speaker 1: You're an Emmy nominated enterhayment professional. You used to run
Speaker 1: the Hallmark Channel, which I have to tell you is
Speaker 1: where I get the bulk of my holiday programming, love
Speaker 1: the holiday movies. How did you personally get plugged into
Speaker 1: this work at the institute? I was on a journey, uh,
Speaker 1: like I think we all are. And I'm the first
Speaker 1: person to go to college in my media family. I
Speaker 1: come from, you know, generations of of immigrants like many
Speaker 1: other people, and so there wasn't a pathway or a
Speaker 1: pipeline pre provided for me. And so going to college,
Speaker 1: which we could debate the value of that. That that's
Speaker 1: another podcast. You know, at that time, going to college
Speaker 1: was a really big deal and also trying to find
Speaker 1: your way. And this is a secret about me. Now
Speaker 1: you're really going to think I'm very strange, and I'm
Speaker 1: sure are your listeners are. But how do you get
Speaker 1: information about people? And this is like pre you know,
Speaker 1: pre iOS universe. I would read the obituaries, and as
Speaker 1: much as I know, there's been a lot of argument
Speaker 1: about how the obituaries have not favored women, but I
Speaker 1: was constantly looking for unsung heroines. Were there people out
Speaker 1: there doing things that could help guide me or give
Speaker 1: me ideas? And I read about so many great women
Speaker 1: who invented things and people like you just would never
Speaker 1: hear about. Now, of course you would know who they are.
Speaker 1: And I was a executive groupie, so I would just
Speaker 1: latch on and look at great men and women who
Speaker 1: were doing interesting things in their careers. And I would
Speaker 1: look at what was the path that they took. Because
Speaker 1: I didn't have anyone leading me, um, I didn't have anyone,
Speaker 1: you know, mentoring me um. So So with that, how
Speaker 1: do you get experience? And uh, A dear family friend
Speaker 1: love dating very high powered women. God bless him, he's
Speaker 1: still alive, Thank you, Frank. And I wound up doing
Speaker 1: a lot of internships with a lot of his high
Speaker 1: powered girlfriends. That's how I got my gigs um and
Speaker 1: so I started interning from the time I was seventeen
Speaker 1: all the way until I graduated college at twenty one,
Speaker 1: where I wound up landing a full time job at
Speaker 1: at ABC because of all the internships that I've done,
Speaker 1: That's kind of how it started for me. Wow, I'm
Speaker 1: sel lad to hear all the different places your professional
Speaker 1: journey took you, and I'm even more happy that you
Speaker 1: landed somewhere that is really changing. I think our understanding
Speaker 1: of the role that represent that media can play and
Speaker 1: how important representation is for the kind of world that
Speaker 1: we want to live in. You know, some of the
Speaker 1: tools that the David's Institute puts out are so incredible.
Speaker 1: You know, things like the Inclusion Quotient that uses machine
Speaker 1: learning to analyze who speaks the most in different types
Speaker 1: of media, or spell Check for Bias that uses the
Speaker 1: Institute's human expert coding to determine the representation of six identities, gender, race, ethnicity,
Speaker 1: lgbt QUI A plus visibility, body type representation, age representation.
Speaker 1: I guess my question is how are First of all,
Speaker 1: I just want to shout out the depths to which
Speaker 1: the Institute is like really putting doing in this work
Speaker 1: in a granular way. And then also, I guess my
Speaker 1: question is how are all of these tools and studies
Speaker 1: being used to create a more equitable media landscape. Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, I can't take credit at all for
Speaker 1: the depth of wanting to see not only how many
Speaker 1: female characters maybe on screen, but what is their sense
Speaker 1: of agency? That came from Gina, So one of the
Speaker 1: things that she always wanted to know is okay, great,
Speaker 1: I can count on one hand how many female characters are,
Speaker 1: but are they being seen and heard with the same
Speaker 1: weight as their male counterparts? And that data point was
Speaker 1: not humanly possible. And it wasn't until we received a
Speaker 1: lovely technology grant from Google dot org back in and
Speaker 1: we found true partners in USC Perturby School of Engineering
Speaker 1: led by Dr tre Naryan to come together and Jine said,
Speaker 1: I want to know the screen in speaking time, and
Speaker 1: and this is really funny and if you ever have
Speaker 1: a chance to Meetrie and his team of engineers. Gina
Speaker 1: and I sat with him and said, we want to
Speaker 1: think of the jiggy and now you've got the most
Speaker 1: brainiac brilliant scientists engineers. And they looked at us like, what, UM, Yeah,
Speaker 1: we want to thinking. We want the thinking to extract
Speaker 1: screen and they built it right, They did it, UM.
