Our Favorites: Poly Styrene
Womanica
Acast Creative Studios
4.3 • 920 Ratings
🗓️ 29 October 2025
⏱️ 7 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Poly Styrene (1957-2011) was a feminist punk icon who made her mark on the white male-dominated music genre.
For the past six years, we’ve been telling the stories of women you may or may now know– but definitely should. This month, we’re bringing back our favorite Womanica episodes from across our back catalog. These are women throughout time and around the world who made their mark.
History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.
Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.
Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Sara Schleede, Paloma Moreno Jimenez, Luci Jones, Abbey Delk, Adrien Behn, Alyia Yates, Vanessa Handy, Melia Agudelo, and Joia Putnoi. Special thanks to Shira Atkins.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Womanica. For the past six years, |
| 0:09.1 | we've been telling the stories of women you may or may not know about, but definitely should. |
| 0:13.8 | This month, we're bringing back our favorite Womanica episodes from across the back catalog. |
| 0:19.1 | These are women across centuries and around the world |
| 0:22.0 | who made their mark. |
| 0:24.0 | With that, here's one of our favorite episodes. |
| 0:29.0 | Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, |
| 0:32.3 | and this is Wamanica. |
| 0:33.9 | This month, we're highlighting ragers, |
| 0:35.9 | women who use their anger, |
| 0:37.2 | often righteous, though not always, to accomplish extraordinary things. |
| 0:42.3 | Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard, but I think, oh, bandage, up yours! One, two, three, four! |
| 1:03.9 | That's the opening line to the explosive first single by the British band X-Race Bex. |
| 1:13.6 | Today we're talking about the band's frontwoman, a feminist punk icon who made her mark on the white male-dominated music genre. |
| 1:17.6 | Meet Polly Styrene. |
| 1:23.6 | Polly was born Marion, Joan, Elliot Said in 1957 in Kent, England. |
| 1:26.6 | Her father was a Somali aristocrat. Her mother was a British legal secretary, |
| 1:29.3 | who raised Polly and her siblings on her own. Polly called herself an ordinary tough kid from an |
| 1:34.7 | ordinary tough street. When she was 15 years old, she left those tough streets and ran away from |
| 1:39.8 | home. She hitchhiked her way across England to attend hippie music festivals. She also loved |
| 1:46.3 | glam rockers Mark Bolin and David Bowie and admired the songwriting of Joni Mitchell and Carol King. |
| 1:53.0 | By the age of 15, Polly had dropped out of school, but she didn't stop learning. She'd read books |
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