© 2024 Iowa Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

The Woman Cards Have Been Dealt: Iowa Brother and Sister Sell Out of "Woman Cards"

Zebby Wahls
Depictions of Zach and Zebby Wahls in the style of the portraits on "The Woman Cards" as drawn by Zebby.

During this hour of River to River, host Ben Kieffer talks with Zach and Zebby Wahls of Iowa City about a hugely successful deck of playing cards they designed inspired by the 2016 presidential campaign.  

“This project was inspired by Hillary Clinton’s comment in response to Donald Trump: ‘If fighting for women’s health care and paid family leave and equal pay is playing the woman card, then deal me in.’ We wanted to take a really negative comment and turn it into something positive,” says Zach Wahls.

Zach and Zebby launched a Kickstarter campaign in April to raise money to create a deck of playing cards called The Woman Cards to celebrate significant American women in history. Their goal was to raise $5,000, and they ended up raising more that $150,000 from over 5,000 backers. They tell Kieffer during this interview how they chose the woman who would appear in the cards and talk about the possibility of a second edition.

Zebby says she spent 11 hours drawing every card.  

“Honestly I think Amelia Earhart became the most difficult woman to draw,” says Zebby. “And I think that was because I was trying to depict her personality and likeness that didn’t have a giant flying airplane. I wanted to have a moment of her taking off her flight goggles. I think it ended up being my favorite.” 

Then, during the second half of this River to River program, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Northern Iowa Donna Hoffman joins the conversation along with two Republican caucus-goers who we check in with earlier this year. 

Lindsey Moon is IPR's Senior Digital Producer
Ben Kieffer is the host of IPR's River to River