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Pod, Actually
A podcast about people's favourite podcasts.
Pod, Actually
Parthena ❤️ Wiser Than Me
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In this episode of Pod, Actually, Catherine is joined by Parthena — a salesperson, arts lover, and self-confessed podcast sponge — to talk about the show that keeps her walking longer and thinking harder: Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
Parthena explains why the podcast’s focus on older women’s lived experience feels both rare and necessary, and shares the moment from Jane Fonda’s episode that genuinely stopped her in her tracks.
Along the way, Parthena reveals her binge-listening habits, her Hollywood-adjacent past, and her deep skepticism of male podcast hosts who just can’t help talking about themselves.
🎙 Parthena's Top 5 Podcasts:
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Hello, I'm Catherine, and welcome to Pod Actually, a podcast about people's favorite podcasts. On today's program, I am speaking with Parthina. Parthina is a salesperson by trade and a passionate lover of the arts. She was born on Mount Olympus, spent many years living in the United States, and now resides in Melbourne, Australia. Let's jump in. Parthina, what is your favorite podcast?
SPEAKER_02One of my favorite podcasts, because I listen to quite a few, is Julia Louise Dreyfus' Wiser Than Me podcast.
SPEAKER_00I'm Julia Louis Dreyfus. This is Wiser Than Me, a show where each week I get schooled by women who are wiser than me.
SPEAKER_01And tell me about Wiser Than Me.
SPEAKER_02So she identified that ageism exists everywhere in the world, but specifically in Hollywood, and extraordinary women who have lived amazing, rich, layered lives don't really get a lot of visibility as they enter their later decades. So she ingeniously decided to interview these exceptional women who are all older than her, who have all excelled in their fields. And she's able to elicit from them truly amazing anecdotes, stories, wisdoms, lessons learned, and because they've focused on areas that most other interviewers don't really touch on, it exposes things about them that you really haven't had a chance to hear before. And it's been eye-opening and helpful as well as entertaining.
SPEAKER_01Is there an example that you can think of where you learn something that you didn't know before or there was something that was eye-opening?
SPEAKER_02Yes. The one that sticks with me is the one with Jane Fonda. So, you know, Jane Fonda is an icon, she's done so many extraordinary things, and maybe she's discussed these topics elsewhere. I just have not been exposed to those interviews. So the thing that was fascinating that Jane Fonda revealed was that she didn't understand the value of female friendships until she was in her 50s. She said the way she was raised was A, to sort of subjugate to the men in her life, which, as we all know, if anybody knows Jane and the dynamic with her father, was as a result that she was constantly trying to get the approval of her father, who was a very emotionally distant and absent father. And the other thing was that she always thought women were at competition. And one day she was doing some volunteer work with an organization, and the women in that group started asking her for her opinion. And she just realized that that really hadn't happened to her before. She hadn't really had many people, especially many females, asking her what she thought, what she felt should happen. And she started to notice the camaraderie and the support and the friendship and the bonding that was happening. And that was really heartbreaking for me to hear that this woman didn't understand the value and the strength of having female relationships until she was in her fifth decade. You know, she she revealed many other interesting things, but that really stunned me. You think it's somebody who's famous, who comes from a famous family, who has a famous brother, a famous niece, has everything, but to not have the one thing that most females understand is the one of the greatest things that you can have. And to not even be aware that she was missing it. So that was really an eye-opening thing.
SPEAKER_01And how did the host approach the topic? Was there something about the way that Julia Louis Dreyfuss was speaking with Jane Fonda that you feel really allowed Jane Fonda to share this story?
SPEAKER_02Okay, I'm gonna say something that may sound a little critical about Julia, but nonetheless is accurate. There are people that interview and they interview with a neutral sex. At the end of the day, Julia is a little bit fangirling with all these people. So it doesn't necessarily come from a place of being like a really strong investigative journalist, but more rather from a place of being effusively complementary. And she would just find one little opening. And, you know, I don't quite remember how the click happened, but she tries as much as possible to look for things that relate to their own personal growth. That is one thing I can say. So it's less about what their accomplishments are and their familial relationship. So clearly Jane must have said something, and then Julia would probably have said something like So, has the friendship of women helped you, or something like that?
SPEAKER_01But it's interesting because she's asking questions that maybe other journalists wouldn't normally ask.
SPEAKER_02Yes, she's definitely, definitely asking questions that male journalists wouldn't normally ask because male journalists don't value that. And her goal is to focus on relationships, not necessarily relationships for the titulating value, but relationships for how they strengthened women. But nonetheless, she's also defers to her guests a lot. She is a little bit in awe of them. So it's interesting to see how she panders to them in a very complimentary way, but nonetheless still provides an area where these women can talk about things that maybe nobody else has allowed them to do.
SPEAKER_01It's kind of cute, though, to have someone who's so accomplished in their own right. Yes. Fangirl, other people.
SPEAKER_02And it's in every episode. She's just ga and in awe, and it's constant. I'm in awe. I can't believe I'm talking to you. I can't believe we're doing this. Thank you for your time. Uh it is, it is. Yeah. Is the podcast audio only or is it also video? To be honest, I don't know, and I apologize for not being able to answer that question. I only listen to podcasts when I'm walking or working. The idea of sitting down to watch something, I already watch an inordinate amount of TV, which I'm extremely embarrassed about and try and hide from most people. So I cannot add podcasts to that. I will seriously have to check myself in somewhere. But I do listen to a lot of podcasts.
SPEAKER_01So you said you listen mostly when you're walking.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_01With this particular podcast, how often do new episodes appear?
