Ep 246: Cecile Richards - Re-Loaded - "The Blessed Leader"

What do you think needs doing? And are you doing it?

This episode is a re-publication of my interview with Cecile Richards from March 2020. It was the last in-person interview I recorded before the world shut down two days later.

Forgive me, for a moment. I want to take you on a short journey.

For those of you that don’t know her, Cecile Richards is one of the most extraordinary leaders of our time. Of any time, actually.

Public service and activism are part of her DNA. 

She’s perhaps best known for the 12 years she spent as the President of Planned Parenthood.

Her mother — Ann Richards — shattered conventional wisdom when, as a woman and a Democrat, she was elected Governor of Texas in 1990.

In the seventh grade, Cecile was taken to the principal’s office for wearing an armband in protest of the Vietnam War. 

In the eighth grade, she brought food to the strikers on a picket line in her hometown of Austin.

Her first job after college, was as a union organizer in New Orleans, helping hotel workers trying to get by on minimum wage.

Today, she’s the co-creator of Charley, a bot that helps abortion seekers get good and accurate information on how to safely end their pregnancies.

Cecile has been called “the most badass feminist EVER” and “The heroine of the resistance”. 

She inspires women of all ages, in all walks of life. And she inspires many men, too.

When I interviewed her in 2020, I called the episode, “The Blessed Leader”.

Usually when I go back and listen to an earlier episode, my reason for the name I came up with is pretty clear.

In this case, it wasn’t. She didn’t describe herself as blessed. The word blessed is not a common part of my vocabulary. And there was nothing about the conversation that suggested “blessed” was an obvious description.

The world has changed since she and I last spoke, and I badly wanted to hear her thoughts on the damage to women’s rights that has taken place since 2020, as well as her views on the aftermath of COVID on society.

I reached out to her a few weeks ago, but hadn’t heard anything back. Then early last week, I saw a link to an article that made my heart miss a beat. 

The headline read: “Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards has brain cancer”,

This woman is a presence, when you meet her in person. She radiates warmth and strength and determination. She is unforgettable. 

Her brain cancer is incurable and has a median survival rate of 15 months. She was diagnosed six months ago.

I’ve included a link to the article in the show notes and now I’m going to quote directly from the article, in which she describes learning to write and speak again at the age of 66. 

“Her latest treatment is twice-weekly infusions through a clinical trial. ‘I mean, it’s like, What do I gotta do to stay alive? I’m good with it. It’s totally manageable, but these things are unpredictable. So I feel like it has helped me focus on what I want to do with the time I have. And I’m excited. I’ve been blessed. 

‘I’ve been blessed to have always had work that I cared about,” Richards continues. “So many people I’ve worked with and organized, nursing-home workers and hotel workers and janitors, they didn’t have any options. And they worked because they cared about their jobs, but they worked because they had to support a family. But I have been one of the really privileged few that could do what I thought needed doing. And so whatever comes next, I have that.’”

“I have been one of the really privileged few that could do what I thought needed doing.”

“I’ve been blessed.” 

So let me end as I began by asking all of us, myself included, a question. 

What do you think needs doing? And are you doing it?