Meghan Markle’s Archetypes Podcast is all about the stigma that surrounds women during everyday life. That is the reason she only hosted female guests for straight 11 episodes. However, following the advice that Prince Harry gave her, for her most recent episode she invited three men to join her and discuss the ‘cultural shift’ in society.
Meghan Markle welcomed three men on set, marking the first time that a male voice is heard on her podcast. She hosted Trevor Noah, a comedian, Andy Cohen, a presenter, and Jude Apatow, a director.
Prince Harry Advised Meghan Markle To Include Men In Her Podcast For The First Time – Was It A Good Idea?
Before deciding on this ‘podcast-changing’ move, Meghan Markle gave it a thorough and deep thought. She initially created the podcast for women. Initially, this breaking of her own rules was something that she wasn’t happy doing. However, receiving Prince Harry’s advice pushed her to make the decision much easier.
While building the conversation to reach the point of ‘cultural shifts’, the Duchess of Sussex made a confession, that she stopped watching the Real Housewives when the show reached the top level of drama. According to Meghan Markle, she stopped watching it because the drama in her own life was sufficient and overfilled the level of drama that anyone could take. She didn’t need anything additional.
Nevertheless, Meghan Markle told that she loves the Real Housewives show. Watching it she felt ‘close to home’.
She told Andy Cohen that she already met him once years ago. The meeting took place before she became an actress and before she basically became famous. However, to the surprise of others, and Meghan Markle’s the most, Andy Cohen was unable to recall meeting her before.
“You’ve been listening to the past eleven episodes. You may have noticed that you haven’t heard many men’s voices. In fact, until now outside of a quick pop, in from my husband in the first episode, this show has featured exclusively women’s voices.” – Meghan Markle started off the episode. “
And that’s by design. It is important to us that women have a space to share their authentic, complex, and dynamic experiences. And to be understood. But through that process it also occurred to me and, truth be told, at the suggestion of my husband that if we really want to shift how we think about gender and the limiting labels that we separate people into, then we have to broaden the conversation.”
“And we have to actively include men in that conversation and certainly in that effort. So today we are doing just that. We’re opening it all up breaking out of the boxes and the binaries and doing things in a new way.” – the Duchess smoothly presented the information that her guests for the episode are men.
One of Meghan Markle’s guests, Trevor Noah has many similarities with Meghan Markle. Being a public personality coming from a biracial household, Trevor went through many similar situations, as the Duchess. During the podcast, he reflected on his hurtful past. He recalled the shooting of his mother Patricia Noah, by his stepfather, Abel Shingange. He explained the rage he felt at the moment. Furthermore, he recalled some powerful lessons that his mother gave him before passing away.
“I remember my mom speaking to me when I was very young. She said ‘remember you can be the head of your household as a man without owning a cent more than your woman said you can earn nothing.” – Noah recalled on the podcast. “She said being a man has nothing to do with how you wield your power in the household. It’s just how you fulfill your role.”
Trevor Noah grew up in South Africa. This is something in which Meghan Markle showed immense interest. She acknowledged Noah’s difficulties living in South Africa’s system of Apartheid enforcing racial segregation until the 90s.
“Whatever Trevor does next, like all of us, his past is always with him. Informing the way that he sees and moves through the world. Informing how he understands all the people in it.” – Meghan Markle told her guests. “For Trevor who grew up in a segregated country in a culture dominated by ideals of uber masculinity, almost toxic masculinity, with alarmingly high rates of violence towards women, this all made for a very complex and, as you can imagine, a very nuanced picture.”
Trevor Noah praised the community of women which surrounded him in South Africa during his early days. He explained that he saw them as women that are striving for something great. They constantly struggled to achieve more and didn’t depend on their husbands when pursuing justice and equality. According to the TV personality, women in South Africa are greatly responsible for the civil rights movement.
“Women largely drove our movements in South Africa, our civil rights movement, the fight for freedom.” – Trevor Noah told Meghan. “Many of the men were in exile. Many of the freedom fighters were abroad. Either studying or in prison. So, many of the women stood behind the women who were driving the civil rights movement not unlike in America.”
During his time in South Africa, he saw households holding men as the head of the family by any means. This went on even though they were away being migrant workers for years. Their physical presence was not key when discussing the head of the family question. ‘Colonial attitudes or the apartheid system reinforced’ the views on gender in South Africa.
“My perspectives were shaped because I was with the woman. I lived with my mom predominantly, we couldn’t live with my dad initially.” – Noah said. “Because, you know, he’s a white man and the government didn’t allow that. But what that created was a world where myself and my mom were just doing our own thing.”
Growing up in such conditions is the thing that forged Trevor Noah into what he is now. His struggles in life forged him to sustain the pressure on the path to becoming one of the US’s best-known satirists.
What do you think? Should Meghan Markle include male interviewees regularly?
