Thank you for sharing this journey with us, listeners. Please join us on YouTube (@breakingdownpatrarchy) where Breaking Down Patriarchy is continuing to grow.

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Shirlee Draper is a former member of the Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints community. She holds an MA in Public Administration and is the Director of Operations for Cherish Families, a non-profit organization providing compassionate support to individuals and families from polygamous backgrounds.

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Gloria Gardner Rees has taught English in the US, China, India, and Nepal. Her studies include nutrition, gerontology and adult development. Currently, she is involved in interfaith, humanitarian, and environmental work. In addition to writing midrash, she is co-editing a collection of essays by Latter-day Saints titled Pillars of my Faith.

Robert A. Rees is a scholar, poet, and humanitarian. He is the author of “Toward a Mormon Feminist Midrash: Mormon Women and the Imaginative Reading of Scripture,” Sunstone (2012) and “The Midrashic Imagination and the Book of Mormon,” Dialogue (Fall 2011). His most recent book is Imagining and Reimagining the Restoration (Kofford Books, 2025).

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Renowned Mormon feminist, Carol Lynn Pearson, is an American poet, author, screenwriter, and playwright. She frequently addresses the topics of LGBT acceptance and the role of Latter-Day Saint women. She has written many important works, including Goodbye, I Love You, The Ghost of Eternal Polygamy, and most recently, The Diaries of Carol Lynn Pearson – Mormon Author, Feminist, and Activist.

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Naima Brown holds degrees in Middle Eastern Studies, Anthropology and Religious Studies. Her essays have appeared in Vogue Australia, the Guardian Australia, and more. She wrote, along with Melissa Doyle, the non-fiction book How to Age Against the Machine. She has spent over a decade working in news, current affairs and documentary - save for her brief stint in reality TV, which inspired her first novel, The Shot. She was born and raised in Northern California before living and working in Yemen and Afghanistan, and now lives in New South Wales with her husband and her dog. Her second novel, Mother Tongue, was published in March 2025.

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Dr. Keisha Blain is an award-winning historian of the 20th century United States. She is a Professor of History and Africana Studies at Brown University, as well as one of the founding leaders of the African American Intellectual History Society, and she serves as the editor-in-chief of Global Black Thought, a journal of essays on Black ideas, theories, and intellectuals.

Blain is the author of the books Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom, and Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer's Enduring Message to America. And her most recent book, which we’ll be discussing today, is titled Without Fear: Black Women and the Making of Human Rights and it was published just this September.

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Susan Bratton is co-founder and CEO of two companies serving the direct-to-consumer intimate wellness space. She is a manufacturer of supplements and a publisher of online courses focused on having a great relationship your whole life long. Her expertise is in ageless sexuality, sexual biohacking, libido supplementation and sexual regenerative therapies that roll back the clock on aging. She is a sought-after speaker from the stage, has been on countless podcasts, radio shows, and television segments worldwide. Her weekly email newsletter has nearly a half a million readers. And she is beloved as the "trusted intimacy wellness expert to millions 💋."

Susan believes that shame-free, frequent sexual pleasure is every man and woman’s birthright.

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Mary Catherine Starr is a mother-of-two and a graphic designer, illustrator, yoga teacher, author, and the artist behind the viral Instagram account @momlife_comics. Mary Catherine's work focuses on the challenges of marriage, motherhood, double standards, and inequality in both the household and the workplace. She is passionate about speaking up for women and bringing awareness to the mental load and the invisible labor of motherhood. Her first book, a comic memoir entitled Mama Needs a Minute!, came out in March, 2025. Mary Catherine lives in Massachusetts with her husband, her children, and her son’s large collection of plastic dinosaurs.  

Learn more about Mary Catherine Starr at marycatherinestarr.com.

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Saru Jayaraman is co-founder and president of One Fair Wage, a national organization of nearly 300,000 restaurant and service workers, nearly 1000 restaurant owners, and dozens of organizations nationwide, all working together to end the subminimum wages in the United States and raise wages and working conditions in the service sector. Saru is also the author of the books One Fair Wage, Forked: A New Standard for American Dining, and Behind the Kitchen Door.

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Jenna Karvunidis is a writer, artist, attorney, and entrepreneur based in Los Angeles. She is a critic of the gender reveal party and has been featured in Vogue, NPR, The Guardian, BBC, and beyond for her cultural commentary and evolving perspective.

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Kaila Yu is an author and on-camera correspondent based in Los Angeles. She's written for the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Condé Nast Traveler, National Geographic, and more. Her former band, Nylon Pink, has toured in Australia and performed across Shanghai, Costa Rica, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, and beyond. Her debut memoir, Fetishized: A Reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism, and Beauty, was released in August 2025.

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Inspired by the “Woman Life Freedom” uprising which started in Iran against the Islamic Republic regime in September of 2022 following the brutal killing of an innocent Kurdish Iranian girl, Mahsa Jina Amini by government agents, the Iranian Women Institute for Life and Liberty (I-WILL) seeks to provide a platform to raise awareness about, and support, women who have been victims of gender apartheid and discrimination. Through advocacy, education, and community  engagement, we aspire to foster a society where immigrant women are empowered to contribute fully, enriching the fabric of our global community with their strength and resilience.

We're honored to be joined by I-WILL activists Saghi Saghazadeh, Naseem Ghazanfari, Reina Rezaei, and Kelly O'Leary.

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Sunday Rennie is a third-generation artist and seasoned art advisor. She holds a Master’s degree in Art Curating and has spent years immersed in Europe’s most prestigious art circles. With an innate eye for beauty and a deep understanding of artistic heritage, Sunday curates bespoke cultural experiences that offer guests privileged access to Paris’s vibrant art scene and hidden creative treasures. Learn more at savoirtours.com.

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Erika Lorshbough is an intersex advocate and activist for civil and human rights. Most recently, Erika served as deputy director for policy at the New York Civil Liberties Union and led the organization’s extremely successful statewide legislative program advancing principles of freedom, justice, and equality. Along with their experience in program and organizational management, Erika brings two decades of heart work in community organizing and social action. Their law and policy experience has spanned the areas of gender and sexuality, voting rights and democracy, economic justice, criminal legal system reform, and the rights of people experiencing detention and incarceration. Erika completed their undergraduate studies in psychology and public policy at UCLA and the Luskin School of Public Affairs and received their J.D. from Brooklyn Law School. In addition to numerous public interest awards and legal fellowships, Erika has been honored as a Rising Star by the Brooklyn Law School Alumni Association, and was named one of the Best LGBTQ+ Lawyers Under 40 by the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association. Erika is a certified restorative justice practitioner, an adoring caretaker of plants and animals (and people!), and a fan of wandering and getting lost from time to time.

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Amie Souza Reilly is a visual artist and multigenre writer from Connecticut. Her work has appeared in various journals, including Wigleaf, HAD, The Chestnut Review, The Atticus Review, Catapult, SmokeLong Quarterly, Barren, Pidgeonholes and elsewhere. She holds an MA in English Literature from Fordham University and an MFA from Fairfield University, and is the Writer-in-Residence and Director of Writing Studies at Sacred Heart University. She is the author of Human/Animal and works as the Director of Writing Studies at Sacred Heart University.

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Amy Hinojosa is the president and CEO of MANA, a national Latina organization, the oldest and largest Latina membership organization in the United States, and its sister organization, MANA Action Fund. MANA focuses on strengthening Latina women and girls through mentoring, education and advocacy. Amy has extensive experience working on local and national grassroots campaigns targeted at mobilizing voices and actions in Hispanic communities across the country. Community education and engagement have been central to Amy's work with a particular emphasis on youth. 

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Danny Rensch is an American International Master, world-class commentator, tournament organizer, co-founder and Chief Chess Officer of Chess.com, and a chess celebrity. As a scholastic player, Rensch won multiple national championships and still holds the record for the youngest chess master in the state of Arizona. As an adult, he has become the face of Chess.com and is the author of Dark Squares: How Chess Saved My Life.

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Paulina Bren is a writer, historian, and professor. She's the author of the critically acclaimed bestseller The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free. Paulina teaches at Vassar College, where she is the adjunct professor of multidisciplinary studies on the Pittsburgh Endowment Chair in the humanities, and the director of the Women, Feminist and Queer Studies Program. Paulina's most recent book is She Wolves: The Untold History of Women on Wall Street, and it was named one of the 10 best nonfiction books of 2024 by the Kirkus Reviews.

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Hilary Giovale is a mother, writer, and community organizer who holds a Master’s Degree in Good and Sustainable Communities. She has taught improvisational dance and has served on the boards of philanthropic, human rights, and environmental organizations. Descended from the Celtic, Germanic, Nordic, and Indigenous peoples of Ancient Europe, she is a ninth-generation American settler. For most of her life these origins were obscured by whiteness.

After learning more about her ancestors’ history, Hilary began emerging from a fog of amnesia, denial, and fragmentation. For the first time, she could see a painful reality: her family’s occupation of this land has harmed Indigenous and African peoples, cultures, lands, and lifeways. With this realization, her life changed. Divesting from settler colonialism and whiteness, she seeks to follow Indigenous and Black leadership in support of healing, mutual liberation, and equitable futures. She is the author of Becoming a Good Relative: Calling White Settlers toward Truth, Healing, and Repair (Green Writers Press, October 2024).

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Emily Warneke is a third-year PhD student in Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Utah, where her research centers on access and equity in post-secondary education in prison. For her dissertation, she intends to explore the experiences of formerly incarcerated mothers who pursued higher education while incarcerated, and how this experience informs the ways that they navigate motherhood and education post-release. Emily currently works as a graduate research assistant with the research collaborative on higher education in prison. She's currently involved in developing a student center inside a women's designated prison that is led by currently incarcerated students through the Utah Prison Education Project. Drawing from feminist and intersectional frameworks, her work seeks to challenge dominant narratives about incarceration, motherhood, and educational justice. 

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Marie Newman is a former congresswoman, nonprofit CEO, marketing executive, author of A Life Made from Scratch and When Your Child Is Being Bullied: Real Solutions, antibullying activist, former Moms Demand Action spokesperson and national LGBTQ+ advocate. In addition to those roles, she is a mom of two adult children, consultant and podcaster. Marie Newman is known for building movements and solving the toughest problems. Her motto has always been, when you do not see the solution you desperately need, make it from scratch! She lives in Lagrange, Illinois with her husband and beagle, Iggy.

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Dr. Brendan K. Hartman specializes in the social-emotional development and wellbeing of boys and men—and how this connects to the wellbeing of all genders. His interdisciplinary work bridges sociology, psychology, and education to foster healthier relationships, emotional connection, and resilience in individuals, communities, and systems.

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Tia Levings is a writer, creator, and content specialist. She shines light on the abuses of Christian fundamentalism to educate, validate, and empower those who feel smashed by the patriarchy to create something beautiful from pain, and because when she went through the hell of church-sanctioned violence, she felt alone, but wasn't. There are thousands of others out there. Her memoir, A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy came out in August, 2024.

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Marina Warner is an English historian, mythographer, art critic, novelist and short story writer. She is best known for her many award-winning non-fiction books relating to feminism and myth. She has written for many publications, including The London Review of Books, the Sunday Times, and Vogue. She is also a Professor of English and Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London. In 2017, she was elected president of the Royal Society of Literature, the first time the role has been held by a woman since the founding of the Royal Society of Literature in 1820. She is also a Distinguished Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford.

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Meg Stone is the Executive Director of IMPACT Boston, an abuse prevention and empowerment self-defense organization. Her writing has been published in Huffington Post, Newsweek, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Dame, and Ms. She has received numerous awards for her work over the past 30 years. She lives in Cambridge, MA, with her partner Mal and a shockingly large collection of musical theatre cast albums.

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Jay Zigmont, PhD, MBA, CFP® is the Founder of Childfree Wealth, a life and financial planning firm dedicated to helping Childfree and Permanently Childless people. Childfree Wealth is the first (and currently the only) life and financial planning firm dedicated to serving Childfree people.

Jay is also the author of the forthcoming book The Childfree Guide to Life and Money and  the co-host of the Childfree Wealth podcast. His Ph.D. is in Adult Learning from the University of Connecticut. He has been featured in Fortune, Forbes, MarketWatch, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Business Insider, CNBC, and many other publications.

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Philippa Gregory is one of the world’s foremost historical novelists and non-fiction writers. She wrote her first ever novel, Wideacre, when she was completing her PhD in eighteenth-century literature and it sold worldwide, heralding a new era for historical fiction. Her flair for blending history and imagination developed into a signature style and Philippa went on to write many bestselling novels, including The Other Boleyn Girl and The White Queen.

Now a recognized authority on women’s history, Philippa graduated from the University of Sussex and received a PhD from the University of Edinburgh, where she is a Regent and was made Alumna of the Year in 2009.

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Julia Alora (she/they) is a Portland-based sculptress creating biologically influenced sculptures out of recycled materials. Born and raised in the wilds of upstate NY, her love of the natural world drives her to find beauty in everything, at times expressing this through sharp, fierce grotesqueries, or smooth, living visions of steel and glass. Her creations hearken to the viewers to consider their connection to nature, their responsibilities to the world and to others. She incorporates ethically-sourced bone, junkyard steel, dumpster treasures, and other found objects, into lovingly made monsters and figures.

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Allison Dayton started the Lift & Love Foundation to support LGBTQ individuals and their families in the Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Allison lost her brother, who was gay, to suicide at the same time her 17-year-old son was coming out. Looking for resources to help her family, she couldn’t find anything that embraced her religious beliefs and her son’s divine identity. Lift and Love has grown to fill that much-needed space supporting thousands of individuals and families as they navigate their unique journeys of protecting their identity or that of their precious children and integrating their new reality into their devotion to Jesus Christ. Allison is a writer, speaker, including at BYU Women’s Conferences. In 2022 she moderated an LGBTQ Conversation Circle at the UN Women’s Conference. Allison and her husband, Kenn, live in the foothills of Salt Lake City, Utah, have three grown children, a son-in-law and a granddaughter, Georgia, who rules their world.

Resources for parents.

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Heather Hester is the founder of Chrysalis Mama which provides support and education to parents and allies of LGBTQIA adolescents, teenagers, and young adults. She is also the creator/host of the Top 1% podcast Just Breathe: Parenting your LGBTQ Teen. As an advocate and coach, she believes the coming out process is equal parts beautiful and messy. She works with her clients to let go of fear and feelings of isolation so that they can reconnect with themselves and their children with awareness and compassion. Heather also works within organizations via specialized programming to bring education and empowerment with a human touch. She is delighted to announce that her first book is out in the world as of May 2024 - Parenting with Pride: Unlearn Bias and Embrace, Empower, and Love Your LGBTQ+ Teen. Married to the funniest guy she’s ever known and the mother of four extraordinary kids (two of whom are LGBTQ) and one sassy mini bernedoodle, Heather believes in being authentic and embracing the messiness. You can almost always find her with a cup of coffee nearby whether she’s at her computer, on her yoga mat, or listening to her favorite music.

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Sam Rose Preminger (they/them) is an editor and producer on Breaking Down Patriarchy. They live in Portland, OR with their partner and rescue pup.

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Phillip Watts Brown is a poet and artist after earning a BA in graphic design from Brigham Young University. He earned an MFA in poetry from Oregon State University. He is the author of Boy with Flowers in His Mouth, which was published by Gold Line Press in February, 2025. His work has appeared in literary journals and anthologies, including Ninth Letter, the Common, Ruminate, Nimrod, Tahoma Literary Review, and others. Phillip lives with his husband in northern Utah, where he works as a graphic designer. He's also a poetry editor for the online literary journal, Halfway Down the Stairs.

Andres Larios Brown (They/Elle) is a Utah-based licensed marriage and family therapist dedicated to healing for LGBTQ plus communities. As training director and partner at Simple Modern Therapy and Institute, Andres focuses on trauma, healing, and wellbeing for those who feel marginalized or othered. Andres specializes in identity development and reclaiming healing practices for queer, trans, and BIPOC communities. As a therapist of both lived experience and learned expertise, they are committed to helping LGBTQ+ people thrive.

In addition to providing therapy, Andres focuses on creating and facilitating training for therapists and teaches at U of V’s Masters of Social Work Program and U of O’s Couples and Family Therapy Program. They have co-authored a chapter in the Rutledge International Handbook of Couple and Family Therapy, as well as a number of other articles in different academic journals. Through therapy, teaching, training, and advocacy. They seek to bridge the gap between research and clinical practice. They and their husband of eight years live in northern Utah where they spend as much time with family and loved ones as possible.

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Sara Bybee Fisk is a master-certified coach and instructor who teaches women how to overcome people-pleasing, perfectionism, and codependency. She is known for her podcast, the Ex-Good Girl Podcast, and her work with the Life Coach School. Fisk is also a former scholars coach for the Life Coach School.

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Celeste Davis is the writer behind the popular Substack ‘Matriarchal Blessing’. She is a certified spiritual director through the Chaplaincy Institute, specializing in LDS faith transitions. She lives in Spokane, Washington with her husband and four kids.

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Pamela Madsen is a veteran advocate, activist, and educator. As the founder of Back to the Body, which is now in its 13th year of operations, Pamela’s full-bodied mix of intelligence, humor and vulnerability has made her one of the most mediagenic advocates for integrated sexuality and a taboo-buster around body image. Pamela has a Master’s Degree in Education and is a Certified Somatic Sex Educator.

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Michael Kaufman, PhD, is a writer of both fiction and non-fiction books. As an advisor, activist, and keynote speaker, he has developed innovative approaches to engage men and boys in promoting gender equality and positively transforming men's lives. Over the past four decades his work with the United Nations, governments, non-governmental organizations, corporations, trade unions, and universities has taken him to fifty countries.

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Ashley Ruhl is a Narrative Director, Narrative Designer, Cinematic Designer, and Writer exclusively in games. Over the past 13 years she has focused on a multi-prong approach of character-driven narrative, eye-catching cinematics, and intuitive game design. She was the first woman at Telltale to hold the titles of Episodic Director and Assistant Episodic Director, credited for Episode 3 and Episode 1 of "Tales from the Borderlands" respectively, and was selected for Forbes "30 under 30" list in video games in 2016. Ruhl focuses on cinematic delivery and strong emotional agency in game narrative, creating memorable moments that encourage players to be authors of their own stories.

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Rebecca Burgess a freelance illustrator currently living in Bristol. Their favorite things are nature, history, comics, psychology, and cuddling their girlfriend.

Burgess is most well known for their various long and short comics that explore and explain autism. Their comics are also known for showing big feelings and loveable characters that people can connect to on a personal level. They have both written and illustrated several award winning YA and children’s books/comics, including Speak Up! and How to be Ace.

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Kathy Iandoli is a critically acclaimed journalist, author, podcaster, media coach, and documentarian. She has nearly 25 years  experience working in the music industry—from media, to publicity, radio, and artist management. Her first book, God Save The Queens: The Essential History of Women In Hip-Hop was named an NPR Best Book Of the Year. She is the author of the biography Baby Girl: Better Known As Aaliyah, as well as the co-author of rapper, Lil’ Kim’s memoir, The Queen Bee. Kathy has written about music and gender for two decades, with bylines in VIBE, The Source, XXL, Village Voice, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Pitchfork, BUST, Teen Vogue, PAPER, Playboy, i-D, Cosmopolitan, Maxim, The Guardian, VICE, and many others. Kathy was a professor-in-residence of Music Business at NYU for 7 years as well as an alum of Steinhardt's Music Business Graduate Program and has served as a pundit (television, radio, and panels) for discussions on hip-hop and gender.

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Sarah Perkins is a filmmaker and PhD student at Brandeis University in Massachusetts, though she currently resides in rural southeast Idaho with her family. Together with her husband, she is the co-director of The Basement Talks. Previously, she worked as production manager on American Tragedy, which won Best Documentary at the Boston Film Festival and as the editor for the Herbe Nassour story. In her graduate work, she studies 20th-century literature and theology around the question of theodicy.

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Lindsay Hansen Park is a women’s rights activist, a feminist writer, and an advocate against gender violence. She was recently the cultural and historical consultant for Hulu’s limited series, Under the Banner of Heaven and is currently heavily involved in the Mormon Feminist movement. Lindsay is the Executive Director for the Sunstone Education Foundation and the founder of the Year of Polygamy podcast. She wrote for six years at FeministMormonHousewives.org about women’s issues and now podcasts for the Sunstone Mormon History podcast. Her work has been referenced by the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, NPR,Quartz Magazine, and many other Utah publications.  She and her family live in Utah where she raises three beautiful kiddos, gardens, and rages against the machine.

Listen to the original episode about Unwell Women here.

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Dr Elinor Cleghorn has a background in feminist visual culture and history, and her critical writing has been published in several academic journals including Screen. After receiving her PhD in in 2012, Elinor spent three years as a post-doctoral researcher at the Ruskin School, University of Oxford, working on an interdisciplinary medical humanities project. She has given talks and lectures at the British Film Institute, where she has been a regular contributor to their education programme, Tate Modern, and ICA London, and she has appeared on the BBC Radio 4 discussion show The Forum. In 2017, she was shortlisted for the Fitzcarraldo Editions essay prize. She now works as a freelance writer and researcher. Her non-fiction debut, Unwell Women, was published in June 2021. She is currently working on her next book on intersectional feminist history of women and mother-led knowledge around reproduction, pregnancy, birth and mothering.

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Ben Blair holds a PhD in Philosophy and Education from Columbia University. He is a co-founder and President of Newlane University. Started in 2017, Newlane is an online university with a mission to make quality liberal arts higher education accessible to anyone on earth by breaking down barriers of cost, schedule, and geography. Ben and his wife Gabrielle have six children. After six years in Oakland, CA they now live in Normandy, France.

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Koa Beck is the author of White Feminism: From the Suffragettes to Influencers and Who They Leave Behind. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of Jezebel, the executive editor of Vogue.com, and the senior features editor at MarieClaire.com. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Observer, The Guardian, and Esquire, among others. For her reporting prowess, she has been interviewed by the BBC and has appeared on many panels about gender and identity at the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Historical Society, and Columbia Journalism School to name a few. She lives in Los Angeles.

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Rosemary Card is an entrepreneur, author and passionate advocate for women’s rights, inclusion and nuanced cultural conversations. She is the founder of Q.Noor and Card Wear and author of “Model Mormon” and “House of Light.” She firmly believes in the power of education and open conversation to bridge divides and promote understanding. She lives in Salt Lake with her husband, 2-year-old son, and two dogs.

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Iris Mwanza is a Zambian-American author and gender equality advocate. Born and raised in Zambia, early exposure to inequality has been a driving force in her life - from becoming a lawyer, writing a Ph.D. dissertation on women and children’s rights, a career fighting for gender equality, and now a thriller with gender equality as its heart.

Iris has spent an inordinate amount of time studying and has law degrees from Cornell University and the University of Zambia, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in International Relations from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Her day job is Deputy Director of the Women in Leadership team in the Gender Equality Division of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and her night job is to write. Her debut novel The Lions’ Den took nine years of nights and weekends to finish. 

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Mr. Jones X is a well-known activist, political commentator, and courageous debater. His mastery of intersectionality and the importance of advocating from the bottom up distinguish him from the average content creator. These abilities have earned him numerous speaking engagements, invitations to panel discussions, and national attention for his debates. Jones is also an entrepreneur with TUFF (Transformative Uprising for Freedom), a socially conscious clothing company, in which his products are manufactured by a local minority women-owned business and the designs allow customers to wear their protest.

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adrienne maree brown (she/they) is growing a garden of healing ideas. Informed by decades of movement facilitation, somatics, science fiction scholarship and doula work, adrienne has nurtured Emergent Strategy, Pleasure Activism, Radical Imagination and Loving Correction as ideas and practices for transformation. adrienne is the NYT-bestselling author/editor of several published texts, a ritual singer-songwriter, co-generator of the Lineages of Change Tarot Deck, and co-creator/host of How to Survive the End of the World podcast with Autumn Brown. adrienne’s latest book Loving Corrections is now available from AK Press.

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Dr. Lexie Kite is co-author of the book More Than a Body: Your Body Is an Instrument, Not an Ornament and co-director of the nonprofit Beauty Redefined, along with her twin sister Dr. Lindsay Kite. They both received PhDs from the University of Utah in the study of female body image and have become leading experts in body image resilience and media literacy. Authors of numerous studies and books have cited Lindsay and Lexie’s original research and they have been featured in a variety of national media outlets, including The New York Times, CNBC, the Boston Globe, Slate, Shape, Glamour, Teen Vogue, and more.

Lindsay and Lexie help girls and women recognize and reject the harmful effects of objectification in their lives through their significant social media reach, online Body Image Resilience course and facilitator program for dieticians and therapists, their popular book (More Than a Body), and regular speaking engagements for thousands of people of all ages. Lexie lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.

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Beatriz Victoria Albina (she/her) is a Master Certified Somatic Life Coach, UCSF-trained Family Nurse Practitioner and Breathwork Meditation Guide. She helps humans socialized as women realize that they are their own best healers by reconnecting with their bodies and minds so they can break free from, codependency, perfectionism, and people-pleasing, and reclaim their joy. She is the of the Feminist Wellness Podcast, is trained in Somatic Experiencing, holds a master's degree in public health from Boston University and a B.A. in Latin American Studies from Oberlin College. Beatriz has been working in health & wellness for rover 20 years and lives on occupied Munsee Lenape territory in New York.

beatrizalbina.com/bdp

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Elle Reeve is a CNN correspondent whose work has won numerous awards, including the Emmy, the Peabody, and more. Her writing has appeared in VICE, The New Republic, New York magazine, Elle, The Atlantic, and The Daily Beast. She lives in New York. 

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Paige Connell, a working mom of four, shares her insights about motherhood and careers, the mental load, and relationships. She's a fierce advocate for affordable childcare and paid leave, she’s been featured in Scary Mommy, The Today Show, and more!

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Sharon McMahon is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, educator, and host of the chart-topping podcast Here’s Where It Gets Interesting. McMahon became known as "America’s Government Teacher" during the 2020 election for her viral efforts to combat political misinformation. Her knack for breaking down complex topics with clarity, humor, and a steadfast commitment to facts has attracted a community of one and a half million followers—affectionately called the “Governerds.” McMahon's newsletter, The Preamble, is one of the largest publications on Substack, providing historical context and non-partisan insights to help readers navigate today’s political landscape. Her debut book, The Small and the Mighty, has been celebrated as one of the year’s top reads by Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and Goodreads, highlighting the unsung heroes who shaped America.

Beyond education, Sharon McMahon has led philanthropic initiatives that have raised over $11 million to address critical needs, from medical debt relief to disaster recovery. She inspires audiences with a message of hope: history shows us that even small actions can create powerful change.

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Kristin Neff (she/her) received her doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley, and is currently an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin.

