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Climbing the Walls: Media Kit

About the show

Between 2020 and 2022, the rate of new ADHD diagnoses among women nearly doubled. Climbing the Walls, a limited-series investigative podcast, asks: Why so many women? And why now?

Join us as science journalist and host Danielle Elliot explores women and ADHD. Why weren’t women diagnosed with ADHD for so long? And how has the massive uptick in diagnoses since the pandemic been changing the way we think about ADHD?

As the diagnosis gap between men and women with ADHD narrows, more women need medical and emotional support in ways that differ from men. Are our systems equipped to support them? And how do we make sure that women with ADHD get the support they need?

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"The most beautiful thing about this podcast is the way it highlights the women involved by letting them be themselves... It gives clear context, reminds us this isn't as new as it seems, and hands us the power of information." - Mentally? A Magpie podcast reviewer
"Three years ago, journalist and documentarian Danielle Elliot was told she had ADHD. She wasn't alone: the diagnosis rate for women practically doubled between 2020 and 2022. Elliot tries to understand the the reasons women like her were left so long without support for so long and asks why their neurodivergence is finally being recognized." - The Guardian
Featured across Apple Podcasts charts #2 in “Top Series”  #2 in “Society & Culture” #8 in “Top Shows” overall

Spotlighted in major podcast publications

About the host

Danielle Elliot is a documentarian and writer. She focuses on character-driven narratives that seek to explain cultural phenomena. Her films, features, and series have appeared on HBO, ESPN, FX, iHeart, Audible, NBC, and more.

After earning a master of arts degree from the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, she became science editor at CBSNews.com and began writing long-form features for The Atlantic, the New York Times, National Geographic, Nautilus, Grantland, Popular Mechanics, and others. She also works with documentary filmmakers to develop and structure films and series and with Fortune 100 brands to direct and produce docu-style campaigns.

Listen to Danielle’s story
Eye opening. This podcast was one of the most amazing I’ve listened to in years. I have never felt more understood … Thank you for your research and putting this together! —flewthecoop
Listener engagement

  • Climbing the Walls has over 245,000 downloads and views across podcast platforms.

  • Verified listeners have spent over 53,000 hours (and counting!) listening to and watching Climbing the Walls.

  • The average completion rate across all six episodes is 88%.

  • 95% of our listeners come from audio-forward platforms, like Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Sourcing info: Data pulled across various distribution dashboards including YouTube, Spotify, and Apple from March 25 through May 6, 2025.

An easy and thought-provoking listen. Danielle does a great job discussing the history, interviewing pioneers within the ADHD space, and asking some tough questions about diagnosis. —Lesayle
Life changing. Thank you for … capturing the mixed feelings and continued shame and doubt women with [ADHD] experience even after they are diagnosed…. This helped tip the scales for me to get evaluated and treated. —MollyLovesSleep

  • Understood.org: The Understood site gets more than 20 million visitors a year. All episodes are also posted on our site’s podcast page. 

  • Social media: Many of our podcast episodes are cross-promoted on our social media channels. Understood has roughly 752,000 followers across its social channels, including Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Facebook en Español, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Over 510,000 of those followers come from the United States.

  • Email marketing: Climbing the Walls is promoted through Understood’s email marketing. This includes a network of more than 500,000 email subscribers. Climbing the Walls is also featured in our monthly podcast network newsletter, sent to 7,000 subscribers.