Speaker 1: And what we found is, uh that even if it
Speaker 1: was a top of the call sheet, right, so you
Speaker 1: had a female lead, male lead, that the female characters
Speaker 1: were on screen and speaking a third of the time
Speaker 1: less even though they have the same weight, say, in
Speaker 1: terms of of a call sheet. And that was not
Speaker 1: possible until we had the g d i Q, the
Speaker 1: inclusion quotation, which uses, as you mentioned, machine learning plus
Speaker 1: human expert coders to do the other things. Because as
Speaker 1: you mentioned, we look at intersectionality and for us it
Speaker 1: just ectionality, which Kimberly Crenshaw, Thank you, Kimberly beautifully coined
Speaker 1: at Columbia. But in our world we look at the
Speaker 1: intersection between gender, race, ethnicity, l g P, t q
Speaker 1: I A disabilities, age fifty plus, and body type. So
Speaker 1: our intersectionality is a little bit different than the traditional
Speaker 1: full on definition. UM. But that's you know what we
Speaker 1: we look at. You know, that intersection. The tools that
Speaker 1: the Davis Institute builds and champions opens up the door
Speaker 1: for media makers to make their stories more inclusive and
Speaker 1: better represent a diversity of identities. It's been used as
Speaker 1: an auditing tool for people to measure where are we
Speaker 1: where do we need to go? How are we doing
Speaker 1: It's it would be complicated, uh for us, and it
Speaker 1: can be used in a live production kind of way.
Speaker 1: So it's been used as an auditing to by many
Speaker 1: leading brands and entertainment entities. What we once we socialize that,
Speaker 1: we thought, well, what could really be an intervention? And
Speaker 1: that's where we turned back to our partners that us
Speaker 1: SEE who had had this patented text to IP, and
Speaker 1: we said, we want a different thing, um. And essentially
Speaker 1: the combination of their text tool IP and our human
Speaker 1: expert coders were able to look at words and so
Speaker 1: think about it. You know, you're writing a script for
Speaker 1: something and for the people that are being charged with
Speaker 1: looking at cultural equity in content and then having to
Speaker 1: have a discussion about it with the people who are
Speaker 1: actually producing and making and crafting the content. Uh. This
Speaker 1: is a way for them to come together around a
Speaker 1: data driven conversation versus a theory or opinion. And essentially
Speaker 1: it's very pragmatic in that we look at who is speaking,
Speaker 1: who is contributing dialogue, and it's just who is showing up?
Speaker 1: How are they showing up? Are they being described? And
Speaker 1: for many of your listeners who may have gone to
Speaker 1: film school or you know, screenwriting one on one, you
Speaker 1: don't describe all your characters, which is could which could
Speaker 1: be great? So the banker, you know, the coach, the
Speaker 1: et cetera, they have dialogue, but they may not be described. Well,
Speaker 1: that could be an opportunity to have a discussion to say, okay,
Speaker 1: it's the twenty one century, what could who could the
Speaker 1: coach be? Who could the banker be? And how could
Speaker 1: that be an opportunity to infuse more UH diversity, equity
Speaker 1: inclusion in a piece of content that doesn't disrupt the story.
Speaker 1: It's not changing the authentic truth of of what the
Speaker 1: storyteller a story they were telling. And so that's where
Speaker 1: spell Chuck for bias is being used to help foster
Speaker 1: that conversation and also kind of flag some things, you know,
Speaker 1: especially sensitivities around sexism and racism, and there's some things
Speaker 1: that we can flag. We're all we're all looking to
Speaker 1: be better allies. We're all paying very close attention to
Speaker 1: how things land when you say something right, and this
Speaker 1: is a way to help do them. Let's say a
Speaker 1: quick break out her back. The X Files first premier
Speaker 1: on September, introducing the world to Dr Dana Scully, a
Speaker 1: medical doctor working as a special agent for the FBI,
Speaker 1: alongside her partner Box Molder. I also had pretty big
Speaker 1: crushes on both of them growing up, but that's a
Speaker 1: podcast for another day. Together, they investigate the X files
Speaker 1: unsolved FBI cases caused by unexplained phenomena, whereas Molder is
Speaker 1: the wild card, open to the possibility of the paranormal.
