Golda Arthur on why women's health stories matter

Welcome to the October edition of the Made For Us newsletter. Today, I’m speaking with podcaster Golda Arthur about the new season of Overlooked, her award-winning women’s health show. We first met at a podcasting conference last year where she gave a fantastic workshop on immersive storytelling. As you’ll hear when you listen Overlooked - and you really should - Golda has a gift for drawing you in with stories that stop you in your tracks and conversations that fill cruical gaps in our knowledge about women’s bodies.

Golda has had a 20-year career in journalism, working for the BBC, the CBC, Vox Media, and Marketplace. She teaches audio reporting at Columbia University and lives in New York City.

TS: Congrats on launching Season 5 of Overlooked! How does it feel? Was this part of the plan when you started the podcast?

GA: Thank you! And oh, it was absolutely not part of the plan! I launched season 1, which was a very personal story about my mum, and thought it would be a one-and-done. That was two years ago, and I think I’m building the plane as I’m flying it, and learning more about podcasting, my audience and women’s health with every season. I feel very lucky to have got this far - lucky, and a little sleep-deprived!

TS: How would you describe Overlooked for newbies?

GA: Overlooked is a show where you can hear immersive personal stories about women’s health. It bears witness to these stories, that perhaps no one has truly heard before, it empowers women to be bold in their advocacy, and I’d like to think that it helps to inform the conversation about health equity overall.

TS: How did it all begin? What made this an idea you couldn’t let go of?

GA: Season 1 told a single story, of my mom’s experience with ovarian cancer. It was a narrative series, it was extremely hard to make, very emotional for me. At the end, listeners wrote in to ask if there would be another season, but I couldn’t do any more on my family’s story. I was left with many questions, though, like - why don’t we know anything about the ovaries? And why medicine has viewed women as ‘small men’ when actually we’re fundamentally designed quite differently. So I went about trying to answer those questions in a second season, with a new format, with different guests for each episode - and then kept that going. 

TS: What did you think was missing from other women’s health podcasts that Overlooked tries to address?

GA: An emotional thread. There are shows out there full of medical information. Or wellness podcasts (I don’t know what the word ‘wellness’ means anymore) that are a little too woo-woo for my taste. And then at the top of the podcasting health charts there are a bunch of dudes in black t-shirts interviewing experts about women’s health and – c’mon! So I wanted something that puts women’s health stories front and centre, that explains the science of our bodies in a way that everyone can understand, and pulls that emotional thread as a throughline.

TS: Did you have a specific audience in mind when you launched? What’s been the response from listeners?

GA: The audience has always been predominantly women so far, and women who care deeply about advocating for their health, whether they’re dealing with something acute or chronic. I tend to get a bit emotional when I hear from listeners. Many people have written in to tell me their story, perhaps dealing with a cancer diagnosis, and they say Overlooked brought some comfort. Or they’ve been dismissed for a chronic condition over and over again, and felt seen by the podcast. It’s very, very humbling, and hearing from listeners keeps me going, to be honest. 

TS: You cover some pretty difficult topics but in a way that doesn’t feel heavy. That must be quite hard to pull off. Can you talk about how you approach telling these stories?

GA: I try to just have a conversation during the interview, and the course of that conversation is very human. So as humans, we undulate, we shift from topic to topic, we change our tone, we crack a joke, we throw in an aside, sometimes we let silence sit for a second longer, just to process. I like to capture all that because real conversations are never a flat line. I don’t think I could bear the weight of these difficult topics if it was only difficult the entire time, so I wouldn’t expect listeners to. And bittersweet is just better than bitter, right?

TS: What's it like emotionally to hear these painful stories and uncover such stark inequalities in healthcare? How do you cope with that? One episode that comes to mind is the final episode of season 4 on endometrial cancer in Black women.

GA: I go for a long walk after I record most episodes, actually, to help me process it all. It’s not easy because I have to sort of fully immerse myself in this material to do these interviews, and then when it’s over, at some point I have to switch to editor mode, listening in a more dispassionate way.

But I feel all the feelings - anger, and shame and frustration that such deep-seated inequities exist, that they take such a high toll on women - and even then, not equally - and then all of this, trapped in a healthcare system that is frankly broken here in the US. It can be overwhelming sometimes, but I try to stay focused on putting one foot in front of the other and telling these stories piece by piece. I suppose this is the work of bearing witness. I’ve been blown away by the courage and resilience of many of my guests who are doing truly extraordinary work. 

TS: Moving on to season 5, I found the trailer intriguing. You say the season will bring conversations with “scientists who are doing some wild things right now in women’s health.” Tell us more about what we can expect. And what do you hope people will take away?

GA: I talked to a woman called Morgan Stanton who is creating a ‘uterus-in-a-dish,’ a teeny tiny ‘organoid’ in a lab, made from menstrual blood. And then Rowan Gardner is applying computational analysis to figuring out chronic diseases in women, including endometriosis. There are clever folks working away at solving these issues in women’s health, and the solutions are fascinating.

I hope listeners will feel fortified and even emboldened in their efforts to advocate for themselves, or the people they love, when it comes to their health, and be reminded that they are not alone.

I hope you enjoyed the Q&A and get a chance to listen to Overlooked. You can also follow the show on Instagram and LinkedIn.

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