The Best Broadly Interviews of 2015

It's great to survey an issue, but sometimes you want to go deep. Since our launch in August, Broadly has sat down with writers, artists, directors, musicians, politicians, and literal men on the street to understand the issues women care about most—from sexism in Washington, DC, to whether women should be legally empowered to kill their rapists. Below are six of our favorite in-depth interviews from this year.

Rose McGowan ascended to fame in the late 90s following bombshell roles in edgy horror films like The Doom Generation and Scream and in grindhouse releases like Planet Terror. While she's perhaps best known for her relationship with Marilyn Manson—which resulted in nearly naked red carpet appearances and other media drama—the actress's career has spanned over 20 years and earned her parts in dynamic projects. But after an accident made her realize she was tired and disturbed by her status as a sex symbol, McGowan took a hiatus from Hollywood. Now back on set as a director, she's calling out the sexism she endured as a young woman in Hollywood and is finally taking her creativity into her own hands.

Rapper Angel Haze spent a lot of their childhood homeless, and they moved into their first house when they were 16. The time Haze spent in that house in rural Virginia served as the inspiration for their latest project, Back to the Woods. After they severed ties with their major record label—and their high-profile girlfriend—earlier this year, the critically-acclaimed mixtape marked Haze's stunning comeback. Before Woods, Haze was already being hailed as the new MC to watch. Now, Haze has forged ahead on their own to claim their place in rap. In this episode of Broadly Meets, we talked to Haze about survival, their new mixtape, and their old flame.

Margaret Cho is a no-bullshit comedian, actress, producer, and author known for tackling the politics of gender, sexuality, and race with a razor-sharp wit. As a Korean-American and an openly bisexual entertainer, Cho uses her stand-up and one-woman shows as a platform to discuss her personal life and politics, bringing honesty and activism to the stage. In the past decade, she has produced a Broadway show, launched multiple national tours, and sold out rooms around the country. On stage and off, she's been a perpetual voice to marginalized communities and her next show, There Is No I In Team But There Is A Cho In Psycho, is no exception. In this episode of Broadly Meets, host JD Samson sat down with Cho to talk about how she channels these experiences into her performances and what it was like to be an unabashed feminist before it was trendy.

A radical feminist writer and filmmaker whose work has inspired hatred and country-wide censorship as well as devoted fans, Virginie Despentes was one of the people we were most excited to meet this year. Save for the cultish appreciation she earns from feminists and alternative groups, Despentes remains relatively unknown in the United States—likely because her work makes people (and especially men) deeply uncomfortable. Her memoir/manifesto King Kong Theory, her graphic rape-revenge film Baise Moi, and her other books and films frequently depict themes like rape, violence, misogyny, and female friendship. For this episode of Broadly Meets, we traveled to Despentes's home in Paris to discuss sexism in the arts, violence against and committed by women, and how her career has changed since she wrote her first novel while working as a prostitute at age 23.

US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has campaigned for women's equality throughout her entire political career. Once a corporate lawyer, she's now nationally recognized as a tireless advocate for human trafficking victims, a champion of paid family maternity leave, and an activist in the fight to end campus rape. In 2009, she passed the historic Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the first bill signed into law by President Obama. In this episode of Broadly Meets, we joined Senator Gillibrand at a human trafficking hearing in Queens, New York—where she meets with the survivors who are directly impacted by her legislation—and then talked with the senator about her commitment to pushing women's voices to the forefront in politics and dealing with sexism in Washington.

When Ask a Bro host Lauren Oyler set out to understand her much-maligned subject matter, she knew she would have to turn the camera on her coworkers. Notoriously full of men and their loud, sporty auras, the VICE office seemed fertile ground for an anthropological study of how bros navigate their work–life balance. How do they decide what to wear to work? Would they ever date a coworker? Do they talk to their work friends about their sex lives? Why are they wearing all those wristbands? Lauren headed to the VICE LA office to find out.