This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:05] Jan Svendsen: Welcome to the Broadway Gives Back Podcast.

[0:07] Jan Svendsen: I'm your host, Jan Svendsen.

[0:10] Jan Svendsen: This podcast spotlights Broadway actors, shows, and organizations in their pursuit of social impact and philanthropy.

[0:17] Jan Svendsen: Join us as some of the brightest lights on Broadway share their stories about their favorite charities and how they got involved and the people on the causes who benefited from these philanthropic efforts.

[0:33] Jan Svendsen: She's an Emmy Award-winning actress and activist. Martha Plimpton has been nominated for three Tony Awards.

[0:40] Jan Svendsen: She is the winner of Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Independent Spirit Awards.

[0:45] Jan Svendsen: Many listeners will remember her from one of her earliest films, The Goonies.

[0:49] Jan Svendsen: And while she has showcased her incredible talent in film, TV, and theater, I would venture a guess that her most important projects might have to do with her social activism.

[1:00] Jan Svendsen: The organization she co-founded is called A Is For.

[1:04] Jan Svendsen: Its mission is to amplify art and artists that work to end the stigma against abortion.

[1:09] Jan Svendsen: Martha, welcome to the Broadway Gives Back Podcast.

[1:13] Martha Plimpton: Thank you so much for having me. I'm really delighted to be here.

[1:16] Jan Svendsen: Thank you. I'm so happy you're here too. I can't wait to talk about all the work you're doing with our mutual friend Kelly, who co-founded AS4 with you.

[1:25] Jan Svendsen: But first I wanted to ask you a few sort of lighter questions so that our listeners can get to know you a little better.

[1:30] Martha Plimpton: Sure.

[1:31] Jan Svendsen: So here's a little warm-up. If you could be a member of any fictional family from a Broadway show, a movie, or a TV show, what family would you want to be a part of?

[1:43] Martha Plimpton: Um, oh my goodness. Well, um, I don't I like flying cars, so maybe Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

[1:50] Jan Svendsen: There you go. That sounds fun. Flying cars. So do you when where have you been riding in any flying cars lately?

[1:58] Martha Plimpton: Or uh as far as I know, they don't exist yet. And I'm kind of disappointed about it.

[2:04] Martha Plimpton: Um one day soon, I think.

[2:06] Jan Svendsen: Um I hope so. We'll talk to Tesla about that. What are three words that you think describe you?

[2:14] Martha Plimpton: Oh gosh, that's tough. I wasn't expecting this. This is uh this is tougher than the subject of abortion for me.

[2:22] Martha Plimpton: Um, parapathetic. That's an SAT word, people.

[2:26] Martha Plimpton: Yeah. Curious and tired.

[2:32] Jan Svendsen: Okay.

[2:33] Jan Svendsen: Yeah. Where's your happy place?

[2:37] Martha Plimpton: Uh my garden. Working in my garden or playing with my dogs, or uh, you know, but definitely gardening.

[2:46] Martha Plimpton: Definitely gardening. Gardening or driving. I like to drive.

[2:49] Martha Plimpton: I like to take, I recently got an Airstream trailer and I like to drive around in it a lot.

[2:55] Martha Plimpton: I like to take the trailer out. I like to go camping in the trailer, like to see the country, you know.

[3:02] Jan Svendsen: Well, I do know, only because Kelly, I think you guys just had a vacation in your trailer and she posted a bunch on social media.

[3:08] Jan Svendsen: So I feel like I seemed I feel like I was with you guys on that trip.

[3:11] Martha Plimpton: Yes, yes, absolutely. We had a fabulous time. We went to uh fellow board member and author Lauren Rankin's wedding in uh outside of Boulder, and it was fabulous.

[3:23] Martha Plimpton: We had such a great time. It was amazing.

[3:25] Jan Svendsen: Okay, it looked fun. Um what is your most used emoji?

[3:30] Martha Plimpton: Oh, um the the one with the awkward face with the guy who's got all his teeth showing.

