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Women Rising Radio

Website:

www.womenrisingradio.com/
Type:

Feminist radio show
Parent Organization:

Media Freedom Foundation
Founder and Producer:

Lynn Feinerman

Contact InfluenceWatch with suggested edits or tips for additional profiles.

Women Rising Radio is a feminist radio show that profiles women activists in leadership positions and airs on the Progressive Radio Network. 1 It covers many left-of-center issues including abortion, anti-energy activism, anti-militarism, climate change, gender activism, immigration, and alleged voter suppression. 2

Women Rising Radio is a fiscally sponsored project of the Media Freedom Foundation and a partner of Project Censored and the International Media Project. 1 3 4

Activities

Women Rising Radio’s flagship radio show covers many left-of-center issues including abortion, anti-energy activism, anti-militarism, climate change, gender activism, immigration, and alleged voter suppression.  2

In addition to the radio show, Women Rising Radio produces films. The project has produced eight films, each of which addresses a left-of-center theme, including environmentalism, feminism, and social-democratic economics. 5

Women Rising Radio also publishes essays detailing the lives of female leaders. 6

Media Freedom Foundation

The Media Freedom Foundation is the fiscal sponsor of Women Rising Radio. 1 It is an advocacy organization for investigative news media established in 2000 by university professors Carl Jensen and Peter Phillips. It was created to provide oversight for Project Censored, a project that opposes news censorship and promotes independent left-wing investigative journalism. 7 Project Censored publishes an annual list of what it sees as the most under-reported news stories and is considered the longest-running research project on news media censorship. 8 9

Left-of-center media activism group Free Press gave the Media Freedom Foundation and its Project Censored program a $600,000 grant in 2023. 10

Partner Groups

Women Rising Radio is a partner of Project Censored, another media project of the Media Freedom Foundation. Project Censored is a weekly public affairs radio program that introduces “the news that didn’t make the news” each week, focusing on political, social, and economic issues from a left-of-center perspective. The program began broadcasting in 2010 and is nationally syndicated. 11

Women Rising Radio also partners with International Media Project, a nonprofit organization founded in 1994 and committed to left-wing investigative journalism. The two organizations collaborated to produce a film and a radio episode related to the film Guardians of the Amazon Rainforest which traced the role of women in Amazonian culture. 4 5

Leadership

Lynn Feinerman is the creator and as of 2025 was working as the producer of the Women Rising Radio project. Her movies have won awards, including EcoRap: Voices From the ‘Hood, which was chosen by the Library of Congress as part of its historical film archive. Feinerman also organized protests during the Vietnam War era and more recently in the Middle East. Her writing has appeared in Tikkun magazine, Common Dreams online, the Pacific Sun, San Francisco Guardian, the LA Weekly, the Berkeley Monthly, the New York Daily Forward, La Opinion, LA Woman magazine, and other journals. She received a B.A. from Smith College and did graduate studies in cinema at the University of Southern California. 12

Financials

Women Rising Radio is a fiscally sponsored project of the Media Freedom Foundation. In 2024, Media Freedom Foundation reported $871,853 in total revenue, $639,317 in total expenses, and $473,885 in total assets. 13

From 2020 to 2022, the Rachel and Ben Vaughan Foundation donated a total of $42,000 to Women Rising Radio through its partner institution, the International Media Project. 14 In 2022, RSF Social Finance also donated $5,200 to Women Rising Radio through the International Media Project. 15 Again in 2023, RSF Social Finance donated $7,500 to Women Rising Radio, this time through its new fiscal sponsor, the Media Freedom Foundation. 16

Additional “friends” of Women Rising Radio include Amnesty International, the Center For Reproductive Rights, the Center for Health and Gender Equity, Human Rights Watch, Just Associates, and the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice. 17

References

  1. “About the Project.” Women Rising Radio. Accessed July 7, 2025. https://www.womenrisingradio.com/about/about-the-project/
  2.  “Listen – By Topic.” Women Rising Radio. Accessed July 7, 2025. https://www.womenrisingradio.com/listen/by-topic/
  3. “About Project Censored.” Project Censored. Accessed July 7, 2025. https://www.projectcensored.org/about/?doing_wp_cron=1751815643.7019081115722656250000
  4. “Women Rising Radio: Guardians of the Amazon Rainforest.” KKFI. Accessed July 7, 2025. https://kkfi.org/program-episodes/women-rising-radio-guardians-amazon-rainforest/
  5. “Our Movies.” Women Rising Radio. Accessed July 7, 2025. https://www.womenrisingradio.com/our-movies/
  6. “Featured Essay.” Women Rising Radio. Accessed July 7, 2025. https://www.womenrisingradio.com/explore/featured-essay/
  7. “Historical Highlights.” Project Censored. Accessed July 7, 2025. https://www.projectcensored.org/historical-highlights/
  8. “Home.” Project Censored. Accessed July 7, 2025. https://www.projectcensored.org/
  9. “HONORING CARL JENSEN.” Congressional Record. July 28, 2015. Accessed July 7, 2025. https://irp.fas.org/congress/2015_cr/jensen.html
  10. “Free Press – 2023 Federal Form 990.” ProPublica. Accessed July 7, 2025. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/412106721/202441029349301104/full
  11. “Project Censored.” KPFA. Accessed July 7, 2025. https://kpfa.org/program/project-censored/
  12. “About Us.” Women Rising Radio. Accessed July 7, 2025. https://www.womenrisingradio.com/about/about-us/
  13. “Media Freedom Foundation – 2023 Federal Form 990.” ProPublica. Accessed July 7, 2025. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/943383394/202433249349301238/full
  14. “Rachael & Ben Vaughan Foundation.” Grantmakers.io. 2022. Accessed July 7, 2025. https://www.grantmakers.io/profiles/v0/746040479-rachael-and-ben-vaughan-foundation/?query=Women%20Rising
  15. “Rsf Social Finance Inc – 2022 Federal Form 990.” ProPublica. Accessed July 7, 2025. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/136082763/202333189349318443/full
  16. “Rsf Social Finance Inc – 2023 Federal Form 990.” ProPublica. Accessed July 7, 2025. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/136082763/202433199349318333/full
  17. “Friends of the Project.” Women Rising Radio. Accessed July 7, 2025. https://www.womenrisingradio.com/about/friends-of-the-project/
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