This is Second Life, a podcast spot-lighting woman who have truly inspiring careers.

We're talking about their work journeys, what they've learned from the process of setting

aside their doubts or fears, and what happens when they embark on their second life.

I'm your host, Hillary Kerr, and today I am delighted to share with you doing a special

bonus episode called Good Talks with Jenna Bans, the creator of the new NBC show Good Girls.

It's basically like crime drama, plus there's a lot of comedy, and it comes from a

place of female empowerment. So I was super excited to watch it, especially knowing Jenna's background.

Prior to creating Good Girls, Jenna worked on a number of Shonda Rhyme shows, and now she is striking

out on her own. I'm so excited to sit down with you today, Jenna. Welcome to Second Life.

Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here. I'm really excited to do this too,

in part because I've seen the show. Yes. I really love it. I'm so glad. We're gonna talk about it.

So awkward if you didn't. No, it's amazing. So we're gonna talk about that, but first I wanted

to give our listeners a little bit of background about you and how you got to this place,

and how you got to where you are today. But first things first, when did you know you wanted to

write for TV? Well, here's the funny thing. So I'm from St. Paul, Minnesota, a place that I still

totally consider home, but it's also a place where it doesn't occur to you. It's not like growing

up in Hollywood or LA. It does not occur to you that there are any viable careers to be had in

entertainment. My parents, they're both lawyers, they're lovely people. They were like, you're going

to law school, right? When I first started getting into theater, and then I was a theater manager

in college, and started writing plays, and they were all like, this is an amazing hobby.

It's like they were so supportive of it as a hobby, but they kept saying, you're going to law school,

right? And so I moved to New York, I was still writing plays. No one was coming to see them.

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