[3:37] Jan Svendsen: Okay, you know?

[3:38] Martha Plimpton: Yes, I do.

[3:40] Martha Plimpton: Yeah, it's that one too. Either that or the shrug, the shrug person.

[3:46] Jan Svendsen: Yeah.

[3:47] Jan Svendsen: What are you most grateful for today?

[3:49] Martha Plimpton: Uh I'm most grateful for my health and for my friends.

[3:55] Martha Plimpton: And uh yeah, and for the tireless work of independent abortion providers in clinics all over the country.

[4:04] Jan Svendsen: Yeah, that's why you're tough. That's why you're tired too.

[4:07] Martha Plimpton: Yeah.

[4:08] Jan Svendsen: Um so before we jump into that, because I really do want to have a long talk about this. I want to talk a little bit about your background because so many of my guests talk about how their childhood and their background informed why they became people who became activists or philanthropists.

[4:24] Jan Svendsen: So I know that your parents met while performing in Hair back in 1969, and I think you were their production, if I recall correctly.

[4:33] Martha Plimpton: That's true. That's accurate.

[4:35] Martha Plimpton: Yeah, and then you, your family business is the entertainment business.

[4:39] Jan Svendsen: And so I wondered where did you sort of become such a you know activist or where did you learn your social responsibility?

[4:47] Martha Plimpton: Well, I was raised by women.

[4:50] Martha Plimpton: I was raised by a single mom who was herself raised by a single mom, who was herself raised by a single mom.

[4:59] Martha Plimpton: I come from a long line of them. Um, and uh I had a Nana who was an extraordinary woman who was uh, you know, very, very politically minded.

[5:10] Martha Plimpton: And I was surrounded by feminists from, you know, the time I popped out, as well as artists, and you know, artists are usually um very socially, you know, or civically minded in their own ways.

[5:27] Martha Plimpton: Um and so I just grew up in that environment. And so I think it was always just a part of uh my life to be engaged and to think of myself as a citizen um who had a voice.

[5:42] Martha Plimpton: I mean, uh, you know, I'm very fortunate in that way, in that, you know, I'm a white, straight woman, and uh, you know, I didn't feel uh as a young person that uh that I was being silenced or anything like that at a young age, and I think that's very fortunate.

[6:00] Martha Plimpton: I wish all children felt that way. Um, and that's kind of what we're working for, uh, all of us in this game.

[6:08] Martha Plimpton: But yeah, I think it's always been, it's always been there. And um, and then, you know, the the as far as you know, the right to choose and abortion rights, um, I think it was in the late teens, late my late teens and early 20s after I had my first abortion at 19.

[6:27] Martha Plimpton: Uh, and then, you know, coincidentally, or whatever you want to call the sign of the changing times, the Christian right began to exert a lot more pressure um on their base and to use abortion as a target um to uh to gin up their base.

[6:45] Martha Plimpton: And so we saw a lot more violence against clinics and violence against physicians, um, murders of physician, harassment of patients trying to get into clinics.

[6:57] Martha Plimpton: We saw a lot more of that happening in the early 90s, and that's when I became a more sort of dedicated and vocal uh advocate.

[7:08] Jan Svendsen: Wow. Um let's talk about AS4.

[7:11] Jan Svendsen: Um, would you share the story of the beginnings of AS4? How did you I mean you're having your 10th anniversary now?

[7:19] Martha Plimpton: How did it all start and and why?

[7:22] Martha Plimpton: Well, back in 2012, uh, you may remember, I mean, it feels like yesterday to me.

[7:29] Martha Plimpton: Um, we were having a big national debate, I guess, about um contraceptives in being covered by insurance plans.

[7:39] Martha Plimpton: And Sandra Fluke was a student at a Catholic university who uh wanted her insurance plan at her school to include contraceptives, which it did not.

[7:51] Martha Plimpton: And uh she was very vocal about it, and she attempted to testify in Congress.

[7:57] Martha Plimpton: She was prevented by a panel of all white men.

