U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth Talks Mothering, Senatoring, And Couponing

Nerdette Recaps With Peter Sagal

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4.6 • 924 Ratings

🗓️ 7 September 2018

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois is one of only 52 women to ever serve in the Senate. There are currently 23 female senators, which is an all-time high.

“There are not enough women,” Duckworth tells Nerdette host Greta Johnsen. “We’re 20 percent of the Senate. That’s it. That’s wrong. We’re 51 percent of the population, yet 20 percent of those who make the laws that govern our lives.”

Duckworth also recently became the first sitting U.S. senator to have a baby while in office when she gave birth to her daughter Maile on April 9. She tells Greta about motherhood, political polarization, and her interesting personal obsession: extreme couponing.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Natalie Moore. I fell in love with soap operas when I was just five years old, and I still
0:06.1	watch them. Their television's longest scripted series and have zero reruns. Now let me tell you,
0:12.7	soap operas aren't just some silly art form. They are significant. In this season of making,
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0:28.3	Listen wherever you get your podcast.
0:35.5	From WBEZ Chicago, this is Nerdette.
0:36.5	I'm Greta Johnson.
1:04.3	And Nerdette is a show where we talk to your favorite or soon-to-be favorite people about how their passions drive what they do. Our guest this week is Illinois U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth. A few things about the senator. She is a Democrat. She is 50 years old. And she is the first sitting U.S. Senator to give birth to a child while in office. She did that earlier this year. Her daughter, Miley, was born in April, and she also has a daughter named Abigail, who's almost four.
1:12.0	Senator Duckworth is also a veteran. She was a helicopter pilot with the Army National Guard, and she lost both of her legs and injured her right arm in Iraq in 2004. Since then, she has served as the Assistant Secretary
1:18.7	of Veterans Affairs, gotten a PhD, served in the U.S. House of Representatives, and been elected to the
1:24.2	Senate. Why did we want to talk to Senator Duckworth? She is currently one of only
1:31.5	23 women who serves on the United States Senate. And here is a fun fact, even though actually
1:37.8	it is not a fun fact at all. In the entire history of the United States Senate, only 52 women have ever served as senators. So
1:46.8	Senator Duckworth is obviously super tough. She's obviously very powerful and we had a lot of
1:52.2	questions for her. Senator, welcome to Nerdette. It's great to be here. So I am looking forward
2:00.7	to talking to you about a great many
2:02.5	things, including more serious matters. But first, sometimes on Nerdat, we like to talk to people
2:07.5	about what they're obsessed with. And as we were researching you, we couldn't help but notice on your
2:13.3	official Senate website that the biography there says you enjoy couponing in your free time.
2:18.4	I do. Tell me more. Oh, you know, I went through a time of pretty extreme poverty when I was
2:26.6	younger, so I love a good bargain. I love a good flea market and a Salvation Army store and all of that.
	...

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