Meghan Markle’s podcast Archetypes elevates ambitious women
Meghan Markle released the first episode of her new Spotify podcast Archetypes, hosting her friend and recently retired tennis star, Serena Williams. The debut episode, titled “The Misconception of Ambition,” discusses topics such as motherhood, pregnancy, and the various obstacles that hold women back from success.
Through Archetypes, Meghan aims to “dissect, explore, and subvert the labels that try to hold women back.”
Introducing the podcast, she says: “Over the course of the next dozen episodes, we’re going to live inside and rip apart the boxes that women have been placed in for generations. Boxes like diva, the ‘B’ word, s***. Some of these words, these labels are harsh, they’re abrasive. And I want to get to the bottom of where they come from, and why they’ve stuck around for so long.”
Meghan welcomes various other guests to her podcast, including University of California professor, Laura Kray. According to Laura, the fact that ambitious men are seen as role models, while ambitious women are seen as power-hungry and manipulative, “boils down to antipathy toward women.”
“Ambitious women who have children and then come back to work and attempt to perform at the highest level are violating people’s expectations of what the most important thing for women to be is,” Laura adds.
The Misconception of Ambition
During the first Archetypes podcast, Meghan shares a number of anecdotes about her personal journey, in which she says “I know a thing or two about these labels myself,” referring to the constant scrutiny she faced from the British press.
Meghan also recalls an incident where her son, Archie, had a near miss from a scary situation when he was just 4½ months old. She shares that as they arrived in a township, in Cape Town, South Africa, she and her husband Prince Harry had to leave Archie with a nanny while they went to an “official engagement”.
When Meghan returned to collect Archie, she was informed that there had been a fire in the nursery, in which the smoke detectors failed. Although Archie was fine – the nanny had taken him to get a snack moments before – Meghan was incredibly shaken up.
Sharing this story with her tennis star guest, Serena seemed shocked that she continued her official duties. “I couldn’t have done that,” Serena says. “I would have said nuh-uh.”
To listen to the podcast, click here.