[8:01] Martha Plimpton: Um eventually she was permitted to testify, but not without consequence to her.

[8:06] Martha Plimpton: She was really dragged through the mud, extorted and uh made to uh feel ashamed and uh called all sorts of vile and disgusting names um uh by people you know across the the social spectrum, politicians as well as media personalities.

[8:27] Martha Plimpton: And you know, some friends of mine and I got together, a bunch of women uh at a friend's house here in Los Angeles and just started talking about what we could do because we were so angry.

[8:39] Martha Plimpton: I think we could see even then that we were gonna have to address the issue of stigma and shame when it came to abortion and reproductive health care, if we were gonna get anywhere at all.

[8:51] Martha Plimpton: And I think because we were joining in a massive effort by from that's been going on for many years, all different sorts of people, we wanted to be one small part of that and add our um whatever we could add as artists, as people in entertainment, as um as women, we wanted to add to that conversation.

[9:14] Martha Plimpton: And so that's what we've been doing for the last 10 years.

[9:17] Jan Svendsen: Can you tell me a little bit about how you guys are doing it?

[9:20] Martha Plimpton: Well, it ain't easy.

[9:22] Martha Plimpton: Yeah, it ain't easy.

[9:24] Martha Plimpton: But you know, we're we're still growing and we're still evolving, which is really great.

[9:29] Martha Plimpton: I mean, we're a largely volunteer organization with a very tiny staff and and an incredibly engaged and motivated board.

[9:37] Martha Plimpton: And so, and that's really what you need is an engaged and motivated board.

[9:42] Martha Plimpton: Um, and you know, Kelly Overby uh became our executive director a few years ago, and she is just phenomenal.

[9:50] Martha Plimpton: I mean, she makes this thing run like you can't believe.

[9:54] Martha Plimpton: And she is so committed and she is so dedicated to this work.

[9:58] Martha Plimpton: Uh, and and really Kelly Overby is and and her staff of excellent, excellent people is really what keeps this thing going.

[10:06] Martha Plimpton: But we we uh take donations, of course, and we use them for various programs.

[10:12] Martha Plimpton: For example, we have our beneficiaries program, which donates $1,500 a month to a different independent clinic or abortion fund or advocacy group, legal advocacy group.

[10:24] Martha Plimpton: And that's been fantastic because we've been able to highlight the work of so many people who don't really get the attention that they deserve and who really, really, really need the help.

[10:33] Martha Plimpton: You know, Planned Parenthood is an absolutely amazing organization, but they're not the only one.

[10:39] Martha Plimpton: And they have, you know, they have deep pockets.

[10:42] Martha Plimpton: And, you know, there are many, many other clinics like Red River and Whole Women's Health and Pink House and the Lilith Clinic.

[10:50] Martha Plimpton: I mean, that are all over the country that are particularly now really struggling to serve all of the influx of patients who are coming to them from hostile states.

[11:01] Martha Plimpton: So that's one. Then we have a really cool thing called the All It Takes is One Act Play Festival, where we uh accept submissions from playwrights of one acts centered around the subject or the topic of reproductive justice.

[11:25] Martha Plimpton: But on some level, they have to engage their audience in some way in the discussion about reproductive justice. And so far, we've given away thousands of dollars in prizes for that work. We've done two festivals online, virtual festivals, which have been phenomenal. And we've helped to highlight the work of emerging playwrights, which is really exciting to us. And we're hoping next year to be able to do a live performance of those plays at the festival for the first time because this, you know, began during the pandemic. The other thing we do is there's a clinic escort series comic book where we've compiled, uh, Lauren Rankin, our board member and the author of a new book that's out now that's great called Bodies on the Line.

