Join us for a powerful evening of discussion.
About this Event
“It’s time to remember who taught humanity how to be human.” – Margaret Cho, Narrator & Executive Producer
Join and for a powerful evening of film, conversation, and connection, featuring Rhode Island Senator, Lori Urso, and other trailblazers.
This exclusive screening of WISE WOMEN — HUMANITY’S UNTOLD ORIGINS, featuring Margaret Cho, is part of our FairShot Film Series, showcasing bold, diverse stories of trailblazers and untold stories of women in history.
This feature documentary rewrites the story of human evolution by centering the leaders history forgot: post-menopausal women. What began as a filmmaker’s attempt to help his wife through menopause becomes a sweeping rediscovery of how post-reproductive women shaped civilization — and why it’s time to listen to them again.
Why do humans — alone among primates — experience menopause? What if it isn’t decline, but the evolutionary leap that made cooperation, leadership, and civilization possible? What Henze and Debroux uncover is as urgent as it is groundbreaking: The Wise Women Hypothesis — a science-backed theory showing how elder women, freed from childbearing, became the steady hands navigating the social complexity of early society, managing fire, guiding kinship, preserving knowledge, and expanding the brainpower that made us human.
Told with bold storytelling, humor, and insight — featuring narrator and executive producer Margaret Cho, produced by Oscar-winner Jonathan Sanger, and executive produced by Madeline Di Nonno of the Geena Davis Institute — Wise Women is more than a film. It’s a reminder that humanity rose under women’s leadership, and a call to let them lead again.
After the film, stay for a dynamic panel discussion on the role we can play in supporting women — a timely conversation exploring how we can reshape workplaces for the future of humanity.
📽️ Film Screening: 6:00 – 7:30 PM
🎤 Panel Discussions: 7:30 – 8:00 PM
🤝 Networking Reception: 8:00 – 9:00 PM
🕠 Doors open at 5:30 PM
Panelists include:
Lori Urso, Rhode Island Senator; Gloria Feldt, Speaker, Author, CEO & Co-Founder Take The Lead; and other trailblazers leading the conversation in menopause health and breaking new pathways for women’s leadership.
Don't miss this night of storytelling, advocacy, and community. Whether you're part of the 50% of the population that will go through menopause, HR leader, manager, or ally — this evening offers inspiration and insight for all.
Agenda
🕑: 05:30 PM - 06:00 PM
Doors Open
🕑: 06:00 PM - 07:30 PM
Wise Women: Humanity's Untold Origins
🕑: 07:30 PM - 09:00 PM
Panel Discussion and Reception
Event venue & nearby stays
Angelika Film Center & Cafe - New York, 18 West Houston Street, New York, United States
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.