Meghan Markle’s podcast,Archetypes,just debuted today on Spotify with her first guests, Serena Williams and Professor Laura Kray from UC Berkeley. The discussion topic is ambition and how it relates to gender.

Meghan and Prince Harry signed their deal with Spotify two years ago for a multi-year partnership.Archetypeswas announced earlier this year and episodes will drop weekly.

Serena and Meghan have been friends for years, from before Meghan met Harry. She says on the pod that she talked to both Meghan and Harry about her career decision and then ultimately made the decision toreveal it the way she did:

“I was just sitting in the hotel at the desk, just typing and deleting and typing and thinking and then crying and sitting at my computer and tears streaming down my face as I’m writing these words and going back on these memories. And it was just like, God, it was, it was really hard. But I was like, if I’m going to do this, it has to be Vogue September issue, right?”

Right from the get, then, Meghan is bringing in the star power. And it’s good timing too since Serena will be competing at the US Open, her final tournament, in just a couple of weeks. As mentioned, the focus of their conversation is ambition, and the two exchange thoughts and ideas on how ambition and motherhood co-exist, and how the word itself takes on a different meaning for women. Meghan shares that her own ambition was weaponised against her once she was with Harry:

"I don't remember ever personally feeling the negative connotation behind the word 'ambitious' until I started dating my now husband,"Meghan said."And um, apparently ambition is, uh… a terrible, terrible thing, for a woman that is — according to some. So, since I've felt the negativity behind it, it's really hard to un-feel it. I can't unsee it, either, in the millions of girls and women who make themselves smaller — so much smaller — on a regular basis."

Speaking of Harry…yes…he makes a cameo off the top.

Will he do the same next week with Mariah Carey? Because that’s the guest for the second episode. Meghan and Mimi!

We’ll talk more about Meghan’s launch later, once more people have had a chance to listen and once there’s more reaction because, well, you know there’s going to be reaction.

For now though, the cover art – a black and white image of Meghan in a white tank, looking straight to camera, and her hair is kinda messy on one side. This was chosen as the promotional photo and the hair stood out to me because I’ve done my share of photo shoots (not as many as Meghan, obviously) and broadcast shoots and I’m telling you, they are always futzing with the hair when it’s sticking out or if there’s a stray stand or whatever. Trust me, for any female newscaster – hair is always an issue. Because they say it can be distracting for the viewer. Matters less in a still photo but even on still shots they’re always sending in the hair artist to smooth it out. Clearly this wasn’t an issue for Meghan as she and her team picked this image as the one to front the podcast. Perhaps because it’s meant to show that she’s not going to be bothered by that kind of sh-t, that conversations like this are supposed to be a little messy. And, of course, there’s no way they’d sign off on a royal portrait if there were flyaway hairs that needed to be pushed down and combed. That too might be a certain freedom.