She was a clinic escort for many years, and she compiled stories from clinic escorts across the country. And then we, you know, uh, sort of culled them down and chose 10 stories, and we had, uh, cartoonists from all over the place, uh, interpret those stories in drawing. And so we donated, I think almost 900 copies of the Clinic Escort Stories book to clinics and to escorts and to patients around the country. And now we're in the midst of putting together our second comic book series, which is going to be stories about traveling to obtain abortion. And so it's going to be edited by Emily Flake, the New Yorker cartoonist who's phenomenal. And, uh, she'll have a bunch of different artists drawing these stories, and then the proceeds from the sale of that book will go directly to the Brigid Alliance, which helps women travel to obtain late-term abortion, which is obviously very, very necessary and needed.

Um, and hopefully we'll be able to, uh, also donate a bunch of those comic books. And so we're working in all different kinds of genres and ways that use art to expand our emotional and our cultural conversation around the subject of abortion.

[13:28] Jan Svendsen: That's so interesting. You know, when the, um, when SCOTUS decision came down, um, I mean, it was just so shocking. I mean, even though we knew it was coming, it was still so shocking. And the first thing I did was I emailed Kelly and I said, "What do I do?" Like I couldn't, I didn't know who else to talk to. Um, so I, and I think this idea of stories, telling stories, is so important because, you know, again, when you're thinking about the stigma of abortion, you know, it's about everybody's story and people being able to relate to those stories, and every story is sort of, it's so unique, but yet there's a common thread. Actually, I've never done this, but I will tell my story really like here I go.

I'm giving an exclusive. Um, but I was living in Norway and I had just gotten married to a Norwegian. And I had moved from, you know, Southern California to Norway in the 80s. I had was like literally thrust in this, you know, totally new place, starting a new career, and I got pregnant and I wasn't ready to have a baby. I was just trying to get myself acclimated. And I have to tell you, back then, um, it wasn't a big deal at all, especially in Norway. It was just like, oh, okay, you want abortion, your body, you're right. Here you go. And it was just the most non-event event.

[14:45] Martha Plimpton: Yeah. And, you know, I think about that a lot these days because the way in which it was handled in that country. Um, and it was, it was not that it wasn't important, but it was, um, respected and it was, it felt, I don't want to use the word normal, but it felt typical. It felt okay, you know, like it didn't.

[15:09] Jan Svendsen: Well, it is normal, right?

[15:09] Martha Plimpton: Yeah. It is normal. It is normal. And I think, you know, first of all, thank you so much for sharing that story, because you know, I really appreciate hearing it, and, uh, and your experience is important. It's important to, um, hear the full range of experiences in this regard. Abortion is normal. Abortion is a medical procedure, it's as normal as getting pregnant, is normal. We in this country, we have to start recognizing that respect for life means respect for all of the myriad aspects of life and everything that that entails. And we can't shut off one part of our living reality because we don't like it, or because it's scary, or because we have some religious view or whatever. We can't turn that off and say, no, nobody gets to do this because I don't like it.

Uh, abortion is, uh, a basic reality of human life, and so the more we do talk about it, and the more we accept that, yeah, it is normal. I think, you know, that's part of the process of bringing this out into the open as a, uh, a regular, nuanced and different for everybody experience the same way pregnancy is, and by the way, you know, much safer than pregnancy or childbirth, particularly in this country.

[16:38] Jan Svendsen: So I, you know, I really appreciate that story, and I think look, in this day and age, we're not back in 1973. There are options, and there are very legitimate and safe options, particularly in the first trimester, to self-manage your abortion, and so it's important to recognize that things have really changed even since the time I had my first abortion at the age of 19. Miphapristone and mesoprostol are very, very safe, proven, tried and true medications that have been used for many, many decades and that can be very safely administered. You do not need to go to the doctor, you do not need to go to a clinic, and really what we're talking about is the ability for individuals to take into their own hands the, uh, the management of their own bodies and removing the middleman, you know what I mean? Even removing SCOTUS from the equation.

