The Playboy Bunny is one of America’s most recognizable symbols, but it never represented a single experience.
Candace Jordan was both a Bunny and a Playmate in the ‘70s, and remembers Playboy as a source of sisterhood, ambition, opportunity and lifelong belonging.
Victoria Valentino was Miss September 1963, and for her, becoming a Playmate became tied to family rejection and an identity she never wanted.
Decades later, both women look back on the same famous institution, and reveal two profoundly different truths about power, choice, survival and what lived on beyond the photographs.
Suggested episodes:
- Going Flat, or Building New Breasts: Two Women’s Post-Mastectomy Stories
- Models On Beauty
- Behind The Screens: Hollywood Hairstyling, Coordinating Intimacy, And Illustrating The Great British Bake Off
GUESTS:
- Candace Jordan: Former Playboy Bunny, Chicago’s 1976 Bunny of the Year and Playmate who appeared on nine Playboy covers. She later became a prominent Chicago writer, social chronicler and nonprofit supporter through her long-running Candid Candace brand
- Victoria Valentino: Was Playboy’s Miss September 1963. A former hospice nurse and author of Dirty Diamonds, she became a prominent Bill Cosby accuser and has spent decades advocating for sexual assault survivors and legal reform
Jessica Severin de Martinez, Meg Fitzgerald, and Robyn Doyon-Aitken contributed to this show.
Audacious with Chion Wolf is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Tune In, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode.
