Like most podcasters, Olivia Meikle happily watches the number of listeners jump when her favored subject gets its moment in the sun â in her case, during Womenâs History Month, which ends in about a week.
But Meikle and her sister/co-host Katie have been able to spread that growth across the entire year. That¶¶Òőap made their womenâs history podcast, What¶¶ÒőapHerName, one of the stateâs most downloaded and globally popular â if under the radar â shows.
âWe always have a bump for Womenâs History Month, when people suddenly remember that thereâs womenâs history,â said Meikle, who teaches Gender and Womenâs Studies at the University of Denver and Boulderâs Naropa University. âBut we found a nice, steady progression, and it¶¶Òőap just been getting bigger.â
Some podcasts require celebrity guests or trending topics to be discovered by wider audiences, but What¶¶ÒőapHerName has built a following with thoughtful, personally reported stories of women who deserve more attention. It garnered about 10,000 downloads in its first six months, and 100,000 by its first year â largely from word-of-mouth, Meikle believes.
Now, three years and nearly 80 episodes in, it¶¶Òőap been downloaded 650,000 times around the world. It¶¶Òőap also paved the way for audio tours of historical sites, an upcoming book, and guided, overseas trips to sites featured on the show.
It¶¶Òőap not a niche topic.
âIt¶¶Òőap been really exciting for us, especially since weâre both professors, to see how many classrooms weâre being used in,â said Meikle, whose sister Katie teaches history in Ogden, Utah. âTeachers are stretched thin and desperate, and this is something you can plug right in to your curriculum. Especially when teaching about marginalized women and women of color.â
Olivia Meikle, 42, and Katie, 39, come at topics from different fields but with similar backgrounds, surprising each other with a new subject each episode and then discussing what theyâve found. Recent profiles include , the first African-American woman to have her work performed by major symphonies; , Americaâs first female state senator; and , a Sufi guide in the 18th-century Afghan empire.
Their drive to reclaim womenâs history has also spread Colorado history stories to worldwide audiences. A 2018Â episode on has been downloaded more than 15,000 times in 71 countries, according to Meikleâs listener data. Amid Pulitzer Prize-winners and New York Times best-selling authors, the show has also featured Denver Firefighters Museum curator Jamie Melissa Wilms, CU-Boulder professor Maria Windell, and Cripple Creek historian Charlotte Bumgarne.
The podcast features original music by âmany well-known musicians worldwide,â including Coloradans such as Emmy award-winners Joy Williams and Andy Reiner, pianist Amanda Setlik Wilson, and multi-instrumentalist Jon Sousa.
New episodes appear every two weeks, featuring interviews with experts, authors and academics that are deftly intercut with the sistersâ discussions â similar in format to the popular Radiolab podcasts, Meikle said.
âWhen we say âexperts,â it could be a tour guide who Katie literally ran into in the rain forest on the YucatĂĄn Peninsula,â Meikle said. âWeâre trying to destabilize the idea of who the expert is. It doesnât have to be someone who studied it from the outside, but people who live with these stories.â
The feedback the sisters have gotten has encouraged growth. A veteran freelance travel writer, Meikle and her sister â who annually leads study-abroad programs for students â plan to tour England with hardcore fans of the show in September, if safety mandates allow. Theyâve released free, downloadable audio tours of historic sites in Ogden, Utah, and here in Lafayette.
With little to no promotion, fall âGhost Toursâ of Lafayette, with an emphasis on forgotten women, attracted more than 800 people in groups of 15 last year. That¶¶Òőap also encouraged Meikle to make it an annual trek, even as she and her sister finish a book for a major publisher related to their podcast. Details wonât be released until April 1, Meikle said.
Accessibility is key. Whereas some podcasts flood the listener with information, What¶¶ÒőapHerName takes the shape of a natural conversation.
âA lot of guilt comes along with womenâs history ⊠this feeling that we should already know this stuff,â Meikle said. âBut you donât have to feel weird about it.â
Its all-ages tone automatically separates it from many foul-mouthed, political and otherwise overtly sensational programs. That fits with the data in Neilsenâs recently released , which found the top genre among female podcast listeners in the United States is kids and family, with a 77% audience share. Women now make up 45%Â of all podcast consumers. But success is never guaranteed in that crowded market.
âI think ours is due partly to our shorthand as sisters, because we come from a family of academics and are pathologically curious and debate everything,â she said.
âBut it¶¶Òőap also natural. It¶¶Òőap not scripted. We have no tolerance for snobbery or academic ridiculousness and are good at translating that to regular language. If people canât understand what youâre talking about, it doesnât mean youâre smart,â she said. âIt means youâre not doing your job as a storyteller.â
