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Welcome to The Waves, Slate's podcast about gender, feminism, and contemplating the F word altogether.

It's our final episode.

In every episode, for the last few years, you've

gotten a pair of what we've called feminists to talk about a thing they couldn't get off their

minds. But today I'm not going to call myself a feminist. By the way, I'm Shayna Roth, senior

producer at Slate and longtime producer of the Waves. And I'll be joined later in the show by former Waves host, June Thomas.

She's been a part of the Waves since it was known as Double X Gab Fest.

She's not going to call herself a feminist either.

Because really, what even is a feminist?

This is our final episode of the Waves. and let me say up top that it has been

an absolute privilege to produce this show and to frequently host this show. Those that

have listened consistently enough to these episodes know that I have more than once used them

as an opportunity to try to sort out my own

complex feelings about something. And this last episode is going to be no different. You see,

I've been trying to sort out what it means to be a feminist since college. I did this thing for my senior seminar called the Jane Doe Project.

I had wanted to put on a production of the vagina monologues at my small Christian college, but that got

shot down. So I interviewed women from campus who had experienced violence and created this

mixed genre play. While the play was mostly focused on violence against women,

I brought some levity to the whole thing with sketches about just being a woman.

There was a poem about getting hit on using the worst pickup lines I could find.

Are you from Tennessee?

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