On August 9, a new Newsweek podcast titled “History of Women” debuted on Onet Audio. As the publisher describes it, it’s a series about women who have influenced the way the world works.
Discussing a podcast about women
The host of the program, Katarzyna Wężyk, joined the Newsweek team in May this year. Previously, she was associated with Agora, where she hosted the series “Herstorie” in “Wysokie Obcasy” together with Natalia Waloch. This series also dealt with historically and currently influential women – the hosts told stories of Cleopatra, Josephine Bonaparte and Taylor Swift.
On the internet, Natalia Waloch attacked the former co-host of the program, accusing her of transferring the format to another publisher.
“It will probably be good, since you are not starting from scratch, but relying on the popularity of our common Herstories. Let’s add that the podcast ended earlier this year thanks to you guys, so I’m surprised it’s coming back with the same formula as Herstorie, just without me.”- Waloch wrote in a comment to Katarzyna Weżyk’s entry about the new project.
“The podcast was terminated for two reasons: firstly, the rate Agora offered was not in line with my workload. And secondly, Agora terminated its cooperation with me, which permanently closed any possibility of continuing the previous podcast. I asked what you want to do next: anything together outside of Agora or going your own way. You chose your own path. And I’m going along with it.” – replied Katarzyna Wężyk.
As the “Newsweek” journalist explains in a comment for Wirtualnemedia.pl, after joining RASP, she began to implement her idea for a podcast.
– “History of Women” and “Herstorie” are based on the popular formula of biographical and historical podcasts. “Herstorie” was closer to podcasts like “History Girls”, “Things You Missed in History Class” or “Even the Rich”, where two people talk about the life of a hero or heroine – says Katarzyna Wężyk. – “History of Women” is closer to podcasts like “American History Tellers”, “Tides of Story”, “Imagined Life”, “1865” or “This is History”, where one person tells the story, there is a richer historical background, and the format is closer to the formula of a radio play with sound effects, she adds.
What about the “Herstoria” project?
– The “Herstorie” podcast, at least with my participation, ended when my work at “Gazeta Wyborcza” ended. As Natalia Waloch wrote in response to a listener’s question, continuing the podcast in the same form on Agora, only with a different host, was “one of the scenarios considered, which for various reasons was not implemented.” The question of why it was not implemented is not an issue for me. For my part, I have nothing against competition, the Newsweek journalist tells us.
Natalia Walich did not want to talk about the case with the Wirtualnemedia.pl portal.
