Brian Lera on WNYC, so we've been through Democratic Socialism coming to New York City this

morning, the pros and cons of the possible end to the government shutdown that the Democrats seem to be

allowing, at least in the Senate, and the horrific crisis in Sudan. We will end on a lighter note

with a preview of a new documentary from New Yorker cartoonist, Liza Donnelly, women laughing,

brings us into the world of the women who make some of your favorite side-splitting

cartoons in The New Yorker each week. Here's a 40-second preview of the documentary.

Back when I started in the 1970s, there were just four of us among the dozens of male contributors.

Now, almost half of the people drawing for the magazine are women. We're all freelancers, working separately, mostly in solitude, in our studios, sometimes out on the street.

But not today.

With me now, today is Liza Donnelly. But not today.

With me now.

Today is Liza Donnelly, writer and cartoonist at the New Yorker,

and the author of Very Funny Ladies,

The New Yorkers Women Cartoonists, 1925 to 2021, and the Substack seeing things on this documentary.

And by the way, we were just mentioning the Doc NYC Festival in the break.

And this film, Women Laughing, is going to have its New York City premiere as part of that festival on November 15th.

Hey, Liza, welcome back to WNYC.

Hi, Brian.

Thanks for having me. It's so great to be back.

So the documentary opens with your story. Remind us, how did you first get into drawing cartoons at a time when, per that preview, maybe not that many women were being hired to do that?

That's right. I started drawing to make my mother happy,

and I was really shy, so it was a way to be by myself and just draw, and just kept doing it.

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