During Kristin’s last year of graduate school she became interested in Buddhism and has been practicing meditation in the Insight Meditation tradition ever since. While doing her post-doctoral work she decided to conduct research on self-compassion – a central construct in Buddhist psychology and one that had not yet been examined empirically. Kristin is a pioneer in the field of self-compassion research, creating a scale to measure the construct almost 20 years ago. She has been recognized as one of the world’s most influential research psychologists. In addition to writing numerous academic articles and book chapters on the topic, she is author of the book Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself, and her latest Fierce Self-Compassion: How Women Can Harness Kindness to Speak Up, Claim Their Power and Thrive.

In conjunction with her colleague Dr. Chris Germer, she has developed an empirically supported training program called Mindful Self-Compassion, which is taught by thousands of teachers worldwide. They co-authored The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook as well as Teaching the Mindful Self-Compassion Program: A Guide for Professionals. She is also co-founder of the nonprofit Center for Mindful Self-Compassion.

Jen Lumanlan, M.S., M.Ed., (she/her) obtained Bachelor’s degrees (Forestry, English) from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master’s in Environmental Management from Yale University and enjoyed a career in sustainability consulting before having her daughter, when she realized she was in for her toughest challenge yet. She went back to school for a Master’s in psychology focused on child development and another in education to understand how to raise her child, and launched a podcast, Your Parenting Mojo, to share what she was learning with others.

Ashley Brichter is an educator, birth worker, consultant, and entrepreneur. She is a champion for maternal health and for systemic reforms to improve the lives of families by rebalancing division of labor at home and funding parental leave, universal healthcare, and early childhood education. She founded Birthsmarter in 2019, which provides unbiased, inclusive, and award-winning practical wisdom and guidance to the next generation of families. Ashley is a proud Bi-Co graduate and currently lives in Salty Lake City with her husband and two kids. She a Certified Fair Play Facilitator, a Tory Burch Fellow, and she sits on the board of ProNatal Fitness.

MaryCatherine McDonald, PhD, is a research professor and life coach who specializes in the psychology of trauma, stress, and resilience. She has been researching, lecturing, and publishing on neuroscience, psychology, and the lived experience of trauma and stress for over a decade. She's passionate about destigmatizing trauma, stress, and mental health issues in general, as well as reframing our understanding of trauma in order to better understand and treat it. After receiving her master's degree at The New School, where she researched traumatic loss and mourning, she went on to complete her PhD at Boston University. She has published several research articles and book chapters, as well as three books on trauma. Her most recent book came out in March 2023 with Sounds True Publishing and is called Unbroken: The Trauma Response Is Never Wrong, and Other Things You Need to Know to Take Back Your Life.

Sarah Hernandez (Sicangu Lakota) is an assistant professor of Native American literature and the director of the Institute for American Indian Research at the University of New Mexico. She is the literature and legacy officer for the Oak Lake Writers Society, an Oceti Sakowin-led nonprofit for Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota writers. Under Sarah’s leadership, the Society launched #NativeReads: Great Books from Indigenous Communities, a national reading campaign that increases knowledge and awareness of the Oceti Sakowin literary tradition. She has also published articles in the Wicazo Sa Review, Studies in American Indian Literature, English Language Notes, and Great Plains Quarterly.

Sarah's book, We Are the Stars: Colonizing and Decolonizing the Oceti Sakowin Literary Tradition, was published February 2023 by the University of Arizona Press in the U.S. and the University of Regina Press in Canada. 

Dr. Julianne Newmark is the  Director of Technical & Professional Communication and Assistant Chair for Core Writing at the University of New Mexico. As a researcher, she focuses on usability/UX/UCD and TPC pedagogy.  She also teaches, conducts research, and publishes in Indigenous Studies, particularly concerning early-20th-century Native activist writers’ rhetorically impactful bureaucratic writing, particularly in Bureau of Indian Affairs contexts. In recent years, she has received multiple grants to fund archival research for this project, including grants from CCCC/NCTE and the American Philosophical Society.  Her second monograph is provisionally titled "Reports of Agency: Retrieving Indigenous Professional Communication in Dawes Era Indian Bureau Documents.” Her 2015 book The Pluralist Imagination from East to West in American Literature was published by University of Nebraska Press. She is Editor-in-Chief of Xchanges, a Writing Studies ejournal.

Hitha Palepu is a woman of multitudes: a feminist, a lifelong politics enthusiast, a daughter of immigrants, and a mother raising feminist sons. These multitudes spill into her multi-hyphenated career as an entrepreneur, investor, writer, and speaker. Hitha’s passion for the news and politics is captured in #5SmartReads, a Webby honored social series that shares five must-read articles every day to keep our community informed without being overwhelmed. Hitha's longtime blog, Hitha on the Go, established her as an authority on lifestyle topics and gave way to her book and collaborations with leading brands such as Headspace, Google, and Northwestern Mutual. Her book How to Pack was published by Clarkson Potter in 2017, and her book We're Speaking: The Life Lessons of Kamala Harris was published in 2021.

As CEO of Roshan Pharmaceuticals, Hitha oversees financing, partnerships, and strategy for the company. Hitha also puts her money where her values are through early-stage investing. A partner in Adama Ventures, which is her family office, she has invested in innovative companies primarily founded by women and focused on women. She is a sought-after speaker on politics and the news, investing, entrepreneurship, work-life juggle, and motherhood. 

Osprey Orielle Lake is the founder and executive director of the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network, or WECAN. She works internationally with grassroots, BIPOC, and Indigenous leaders, policymakers, and diverse coalitions to build climate justice, resilient communities, and a just transition to a decentralized, democratized, clean energy future. She sits on the executive committee for the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature and on the steering committee for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. Osprey's writing about climate justice, relationships with nature, women in leadership, and other topics has been featured in The Guardian, Earth Island Journal, The Ecologist, Ms. Magazine, and many other publications. She's the author of the award winning books Uprisings for the Earth: Reconnecting Culture with Nature and The Story is in Our Bones: How Worldviews and Climate Justice Can Remake a World in Crisis.

Heather Sundahl believes in the power of stories. In the pursuit of this, she has volunteered with Exponent II for twenty-eight years. As a writer and editor, Heather works to amplify the voices of marginalized folks and has collected the oral histories of Batswana, South African, Native American, and queer Mormon women. She received an MA in English from BYU in 1994 and an MA in Marriage & Family Therapy from UVU in 2023. Heather currently works at a residential treatment center where she helps her teenage clients find narratives that promote growth and healing. She lives in Orem, Utah.

Katie Ludlow Rich is a writer and independent scholar of Mormon women's history. Her work focuses on centering women's voices and their agentive decisions even when functioning within a patriarchal tradition. She has a bachelor's in history and a master's in English, both from Brigham Young University. Her writing has appeared in Exponent II, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, The Journal of Mormon History, and The Salt Lake Tribune. She lives in Saratoga Springs, Utah.

V (formerly Eve Ensler) is the Tony award-winning playwright, activist, performer, and author of the Obie award-winning theatrical phenomenon The Vagina Monologues, which has been published in over 48 languages, performed in over 140 countries, and heralded by The New York Times as one of the "best American plays" of the past 25 years.

Levi Murray is a native of New Mexico and has been living in Colorado for almost 20 years. Murray works as the community health dentist, practicing in Southern Colorado. He and his wife Barbara have four kids. His hobbies include running and engaging int he work of preaching anti-patriarchal theology, a work he says feels like a necessary part of becoming more fully human.

J. Kirk Richards is a contemporary artist whose work engages with themes of antiquity, religion, spirituality, equality, and love. His work asks questions about the modern application and implementation of religion relating to historical narratives and mythologies. His work often prioritizes the poetry of religious text over dogma or historical accuracy. Stylistically it often bridges or walks a tightrope between classical and abstract expression. In 2020, Richards founded a mixed-use art space, including studio rentals, a gallery that hosts monthly themed exhibits by living professional and semi-professionals, and a continued education art academy.

Emily Nielsen Jones is a donor-activist engaged in promoting human equality, justice, and peace around the world. She is particularly passionate and engaged in the nexus of faith, gender, and development and working to mobilize our faith traditions to more fully and unambiguously embrace gender equality. In her role at the Imago Dei Fund, Emily has helped the foundation to adopt a “gender-lens” in its grantmaking with a particular focus on partnering with inspired female change agents, locally and around the world, to build bridges of peace and create a world where girls and women can thrive and achieve their full human potential. Emily brings a contemplative posture to both faith and philanthropy and is passionate about supporting the inner lives of change agents to lead with love and be their best selves in the challenging work they do.

Emily is actively engaged in the women-led philanthropy movement, and is the author of numerous articles. She is the recipient of the Christians for Biblical Equality 2013 Micah Award and was named a 2014 Women’s eNews “21 Leaders of the 21st Century” honoree. Emily has served on various boards including the Boston Women’s Fund, Women Thrive, New England International Donor Network, Girl Rising, Union Theological Seminary, Nomi Network Campaign Leaders Council, and Sojourners Founders’ Circle. Emily has a BA in Government from Dartmouth College and a Master’s in Educational Policy from Boston University. She is a trained Spiritual Director through both the Selah Spiritual Direction Certificate Program and the Still Harbor Spiritual Direction Practicum.

Kazi Mghendi is passionate about leadership development at all levels and uses her experience and expertise to identify and support community-led solutions to ending injustices caused by poverty and inequalities. With over 12 years of experience in humanitarian, leadership training, social development, community development, and financial inclusion, she leverages her expertise to solve some of the world’s challenging and complex issues, including improving education standards in rural communities in Kenya. Kazi joins The Girl Child & Her Long Walk to Freedom team as a Project Manager to support the project and its mission to liberate our societies from patriarchal beliefs, values, and cultures that have seen girls and women as lesser humans in society for generations. Her focus and passion is in international development, leadership coaching, fundraising, partnerships/relationship management, project/program management, systems design, and strategic thinking to solve community challenges.

Kazi founded Elimu Fanaka, a non-profit organization impacting public primary schools in rural underserved communities in Kenya through improving access to quality education and using systems change to create sustainable communities. She previously worked at Acumen, managing their East Africa Fellows Program and Academy, at Ongoza Institute as Stakeholder Engagement Manager, and at Adaptive Change Advisors as a Project Manager. She holds a bachelor’s degree in International Development with a concentration in Integrated Community Development from Daystar University and a Master’s in International Relations – Diplomacy and Foreign Affairs at the United States International University.

Natalie Madsen is an actor, writer, producer, and director. She is best known for her eight years on the sketch comedy show Studio C, where she was an original cast member and writer. She has since co-founded JK! Studios, a creative house and production company that produces TV shows, web series, and feature films. She has three children, one husband, and a slightly concerning caffeine addiction.

Monette Chilson founded WomanSpirit Reclamation to support women in navigating their awakening from patriarchal indoctrination through online courses and community. She's written and spoken about the divine feminine for the past decade, authoring Sophia Rising: Awakening Your Sacred Wisdom Through Yoga, and My Name Is Lilith. Chilson also edited Original Resistance: Reclaiming Lilith, Reclaiming Ourselves, and developed its companion curriculum.

Additional Resources

WomanSpirit Reclamation

The Girl Child & Her Long Walk to Freedom

Sophia Rising: Awakening Your Sacred Wisdom Through Yoga, by Monette Chilson 

Original Resistance: Reclaiming Lilith, Reclaiming Ourselves: A Girl God Anthology, edited by Monette Chilson, Trista Hendren and Pat Daly,

My Name is Lilith, by Monette Chilson, Illustrated by Arna Baartz

Eve, Our Mythic Mother: Exposing the Lies of Patriarchy, by Patricia Lynn Reilly 

Casey O'Leary is a K-12 school media specialist in Indianapolis, Indiana. She has a bachelor of science in elementary education and a master of library science, both from Indiana University. O'Leary served as a public children's librarian and manager for 10 years prior to moving into school librarianship. She is active in the American Library Association and recently served on the Children's Literature Legacy Award Committee and is also a reviewer for School Library Journal.

Danielle Savory is a master-certified coach, podcast host, and expert in the fields of neuropsychology, mindfulness, sexual pleasure, and intimacy. As the host of the popular podcast, It's My Pleasure, Savory has explored a wide range of topics related to sexuality, relationships, and personal growth, empowering women to embrace their sexuality and prioritize their pleasure. She has over 10 years of experience coaching hundreds of women with her proven process of increasing desire and expanding orgasmic capacity.

Dr. Kabria Baumgartner is a historian of the 19th-century United States, specializing in the history of education, African American women's and gender history, and New England studies. She's the author of In Pursuit of Knowledge: Black Women and Educational Activism in Antebellum America, which tells the story of Black girls and women who fought for their educational right in the 19th-century United States. Her book has won four prizes, including the prestigious 2021 American Educational Research Association's Outstanding Book Award.

Myriam Ben Farhat is an entrepreneur, originally from Tunisia. She has two master's degrees, one in financial and public law, and one in contemporary art. She also studied professional coaching and got her certification from the International Federation of Coaching. In 2020, Ben Farhat joined the Play Magnus Group to become chief people and culture officer. When the company was acquired in December 2022 by Chess.com, she became Head of L&D and DEI, and currently leads the "Chess is for everyone" initiative.

Alex Peterson serves on the board of Prevent Child Abuse Utah and is the Director of Strategic Development & Impact for The Policy Project. Formerly, Alex worked for a United States Congressman before serving as the National Director of Donor Relations and personal aide to Ann Romney during Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign. Alex graduated from California State University, Long Beach, with honors, followed by an M.Ed. Policy from Harvard University. Alex and her husband Ben reside in Utah with their four children.

Bronwen Pugh lives in Marin County, CA with her husband and 3 spunky daughters. Her happy place is in nature with her family. She loves to sail, surf, paddle board, bike, rock climb, and ski/snowboard. Prior to raising her children, Bronwen received her JD from UCLA Law and worked for the ACLU. She is currently Operations Lead for Conduit Tech, a climate-focused software startup.

Dr. Susan R. Madsen is the Karen Haight Huntsman endowed professor of leadership in the John M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University. She's also the founding director of the Utah Women in Leadership Project and is leading a statewide social change movement titled A Bolder Way Forward. Professor Madsen and her team have written extensive resources on women's leadership and they host many events each year to support the mission of their work. Susan is also a well-known global scholar, authoring or editing nine books and publishing hundreds of articles, chapters, and reports. Her research has been featured in the U.S. News & World Report, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and she is a regular contributor to Forbes. She's a well-known speaker in local, national, and international settings, and she's presented at Argentina's Parliament Palace, the House of Commons in England, Lithuania's Presidential Palace, the Costa Rica Parliament, and NGO sessions at the United Nations. She and her husband, Greg, are the proud parents of four adult children and six grandchildren.

Maurice Ashley is an American chess player, author, and commentator. In 1999, he earned the FIDE title of Grandmaster, making him the first Black person to do so. Ashley is well known as a commentator for high profile chess events. He also spent many years teaching chess and is the author of Chess for Success, Move by Move, and a children's book, The Life-Changing Magic of Chess.

Dee Mosbacher, M.D. Ph.D., is a psychiatrist and an Academy Award nominated documentary filmmaker. Dr. Mosbacher has been an activist for women's health since the early 1970's. She has directed and/or produced a total of nine documentaries on homophobia, including Out for a Change, Addressing Homophobia in Women's Sports, All God's Children, De Colores, and No Secret Anymore: The Times of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon. Dee and her spouts, who is also a psychiatrist, Dr. Nanette Gartrell, worked to eliminated homophobia in the DSM. Dr. Mosbacher is the founder and president of Woman Vision, a nonprofit organizations whose mission is to promote social justice through the production of educational films and video.

Boden Sandstrom, Ph.D., was the winner of the American Musicology Society Philip Brett Award. She was a leading sound engineer on the women's music circuit, and in 1975 she founded Woman Sound with singer Casse Culver. She toured with many performers, including Chris Williamson and Lily Tomlin, and did sound for the major women's music festivals and concerts at the time. She has a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology, an M.S. in Audio Technology, and an M.L.S. in Library Science. Before retiring, Dr. Sandstrom was a lecturer and technical coordinator in the School of Music at the University of Maryland. 

Alex K. Masse is a writer, musician, and communications specialist from what is colonially known as British Columbia. Their work has been seen everywhere from the Scholastic Writing Awards to Autostraddle, as well as in collaboration with Penelope Scott, Vancouver Pride, Simon Fraser University, and more. They’re also a neurodivergent nonbinary lesbian, which greatly affects their process. When not writing, they’re making music, and when not making music, they’re writing. Occasionally, though, they can be seen working on their degree, or cozied up with their cat.

Frankie Gunn is a transmasc interdisciplinary artist, musician and producer, currently working as a gardener in the Hudson Valley in upstate New York. Having not attended a traditional 4 year college, Frankie has acquired an a la carte education, doing everything from hairdressing and sound engineering to farming and agriculture. The thread that ties their work together is a hands on approach and a love of all things beautiful. 

James Celeste Lecesne is an American actor, author, screenwriter, and LGBT rights activist, best known for the Academy Award winning short film 'Trevor'. Lecesne has written several books, including Absolute Brightness and Virgin Territory, and is also active in the entertainment industry as an actor and producer. In 1998 Lecesne co-founded The Trevor Project, a nonprofit focused on suicide prevention for LGBT youth.

For the past two decades, Troy Williams has been a community organizer playing pivotal roles in passing laws and protections for the LGBTQ community in Utah, including the historic Utah Compromise, a statute against LGBTQ and racially inclusive hate crimes, and a ban on LGBTQ conversation therapy. In 2010, he co-wrote the award-winning play, "The Passion of Sister Dottie S. Dixon" with the late Charles Lynn Frost, and has since worked on various movies and series centered around real-life stories and people from the Mormon faith. He became the executive director of Equality Utah in the fall of 2014 and was named one of the nation's 50 LGBTQ Champions of Pride in 2022 by The Advocate magazine.

After graduating Harvard Law School, litigating reproductive rights, and running a think tank at Columbia University, Kara Loewentheil did what every Ivy League feminist lawyer should do: quit a prestigious academic career to become a life coach! Less than a decade after leaving the law, Kara has taught hundreds of thousands of women how to close the “Brain Gap” that keeps them feeling anxious and dis-empowered. Her work enables women to identify the ways that sexist social messages impact their brains and how to rewire their thought patterns to create true, authentic confidence from within. Her internationally top-ranked podcast, UnF*ck Your Brain, has been recommended by sources from The New York Times to the We Can Do Hard Things Podcast with Glennon Doyle.

Sola Mahfouz was born in Afghanistan and immigrated to the United States in 2016 to attend college. She is currently a quantum computing researcher at Tufts University Quantum Information Group. In her free time, she is focusing on reading and studying different styles of fiction, as well as writing about the rugged homeland he's left behind.

Malaina Kapoor is a writer from Redwood City, California. She previously served as a fellow at PEN America, where she advocated for international hu man rights, press freedom,. and election integrity. Kapoor served on the management team of a refugee resettlement organization an was the producer of In Deep, a nationally syndicated public affairs radio broadcast program. She as received national awards for her poetry, personal essays, and short stories, and will graduate from Stanford University in 2025.

Dr. Randa Tawil is an assistant professor of Women and Gender Studies at Texas Christian University. She received her doctorate in the Department of American Studies at Yale University and she specializes in Migration and Mobility, Ethnic Studies, and Arab Middle Eastern Studies. Her manuscript, Race in Transit: Mobilities Between Greater Syria and North America, examines knowledge production around the "good" and "bad" migrant from Syria through the lens of mobility. She has articles published in academic journals, The Washington Post, and Open Democracy, and is a member of the Palestinian Feminist Collective.

Lisa Selin Davis is a critically acclaimed essayist and journalist whose work has appeared in major publications including the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Time, The Free Press, and many others. She is the author of Tomboy as well as two novels and she lives in New York City with her family. Her most recent book is Housewife: Why Women Still Do It All and What to Do Instead.

Dr. Elora Shehabuddin is a professor of gender and women's studies and global studies at UC Berkeley. Previously, she was a professor of transnational Asian studies and core faculty in the Center for Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Rice University. Before that, she was an assistant professor of women's studies and political science at UC Irvine. She received her BA in social studies from Harvard and her PhD in politics from Princeton. Shehabuddin is the author of many, many articles and multiple books, including the award-winning Sisters in the Mirror: A History of Muslin Women and the Politics of Global Feminism, which was published in 2021.

Jane Boulware is a global business leader and former Microsoft Executive. Married to her high school sweetheart, Jane lives in Washington state and works to make a difference, serving on boards including Boys & Girls Clubs, writing, speaking, and consulting. Jane is passionate about helping people claim their worth and forge the future.  Her joy is being outdoors with her family.

Dr. Lisa DiGiovanni is a professor of contemporary Spanish and Larin American literature and film at Keene State College. She has a joint appointment as Chair for the Department of Modern Languages and Culture and as a professor int he Holocaust and Genocide Studies Department. her area of expertise is the twentieth-century dictatorial violence in Spain and Chile. As a professor, she teaches introductory to advanced level courses that integrate language, literature, and film and studies state violence as social control.

Celeste Davis is the writer behind the popular Substack 'non-spiritual non-direction'. She is a certified spiritual director through the Chaplaincy Institute, specializing in LDS faith transitions. She lives in Spokane, Washington with her husband and four kids.

Lē Isaac Weaver (they/them) is a creative and technical professional who assists artists, businesses, and nonprofits to create beauty and change with technology. Much of their work involves various aspects of spirituality and religion. Weaver is the author of numerous articles and reviews on Christian Feminism Today as well as the blog, Where She Is. They contributed the chapter 'Genderful' to the book Women Experiencing Faith. Weaver is a recipient of the Brian Eckstein Faithful Servant Award from the Q Christian Network.

Melanie Springer Mock is an award-winning professor and author, a mother, a runner. an image-bearer of our creator. Melanie is a professor of English at George Fox University, Newberg, Ore. In 2009, she won the GFU Undergraduate Faculty of the Year award, and in 2015, she received the GFU Undergraduate Researcher of the Year award. She is the author or co-author of five books, including most recently Worthy: Finding Yourself in a World Expecting Someone Else (Herald Press, 2018). Her essays and reviews have appeared in The Nation, Christian Feminism Today, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Mennonite World Review, among other places. She has finished 50 marathons, a dozen or more triathlons, and countless training runs. She lives in Dundee, Ore., with her husband and two teen sons.

Liz Cooledge Jenkins is a writer, preacher, former college campus minister, and the author of Nice Churchy Patriarchy: Reclaiming Women's Humanity from Evangelicalism. She writes at the intersections of faith, feminism, and social justice, and her work can be found at places like Sojourners, The Christian Century, Christians for Social Action, and Feminism and Religion, as well as her new substack, Growing into Kinship, and her blog: lizcooledgejenkins.com.

Dr. Leta Hong Fincher has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, Dissent Magazine, Ms. Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar and others. As a long-time TV and radio journalist based in China, she won the Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award, the Cowan Award for Humanitarian Reporting and other journalism honors for her reporting. The 10th anniversary edition of Leta's first book, Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China (2023), was named one of the best books of 2023 by China Books Review. Leta’s second book, Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China, was named one of the best books of the year by Vanity Fair, Newsweek, Foreign Policy Interrupted, Bitch Media and Autostraddle; it was also a New York Times “New and Noteworthy” pick. The New York Public Library named Betraying Big Brother one of its “essential reads on feminism” in 2020. The original edition of her book Leftover Women was named one of the top 5 China books of the year by the Asia Society’s ChinaFile and one of the best Asian books of the year by Asia House. It was on the New York Times list of recommended books on China in 2018 and on Book Riot’s list of 21 recommended Chinese history books in 2021.

Leta is the first American to receive a Ph.D. from Tsinghua University's Department of Sociology in Beijing. She graduated from Harvard University magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in East Asian Languages and Civilizations and won a Harvard Foundation award for contribution to race relations. She was awarded a Shaw fellowship and Walter Shorenstein fellowship for her master's degree in East Asian Studies from Stanford University. She is currently a Research Associate at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University.

Jill Burke is a professor of Renaissance Visual and Material Cultures at the University of Edinburgh, a historian of the body and its visual representation, focusing on Italy and Europe from 1400-1700. She is currently the lead investigator of the Royal Society funded project 'Renaissance Goo,' working with soft-matter scientists to remake Renaissance cosmetic and skincare recipes.  She talks regularly about Renaissance bodies on television, radio and podcasts, and she discusses the history of art and beauty on “Jill Burke’s Blog.” She lives in Edinburgh.

Karen Jo Torjesen, Ph.D., is the Margo L. Goldsmith Chair of Women's Studies and Religion at Claremont Graduate School in California, and an associate of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity. She is widely regarded as a leading authority on women in ancient Christianity.

Christian F. Nunes, MBA, MS, LCSW,  became the National Organization for Women's President in August 2020. She was previously appointed Vice President by the board in May 2019. As the second African American president in the organization’s history, the youngest person of color, and the youngest president in more than 40 years, Nunes is leading the organization through an intersectional lens, bringing a diverse coalition of grassroots activists to work against structural sexism and racism.

Christian is a former NOW board member and committee chair, as well as a licensed clinical social worker, consultant, and woman-minority business owner. She is an active community organizer and public speaker, regularly featured at events such as the March for Black Women, Women’s March Events, and rallies around the country in support of the Equal Rights Amendment and immigration rights.  Along with her activism for mental health, Christian has more than 20 years of experience advocating for children’s and women’s issues.

Born in Dallas, Texas, Stacey Harkey considers himself to be a southerner to the core. Always curious and ever annoying he somehow graduated with a degree in Public Relations from Brigham Young University and wrote/acted for the sketch comedy tv show, Studio C. He currently owns a media company with his friends called JK! Studios. He loves playing soccer and the guitar while being equally bad at both. He also believes in the power of an embarrassing moment, a burnt meal, and a extremely difficult challenge.

Mehrsa Baradaran is a professor of law at UC Irvine Law School. She writes about banking law, financial inclusion, inequality, and the racial wealth gap. Her scholarship includes the books How The Other Half Banks and the award-winning The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap, both published by the Harvard University Press. Baradaran and her books have received significant national and international media coverage and have been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Slate, American Banker, The Wall Street Journal, and Financial Times. On NPR's Marketplace, C-SPAN's Washington Journal, and PBS's NewsHour, and as part of TEDx at the University of Georgia. She has advised US senators and congressmen on policy, testified before the US Congress, and spoken at national and international forums like the US Treasury and the World Bank. 