Speaker 1: Fully is capable, efficient, and deeply skeptical, but you also
Speaker 1: get to see a lot of who she is and
Speaker 1: what makes her her. She's a really complex character. For instance,
Speaker 1: her Catholic faith presents an interesting departure from her usual
Speaker 1: skeptical nature. Now, I watched Dana Scully on X Files
Speaker 1: every week growing up, and she was one of the
Speaker 1: first women that I saw and stam regularly, and she
Speaker 1: gave me a way to imagine myself one day working
Speaker 1: in technology too, and it turns out I was not alone.
Speaker 1: The Davis Institute published a report on what they're calling
Speaker 1: the Scully Effect, the idea that Dana Scully inspired a
Speaker 1: generation of women and girls to go into STEM field
Speaker 1: because they finally saw themselves represented. That it has long
Speaker 1: been assumed that Scully had this big and packed on
Speaker 1: women and girls, but before the Davis Institute, there had
Speaker 1: been no formal study confirming it. So here's what they found.
Speaker 1: Women who are medium and heavy watchers of the X
Speaker 1: files hold more positive views of STEM than non or
Speaker 1: light watchers, and that nearly two thirds or of women
Speaker 1: who are familiar with Dana Scully say that she increased
Speaker 1: their beliefs in the importance of STEM, and that among
Speaker 1: women who are familiar with Scully's character, half of them
Speaker 1: report that Scully increase their interest in STEM. So while
Speaker 1: Dana Scully was getting to the bottom of all that
Speaker 1: paranormal activity, she was also inspiring a generation of women
Speaker 1: and girls to be interested in the sciences. And thanks
Speaker 1: to the Davis Institute, well that truth is out there.
Speaker 1: I love how you really highlight that you're able to
Speaker 1: get some data around it. Because I think, like, you
Speaker 1: don't know what you don't know, and so you can't
Speaker 1: even start to understand or tackle the problem if you
Speaker 1: really don't have the information of the scope. And I
Speaker 1: guess that's such a good segue into, uh, the study
Speaker 1: on the Skully effect, because I think for a long
Speaker 1: time it had been just sort of assumed that Dana
Speaker 1: Scully this amazing character on the X Files. It was
Speaker 1: a huge part of my upbringing and development as a
Speaker 1: young person, and I guess still is today. Uh. But
Speaker 1: there was this assumption that certainly a generation of women
Speaker 1: and girls saw this dynamic, successful, capable woman um in
Speaker 1: stem and that she probably had an impact on encouraging
Speaker 1: women and girls to see themselves in these fields and
Speaker 1: then actually go into these fields, but people didn't know.
Speaker 1: I think it was really based on this this assumption
Speaker 1: one can reasonably assume, And so I guess my my
Speaker 1: question would be, why was it important for the Institute
Speaker 1: to really put some research into confirming that, yes, this
Speaker 1: Scully effect did actually make an impact. What was wonderful
Speaker 1: for us is that Fox approached us because the X
Speaker 1: Files was on the air in I think it was
Speaker 1: going off. Then it went off the air. Then it
Speaker 1: was coming back and I think it was um going
Speaker 1: to go off on the air. So it was on
Speaker 1: for what over a decade or so, on and off,
Speaker 1: and they said, you know, we know anecdotally that there's
Speaker 1: this hashtag Scully effect and we want to prove it out.
Speaker 1: Would your partner with us and help us prove that
Speaker 1: theory out? And so what we did is we surveyed
Speaker 1: thousands of women and girls that would have been able
Speaker 1: to watch the show, and we asked them a series
Speaker 1: of questions. And what we found out from that is
Speaker 1: so among the women who said they were familiar with
Speaker 1: the show, said that she was a role model. And
Speaker 1: the other one, which gets up what you were saying,
Speaker 1: six of them said that they work in stem because
Speaker 1: Dannis Scully served as their role model. And when we
Speaker 1: asked them why, it was because she us uh in
Speaker 1: control of her destiny, she didn't have to be saved.
Speaker 1: She used logic, you know, and science to make decisions,
Speaker 1: and she countered a lot of stereotypes for female characters
Speaker 1: you know, at that time, and so it was a
Speaker 1: almost a direct correlation, um and and it was exciting,
Speaker 1: you know for us because normally we wouldn't conduct a
Speaker 1: study on somebody else's I p um and make that
Speaker 1: a case history unless it was something they wanted to partner,
Speaker 1: you know, with us. So we were thrilled to have
Speaker 1: a chance to work with them on that and to
Speaker 1: use that as as evidence. You know, it's definitely evidence. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's and and it really goes back to this idea
Speaker 1: of if you can see it, you can be it.
