For my first project, I decided to try a genre I knew fairly well from my past journalistic experience: the long article. 

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My mission for the article was to explain the history of hysteria and its connection to modern gaslighting. This information shows up in the first episode of the podcast, but the experiment fails to mention how the tactic causes female oppression. This project introduced me to the phenomenon of gaslighting, and catalyzed further exploration of the topic.

For my second examination of gaslighting, I intended to write a personal essay about my own experience with the manipulation. I would talk about its contribution in my past romantic relationship, and also how my experience being a woman has taught me to devalue my own reality. In other words, how I've learned to self-gaslight.

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My essay's goal was to simply create a sacred space where I could express my own encounter. Although this didn't make it into my podcast, it birthed the topic of self-gaslighting.

For my third experiment, I chose to focus on the technique of interviewing. At this point, I knew I wanted to eventually make a podcast, so I wanted to master talking with people about my potentially traumatic subject matter. I even interviewed my sister, a journalist, for advice on how to produce the best interview.

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Although I didn't end up interviewing anyone in Confessions of a Gaslit Woman, the gap encouraged me to include audio from outside sources to make the podcast more interesting and varied.

This last piece was the outline I used to create Confessions of a Gaslit Woman. I listed the three main segments I wanted to have: the history of hysteria, interviewing young women and broadening the conversation (to female oppression and self-gaslighting).

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Obviously, my outline eventually dropped the interviewing segment, added a "what next" chapter and became a four-part series. Although significant changes were made, this letter defines my original intent for the podcast, before it became what it is now.