Mikki Kendall is a writer, diversity consultant, and occasional feminist; she has appeared on the BBC, NPR, The Daily Show, PBS, Good Morning America, MSNBC, Al Jazeera, WBEZ, and Showtime, and discusses race, feminism, police violence, tech, and pop culture at institutions and universities across the country. She is the author of the New York Times-bestselling HOOD FEMINISM (recipient of the Chicago Review of Books Award and named a best book of the year by BBC, Bustle, and TIME). She is also the author of AMAZONS, ABOLITIONISTS, AND ACTIVISTS, a graphic novel illustrated by A. D’Amico. Her essays can be found at TIME, the New York Times, The Guardian, the Washington Post, Essence, Vogue, The Boston Globe, NBC, and a host of other sites.

Kate Manne is an associate professor at the Sage School of Philosophy at Cornell University, where she's been teaching since 2013. Before that, Manne was a junior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows from 2011 to 2013, and she did her graduate work in philosophy at MIT from 2006 to 2011. And before that, she was an undergrad at the University of Melbourne where she studied philosophy, logic, and computer science. 

Today, Manne does moral philosophy, especially metaethics and moral psychology, feminist philosophy, and social philosophy. She also enjoys writing opinion pieces, essays, and reviews for a wider audience. She has published multiple highly acclaimed and widely read books, including Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny in 2017, Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women in 2020, and Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia.

Kate Moore is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Radium Girls, which won the 2017 Goodreads Choice Award for Best History, was voted U.S. librarians’ favourite nonfiction book of 2017, and was named a Notable Nonfiction Book of 2018 by the American Library Association. A British writer based near Cambridge, UK, Moore writes across a variety of genres and has had multiple titles on the Sunday Times bestseller list. Her latest book is the critically acclaimed The Woman They Could Not Silence, which, among other accolades, was named runner-up for Best History in the 2021 Goodreads Choice Awards and a 2021 Booklist Editor's Choice.

Mary Chung Hayashi is an award-winning author, national healthcare leader, and former California State Assembly member. With a distinguished career in public service, Mary has spearheaded substantial reforms in mental health services, championed gender equality, and forged powerful, unprecedented partnerships for social causes that previously had no financial or public backing. Recognized as Legislator of the Year by the American Red Cross and the California Medical Association, Mary has also been featured on Red Book's Mothers and Shakers list and Ladies Home Journal's Women to Watch. As principal of public policy and advocacy solutions, she has successfully advised business and policy leaders on some of today's most complex public policy matters. Mary remains a steadfast proponent of social justice expansion and the rights of underrepresented communities.  

Michael Kaufman, PhD, is a writer of both fiction and nonfiction books. As an advisor, activist, and keynote speaker, he has developed innovative approaches to engage men and boys in promoting gender equality and positively transforming men’s lives. Over the past four decades, his work with the United Nations, governments, non-governmental organizations, corporations, trade unions, and universities has taken him to 50 countries. Michael is the co-founder of the White Ribbon Campaign, the largest effort in the world of men working to end violence against women. And he wrote the training program on sexual harassment used by tens of thousands of staff at the United Nations. 

Michael Kimmel, PhD, is one of the world’s leading experts on men and masculinities. He was the SUNY Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at Stony Brook University. Among his many books are Manhood in America, Angry White Men, The Politics of Manhood, The Gendered Society, and the bestseller, Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men. With funding from the MacArthur Foundation, he founded the Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities at Stony Brook in 2013. A tireless advocate of engaging men to support gender equality, Kimmel has lectured at more than 300 colleges, universities, and high schools. He has delivered the International Women’s Day Annual Lecture at the European Parliament, the European Commission, and the Council of Europe, and has worked with the Ministers of Gender Equality of Norway, Denmark, and Sweden in developing programs for boys and men. He consults widely with corporations, NGOs, and public sector organizations on gender equity issues. He was recently called “the world’s most prominent male feminist” in the Guardian newspaper in London.

Sarah López is a recent graduate from Boston University where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations (with a regional focus on Latin America) and two minors in Italian and Political Science. She is interested in substantive democracy, social movements, anti-racism, identity, migration, and Latin American politics, and aspires to obtain a Ph.D. and teach.

Leatha Udayabhanu is a de-colonial life coach, public speaker, and educator who guides people in healing the internalized legacies of colonization—in particular burnout, exhaustion, and shame—so they can show up in the world and fight for the collective liberation we need. She's an expert at distilling provocative and overwhelming topics down into fundamental and simple truths so folks can take practical and sustainable action in creating a more just and equitable world.

Danielle Stewart is an art historian who specializes in the modern and contemporary art of the Americas. Her most recent publications investigate how mid-century Brazilian photography and popular media, especially illustrated magazines, helped to shape regional, national, and personal identities. Born and raised near San Francisco, California, educated in Utah, and a longtime resident of Harlem, New York, Danielle has also lived in Curitiba, Brazil, and Coventry in the United Kingdom. This broad range of environments fundamentally informs Danielle's research.

Danielle completed her Masters of Philosophy and PhD in Art History at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and her BA and MA degrees at Brigham Young University. From 2019 to 2020, Danielle was a fellow in the Princeton Mellon Initiative in Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities and the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies. From 2020-2023, she held the position of Assistant Professor of Latin American Art at the University of Warwick in the UK. Danielle has also held curatorial positions at the BYU Museum of Art and the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum in New York City. Her writing has appeared in publications sponsored by the Museu de Arte de São Paulo in Brazil, the Instituto Moreira Salles, the Fundación Cisneros, and La Universidad de los Andes, the College Art Association, the Latin American Studies Association, and The Space Between society.

Wendy Lower is an American historian and a widely published author on the Holocaust and World War II. Since 2012, she holds the John K. Roth Chair at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California, and in 2014 was named the director of the Mgrublian Center for Human Rights at Claremont. As of 2016, she serves as the interim director of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.

Lower's research areas include the history of Germany and Ukraine in World War II, the Holocaust, women's history, the history of human rights, and comparative genocide studies. Her 2013 book, Hitler's Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields, was translated into 21 languages and was a finalist for the 2013 National Book Award in the nonfiction category and for the National Jewish Book Award. Lower's The Ravine: A Family, A Photograph, A Holocaust Massacre Revealed (2021) received the National Jewish Book Award in the Holocaust category and was shortlisted for the Wingate Prize, and longlisted for a PEN.

Riane Eisler is a social systems scientist, cultural historian, futurist, and attorney whose research, writing, and speaking has transformed the lives of people worldwide. Her newest work, Nurturing Our Humanity: How Domination and Partnership Shape Our Brains, Lives, and Future, co-authored with anthropologist Douglas Fry, shows how to construct a more equitable, sustainable, and less violent world based on Partnership rather than Domination.

Dr. Eisler is president of the Center for Partnership Systems (CPS), dedicated to research and education, Editor-in-Chief of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership Studies, an online peer-reviewed journal at the University of Minnesota that was inspired by her work, keynotes conferences nationally and internationally, has addressed the United Nations General Assembly, the U.S. Department of State, and Congressional briefings, has spoken at corporations and universities worldwide on applications of the partnership model introduced in her work, and is Distinguished Professor at Meridian University, which offers PhDs and Master’s degrees based on Eisler’s Partnership-Domination social scale.

Sue Blundell is a playwright and lecturer in Classical Studies.  Many of her plays have been inspired by ancient myths, ideas, and objects.  More recently she’s been exploring the lives of artists and composers, such as Auguste Rodin and Benjamin Britten. Interaction between actors and musicians has become a vital element in her work. Sue wrote her PhD thesis on Greek and Roman philosophy; more specifically, on Epicurean ideas about biological and cultural evolution.  She has been a lecturer in Classical Studies at the Open University, Goldsmiths, and Birkbeck, University of London, and has given regular lectures at the British Museum. She also taught for a number of years on the Conservation course at the Architectural Association School of Architecture. Her main area of research is the history of women in ancient Greece, and their representation in drama and the visual arts.  Her other writings include work on Greek and Roman theories of evolution, Emma Hamilton’s ‘Classical Attitudes’ and their place in the 18th century Grand Tour, and the symbolism of shoes in Greek art and thought. She has presented conference papers at universities in the UK, Europe and the US, and has been a keynote speaker on Greek footwear.

Sue is currently working on a book provisionally titled Finding her Feet: Female Footwear and its Stories

Alicia Galbraith is passionate about mental health. With a background in neuroscience, yoga, and meditation, she is currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Social Work with the intent to become a therapist. She believes each client she meets with has the tools for their own healing within themselves. In sessions, she pulls from her varied background, clearing the path for whole-person healing, with the firm belief that each client holds their own medicine.

BreAnna Cox Larson lives in North Salt Lake with her husband and four kids. She is the Chair of the NSL Planning Commission, the Co-founder and Chair of the Davis County Women’s Caucus, and a member of the Stakeholder’s Committee for the Davis School District. She volunteers as a citizen lobbyist with a focus on empowering citizens to get involved in their communities through boards and commissions to impact municipal-level change. She and her family own a small hobby vineyard and enjoy skiing and riding motorcycles together.

Tlawil Inlakesh is a devoted student of sacred ancient ways and a gate keeper for those who are committed to healing, evolving, and co-creating. She is a mother for all and a guide for those looking to deepen their connection with themselves and the forces of nature.

Alicia Galbraith is passionate about mental health. With a background in neuroscience, yoga, and meditation, she is currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Social Work with the intent to become a therapist. She believes each client she meets with has the tools for their own healing within themselves. In sessions, she pulls from her varied background, clearing the path for whole-person healing, with the firm belief that each client holds their own medicine.

BreAnna Cox Larson lives in North Salt Lake with her husband and four kids. She is the Chair of the NSL Planning Commission, the Co-founder and Chair of the Davis County Women’s Caucus, and a member of the Stakeholder’s Committee for the Davis School District. She volunteers as a citizen lobbyist with a focus on empowering citizens to get involved in their communities through boards and commissions to impact municipal-level change. She and her family own a small hobby vineyard and enjoy skiing and riding motorcycles together.

Alicia Galbraith is passionate about mental health. With a background in neuroscience, yoga, and meditation, she is currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Social Work with the intent to become a therapist. She believes each client she meets with has the tools for their own healing within themselves. In sessions, she pulls from her varied background, clearing the path for whole-person healing, with the firm belief that each client holds their own medicine.

BreAnna Cox Larson lives in North Salt Lake with her husband and four kids. She is the Chair of the NSL Planning Commission, the Co-founder and Chair of the Davis County Women’s Caucus, and a member of the Stakeholder’s Committee for the Davis School District. She volunteers as a citizen lobbyist with a focus on empowering citizens to get involved in their communities through boards and commissions to impact municipal-level change. She and her family own a small hobby vineyard and enjoy skiing and riding motorcycles together.

Dr. Brianna Theobald is an assistant professor of history and affiliate faculty in the Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at the University of Rochester. She is an award-winning teacher and researcher in the fields of U.S. women’s and gender history, the history of Native America, and the history of reproduction. Her first book, Reproduction on the Reservation: Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Colonialism in the Long Twentieth Century (University of North Carolina Press, 2019), explores the intersection of colonial and reproductive politics in Native America from the late nineteenth century to the present. This book has received multiple awards, including the Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin Book Award from the American Society for Ethnohistory. Theobald’s research on Native women’s history has appeared in academic publications including the Journal of Women’s History and The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History, and she has also published in venues including Time Magazine and the Washington Post. She is currently working on two book-length projects, Making the Impossible Reality: Genealogies of Indigenous Women's Activism and Safe Haven: Feminisms and the Domestic Violence Movement.

Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy  is an Associate Professor and Department Chair of Native American Studies at Humboldt State University. Her research is focused on Indigenous feminisms, California Indians and decolonization. She received her Ph.D. in Native American Studies with a Designated Emphasis in Feminist Theory and Research from the University of California, Davis and her M.F.A. in Creative Writing & Literary Research from San Diego State University. She also has her B.A. in Psychology from Stanford University. She has published in the Ecological Processes Journal, the Wicazo Sa Review, and the Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education and Society journal. She has also published creative writing in the As/Us journal and News from Native California. She is also the author of a popular blog that explores issues of social justice, history and California Indian politics and culture.

Farina King, a citizen of the Navajo Nation, is the Horizon Chair of Native American Ecology and Culture and Associate Professor of Native American Studies at the University of Oklahoma. She received her Ph.D. at Arizona State University in History. King specializes in twentieth-century Native American Studies, especially Indigenous experiences in boarding schools. She is the author of The Earth Memory Compass: Diné Landscapes and Education in the Twentieth Century, and co-author with Michael P. Taylor and James R. Swensen of Returning Home: Diné Creative Works from the Intermountain Indian School. She is one of the series editors for the Lyda Conley Series on Trailblazing Indigenous Futures of the University Press of Kansas, and she co-hosts the Native Circles podcast with Sarah Newcomb. She is the past President of the Southwest Oral History Association (2021-2022). Previously, between 2016 and 2022, she was Associate Professor of History and affiliated faculty of Cherokee and Indigenous Studies at Northeastern State University, Tahlequah, in the homelands of the Cherokee Nation and United Keetoowah Band of Cherokees. She also directed and founded the NSU Center for Indigenous Community Engagement.

Brittany “Bri” Romanello earned a Ph.D. in Sociocultural Anthropology from Arizona State University. Her research in the Southwest and borderland areas used mixed ethnographic methods to understand better how the intersections of race, ethnicity, legal status, and religion shape Latinx immigrants' lives, social networks, family structures, parenting, and identity. On a personal note, Bri enjoys existing outdoors, buying too many books, cooking, thrifting, cumbias, film and gardening.

Dr. Julia Zulver is a feminist researcher studying women's mobilization in communities affected by conflict and violence in Latin America. She is passionate about gender justice, and uses academic research, advocacy, and commentary to draw attention to and support women's rights.

Sarah Lopez is a recent graduate from Boston University where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations (with a regional focus on Latin America) and two minors in Italian and Political Science. She is interested in substantive democracy, social movements, anti-racism, identity, migration, and Latin American politics, and aspires to obtain a Ph.D. and teach.

Dr. Susie Porter is a Presidential Societal Impact Scholar and Distinguished Professor in the Humanities. She serves as a country conditions expert for asylum cases, was a founder of the Westside Leadership Institute (Spanish language version), and works as an organizer with the Salt Lake City Latinx community. She served as Chair of the Gender Studies Division (2010-2020) and, since 2021, as Director of the Center for Latin American Studies.

Porter is the author of two award-winning books: Workingwomen in Mexico City (Arizona, 2003); and From Angel to Office Worker: Middle-Class Identity and Female Consciousness in Mexico, 1890-1950 (Nebraska, 2018)-both also published by El Colegio de Michoacán press. Porter is co-editor of Orden social e identidad de género, with María Teresa Fernández Aceves and Carmen Ramos Escandón (2006); and, Género en la encrucijada de la historia social y cultural, with Fernández Aceves (2015).

Natalia Calero is the General Director of Coming Up, an organization dedicated to gender equality, labor inclusion and professional development, whose mission is to help organizations have inclusive work spaces in which the talent and skills of all people are valued. Natalia has more than 20 years of work in national and international organizations in the field of human rights, gender equality and inclusion. Natalia served as a program management specialist at UN Women Mexico, where she was in charge of women's leadership and political participation and the elimination of violence against women and girls. Prior to that, she served as an advisor to the Human Rights Directorate of the Mexican Supreme Court, where she supervised training on equality and the elimination of stereotypes.

Marie Sarita Gaytán is an associate professor of sociology and gender studies at the University of Utah. Sarita writes and teaches in the areas of culture, globalization, Latinx studies, Latin American studies, gender and sexuality, and race and ethnicity. She is the recipient of Paper Awards from the Latin American Studies Association in the Mexico section, the American Sociological Association in the Latinx sociology section, and the National Association of Chicana and Chicano studies. Her book, ¡Tequila!: Distilling the Spirit of Mexico, was published in 2014 by Stanford University Press.

Levi Murray is a half-white, half Mexican-American anti-patriarchist. A dentist by trade, he is currently pursuing a Masters of Theology with a focus on Feminist Theology. Levi has the fortunate of being married to his best friend, Barbara, and together raising four beautiful children.

Dr. Maile Arvin is an associate professor of History and Gender Studies at the University of Utah. She is a Native Hawaiian feminist scholar who works on issues of race, gender, science and colonialism in Hawai‘i and the broader Pacific. At the University of Utah, she is part of the leadership of the Pacific Islands Studies Initiative, which was awarded a Mellon Foundation grant to support ongoing efforts to develop Pacific Islands Studies curriculum, programming and student recruitment and support.

Arvin’s first book, Possessing Polynesians: The Science of Settler Colonial Whiteness in Hawaiʻi and Oceania, was published with Duke University Press in 2019. In that book, she analyzes the nineteenth and early twentieth century history of social scientists declaring Polynesians “almost white.” The book argues that such scientific studies contributed to a settler colonial logic of possession through whiteness. In this logic, Indigenous Polynesians (the people) and Polynesia (the place) became the natural possessions of white settlers, since they reasoned that Europeans and Polynesians shared an ancient ancestry. The book also examines how Polynesians have long challenged this logic in ways that regenerate Indigenous ways of relating to each other. Her work has also been published in the journals Meridians, American Quarterly, Native American and Indigenous Studies, Critical Ethnic Studies, The Scholar & Feminist, and Feminist Formations, as well as on the nonprofit independent news site Truthout.

From 2015-17, Arvin was an assistant professor at the University of California, Riverside, in Ethnic Studies. She earned her PhD in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, San Diego. Her dissertation won the American Studies Association’s Ralph Henry Gabriel prize. She is also a former University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellow, Charles Eastman Fellow in Native American Studies at Dartmouth College, and Ford Foundation Pre-doctoral Fellow.

Gina Colvin is a New Zealander of Māori, English, Irish, Welsh, German and French descent. Until the July of 2016, she was in the permanent position of Lecturer at the University of Canterbury. Dr. Colvin served UC for 12 years across Political Science and Communication, School of Māori and Cultural Development, and more recently the School of Educational Studies and Leadership.

Gina’s primary academic interest is in the history and future of ideas. Whether faith, belief, ideologies, symbols, representations or discourses, all communicate powerful ideas that at the same time express hope for, or hope in some kind of social action. Whether expressed in educational, religious, or political contexts my research interests are in understanding how and why particular ideas flower, change, get disrupted, are silenced, or become dogmas, and how these same ideas translate into social, political, and cultural realities.

Meleseini Lotoaniu is a third-year student at University of California, Davis with an interest in literature and writing.

Meleseini Lotoaniu is a third-year student at University of California, Davis with an interest in literature and writing.

Jamie Chang is an award-winning translator and teaches at the Ewha Womans University in Seoul, South Korea.

Setsu Shigematsu is a mother of two children and an Associate Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at UC Riverside. Xer intellectual and scholarly concerns include the relationship of US and Japanese imperialism, gendered state violence, transnational liberation movements, comparative feminist theory and cultural studies. Xe is the author of Scream from the Shadows: the Women’s Liberation Movement in Japan, and the director of Re-Visions of Abolition (2011/2021), a documentary film about the prison industrial complex and the prison abolition movement. Xe is also co-editor of Militarized Currents: Toward a Decolonized Future in Asia and the Pacific.

Wang Ping is a poet, writer, photographer, performance and multimedia artist. Her publications have been translated into multiple languages and include poetry, short stories, novels, cultural studies, and children's stories. Her multimedia exhibitions address global themes of industrialization, the environment, interdependency, and the people. She is the recipient of numerous awards, a professor of English, and founder of the Kinship of Rivers project.

Annabelle Qian is an 18 year old scholar who just graduated from Waterford High School, and will be studying international affairs and economics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill this fall. Annabelle is biracial and trilingual. She lived in Guangzhou, China for 10 years where she cultivated her study of the intersection between global politics and personal identity. Annabelle is an award winning historical writer; she has presented papers in Washington D.C. for international competitions, as well as at the Utah State Capitol.

Annabelle Qian was born to a Chinese father and an American mother. One of three children, she has lived extensively in both China and the United States. Currently, Annabelle is attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she studies International Relations and Public Policy with an emphasis on East Asia.

Jenn Lee Smith was born on the friendly, vibrant island of Taiwan. She is a filmmaker who focuses on women-led stories of underrepresented people. In a previous life, she worked on a PhD in feminist geography. She began her producing career focused on stories at the intersection of religion and sexual/gender orientation, and has since collaborated on BIPOC and environmental films. She welcomes your recommendations for live comedy and films of all genres @bewilderfilm

Rachel Lam is a professor of psychology and integrative medicine caregiver in Salt Lake City, Utah. She identifies as a biracial-female educator, healer, and advocate for social justice and mental health.

Marissa Lila (she/they) is a Thai-American documentarian who grew up in Hong Kong and Thailand and is now based in Salt Lake City. As a multicultural filmmaker, she directs and produces projects with characters who cross boundaries set by dominant cultures or identities. Marissa’s projects have been selected to play at international film festivals (DOC NYC, Camden, IFF, Big Sky Documentary FF, and MountainFilm). Two projects she produced, Transmormon and Oxygen to Fly, went viral with over 160 million total views. These projects were featured in The Huffington Post, New York Times, The Atlantic, People Magazine, and Dazed. Marissa is co-founder of OHO Media, a creative content agency for which Marissa creates documentaries and documentary-based branded content. Marissa directed, produced, and wrote for the docu-reality television series The Generations Project, for which one of the episodes she produced won a Regional Emmy. Marissa also spent six years creating educational content to increase equitable outcomes for students inclusive of race, ethnicity, language, cultural, sexual orientation, or ability.

Rev. Cynthia Brix, is co-founder of Gender Equity and Reconciliation International, which has organized 280 intensive trainings in twelve countries for healing and reconciliation between women and men, and people of all genders. She is an ordained interfaith minister and Co-Director of Satyana Institute. She was formerly a campus minister at the University of Colorado for United Ministries of Higher Education. Cynthia co-chaired the Race Relations Committee for the City of Muncie, Indiana, and served in numerous leadership positions for Planned Parenthood in Dallas and in Indiana. A long-time student of Eknath Easwaran’s Passage Meditation, Cynthia leads retreats on interfaith spirituality. She co-organized five international conferences on interspirituality, one of which brought women spiritual masters together from Buddhist, Christian, and Hindu traditions, and she produced a DVD video from this conference entitled Cultivating Women’s Spiritual Mastery.  Cynthia holds an M.Div. from Iliff School of Theology (2006), a double M.A. in wellness management and applied gerontology, and an honorary doctorate from the California Institute of Integral Studies. She is contributing author of Divine Duality: The Power of Reconciliation between Women and Men (Hohm Press, 2007), and co-author of Women Healing Women: A Model of Hope for Oppressed Women Everywhere (Hohm Press, 2009). 

William Keepin, PhD, is co-founder of the Gender Equity and Reconciliation International project. A mathematical physicist widely published in the fields of sustainable energy, global warming, archetypal cosmology, comparative mysticism, and the intersection of science and spirituality, Will has presented testimony to European and Australian parliaments, and the US House of Representatives.  He became a whistleblower in nuclear science policy, recounted in The Cultural Creatives (Paul Ray and Sherry Anderson, Harmony Books, 2000). Will co-founded the Satyana Institute, and together with Rev. Cynthia Brix organized five international conferences to facilitate dialogue, interspiritual practice, and collaboration across the major religions and science. Will trained extensively in spiritual traditions East and West, and holds a Ph.D. in applied mathematics, M.S. in mathematical physics, M.A. in East-West psychology, and honorary doctorate from the California Institute of Integral Studies. He is a Fellow of the Findhorn Foundation, and has facilitated Grof holotropic breathwork since 1989. Will is author of Divine Duality: The Power of Reconciliation Between Women and Men (Hohm Press, 2007), and Belonging to God: Spirituality, Science, and a Universal Path of Divine Love (SkyLight Paths, Turner Publishing, 2016).  He is co-author of Women Healing Women (Hohm Press, 2009); and Song of the Earth: The Emerging Synthesis of Spiritual and Scientific Worldviews (Permanent Publications, London, UK, 2012). 

Harin Jeong, MA is a GERI facilitator and lead coordinator for GERI in South Korea based in Seoul. And I'll just make a note that the full title of this organization is Gender Equity and Reconciliation Institute, but we'll abbreviate that sometimes by just saying GERI. So listeners, when you hear the word GERI, you'll know tha

Mariya Taher has worked in gender-based violence for over a decade in the areas of teaching, research, policy, program development, and direct service.

In 2015, she cofounded Sahiyo, an award-winning, transnational organization with the mission to empower Asian and other communities to end FGC. The Manhattan Young Democrats honored her as a 2017 Engendering Progress honoree and in 2018, Mariya received the Human Rights Storytellers Award from the Muslim American Leadership Alliance. In 2020, she was recognized as one of the six inaugural grant recipients for the Crave Foundation for Women. Since 2015, she has collaborated with the Massachusetts Women’s Bar Association to pass legislation to protect girls from FGC. After starting a Change.org petition and gathering over 400,000 signatures, Massachusetts became the 39th state in the U.S. to do so.

Mariya is also an extensive writer in fiction and nonfiction and has contributed articles and stories to NPR’s Code Switch, HuffPost, The Fair Observer, Brown Girl Magazine, Solstice Literary Magazine, The Express Tribune, The San Francisco Examiner, and more.

She graduated with her MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University, where she received the Graduate School of Arts & Social Sciences Dean’s Merit Scholarship and the Lesley University Graduate Student Leadership Award. She also holds a Master in Social Work from San Francisco State University and a B.A. from UC Santa Barbara in Religious Studies.

Learn more at sahiyo.org

Srimati Basu is a Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies and Anthropology, and a member of the Committee on Social Theory. She serves as the President of the Association for Feminist Anthropology, 2021-2023. Srimati has an Interdisciplinary Ph.D. from Ohio State University in Cultural Studies/ Anthropology/ Women's Studies, and her teaching, research and community work interests include Global Feminisms, Law, Gender-Based Violence, Social Movements, Feminist Methodologies, and Masculinities. At present, she is writing a monograph on anti-feminist men's rights groups, following a 2013-14 Fulbright Fellowship to conduct fieldwork with MRAs across Indian cities. She has recently begun a  research project on Indian women private detectives with fellowships from National Endowment for Humanities/ American Institute of Indian Studies and from Sisters in Crime.

Thenmozhi Soundararajan is a Dalit Civil rights artist, organizer, and theorist who has worked with hundreds of organizations to better understand the urgent issues of racial, caste, and gender equity. Working across disciplines she is an innovative strategist and thinker that has built bridges between many communities around the world.

Acharya Shunya is a truth-teller who facilitates authenticity, self-remembrance, and divine feminine pathways to awakening. The first female head of her spiritual lineage that traces its roots to 2,000-year-ago in India, Acharya Shunya represents the ancient Vedic tradition of India in a way that is completely authentic, yet as relevant as possible to modern sensibilities and needs. 

