After a long career at CBS as a TV and online content producer, Stephanie Jacobs and her wife came west for a warmer climate, good wine, and proximity to family. She initially connected to the Babblery to speak about her career and her broad experience in American politics, but this conversation took an unexpected turn. Politics, in Stephanie’s case, became deeply personal when she decided to define the California girl that she needed to be.
Although we do start by speaking about the recent election, this conversation is not an election post-mortem. Stephanie’s career started in radio and she rose through the ranks at CBS, ultimately producing CBS.com. Her last election night as a producer was 2000, the year that the election was thrown to the Supreme Court, so she has a well-honed perspective on the political long game. She now works as an advisor and mentor at a tech incubator, and she shares perspectives on gender that she has developed in this role.
“However severe the next four years may be, however vertiginous and rocky they may be, threatening to large segments of communities, there will be a time in which the pendulum of politics will swing back to the center, that the essential character of Americans will turn out to be not misogynistic, not racist, not anti-trans.”
– Stephanie Jacobs
Stephanie has a deep faith in American democracy that is optimistic and informed. We hope you enjoy this dive into politics, media, social media, the American character, and our problem with gender. [popup_anything id=”6625″]
Mentioned in this episode:
- Bush v. Gore
- The Handmaid’s Tale
- John Stuart Mill
- Roger Ailes
- “We believe bad news at some immense multiple more than we believe good news.” [citation]
- Pavlov’s dogs
- Laws of physics
- Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
- George Wallace
- Charles (Charlie) Osgood
- Nancy Dickerson
- Connie Chung
- Susan Zirinsky
- Broadcast News (film)
- The Mary Tyler Moore Show (TV show)
- The Watergate scandal
About The Babblery:
The Babblery features conversations about who we are and how we got this way. Modern humans can seem like the ancients building the Biblical Tower of Babel, cursed by God/nature never to understand each other. As Visiting Translators at the Tower of Babble, our guests delve into their work, their research, and their own experiences to try to explain the bits they’ve learned about Earth’s most perplexing species. Though we all speak different languages, here at The Babblery we aim to promote understanding, one conversation at a time. Visit The Babblery at https://babblery.com/. The Babblery is produced by Suki Wessling with support from KSQD.