SPEAKER_02She doesn't do them as frequently as I would like. So what happens is I let her accumulate a few, and then I put them in a cube, and then I'll do a week or so of her, and then I'll do a week or so of somebody else. So you binge listen. I binge listen. And the podcasts actually help me walk more. I listen to them at 1.25 speed. Sorry, I do. Unless it sounds really weird, but I do. And if the podcast is really interesting, I allow that to push me more to get one more thousand, two more thousand, three more thousand steps in. So I binge listen. I don't like to just wait and you know, I like to to get the voice of that person in my head and then move on to. Brooke Shields had a podcast called What Now? And it was pretty similar. She spoke to people about, you know, and I would do the same with her. She stopped the podcast, unfortunately, because she she she she did a good job too, similar to Julia's.
SPEAKER_01So is part of the listening at 1.25 speed that you walk more quickly?
SPEAKER_02No, I wish it was. I walk so slowly, snails pass me and they laugh at me and they mock me. No, it's because I like information and I need the podcast to get to the next podcast. I just I like it. I'm a sponge and I just want to hear more and more and more.
SPEAKER_01So that's just the cadence at which you're receiving the information. You just like it at that speed. Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Because there's often a lot of fluff, right? And the fluff doesn't interest me. And I I do get frustrated with podcasts because if it was me interviewing them, I wouldn't go on that tangent. I would have picked that. So let's just move past that quickly because I'm like, missed opportunity. You should have asked her to, you know, elaborate on that.
SPEAKER_01So yeah. When you're in the middle of a binge, do you talk about the podcast with other people? Unfortunately for them, yes. Go on.
SPEAKER_02You know, if I find somebody and there's a lull in the conversation and we've gone through, I say, oh, by the way, I just heard a podcast that. And I really regret not writing down some ridiculously interesting podcast that had some amazing information. The interviewer, the podcast, and what time in the interview that particular comment was made. I should have done a better job of that, and maybe I will do that more in the future.
SPEAKER_01Who do you think this podcast is for?
SPEAKER_02Sadly, it should be mostly for men and young women, but I don't know that that's the target audience. I don't know that young women understand exactly who, you know, Isabella Lundi is and Carol Burnett is, and all these incredible women are, but they should listen to them because there is a wealth of knowledge that can help them. I mean, Isabella Lan lost her daughter, and when she talks about the grief of that, it's amazing. And I think men should listen because Jane talks about, you know, how she was sexualized in the industry and what that did to her. And, you know, not a lot of people know that when she was filming Barbarella with her husband directing, she had to be drunk. So if your wife feels so unsafe that she has to be medicated with alcohol to numb herself to get through a scene that she's not comfortable with, then you're the husband, that just speaks volume. So I think it would be important for the younger generation to listen to this and young men who are still struggling to understand this mysterious being called a woman.
SPEAKER_01So I take it then that you don't think it's made for those people as it currently is?
SPEAKER_02I think it's made in the hope that those people will listen to it. But the audience that will gravitate to it are people like me. Because I know Julia, and I thought, oh, and I heard it through one of my friends from my American Women's Association book club, who happened to mention her. But it's such a pity that I don't know. I mean, I'm just assuming she doesn't have a young audience. And it's a pity because there's a lot of wiser than me is actually true. These women understand what the podcast is about. So they're trying to share very valuable information for them.
SPEAKER_01So if the podcast disappeared tomorrow, how long would it take you to notice that she wasn't putting out new episodes? A couple of weeks. Okay. And why would it take a couple of weeks? What else would you be doing? I'm listening to Jay Shetty's podcast. So listening to other podcasts. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And then I go back to Rob Lowe, because he's all about Hollywood and Smartless. But the problem with those is people who are how can I put it politely? Men tend to want to voice themselves as well. Julia doesn't do as much about talking about herself. Whereas the men, especially the ones that are performing, I mean, Rob Lowe started his podcast 100% because of COVID, and he couldn't cope with not performing. The same with the guys from Smartless, right? Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes. So when they're interviewing somebody, they think nothing of taking up five, ten minutes to then talk about their comments on whatever. But they're entertaining and it keeps you a little bit abreast of the industry, which may mean nothing to most people, but being as I lived in Los Angeles and the entertainment industry was very much a part of my existence there, I find very entertaining.
SPEAKER_01Do you think part of your interest in wiser than me is because you feel that you know Julia a little bit?
SPEAKER_02Oh, absolutely. I know Julia, and I admire the fact that when you think about it, she's the only cast member from Seinfeld to truly have a successful career. She did Veeep, she said the uh the something life of old Christine, and she's still out there, and good on her, she's reinventing herself, which is not easy to do in an industry that considers women of a certain age mostly invisible. So I I that's actually a good question, Catherine, because I want to support Julia. I don't know if she can tell I'm listening, but if she can, I want her to know that I support her.
SPEAKER_01Final question. Do you think liking this podcast says something about you? And if so, what is that? It's a very difficult question to answer.
SPEAKER_02I think it says that I'm nostalgic. I think it says that I value a time in the entertainment world that was considered the golden age, because most of these people uh are famous, you know, five, six, seven decades ago. I mean, Carol Burnett, right? I think it shows that I value the intelligence and wisdom of women, and that I value the effort of Julia to capture as much information as she can before these women's time on the planet expires.
SPEAKER_01Pathina, thank you so much for talking with me today.
SPEAKER_02Thank you so much for taking the time to ask me my opinions. I really appreciate it, and you're a good interviewer.
SPEAKER_01And that's the show. Podactually is produced and hosted by me, Catherine Harris. If you like the program, please tell a friend. And you can also support us over at Patreon at PodActually or on Substack. Thanks for listening. See you soon.
