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Right Answers Mostly

Shonda Rhimes: The Woman Who Changed Television

Right Answers Mostly

Claire Donald & Tess Bellomo

Society & Culture, History, Tv & Film

4.6764 Ratings

🗓️ 16 March 2026

⏱️ 74 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week we’re diving into the story of Shonda Rhimes, the woman who completely changed television. Before Rhimes, network TV rarely centered complicated women, diverse casts, or stories about power, ambition, sexuality, and work told from a female perspective. From Grey’s Anatomy to Scandal to Bridgerton, Rhimes built an empire by telling the kinds of stories about women that television had long ignored. We talk about her early life, how she broke into Hollywood, the rise of Shondaland, and how she reshaped what television looks like, and who gets to be the main character. This is Shonda Rhimes! Created and produced by Claire Donald and Tess Bellomo Follow us on social media, buy merch, and more⁠ HERE! ⁠ Join our premium channel for 3 bonus eps a month ⁠⁠here⁠⁠ and save 15% when you buy annually! Sources: Television Academy , Vice, Wbur, Oprah.com, Theboar.org, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Wikipedia, Call Her Daddy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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entrepreneurs like you. Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup. Welcome back to Write Answers, Mostly, a podcast on what you didn't learn in history class, but you really wanted to.

1:01.9

I'm Claire Donald. And I'm Tess Falamo. And Ramey's welcome back to Women's History Month, 2026.

1:08.2

We're loving it. We are loving it. And this subject came to us in a very fun way.

1:13.2

It did. We have an exciting announcement. We're doing a live show at USC this week. That's right,

1:19.2

University of Southern California. We are geniuses. And geniuses recognize geniuses. Well,

1:24.3

that's what we've been saying. We've been saying that. And yeah, for a girl who didn't even go to college, I'm so excited to be speaking at the USC business school. I mean, this is our first time that we're going to a college. It's very L. Woods coded. And we're just going to, like, tell the kids what we're all about. What we're all about, first but not the last. Exactly. I know. So now we're going to like manifest a dream of a list of

1:45.2

colleges so if you're a college rami reach out to us if your school has a business program or any

1:50.5

program or come talk to you guys any program we can talk about literally anything see that's so true

1:55.2

yeah so call us universities they asked us to do a USC alum and soonda Rhymes. And then I started doing my research on Shonda, and I was like, wait, this is actually so fun and interesting. We got to bring it to Main Feed. Oh, I can't wait. So, Tess, what do you know about Shonda Rhymes? I mean, I was a big, raised-in-admy girlie. Who wasn't? in high school and college, but I did stop at like season.

2:18.7

I want to say a seven.

2:20.3

I watched scandal.

2:21.6

I've seen some of her movies, but I don't know much about like her journey, the

2:26.3

arc of everything that she's done for TV.

2:28.1

I mean, she has done so much for TV, you guys.

2:30.5

It's insane.

2:31.2

And as I was doing my research, I was like, wow, she built the entertainment

2:34.6

of my childhood. Wow. And a huge way. And like the whole time, and we'll get to it, I had to be like, don't make this a crossroads episode. Don't make this crossroads. But we could. But we could and we should, in a way. What's a great place to start, you guys. I'm so excited to talk about Shonda. So shall we just get into it? Let's get into it. Okay, Tess, Shonda Rhymes didn't just become successful in television.

2:54.2

She completely re- So excited to talk about Shonda. So shall we just get into it? Let's get into it. Okay, Tess, Shonda Rhymes didn't just become successful in television.

...

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