Acharya Shunya  reinterprets and re-contextualizes ancient Vedic wisdom and dharma teachings of Advaita Vedanta (nondual teachings), Ayurveda's lifestyle wisdom and Yoga philosophy, to create a learning and awakening path for contemporary seekers, empowering people everywhere to lead spiritually  fearless, fulfilled and enlightened lives. Her teachings acts like a bridge between ancient wisdom and issues faced by modern humans, today.

Acharya Shunya is the author of three bestselling books Ayurveda lifestyle Wisdom (2017), Sovereign Self (2020) and her newest book - Roar Like a Goddess: Every Woman's Guide to Becoming Unapologetically Powerful, Prosperous, and Peaceful. In this book, Acharya Shunya honors her progressive Vedic roots while breaking the shackles of tradition to bring modern-day women, an inclusive, feminist spirituality.

As one of the first woman rabbis in Canada, Elyse Goldstein has broken down barriers by founding inclusive communities for learning and prayer. Goldstein graduated from Brandeis University in 1978 and was ordained by the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion in 1983. After ordination, she became assistant rabbi at Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto. Then sole rabbi of Temple Beth David in Canton, Massachusetts in 1986 before returning to Canada in 1991 to become founding director of Kolel, the Adult Center for Liberal Jewish Learning, a major center for a Jewish adult education. Goldstein served as the first female president of both Reform Rabbis of Toronto and the Interdenominational Toronto Board of Rabbis.

She retired from Kolel in 2011 and founded the Inclusive City Shul in Toronto, where she still serves as rabbi. Her first book, ReVisions: Seeing Torah through a Feminist Lens, won the Canadian National Jewish Book Award in 1998. And her 2000 book Women's Torah Commentary, which wove together insights from dozens of women's scholars, has left an indelible mark on Jewish thought. And her book, New Jewish Feminism: Probing the Past, Forging the Future, was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in 2008.

Angela Saini is a British science journalist, broadcaster and the author. Saini has worked as a reporter and presenter for the BBC and has written for a number of publications including The Guardian, New Scientist, and Wired UK. She has also produced and presented several radio and television documentaries, including a BBC Radio 4 documentary on biofuels and a BBC World Service documentary on the impact of climate change on Indian agriculture. Saini's writing and reporting focus on how science interacts with society, especially on how it affects marginalized groups, and she has been acclaimed for her work by a diverse range of organizations and institutions.

Dr. Islah Jad is a tenured Assistant Professor of Gender and Development at Birzeit University. She is also the co-founder and current Director of the Institute of Women’s Studies at Birzeit and a Core Group Member of the Arab Families Working Group. A prominent figure in the Palestinian women’s movement, Jad also helped to establish the Women’s Affair Centre in Gaza and Nablus, Les Amies du Francis, the Child Corner project in el-Bireh, and the WATC (Women’s Affairs Technical Committee). Jad carried out Gender Consultancy for the United Nations Development Programme and was a co-author of the United Nation’s Arab Human Development Report of 2005. She earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Cairo University, a master's degree in political theory from the University of Nantes, and a Ph.D. in gender and development studies from the University of London. She currently teaches at Birzeit University.

Dr. Bahar Jalali teaches the history of the Modern Middle East. Her area of expertise is Afghanistan. She focuses on modernization and women’s rights in the twentieth century under the Old Regime. She is currently finishing a manuscript on the Decade of Democracy from 1963-1973 in Afghanistan when an urban educated intelligentsia spearheaded democratic reforms and a liberal Constitution. Born in Afghanistan, she fled the country as a child after the Soviet invasion.

In 2009, she returned to Afghanistan to work at the newly opened American University in Kabul where she taught History of Afghanistan and founded the first Gender Studies program in the history of the country. She recently started an online protest campaign calling for protection of women’s rights and preservation of cultural heritage in Afghanistan. This campaign has received extensive coverage in the international press. It has also triggered wide- ranging discussions on protection of human rights and cultural heritage in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime. 

Dr. Afiya Zia is a feminist scholar who has taught Gender Studies at the University of Toronto, Canada, and Habib University in Pakistan. She is the author of three books, has authored over a dozen peer-reviewed essays in scholarly publications, and she's contributed chapters for over ten edited volumes, including an award-winning publication on human rights. She's currently a professor at Wesleyan University.

Léa Namouni was born in Paris, France and lived there until the age of five when her family relocated to the state of New Jersey. She holds a BA in International Relations from Boston University and will attending Columbia Law School as of September 2023 studying international law.

Dr. Zahra Ayubi is a scholar of gender in pre-modern and contemporary Islamic ethics. She specializes in feminist philosophy approaches to the Muslim intellectual tradition. Her work includes a serious look at masculinity and gendered childhood, in addition to studying more traditional gender topics such as constructs of femininity, women's experiences, marriage, divorce, sexuality, and feminism. She has published on gendered concepts of ethics, justice, and religious authority, and on Muslim feminist thought and American Muslim women's experiences.

Her book, Gendered Morality: Classical Islamic Ethics of the Self, Family and Society, was published by Columbia University Press in 2019. In it, Ayubi calls for a philosophical turn in the study of gender and Islam based on resources for gender equality that are unlocked by feminist engagement with the Islamic ethical tradition.

She's currently taking that philosophical turn in her second book project, Women as Humans: Life, Death, and Gendered Being in Islamic Medical Ethics, which was supported by a three-year grant from the Greenwall Foundation's Faculty Scholars Program. The project is a textual and ethnographic study of gender and gendered experiences in Muslim biomedical ethics. Zahra Ayubi is an associate professor of religion at Dartmouth College, where she started in 2015 upon completion of her PhD in religious studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the current president of the Society for the Study of Muslim Ethics

Born in Dallas, Texas, Stacey Harkey considers himself to be a Southerner to the core. After graduating with a degree in public relations from Brigham Young University, he was a writer and actor for the sketch comedy TV show, Studio C. He is currently a personal trainer, a corporate DEI consultant, and owns a media company called JK Studios. Stacey is a firm believer in the power of an embarrassing moment, a burnt meal, and an extremely difficult challenge.

Christena Cleveland Ph.D. is a social psychologist, public theologian, author, and activist. She is the founder and director of the Center for Justice + Renewal as well as its sister organization, Sacred Folk, which creates resources to stimulate people’s spiritual imaginations and support their journeys toward liberation.

A weaver of Black liberation and the sacred feminine, Dr. Cleveland integrates psychology, theology, storytelling, and art to stimulate our spiritual imaginations. She recently completed her third full-length book, God is a Black Woman (HarperOne), which details her 400-mile walking pilgrimage across central France in search of ancient Black Madonna statues, and examines the relationship among race, gender, and cultural perceptions of the Divine.

Dr. Cleveland holds a Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of California Santa Barbara as well as an honorary doctorate from the Virginia Theological Seminary. An award-winning researcher and author, Christena is a Ford Foundation Fellow who has held faculty positions at several institutions of higher education — most recently at Duke University’s Divinity School, where she led a research team investigating self-compassion as a buffer to racial stress. Though Dr. Cleveland loves scholarly inquiry, she is also a student of embodied wisdom. She recently completed the Art & So

Kylee Shepherd is a bi-racial student from Bakersfield, California. She is currently a psychology major at Brigham Young University and plans to be an elementary school teacher. She is a founding member of The Black Menaces, an activist group interviewing students and faculty on college campuses with questions that start conversations about racial issues, biases, stereotypes, and more. In her spare time, Kylee likes to the movies, play with her dog, and take naps.

Channel Achenbach hales from San Antonio, TX and is an advocate for "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." She is a seeker of freedom, justice, accountability, love, compassion, mercy, diversity and awareness. She pursues opportunities to discuss racial disparities and the achievable resolutions for unity, diversity and solidarity within the membership in and out of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Channel has been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for more than 30 years, leaving following her mission. Channel is married with seven kids and one grandson.

OluTimehin Kukoyi (née Adegbeye) is an award-winning writer, speaker and public intellectual whose work focuses on love and freedom. She is known for her insightful analyses of issues relating to feminism, gender, sexualities and pro-poor urbanisation.

Her TED talk on urban inclusion “Who Belongs in a City?“, delivered at TEDGlobal 2017, was acclaimed as one of the most notable talks of 2017. OluTimehin has addressed audiences on four continents, and has worked with a wide variety of corporate and civil society organisations in her home country of Nigeria and internationally.

Ms Kukoyi was awarded the third Gerald Kraak Prize for her essay, ‘Mothers and Men‘, which is now available in print in the Jacana Media anthology, ‘The Heart of the Matter‘. She has been published online by a range of journalistic, development and cultural platforms, and until its closure was a staff writer at The Correspondent. Her work has been translated into 26 languages, with selected publications incorporated into academic curricula in various countries.

OluTimehin is an alumna of the inaugural Writing for Social Justice workshop organised by AWDF in collaboration with FEMRITE (Uganda, 2014), the Farafina Trust Creative Writing workshop (Nigeria, 2015), and the BRITDOC Queer Impact Producers Lab (USA, 2017), among other fellowships. She lives in Lagos with her family.

Dr. Veronica Fynn Bruey is a multi-award winner and a passionate academic and advocate. Holding six academic degrees from four continents, she has researched, taught, consulted, and presented at conferences in over thirty countries. She's authored five books, several book chapters, and journal articles. She's the founder and editor in chief of the Journal of Internal Displacement, the co-lead of Law & Society's collaborative research network, she is the lead of Law & Society Association's international research collaborative, Disrupting Patriarchy and Masculinity in Africa, the founder of The Voice of West African Refugees in Ghana at the Buduburam refugee settlement in Ghana. She is also the Australian National University International Alumna of the Year in 2021, and the president of the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration, and a co-chair of Africa Interest Group American Society Of International Law. Currently she is an Action Canada Fellow, from 2022 to 2023, and the director of The Flower School of Global Health Sciences and an assistant professor of legal studies at Athabasca University. Veronica is a born and bred indigenous Liberian War survivor.

Each week in Season 3 Amy will read a book on a different topic in global gender studies, and will discuss it with a guest who has also read - or, in many cases written - the book being discussed. We will start with the African continent, touching down in several different countries to discuss essential topics in the history of patriarchy and gender studies. The following month, in honor of Black History Month, we will focus on essential texts by Black authors. Next, we will move north to the Middle East, then onward to Asia, around to the Pacific Islands, on to the Americas, and finally, we’ll finish out the year with a handful of European countries.

Each guest this year will have ancestry from the country they discuss in their episode, and in many cases they will be longtime residents of that country, which means they will bring firsthand local experience to the discussion.

Kristin Neff (she/her) received her doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley, and is currently an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin.

During Kristin’s last year of graduate school she became interested in Buddhism and has been practicing meditation in the Insight Meditation tradition ever since. While doing her post-doctoral work she decided to conduct research on self-compassion – a central construct in Buddhist psychology and one that had not yet been examined empirically. Kristin is a pioneer in the field of self-compassion research, creating a scale to measure the construct almost 20 years ago. She has been recognized as one of the world’s most influential research psychologists. In addition to writing numerous academic articles and book chapters on the topic, she is author of the book Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself, and her latest Fierce Self-Compassion: How Women Can Harness Kindness to Speak Up, Claim Their Power and Thrive.

In conjunction with her colleague Dr. Chris Germer, she has developed an empirically supported training program called Mindful Self-Compassion, which is taught by thousands of teachers worldwide. They co-authored The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook as well as Teaching the Mindful Self-Compassion Program: A Guide for Professionals. She is also co-founder of the nonprofit Center for Mindful Self-Compassion.

From Gerda Lerner and Gloria Steinem to Betty Freidan and Naomi Wolf, I have always admired to contributions of Jewish women to feminist thought and yet we haven’t yet had the opportunity to highlight voices from the Jewish community this season. With that in mind, I was so grateful to be put in contact with a fabulous writer, thinker, and rabbi — Hara Person —who generously volunteered to join us this season and share some stories of powerful women in the Jewish holiday tradition.

Rabbi Hara Person (she/her) is the Chief Executive of Central Conference of American Rabbis. Previously, she was the CCAR’s Chief Strategy Officer. In that capacity, she oversaw the Communications Department and served as Publisher of CCAR Press, and worked with leadership on overall organizational strategy.

Rabbi Person was ordained in 1998 from HUC-JIR, after graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Amherst College (1986) and receiving an MA in Fine Arts from New York University/International Center of Photography (1992).

She served as Educator at the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue from 1990-1996, and was the Adjunct Rabbi there from 1998-2019. Since 1998, Rabbi Person has been the High Holy Day Rabbi of Congregation B’nai Olam, Fire Island Pines, NY.

Before coming to the CCAR, Rabbi Person was the Editor-in-Chief of URJ Books and Music, where she was responsible for the revision of The Torah: A Modern Commentary (2005) and the publication of many significant projects, including the Aleph Isn’t Tough adult Hebrew series and Mitkadem: Hebrew for Youth as well as several award-winning children’s books. While at URJ, she was also the Managing Editor of The Torah: A Women’s Commentary, named the National Jewish Book Award Book of the Year in 2008.

Rabbi Person is also the co-author of Stories of Heaven and Earth: Bible Heroes in Contemporary Children’s Literature and as well as co-editor of That You May Live Long: Caring for Your Aging Parents, Caring for Yourself, and Editor of The Mitzvah of Healing. Her essays and poems have been published in various anthologies and journals, including Bridges: A Jewish Feminist Journal, upstreet, Encyclopedia of Jewish American Popular Culture, Women and Judaism, The Continuum Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature, and The Women’s Haftarah Commentary.

Rabbi Person lives in Brooklyn, NY, and is the mother of two adults.

To help us in this exploration we're joined by Shauna Rensch and Lauren Prakke. We're so grateful to feature their voices.

Shauna Rensch (she/her) is a wife and mother of four kids ages 16 to 6. She grew up in the north suburbs of Chicago but moved to Arizona with her family at the end of high school. She went to ASU looking at various degrees, but decided on education before taking time off to get married and have her first child. She went back to school in order to complete a bachelor's degree at NAU and started teaching. She has taught from kindergarten through sixth grade but loves teaching math above anything else. She completed a master's in elementary education from NAU in 2015. She is currently taking time off from teaching but looks forward to more work within the education field in the future. Shauna loves reading, embroidery, long walks with beautiful views and road trips with her family.

Lauren Prakke (she/her) is a cultural innovator, strategic advisor and futurist. Prakke founded Restless Buddha Productions which harnessed a team of international experts across a broad spectrum of the arts including film, theatre, art to simultaneously raise capital and social awareness. Restless Buddha has been featured in numerous newspapers and magazines from Vanity Fair to The Times. Prakke is an int’l lecturer, writer, and curator of contemporary art, a theatre producer and a social activist with an expertise on woman's issues. Prakke is a TED speaker, founded & chaired The Tate Young Patrons at The Tate, served as co-chair of Women for Women International Leadership, Chairman of The Whitechapel Patrons and on the Board of Women of the World at The Southbank Centre. Prakke was an Interest Rate Swaps broker in both NYC & in London for nearly a decade. She was graduated in 19th Century English Literature and has a post grad degree Contemporary Art. She is a relentless reader and an autodidact polymath.

To help us illuminate these paths forward, it’s my delight that in this episode we’re joined by Kajsa Berlin-Kaufusi who shares a stunning vision for the Church’s feminist future.

Kajsa Berlin-Kaufusi (she/her) is, what you might call in French, a "flaneuse"---that is, a woman who enjoys the process of wandering and exploring, whether it be a local bookstore or a new international destination. She completed her BA at Brigham Young University, followed by an MA in Biblical Studies from Regent University. Her research focuses on feminist/progressive theologies, early Christianity, Medieval Judeo-Islamic philosophy, world religions, and women's narratives of the religious experience. Today, Kajsa is devoting her time to writing, with a book forthcoming, and spending time with her family. She is also the proud owner of a Great Dane named Freja, who is one of the loves of her life.

In today’s episode, we hear from Ashley Mae Hoiland and Courtney McPhie, as well as an Anonymous Contributor who help us explore the impacts of LDS patriarchy in their own lives.

Ashley Mae Hoiland (she/her) is the author of One Hundred Birds Taught me To Fly, A New Constellation and several children's books. She lives in Provo, Utah with her three kids, geologist husband, dog and bearded dragon. She has an MFA in creative writing and teaches writing classes online at MineToTell.co

Courtney McPhie (she/her) experienced a typical awakening to social justice in high school, but took until college to call herself a feminist. A voracious reader and podcast-listener, Courtney lives in Northern Virginia, in the DC Metro area. She completed her graduate studies at George Mason University and holds a masters degree in education, which she uses as a high school English teacher in Fairfax County. She works largely with English Language Learners, mostly asylum-seekers who have come from Central America in the last three years. Courtney lives with her husband and three cute kids in a Colonial house on a hill.

For listeners who may not be familiar, excommunication from the LDS Church is the single most severe form of discipline which Church leaders can enact. It’s a severance, total and often sudden, from a person’s community and from their faith tradition, and its fallout can be devastating. While this form of punishment may have its proper uses, its clear that far too often it’s instead wielded as a form of censorship against proponents of progress and accountability. So, on today’s episode we’re going to be digging in deeper to understand excommunication and its impact, as well as other relevant forms of loss, as I’m joined by Natasha Helfer who sat down with me for a deeply honest interview about death, divorce, and her own experience of being removed from the Mormon Church.

Natasha Helfer (she/her) is a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist and a Certified Sex Therapist, speaker, writer, podcaster, and supervisor with 20 years of experience treating individuals, couples, and family systems.

We need people of all genders working together if we’re going to create the future feminists envision, but we especially need men to consider how they can play an active part in promoting change and in encouraging others to do the same. Fundamentally, this work we are asking of men involves examining their motivations and assumptions, it means admitting difficult truths, questioning deeply held beliefs, and having the courage to share this work with others – and I couldn’t be prouder to say that today we’ll be joined by two phenomenal men, Jon Ogden and Erik Allebest, who are stepping forward to lead the way.

Jon Ogden (he/him) is founder of UpliftKids.org, a lesson library and curriculum that gives families a foundation after a faith shift.

Erik Allebest (he/him) is the husband of Amy McPhie Allebest. He is a huge supporter of Breaking Down Patriarchy and of Amy. They have 3 daughters and a son. Erik is the CEO of Chess.com. He also loves playing any kind of game and doing almost any kind of physical activity.

Alexandra Botez (she/her) is an American-Canadian chess player and commentator, streaming superstar. She's the creator of BotezLive, one of the most popular chess channels on Twitch and YouTube. As a player, she became a five-time Canadian National Girls Champion and won the U.S. Girls Nationals at age 15. She achieved her highest FIDE Elo rating of 2092 in March 2016, and she currently holds the International Chess Federation title of Woman FIDE Master. Botez is currently one of the top-10 female players in Canada.

In the 1980s, my family drove a huge blue Suburban. My younger siblings and I would listen to cassette tapes in the Suburban on road trips and we would listen to the same things over and over and over again. One of the classics was a musical that was called My Turn on Earth. It came out in 1986 and it was about a girl who live with God and with the whole human family before being born in a human body on earth. What I got from that is that my soul could have come down to earth anywhere. I could have been born into a body of a rich aristocratic family and friends. I could have been born in a slum in Brazil. I could have been born into a Muslim family in Egypt or a Buddhist family in Thailand, and so my whole life, anyone I see anywhere, I have an awareness that that person could just as easily have been me.

Every single person that I meet was at that big family meeting before humans came to earth, so we are all siblings even if we don't remember each other. This way of viewing other people is at the core of who I am and today I am so honored and so excited that on today's episode I'm joined by the author of My Turn on Earth, Carol Lynn Pearson.

Carol Lynn Pearson (she/her) has been a professional writer, speaker and performer for many years. Several of her poems have been widely reprinted in such places as the Ann Landers column and Chicken Soup for the Soul as well as college literary textbooks. Her autobiography, Goodbye, I Love You, tells the story of her marriage to a homosexual man, their divorce, ongoing friendship, and her caring for him as he died of AIDS. This story made her a guest on such programs as "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and "Good Morning, America," and she has been featured in People magazine. Pearson has written numerous plays, books, and educational motion pictures. Pearson holds a master's degree in theatre, is the mother of four grown children, and lives in Walnut Creek, Calif.

To help cut through misinformation and shine a light directly on what witchcraft looks like today, we decided to go straight to the source and fortunately found Kari - a present-day, practicing witch - who was willing to sit down with our podcast’s editor, Sam Rose, for a conversation about ritual, history, stereotypes, and the self-identified witches who still walk among us. 

Kari (she/her) is a student of Jungian psychology, an active member of the Hyperian movement, and has been a practicing witch for over 40 years.

Rachel Greenley (she/her) has a master’s degree in International Development and is passionate about women's empowerment. She travels, lives, and works around the world with her husband and children.

Note: this segment contains descriptions of domestic and sexual violence, among other potentially distressing content. I encourage everyone listening to please take care of yourselves as you know best.

Monica Rodgers (she/her) is a tireless advocate for the full actualization of women, inspiring women everywhere that saying “YES to the MESS” is the missing link to self-love and personal awakening. Through her podcast and group coaching programs, Monica guides women through their inner evolution, from trance to transcendence, revealing the toxic myths of social conditioning and self-doubt. Monica is a Mother, a Beloved Life Partner, a Certified Co-active Coach, Sacred Feminine Archetype Practitioner, Host of The Revelation Project Podcast, and she’s the Author of the upcoming: Book of Revelation.

Learn more by visit jointherevelation.com.

Shelbey Neil (she/her) hails from the mountains of Utah but has lived in swamps of New Orleans for the past 5.5 years. She likes dipping her toes into many interesting subjects and moving quickly onto the next—but feminism has sucked her in for a total immersion. Her life motto is horrendously cheesy, but you really do miss 100% of the shots you don't take.

As the daughter of an immigrant and refugee, Katica Roy is driven by a passion to eradicate economic inequality and to champion the rights of refugees, women, and children. She has written numerous articles about intersectional gender equity for different national media platforms and uses storytelling and data-stitching to create a common calling toward achieving gender equity. Her articles garnered over 2.9 billion impressions.

I was thrilled to have Katica join me on today's episode for a fascinating discussion on gender and the economy.

Katica Roy (she/her) is one of LinkedIn’s 2022 Top Voices for Gender Equity, the 2020 Colorado Entrepreneur of the Year, 2019 Stevie Entrepreneur of the Year, Top 25 Most Powerful Woman in Business, a 2018 Denver Business Journal Outstanding Women in Business finalist, a 2018 Colorado Governor’s Fellow, and was named a Luminary by the Colorado Technology Association in 2017, recognizing her as a visionary technology leader in Colorado. Katica is the CEO of Pipeline, an award-winning company that uses advanced technology to make intersectional gender parity a reality in our lifetime. In addition to its core platform, Pipeline launched the first gender equity app on Salesforce's AppExchange. Pipeline was also named as one of TIME Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2019, Fast Company’s 2020 World’s Most Innovative Companies, Fast Company’s 2021 Next Big Things in Tech, Fast Company’s 2022 World Changing Ideas. Pipeline is backed by both Accenture and Workday.

Julie de Azevedo Hanks, PhD, LCSW is a licensed clinical social worker and psychotherapist with nearly 30 years’ experience providing a safe place for healing conversations that educate and empower women to prioritize their dreams, revolutionize their families, and personalize their faith. She is the founder and director of Wasatch Family Therapy, an outpatient therapy clinic, and the author of The Burnout Cure and The Assertiveness Guide for Women. Dr. Hanks is a local and national media contributor, a coach, a private practice consultant, and an award-winning performing songwriter. Dr. Hanks is the host of Ask Dr. Julie Hanks podcast and creator of online courses helping women navigate motherhood, relationships, and faith. A native Californian, Hanks currently lives with her family in Sandy, UT. For additional resources visit DrJulieHanks.com or connect with @drjuliehanks on social media.

We received so many of these submissions that to listen to them all at once would be overwhelming, so we’ve decided to split them up to make sure we can pay adequate attention to each individual experience. In this episode we hear several short, personal stories from women raised in Mormon homes, and we’ll return and hear more of these stories later in the season. We’re so grateful for each and every one of these contributors for finding the courage to speak and the wisdom to recognize that we all deserve better than the patriarchy we were raised under.

To begin this series we'll be hearing from three guests: Tiffany Sowby, Chelsea Homer, and an Anonymous Contributor.

Tiffany Sowby (she/her) is the co-host of The Sisterhood Podcast. A few of her favorite things are: Scrabble games, meaningful conversations, and shopping for shoes. She has an unhealthy dependency on Nutella.

Chelsea Homer (she/her) is the founder of Faith Journey Meetups and co-founder of a social club for women and genderqueer people looking for connection outside of religion. She loves to write, hike, and go on bike rides with her family.

On this episode we hear from author and former intelligence officer Kaitlyn Zivanovich who helps us continue unpacking the patriarchal culture of the US Marine Corps. Kaitlyn’s words offer us an in-depth exploration of the ‘manliest’ branch of the military, how their marketing of hyper-masculinity came to be, and how the corps can continue moving forward in its treatment of women, people of color, and LGBTQIA+ servicemembers to create a more inclusive military for all.

On today's episode we hold spare for hard stories.

As a caution for listeners, these stories will include explicit discussions of physical and sexual abuse, child marriage, domestic partner violence, and self-harm — and we recognize that this subject matter won’t make for easy listening. But we hope you’ll stay with us because these stories not only spread knowledge and challenge our empathy, they also help us understand how women and nonbinary people can persevere through hardships and still share a light with the world.

We're so grateful to be joined by Red O'Hare and Susan Warren who each share stories of survival.

Reese Harper (he/him) is a financial advisor, a musician, and an entrepreneur. He loves outdoor recreation, writing, and spending quality time with his family.

Maybe you remember driving down the highway with your friends, windows down, singing together at the tops of your lungs. Or maybe you remember seeing a favorite band in concert and the electric energy when they played that one perfect song. Music can tie us to moments of community, of family, of grieving and celebration and callings of faith. Music even ties many of us to our most romantic moments through a special song that we share with a partner or spouse. Whatever genres you listen to, whatever instruments you play, music grounds all of us in our most intimate and important moments.

On today's episode we're joined by Jessie Iacono who takes us on a journey through music and memories, through childhood struggles, to marriage, to motherhood and medical crises, all while confronting patriarchy and trauma alongside the guiding lyrics of Billy Joel.

Jessie Bryan-Iacono (she/her) is a writer, a business owner and real estate investor. She enjoys reading, watching her three kids play sports, being active and travelling with her family.

*Note: this episode includes discussion of topics such as mental illness and self-harm

Shannon Christie (she/her) is a social worker, artist and writer, and the founder of Ragtag Magazine, a web publication focused on creativity and community in the Pacific Northwest. When she has any amount of free time, she loves trying new Thai restaurants, doting on her houseplants, and collecting shiny rocks.

