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Crouse said. “Storytelling is such an important way to connect with people or experiences that may not be part of our own norm. We keep looking for ways to do that more effectively and draw in people that have experiences we don’t have.”

Early podcasts have featured working Twin Ports area musicians and two feminist scholars. An upcoming show highlights women in sports using interviews with former University of Minnesota Duluth women’s hockey coach Shannon Miller and Olympian Kara Goucher.

“I just sit there and think; ‘How on earth am I going to edit this because it’s all so great.’ These conversations are so rich,” Dean said.

“It really is just talking about this experience in a way that is completely relatable and completely genuine, as hands free as possible,” Tennis said. She said interviews often take surprising turns: “That meander is as informative to us as it is to anybody listening.”

Crouse said the podcast name was inspired by the Debbie Downer comedy sketch on "Saturday Night Live". In the sketch, Debbie Downer routinely breaks up fun and happy conversations with bad news, grim facts and unpleasant memories.

“We go about that, hopefully, in a more joyful way with the storytelling,” she said. “But trying to get that variety of stories out there so we’re not just giving this single view of an experience that: ‘You know, things are going OK.’”

“It’s fun to play with that concept: Here’s what we’re ‘ruining’ this week!” Dean said.

The 60- to 90-minute shows are designed to be irreverent and easygoing but also material, significant and academic. Popular podcasts like Feminist Killjoys PhD, Call Your Girlfriend and My Favorite Murder served as models. Tennis and Crouse lead the discussion with a list of questions, but things usually wind up in unexpected places.

A historical look at feminism with retired University of Minnesota Duluth women’s studies Professor Beth Bartlett and College of St. Scholastica theology and religious studies professor Denise Starkey, for example, was split into two shows as the interview covered a wide variety of topics.

“We’re learning as we go,” Tennis said. “We’ve ended up getting on the ground, at lofty heights, and academic perspectives on things. Which has been really great to sort of triangulate the entirety of the problem. It’s a more holistic approach.”

Health care issues, access to abortion, equal pay, gender language and discussions involving transgender, nonbinary and two-spirit individuals will see time in future podcasts. The group wants to include voices and stories from all areas of feminism.

“This isn’t a secret society of people who know how things should be done,” Tennis said. “We’re exploring it, too. We want that to be apparent to anybody that’s listening as we learn right along with, and make mistakes right along with, our guests.”

Dean said the results have been eye-opening.

“I was just stunned that in 2018 people would still say to a woman in the trades that they’re taking that job away from a man,” she said.

“I don’t experience that. I’m not in that world.”

But the Feminists Ruin Everything podcast exists to expose such archaic thinking and inspire women to work for change.

“It was real depressing,” Dean said. “But I love that we’re giving people the opportunity to tell their stories. Other people probably didn’t know that, either. They probably think that it’s a thing of the past.” D

Mark Nicklawske is a Duluth freelance journalist. He also reviews music and theater for the Duluth News Tribune.

The Feminists Ruin Everything podcast can be found at the Feminist Action Collective webpage: feministactioncollective.org.