The Waves: What Does Bill Cosby’s Release Mean for the #MeToo Movement?

Slate Culture Feed

Slate Podcasts

Music, Tv & Film, Arts

4.2 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 22 July 2021

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On this week’s episode of The Waves, author and professor of history at Georgetown University Marcia Chatelain and Slate staff writer Lili Loofbourow dissect Bill Cosby’s release from prison, and what that could mean for the #MeToo movement. First they unpack exactly what happened in the Cosby case. Then they get into the potential ripple effects it could have on victims seeking justice more broadly. Recommendations Lili: The Netflix show Money Heist. Marcia: As much Real Housewives on Bravo that you can handle. Podcast production by Cheyna Roth with editorial oversight by Susan Matthews and June Thomas. Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to thewaves@slate.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is The Waves. This is The Waves. This is The Waves. This is The Waves.
0:12.6	Welcome to The Waves. Slates podcast about gender, feminism, and this week the release of Bill
0:18.0	Cosby from prison. I'm Marcia Chaplin, author of the book Franchise, The Golden Arches in Black
0:23.3	America, and Professor of History at Georgetown University. Every episode you get a new pair of
0:28.8	women to talk about the thing we can't get off our minds. And today you've got me thinking
0:33.6	about Bill Cosby, me too, and what comes next for survivors of sexual assault?
0:39.5	And me, Lili Lufbrough, a staff writer for Slate where I cover politics, culture,
0:44.2	sometimes comedy, and sometimes despair. Many of us were shocked to learn that Bill Cosby was
0:49.6	released from prison on June 30 after being convicted of sexual assault in 2018. The Pennsylvania
0:55.6	Supreme Court overturned his three to ten-year sentence because of an agreement between a former
1:01.2	state prosecutor and Cosby. This topic has so many layers. The case itself, the way it serves as
1:08.1	an outlier in sexual assault prosecutions, the tremendous star power of Bill Cosby, and the
1:13.7	larger framing of this case as emblematic of a Me Too victory. I've been fascinated by this topic
1:19.6	because of the ways that Cosby's demise wasn't just about Cosby and the survivors,
1:25.1	Cosby status as an entertainer and philanthropist also called into question the culture of enabling
1:31.3	that surrounds predatory behavior and allows it to go on for so long. As a college professor,
1:37.6	I see similar dynamics often in academia where noted scholars or big-time benefactors are protected
1:43.5	at the expense of survivors. Lili, you've reported great stories about Cosby. Why did you want to talk
1:50.8	about this? This is a topic I can't stop thinking about because I've been tracking this case and what
1:56.6	it did or didn't mean for me to since 2017 almost before there was a Me Too Cosby walked free
2:04.3	back in June of that year of 2017 because the jury wasn't able to reach a verdict. And it seemed
2:10.9	to me at the time symptomatic of a long standing tendency to disbelieve survivors or to hold them
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Slate Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.