Jane Fonda's Workout, Part 1: Jane and Leni

Decoder Ring

Slate Podcasts

Documentary, History, Society & Culture

4.6 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 12 October 2020

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When Jane Fonda granted us an interview to talk about her famous workout tape, things didn't go as planned. On part one of a special two-part Decoder Ring, we explore the decades-long friendship of Jane Fonda and Leni Cazden, the relationship that birthed the workout that changed the world. It's a story of creation, regret, fame, forgiveness, trauma, survival, politics, and exercise. In two weeks, we return with part two: the story of the bestselling VHS tape of all time. Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts and bonus episodes of shows like Dear Prudence and Slow Burn. Sign up now to listen and support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I can see that you're here but you're muted.
0:07.0	Hi, Willa.
0:09.0	There you are.
0:11.0	Hello.
0:12.0	A few weeks ago, I had a Zoom call that I was really excited about.
0:16.0	I'm James Fonda and I'm talking to you from Los Angeles.
0:20.0	And I'm an actor and an activist.
0:22.0	There are so many things that one could want to speak with Jane Fonda about,
0:27.4	but I just wanted to talk with her about one thing in particular,
0:31.2	the Jane Fonda Workout.
0:34.0	Are you ready to do the workout?
0:36.0	Yeah, do it!
0:38.0	This is the beginner's workout.
0:40.0	Stand with your feet a little more than hip-stis apart.
0:42.0	Stomach tight, buttock pulled in, pull out of your
0:45.2	torso and head right to and back to.
0:50.1	In 1982, the Jane Fonda workout became the best-selling home video of all time.
0:55.0	Over the next decade plus, it and its 22 follow-ups would spawn a fitness empire, sell
1:00.1	over 17 million copies, and transform Fonda into a leg warmer-clad exercise
1:05.8	Guru.
1:06.8	Yes, one, make it burn, three, four, five, six, seven, and 40 years after its initial release, the workout tape is having a moment.
1:18.0	Like Amazon and yeast, it has been a beneficiary of the pandemic.
	...

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