Donne come noi

Donna Moderna, the Mondadori Group brand edited by Annalisa Monfreda, has chosen Storytel, Europe’s leading audiobook platform, for its debut in the world of podcasts.

And it will do so with ten new stories that are an ideal extension of the Donne come noi experience, the project dedicated to female empowerment which is already a book, a theatre show that continues to tour Italy, and a training course with stages around the country to inform our readers.

Every Wednesday, from 25 September, for ten consecutive weeks, the Storytel platform will launch a brand new podcast, entirely conceived, written and spoken by the staff of Donna Moderna. The voices of the journalists will alternate with those of the protagonists: normal women who have realised extraordinary achievements and distinguished themselves for their strength and tenacity and shown themselves able to overturn the gender stereotypes to challenge the rules of the game and conquer new space.

A full list of episodes:

25 September Donne che non abbassano la testa (Women that don’t bend)

                        An entrepreneur, a judge and a reporter in the sights of the mafia

2 October        La rivincita delle scienziate (The revenge of women scientists)

                        Lucia Votano, a researcher born in 1947, and a battle still to be won

9 October       Ragazze nel pallone (Football girls)

                        Sara Gama, the World Cup with the national team and the long road to equality in sport

16 October      Una chef controcorrente (A chef against the grain)

                        Cristina Bowerman and the rise of female Italian chefs in starred kitchens

23 October      L’altra metà dell’architettura (The other half of architecture)

Sandy Attia and the challenge of sustainable design in a world of male archistars

30 October      Noi, mamme acrobate (Acrobat mums)

A journey through the dreams and problems of single mothers, from choice or necessity

6 November    La rivoluzione verde (The green revolution)

The Anglo-Italian designer Orsola De Castro talks about a different and more ethical fashion

13 November Io sono super abile   (I am super-capable)

Paralympic athlete Martina Caironi and the desire to start again with a broken body

20 November Donna per scelta (Women from choice)

Arianna and the others, born in the wrong body, and their difficult transition

27 November Steve Jobs è femmina (Steve Jobs is female)

The three very young Italian programmers that are designing the digital future

Sign up on eee.storytel.it/donnamoderna and download the Storytel app to your smartphone or tablet where you can find the Donne come noi podcast and start listening. With the app and the tag #donnamoderna you can discover, as well as the episodes of the podcast, a series of titles (non-fiction, novels and podcasts) published by Storytel and recommended by the staff of the magazine. Registration will give you a free 30-day trial of the service – after which you can decided to continue your subscription at a cost of €9.99 per month – and provides access to the entire Storytel catalogue, that includes some 100,000 titles in three languages.

Donna Moderna, is Italy’s leading network for women that through the magazine reaches 3.5 million readers every month (source: Audipress 2019/I) and on web and social media channels, a digital audience of 10.3 million unique users per month (Source: Audiweb Mar-May 2019) to which should be added over 1,300,000 fans on Facebook, more than 500,000 followers on Twitter and 175,000 on Instagram.

Storytel was founded in 2005 and is a digital pioneer in the market for audiobooks, a sector that is growing rapidly. Storytel is currently the biggest streaming service in Northern Europe for audiobooks and operates in 19 markets around the world. Launched in Italy in June 2018, in the Italian market it boasts a catalogue of over 65,000 titles in English and around 4,000 in Italian, including many exclusives and podcasts. The offer was further enhanced in the summer with the addition of Spanish, with around 3,000 titles, reflecting the value of linguistic variety that has always underpinned the international spirit of Storytel.

Donne come noi (Women Like Us), the Donna Moderna project dedicated to female empowerment, continues to grow and launches a series of new initiatives aimed at taking the message in 2019 to an even larger number of people, not just in theatres but also in companies and universities.

“Donne come noi is no longer just a book, or a show, or a training course, but an authentic movement, which we are re-launching from 7 March. Our ambition is to reach Italian women of all ages, from middle and high schools to universities, and from companies to professionals, businesswomen and housewives, and to encourage them to think big, giving them both inspiration and the tools to reach their goals,” declared the editor of Donna Moderna, Annalisa Monfreda.

It all started from a book written by thee magazine’s editorial team – published by Sperling&Kupfer – that tells the stories of 100 contemporary Italian women who have managed to realise the small miracle of reaching the highest levels in their job, in the arts and sciences.