JoCee Porter (she/her) is a computer engineer and a wannabe science communicator. She runs a book club highlighting female authors in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).

On today’s episode we’ll be joined by two guests — Kathy Barbini and an Anonymous Contributor — who share their stories and help us explore the roles of patriarchy in our churches and beyond.

Kathy Barbini (she/her) is an independent documentary filmmaker and former producer for national television programs. She loves hiking, the ocean, movies and reading. Learn more about Kathy's latest film at baptizingfeminism.com

In this episode, we explore the phenomena of memory with two outstanding guests -- Emilly Prado and an Anonymous Contributor -- discussing and exploring the influence of patriarchy along the way.

Emilly Giselle Prado (she/her) is a writer, DJ, and educator living in Portland, Oregon with roots in the San Francisco Bay Area and Michoacán, Mexico. As an award-winning multimedia journalist, Emilly spent half a decade independently reporting on a wide range of topics, most often centered on amplifying the voices and experiences of people from historically marginalized communities. Her writing and photographs have been published widely, appearing in more than 30 publications including NPR, Marie Claire, Bitch Media, Eater, Oxygen, The Oregonian, Remezcla, and Travel Oregon. Emilly is the author of Funeral for Flaca, a memoir-in-essays shortlisted for the Pacific Northwest Book Award and called, “Utterly vulnerable, bold, and unique,” by Ms. Magazine. She is also the author of Examining Assimilation, a youth non-fiction title at the intersections of identity and U.S. history. Emilly is a Tin House and Las Dos Brujas Workshop alumna, Blackburn Fellow and MFA Candidate at Randolph College, and a co-founder of Portland in Color. She moonlights as DJ Mami Miami with Noche Libre, the Latinx DJ collective she co-founded in 2017.

In 1968, the feminist group New York Radical Women organized a picket of the Miss America Pageant and paraded sheep around the area to protest models being judged like animals at a county fair. These activists refused to talk to male reporters, which forced newspapers to call in women reporters from their usual assignments covering second-tier stories. And then they set up a freedom trash can and they piled in their bras and false eyelashes and put in copies of magazines such as Playboy and the Ladies Home Journal. These demonstrations at pageants spread to many other countries, including to the Miss World pageant held in England in 1970, where protesters threw flower bombs and disrupted the event with football rattles. And then in Scotland in 1975, a large group of women called the students signed up for a beauty pageant. And then on the day of the contest, they all stormed in together wearing overalls and no makeup, essentially hijacking the event.

Whatever listeners think about beauty pageants, it's about to get more complicated. On today's episode, we hear a fascinating essay from Holland Allebes Anderson, granddaughter of the very first Miss World Kiki Hawkinson.

Holland Allebes Anderson grew up in Southern California. She is currently a student at Brigham Young University Provo, studying to become a Landscape Architect with an emphasis in urbane farms and edible parks. Holland is an artist of many mediums such as oil paint, ink, digital art, installation art, chalk art, performance art, and poetry. Her art and thinking are shaped by her faith (Church of Jesus Christ), parents, gender, plants, and her humor.

Amelia Hapgood is a BYU student, a newlywed, a devout feminist, and a wanna be runner. She is from Arkansas, and loves being in a family of all girls!

The right had been granted in 1973, by way of the Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, when the justices ruled that the decision of whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term was covered under the “right to privacy” clause of the 14th amendment. 

Nearly fifty years later, conservative judges appointed by Donald Trump led the court to revoke women’s right to make this choice for themselves. In response, the three liberal justices on the court wrote that the court had done grave damage to women’s equality and to its own legitimacy.

They wrote, “With sorrow — for this court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection — we dissent.”

To help make sense of this issue, we are re-airing an episode from Season 1 that looks in depth at the original Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade. And to make it this episode easier to share with others, we condensed two long episodes down to just one 45 minute piece. So please, whether or not you heard it in 2020, give it a listen now, and then share it with anyone you know who may be struggling to figure out how they feel about this topic. I know it took me a lot of time researching for me to come to my own conclusions about abortion rights, so I have a lot of compassion for people who find this issue challenging. My hope is that more people will do honest-hearted, open-minded research, starting with  reading Roe v. Wade itself. But in the meantime, here’s a review of this essential text.

I want to thank my sister Lindsay again for her wisdom and for the beautiful and tender way that she approached this topic. When we recorded this episode, we could not have imagined that Roe v. Wade would actually be overturned, but since we live in a new world now, I want to close with some ways that you can take action to restore this fundamental right.

Talk to Friends and Family

Share information with the people in your life, including well-sourced articles, personal stories, and this episode of the podcast. We recommend you approach discussion openly and authentically. Helping to educate and sway minds in your community can lead to larger changes in social trends such as funding and voting behaviors. 

Volunteer on a Local Level

This week’s episode by Theresa Beauchamp and Del Ruhl was particularly inspiring to me because these two people had such different temperaments and different gifts to bring to the table. Think about what you can offer, and do something. You could volunteer to escort folks to your local abortion clinic, you could become become a talk-line advocate for people weighing their reproductive options, or you could find an abortion clinic office where you can volunteer by looking up Trust women.org. Whatever your skills are, chances are they can be helpful during this crisis. 

Protest

Look up “Reproductive Rights protest near me” and you’ll find lots of options.

-Donate to Abortion Access Funds

There has been an outpouring of donations since the overturning of Roe v Wade, but if you find yourself unable to engage directly, donations can still make a difference. People will need transportation, time off work, and cash flow to travel if and when they need an abortion. Your money can ensure they get there safely and without...]]>Welcome to BDP! I’m AMA, and today we’re airing a special episode in response to the Supreme Court ruling on June 24, 2022, which eliminated the constitutional right to abortion. 

The right had been granted in 1973, by way of the Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, when the justices ruled that the decision of whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term was covered under the “right to privacy” clause of the 14th amendment. 

Nearly fifty years later, conservative judges appointed by Donald Trump led the court to revoke women’s right to make this choice for themselves. In response, the three liberal justices on the court wrote that the court had done grave damage to women’s equality and to its own legitimacy.

They wrote, “With sorrow — for this court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection — we dissent.”

To help make sense of this issue, we are re-airing an episode from Season 1 that looks in depth at the original Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade. And to make it this episode easier to share with others, we condensed two long episodes down to just one 45 minute piece. So please, whether or not you heard it in 2020, give it a listen now, and then share it with anyone you know who may be struggling to figure out how they feel about this topic. I know it took me a lot of time researching for me to come to my own conclusions about abortion rights, so I have a lot of compassion for people who find this issue challenging. My hope is that more people will do honest-hearted, open-minded research, starting with  reading Roe v. Wade itself. But in the meantime, here’s a review of this essential text.

I want to thank my sister Lindsay again for her wisdom and for the beautiful and tender way that she approached this topic. When we recorded this episode, we could not have imagined that Roe v. Wade would actually be overturned, but since we live in a new world now, I want to close with some ways that you can take action to restore this fundamental right.

Talk to Friends and Family

Share information with the people in your life, including well-sourced articles, personal stories, and this episode of the podcast. We recommend you approach discussion openly and authentically. Helping to educate and sway minds in your community can lead to larger changes in social trends such as funding and voting behaviors. 

Volunteer on a Local Level

This week’s episode by Theresa Beauchamp and Del Ruhl was particularly inspiring to me because these two people had such different temperaments and different gifts to bring to the table. Think about what you can offer, and do something. You could volunteer to escort folks to your local abortion clinic, you could become become a talk-line advocate for people weighing their reproductive options, or you could find an abortion clinic office where you can volunteer by looking up Trust women.org. Whatever your skills are, chances are they can be helpful during this crisis. 

Protest

Look up “Reproductive Rights protest near me” and you’ll find lots of options.

-Donate to Abortion Access Funds

There has been an outpouring of donations since the overturning of Roe v Wade, but if you find yourself unable to engage directly, donations can still make a difference. People will need transportation, time off work, and cash flow to travel if and when they need an abortion. Your money can ensure they get there safely and without emptying their wallets in the process. We advise identifying an abortion fund in your area or a nearby area experiencing restricted access. The National Network of Abortion Funds can be a helpful resource in identifying these funds.  I also encourage support for Planned Parenthood, which does more than any other organization in preventing unwanted pregnancies, and Keep Our Clinics, a campaign that raises money for independent abortion clinics (which provide the majority of abortions in this country at present).

~

Beyond these suggestions, we encourage you to continue to vote for and advocate for candidates and legislation defending abortion access. Elect leaders who trust women.

]]>d93521a8-b0ad-40cc-abba-af3413c7a235Thu, 07 Jul 2022 05:15:00 -070050:08falsebonus22Main points from the 1973 Supreme Court Case Roe v. WadeBreaking Down Patriarchy and Acts of Resistance – with Theresa Beauchamp & Delin RuhlWhere are we today? Where do we want to be in the future? How do we get there?

On today's episode we hear stories from Theresa Beauchamp and Delin Ruhl, two people who've taken action in moments of injustice. Our guests share their remarkable tales of standing up against oppression, whether that confrontation happens behind the lines of a phone bank or face to face in the streets.

Theresa Beauchamp (she/her) is a retired family practice Physician Assistant and full-time political activist focused on reproductive and racial justice and the fight against voter suppression. Boogie boarding, e-biking with her husband, live theatre, hiking in the Sierras and playing with her grandchildren rejuvenate her along her journey as a lifelong activist.

Delin Ruhl (they/them) is a musician and storyteller based out of Portland, OR. Locally, Dell plays alto saxophone for the Carroll Raum Swing Orchestra, and flute for the group Jump Up Pup. They have also played whistle and bodhran with the group Possibly Irish at Enchanted Forest, and enjoy performing original sets at venues like The Ranger Station and Floyd’s Coffee. Theater credits include Is He Dead? and The Glass Menagerie (Hawai‘i Pacific University), for which they received a Hawai‘i State Theater Association Po‘okela Award for Leading Actor. Regional theater credits include A Christmas Carol (Goodman Theatre), Circle Mirror Transformation; Mauritius (Hawai‘i Repertory Theater), and Someone Else’s Slippas (The Arts at Mark’s Garage). Offstage, they can often be found debating with their parrot, snuggling their 20-pound Flemish Giant rabbit, or writing limericks.

]]>Where are we today? Where do we want to be in the future? How do we get there?

On today's episode we hear stories from Theresa Beauchamp and Delin Ruhl, two people who've taken action in moments of injustice. Our guests share their remarkable tales of standing up against oppression, whether that confrontation happens behind the lines of a phone bank or face to face in the streets.

Theresa Beauchamp (she/her) is a retired family practice Physician Assistant and full-time political activist focused on reproductive and racial justice and the fight against voter suppression. Boogie boarding, e-biking with her husband, live theatre, hiking in the Sierras and playing with her grandchildren rejuvenate her along her journey as a lifelong activist.

Delin Ruhl (they/them) is a musician and storyteller based out of Portland, OR. Locally, Dell plays alto saxophone for the Carroll Raum Swing Orchestra, and flute for the group Jump Up Pup. They have also played whistle and bodhran with the group Possibly Irish at Enchanted Forest, and enjoy performing original sets at venues like The Ranger Station and Floyd’s Coffee. Theater credits include Is He Dead? and The Glass Menagerie (Hawai‘i Pacific University), for which they received a Hawai‘i State Theater Association Po‘okela Award for Leading Actor. Regional theater credits include A Christmas Carol (Goodman Theatre), Circle Mirror Transformation; Mauritius (Hawai‘i Repertory Theater), and Someone Else’s Slippas (The Arts at Mark’s Garage). Offstage, they can often be found debating with their parrot, snuggling their 20-pound Flemish Giant rabbit, or writing limericks.

]]>156a55ed-f037-4ff9-bcfe-4d877f2dacceTue, 05 Jul 2022 05:15:00 -070045:48falsefull226262On today's episode we hear stories from Theresa Beauchamp and Delin Ruhl, two people who've taken action in moments of injustice. Our guests share their remarkable tales of standing up against oppression, whether that confrontation happens behind the lines of a phone bank or face to face in the streets.Breaking Down Patriarchy and the Fight for LGBTQIA+ Rights - with Dr. Nanette Gartrell and Dr. Dee MosbacherDr. Nanette Gartrell and Dr. Dee Mosbacher have been pioneers in the struggle for LGBTQIA+ civil rights for over forty years, contributing essential research, political action, and groundbreaking documentaries on gay and lesbian experiences. On today's episode, I'm honored to sit down with these personal heroes for a conversation about their lives, their activism, and their love.

Nanette Gartrell, M.D., is a Visiting Distinguished Scholar at the Williams Institute and holds a Guest Appointment at the University of Amsterdam. Previously on the faculties at Harvard and UCSF medical schools, she is the principal investigator of the U.S. National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS), which since the 1980s has been following a cohort of planned lesbian families with children conceived through donor insemination. She has published extensively on this topic, including in the New England Journal of Medicine. Her investigations provide information to specialists in healthcare, family services, education, and public policy on matters pertaining to sexual minority parent families. Dr. Gartrell graduated from Stanford University (B.A.), University of California (M.D.), and completed a psychiatry residency and fellowship at Harvard Medical School.

Dee Mosbacher, M.D., Ph.D., is a psychiatrist and documentary filmmaker. She was a producer/director of the Academy Award-nominated “Straight from the Heart” and eight other award-winning documentaries. As a public sector psychiatrist, Dr. Mosbacher specialized in the treatment of the severely mentally ill, including many who were homeless. Dr. Mosbacher served as San Mateo County’s Medical Director for Mental Health, on the board of California Pacific Medical Center, and on the faculty at UCSF. She has received many awards, including a NOW Women of Power Award and a John E. Fryer Award from the American Psychiatric Association.

]]>Dr. Nanette Gartrell and Dr. Dee Mosbacher have been pioneers in the struggle for LGBTQIA+ civil rights for over forty years, contributing essential research, political action, and groundbreaking documentaries on gay and lesbian experiences. On today's episode, I'm honored to sit down with these personal heroes for a conversation about their lives, their activism, and their love.

Nanette Gartrell, M.D., is a Visiting Distinguished Scholar at the Williams Institute and holds a Guest Appointment at the University of Amsterdam. Previously on the faculties at Harvard and UCSF medical schools, she is the principal investigator of the U.S. National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS), which since the 1980s has been following a cohort of planned lesbian families with children conceived through donor insemination. She has published extensively on this topic, including in the New England Journal of Medicine. Her investigations provide information to specialists in healthcare, family services, education, and public policy on matters pertaining to sexual minority parent families. Dr. Gartrell graduated from Stanford University (B.A.), University of California (M.D.), and completed a psychiatry residency and fellowship at Harvard Medical School.

Dee Mosbacher, M.D., Ph.D., is a psychiatrist and documentary filmmaker. She was a producer/director of the Academy Award-nominated “Straight from the Heart” and eight other award-winning documentaries. As a public sector psychiatrist, Dr. Mosbacher specialized in the treatment of the severely mentally ill, including many who were homeless. Dr. Mosbacher served as San Mateo County’s Medical Director for Mental Health, on the board of California Pacific Medical Center, and on the faculty at UCSF. She has received many awards, including a NOW Women of Power Award and a John E. Fryer Award from the American Psychiatric Association.

]]>c82235d4-f138-412b-b298-0dff5d550b63Tue, 28 Jun 2022 05:15:00 -070001:15:30falsefull225252Dr. Nanette Gartrell and Dr. Dee Mosbacher have been pioneers in the struggle for LGBTQIA+ civil rights for over forty years. On today's episode, I'm honored to sit down with these personal heroes for a conversation about their lives, their activism, and their love.Breaking Down Patriarchy and the Gender Binary - with Sam Rose Preminger & Domi ShoemakerAs new generations increasingly have the knowledge and social acceptance to explore their identities, the number of openly transgender people in our world—especially transgender youth—is rapidly rising. Yet despite these recent spikes— the transgender community is still comparatively small: making up roughly 0.6% of the global population. As a result, many cisgender people (meaning those of us whose gender aligns with the one we were assigned at birth) have little to no lived experience interacting with transgender people. What we’re exposed to instead is whatever our media, political, and social leaders choose to tell us about them, resulting in a perilous gap between actual transgender people and a series of cultural stereotypes. This gulf in our understanding not only endangers the trans population, it harms all of us, discouraging marginalized demographics from working together, making it even more difficult for us to dismantle oppressive structures, and denying cisgender people the chance to love their trans neighbors.

Fortunately, some transgender people are stepping forward to help bridge this divide, sharing their personal stories, dispelling dangerous myths, and helping us envision a more egalitarian future for all. On today’s episode I’m happy to say we’ll be joined by two such voices: Sam Rose Preminger and Domi Shoemaker

Sam Rose Preminger (they/them) is a trans-nonbinary, Jewish writer and publisher. They hold an MFA from Pacific University, serve as the Editor-in-Chief of NAILED Magazine, and are a contributing editor at Lightship Press and Write Bloody Publishing. Their poetry has appeared in numerous publications online and in print. Their debut collection of poems —'Cosmological Horizons' — is forthcoming from Kelsay Books (Summer 2022). They live in Portland, OR, where they've acquired too many house plants.

www.sampreminger.com

Domi J Shoemaker (they/them) is an Idaho-born gender flexer who founded the quarterly reading series, Burnt Tongue, after cutting teeth in Tom Spanbauer’s Dangerous Writers workshop. While finishing an MFA in Writing in 2015, author Lidia Yuknavitch asked Domi to help her create the Corporeal Writing Seasonal Workshop Series. With a resounding yes, Domi is now the Corporeal Writing Seasonal Workshop Co-Facilitator. Domi has published at [PANK], Nailed Magazine, Unshod Quills, Gobshite Quarterly, and has a story in the anthology, The Night and The Rain and The River, from Forest Avenue Press. They were recently featured in the literary radio theatre podcast, Storytellers Telling Stories.

www.domishoemaker.com

]]>As new generations increasingly have the knowledge and social acceptance to explore their identities, the number of openly transgender people in our world—especially transgender youth—is rapidly rising. Yet despite these recent spikes— the transgender community is still comparatively small: making up roughly 0.6% of the global population. As a result, many cisgender people (meaning those of us whose gender aligns with the one we were assigned at birth) have little to no lived experience interacting with transgender people. What we’re exposed to instead is whatever our media, political, and social leaders choose to tell us about them, resulting in a perilous gap between actual transgender people and a series of cultural stereotypes. This gulf in our understanding not only endangers the trans population, it harms all of us, discouraging marginalized demographics from working together, making it even more difficult for us to dismantle oppressive structures, and denying cisgender people the chance to love their trans neighbors.

Fortunately, some transgender people are stepping forward to help bridge this divide, sharing their personal stories, dispelling dangerous myths, and helping us envision a more egalitarian future for all. On today’s episode I’m happy to say we’ll be joined by two such voices: Sam Rose Preminger and Domi Shoemaker

Sam Rose Preminger (they/them) is a trans-nonbinary, Jewish writer and publisher. They hold an MFA from Pacific University, serve as the Editor-in-Chief of NAILED Magazine, and are a contributing editor at Lightship Press and Write Bloody Publishing. Their poetry has appeared in numerous publications online and in print. Their debut collection of poems —'Cosmological Horizons' — is forthcoming from Kelsay Books (Summer 2022). They live in Portland, OR, where they've acquired too many house plants.

www.sampreminger.com

Domi J Shoemaker (they/them) is an Idaho-born gender flexer who founded the quarterly reading series, Burnt Tongue, after cutting teeth in Tom Spanbauer’s Dangerous Writers workshop. While finishing an MFA in Writing in 2015, author Lidia Yuknavitch asked Domi to help her create the Corporeal Writing Seasonal Workshop Series. With a resounding yes, Domi is now the Corporeal Writing Seasonal Workshop Co-Facilitator. Domi has published at [PANK], Nailed Magazine, Unshod Quills, Gobshite Quarterly, and has a story in the anthology, The Night and The Rain and The River, from Forest Avenue Press. They were recently featured in the literary radio theatre podcast, Storytellers Telling Stories.

www.domishoemaker.com

]]>82a3ac14-0d53-46e4-90b0-98fee7a2d96eTue, 21 Jun 2022 05:15:00 -070001:23:33falsefull224242On today’s episode I’m happy to be joined by two voices from the non-binary community: Sam Rose Preminger and Domi ShoemakerBreaking Down Patriarchy and Homosexuality in the Mormon Church – with Colette Dalton & Autumn McAlpinIt’s not exactly a secret that the Church of Latter-Day Saints and gay rights haven’t gone hand-in-hand historically. In fact, for many decades now the Church has vocally campaigned against marriage equality, making it one of the leaderships pre-eminent political concerns and codifying heteronormativity in Church doctrine. While some discriminatory policies have changed over time (for example, the Church no longer teaches that same-sex attraction can be ‘cured’ and no longer requires children of same-sex couples to denounce their parents, as it did until 2019) it would still be inaccurate to imagine that the Church is embracing the queer community to its fullest.

In fact, if you go to the official website for the LDS Church right now you can read a statement where they claim that same-sex attraction itself is not wrong, but it is a ‘challenge’ and that acting on those feelings is a sin. Gay members of the Church who choose to publicly kiss and embrace the person that they love may face punishments including probation, disfellowship, or (for those who refuse to repent) excommunication—a total severance from the bonds of their community and faith. Official Church statements refer to same-sex relationships as ‘transgressions’ ‘temptations’ ‘wickedness’ and ‘sin’. The Church emphasizes the importance of marriage and family as absolutely essential for human happiness and salvation after this life, and yet it unequivocally prohibits marriage and family for gay people, condemning them to a life of celibacy and solitude. On today's episode we hear from two guests — Colette Dalton & Autumn McAlpin — who share their experiences with queer identity and the LDS Church.

On today's episode we hear from two guests — Colette Dalton & Autumn McAlpin — who share their experiences with queer identity and the LDS Church.

Colette Dalton (she/her) is a therapist in Utah and specializes in working with people around faith transitions and sexuality. She co-hosts a podcast called Called to Queer, which holds space for queer Mormon women, genderqueer, and intersex folks. In her free time, she enjoys practicing Pilates, reading, and listening to wayyyy too many podcasts.

Autumn McAlpin (she/her) is a writer, filmmaker and dedicated voice of advocacy and equality for our LGTBQIA+ population—in particular in the LDS space. Autumn pens the weekly LGBTQIA+ family profile stories at liftandlove.org, and is also an active supporter and fundraiser for Encircle, which provides safe spaces, friendship circles, classes, and subsidized therapy to LGBTQIA+ youth.

]]>It’s not exactly a secret that the Church of Latter-Day Saints and gay rights haven’t gone hand-in-hand historically. In fact, for many decades now the Church has vocally campaigned against marriage equality, making it one of the leaderships pre-eminent political concerns and codifying heteronormativity in Church doctrine. While some discriminatory policies have changed over time (for example, the Church no longer teaches that same-sex attraction can be ‘cured’ and no longer requires children of same-sex couples to denounce their parents, as it did until 2019) it would still be inaccurate to imagine that the Church is embracing the queer community to its fullest.

In fact, if you go to the official website for the LDS Church right now you can read a statement where they claim that same-sex attraction itself is not wrong, but it is a ‘challenge’ and that acting on those feelings is a sin. Gay members of the Church who choose to publicly kiss and embrace the person that they love may face punishments including probation, disfellowship, or (for those who refuse to repent) excommunication—a total severance from the bonds of their community and faith. Official Church statements refer to same-sex relationships as ‘transgressions’ ‘temptations’ ‘wickedness’ and ‘sin’. The Church emphasizes the importance of marriage and family as absolutely essential for human happiness and salvation after this life, and yet it unequivocally prohibits marriage and family for gay people, condemning them to a life of celibacy and solitude. On today's episode we hear from two guests — Colette Dalton & Autumn McAlpin — who share their experiences with queer identity and the LDS Church.

On today's episode we hear from two guests — Colette Dalton & Autumn McAlpin — who share their experiences with queer identity and the LDS Church.

Colette Dalton (she/her) is a therapist in Utah and specializes in working with people around faith transitions and sexuality. She co-hosts a podcast called Called to Queer, which holds space for queer Mormon women, genderqueer, and intersex folks. In her free time, she enjoys practicing Pilates, reading, and listening to wayyyy too many podcasts.

Autumn McAlpin (she/her) is a writer, filmmaker and dedicated voice of advocacy and equality for our LGTBQIA+ population—in particular in the LDS space. Autumn pens the weekly LGBTQIA+ family profile stories at liftandlove.org, and is also an active supporter and fundraiser for Encircle, which provides safe spaces, friendship circles, classes, and subsidized therapy to LGBTQIA+ youth.

]]>63243480-3258-4999-921f-85062bca8379Tue, 14 Jun 2022 05:15:00 -070034:20falsefull223232On today's episode we hear from two guests — Colette Dalton & Autumn McAlpin — who share their experiences with queer identity and the LDS Church.Breaking Down Patriarchy in Pride Month - with Chloe Agyin & Lakshan LingamToday I'm thrilled to be joined by Chloe Agyin and Lakshan Lingam.

Chloe and Lakshan are members of a nonprofit organization called Encircle. Their mission is to bring together family and community to enable queer youth to thrive. Encircle provides services like support groups, educational and creative programs, and accessible mental health services in a safe and beautiful environment. In cities throughout Utah and other states where queer youth are most at risk. We're so happy to feature this casual candid discussion between Chloe and Lakshan when they were together at the Encircle house in Salt Lake City, discussing identity, gender, orientation, and the power of representation.

Chloe Agyin (they/them) is a queer multiracial social worker in Salt Lake City, Utah. At the moment they work as the Home Director of an LGBTQ+ Family and Youth Resource Center. Chloe has had the privilege of working with LGBTQ+ individuals in a variety of capacities, and they hope to continue this life-saving work. Chloe’s dream is to open up a queer bookstore in the South that is focused on amplifying voices of QBIPOC authors and provides a safe space for everyone that enters. When Chloe is not working, they enjoy being outside it in the sun exploring the beautiful landscape that is Utah.

Lakshan Lingam (he/they) is an undergraduate student pursing a degree in Gender Studies and Arts Technology at the University of Utah. As Executive Assistant, they help oversee the day-to-day administration and operation of Encircle. In their spare time, they enjoy searching for new music and spending time with their brother.

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>Today I'm thrilled to be joined by Chloe Agyin and Lakshan Lingam.

Chloe and Lakshan are members of a nonprofit organization called Encircle. Their mission is to bring together family and community to enable queer youth to thrive. Encircle provides services like support groups, educational and creative programs, and accessible mental health services in a safe and beautiful environment. In cities throughout Utah and other states where queer youth are most at risk. We're so happy to feature this casual candid discussion between Chloe and Lakshan when they were together at the Encircle house in Salt Lake City, discussing identity, gender, orientation, and the power of representation.

