Professor Takes Her Classroom to the World with The Feminist Professor Podcast

By Kennedy Berry ’27

When Professor Tammy Birk started teaching, she never imagined she would one day be a podcaster. Yet her work as an English professor and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies scholar at Otterbein University eventually led her to create The Feminist Professor Podcast after her students encouraged her to share classroom conversations more widely, particularly with Birk’s generational peers.

“The students said that ‘they would listen to you, they’d hear you differently, you could be a bridge between Gen Z and them,’” Birk said. “I think it’s because I really love Gen Z. And I get Gen Z. I really admire their courage and their openness and their honesty. That’s why I want to help people that are my age understand these conversations that feel very foreign to them.”

The podcast began not as a pursuit of fame, but as a way to make feminist thought more accessible. “The ideas should not be barricaded,” Birk said. “They help people lead better, more honest and hopeful lives. I don’t see why these ideas should just be a course for college students who can afford it.”

Birk admitted she had no sense of the show’s reach until her producer showed her the analytics. “My lowest episode had about 2,500 downloads. And my highest episode had 12,100 downloads,” she said. “I thought there were like a hundred people listening, including my mother.”

She has also been surprised by who listens most. “Strangely, one of my best demographics is fathers of students,” Birk said. “I’ve gotten emails and DMs from fathers who have said, ‘You’re helping me understand someone like my child.’ Because a lot of the kids are LGBTQ and their parents are not. It helps them.”

Her podcast also reflects her own evolution as a feminist. “When I first came to it, I was just kind of like a White suburban girl who felt unfairly treated,” she said. “But once you understand why power wants you to think that way about yourself, you don’t stop with gender. Now I feel like feminism is about ending all kinds of domination. My feminism is about fighting powerlessness, not just about gender but kind of generally.”

For Birk, the project is about creating space for learning in a climate of misinformation and fear. “There’s just so much deception and distortion and so many lies,” she said. “If I can do something to push back against that in my own little way outside of the classroom, then I feel like I’m not silent. And I’m doing something that is helpful.”

Season 2 launched Sept. 3, with topics including Project 2025, masculinities, and asexuality. Birk also hopes to bring more listener voices into the show and test a video format.

“I wish every student was required to take the classes, to be honest with you, because I feel like we have a lot fewer lies,” she said. “The language is very freeing. It’s very freeing. Everybody deserves access to it.”