Speaker 1: In the importance of that representation. And I know it
Speaker 1: might it might be harder for younger folks to really understand,
Speaker 1: but I was watching The X Files when it when
Speaker 1: it first premiered, I was a big fan. I had
Speaker 1: a poster in my locker that said the truth is
Speaker 1: out there. So I was hugely, hugely involved, like heavily,
Speaker 1: heavily a fan. And you know, the show premiered in nine. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and my my producer and I right before you and
Speaker 1: I started talking, we were trying to name another show
Speaker 1: that was on or a movie that was on the
Speaker 1: air that that involved a woman who was a scientist
Speaker 1: or involved in stem and the only thing I could
Speaker 1: think was the Sandra Bolock movie Um Love Postion number nine.
Speaker 1: She plays a biochemist, but it's kind of it's kind
Speaker 1: of like a romantic comedy. It's not. It's certainly her
Speaker 1: job as a biochemist is not the big part of
Speaker 1: the movie. And you know, today we have so many
Speaker 1: different women, like if you watch Bones or like s Vu,
Speaker 1: women who are in technical fields and in stem. But
Speaker 1: back then they're just really like, like, we struggled to
Speaker 1: come up with another woman scientists on on a film
Speaker 1: or in a television show other than Dana Scully. Back
Speaker 1: in the nineties, I really could not. I could not
Speaker 1: think of any It's so it was a new thing, right, Well,
Speaker 1: maybe we could make a case for the amazing groundbreaking
Speaker 1: Mischelle Nichols. She was on star track, so yes, you
Speaker 1: can assume that she was flying out there in the universe.
Speaker 1: She had to have some kind of STEM degree, right, Yes,
Speaker 1: that's a that's a good that's a good cause. And
Speaker 1: and God bless her and and we're so thrilled with
Speaker 1: everything that she contributed to breaking stereotized. But we couldn't
Speaker 1: say that she was maybe the you know, the first
Speaker 1: scientist because she was in space. That's true. Shout out
Speaker 1: to shout out to her. We love her. Um, I
Speaker 1: guess you know, were you surprised to see how big
Speaker 1: of an impact the Skully effect actually had for a
Speaker 1: generation of women and girls to see themselves reflected instead, Like,
Speaker 1: I find the results to be not surprising, but just
Speaker 1: really kind of affirming that she did have this this
Speaker 1: great role in people being able to see themselves in her,
Speaker 1: not at all, because we've seen other examples of that.
Speaker 1: So another example of that totally different is when Gina
Speaker 1: got to play the first ever president female president on TV.
Speaker 1: I think her show was on nineteen times and the
Speaker 1: Linda Linda Saylor Kaplan Group did a study on uh
Speaker 1: audiences views on the potential of a female president and
Speaker 1: what they found is, I think fifty eight per cent
Speaker 1: of the adults that we're familiar with the show would
Speaker 1: consider a female UM candidate. And this is going back
Speaker 1: to like two thousand four, et cetera. And you think
Speaker 1: about the show was only on you know, nineteen something
Speaker 1: times to have that kind of you know, imprint. And
Speaker 1: and then another great example is UH. You know, Gina
Speaker 1: Uh went out for the Olympics and Archeries. She was
Speaker 1: in the trials and qualified for the trials, and a
Speaker 1: few years ago her coach said, hey, girls, participation of
Speaker 1: archery has just gone crazy. And so we did a
Speaker 1: survey and we worked with the National Association of Archery
Speaker 1: in America, and we found that there were two movies
Speaker 1: in what were those two movies? Hunger Games and what's
Speaker 1: the other one, Rover Brave. Of course, of course those
Speaker 1: two movies came out and girls participation archery went up
Speaker 1: a hundred and four. They they went out and got
Speaker 1: a book. It was instantaneous. Wow. More after a quick break,
Speaker 1: let's get right back into it. One of the questions
Speaker 1: I had, which is a complete like Devil's adig question,
Speaker 1: because you don't need to convince me. But you know,
Speaker 1: when you when you see these people who were like,
Speaker 1: it's just entertainment. You know, it's just movies, it's just TV.
Speaker 1: Doesn't really make a difference. What do you say? What
Speaker 1: do you say to that? Like, what's your response to that?