Chloe Agyin (they/them) is a queer multiracial social worker in Salt Lake City, Utah. At the moment they work as the Home Director of an LGBTQ+ Family and Youth Resource Center. Chloe has had the privilege of working with LGBTQ+ individuals in a variety of capacities, and they hope to continue this life-saving work. Chloe’s dream is to open up a queer bookstore in the South that is focused on amplifying voices of QBIPOC authors and provides a safe space for everyone that enters. When Chloe is not working, they enjoy being outside it in the sun exploring the beautiful landscape that is Utah.

Lakshan Lingam (he/they) is an undergraduate student pursing a degree in Gender Studies and Arts Technology at the University of Utah. As Executive Assistant, they help oversee the day-to-day administration and operation of Encircle. In their spare time, they enjoy searching for new music and spending time with their brother.

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>4a76f4fd-13f7-4acc-9224-d2f0865c8e87Tue, 07 Jun 2022 05:15:00 -070040:03falsefull222222Today I'm thrilled to be joined by Chloe Agyin and Lakshan Lingam. Chloe and Lakshan are members of a nonprofit organization called Encircle. Their mission is to bring together family and community to enable queer youth to thrive.Breaking Down Patriarchy with The Black MenacesToday I'm thrilled to be joined by Sebastian Stuart-Johnson and Kylee Shepherd, two members of The Black Menaces.

The Black Menaces started in February, 2022. The group made a reaction video to a BYU professor’s insensitive comments about black people in the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and the video instantly went viral on TikTok. The Black Menaces are a group of five friends; Sebastian, Kylee, Rachel, Nate, and Kennethia. Rachel and Nate are recent BYU alumni, Kylee and Kennethia are entering their senior years, and Sebastian is finishing his junior year. The goal of the Black Menaces is to shine light on the problems and issues that happen at predominantly white institutions and enact change. They hope for a better future for any and all minorities that are mistreated and underrepresented. 

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>Today I'm thrilled to be joined by Sebastian Stuart-Johnson and Kylee Shepherd, two members of The Black Menaces.

The Black Menaces started in February, 2022. The group made a reaction video to a BYU professor’s insensitive comments about black people in the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and the video instantly went viral on TikTok. The Black Menaces are a group of five friends; Sebastian, Kylee, Rachel, Nate, and Kennethia. Rachel and Nate are recent BYU alumni, Kylee and Kennethia are entering their senior years, and Sebastian is finishing his junior year. The goal of the Black Menaces is to shine light on the problems and issues that happen at predominantly white institutions and enact change. They hope for a better future for any and all minorities that are mistreated and underrepresented. 

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>bd02930a-01a8-4062-9933-15f2fc46f235Tue, 31 May 2022 05:15:00 -070001:02:34falsefull221212Today I'm thrilled to be joined by Sebastian Stuart-Johnson and Kylee Shepherd, two members of The Black Menaces, a group of friends and activists on the campus of BYU.Breaking Down Patriarchy and Men's Perspectives - with Andy Dunn & Ian McAllisterAs women and our allies continue to share knowledge, resources, and take action to dismantle oppressive structures, the progress we make is being met by oppositional movements. Here in America, the MRA Movement (or Men’s Rights Activism) continues to expand its reach and intensify its rhetoric, with prominent MRA leader Matt Forney going so far as to say “Women should be terrorized by their men; it’s the only thing that makes them behave better than chimps.” Meanwhile, crimes targeting women and girls have only continued to increase world-wide. The picture this paints seems clear – some men are aggressively pushing back to protect a repressive status quo and when women voice frustrations with the situation or – yet it is not uncommon to hear cultural and political leaders continuing to claim, as Sen. Josh Hawley did only a few months ago, that “men are under attack.” And believe it or not, I’m going to agree with Senator Hawley on that point…

Men are under attack, but not from feminists and others fighting for equality; men are under attack from the very same patriarchal institutions which diminish the rest of us. They are taught that there is a small box of acceptability that they must fit into or be shamed (or worse). Most damaging of all, men continue to be taught not to speak up against other men in situations of injustice, not to upset the normativity of a repressive system which ultimately serves none of us.

But if all of us work together, we have the collective power to put a stop to these systems and build a world that works for people of all genders. And that’s why today I’m excited to be bringing men’s voices to the table – men who are ready to pull away the wool patriarchy has draped over their eyes and speak out about injustices they’ve observed and even participated in. We’re so grateful to share their courageous voices with you today.

Andy Dunn (he/him) co-founded menswear brand Bonobos and served as CEO until its 2017 acquisition by Walmart. As an investor, he has backed more than eighty startups, including Warby Parker, Coinbase, Away, Glossier, Real, Parade, SeatGeek and Alula. His memoir, Burn Rate: Launching a Startup and Losing My Mind, explores the intersection of entrepreneurship and mental illness.

Ian McAllister (he/him) is a father and small business owner in Portland, Oregon. When he’s not chasing his two year old daughter around you can usually find him at a farmers market, on the ski slopes, paddling the rivers of the Pacific North West, or cheering at a college football game.

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>As women and our allies continue to share knowledge, resources, and take action to dismantle oppressive structures, the progress we make is being met by oppositional movements. Here in America, the MRA Movement (or Men’s Rights Activism) continues to expand its reach and intensify its rhetoric, with prominent MRA leader Matt Forney going so far as to say “Women should be terrorized by their men; it’s the only thing that makes them behave better than chimps.” Meanwhile, crimes targeting women and girls have only continued to increase world-wide. The picture this paints seems clear – some men are aggressively pushing back to protect a repressive status quo and when women voice frustrations with the situation or – yet it is not uncommon to hear cultural and political leaders continuing to claim, as Sen. Josh Hawley did only a few months ago, that “men are under attack.” And believe it or not, I’m going to agree with Senator Hawley on that point…

Men are under attack, but not from feminists and others fighting for equality; men are under attack from the very same patriarchal institutions which diminish the rest of us. They are taught that there is a small box of acceptability that they must fit into or be shamed (or worse). Most damaging of all, men continue to be taught not to speak up against other men in situations of injustice, not to upset the normativity of a repressive system which ultimately serves none of us.

But if all of us work together, we have the collective power to put a stop to these systems and build a world that works for people of all genders. And that’s why today I’m excited to be bringing men’s voices to the table – men who are ready to pull away the wool patriarchy has draped over their eyes and speak out about injustices they’ve observed and even participated in. We’re so grateful to share their courageous voices with you today.

Andy Dunn (he/him) co-founded menswear brand Bonobos and served as CEO until its 2017 acquisition by Walmart. As an investor, he has backed more than eighty startups, including Warby Parker, Coinbase, Away, Glossier, Real, Parade, SeatGeek and Alula. His memoir, Burn Rate: Launching a Startup and Losing My Mind, explores the intersection of entrepreneurship and mental illness.

Ian McAllister (he/him) is a father and small business owner in Portland, Oregon. When he’s not chasing his two year old daughter around you can usually find him at a farmers market, on the ski slopes, paddling the rivers of the Pacific North West, or cheering at a college football game.

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>27f781e8-e5ba-44af-a7e2-306e09b96282Tue, 24 May 2022 05:15:00 -070036:31falsefull220202Today we bring men’s voices to the table – men who are ready to pull away the wool patriarchy has draped over their eyes and speak out about injustices they’ve observed and even participated in. We’re so grateful to Andy Dunn and Ian McAllister for sharing their voices with us.Breaking Down Patriarchy and the Institution of Motherhood – with Lane Anderson and an Anonymous GuestIn her landmark book, Of Woman Born, Adrienne Rich writes that “At certain points in history, and in certain cultures, the idea of woman-as-mother has worked to endow all women with respect, even with awe, and to give women some say in the life of a people or a clan. But for most of what we know was the “mainstream’ of recorded history, motherhood as institution has ghettoized and degraded female potentialities.” In this quote, Rich highlights the stark difference between the way our cultural thinks it respects women and the way it actually regards them. It can be a wonderful thing to praise mothers — to celebrate the women around us who channel their love, energy, and resources into the art and the work of raising children — but too often we forget that our cultural ideal of a ‘mother’ is not always accessible nor is it the ideal motherhood for all women. So what happens when a mother doesn’t match up to our institutional expectations? And what happens when a woman decides she doesn’t want to be a mother at all?

On today’s episode, we're digging into these questions as we’re joined by two spectacular guests each trusting us with her own story of how motherhood as an institution has haunted their lives: an Anonymous Contributor who speaks about the realities of unwed motherhood, and returning friend of the podcast, Lane Anderson, who shares her own experiences of having the mantle of motherhood assumed and foisted upon her.

Lane Anderson (she/her) was raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. She has an undergraduate degree from BYU, and a graduate degree from Columbia University. She has spent much of her career as a full-time journalist, publishing hundreds of articles on inequality, human rights, gender, and social and family issues. She has received several Society of Professional Journalists Awards, and a fellowship from the USC Annenberg School of Journalism for her writing on human trafficking. She lives in New York City with her partner and young daughter, and she is full-time faculty at New York University where she is a Clinical Associate Professor teaching writing. She co-writes Matriarchy Report, a newsletter about family issues from a feminist perspective on Substack, and on Instagram @matriarchyreport

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>In her landmark book, Of Woman Born, Adrienne Rich writes that “At certain points in history, and in certain cultures, the idea of woman-as-mother has worked to endow all women with respect, even with awe, and to give women some say in the life of a people or a clan. But for most of what we know was the “mainstream’ of recorded history, motherhood as institution has ghettoized and degraded female potentialities.” In this quote, Rich highlights the stark difference between the way our cultural thinks it respects women and the way it actually regards them. It can be a wonderful thing to praise mothers — to celebrate the women around us who channel their love, energy, and resources into the art and the work of raising children — but too often we forget that our cultural ideal of a ‘mother’ is not always accessible nor is it the ideal motherhood for all women. So what happens when a mother doesn’t match up to our institutional expectations? And what happens when a woman decides she doesn’t want to be a mother at all?

On today’s episode, we're digging into these questions as we’re joined by two spectacular guests each trusting us with her own story of how motherhood as an institution has haunted their lives: an Anonymous Contributor who speaks about the realities of unwed motherhood, and returning friend of the podcast, Lane Anderson, who shares her own experiences of having the mantle of motherhood assumed and foisted upon her.

Lane Anderson (she/her) was raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. She has an undergraduate degree from BYU, and a graduate degree from Columbia University. She has spent much of her career as a full-time journalist, publishing hundreds of articles on inequality, human rights, gender, and social and family issues. She has received several Society of Professional Journalists Awards, and a fellowship from the USC Annenberg School of Journalism for her writing on human trafficking. She lives in New York City with her partner and young daughter, and she is full-time faculty at New York University where she is a Clinical Associate Professor teaching writing. She co-writes Matriarchy Report, a newsletter about family issues from a feminist perspective on Substack, and on Instagram @matriarchyreport

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>6d1f5307-9c80-4e44-ab10-6d12d22bc1b3Tue, 17 May 2022 05:15:00 -070029:13falsefull219192On today’s episode, we're digging into questions about motherhood as we’re joined by two spectacular guests each trusting us with her own story of how motherhood as an institution has haunted their lives: an Anonymous Contributor who speaks about the realities of unwed motherhood, and returning friend of the podcast, Lane Anderson, who shares her own experiences of having the mantle of motherhood assumed and foisted upon her.Breaking Down Patriarchy and the Vilification of Women - with Lucy Allebest & Dr. D'Vorah GrennThroughout history women have been misrepresented as villains and monsters: witches, demons, succubus, and beyond. And this misrepresentation of our bodies and minds as evil is no accident! Rather, the vilification of women is a practical tool of patriarchal systems which remains painfully relevant today. After all, if we cast women as monsters, that must make the men controlling them heroes—and who would want to listen to the words of a she-demon? Who would want to vote for one?

The damage caused by this vilification is long lasting, so in order to help us unpack some of its history and present-day impact two remarkable women joined us for this episode — Dr. D’Vorah Grenn and Lucy Allebest.

Lucy Allebest (she/her) studies History at the University of St Andrews. She enjoys dancing, organizing, wearing green, and sleeping at any time of day or night. Her greatest joy is hugging her parents and her greatest fear is the Pixar lamp. She hopes to one day do something interesting enough to write a bio longer than sixty words. 

D'vorah J. Grenn (she/her) Ph.D. and Kohenet, is Founding Director, The Lilith Institute (1997). She co-directed the former Women's Spirituality MA Program at Institute of Transpersonal Psychology/Sofia University, and founded Mishkan Shekhinah, a movable sanctuary honoring the Sacred Feminine in all traditions. D’vorah leads the Institute’s Lilith’s Fire Circle, does a “Tending Lilith’s Fire” broadcast/podcast with Kohenet Annie Matan and also serves as a spiritual mentor and guide.  

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>Throughout history women have been misrepresented as villains and monsters: witches, demons, succubus, and beyond. And this misrepresentation of our bodies and minds as evil is no accident! Rather, the vilification of women is a practical tool of patriarchal systems which remains painfully relevant today. After all, if we cast women as monsters, that must make the men controlling them heroes—and who would want to listen to the words of a she-demon? Who would want to vote for one?

The damage caused by this vilification is long lasting, so in order to help us unpack some of its history and present-day impact two remarkable women joined us for this episode — Dr. D’Vorah Grenn and Lucy Allebest.

Lucy Allebest (she/her) studies History at the University of St Andrews. She enjoys dancing, organizing, wearing green, and sleeping at any time of day or night. Her greatest joy is hugging her parents and her greatest fear is the Pixar lamp. She hopes to one day do something interesting enough to write a bio longer than sixty words. 

D'vorah J. Grenn (she/her) Ph.D. and Kohenet, is Founding Director, The Lilith Institute (1997). She co-directed the former Women's Spirituality MA Program at Institute of Transpersonal Psychology/Sofia University, and founded Mishkan Shekhinah, a movable sanctuary honoring the Sacred Feminine in all traditions. D’vorah leads the Institute’s Lilith’s Fire Circle, does a “Tending Lilith’s Fire” broadcast/podcast with Kohenet Annie Matan and also serves as a spiritual mentor and guide.  

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>281aefd7-6ab8-447a-be19-0980d1e437c4Tue, 10 May 2022 05:15:00 -070050:45falsefull218182Throughout history women have been misrepresented as villains and monsters: witches, demons, succubus, and beyond. The damage caused by this vilification is long lasting, so in order to help us unpack some of its history and present-day impact two remarkable women joined us for this episode — Dr. D’Vorah Grenn and Lucy Allebest.Breaking Down Patriarchy and Abortion Rights - with Gabrielle BlairThis week best-selling author Gabrielle Blair sits down with Amy for an unabashed interview about reproductive rights, contraceptives, and why we continue to prioritize men’s pleasure over women’s health and safety.

Gabrielle Stanley Blair (she/her) created an award-winning blog called Design Mom (still going strong 15 years later!), wrote a NYT best-selling book, founded a popular conference called Alt Summit, wrote four viral Twitter threads (and counting!), moved to France, and is raising 6 kids while renovating a house from the 1600s.

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>This week best-selling author Gabrielle Blair sits down with Amy for an unabashed interview about reproductive rights, contraceptives, and why we continue to prioritize men’s pleasure over women’s health and safety.

Gabrielle Stanley Blair (she/her) created an award-winning blog called Design Mom (still going strong 15 years later!), wrote a NYT best-selling book, founded a popular conference called Alt Summit, wrote four viral Twitter threads (and counting!), moved to France, and is raising 6 kids while renovating a house from the 1600s.

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>3e491d2b-6388-4874-9049-81afcc6682f4Tue, 03 May 2022 05:15:00 -070052:05falsefull217172This week best-selling author Gabrielle Blair sits down with Amy for an unabashed interview about reproductive rights, contraceptives, and why we continue to prioritize men’s pleasure over women’s health and safety.Breaking Down Patriarchy and Personal Perspective - with Bob ReesFrom the very beginning on this project it has been my belief that the unjust construct of patriarchy causes harm to people of all genders, including men. Today it’s my delight to be joined by a deep and generous thinker, Bob Rees, who’s going to help us interrogate that belief and unpack some specifics of both how patriarchy can painfully impact men as well as some of the ways men, and patriarchs even, can act as our allies in this work of dismantling oppressive structures. Along the way, Bob will be reciting poetry, offers thoughtful insight, and reflecting on his personal history surrounding trauma and abuse.

We’re so excited to be sharing Bob’s story with you, but listeners may want to be aware that this segment will include some challenging content such as sexual abuse, self-harm, and violence — please consider if this material might affect you and take care of yourselves accordingly.

Bob Rees (he/him), is an activist scholar, poet and humanitarian. He is a Visiting Professor and Director of Mormon Studies at Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. Previously, he taught at UCLA, UC Santa Cruz, and UC Berkeley. He is the co-founder of the Bountiful Children's Foundation, which addresses malnutrition among Latter-day Saint children in the Developing world.

To learn more about Bob and his work to wipe out childhood malnutrition, be sure to visit the Bountiful Children Foundation.

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>From the very beginning on this project it has been my belief that the unjust construct of patriarchy causes harm to people of all genders, including men. Today it’s my delight to be joined by a deep and generous thinker, Bob Rees, who’s going to help us interrogate that belief and unpack some specifics of both how patriarchy can painfully impact men as well as some of the ways men, and patriarchs even, can act as our allies in this work of dismantling oppressive structures. Along the way, Bob will be reciting poetry, offers thoughtful insight, and reflecting on his personal history surrounding trauma and abuse.

We’re so excited to be sharing Bob’s story with you, but listeners may want to be aware that this segment will include some challenging content such as sexual abuse, self-harm, and violence — please consider if this material might affect you and take care of yourselves accordingly.

Bob Rees (he/him), is an activist scholar, poet and humanitarian. He is a Visiting Professor and Director of Mormon Studies at Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. Previously, he taught at UCLA, UC Santa Cruz, and UC Berkeley. He is the co-founder of the Bountiful Children's Foundation, which addresses malnutrition among Latter-day Saint children in the Developing world.

To learn more about Bob and his work to wipe out childhood malnutrition, be sure to visit the Bountiful Children Foundation.

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>63cbb9e3-9d81-48db-970c-4546519e90ffTue, 26 Apr 2022 05:15:00 -070034:01falsefull216162Bob Rees unpacks how patriarchy can painfully impact men as well as some of the ways men, and patriarchs even, can act as our allies in this work of dismantling oppressive structures.Breaking Down Patriarchy and Feminist Fairytales - with Jessica HarderMany women face realities of patriarchy from alarmingly young ages — the damage that this can cause a child is something we’re still only first coming to understand…and yet, there’s another side to this equation as well: what happens when we hide the truth of our oppression from children? What happens when we raise little girls to believe that the ugliness of patriarchy is behind us, when we tell them feminism was a tool of the past and mis-represent our present-day world as an egalitarian fairy tale?

On today’s episode Amy is joined by creatrix and educator Jessica Harder to explore exactly this dilemma as she shares her stories of growing up with equality-colored glasses, making her way into adulthood and a workforce rife with misconduct, and ultimately takes us into the fashion industry, the Me Too movement, and far beyond.

As a note to listeners, be aware that this episode contains discussion of sexual harassment and abuse. Please be kind to yourselves and take care accordingly.

Jessica Harder (she/her) has spent her life revolved around the human body. She began filtering her creativity into designing clothing for the body at the age of four, which led into a fifteen-year career in the fashion industry. At the age of 23 she moved to the Netherlands, where she ,met her husband and lived for six years. After moving back to the United States she changed careers and began teaching yoga and meditation. As a yoga teacher, Jessica has taught athletes training for the Olympics, rock climbers, senior citizens, babies, children, convicted convicts, people with drug and alcohol addiction, yogis, mothers, and pregnant women. She has devoted her career to teaching individuals to come into a deeper awareness of the body and mind. During the pandemic, she started a women’s group called Moms Together Six Feet Apart, which provides support to mothers giving birth during the pandemic. Jessica is currently working on her first book about prenatal yoga and raising her two children.

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>Many women face realities of patriarchy from alarmingly young ages — the damage that this can cause a child is something we’re still only first coming to understand…and yet, there’s another side to this equation as well: what happens when we hide the truth of our oppression from children? What happens when we raise little girls to believe that the ugliness of patriarchy is behind us, when we tell them feminism was a tool of the past and mis-represent our present-day world as an egalitarian fairy tale?

On today’s episode Amy is joined by creatrix and educator Jessica Harder to explore exactly this dilemma as she shares her stories of growing up with equality-colored glasses, making her way into adulthood and a workforce rife with misconduct, and ultimately takes us into the fashion industry, the Me Too movement, and far beyond.

As a note to listeners, be aware that this episode contains discussion of sexual harassment and abuse. Please be kind to yourselves and take care accordingly.

Jessica Harder (she/her) has spent her life revolved around the human body. She began filtering her creativity into designing clothing for the body at the age of four, which led into a fifteen-year career in the fashion industry. At the age of 23 she moved to the Netherlands, where she ,met her husband and lived for six years. After moving back to the United States she changed careers and began teaching yoga and meditation. As a yoga teacher, Jessica has taught athletes training for the Olympics, rock climbers, senior citizens, babies, children, convicted convicts, people with drug and alcohol addiction, yogis, mothers, and pregnant women. She has devoted her career to teaching individuals to come into a deeper awareness of the body and mind. During the pandemic, she started a women’s group called Moms Together Six Feet Apart, which provides support to mothers giving birth during the pandemic. Jessica is currently working on her first book about prenatal yoga and raising her two children.

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>00931654-a265-414b-b7e7-28aadd9fd22aTue, 19 Apr 2022 05:15:00 -070050:52falsefull215152On today’s episode Amy is joined by Jessica Harder as she shares her stories of growing up with equality-colored glasses, making her way into adulthood and a workforce rife with misconduct, and ultimately takes us into the fashion industry, the Me Too movement, and far beyond.Breaking Down Patriarchy and Polygamy - with Shannon JohnsonThis week Amy is joined by Shannon Johnson to help us zoom in even further to more fully unpack the practice of polygamous marriage in the LDS church and its impact on individual women. Not only do we learn some surprising and essential history, but Shannon trusts us with the story of her own journey coming-of-age within the church community and wrestling with polygamy on a personal level.

Shannon Olena Hyatt Johnson (she/her) grew up mostly in Utah and went to BYU, where she met her husband, who was also an English major. She has taught conversational English in Japan and Cairo, and now works in admin at Stanford. She is currently writing a master's thesis on race, polygamy, and the Mormon family. Shannon has three daughters and a non-binary child, ranging in age from 11 to 21. Shannon likes hiking, yoga, British tv, and trashy romance novels.

Visit the Episode Page here.

Recommended Reading & Listening

Year of Polygamy (podcast) ~ Lindsay Hansen Park

Sunstone Mormon History Podcast (podcast) ~ Lindsay Hansen Park and Bryan Buchanan

Pioneers (poem read by author) ~ Carol Lynn Pearson

Your Sister in the Gospel: The Life of Jane Manning James, a Nineteenth-Century Black Mormon (book) ~ Quincy D. Newell

Sally in Three Worlds: An Indian Captive in the House of Brigham Young (book, also Audible) ~ Virginia Kerns

More Wives than One (book) ~ Kathryn Danes

“Heathen in Our Fair Land: Anti-Polygamy and Protestant Women’s Missions to Utah, 1869–1910” (PhD Thesis) ~ Jana Riess

The Mormon Question: Polygamy and Constitutional Conflict in Nineteenth-Century America (book) ~ Sarah Barringer Gordon

“The family, morality and social science in Anglo-American cooperative thought, 1813-1890” (PhD Thesis) ~ Tara Westover (also, Educated)

The Legacy of Adam-God in the Mormon Theology of Heteropatriarchy (blog post) ~ The Grand Scoobah

Doing the Works of Abraham: Mormon Polygamy―Its Origin, Practice, and Demise (book) ~ B. Carmon Hardy

Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness (book) ~ W. Paul Reeve

Race and the Making of the Mormon People (book) ~ Max Perry Mueller

]]>This week Amy is joined by Shannon Johnson to help us zoom in even further to more fully unpack the practice of polygamous marriage in the LDS church and its impact on individual women. Not only do we learn some surprising and essential history, but Shannon trusts us with the story of her own journey coming-of-age within the church community and wrestling with polygamy on a personal level.

Shannon Olena Hyatt Johnson (she/her) grew up mostly in Utah and went to BYU, where she met her husband, who was also an English major. She has taught conversational English in Japan and Cairo, and now works in admin at Stanford. She is currently writing a master's thesis on race, polygamy, and the Mormon family. Shannon has three daughters and a non-binary child, ranging in age from 11 to 21. Shannon likes hiking, yoga, British tv, and trashy romance novels.

Visit the Episode Page here.

Recommended Reading & Listening

Year of Polygamy (podcast) ~ Lindsay Hansen Park

Sunstone Mormon History Podcast (podcast) ~ Lindsay Hansen Park and Bryan Buchanan

Pioneers (poem read by author) ~ Carol Lynn Pearson

Your Sister in the Gospel: The Life of Jane Manning James, a Nineteenth-Century Black Mormon (book) ~ Quincy D. Newell

Sally in Three Worlds: An Indian Captive in the House of Brigham Young (book, also Audible) ~ Virginia Kerns

More Wives than One (book) ~ Kathryn Danes

“Heathen in Our Fair Land: Anti-Polygamy and Protestant Women’s Missions to Utah, 1869–1910” (PhD Thesis) ~ Jana Riess

The Mormon Question: Polygamy and Constitutional Conflict in Nineteenth-Century America (book) ~ Sarah Barringer Gordon

“The family, morality and social science in Anglo-American cooperative thought, 1813-1890” (PhD Thesis) ~ Tara Westover (also, Educated)

The Legacy of Adam-God in the Mormon Theology of Heteropatriarchy (blog post) ~ The Grand Scoobah

Doing the Works of Abraham: Mormon Polygamy―Its Origin, Practice, and Demise (book) ~ B. Carmon Hardy

Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness (book) ~ W. Paul Reeve

Race and the Making of the Mormon People (book) ~ Max Perry Mueller

]]>81c52136-1dae-4307-8ce2-e5fe43391360Tue, 12 Apr 2022 05:15:00 -070036:36falsefull214142This week Amy is joined by Shannon Johnson to help us zoom in even further to more fully unpack the practice of polygamous marriage in the LDS church.Breaking Down Patriarchy and the Subaltern - with Lindsay Hansen ParkWe are so grateful to be joined by writer and podcaster Lindsay Hansen Park who does the work of unpacking polygamy on a regular basis and shares some of her discoveries with us today.

