The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore

Future Sex by Emily Witt

Sex Object by Jessica Valenti

All the Single Ladies by Rebecca Traister

Shrill by Lindy West

Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit

On the marketing of her book, Shrill:

“I just think it’s really rare for the minutia of women’s lived experiences to be presented as literature, and they really let me present this exactly as I wanted, as a book, and not as a niche book that only women should read. Because I think that we know a lot of this stuff already. What I think would be cool would be for guys to read it.”

On women telling stories:

“I know a lot about the lived experiences of men from my time as an English major. I think it would be really helpful for the future of humanity for that to be a little more reciprocal. Not that I minded reading all those books, they were really good, but there are a lot of women on earth, and we have stories also.”

On engaging with Twitter trolls:

“I find ‘don’t feed the trolls’ to be an unsatisfying bit of conventional wisdom because I don’t think that my behavior is what needs to be policed.”

On intersectionality:

“I think it’s really important, especially for white feminists, to remember that you have to not just say things but also do things…You have to give up money, and give up space, and give up opportunities, because the field is not level. So if you actually believe in equality, you have to step back and give up space.”

Watch the entire broadcast here.

On writing personal:

“Letting people know you as a human being is really, really powerful. Comedy and autobiography aren’t really separate for me. I definitely feel like I write humor about myself. I guess combining them is one of the more powerful things that I do in my work or that I’ve discovered in terms of getting the point across.”

On speaking directly:

“If you can’t talk about periods or vaginas in a frank way, how can you trust your culture to take care of you?”

On swearing:

“There’s definitely something gendered in that women are supposed to be meek and gentle and pretty, even in our words, even in our speech. Using ugly speech, to me, feels like my one little feminist rebellion.”

On group divisions:

“It’s the responsibility of feminists — especially white feminists — to be conscious and hold themselves accountable and make sure that they’re always listening and making space for people from these other groups. Women and people of color are not separate. When we talk about women’s issues and then race issues separately, it’s really dangerous ground, because it erases people whose lives are not compartmentalized like that.”

On who will read her book:

“I don’t think that the way we consume gender politics should be so gendered, because a lot of these issues that we’re talking about are men’s issues to fix. Leaving the responsibility solely on the shoulders of women is insulting and it’s very debilitating for us. It’s exhausting. It’s a drain on our time and energy, and it’s also impossible. If there are things that men are doing, behavior patterns that men are exhibiting, men need to be on the front lines of fixing that.”

On trolls:

“I have a lot of male followers who see me engage with the hundredth troll that week or whatever and say, ‘Oh my God. I had no idea the scale of what you’re dealing with.’”

Read the interview here.