Podcast Summary:

There Are No Girls on the Internet
Episode: Epstein was connected to power. What happened when women called it out?
Host: Bridget Todd
Release Date: August 5, 2025

Main Theme & Purpose

This episode revisits the story of Ottawa Mboya, a Kenyan technologist and former MIT grad student, who publicly challenged MIT’s Media Lab over its secret financial ties with Jeffrey Epstein—well before these ties sparked national outrage through Ronan Farrow’s reporting. Host Bridget Todd uses Ottawa’s journey as a lens to examine how marginalized women, especially Black women and women from the global South, are often the first to speak truth to institutional power online, but remain ignored, dismissed, or even attacked until powerful (often white male) figures echo their concerns. The episode asks: Who gets to be heard, and what does it cost to speak out from the margins?

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Background on the MIT/Epstein Scandal

• Bridget Todd recaps how MIT’s Media Lab accepted money from Epstein—even after his conviction for sex offenses—and attempted to cover it up, treating Epstein as a donor who could not be named, known internally as "Voldemort" ([05:12] – [06:39]).
• Whistleblowers like Sydney Swenson and prominent faculty such as Ethan Zuckerman resigned or spoke out.
• Ronan Farrow’s New Yorker exposé brought broader attention and led to the resignation of Media Lab director Joi Ito.

2. Ottawa Mboya’s Call-Out and Repercussions

• Ottawa, inspired by her feminist upbringing and experience in tech, wrote a piece in The Tech (MIT's student paper) calling for Ito’s resignation, before Farrow's reporting ([07:03] – [10:13]).

• Her op-ed received attacks focusing on her race, background, and outsider status:

  "There were so many comments that had to do with my race and ethnicity and where I'm from as opposed to... not agreeing with me and my ideas." —Ottawa ([10:44])

• After Farrow's article, responses shifted—but many only took it seriously when reported by a "powerful white man" ([10:44] – [12:03]).

3. Courage, Community & Backlash

• Ottawa describes being motivated by women who stood up to greater dangers, referencing Beneath the Tamarind Tree (about the Chibok schoolgirls’ kidnapping in Nigeria) as a source of courage:

  "If they have this kind of courage to stand with a gun to their face... then if I believe in this thing, the least I can do is say it with my chest." —Ottawa ([13:45])

• She details backlash: an MIT website supporting Ito sprung up, signed by professors and peers, directly targeting her article.

  "For me, a whole website springing up... just because one student wrote an article is shocking to me." —Ottawa ([15:49])

4. Power, Money, & Institutions

• Bridget Todd and Ottawa discuss how Epstein’s donations gave him social cover, reputational redemption, and inoculation from scrutiny:

  "Once you've got the protection of that kind of power, it can be hard to penetrate power." —Bridget ([20:19])

• Ottawa questions whether men in power even perceived the moral gravity of accepting Epstein’s money, emphasizing the silencing of victims through institutional complicity ([20:56] – [22:36]).

• Ottawa points out the extent of Epstein’s network and its deliberate diffuseness as protection:

  "It almost seems kind of impossible" to untangle.
  "I'm a firm believer nothing is impossible... but there is, you know, especially with the people who are closer with him, there is a link with those people and victims." —Ottawa ([25:34], [25:43])

5. Community Response & The Bold Prize

• MIT’s Disobedience Award (with irony, a replica given to Epstein) prompts conversation about who gets rewarded for "speaking truth to power."

• Sabrina Hersey Issa, founder of Be Bold Media, describes seeing Ottawa’s leadership erased or vilified, while powerful men’s courage is validated:

  "The invisibility of her leadership. When a white guy says the same thing... his safety... was never in question." —Sabrina ([35:56])

• Sabrina launches the Bold Prize, crowdfunding over $40,000 to honor Ottawa and reframe narratives of moral courage ([36:55] – [41:29]):

  "I wanted this young woman to know that I see her... I wanted to use my voice and my power and my relationships and resources to shift the conversation from blame to leadership, from the world as it is to the world that it should be." —Sabrina ([36:55])

6. Advice, Legacy, and Hope for Change

• Ottawa, reflecting on her experience, counsels women to draw strength from others before speaking out:

  "You're gonna need so much energy to keep going and to, like, not backtrack in what you said because people don't agree with you.... drawing power from other women in history and time... gives you stamina." —Ottawa ([44:17])

• Bridget and Ottawa emphasize that community and solidarity can create new, bolder systems, not just call out broken ones ([45:03]).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Race, Power, and Whose Voices Matter

• Ottawa:

  "It's only when a powerful, and not just white man, but a powerful white man writes about it, that it's enough to sort of sway people's opinions or feelings, or at least their vocal ones." ([10:44])

On the Cost of Speaking Out

• Ottawa:

  "It sucked. I mean, the very next day... a website comes out saying, we support Joe Ito. And it's signed by pretty much like every professor at the Media Lab... And so, you know, it wasn't nice. I was getting, you know, some not nice comments, but I was able to ignore most of them and feel okay. But it really highlighted to me how fearful people can get when you speak the truth or when you say your own truth." ([15:49])

On Institutional Complicity

• Ottawa:

  "There is a massive incentive to ignore certain problems or ethics if you're going to get power by ignoring them.... I don't think men get it all the time." ([20:56])

On Building a Different Future

• Sabrina:

  "I want to build a future with leaders like Ottawa who not only make choices to do the hard, see something hard and do it anyway, but are willing to absorb the blowback that comes with it because it's the right thing to do." ([40:30])

On the Power of Community

• Bridget:

  "Women being in community with each other and lifting each other up and inspiring each other to speak our truths. Well, that's powerful enough to create new systems..." ([45:03])

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:45] – Trigger warning, episode introduction
• [05:12 – 06:39] – MIT’s cover-up and Farrow’s exposé recap
• [07:03 – 10:13] – Ottawa’s background, upbringing, and motivation
• [10:44 – 12:03] – Why voices from the margins are dismissed
• [13:45 – 15:49] – Finding courage and facing backlash
• [20:56 – 23:18] – Institutional complicity, money, and the structure of power
• [26:39 – 28:08] – The challenge of changing beloved institutions
• [36:55 – 41:29] – Creation of the Bold Prize and reframing leadership
• [44:17 – 45:03] – Advice for women speaking truth to power

Takeaway

This episode powerfully illustrates the personal cost of public dissent when you stand outside systems of power, especially for Black women and other marginalized voices. It highlights how communities of women—connecting across continents and professional hierarchies—can intervene where institutions and powerful individuals fail to act. The creation of the Bold Prize is not just a story of recognition, but of rewriting the rules for whose courage and leadership get celebrated, and how a network of voices can start to shift the future from the ground up.