How a Pandemic Podcast Became So Much More
The Loud Women’ Club podcast is coming up on its one-year anniversary this month. It’s really hard to believe during this snail-crawl of a pandemic, some form of time can move quickly. But it did. As I write this, we’ve put out 49 episodes, with just over 49,000 downloads, and with listeners in 49 different countries.
I never really wanted to do a round- table discussion podcast. The thought of multiple voices competing for space was daunting. And I knew from the producers who do those podcasts really well (think Pop Culture Happy Hour) that it would take a significant amount of work and the perfect host chemistry to make it a success.
Last summer, a storyteller I had met while producing The Ghost In My Room, Melissa Huston, created a facebook group called Loud Women. It was a safe space for women’s opinions, where respect and tolerance were enforced. The page became a place to share good news about other women, tragic news in legislation, humorous memes, and cathartic venting. Women came to the group to post opinions they didn’t dare write on their personal pages, for fear of retribution or familial shame. There were stories here. And characters. And a podcast.
Melissa and I brainstormed ideas over the phone. How could we get the essence of her facebook group into audio form? It should take the shape of a discussion, with diverse, intelligent, empathetic women. She chose three friends from three different times of her life. We got together on a zoom call to see if that magic spark all producers hope for existed. The chemistry was apparent, and in October 2020 we remotely taped our first show based on the silencing of women, called “I’m Still Speaking,” a nod to Kamala Harris.
I asked Melissa, Heidi, Beca and Nicole to tell me what The Loud Women’s Club has meant to them.
Host Melissa Huston:
I project a lot of confidence but inside I’m usually afraid that people only tolerate me and I’m only as good as my last project. I surrounded myself with people, yet still managed to feel deeply alone. I was conditioned to feel the need to apologize for my size and the space I took up. I felt like I needed to diminish my voice to accommodate others. I was wrong! One day a switch flipped… well… Full disclosure, it wasn’t one day. It was more like months and years of trying to flip the switch until eventually I did.
I was done shrinking to fit other people’s expectations and I started realizing my own. I’m loud, I’m flawed, and I want to own the space I’m in and stop apologizing for existing.
That loneliness I felt — was my inability to be open and vulnerable with people. Behind my smile was a guarded wall, until I realized; I knew other women were probably feeling the same thing. So in the middle of a pandemic, I discovered a community that was always there. I made deeper connections with friends I forgot I had, friends from high school, college, former coworkers, and my sisters in a club called LOUD WOMEN. The women I invited, invited other women so forth and so on until we built a small community of support in a corner of the toxic web.
That developed into the podcast where our voices were amplified globally, and we showed Women they are not alone in their struggles, their anger, and their fears. I took my guard down, and when I opened up something magical happened. I was loved and accepted, and so I returned that gift.
One year later, the hole of loneliness I had was filled with deep bonds between my co hosts, producer and our club members. In my struggle to be my favorite self, I found support and community with other women. Sharing our struggles and successes together is making us all better — and that community grows every day.
Heidi Renée Spencer
When Melissa Huston came to me asking if I would like to be part of a podcast where women spoke about what was going on in the world, I was all in. For years my world had gotten more isolated as I dealt with coping with my health problems. Most of my social interactions came from Facebook. The concept of having those conversations live with people who could be respectful was amazing to me.
Right before our first episode, parts of my life took a major nosedive. The podcast became a chance for me to escape and focus on other things. When we started the podcast, I only knew Melissa, a friend from my middle school and high school. However, now all of the women in the group have become my family as I continue to field my way through multiple struggles. They encourage me and support me. They accept me for who I am. And I hope that they truly feel I do the same for them.
We as a group may not always agree, but we can always respect each other. We all have strong opinions, but we aren’t so set in our views that we cannot be moved by another way of looking at things. We teach each other and we learn from one another. I cannot overstate my appreciation for Beca, Kara, Melissa, and Nicole. The day we started the podcast, was a day of freedom for me.