[17:36] Jan Svendsen: Yeah. Of course, there are legal ramifications in certain states that are particularly hostile, but there are resources out there to help people, the organizations that provide these medications will provide also counseling if you need it. They'll provide advice in terms of legal consequences in your state and helping to mitigate those. The pills even can be free if you can't afford them. But the important thing is that as you and I, people like us who are talking about this now, we need to sort of alter our thinking about this from one of a doctor-patient relationship, particularly in the first trimester. I wanna stress that to one of an individual taking their own decision and making their own decision without interference from anyone else. And that is possible now.

[18:22] Martha Plimpton: I have to ask you this question because I've become obsessed with this one TV show. Have you watched Call the Midwife?

[18:26] Jan Svendsen: No.

[18:29] Martha Plimpton: No. Okay. Anyone listening, if you're interested, Netflix, call the midwife. There's like 11 seasons. It's about this group of midwives in 19, like late 50s, early 60s in this east side of London. And you see what was going on there because abortion was illegal. So there were all these backroom abortions and all these women who were living below the poverty line, who had tons of kids who just who needed the support. And they really tackle the issues of abortion so well. So I highly recommend that for any of your, you know, sort of binging purposes. But I fly a lot between LA and New York, so I'm constantly like watching it. But it really is, it's interesting because it really shows you the history of abortion and the stigma which it had.

And hopefully you're right, you know, that we, you are, your organization is making a huge change. And, you know, even the decision by SCOTUS, it's interesting if you look sort of at the tea leaves right now for the midterm elections, because, you know, a lot of women who are Republican voting women, um, particularly in the suburbs, they are not happy about what happened, even though they might not have been sort of, you know, they might have been prized. Yes, but they're like, wait a minute, that's not, that's not, that's that's a game changer for me.

[19:47] Martha Plimpton: Like I don't want to be. Well, I think we all know that really you can have opinions about other people all you want, but when it comes right down to you, we all know that plenty of women who are pro-life get abortions. Plenty of women who protest outside abortion clinics turn up there one day to get one. That and, and that's not a judgment on them. That's a reality. That's life. Abortion is a part of life. So that's number one. But number two, the upsetting thing about the Dobbs decision, I mean, despite the fact that it even happened, the truly shocking thing, which because we weren't all shocked, we weren't surprised, we knew it was gonna happen, but the truly shocking thing is that it makes absolutely zero mention of the pregnant person.

Zero. There is nothing in that decision, and I mean that quite literally that talks about either consequences or reliance for the on the part of the pregnant person. And that I think is what really shocks the human conscience, is to recognize that on some level there seems to be this belief that the minute a person becomes pregnant, they cease to exist.

[21:08] Jan Svendsen: And the only thing that matters is the embryo or the fetus.

[21:14] Martha Plimpton: In other words, a person with a uterus who becomes pregnant has lost their full right of citizenship, their right to privacy, their right to pursue their career in the manner that they want, their right to pursue happiness, their right to liberty. And I think that's what this decision drew so starkly for us to see. It made no bones about it. It didn't even have to say we don't consider women people. It simply didn't even mention us.

[21:50] Jan Svendsen: What can people do? I mean, we can all write a check to AS4.

[21:55] Martha Plimpton: Sure. And I know you're going to be having a benefit soon. So let's talk a little bit about the benefit that's coming up.

[22:00] Jan Svendsen: Yeah. Um, so why don't we, why don't we talk about that first of all? Because it's timely.

[22:05] Martha Plimpton: Well, um, October 2nd at 54 Below in New York City, AS4 is going to have our 10th anniversary and, uh, of existence, and our seventh annual Broadway Acts for Abortion. Uh, this is an amazing and exciting and action-packed night in which Broadway performers come out in the only benefit that I know of, specifically dedicated to abortion rights and to eradicating abortion stigma. I'm extremely proud that we've been doing this for so long, and I'm hoping to bring more and more people into the fold of what we do because it's an opportunity for artists to not only, you know, show their solidarity and to have a lot of fun, but also to take a little bit of a risk themselves because every artist is paired with a prize, and the winning bidder gets to choose the song the artist sings with our live band and our band, our band leader Dan Lipton and our fantastic backup singers.

