By the time Monica Lewinsky’s name left the headlines, it had already outlived its usefulness to the culture that chewed it up. For decades, she was little more than a punchline. But if you listen closely now—not to the old late-night monologues or the think pieces, but to her actual voice—you’ll hear something else entirely: Calm. Humor. Control. Grace. And perhaps most surprising of all… empathy. In Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky, a podcast she launched with the backing of Vanity Fair and Acast, Lewinsky invites listeners into a series of conversations that are striking in their intimacy, but also in their warmth.
The debut episode opens with Monica in conversation with radio producer Elna Baker. What begins as a reflective account of her early 20s—and the shame that made her “a punchline in perpetuity”—quickly shifts into a different register. It’s not about the scandal. It’s about survival. “I had to grow into someone who could handle the weight of being misunderstood,” she says at one point. It’s a moment that sticks with you—not just because of what she’s saying, but because of how long it’s taken for anyone to let her say it without interruption.
That thread continues throughout the show. In each episode, she invites guests—some famous, some not—to speak about the moments they’ve had to take back something that was taken from them. Alan Cumming discusses coming to terms with an abusive father. Olivia Munn opens up about the misogyny she faced in Hollywood. Kesha talks about spiritual survival and how changing one lyric in TikTok was her own quiet rebellion.
One of the most powerful episodes features actress Sophia Bush, who details the abusive environment on a television set that nearly broke her. She talks about her body shutting down from stress. About being silenced. About being told she’d never work again if she walked away. Monica doesn’t push for lurid details. She simply sits in the silence with her.
There are a lot of podcasts that promise vulnerability, but Reclaiming delivers something deeper: a lived philosophy. Lewinsky talks often about “owning your narrative,” but she doesn’t mean it in a hustle-culture, TED-talk kind of way. For her—and for the guests who’ve walked dark roads of shame, trauma, or public scrutiny—it’s about choosing how to live after. It’s about refusing to let the world write your ending.
