HERstory // Kamala Harris' "107 Days"

Who was the first female politician you ever became aware of?

My friend Ashley encouraged me to pick up Kamala Harris' 107 Days-- despite knowing how it all ended, because it's important to read Kamala's account on her own terms.

We talk through the emotional whiplash of 2024, from the moment Biden dropped out of the race to Election Night itself, and the ways Harris was sidelined by the Biden administration long before she became the nominee. We get into the details that surprised us most, from the Fourth of July confrontation at the White House to a small, telling moment involving a birthday gift from her husband Doug Emhoff, and why we think Kamala's candor about the Bidens matters even when she stays gracious about it on the page.

From there, the conversation widens into the double standards women in politics face, the King's College London study on Gen Z men's views on marriage and gender roles, the role legacy media played (or didn't) in the campaign, and the case for and against the electoral college. We also dig into Tim Walz, the white working class voters both parties have left behind, and why Alex closed the book with a sense of hope while Ashley... didn't.

This episode is about why women's accounts of their own history matter, especially now, while attempts to rewrite that history are already underway.

“Throughout my career I’ve maintained that people in positions of power must be required to ask of themselves: Who am I not hearing from? Then make it their business to seek those folks out.” ― Kamala Harris, 107 Days

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Xx, Alex

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