[23:11] Martha Plimpton: So they don't even know what they're gonna perform. It's such a blast. It's such a blast. It sounds so much fun. So let me just, um, let me just musical performances by Patti LuPone. Yes. Anne Harada, Lea DeLaria, Bonnie Milligan, um, Javier Muñoz, and a couple of others that I'm not permitted to announce quite. Surprise guests. I have to find out and get it. Yeah, exactly. A little bit closer to the date, and you'll find out. Very excited to see this. Um, it sounds really amazing. In order to support what you guys are doing, they're gonna come to this benefit, hopefully. If they can't attend, hopefully they can donate. But what are some other things that, um, that people can do to support reproductive justice?

[23:57] Martha Plimpton: Well, I think that it's a matter of really altering our thing, first of all, altering our thinking a little bit. You know, there's no real controversy about abortion. There's no debate about abortion. You know, I just the same way I don't really want to hear why a racist is racist or why a homophobe is a homophobe. I'm not interested in hearing from an anti-abortion person why I shouldn't have rights, you know. That part of the conversation, it's over now. We've heard enough. I'm not interested, and nobody else is either, frankly. I think the only reason we're still listening to people like that is so news, you know, shows can get ratings. But that's number one. Just, you know, tune that stuff out and focus on what you what it means to you to have personal freedom and bodily autonomy, and what it means to you to be able to wake up every morning knowing that your destiny is in your hands.

Um, what it means to you to know that your neighbor has that same right and has that same, should have that same right and that same freedom to make their decisions, to grow up a trans person without harassment or fear or punishment or judgment, to grow up with a trans person without being ripped away from your family, to grow up a teenager or a young person and to know that if you are horrifically victimized by someone that you will not be forced to carry that pregnancy to term by someone in an office miles away who doesn't care about you and doesn't know you. Think about those people and think about abortion access as a community responsibility rather than a legal issue or an emotional, a church issue or, you know, something abstract off in the distance.

Think about it as something that every community should have access to and find out about abortion pills and make the knowledge about self-managed abortion. Uh, educate yourself, make the knowledge of self-managed abortion available to people in your neighborhood, and as well donate to independent clinics. They're the ones that need your help the most. They're Planned Parenthood. I love them. I still work with them and I believe in them enormously. And I will never stop supporting Planned Parenthood and the brave people who work there. But it's independent abortion clinics who are taking on the incredible influx of patients streaming in from all sorts of states that are hostile to abortion and who are really doing the really, really major work of having to turn people away because they just don't have the resources.

So that's number two. And number three, um, you can, you know, educate yourself about this issue and ultimately make a decision to be, you know, not ashamed, not ashamed to talk about this medical reality, not ashamed to talk about the fact that life is messy, life is complicated, things happen, you know, they don't need to have a sob story or a tragic medical history. They don't have to open their wounds in front of you to justify having your respect. Nobody needs to do that. So that those are the three things that I would say are pretty critical. Thank you. I want to hug you through this, uh, this microphone here. Thank you for saying that.

[27:21] Jan Svendsen: Thank you. Thank you. I wonder, you know, what other, I mean, I know obviously this is the big cause, but are there other causes that you feel passionate about that, um, that you want to talk about?

[27:32] Martha Plimpton: Well, I think it's interesting because I think reproductive justice, you know, dovetails with many, many other issues in our culture. And I think that, you know, for example, I mentioned LGBTQIA+ youth. Um, these are issues that are totally connected to reproductive justice. Um, you know, homelessness, poverty, homelessness, poverty, um, the maternal mortality rate, uh, health care, you know, all of these things are related. You know, it's no accident that countries that have access to legal and safe abortion care and reproductive health care services have a greater GDP than those who don't per capita. It's no accident that countries that have access to these services have more females and women involved in, um, business, have more, have higher rates of literacy, have healthier families, um, you know, people who are able to choose, uh, if or how many children to have healthier kids that they are more able to care for.

