Monika Leininger
mleinin1@uwyo.edu
A shining star of the Laramie Community, Emily Armitage creates her own podcast to discuss difficult issues that women and other minority populations face throughout their experiences in society.
Emily introduces her work as “Pulling roots: the podcast aimed at challenging traditions we’ve all gotten too comfortable with.”
Pulling Roots examines several challenging social justice and activist topics including consent, victim blaming, veganism, misogyny, anorexia, transgender populations and LGBTQ rights.
Armitage is a sophomore biology student at the University of Wyoming and was inspired by podcasts examining social justice issues like “This American Life” and “Serial.”
“I started channeling my anger into something productive. I had a little more free time, so I just came up with a name, Googled how to start a podcast and started it,” Armitage said.
Armitage believes that this podcast could be a ray of sunshine for Laramie residents.
“It’s easy to get bogged down living in Wyoming surrounded by Trump supporters,” Armitage said. “It’s been a great way for me to connect with people all over the country and even some places overseas to show that Wyoming isn’t just tumble weeds and cowboys.”
Despite Wyoming’s slogan being the “Equality State,” it doesn’t take a feminist eye to see the disproportionate representation of women across the state. Wyoming has one of the largest pay gaps between men and women throughout the United States. Along the same lines, Wyoming has a lack of representation of colored women in Wyoming’s legislature and is lacking basic necessities for women such as an abortion clinic.
“I think that these conversations need to continue happening and that positive change will happen as a result of it,” Armitage said.
The podcast’s name, “Pulling Roots” is descriptive of reframing and redefining deep-seated behaviors and attitudes learned by societal conditioning.
“Whether they be sexist things, racist things, homophobic things or ignoring what happens to our food before it gets to our plate,” Armitage said.
The first episode of Pulling Roots was released in August of 2015 and since then the podcast has gained popularity.
“Listeners will email me and share that some of the guests that I’ve had on the show have really spoken to them, inspired them or touched them,” Armitage said.
However, being an outspoken feminist in a society often plagued by patriarchy has its downfalls. Armitage explained that she has received some negative feedback on her Twitter page by Internet “trolls.”
“The good very much outweighs the bad,” Armitage said. “Most people who disagree with me are very mature and are willing to engage in a constructive conversation with me.”
New episodes of “Pulling Roots” are posted on the podcast’s SoundCloud page every other Thursday.
On the Pulling Roots SoundCloud and Twitter page, Armitage describes herself as a “Vegan Feminist in Wyoming.” Combining two forms of activism that she feels strongly about. However, the combination of the two terms can be a bit off-putting for new listeners.
“I would really encourage the people who look at the phrase ‘vegan feminist’ and cringe to take 45 minutes to listen to an episode before they write it off,” Armitage said. “You might not feel the same way that you did before you listened, but I think there is a lot of value in challenging yourself and branching out.”
