Podcast fanatics and feminists everywhere heed this warning: if you start to listen to the podcast I am about to review, then you will surely become addicted to it. Hosts Keegan Winifield and Madigan Haggerty have such great banter on the show due to their close friendship, however, it is their authenticity and amazing insight surrounding feminist topics that will lead you to become obsessed with Your Angry Neighborhood Feminist.
This show can be most basically described as a podcast where co-hosts Keegan and Madigan explore the world through their own personal feminist perspectives, according to the description in their Facebook group page and as stated in the beginning intro of each episode. They also use humor and wine to take on issues facing women and the world, as also described in many of their podcast descriptions, However, it is so much more than that. I have been listening to Your Angry Neighborhood Feminist for about three years now, so I can confidently tell you that this podcast has impacted my life in such a positive way.
Before I get into the contents of the podcast, I think it is necessary to dive a little deeper into the backgrounds of the hosts and how Your Angry Neighborhood Feminist was started. The personal information about the hosts that I am sharing is what I have learned from listening to the podcast over the past few years. I do not feel comfortable researching any further into Keegan or Madigan’s personal lives, because I do not feel like it is my place to share private information that they did not put on their show themselves.
Thus said, Keegan Winifield states often on the podcast how she grew up in the midwest in a very Christian home. Though she frequently reminds listeners that she does not relate to her religious background anymore, her childhood upbringing allows her to have a unique insight based on her own lived experiences from this region of the country. Keegan also often talks about her White mother and Black father’s interracial marriage and how they impacted her view about life and love. She notably mentioned her parents’ love story during episode 83 titled, “Feminist Power Couples Vol. 1,” where Keegan and Madigan discuss Richard and Mildred Loving and the monumental Supreme Court case that legalized interracial marriage across the country. Madigan Haggerty talks frequently about how she is from Minnesota, so during the summer of 2020, she discussed the brutal killing of George Floyd and the subsequent Black Lives Matter protests in the region from an interesting local perspective. More personally, Madigan is very open and vocal about her experience surrounding eating disorders. She discusses her own eating disorder and the journey she has gone on to seek help. Various episodes of Your Angry Neighborhood Feminist apply to Madigan’s story, and it is very inspiring to hear her being so open and vulnerable in order to possibly help listeners with their own eating disorders.
Both of these lovely women are overall very honest about their own life experiences in order to connect more with their loyal listeners. One of my favorite aspects of Your Angry Neighborhood Feminist is the authenticity of Keegan and Madigan. They are so real in their opinions and views, and listening to them each week feels as if I have welcomed two friends into my home. My admiration of the hosts is also heightened a great deal when I remember why they started this podcast in the first place. Keegan and Madigan decided to start recording episodes of the show after the Presidential election of Donald Trump in 2016. They are vocal about how they felt sad and hopeless, but also angry about the circumstances and determined to find a way to express their opinions. Thus, the beauty that is Your Angry Neighborhood Feminist was born.
As I stated in the beginning, the show’s basic format is Keegan and Madigan discussing feminist topics and current events. However, that is just the simplest outline. They cover a vast array of topics all pertaining in some way to feminist thought and ideals. Episode themes can range from the #FreeBritney movement all the way to Black Trans Violence. Keegan and Madigan’s variability in discussion topics is why I believe so much in the quality of this podcast. Their commitment to diverse topics and detailed research gives this show a sophisticated feel, while at the same time their warm conversations and friendship with one another allow the show to fit nicely into the listeners’ everyday lives.
Just about every week the hosts release two episodes. The first, main episode usually ranges from about an hour to an hour and a half and the topic stems from a different feminist theme every week. The themes sometimes pertain to a specific current event, such as black history month, but Keegan and Madigan also have many “mini-series” type episodes that are recurring and consist of all the same theme. For example, they have many recurring episodes titled, “forgotten feminist faves.” These episodes are my personal favorites because of how detailed Keegan and Madigan are in describing the historical facts surrounding these feminists’ lives. If you are a feminist who is also a history junkie, then these episodes would be perfect for you. It’s also extra fun to listen to these because both co-hosts pick a feminist that is “forgotten” in the lens of popular culture, and they do not tell the other host who they picked until the day of recording. I love hearing each woman react to the stories of feminists that they did not choose because it shows how genuine Keegan and Madigan are in their show and feminist beliefs.
The second episode type that is released every week is a “What’s in the News” mini-episode. These episodes are around thirty minutes long but are usually much shorter than the main week’s episode. The title pretty much sums up what the hosts discuss in these episodes. However, as a feminist, I love hearing them discuss current events from a feminist perspective because main news outlets often do not express the same opinions. Keegan and Madigan have not yet released this week’s news episode, but I am sure that they will be discussing the current racist and sexist hate crime towards Asian-American women that occurred in Atlanta. They will properly mourn and honor the lives of the Asian women who were brutally murdered by white supremacist men. They will talk about this current event as it is, unlike major news outlets such as the New York Times that still could not call out a racially motivated hate crime if it slapped them in the face. I love that I can rely on Your Angry Neighborhood Feminist to accurately discuss news events in the mindset of a feminist.
Honestly, this show is my feminist holy grail. Keegan and Madigan are my types of people, so being able to listen to their insight and learn from them every week brings me great joy. I highly recommend Your Angry Neighborhood Feminist to anyone who wants to learn more about what feminists stand for because, even though there is a diversity of opinions in every social movement, I find that these two women do a great job of representing the feminist community overall. I promise you that if you start to listen to the show you will not be disappointed, in fact, I bet that you will become obsessed. I will now end this article just as Keegan and Madigan end every episode of their show, by encouraging you to “rage on.”