Speaker 1: Because I have to imagine there has to be people
Speaker 1: out there who think, isn't there something else that you
Speaker 1: should spend your time studying or analyzing or working on.
Speaker 1: Who cares about the television that we consume, with the
Speaker 1: media that we watched, What did you say to that? Well,
Speaker 1: let me give you another example, and let me tell
Speaker 1: you another story. UM, we had the privilege of working
Speaker 1: with UM it was J Walter Thompson at the time. UH,
Speaker 1: And we did a survey of women in nine countries
Speaker 1: and we asked them how they were positively influenced by
Speaker 1: a make believe fictional character, and UH as high as
Speaker 1: one in four said that seeing a positive female role
Speaker 1: model gave them the courage to leave an abusive relationship. Wow,
Speaker 1: that's real. Wow. Yes, I mean that's like saving someone's life,
Speaker 1: Like media has the power to do that exactly. So, yes,
Speaker 1: it's make believe, but what happens in the Maple League
Speaker 1: world can play out hopefully positively in the real world
Speaker 1: and change lives. Oh, I absolutely mean. I don't know
Speaker 1: that I would be hosting a tech podcast if not
Speaker 1: for Dana Scully. You know, I think that there was
Speaker 1: no we just didn't have stories like that where you know,
Speaker 1: her partner was the one who was the the out
Speaker 1: there person. She was the one who was like cool, calm, collected,
Speaker 1: didn't need to be saved, was very capable, and I
Speaker 1: really liked that she was you know, still she still
Speaker 1: you knew that she had a light outside of work,
Speaker 1: and you you you've got to understand her as a
Speaker 1: whole dimensional woman who did this work. I think you
Speaker 1: know if you were you know in the study you
Speaker 1: talked about how like the perception of a scientist was
Speaker 1: an awkward man and a white lab coat. Dana Scully
Speaker 1: wasn't awkward. She did wear a lab coat, but she
Speaker 1: certainly was not awkward. She really they really depicted her
Speaker 1: in loving way and you really got to understand her
Speaker 1: as a a full person. And I think, yeah, I
Speaker 1: just I still remember the first time I watched the
Speaker 1: show and what an impression that made on me, and
Speaker 1: thinking like, oh, maybe this could be a career for
Speaker 1: me one day, maybe I could do something involved in
Speaker 1: technology or science or a stem field. Because she allowed
Speaker 1: me to release see it and I've never seen anything
Speaker 1: like that before. So certainly stories and media have been
Speaker 1: important to me hugely. Absolutely, So we talked about Gina Davis.
Speaker 1: I am just now learning that she is an Olympian
Speaker 1: level archer? Is she as cool as she seems in
Speaker 1: the movie A League of their Own? Like that's the
Speaker 1: benchmark Gina Davis for me, It's like she'll never be
Speaker 1: cooler than that. Movie. Is she just the best? Well,
Speaker 1: what's what's amazing is this summer will be the thirtieth
Speaker 1: anniversary of the League of their Own, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: and you know we're looking to celebrate that plans to
Speaker 1: be shared. And you know, she is sincere, she is dedicated,
Speaker 1: She rolls up her sleeves. There's a lot of celebrities
Speaker 1: that have charities and nonprofits and whatnot, but she really
Speaker 1: digs in. The institute was born out of her vision. Um,
Speaker 1: her desire to change, you know the world and make
Speaker 1: it more equitable, particularly for you know, women and girls.
Speaker 1: I love the world. And um, she's she's a really
Speaker 1: big thinker. She's very creative. Um, but she's very thoughtful,
Speaker 1: you know, and and kind and and as you can tell,
Speaker 1: like on the mouth kind of thing. Um. So yeah,
Speaker 1: she she's that cool and then some I love it, Madeline.
Speaker 1: Is there anything that I did not ask but you
Speaker 1: want to make sure it gets included? Well, yes, So
Speaker 1: we we welcome your audience to become members of the Institute.
Speaker 1: We do year round programming. We have all kinds of
Speaker 1: great events where we launch our studies UM networking. Follow
Speaker 1: us on social media at Gina Davis org and we
Speaker 1: welcome uh for anyone who's listening to get get more
Speaker 1: involved so there are no girls on the Internet. Launched
Speaker 1: a new newsletter called Dear Internet, where I am taking
Speaker 1: your Internet questions and conundrums. You can subscribe for free.
