In this episode, I sit down with Jennifer Blackmer and Meg Crane to discuss the fascinating story behind the invention of the home pregnancy test. Meg shares her journey from working as a graphic designer and illustrator to developing a prototype that would empower women with the ability to test for pregnancy at home. Despite initial resistance and skepticism from (all male) executives, Meg’s determination and innovative thinking led to a groundbreaking product that changed the landscape of women’s health. Jennifer, the playwright of PREDICTOR, adds depth to the conversation by exploring how she adapted Meg’s story into a stage production, highlighting the intersection of art and science.
You can listen on the Substack App, and all episodes are also available on Apple or Spotify.
Or, if you want to put faces with voices, you can watch the video version of this podcast over on YouTube.
Meg and Jen’s Links
Check out Jen’s website: jenniferblackmer.com
Visit Meg Crane on Facebook.
Get tix to PREDICTOR!
Here’s the original article that inspired the play.
Meg and Jen’s Bios
Jennifer Blackmer’s award-winning plays include Predictor, I Carry Your Heart with Me, Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace, Borrowed Babies, Delicate Particle Logic, Human Terrain, and Unraveled. She was recently honored with the 2024 Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust/ATCA Citation, which recognizes the best new plays produced outside of New York, the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theatre Award for Emerging American Playwright, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Tribeca Film Institute prize, the Indiana Authors Award, the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Adaptation, the David Mark Cohen Playwriting Award, and the Gold Medallion from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. Jennifer is a Professor of Theatre at Ball State University, where she teaches classes in playwriting, storytelling, science on stage, feminist theatre and directing.
Meg Crane founded Ponzi & Weill Inc. advertising and design company in 1968 with her late partner, Ira Sturtevant. Prior to that, she was Creative Director at Intec Laboratories (Organon) where she coordinated projects with four advertising agencies assigned to Intec’s new cosmetic’s department. Before joining Intec, she worked at Harpers Bazaar Magazine and at Gene Murray Advertising. Meg is the inventor of the first home pregnancy diagnostic test, 1967, for which she holds two patents: 3,579,306 and DES.215.774. In June, 2015, her prototype for the test was acquired by The Smithsonian Museum along with one of the original marketed products. Now retired, Meg participates in panels and conferences, and consults on upcoming films, stage plays, and book projects about her work on the original home pregnancy test. At this moment in time, she is most concerned about the state of reproductive rights in the United States.
If you enjoy or find value in this podcast, I’d like to ask you a quick favor.
Leaving a short review or comment helps me out a ton. It tells the algorithmic overlords that people are listening, and it helps other folks discover the show.
So if you can post a review—just click the purple button below to open Apple Podcasts and scroll down to Ratings and Reviews—or leave a comment on this episode here on Substack or over on YouTube, wherever you happen to be listening or watching, I would be incredibly grateful.
I use an incredible online app, Riverside.fm, to produce this podcast.
If you’re interested in producing your own podcast, creating other audio or video content, or hosting a livestream, I cannot recommend them highly enough.
Here’s a link so you can check ‘em out! (Full disclosure, this is an affiliate link, but I wouldn’t put it here if I didn’t believe in and use Riverside.fm myself!)
A quick shout out to Ievgen Poltavskyi from Pixabay for the musical underscoring!
