Women Rule

Michelle Freeman, real estate magnate and partner at Monumental Sports and Entertainment (which owns the Washington Wizards, Capitals, and the WNBA Mystics), talks about women in sports team ownership, the equalizing power of sports, and Colin Kaepernick. Plus: A deeper look into how tragedy has shaped Freeman's personal and professional lives.

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Best-selling author Jodi Picoult is out with a new book - and it has a lot of political implications about women's reproductive rights. Women Rule talks with Picoult about her literary successes (and failures), being labeled "chick lit," and what powerful men can learn from her books.

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Cecile Richards, the former head of Planned Parenthood, opens up about the Supreme Court, her one "bizarre" meeting with Ivanka Trump, a childhood steeped in politics, and whether she'll ever run for elected office.

This Women Rule episode was taped live at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin.

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Jennifer Siebel Newsom, documentary filmmaker and women's rights advocate, could be the next first lady of California. Women Rule talks with Siebel Newsom about the film career she never anticipated, her work on gender equality, and why she'd rather be called the First "Partner," if her husband, Gavin Newsom, wins in November.

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Women Rule talks with actress Jane Fonda about political activism, "radical kinship" with Donald Trump and his supporters, and the latest documentary examining her extraordinary life in the public eye, HBO's "Jane Fonda in Five Acts." We also chat with Fonda and filmmaker Susan Lacy about the arc of their careers and the relationships we build with women.

The HBO documentary film "Jane Fonda in Five Acts" is available on HBO Now, HBO Go and on demand.

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Dana Perino, the Fox News host of the afternoon “Daily Briefing” program and a co-panelist on “The Five,” had a life before cable news.

Perino came from a lengthy career in politics, including serving as the White House press secretary under President George W. Bush - only the second woman to serve in that role. Women Rule talked with Perino about her winding professional path – how she started off as a journalist, then left news to work for several prominent Republicans, first on Capitol Hill, and then in Bush’s administration. With Perino’s window into both worlds, we discussed the state of presidential politics today, how this current Republican White House differs from her time in the Bush White House, and whether she’d ever find herself back in the West Wing.

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Labor union leaders Liz Shuler and Mary Kay Henry discuss how they rose up through the union ranks and what they’re trying to do to increase the number of women in the labor movement. Shuler, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, and Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union, also weigh in on recent Supreme Court decisions, Brett Kavanaugh's nomination, and what that all means for the future of the labor movement.

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Blogger, podcaster, and Conservative Review TV host Allie Beth Stuckey opens up about how being a conservative has marked her – wrongly – as someone who believes “sexism doesn’t exist.” Women Rule talks to Stuckey about her rise in right-leaning circles, who she looks up to in the Republican party, and what it means to be a conservative millennial in this day and age.

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Ayanna Pressley could be the new face of an old-school Democratic district in Massachusetts.

In our final installment of our "Tracking the candidates" series, Women Rule follows Pressley – the first black woman elected to Boston's City Council – as she runs in the state's 7th Congressional District to unseat 10-term incumbent Rep. Mike Capuano. It's an historic Democratic primary election that the entire party is watching, especially in the wake of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's upset victory against a powerful congressman in New York. In this episode, you’ll hear about the intimate details of campaign life, its ups and downs – but you’ll also hear about what Pressley’s race means for the Democratic party, what its future looks like, and just how different that could be from the party’s past.

We're keeping tabs on the women running for office this year with our Women Rule Candidate Tracker. Make sure to check it out on POLITICO. Also: Ahead of our Washington summit, we're taking nominations for "Women of Impact" - women who have led in a divided era. Send us your thoughts on who we should feature by filling out this form.

Music in this episode by: Podington Bear.

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With Donald Trump as president, it’s not easy to run for Congress as a Republican woman this year.

For Lea Márquez Peterson, who’s a GOP primary contender in Arizona’s second congressional district, that means she’s had to develop a strategy that both hugs the president’s policies – and distances herself from him.

On the second episode of our "Tracking the candidates" mini-series, we talk to Márquez Peterson about her pivot to politics from business, her powerhouse fundraising efforts, being the only Hispanic woman in the room, and her Republican primary campaign in the era of President Donald Trump.

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