Lindsay Hansen Park is an American Mormon feminist blogger, podcaster, and the Executive Director for the Salt Lake City-based non-profit Sunstone Education Foundation. She's worked as a consultant and guest on several film projects including Hulu forthcoming television series, Under the Banner of Heaven. You can find her work (and listen to her amazing podcast, Year of Polygamy) at YearofPolygamy.com and at Sunstone.org.

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>We are so grateful to be joined by writer and podcaster Lindsay Hansen Park who does the work of unpacking polygamy on a regular basis and shares some of her discoveries with us today.

Lindsay Hansen Park is an American Mormon feminist blogger, podcaster, and the Executive Director for the Salt Lake City-based non-profit Sunstone Education Foundation. She's worked as a consultant and guest on several film projects including Hulu forthcoming television series, Under the Banner of Heaven. You can find her work (and listen to her amazing podcast, Year of Polygamy) at YearofPolygamy.com and at Sunstone.org.

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>352513d9-62e5-46a0-b40c-5d501055277bTue, 05 Apr 2022 05:15:00 -070038:43falsefull213132We are so grateful to be joined by writer and podcaster Lindsay Hansen Park who does the work of unpacking polygamy on a regular basis and shares some of her discoveries with us today.Breaking Down Patriarchy and the Women who Enforce it – with Heather Sundahl, Caroline Salisbury, and Heather RenfroOn today’s episode we’re going to be tackling a particularly tricky topic: how we and other women can—intentionally or unintentionally—become enforcers and perpetrators of patriarchy. Fortunately, we’ll have not one, but three spectacular guests joining us to help unpack this phenomenon by sharing their own experiences, emotions, and insights. Each of our contributors—Heather Sundahl, Carrie Salisbury, and Heather Renfro—has a unique, invaluable story to tell and I’m so grateful to have them all with us.

Heather Sundahl (she/her) is a writer and editor and studying to be a marriage & family therapist. Her favorite pastime is swapping stories with family and friends.

Caroline Salisbury (she/her) lives in Los Angeles, California where she works as a musician, educator and business entrepreneur. She holds music degrees in Viola Performance and was homeschooled as a child and teen. Raised with doomsday preppers, Carrie frequently experienced childhood homelessness and poverty while preparing for upcoming global disasters. She is a survivor of a college sexual assault. Today she is President of the Suzuki Music Association of California - Los Angeles Branch, a music education non-profit for teachers and families, and owner of Gerona Rose Music Studio.

She has written about religion and feminism at the Exponent blog as ViolaDiva.

She currently shares her creative projects, music, and writing at www.carolinesalisbury.com and on IG and FB @carolinesalisbury  

Caroline is mother to three children with her husband, pianist-composer Benjamin Salisbury. 

Heather Lewis Renfro (she/her) works as an educator at a high school in the San Francisco bay area and as a University Supervisor for beginning teachers. She is also a mom to two awesome teenagers. Outside of the things that keep her busy, she can be found swimming, reading, and walking her dog.

*Please note that this episode contains some explicit language, as well as limited discussion of sexual violence*

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>On today’s episode we’re going to be tackling a particularly tricky topic: how we and other women can—intentionally or unintentionally—become enforcers and perpetrators of patriarchy. Fortunately, we’ll have not one, but three spectacular guests joining us to help unpack this phenomenon by sharing their own experiences, emotions, and insights. Each of our contributors—Heather Sundahl, Carrie Salisbury, and Heather Renfro—has a unique, invaluable story to tell and I’m so grateful to have them all with us.

Heather Sundahl (she/her) is a writer and editor and studying to be a marriage & family therapist. Her favorite pastime is swapping stories with family and friends.

Caroline Salisbury (she/her) lives in Los Angeles, California where she works as a musician, educator and business entrepreneur. She holds music degrees in Viola Performance and was homeschooled as a child and teen. Raised with doomsday preppers, Carrie frequently experienced childhood homelessness and poverty while preparing for upcoming global disasters. She is a survivor of a college sexual assault. Today she is President of the Suzuki Music Association of California - Los Angeles Branch, a music education non-profit for teachers and families, and owner of Gerona Rose Music Studio.

She has written about religion and feminism at the Exponent blog as ViolaDiva.

She currently shares her creative projects, music, and writing at www.carolinesalisbury.com and on IG and FB @carolinesalisbury  

Caroline is mother to three children with her husband, pianist-composer Benjamin Salisbury. 

Heather Lewis Renfro (she/her) works as an educator at a high school in the San Francisco bay area and as a University Supervisor for beginning teachers. She is also a mom to two awesome teenagers. Outside of the things that keep her busy, she can be found swimming, reading, and walking her dog.

*Please note that this episode contains some explicit language, as well as limited discussion of sexual violence*

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>f052ec28-a9f4-4401-96d9-2f43fba60351Tue, 29 Mar 2022 05:15:00 -070038:39falsefull212122In this episode we tackle the particularly tricky topic of how women can—intentionally or unintentionally—become enforcers and perpetrators of patriarchy. Fortunately, we have not one, but three spectacular guests help us unpack this phenomenon by sharing their own experiences, emotions, and insights.Breaking Down Patriarchy in a Warzone – with Dr. Beverly AllenOn today’s episode Amy is joined by Dr. Beverly Allen for an interview about her experiences studying the treatment of women and the roles that patriarchy played during the Yugoslav Wars, as well as the ramifications that her discoveries still hold for us today.

This episode contains some challenging content— during our interview we discuss forms of violence, including the use of rape and torture. Please take care of yourselves accordingly.

Beverly Allen (she/her) has taught at Cornell, UC Santa Cruz, and the University of Zagreb. Her books are in Italian Studies and Cultural Studies, including Rape Warfare: The Hidden Genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia. Recipient of numerous awards and prizes, she held the William P. Tolley Distinguished Teaching Professorship in the Humanities at Syracuse. She received a Masters from Columbia University and a PhD from UC Berkeley.

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>On today’s episode Amy is joined by Dr. Beverly Allen for an interview about her experiences studying the treatment of women and the roles that patriarchy played during the Yugoslav Wars, as well as the ramifications that her discoveries still hold for us today.

This episode contains some challenging content— during our interview we discuss forms of violence, including the use of rape and torture. Please take care of yourselves accordingly.

Beverly Allen (she/her) has taught at Cornell, UC Santa Cruz, and the University of Zagreb. Her books are in Italian Studies and Cultural Studies, including Rape Warfare: The Hidden Genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia. Recipient of numerous awards and prizes, she held the William P. Tolley Distinguished Teaching Professorship in the Humanities at Syracuse. She received a Masters from Columbia University and a PhD from UC Berkeley.

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>a217ca2e-9dc1-4c00-adf6-377b3cbd2df0Tue, 22 Mar 2022 05:15:00 -070001:17:05falsefull211112Amy is joined by Dr. Beverly Allen for an interview about her experiences studying the Yugoslav Wars. This episode contains some challenging content— including discussion of rape and torture.Breaking Down Patriarchy on a MissionOn today’s episode we hear a stunning story from a woman on a mission for the Church of Latter-Day Saints. This story includes discussions of mental health, faith, false appearances, and how the systems around us shape our relationship with our bodies. Due to the sensitive nature of this material, the author of this essay has asked to remain anonymous.

We're grateful to friend-of-the-podcast, Mary Piccard-Reischmann, for performing this story on our contributor's behalf.

Mary Piccard-Reischmann (she/her) is a theatre artist, illustrator, and podcast enthusiast from St. Petersburg, Florida. She studied English, Spanish, and Communication Design at Washington University in St. Louis and earned her Masters in Humanities from the University of Chicago. She is currently the Scenic Charge Artist for Portland Center Stage and spends her free time going to movies and spending too many hours playing on her Nintendo Switch. 

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>On today’s episode we hear a stunning story from a woman on a mission for the Church of Latter-Day Saints. This story includes discussions of mental health, faith, false appearances, and how the systems around us shape our relationship with our bodies. Due to the sensitive nature of this material, the author of this essay has asked to remain anonymous.

We're grateful to friend-of-the-podcast, Mary Piccard-Reischmann, for performing this story on our contributor's behalf.

Mary Piccard-Reischmann (she/her) is a theatre artist, illustrator, and podcast enthusiast from St. Petersburg, Florida. She studied English, Spanish, and Communication Design at Washington University in St. Louis and earned her Masters in Humanities from the University of Chicago. She is currently the Scenic Charge Artist for Portland Center Stage and spends her free time going to movies and spending too many hours playing on her Nintendo Switch. 

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>8b841854-58d1-4461-b757-50913c35906fTue, 15 Mar 2022 05:15:00 -070037:19falsefull210102We hear a stunning story from a woman on a mission for the Church of Latter-Day Saints. Due to the sensitive nature of this material, the author of this essay has asked to remain anonymous. We're grateful to friend-of-the-podcast, Mary Piccard-Reischmann, for performing this story on our contributor's behalf.Breaking Down Patriarchy on International Women’s Day – with Vanessa LoderOn today's episode we celebrate International Women’s Day! This holiday traces its history all the way back to 1909 in NYC. While popular Women’s Day traditions include giving women flowers and small gifts, it is so critical that we not let this holiday become detached from its activist roots. Yes, the day is absolutely intended to be a time for us to recognize one another’s achievements as women, but it’s also a call to action, a day when we’re all encouraged to engage in difficult conversations, to challenge institutions, and to embolden our push for gender parity across the world.  

With this dedication to progress in mind, it was our thrill to be joined by, Vanessa Loder, who shared not only the story of her personal journey to empowerment, but also provided her professional guidance to help each of us unravel our inner patriarchs, set boundaries, and tap into the energy that motivates us.

Vanessa Loder is an inspirational keynote speaker and sought-after expert on women’s leadership, mindfulness, stress management and sustainable success. Vanessa’s work has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, the Huffington Post and Glamour magazine, among others. Her TEDx talk “How To Lean In Without Burning Out” has over 150,000 views, over 14,000 people have taken Vanessa’s paid online courses and her guided meditations have been streamed over 787,000 times globally.

Vanessa provides in-person and online educational tools that support high potential women leaders. By distilling powerful techniques for meditation, visualization, and self-compassion into simple tools and daily practices, Loder teaches women how to quiet their minds, set boundaries without feeling guilty, let go of the pressure to be “perfect”, and get more of what they want in life. Vanessa has taught at AirBnB, Bain & Co, Castlight Health, Charles Schwab, Cisco, Flextronics, Goldman Sachs, Google, LinkedIn, Mattel, PwC, Salesforce, Stanford Graduate School of Business, StubHub!, The North Face, Uber, YouTube, and many other organizations.

After spending close to a decade working in finance on Wall Street and Silicon Valley, Vanessa felt that she had climbed to the top of the wrong ladder. Her personal transformation and soul awakening, subsequent research and work have led to thousands of brilliant, overwhelmed women finding their way back to soul.

Vanessa received her MBA from Stanford University and her BA from Columbia University where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude. Loder is a certified Executive Coach, trained in Neuro-Linguistic Programming, past life regression and Vipassana meditation with Jack Kornfield. Vanessa currently lives in Lafayette, CA with her husband and two children, who remind her to take “mommy time-outs” when she’s about to lose her marbles.

Visit her at https://vanessaloder.com/.

Visit the Episode Page here.

Additional resources referenced in this episode include:

Feminine/Masculine Chart

Values Tool

How to Say No Without Feeling Guilty Cheat Sheet

Richard Schwartz's "No Bad Parts" Interview on Insights On the Edge 

Richard Schwartz's book On today's episode we celebrate International Women’s Day! This holiday traces its history all the way back to 1909 in NYC. While popular Women’s Day traditions include giving women flowers and small gifts, it is so critical that we not let this holiday become detached from its activist roots. Yes, the day is absolutely intended to be a time for us to recognize one another’s achievements as women, but it’s also a call to action, a day when we’re all encouraged to engage in difficult conversations, to challenge institutions, and to embolden our push for gender parity across the world.  

With this dedication to progress in mind, it was our thrill to be joined by, Vanessa Loder, who shared not only the story of her personal journey to empowerment, but also provided her professional guidance to help each of us unravel our inner patriarchs, set boundaries, and tap into the energy that motivates us.

Vanessa Loder is an inspirational keynote speaker and sought-after expert on women’s leadership, mindfulness, stress management and sustainable success. Vanessa’s work has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, the Huffington Post and Glamour magazine, among others. Her TEDx talk “How To Lean In Without Burning Out” has over 150,000 views, over 14,000 people have taken Vanessa’s paid online courses and her guided meditations have been streamed over 787,000 times globally.

Vanessa provides in-person and online educational tools that support high potential women leaders. By distilling powerful techniques for meditation, visualization, and self-compassion into simple tools and daily practices, Loder teaches women how to quiet their minds, set boundaries without feeling guilty, let go of the pressure to be “perfect”, and get more of what they want in life. Vanessa has taught at AirBnB, Bain & Co, Castlight Health, Charles Schwab, Cisco, Flextronics, Goldman Sachs, Google, LinkedIn, Mattel, PwC, Salesforce, Stanford Graduate School of Business, StubHub!, The North Face, Uber, YouTube, and many other organizations.

After spending close to a decade working in finance on Wall Street and Silicon Valley, Vanessa felt that she had climbed to the top of the wrong ladder. Her personal transformation and soul awakening, subsequent research and work have led to thousands of brilliant, overwhelmed women finding their way back to soul.

Vanessa received her MBA from Stanford University and her BA from Columbia University where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude. Loder is a certified Executive Coach, trained in Neuro-Linguistic Programming, past life regression and Vipassana meditation with Jack Kornfield. Vanessa currently lives in Lafayette, CA with her husband and two children, who remind her to take “mommy time-outs” when she’s about to lose her marbles.

Visit her at https://vanessaloder.com/.

Visit the Episode Page here.

Additional resources referenced in this episode include:

Feminine/Masculine Chart

Values Tool

How to Say No Without Feeling Guilty Cheat Sheet

Richard Schwartz's "No Bad Parts" Interview on Insights On the Edge 

Richard Schwartz's book No Bad Parts

Mary Wolynn's It Didn't Start with You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle 

30 Day Meditation Challenge 

]]>402512b1-4f9b-42c9-a083-abfc13408e91Tue, 08 Mar 2022 05:15:00 -070001:10:42falsefull2992On International Women's Day it was our thrill to be joined by, Vanessa Loder, who shared not only the story of her personal journey to empowerment, but also provided her professional guidance to help each of us unravel our inner patriarchsBreaking Down Patriarchy in Ireland – with Ariana Baltay & Maureen HernonToday in 1987, Congress passed a resolution designating March as Women’s History Month — but — not only is March Women’s History Month, here in the US March is also Irish-American Heritage Month! And what better way to ring in this new month than by learning about Ireland’s patroness saint and listening to the experiences of Irish women?

First, we're joined by Ariana Baltay who contributed a fascinating segment about sacred female power, invisible labor, and the patroness saint, Brigid of Kildare. Ariana Baltay is a teacher, a mom, and a recent Stanford MLA (Masters of Liberal Arts) grad. She loves painting, traveling and swimming with the PCC Masters team. Welcome Ariana.

Later in the episode, we hear from Maureen Hernon, a teacher, restauranteur, and writer who tells us about her life growing up in rural Ireland. We are so grateful that she’s joining us today to share stories from her life and, regrettably, the role that patriarchy has played in it.

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>Today in 1987, Congress passed a resolution designating March as Women’s History Month — but — not only is March Women’s History Month, here in the US March is also Irish-American Heritage Month! And what better way to ring in this new month than by learning about Ireland’s patroness saint and listening to the experiences of Irish women?

First, we're joined by Ariana Baltay who contributed a fascinating segment about sacred female power, invisible labor, and the patroness saint, Brigid of Kildare. Ariana Baltay is a teacher, a mom, and a recent Stanford MLA (Masters of Liberal Arts) grad. She loves painting, traveling and swimming with the PCC Masters team. Welcome Ariana.

Later in the episode, we hear from Maureen Hernon, a teacher, restauranteur, and writer who tells us about her life growing up in rural Ireland. We are so grateful that she’s joining us today to share stories from her life and, regrettably, the role that patriarchy has played in it.

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>f0b59c36-954e-4394-815b-a0aad3c8a1c2Tue, 01 Mar 2022 05:15:00 -070042:24falsefull2882In this episode Amy celebrates Irish-American women with Ariana Baltay, who teaches us about the patroness Saint Brigid, and Maureen Hernon, who shares her life story as an Irish woman today.Breaking Down Patriarchy and Period Poverty — an Interview with Emily Bell McCormickOn today's episode I'm joined by Emily Bell McCormick for an interview about the impacts of period poverty and the battle for economic justice unfolding in state legislatures right now.

For those interested in getting involved with the fight against period poverty, or any of Emily’s other incredible work, please visit The Policy Project.

Emily Bell McCormick (she/her) is founder of The Policy Project— a U.S. non-profit organization made up of individuals and like-minded organizations that help educate around and move forward healthy, long-term policy at a local and national level. Emily is also the editor of Utah’s NBC affiliate KSL Studio 5 "Smarter" series--informing viewers about issues, government, policies and politics of the time and helping to empower viewers to find their place in it all. Emily is an experienced communication strategy consultant with a history of working in a myriad of industries including government, policy, NGOs, tech and fashion. Emily has a master’s degree in communication from The Ohio State University and a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism from Brigham Young University.

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>On today's episode I'm joined by Emily Bell McCormick for an interview about the impacts of period poverty and the battle for economic justice unfolding in state legislatures right now.

For those interested in getting involved with the fight against period poverty, or any of Emily’s other incredible work, please visit The Policy Project.

Emily Bell McCormick (she/her) is founder of The Policy Project— a U.S. non-profit organization made up of individuals and like-minded organizations that help educate around and move forward healthy, long-term policy at a local and national level. Emily is also the editor of Utah’s NBC affiliate KSL Studio 5 "Smarter" series--informing viewers about issues, government, policies and politics of the time and helping to empower viewers to find their place in it all. Emily is an experienced communication strategy consultant with a history of working in a myriad of industries including government, policy, NGOs, tech and fashion. Emily has a master’s degree in communication from The Ohio State University and a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism from Brigham Young University.

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>5d2c2f19-17ad-44d1-827e-c873c9e76e81Tue, 22 Feb 2022 05:15:00 -070041:53falsefull2772Amy is joined by Emily Bell McCormick for an interview about the impacts of period poverty and the battle for economic justice unfolding in state legislatures right now.Breaking Down Patriarchy and the American Novel — with Robert LashleyThis coming Friday, February 18th, will be the birthday of seminal American novelist, Toni Morrison. With her legacy in mind, it’s our honor today to be joined by poet Robert Lashley to share a stunning story about the books of Toni Morrison, American literature, and a son’s unyielding love for his mother.

Robert Lashley is a 2016 Jack Straw Fellow, Artist Trust Fellow, and nominee for a Stranger Genius Award. Robert Lashley has had work published in The Seattle Review of Books, NAILED, Poetry Northwest, McSweeney’s, and The Cascadia Review. His poetry was also featured in such anthologies as Many Trails to The Summitt, Foot Bridge Above The Falls, Get Lit, Make It True, and It Was Written. His previous books include THE HOMEBOY SONGS (Small Doggies Press, 2014), and UP SOUTH (Small Doggies Press, 2017). His latest book THE GREEN RIVER VALLEY, was released from Blue Cactus Press on June 17th, 2021

Content Warning: this episode contains discussion of sexual abuse and self-harm. Please take care of yourselves accordingly.

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>This coming Friday, February 18th, will be the birthday of seminal American novelist, Toni Morrison. With her legacy in mind, it’s our honor today to be joined by poet Robert Lashley to share a stunning story about the books of Toni Morrison, American literature, and a son’s unyielding love for his mother.

Robert Lashley is a 2016 Jack Straw Fellow, Artist Trust Fellow, and nominee for a Stranger Genius Award. Robert Lashley has had work published in The Seattle Review of Books, NAILED, Poetry Northwest, McSweeney’s, and The Cascadia Review. His poetry was also featured in such anthologies as Many Trails to The Summitt, Foot Bridge Above The Falls, Get Lit, Make It True, and It Was Written. His previous books include THE HOMEBOY SONGS (Small Doggies Press, 2014), and UP SOUTH (Small Doggies Press, 2017). His latest book THE GREEN RIVER VALLEY, was released from Blue Cactus Press on June 17th, 2021

Content Warning: this episode contains discussion of sexual abuse and self-harm. Please take care of yourselves accordingly.

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>6e748da1-64f7-4963-9225-0fca10d4e6c8Tue, 15 Feb 2022 05:15:00 -070026:52falsefull2662Robert Lashley shares a stunning story about the books of Toni Morrison, American literature, and a son’s unyielding love for his mother.Breaking Down Patriarchy in Competitive Chess - an Interview with Anna RudolfOn today's episode I'm joined by one-of-a-kind chess champion and streamer, Anna Rudolf to discuss her experiences in the patriarchal world of competitive chess, including a crash course on the history of female chess champions and an honest discussion about why young women walk away from the game and how everyday people can show up and create change.

Anna Rudolf (she/her) is an Olympic Chess-Player and three-time Hungarian Champion. She holds both the International Master and Woman Grand Master titles. In 2013 she recorded her first video series in the studio of chess24 and has since established herself as an acclaimed chess commentator, streamer and reporter.

Outside of her playing career, Anna is a regular chess commentator at high-profile tournaments, having worked with both Chess.com and chess24. She was the official commentator for the 2018 World Chess Championship together with her childhood idol Judit Polgár. She had started producing instructional videos for chess24 in 2013, and has co-hosted a series with fellow IM Sopiko Guramishvili where they are known respectively as Miss Strategy and Miss Tactics. She launched her own Twitch channel in 2018 and also runs her own YouTube channel.

To learn more about Anna, you can visit her website annarudolfchess.com or tune in to one of her livestreams at twitch.tv/anna_chess

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>On today's episode I'm joined by one-of-a-kind chess champion and streamer, Anna Rudolf to discuss her experiences in the patriarchal world of competitive chess, including a crash course on the history of female chess champions and an honest discussion about why young women walk away from the game and how everyday people can show up and create change.

Anna Rudolf (she/her) is an Olympic Chess-Player and three-time Hungarian Champion. She holds both the International Master and Woman Grand Master titles. In 2013 she recorded her first video series in the studio of chess24 and has since established herself as an acclaimed chess commentator, streamer and reporter.

Outside of her playing career, Anna is a regular chess commentator at high-profile tournaments, having worked with both Chess.com and chess24. She was the official commentator for the 2018 World Chess Championship together with her childhood idol Judit Polgár. She had started producing instructional videos for chess24 in 2013, and has co-hosted a series with fellow IM Sopiko Guramishvili where they are known respectively as Miss Strategy and Miss Tactics. She launched her own Twitch channel in 2018 and also runs her own YouTube channel.

To learn more about Anna, you can visit her website annarudolfchess.com or tune in to one of her livestreams at twitch.tv/anna_chess

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>a18bb63d-32a0-4c48-8b8d-562eae9d64d7Tue, 08 Feb 2022 05:15:00 -070055:21falsefull2552Amy is joined by Anna Rudolf to discuss her experiences in the patriarchal world of competitive chess.Breaking Down Patriarchy and Sacred Rage - with Cherie BurtonOn today's episode we're joined by author and podcaster Cherie Burton, who talks to us about sacred rage, the anger of ancestresses, and how we can harness the indignant energy that patriarchy boils up inside us.

Cherie Burton is a mom of 6, author, holistic health business owner, Women Seeking Wholeness podcast host, and hobbyist divine feminine scholar. She has worked as a clinical counselor in the fields of mental health and addiction and now specializes in the science and spirituality of emotional healing and sensory integration; a "whole soul" approach. Cherie is a former Mrs. Utah and guides women in her Stand Speak Shine private coaching programs, retreats and online school. She travels internationally, empowering audiences with knowledge and tools to heal their trauma, find their soul callings, and embrace their wholeness.

Learn more at www.CherieBurton.com

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>On today's episode we're joined by author and podcaster Cherie Burton, who talks to us about sacred rage, the anger of ancestresses, and how we can harness the indignant energy that patriarchy boils up inside us.

Cherie Burton is a mom of 6, author, holistic health business owner, Women Seeking Wholeness podcast host, and hobbyist divine feminine scholar. She has worked as a clinical counselor in the fields of mental health and addiction and now specializes in the science and spirituality of emotional healing and sensory integration; a "whole soul" approach. Cherie is a former Mrs. Utah and guides women in her Stand Speak Shine private coaching programs, retreats and online school. She travels internationally, empowering audiences with knowledge and tools to heal their trauma, find their soul callings, and embrace their wholeness.

Learn more at www.CherieBurton.com

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>a9a40e22-7c90-4fa8-adf7-32e1fc76bb15Tue, 01 Feb 2022 05:15:00 -070033:15falsefull2442Cherie Burton talks to us about sacred rage, the anger of ancestresses, and how we can harness the indignant energy that patriarchy boils up inside us.Breaking Down Patriarchy in Sexuality and Spirit - with Dr. Jennifer Finlayson-Fife & Monette ChilsonAmy is joined by Dr. Jennifer Finlayson-Fife and Monette Chilson on the topic of redefining our relationships with sexuality and sacredness.

First, Dr. Jennifer Finlayson-Fife talks to us about selfhood, sexuality, and faith, delving deep into her research about how women are taught (or not taught) about their powerful capacity for pleasure in patriarchal societies. You can learn more about Dr. Finlayson-Fife and her services by visiting www.finlayson-fife.com.

Next, Monette Chilson educates us about the divine feminine and the goddess Sophia, exploring how we relate to the ideal of sacredness, and what words that we use when we discuss divinity. You can learn more about Monette Chilson at www.monettechilson.com, or join her for a workshop by visiting www.jointhereclamation.com.

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>Amy is joined by Dr. Jennifer Finlayson-Fife and Monette Chilson on the topic of redefining our relationships with sexuality and sacredness.

First, Dr. Jennifer Finlayson-Fife talks to us about selfhood, sexuality, and faith, delving deep into her research about how women are taught (or not taught) about their powerful capacity for pleasure in patriarchal societies. You can learn more about Dr. Finlayson-Fife and her services by visiting www.finlayson-fife.com.

Next, Monette Chilson educates us about the divine feminine and the goddess Sophia, exploring how we relate to the ideal of sacredness, and what words that we use when we discuss divinity. You can learn more about Monette Chilson at www.monettechilson.com, or join her for a workshop by visiting www.jointhereclamation.com.

