This is the waves. This is the waves. This is the waves. This is the waves.

Welcome to the waves. Slates podcast about gender, feminism, and this week the release of Bill

Cosby from prison. I'm Marcia Chaplin, author of the book Franchise, The Golden Arches in Black

America, and Professor of History at Georgetown University. Every episode you get a new pair of women

to talk about the thing we can't get off our minds. And today you've got me thinking about

Bill Cosby, me too, and what comes next for survivors of sexual assault. And me, Lili Lufbrough,

a staff writer for Slate, where I cover politics, culture, sometimes comedy, and sometimes despair.

Many of us were shocked to learn that Bill Cosby was released from prison on June 30,

after being convicted of sexual assault in 2018. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his

three to ten-year sentence because of an agreement between a former state prosecutor and Cosby.

This topic has so many layers. The case itself, the way it serves as an outlier in sexual

assault prosecutions, the tremendous star power of Bill Cosby, and the larger framing of this case

as emblematic of a Me Too victory. I've been fascinated by this topic because of the ways that

Cosby's demise wasn't just about Cosby and the survivors. Cosby's status as an entertainer and

philanthropist also called into question the culture of enabling that surrounds predatory behavior

and allows it to go on for so long. As a college professor, I see similar dynamics often in academia,

where noted scholars or big-time benefactors are protected at the expense of survivors.

Lily, you've reported great stories about Cosby. Why did you want to talk about this?

This is a topic I can't stop thinking about because I've been tracking this case and what it did

or didn't mean for me to since 2017 almost before there was a Me Too, Cosby walked free back in June

of that year of 2017 because the jury wasn't able to reach a verdict. And it seemed to me at the

time symptomatic of a long standing tendency to disbelieve survivors or to hold them up to a much

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