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About The Show
In America, women make up more than half the population. Worldwide, women are expected to outnumber men within the next fifty years – and every issue we face is one that affects us all. Whether it’s the environment, health, our children, politics or the arts, there’s a women’s perspective, and 51% is a show dedicated to that viewpoint. Host Jesse King talks to experts in their field for a wide-ranging, entertaining discussion of issues that not only fall into the traditional ‘women’s issues’ category, but topics that concern us all as human beings and citizens of the global community.
Meet The Host
Jesse King has been with WAMC since 2018, and currently produces its afternoon news programs. She also produces the WAMC podcast, A New York Minute in History. She grew up an avid writer and radio-nerd in upstate New York, and holds a B.A. in Music Industry and Mass Communications from SUNY Oneonta. You can find her reading, watching Marvel movies, and playing the fiddle in her free time.
More Episodes
“Decolonizing science” with Drs. Fowler and Vandebroek
On this week’s 51%, our associate producer Jody Cowan speaks with ethnobotanist Dr. Ina...
Jessica Palden on “Teardrop on Fire”
On this week’s 51%, we hear from the director of a new documentary telling the stories of...
Muriel Fox on “The Women’s Revolution”
On this week’s 51%, we sit down with Muriel Fox, feminist activist and cofounder of the...
Kamala Harris steps forward
Following President Biden's decision to step away from this year's presidential election, Vice...
Dr. Camille Clare on C-section recovery
On this week's 51%, we speak with Dr. Camille Clare, an OB/GYN and professor at SUNY Downstate,...
Looking back on New Paltz’s “Winter of Love”
On this week's 51%, we brush up on the history of marriage equality in the U.S., and look back...
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The Women of NOW
Mar 20, 2025 • 00:31:08
On this week’s 51%, we sit down with longtime feminist activist Muriel Fox to chat about how the National Organization for Women got started in the 1960s, and how it fought for many of the rights and opportunities women cherish today. Fox is a public relations executive who co-founded NOW…
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Jane McManus on ‘The Fast Track’
Mar 13, 2025 • 00:29:13
On this week’s 51%, we speak with sports journalist Jane McManus about the history and business of women’s sports, as detailed in her new book The Fast Track. From pay gaps to broadcasting hurdles, McManus says a number of forces have held women’s sports back since the passage of Title…
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Kimberly Heckler on “A Woman of Firsts”
Mar 6, 2025 • 00:29:17
On this week’s 51%, we chat with Kimberly Heckler about her book A Woman of Firsts: Margaret Heckler, Political Trailblazer. Kimberly is the daughter-in-law of the late politician Margaret Heckler, who served as a Republican Massachusetts Congresswoman from 1967 to 1983. During her time in Congress, Margaret Heckler fought for…
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Heather Pringle on “The Northwomen”
Feb 27, 2025 • 00:35:09
When most of us think of the Viking Age, we think of its men: powerful warriors sailing ships, building armies, and sacking cities across Europe. But new research shows Viking women were warriors, too – and that they were traders, artisans, explorers, landowners, and respected leaders in their own right.…
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Betsy Leondar-Wright asks 'Is it Racist? Is it Sexist?'
Feb 20, 2025 • 00:30:45
On this week’s 51%, we speak with activist and sociologist Betsy Leondar-Wright about her new book, Is it Racist? Is it Sexist? examining why white Americans increasingly disagree on their definitions of the two. WAMC’s Samantha Simmons also sheds light on Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month with Rensselaer County District…
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Carol Cleaveland and Michele Waslin on "Private Violence"
Feb 13, 2025 • 00:30:49
On this week’s 51%, we speak with Carol Cleaveland and Michele Waslin, author of Private Violence: Latin American Women and the Struggle for Asylum. As President Trump effectively shuts down processing at the southern border and ramps up deportations, asylum seekers in the U.S. are left in a precarious position,…
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Robert Waldinger on how relationships make "The Good Life"
Feb 6, 2025 • 00:29:37
What makes a good life? According to the world’s longest scientific study of human happiness, our relationships play a key role. On this week’s 51%, we speak with Dr. Robert Waldinger, a psychiatry professor at Harvard Medical School and director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development. In his book…
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Joelle Kaufman on "Crushing the Cancer Curveball"
Jan 30, 2025 • 00:29:15
On this week’s 51%, we speak with author Joelle Kaufman about her new book Crushing the Cancer Curveball. After helping both her mother and sister battle breast cancer, Kaufman voluntarily sought a mastectomy in 2023 — only to be diagnosed with cancer the day before her surgery. Part memoir, part…
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Is the ERA truly the “law of the land?”
Jan 23, 2025 • 00:34:13
Before leaving office, former President Joe Biden declared that he considered the Equal Rights Amendment to be “the law of the land.” On this week’s 51%, we speak with Georgetown Law Professor Victoria Nourse about why the ERA has been in limbo for so long, what it would do, and whether…
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Pagan Kennedy on "The Secret History of the Rape Kit"
Jan 16, 2025 • 00:30:25
On this week’s 51%, we speak with journalist and author Pagan Kennedy about her new book The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story, tracking the life and work of Martha “Marty” Goddard, who invented the country’s first extensive rape kit system in the 1970s. The kit…