Women’s Day 2021: stories of rebirth and resilience told via podcast (also street)

Steel flowers. When I think of a woman, this comes to mind. Fragility and indestructibility, all in a single container. Sensitivity and strength, beauty and anger, ashes and rebirth. Lights and shadows: because the life of each person is made up of this, but that of women a little more.

We are born already aware that we will have to fight twice as much to conquer something that should already be due to us. And we put more heart into it, because we don’t know how to give up.

These are the values and the reflections that arise from the stories chosen to be narrated in a small voice in the International Women’s Day. Two different projects, which have a single, or rather two, common thread that unites them: they are podcast, to listen and listen again, and tell women of yesterday and today, famous or not, who have nothing to teach, but who with their experience and experience can be d ‘inspiration to other women and in some cases, to help them come out of the black holes we often get ourselves into.

The target? Inspire, excite, but also instill trust and solidarity in those who will listen, giving life to that magnificent example of all-female solidarity called sisterhood.

Women of yesterday: “Extraordinary women who changed the world”

In this last period we often go around the cities absorbed in our thoughts and worries, with our gaze fixed on the mobile phone. But from Monday 8 March and until 13 we will have a good reason to raise our heads and look up: in some of the main Italian cities – Milan, Naples, Padua, Vicenza and Verona – the social (e) initiative will be widespread “Extraordinary women who changed the world”, conceived and promoted by Clear Channel Italia in collaboration with Podcastory, the first Italian podcast factory, or digital billboards with a QR code, which will be enough to frame to be able to listen via podcast the story of two incredible women, who in their own way have revolutionized the thought and history.

“In the midst of the daily frenzy, the idea is to give a moment of inspiration, beauty and reflection not only to women, but to all those who want to hear these highly inspiring stories – he says. Davide Schioppa, founder and CEO of Podcastory – This is also the prime example of street podcast, or to amplify the visual emotion of a digital poster with an immersive experience that exploits the gift of the voice ».

“For the occasion, we have chosen two extraordinary women who in some way with their life and their intelligence have made a contribution to humanity in terms of creativity and innovation – explains Florinda Busalacchi, PR & communications manager of Clear Channel Italy – We also wanted two women who would arouse curiosity, known but not too much; therefore, the choice fell on Hedy Lamarr e Simone de Beauvoir.

The first was aHollywood actress, but above all the scientist who first invented and patented the telecommunications system that today is the basis of wifi. The second, on the other hand, with her books and especially her life, fought for the rights of women (her contribution to the legalization of abortion in the 1970s) and laid the foundation for the feminism contemporary”.

The task of bringing them back into an emotional story then fell to the pens and voices of Podcastory: “We have the luck and the honor of being able to collaborate with some of the most beautiful voices on the Italian scene – comments Schioppa – For this occasion, we have chosen Giuppy Izzo, voice actress of Ellen Pompeo, face of Meredith Gray in “Grey’s Anatomy”, e Chiara Colizzi, voice of Nicole Kidman. Two evocative and immediately recognizable stamps, which facilitate identification ».

However, the initiative also has a double purpose: to keep company for part of the day for those who will listen to these stories, but also to support women in need. “For every listen to these podcasts, we’ll make a donation to one non-profit organization active in the field of women’s rights – Busalacchi adds – Considering the new restrictions that came with the last DPCM, and therefore the hypothetical minor participation on the street, we will in any case donate the amount allocated to these realities, so that it also becomes a concrete and tangible initiative “.

Women of today: “PRAISE. The shadow of women “

Inspirational stories of female courage and resilience: this represents the 12 stories told in “The shadow of women”, the new podcast Audible Original, available exclusively on Audible.it from 8 March, edited by Grazia De Sensi. Manager in the communication sector, the author is the winner of the Audible Academy, a project aimed at the training and growth of professionalism in the audio entertainment sector in Italy, born in the context of the Master in Storytelling Audio of the 24ORE Business School.

12 women for 12 episodes of about 50 minutes each: the author Grazia De Sensi interviews them, with extreme sensitivity and becoming invisible in the story, crossing with them the shadow that each one had to face in her own life experience, to then find the courage and strength to shine in a new light.

Adele, Eva, Cristina, Angela, Patrizia, Sara, Marina, Maria Teresa, Anna, Laura, Aurora and Silvia: they put their name and not the face, but the voice, which perhaps even more reveals them, revealing which it was the sacrifices and the shadows that left their mark on their history. The aim is to help themselves, but also us to exercise solidarity and rebellion, and discover the sisterhood, that feeling that deeply binds women and makes them open to listening and mutual understanding.

