Hana Walker-Brown // creating #AnthemsWomen for Broccoli Productions

“We see your International Women’s Day and raise you an International Women’s MONTH.”
– Broccoli Productions

Like Broccoli Productions, we don’t want to limit our International Women’s offering to just one article on one day. We’ve not quite stretched to a month, but we’ve got a week packed full of interviews and articles to help you find enough podcasts to take you through the year.  

Subscribers to the Pod Bible newsletter will know that Broccoli Productions have brought back their flagship podcast series, Anthems Women. For the second year, the series will run throughout March in celebration of women for International Women’s Day and beyond. 31 women have written and read original manifestos, speeches, stories, poems and rallying cries. The voices are diverse, and celebrate and contemplate what it means to be a woman.

As with their other Anthems series, each short episode begins with a “word of the day” that encapsulates the theme of the episode, leaving the listeners with something to contemplate after they’ve finished listening.

I asked the Creator of Anthems, Hana Walker-Brown, about creating the podcast and what to expect from it this year. Plus, there’s some bonus recommendations for some top podcasts to listen to on International Women’s Day and beyond!

Anthems Producer, Hana Walker-Brown. Image Credit Joe Magowan.

How does it feel to be back with your flagship podcast series?

HWB: It feels great. I love this show, I love how it’s evolved over the last year and how many incredible people we’ve gotten to work with and platform. It’s so important to me that women are elevated and championed within this industry which is why I created the series in the first place and if it leads onto other things for them then even better. There is definitely a renewed energy this year to the pieces and it really is a joy to get to sit with these women’s words.

Each woman in the series is so unique and so authentically themselves and yet, despite their differences, what begins to emerge throughout the series are so many common threads between the women, which is mirrored in the response we get from our listeners too. That feels important – a reminder that there is more that binds us together than sets us apart. So yeah, it feels good to be back and to be able to do this.

An episode a day for a month is an immense offering. How long has this taken to put together?

HWB: That was the intention all along really – to offer something big and bold in a really distinct style format that sort of stuck a middle finger up to the industry that often waits until the 8th March to release a women lead show. We kick off mid-January so it’s a comparatively short production time for the undertaking but we’ve really nailed down the process. This is series five in the “Anthems” strand so we’ve got a good system down. It’s just the Broccoli way and personally, I love making this series so while it’s a huge lift, it definitely feels worth it.

Is that about the same as last year’s series, or was it easier/harder this time?

HWB: Yeah pretty much, we’ve done Anthems Home, Anthems Pride and Anthems Black since last year’s Anthems Women so we know what we’re doing. We had a big rebrand recently so we’ve had to remake all the social media assets and artwork which is all done by our team at Broccoli but once we’re in the swing of it it’s like clockwork.

How did you decide the order for releasing the episodes?

HWB: Representation across the week is essential – in terms of both our contributors identity and experience. It’s a fact universally acknowledged that if you’re not seen then you don’t matter and it’s really important for us, professionally and personally, to make sure that every voice is amplified. Anthems was partly born out of my annoyance at this kind of “one size fits all” feminism that had been brewing for a while, exacerbated by social media that just excluded so many women and the rich kaleidoscope of our experience. We really try to tap into that across the series. The weeks are planned and there is a flow to each one – certain subjects do compliment certain days, but I’ll let you try and figure that out!

You did an episode in the first Anthems Women. Can you tell us if there is another one from you?

HWB: I did, it’s our Broccoli tradition that each team member has to do an Anthem so we’ve all been part of one of the series so far with the exception of our new production assistant who will feature in this year’s Anthems Pride. I think it’s cool to put makers in front of the mic, and it means you get to know us a little bit more. But ones enough from me – there are so many women out there with something to say that we want to offer this space to.

Can you recommend any other podcasts to start listening to this month (and continue listening to afterward)?

HWB: Yes absolutely, some great shows made by women, which are for life not just for IWD…

Masala Podcast by Sangeeta Pillai – I produced the first two series and Sangeeta is just a star. She’s not afraid to have the difficult but vital conversations around the taboo subjects in South Asian culture. Plus she really cares which you can hear in every single episode.

Confident and Killing It by Tiwa Ogunlesi, which offers a weekly dose of positivity and inspiration. Tiwa’s ability to celebrate women and instil confidence is like a super power.

Our series Broccoli Bookclub (of course) hosted by journalist Diyora Shadijanova. It introduces readers and listeners to bold titles and new authors through provocative conversation and meaningful discussion.

Listen to Anthems Women on ACAST, SPOTIFY or all OTHER PODCAST APPS. You can follow Hana on Twitter and Instagram. Broccoli Productions is on Twitter and Instagram.