Beca Green Watson
October 2020. The pandemic was entering the eighth month, with no clear end in sight (and a year later we are still here — but let’s not dwell on that). As a stay at home mom of two children, including a five -year old who screamed through every zoom class, with a husband whose transition to working from home was bumpy at best, I was exhausted. Burned out. Lonely and sad. I went nowhere and saw no one, and I was so desperate for adult conversation and interaction. I consider myself an intelligent woman, but with no one to share my thoughts with, I felt like my brain was withering. Enter — The Loud Women’s Club! Suddenly I had a new group of friends, a platform, the ability to share and learn and think and talk! Suddenly, I had something to look forward to. Suddenly, I wasn’t alone. From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank the members of the club, my co-hosts, and most especially YOU, our listeners. Thank you for joining us on this crazy ride. Here’s to many more years!
Nicole Thompson
I think of the Loud Women’s Club as a space where women can uplift and amplify one another’s voices, feelings, and experiences. In early 2020, I was considering a career change and then the pandemic hit. I felt the insecurity that I’m sure so many of us felt at that time. I felt trapped and alone, not just in my work life, but in my personal life as well. I wasn’t in contact with a lot of my friends and then, my family, due to the public health crisis. It was not a good time for me mentally, so just having Melissa to reach out to me and ask “How are you doing?” felt like a ton of bricks had just been lifted off of my chest. I could let it all out, without risk of judgement, and finally breathe for what felt like the first time in months. So, it came as no surprise to me that Melissa would start a Facebook group that was as equally non-judgmental as she had been over the phone when I vented and ranted about everything that was going on in my life. And I think, at least I hope, that it has been exactly that for so many women that have crossed our paths on social media and through the podcast.
I was really apprehensive about doing the podcast because it meant that my opinion would be exposed, naked, for others to attack or vilify if they saw fit. But, it just hasn’t been that way. I think I found the courage to stand up for a lot of things that I believed in, but was really silent about and not care as much if other people didn’t approve of my stance. Not in any sort of disrespectful or rude way, just a resilient “I shall not be moved” sort of way. I suddenly realized that I had the power to change the things that I didn’t like if I wanted to. I found the courage to actually change my career, to continue my mental health journey, and to really be okay with where I am at this time in my life.
The Loud Women’s Club has been my safe haven over the last year. Being able to have intelligent, thoughtful, and sometimes expletive-filled conversations with women that are not only racially, but socioeconomically diverse on a platform that at one time seemed very toxic to me has truly been transformative. I honestly don’t know how I could have made it through the past year without the club and I don’t want to ever do without it again.
I am a firm believer that podcasting can be a sharp tool for community building. In a time when we were forced to isolate, this podcast provided a life line not only to our hosts but to our listeners:
It’s time women had a voice, again. As a girl dad and a supportive husband, I’m so happy and proud to hear this. It helps the women in my life find or enhance their voice as well. Very well done.
I just found the Loud Women’s Club podcast and I’m crazy about it. As a fellow loud woman, this podcast speaks to me. They discuss topics relevant to women, and all people really. I’m working my way through all the episodes and can’t wait for the next ones to come out. Excellent!
Informative, Witty, Eductional, Relatable! And… Wonderful, timely, thought-provoking! Great discussions by an intelligent group of women! I love hearing different perspectives on a topic, their truth and experiences and the highlight of a woman from history at the end of each podcast. Well done!
I’m so thankful for the collaboration of these brilliant women. They bring our listeners insightful conversations about hot topics, pop culture, and sometimes….sometimes it’s just a space to vent. Who doesn’t need that once in a while?
Congratulations to the Loud Women on approaching one year of the podcast. I’m forever grateful. As Melissa reminds us each week:
You can hear The Loud Women’s Club podcast pretty much everywhere. Be sure to check us out at www.theloudwomensclub.com and pick up your mug, T-shirt or tote bag! Reach out to us at info@theloudwomensclub.com. Promotional opportunities to platformmediallc@gmail.com.