The book went on to inspire a theatre show – on stage on 7 March at the Teatro Franco Parenti, which produced the show – written by Giulia Minoli and Emanuela Giordano, with the exceptional protagonist: Tosca. On stage with her will be 5 actresses and singers who, with words and music, will tell stories of women who have been able to transform difficulties, obstacles and prejudices into opportunities. From Chiara Montanari, the first woman to lead an expedition to the Antarctic, to Fabiola Gianotti, director of the prestigious Cern Institute in Geneva, and from the athlete Irma Testa, Italy’s first female boxer at the Olympics to Alessandra Laricchia, the first female ranger on the African savannah.

The third step of this project was the creation of a training course organised in different stages across Italy, that provided concrete skills such as team working, time management, how to reconfigure your own career, thinking outside the box and learning how to tell your story.

This year the show will also take in companies, schools and universities, touring Italy as a “educational moment” made up of the Donne come noi theatre show, a short piece featuring three actresses and a cello. Along with the show will be a training course with an inspiring live testimony by one of the protagonists of the book and a two-hour workshop with an acting teacher who, using exercises, techniques and games typical of methods of theatrical improvisation, will help participants to work and reflect on how to prepare to avoid being judgemental, to accept and listen to and enhance oneself and others, how to establish relationships of trust and support, how to challenge oneself, participate and collaborate.

Some of the basic skills required by improvisational theatre include a capacity to be aware of the self and of others, to develop clear and positive communication, to valorise and integrate suggestions and different points of view, to adopt choices instinctively and spontaneously, and to work as a team towards a common objective. All gifts that are both useful and beneficial for individual affirmation and success in the workplace, in studies and also in the personal sphere.
For more information, please go to: www.donnamoderna.com/donne-come-noi.

Donne come noi is the name of the show produced by Donna Moderna, in collaboration with the Teatro Franco Parenti, that will open in Milano on 17 April 2018 before going on to tour Italy.

Based on the book of the same name, written by 34 journalists on the editorial team of the magazine, and published by Sperling & Kupfer. Donne come noi is a collection of 100 stories of contemporary Italian women who on the strength of their tenacity, competence and courage have achieved something important.

They include: Fabiola Gianotti director general of CERN, Pinin Brambilla Barcilon restorer of the Last Supper, Elena Cattaneo pharmacologist, biologist and life senator, well know for her research in stem cells and Huntington’s disease, Chiara Vigo weaver and the world’s last great expert of fine linen, Paola Zukar the lady of rap and manager of artists such as Fabri Fibra and Marracash, Roberta Buzzolani Chief Prosecutor of Sciacca, Francesca Bosco one of Italy’s best-known criminologists, Bebe Vio fencer and paralympic champion, Sofia Goggia one of the world’s leading skiers and winner of the downhil gold medal at the recent Winter Olympic Games.

The show by Giulia Minoli and Emanuela Giordano, brings to the stage 5 actors who interpret some of the protagonists of the book, accompanied by piano, cello and accordion. The leading part is played by actor and singer Tosca with Giovanna Famulari, Maria Chiara Augenti, Eleonora De Luca, Rita Ferraro and Fabia Salvucci who together will tell the stories of women who have changed ytheir lives and those of others, that are a hope for the future, who can be taken as models and examples.

Donne come noi is a project dedicated to female empowerment. Empowerment means giving both power and responsibility to someone. In this case it means encouraging women to think big. Donna Moderna, the Mondadori Group weekly edited by Annalisa Monfreda, wants to achieve this with an inspiring book, a show that is meaningful and moving and with training courses that develop concrete skills.
Teamwork, time management, career reconfiguration, thinking outside the box, learning to tell your story: these are just some of the skills that the training course, offered for free in many Italian towns and cities, aims to develop.
The objective of the training course is to provide participants with the so-called soft skills, that today count so much in the selection of candidates. The team of trainers will be supported by a number of professionals from companies who will bring their knowledge and experience.

L’Oréal Paris is supporting Donna Moderna in this project, just as it is always on the side of women, in terms of beauty but also in terms of self-esteem, as is expressed by the company’s famous claim “Because I’m worth it”. L’Oréal supports women by encouraging them to see themselves as “unlimited” with regard to realising their potential.
L’Oréal Paris offers the show and the training courses for free to Italian women so that everyone can learn to believe in their own worth.

For more information, please visit: www.donnamoderna.com/donne-come-noi.