Speaker 1: It can go be dot com slash newsletter to be
Speaker 1: my full advice and submit your own questions. You might
Speaker 1: even hear yours on the show. So I wanted to
Speaker 1: read one of the letters that we got from a
Speaker 1: listener that we're calling Joe Dear Internet. I have dealt
Speaker 1: with depression on and off for most of my life,
Speaker 1: and since the pandemic, my issues have only gotten more pronounced.
Speaker 1: I experienced a particularly low period where if I was
Speaker 1: able to get out of bed and dressed, it was
Speaker 1: a good day. When I feel like this, my default
Speaker 1: is to cut off almost everyone and everything from the
Speaker 1: outside world. Thanks to a good therapist and new medication,
Speaker 1: that period of my life is thankfully behind me for now.
Speaker 1: But now that I'm reconnecting with the world, I'm struggling
Speaker 1: to deal with email inbox that is full of unanswered emails,
Speaker 1: some of which are or at least word time sensitive.
Speaker 1: The idea of tackling this inbox fills me with dread.
Speaker 1: It feels really embarrassing and almost rude to reply to
Speaker 1: an email after several months. These feelings of shame and
Speaker 1: guilt make it difficult to move forward. I'm cleaning on
Speaker 1: my inbox? What's the cutoff for responding to an email late?
Speaker 1: Are there instances where a reply can come so late
Speaker 1: that it's better to not reply at all? And I
Speaker 1: need to exibling that people want My response is so overdue.
Speaker 1: So if you want to read my full response, subscribe
Speaker 1: to our newsletter. But yeah, I really wanted to start
Speaker 1: with this letter because oh boy, can I relate? And
Speaker 1: I feel like a lot of us, especially since the pandemic,
Speaker 1: can probably relate to this feeling of dread and a
Speaker 1: keyness that comes with having to dig out an inbox.
Speaker 1: There's actually a recent episode of one of my favorite
Speaker 1: ever podcasts, You're Wrong About, about how email got to
Speaker 1: be so awful and annoying? Uh spoiler alert. It has
Speaker 1: a lot to do with the rise of Gmail as
Speaker 1: our email platform, and tech companies like Google kind of
Speaker 1: thinking that everyone wants to enjoy the pressures and expectations
Speaker 1: to respond to emails right away no matter what time
Speaker 1: it is that people who are hit tech companies have
Speaker 1: to deal with. So that ikey feeling that comes with
Speaker 1: your email inbox is actually kind of by design, So
Speaker 1: thank you Google. Uh you know, I also deal with
Speaker 1: mental health issues. In my case, I have generalized anxiety disordered,
Speaker 1: and my anxiety can really manifest itself into feeling panicky
Speaker 1: around email in my inbox, and at least to things
Speaker 1: like me ignoring emails and really letting them pile up,
Speaker 1: or spending an hour overthinking an email response that just
Speaker 1: says sounds good, thanks, you know, I'll spend an hour
Speaker 1: writing that and thinking about all the ways they can
Speaker 1: go wrong, most of which are just kind of in
Speaker 1: my head. But you know, I'm also a busy creative professional.
Speaker 1: I make a podcast and I do other things, and
Speaker 1: so I can't let my email get two out of control,
Speaker 1: and so I actually take really clear steps to handle
Speaker 1: this in my own life. I have someone who handles
Speaker 1: my inbox because I know that I just cannot be
Speaker 1: trusted and really should not be trusted with my own email.
Speaker 1: And I'm really curious, what is your personal relationship with email?
Speaker 1: What does it look like, what does it feel like.
Speaker 1: Are you someone who feels the need to get to
Speaker 1: inbox zero? Are you somebody like me who when other
Speaker 1: people look at your inbox they kind of cower and
Speaker 1: disgust at how many unread emails you have? What does
Speaker 1: it look like? I really want to know, So subscribe
Speaker 1: to our newsletter at tangodi dot com slash newsletter and
Speaker 1: let me know. I can't wait to hear from you.
Speaker 1: Got a story about an interesting thing in tech, or
Speaker 1: just want to say hi? You can be just at
Speaker 1: Hello at tangodi dot com. You can also find transcripts
Speaker 1: today's episode at tangodi dot com. There Are No Girls
Speaker 1: on the Internet was created by me H Todd. It's
Speaker 1: a production of iHeart Radio and Unboss creative Jonathan Strickland
Speaker 1: as our executive producer. Terry Harrison is our producer and
Speaker 1: sound engineer. Michael Amato is our contributing producer. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Bridget Todd. If you want to help us grow, rate
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