I topics addressed in each episode are uncomfortable ones, which often end up as protagonists of the black news pages: domestic violence, rape, plastic surgery, betrayals, assisted fertilization, maternity at risk, secrets, detours, illness, honor.

“It all started from a confidence made by a woman I knew for work and who on the phone, perhaps feeling my natural predisposition to listening, decided to open up and tell me a little about herself – tells us De Sensi, with an excited voice – At that moment, we were no longer colleagues, but we have become something more than friends. I felt a kind of sisterhood, of empathy with what he was telling, even if I hadn’t experienced that drama ».

That woman was Adele, protagonist of the episode “Bastards. A white mother cannot raise black children “, who had the courage to break the chain of victim / executioner relationships with her husbands and fleeing from New York, arrived in a small town in southern Italy, in Calabria, where she is slowly starting to live again.

From that “confession” 11 other stories came to Grazia’s ears, by word of mouth (some of these can be found in our gallery): because we women are like that, if we understand that we can trust another woman, we create a network, which is not just listening, but also support.

“I tried to tell these stories, focusing on the dark side, but not in an itchy or voyeuristic way. It was crucial to make them feel in one protected space: perhaps even the fact that only their voices could be heard and there was no image to show made them feel even safer, a condition that allowed them to open up unfiltered on topics that often we are the first not to digest “.

The story of Cristina, in the episode “50 keloids. Physical or plastic ”: model profession, beautiful, she wants to be perfect to fully adhere to the world of fashion and aesthetics in which she works from a very young age. At the age of 40, she decides to revolutionize her existence: she divorces her husband and meets a plastic surgeon, who will forever mark her face and her life.

Or that of Patrizia, protagonist of the episode “Sore life. I threw myself down”, Who decides to speak openly about his disorder: the depression. “At one point, in the interview, Patrizia says she felt like a broken vase. But what courage does it take to admit it even to oneself, in a society in which mental pathologies are still little considered as such? Her life was falling apart, but it was as if she couldn’t ask for help, until her shadow overwhelmed her, like “the Vajont dam,” she says. Here, even though I lived so far from his, I reflected in his words. Because we have all experienced part of these emotions after all. These women are us. That’s what sisterhood is. “

Browse our gallery (or read below), to discover the all female stories from which to be inspired, to identify with, to find that strength to move forward, all typical of us women. To listen and listen again, not only on March 8, but every day.

Hedy Lamarr, the scientist actress – “Extraordinary women who changed the world”

Hedy Lamarr (click here to listen to the podcast) was not only the actress who turned heads in half Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s – her first full nude in front of a camera in the film “Ecstasy” – but she was also who first, together with the musician George Antheil, invented and patented a system to remotely guide torpedoes, without them being intercepted. A communication system that was then used in the sixties, during the Cuban crisis, by the ships of the American navy and which over time has been perfected as a basis for bluetooth, cellular network and wifi.

Simone de Beauvoir, the activist writer – “Extraordinary women who changed the world”

Writer, philosopher, activist for women’s rights: all this and much more was Simone de Beauvoir (click here to listen to the podcast). His essay “The second sex”, published in 1949, but later became the first and founding work of modern feminism: with this book he tries to affirm the existence of a female subject, freed and not inferior to the male one, unhinging all those social constructs that instead relegated and relegated women to the background of men. Partner of life, thought and struggle of the intellectual Jean-Paul Sartre, they chose to share the journey for almost sixty years, without ever marrying or having children. Revolutionary, in every sense.

Sore life. I got down – “PRAISE. The shadow of women “

Patrizia lives in Bolzano and no longer feels anything, oppressed by performance anxiety and family expectations, of her mother, of her father. In an attempt to mend the tear, her self-esteem and feed her brain, Patrizia performs devastating actions, in a continuous movement of low blows and very high flights.

Bombings. Mom is waiting for you – “PRAISE. The shadow of women “

Sara is a Sicilian woman transplanted to Milan and the thing she most desires is to become a mother: a vocation she has felt since she was a child. To be able to realize his dream he will face an identity crisis, a wife, numerous stays in a Spanish clinic, hormonal treatments and endless waits within a program they call reproductive tourism.

Microchild. A premature son and father – “LODO. The shadow of women “

Laura lives in the fields, in the southern province of Milan. In the midst of a new relationship, she feels the maternal instinct: she wants to have a child, despite everything, but motherhood, faced with the wrong man next to her, will be a very hard test for her.

Betrayals. When I became the job – “LODO. The shadow of women “

Theme: men betray. Aurora was born and lives in Brianza, where she dedicates her life to cats, a man and his profession. She has been working in the company with total dedication for almost 30 years, when one morning she is called by the boss and fired. In this podcast he tells why.