It leads to a healthier society in every way when women are permitted, women and people with uteruses who aren't women, when they're permitted to make their own decisions and contribute to the culture and society. And that's also related to trans kids. Being able to play high school sports is a contribution, all of these things. Gay marriage is a contribution, it's a participation in society, and we should celebrate that. And we should understand that to be truly healthy in our world, we've got to respect all the myriad, many, many ways there are to be human.

[29:23] Jan Svendsen: So well said. And as you were talking, I was thinking a lot about, um, Norway and Scandinavia because those countries are the quote unquote happiest places on earth and the highest quality of life. And they are exactly what as you described it, you know. Um, they really do take care of that. So thank you for all that. I'm so inspired. Um, speaking of inspiration, um, any new projects or what are you working on right now?

[29:48] Martha Plimpton: Well, I'm really excited because Sprung has just been on Freevee. It's all 10 episodes are out now, and it's still available to stream. And I just love the show. I just think it's so brilliant and so funny. And I've been getting such wonderful, marvelous feedback from not only fans, but my friends and everyone who watches this says they love it. And I'm just really, really proud of it. Um, and I have another show coming out in next year on Sky called The Town Called Malice. It's a British TV show. I'm really excited about.

[30:19] Jan Svendsen: Oh, that's awesome. At least now I'll have some other things to watch while I'm on the plane. Thank you.

[30:23] Martha Plimpton: Yeah. Sure. Sprung has sprung. Um, so if you had to articulate what are your hopes and dreams, I guess, for Broadway for the entertainment business in the future. How would you want to see our industry sort of turnaround and what would be most important to you? Like if you could have stand on the soapbox and talk to everybody in the entertainment world, what would you say to them?

[30:47] Martha Plimpton: First of all, there are already so many wonderful changes going on in the world of the theater, just in terms of inclusivity and opening up our wallets and our theaters to new ideas that aren't maybe so new, but just haven't been heard before. And giving those voices a platform, I think it's been there's been tremendous progress. But there needs to be more. Same access to our stages and to our halls of production and to our, you know, our commercial and our non-commercial theaters. Um, so that's really exciting. But I think, uh, in terms of reproductive health care, I really would like to see. I mean, I would like to see, uh, you know, Plan B available to every single person who needs it. And I'd like to see abortion pills available to every single person who needs them. And I really would like for just in our culture for us to be able to talk about that without turning it into some kind of soap opera, you know.

[32:08] Jan Svendsen: As a last word, if you could tell our listeners just the whole idea of the word philanthropy or activism or social impact, or I mean, there's so many words for charity. You know, what would you, what advice would you give people on how to become what I like to call everyday philanthropists or everyday activists?

[32:28] Martha Plimpton: Yeah, that's a great phrase. I don't know. I think it means something different for everybody. So I wouldn't really know what advice to give in that way. Just speaking for myself, it's just, you know, it's like Muhammad Ali said, or somebody said, I don't know who said it, it's the price I pay for being on this earth, you know. Figure out what matters to you and what makes you feel free, not fearful, not afraid, not threatened, but free inside. What gives you that feeling of freedom? And try and imagine how wonderful it would be if everyone else had that too.

[33:07] Jan Svendsen: That is a perfect way to end this podcast. Thank you so much.

[33:10] Martha Plimpton: Thank you so much.

[33:12] Jan Svendsen: Thanks a lot. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Broadway Gives Back Podcast. Broadway Gives Back is part of the Broadway Podcast Network. Special thanks to my producing partner, writer, editor, and friend, Jim Lochner. And thank you to everyone at BPN, including Dori Berinstein, Alan Seales, and Kimberlee Garris. I'd also like to thank Julian Hills from the Bulldog Agency and Eric Becker from Broderick Street Music. If you like what you hear, don't forget to subscribe and rate this podcast wherever you stream your podcasts. You can also follow Broadway Gives Back on Facebook and Instagram at Broadway Gives Back Podcast and on Twitter at Broadway Gives. To learn more, visit BPN.fm slash Broadway Gives Back. Thanks so much.