Meghan Markle Archetypes podcast tops the Spotify charts in both the US and UK since launching last month with living legends Serena Williams and Mariah Carey.

According to the podcast description, Meghan Markle Archetypes weekly podcast aims to “investigate, dissect, and subvert the labels that try to hold women back”. So, what are the highlights of the first two episode? We give you a summary of this below.

The Misconception with Ambition with Serena Williams

In the first Archetypes interview, Serena and Meghan share their adoration for one another as close friends, as they laugh about inside jokes they have with one another, and also celebrate each other’s wins.

In the thought-provoking episode, the two celebrities talk about how ambition is often referred to as a “dirty, dirty word when it comes to women”, in Meghan’s words.

“…ambition is often referred to as a “dirty, dirty word when it comes to women”

From making King Richard, to being a mum, the episode shared ambitious moves that tennis trailblazer Serena has and is striving for. The two mothers also connected on being mums in the public eye. Meghan touched on a particularly moving situation in which her first born, Archie, was nearly involved in a nursery fire during their royal tour of South Africa, but she had to go out to an official engagement the next day. Markle shared how much she struggled to deal with that in her role at the time as the Duchess of Sussex. The former actor said: “So much I think, optically, the focus ends up being on how it looks like instead of how it feels.”

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During the episode, Serena also touched on one of the most controversial moments in her tennis career; her match at the US Open 2004 quarter finals against Jennifer Capriati. Opening up about this, the 40-year-old said: “In that match, I gained this fear of hitting because every time I hit a ball, they would call it out… it became impossible to play because they just kept calling them out.”

Speaking on how the press has spoken about Serena’s reactions to unfair decisions, she recalled reading an article which labelled a fellow male tennis player’s dissatisfied reaction to a game as “passionate”, yet in the same article described her own reaction as “aggressive” or “having a meltdown”, an all too familiar trope often thrown at Black women.

“The diva thing evolved… I play with it for laughs”

This episode did a good job at pointing out the struggles women encounter when in positions of power. Even if you’re not in the public eye like Serena and Meghan, you’re likely to relate to it in the workplace, for example, trying to climb the corporate ladder and being challenged by a glass ceiling, controlled by gatekeeping men.

The Duality of Diva with Mariah Carey

The second episode of Archetypes featured musical legend, Mariah Carey and how the word “Diva” has developed negative connotations over the years. However, as Meghan points out in the podcast, Mariah Carey is an example of someone who famously embraces the word.

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In the episode, the “Emotions” singer shared how she was bullied in school for wearing three shirts on rotation and growing up mixed in a predominantly white neighbourhood. Weighing in on why she so boldly embraces the term “Diva”, Mariah said that she takes it both as a compliment and a criticism. “The diva thing evolved… I play with it for laughs”, the Grammy award winner said.

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This episode was a great example of embracing a word that is often used to tear women down and turning that notion on its head to instead celebrate aspirational women.

Overall, these first two episodes of the Archetypes podcast have proved to be one to look out for and we are looking forward to future episodes.