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>c6ee49fc-6be9-4f6b-9a74-5f9229986a03Tue, 25 Jan 2022 05:15:00 -070032:22falsefull2332Amy is joined by Dr. Jennifer Finlayson-Fife and Monette Chilson on the topics of redefining our relationships with sexuality and sacredness.Breaking Down Patriarchy and Body Image - an Interview with Dr. Lindsay KiteAmy is joined by Dr. Lindsay Kite to discuss the burden of beauty standards, self-objectification, uncomfortable compliments, and how we can strive to escape the cycle of normative discontent.

Dr. Lindsay Kite is co-author of the book More Than a Body: Your Body Is an Instrument, Not an Ornament (2020, HarperCollins) and co-director of the nonprofit Beauty Redefined, alongside her identical twin sister Lexie Kite. Both received PhDs from the University of Utah in the study of female body image and have become leading experts in body image resilience and media literacy. Lindsay and Lexie help girls and women recognize and reject the harmful effects of objectification in their lives through their social media activism, online course, and regular speaking engagements for people of all ages. Lindsay lives in New York City.

You can learn more about Dr. Kite’s work by visiting www.morethanabody.org

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>Amy is joined by Dr. Lindsay Kite to discuss the burden of beauty standards, self-objectification, uncomfortable compliments, and how we can strive to escape the cycle of normative discontent.

Dr. Lindsay Kite is co-author of the book More Than a Body: Your Body Is an Instrument, Not an Ornament (2020, HarperCollins) and co-director of the nonprofit Beauty Redefined, alongside her identical twin sister Lexie Kite. Both received PhDs from the University of Utah in the study of female body image and have become leading experts in body image resilience and media literacy. Lindsay and Lexie help girls and women recognize and reject the harmful effects of objectification in their lives through their social media activism, online course, and regular speaking engagements for people of all ages. Lindsay lives in New York City.

You can learn more about Dr. Kite’s work by visiting www.morethanabody.org

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>1ccbb691-70e8-4931-9377-24365a704074Tue, 18 Jan 2022 05:15:00 -070041:56falsefull2222Amy is joined by Dr. Lindsay Kite to discuss the burden of beauty standards, self-objectification, uncomfortable compliments, and how we can strive to escape the cycle of normative discontent.Breaking Down Patriarchy in the US Marines - Abby's StoryOn this episode – our very first episode of Season Two – we’re joined by Abby, an active-duty marine, who takes us all on a journey into patriarchy in the military, including what women’s wear looks like for our troops, the ever-present stigma against working mothers and female leaders, gender essentialism, fanaticism, envisioning what equality among our armed forces might look like, and the incredible strength of our female marines.

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>On this episode – our very first episode of Season Two – we’re joined by Abby, an active-duty marine, who takes us all on a journey into patriarchy in the military, including what women’s wear looks like for our troops, the ever-present stigma against working mothers and female leaders, gender essentialism, fanaticism, envisioning what equality among our armed forces might look like, and the incredible strength of our female marines.

Visit the Episode Page here.

]]>5201d580-fdfb-449b-9f80-4e5145f11f7aTue, 11 Jan 2022 05:15:00 -070046:31falsefull2112Abby shares her experiences during her 10 years as an active-duty Marine.Season 2 Introduction“I was going to die, sooner or later, whether or not I had ..spoken …. My silences had not protected me. Your silences will not protect you.... What are the words you do not yet have? What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence? We have been socialized to respect fear more than our own need for language."

I began to ask each time: "What's the worst that could happen to me if I tell this truth?" Unlike women in other countries, our breaking silence is unlikely to have us jailed, "disappeared" or run off the road at night. Our speaking out will irritate some people, get us called bitchy or hypersensitive and disrupt some dinner parties. And then our speaking out will permit other women to speak, until laws are changed and lives are saved and the world is altered forever.

Next time, ask: What's the worst that will happen? Then push yourself a little further than you dare. Once you start to speak, people will yell at you. They will interrupt you, put you down and suggest it's personal. And the world won't end.

And the speaking will get easier and easier. And you will find you have fallen in love with your own vision, which you may never have realized you had. And you will lose some friends, and realize you don't miss them. And new ones will find you and cherish you. …And at last you'll know with surpassing certainty that only one thing is more frightening than speaking your truth. And that is not speaking.”

― Audre Lorde

Welcome to Season 2 of Breaking Down Patriarchy! I’m Amy McPhie Allebest. During Season 1 of this podcast, we laid the groundwork for understanding Patriarchal systems and how they’ve functioned in Western Civilization, mostly focused on Europe and the United States. And we read Gerda Lerner’s observations that for millennia, small groups of men were recording what they called “History,” but this record was really only the stories of men, by men, about men, for men. Small, exclusive groups of men also devised all of humanity’s laws and religions, politics, sciences, arts, and they kept for themselves all roles of leadership over every field of human endeavor,  including presiding over the home. In the meantime, Lerner says,

“Women’s creations sank soundlessly into the sea, leaving barely a ripple, and succeeding generations of women were left to cover the same ground others had already covered before them.” (The Creation of Feminist Consciousness)

For all of recorded history Patriarchal systems continued nearly uncontested, passing along their ideology from generation to generation. It has only been within the very recent past that people have begun to speak up and change things.

And so much has changed in recent years. But much is left to be done - in many realms of society patriarchal systems remain the default, and as Audre Lorde points out, it’s hard to speak against the status quo. It is devastating to be yelled at by a family member, to be frozen out of a social group, to be interrupted and put down and dismissed by strangers and by family and friends. But this is the way the world changes. This is the only way the world has ever changed. It takes individual people being brave enough to tell their stories, to speak their truth, to say “this system that we’re all perpetuating and defending - it harmed me. It harms others. We need to do better.” Whether it’s sexism or racism or homophobia or classism or ableism or ageism… the more people speak the truth, the faster things will change for the better. And conversely, if we remain silent, as Audre Lorde says, “The tyrannies [we] swallow day by day …[will cause us to] sicken and die of them, still in silence.” These silences are poison to us, and they also allow injustice to continue, and thus we participate in passing them onto the...]]>“I was going to die, sooner or later, whether or not I had ..spoken …. My silences had not protected me. Your silences will not protect you.... What are the words you do not yet have? What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence? We have been socialized to respect fear more than our own need for language."

I began to ask each time: "What's the worst that could happen to me if I tell this truth?" Unlike women in other countries, our breaking silence is unlikely to have us jailed, "disappeared" or run off the road at night. Our speaking out will irritate some people, get us called bitchy or hypersensitive and disrupt some dinner parties. And then our speaking out will permit other women to speak, until laws are changed and lives are saved and the world is altered forever.

Next time, ask: What's the worst that will happen? Then push yourself a little further than you dare. Once you start to speak, people will yell at you. They will interrupt you, put you down and suggest it's personal. And the world won't end.

And the speaking will get easier and easier. And you will find you have fallen in love with your own vision, which you may never have realized you had. And you will lose some friends, and realize you don't miss them. And new ones will find you and cherish you. …And at last you'll know with surpassing certainty that only one thing is more frightening than speaking your truth. And that is not speaking.”

― Audre Lorde

Welcome to Season 2 of Breaking Down Patriarchy! I’m Amy McPhie Allebest. During Season 1 of this podcast, we laid the groundwork for understanding Patriarchal systems and how they’ve functioned in Western Civilization, mostly focused on Europe and the United States. And we read Gerda Lerner’s observations that for millennia, small groups of men were recording what they called “History,” but this record was really only the stories of men, by men, about men, for men. Small, exclusive groups of men also devised all of humanity’s laws and religions, politics, sciences, arts, and they kept for themselves all roles of leadership over every field of human endeavor,  including presiding over the home. In the meantime, Lerner says,

“Women’s creations sank soundlessly into the sea, leaving barely a ripple, and succeeding generations of women were left to cover the same ground others had already covered before them.” (The Creation of Feminist Consciousness)

For all of recorded history Patriarchal systems continued nearly uncontested, passing along their ideology from generation to generation. It has only been within the very recent past that people have begun to speak up and change things.

And so much has changed in recent years. But much is left to be done - in many realms of society patriarchal systems remain the default, and as Audre Lorde points out, it’s hard to speak against the status quo. It is devastating to be yelled at by a family member, to be frozen out of a social group, to be interrupted and put down and dismissed by strangers and by family and friends. But this is the way the world changes. This is the only way the world has ever changed. It takes individual people being brave enough to tell their stories, to speak their truth, to say “this system that we’re all perpetuating and defending - it harmed me. It harms others. We need to do better.” Whether it’s sexism or racism or homophobia or classism or ableism or ageism… the more people speak the truth, the faster things will change for the better. And conversely, if we remain silent, as Audre Lorde says, “The tyrannies [we] swallow day by day …[will cause us to] sicken and die of them, still in silence.” These silences are poison to us, and they also allow injustice to continue, and thus we participate in passing them onto the next generation.

So Season 2 is about speaking. It’s about stories. In contrast to Season 1, which mostly followed a chronological timeline and was anchored in academic texts and legislation, Season 2 will feature a wide variety of topics, all of them demonstrating aspects of Patriarchy that the speakers have witnessed in their own lives. We’ll hear stories of women on construction sites, in engineering fields, in war zones, in chess tournaments, and marching in the streets. We’ll learn about the divine feminine and sacred rage, fashion and feminism in Saudi Arabia, the fight for equality in Iceland, 5th-century Irish saints, and we’ll even go behind the scenes in Hollywood boardrooms. We’ll listen to coming-of-age struggles and feminist awakenings, to poetry and to science, to deeply personal confessions and astonishing research and dozens upon dozens of unique voices - men, women, and nonbinary voices - some well-known, some not well-known, some anonymous, all of whom have spoken their truth bravely, and have come together to help us create this incredible new season. 

Our first speaker, next week, is a woman named Abby. She is an active-duty marine and she will  discuss  the daily challenges and triumphs of women in one of our nation’s most patriarchal institutions. The following week we will hear from Dr. Lindsay Kite of Beauty Redefined, who is on the front lines leading the charge against harmful beauty standards. From there we’ll continue our season of incredible stories, (pause) and to give you taste of what’s to come, we’ll fade out with a sample of a few of this Season’s brave voices, which will not “sink silently into the sea,” like so many of our foremothers’ voices,  but will instead impact all of our lives as we learn from their experiences how to break down the patriarchy in our minds, in our homes, and in our society’s institutions. Listen all year to these and many other voices, on BDP.

]]>7fc636f4-deb2-4833-bef7-aee73950d62aThu, 06 Jan 2022 05:30:00 -070007:35falsefull22Join Amy as she introduces Season 2 of Breaking Down Patriarchy!Minisode: Women Who Run with the WolvesAmy discusses Clarissa Pinkola Estés' Women Who Run with the Wolves with guest Bergen Hyde.

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]]>Amy discusses Clarissa Pinkola Estés' Women Who Run with the Wolves with guest Bergen Hyde.

Listen to the full episode here. 

]]>a5506792-f549-4828-a9ec-f0642f77f11bWed, 05 Jan 2022 05:10:00 -070028:36falsefull11311311Minisode: Unwell WomenAmy discusses Elinor Cleghorn's Unwell Women with guest Cassy Christianson.

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]]>Amy discusses Elinor Cleghorn's Unwell Women with guest Cassy Christianson.

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]]>38082196-4530-4f7b-8a02-ecca6c5302f1Wed, 05 Jan 2022 05:09:00 -070030:06falsefull11301301Minisode: UntamedAmy discusses Glennon Doyle's Untamed with guest Lane Anderson.

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]]>Amy discusses Glennon Doyle's Untamed with guest Lane Anderson.

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]]>c7b1726d-b108-4279-bb5e-f14cd35cc797Wed, 05 Jan 2022 05:08:00 -070030:02falsefull11291291Minisode: For the Love of MenAmy discusses Liz Plank's For the Love of Men with guest Jenny DeGraaff.

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]]>Amy discusses Liz Plank's For the Love of Men with guest Jenny DeGraaff.

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]]>443df458-1300-45f7-a865-00e093c753b3Wed, 05 Jan 2022 05:08:00 -070030:02falsefull11281281Minisode: The Moment of LiftAmy discusses Melinda French Gates' The Moment of Lift with guest Sara Abbasi.

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]]>Amy discusses Melinda French Gates' The Moment of Lift with guest Sara Abbasi.

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]]>4bf4363a-f7b7-4f91-8f4d-6db5c05b2e52Wed, 05 Jan 2022 05:07:00 -070029:58falsefull11271271Minisode: Invisible WomenAmy discusses Caroline Criado Perez's Invisible Women with guest Barbie Hada Harper.

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]]>Amy discusses Caroline Criado Perez's Invisible Women with guest Barbie Hada Harper.

Listen to the full episode here.

]]>01665cb5-ca86-4f37-9eb5-6afcbd9522c0Wed, 05 Jan 2022 05:06:00 -070029:50falsefull11261261Minisode: Women and PowerAmy discusses Mary Beard's Women and Power with guest Louisa Gillett.

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]]>Amy discusses Mary Beard's Women and Power with guest Louisa Gillett.

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]]>ab6f4e13-5aa2-499a-a902-54b9976cb02fWed, 05 Jan 2022 05:05:00 -070029:53falsefull11251251Minisode: InferiorAmy discusses Angela Saini's Inferior with guest Dr. Chantal Dolan.

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]]>Amy discusses Angela Saini's Inferior with guest Dr. Chantal Dolan.

Listen to the full episode here.

]]>1431043e-2c4c-4094-ab84-ad52aa14cad8Wed, 05 Jan 2022 05:04:00 -070028:23falsefull11241241Minisode: Girls and SexAmy discusses Peggy Orenstein's Girls and Sex with guest Natasha Helfer.

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]]>Amy discusses Peggy Orenstein's Girls and Sex with guest Natasha Helfer.

Listen to the full episode here.

]]>0bd996c6-38c0-4460-b2fd-2bde0fde9d82Wed, 05 Jan 2022 05:03:00 -070029:01falsefull11231231Minisode: Unfinished BusinessAmy discusses Anne Marie-Slaughter's Unfinished Business with guest Neylan McBaine.

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]]>Amy discusses Anne Marie-Slaughter's Unfinished Business with guest Neylan McBaine.

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]]>76d109e7-2c17-469b-bb9b-b9a39f148023Wed, 05 Jan 2022 05:02:00 -070029:55falsefull11221221Minisode: Men Explain Things to MeAmy discusses Rebecca Solnit's Men Explain Things to Me with guest Malia Morris.

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]]>Amy discusses Rebecca Solnit's Men Explain Things to Me with guest Malia Morris.

Listen to the full episode here.

]]>31214d6f-8e08-47c5-9199-891e47780d10Wed, 05 Jan 2022 05:01:00 -070030:18falsefull11211211Minisode: Bad FeministAmy discusses Roxanne Gay's Bad Feminist with guest Setareh Greenwood.

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]]>Amy discusses Roxanne Gay's Bad Feminist with guest Setareh Greenwood.

Listen to the full episode here. 

]]>e1f4b16f-d749-4a80-a506-3795e70cda41Wed, 05 Jan 2022 05:00:00 -070029:33falsefull11201201Minisode: feminism is for everybodyAmy discusses bell hooks' feminism is for everybody with guest Gina Haney.

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]]>Amy discusses bell hooks' feminism is for everybody with guest Gina Haney.

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]]>a7028d81-7b14-42ba-847e-f44e92fb9959Wed, 05 Jan 2022 04:59:00 -070030:02falsefull11191191Minisode: LGBTQ History, Part 4Amy discusses personal stories, LGBTQ history, and queer theory with guest Matthew Nelson.

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]]>Amy discusses personal stories, LGBTQ history, and queer theory with guest Matthew Nelson.

Listen to the full episodes here.

]]>0286d081-7ab5-4389-9a24-fa551a147dcdWed, 05 Jan 2022 04:59:00 -070030:02falsefull11181181Minisode: LGBTQ History, Part 3Amy discusses personal stories, LGBTQ history, and queer theory with guest Matthew Nelson.

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]]>Amy discusses personal stories, LGBTQ history, and queer theory with guest Matthew Nelson.

Listen to the full episodes here.

]]>9df8c12d-a0f9-408f-848f-dbd29104b468Wed, 05 Jan 2022 04:58:00 -070030:09falsefull11171171Minisode: LGBTQ History, Part 2Amy discusses personal stories, LGBTQ history, and queer theory with guest Matthew Nelson.

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]]>Amy discusses personal stories, LGBTQ history, and queer theory with guest Matthew Nelson.

Listen to the full episodes here.

]]>50e54904-0479-402a-b9e9-1e24fea9b052Wed, 05 Jan 2022 04:57:00 -070030:11falsefull11161161Minisode: LGBTQ History, Part 1Amy discusses personal stories, LGBTQ history, and queer theory with guest Matthew Nelson.

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]]>Amy discusses personal stories, LGBTQ history, and queer theory with guest Matthew Nelson.

Listen to the full episodes here.

]]>470dd890-53fc-4db1-89d6-8746be650a00Wed, 05 Jan 2022 04:56:00 -070030:08falsefull11151151Minisode: The Gender KnotAmy discusses Allen G Johnson's The Gender Knot with guest Kasey Cruz.

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]]>Amy discusses Allen G Johnson's The Gender Knot with guest Kasey Cruz.

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]]>67eb1260-743b-4afd-822c-9d0376f985e9Wed, 05 Jan 2022 04:55:00 -070029:17falsefull11141141Minisode: Declaration of the Elimination of Violence Against WomenAmy discusses the Declaration of the Elimination of Violence Against Women with guests Elena Gonzalez & Abby Madrigal.

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]]>Amy discusses the Declaration of the Elimination of Violence Against Women with guests Elena Gonzalez & Abby Madrigal.

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]]>4b0a34fa-6010-4671-8abc-68ec748d81cdWed, 05 Jan 2022 04:54:00 -070029:49falsefull11131131Minisode: The Sacred HoopAmy discusses Paula Gunn Allen's The Sacred Hoop with guest Sherrie Crawford.

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]]>Amy discusses Paula Gunn Allen's The Sacred Hoop with guest Sherrie Crawford.

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]]>2fa4762e-a6c8-40c8-a5be-a320b8d76754Wed, 05 Jan 2022 04:53:00 -070030:19falsefull11121121Minisode: WomanSpirit RisingAmy discusses WomanSpirit Rising with guest Maxine Hanks.

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]]>Amy discusses WomanSpirit Rising with guest Maxine Hanks.

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]]>bd19e7fa-ca03-4938-a9b4-8c31c465c53dWed, 05 Jan 2022 04:52:00 -070029:52falsefull11111111MInisode: Gender TroubleAmy discusses Judith Butler's Gender Trouble with guest Maxine Hanks.

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]]>Amy discusses Judith Butler's Gender Trouble with guest Maxine Hanks.

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]]>a2a441fa-8a2d-4c9d-9ad9-8f533ebe1136Wed, 05 Jan 2022 04:51:00 -070029:28falsefull11101101Minisode: The Beauty MythAmy discusses Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth with guest Vanessa Loder.

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]]>Amy discusses Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth with guest Vanessa Loder.

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]]>9e207713-ce50-4131-a747-04edb7edceaaWed, 05 Jan 2022 04:50:00 -070029:43falsefull11091091Minisode: Sister OutsiderAmy discusses Audre Lorde's Sister, Outside with guest Suzette Duncan.

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]]>Amy discusses Audre Lorde's Sister, Outside with guest Suzette Duncan.

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]]>b1f472e0-c8b1-4646-b53e-60221599beedWed, 05 Jan 2022 04:49:00 -070030:14falsefull11081081Minisode: ain't i a womanAmy discusses bell hooks' ain't i a woman with guest Manuela Zoninsein & Ashley Jackson.

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]]>Amy discusses bell hooks' ain't i a woman with guest Manuela Zoninsein & Ashley Jackson.

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]]>4f4ce36d-1030-4d7c-b53a-bcf2ae38a160Wed, 05 Jan 2022 04:48:00 -070030:23falsefull11071071Minisode: Women, Race, and ClassAmy discusses Angela Davis's Women, Race, and Class with guest Brianna Jovahn.

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]]>Amy discusses Angela Davis's Women, Race, and Class with guest Brianna Jovahn.

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]]>4ed9007b-44d4-4c1d-934d-cc81b09477a2Wed, 05 Jan 2022 04:47:00 -070030:24falsefull11061061Minisode: This Bridge Called My BackAmy discusses This Bridge Called by Back with guest Jenn Lee Smith.

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]]>Amy discusses This Bridge Called by Back with guest Jenn Lee Smith.

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]]>274c7088-c61f-4027-bfab-366e9734ea49Wed, 05 Jan 2022 04:46:00 -070029:11falsefull11051051Minisode: Roe v. WadeAmy discusses Roe v. Wade with guest Lindsay McPhie Hickok.

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]]>Amy discusses Roe v. Wade with guest Lindsay McPhie Hickok.

Listen to the full episodes here and here.

]]>8392b358-d7d7-4036-915b-6d36bdec4ec2Wed, 05 Jan 2022 04:45:00 -070043:59falsefull11041041Minisode: Title IXAmy discusses Title IX with guest Whitney McPhie Griffith.

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]]>Amy discusses Title IX with guest Whitney McPhie Griffith.

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]]>61e9fff9-5b4f-4afb-9aea-2a64c6286687Wed, 05 Jan 2022 04:44:00 -070030:01falsefull11031031Minisode: Our Bodies, OurselvesAmy discusses Our Bodies, Ourselves with guest Jessica Harder.

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]]>Amy discusses Our Bodies, Ourselves with guest Jessica Harder.

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]]>32ef7fc1-ee47-4d4c-937a-97dae68f060aWed, 05 Jan 2022 04:43:00 -070028:50falsefull11021021Minisode: Sexual Politics, Part 2Amy discusses Kate Millett's Sexual Politics with guest Maxine Hanks.

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]]>Amy discusses Kate Millett's Sexual Politics with guest Maxine Hanks.

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]]>edc2d474-00bf-427f-a515-ae66802b3631Wed, 05 Jan 2022 04:42:00 -070030:23falsefull11011011Minisode: Sexual Politics, Part 1Amy discusses Kate Millett's Sexual Politics with guest Maxine Hanks.

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]]>Amy discusses Kate Millett's Sexual Politics with guest Maxine Hanks.

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]]>4c9e1cb6-13d7-4283-ba8a-61ea4aa9ec30Wed, 05 Jan 2022 04:41:00 -070027:44falsefull11001001Minisode: The Equal Rights AmendmentAmy discusses The Equal Rights Amendment with guests Emily Bell McCormick & Kelly Whited Jones.

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]]>Amy discusses The Equal Rights Amendment with guests Emily Bell McCormick & Kelly Whited Jones.

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]]>3a666d6f-cab8-48d2-9ec5-2d85e5ce50acWed, 05 Jan 2022 04:40:00 -070029:36falsefull199991Minisode: Living the RevolutionAmy discusses Gloria Steinem's Living the Revolution with guest Amy Pal.

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]]>Amy discusses Gloria Steinem's Living the Revolution with guest Amy Pal.

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]]>412fb10f-2f52-4d70-bf01-dda84d70638eWed, 05 Jan 2022 04:39:00 -070029:52falsefull198981Minisode: Double Jeopardy, Part 2Amy discusses Frances Beale's Double Jeopardy with guest Rayna Clay MacKay.

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]]>Amy discusses Frances Beale's Double Jeopardy with guest Rayna Clay MacKay.

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]]>5d79547b-a87d-4cf1-a253-dbe31a0d35ddWed, 05 Jan 2022 04:39:00 -070028:18falsefull197971Minisode: Double Jeopardy, Part 1Amy discusses Frances Beale's Double Jeopardy with guest Rayna Clay MacKay.

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]]>Amy discusses Frances Beale's Double Jeopardy with guest Rayna Clay MacKay.

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]]>7f32e859-0eda-4ac0-938f-f91260549569Wed, 05 Jan 2022 04:38:00 -070029:57falsefull196961Minisode: Jane Crow and the LawAmy discusses Pauli Murray and Mary Eastwood's Jane Crow and the Law with guest Rochelle Briscoe.

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]]>Amy discusses Pauli Murray and Mary Eastwood's Jane Crow and the Law with guest Rochelle Briscoe.

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]]>dd6dff04-9eee-4a97-b0c3-af834ecb47adWed, 05 Jan 2022 04:38:00 -070030:04falsefull195951Minisode: Keep the Damned Women OutAmy discusses Nancy Weiss Malkiel's Keep the Damned Women Out with guest Marta Luna Wilde.

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]]>Amy discusses Nancy Weiss Malkiel's Keep the Damned Women Out with guest Marta Luna Wilde.

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]]>a31fb4d7-4606-4ed3-b16d-215de9486d05Wed, 05 Jan 2022 04:37:00 -070030:31falsefull194941Minisode: The Feminine MystiqueAmy discusses Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique with guest Marta Luna Wilde.

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]]>Amy discusses Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique with guest Marta Luna Wilde.

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]]>e03bb61f-e810-4524-bb7b-5bef59d01f05Wed, 05 Jan 2022 04:36:00 -070029:44falsefull193931Minisode: The Second Sex, Part 2Amy discusses Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex with guest Fyza Parviz Jazra.

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]]>Amy discusses Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex with guest Fyza Parviz Jazra.

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]]>26ae069c-244d-4a40-ad50-c11b43ae0c9fWed, 05 Jan 2022 04:35:00 -070027:42falsefull192921Minisode: The Second Sex, Part 1Amy discusses Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex with guest Fyza Parviz Jazra.

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]]>Amy discusses Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex with guest Fyza Parviz Jazra.

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]]>ae5c6346-3e72-4282-a508-a7c1b60bff8cWed, 05 Jan 2022 04:35:00 -070030:53falsefull191911Minisode: The Real Wealth of NationsAmy discusses Riane Eisler's The Real Wealth of Nations with guest Dr. Julie de Azevedo Hanks.

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]]>Amy discusses Riane Eisler's The Real Wealth of Nations with guest Dr. Julie de Azevedo Hanks.

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]]>8eb7cadb-f4ae-4a2d-8d42-add6cde691b6Wed, 05 Jan 2022 04:35:00 -070028:54falsefull190901Minisode: The UN Open Letter to the Women of the World, and Universal Declaration of Human Rights, by Eleanor RooseveltAmy discusses Eleanor Roosevelt's UN Open Letter to the Women of the World with guest Lucy Allebest.

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]]>Amy discusses Eleanor Roosevelt's UN Open Letter to the Women of the World with guest Lucy Allebest.

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]]>fb4a096f-5fa0-4d86-bae4-39feff024748Wed, 05 Jan 2022 04:35:00 -070030:40falsefull189891Minisode: Killing the Angel in the HouseAmy discusses Virginia Woolf's Killing the Angel in the House with guest Rachelle Burnside.

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]]>Amy discusses Virginia Woolf's Killing the Angel in the House with guest Rachelle Burnside.

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]]>58f77da9-35ed-472c-9d86-db363fb32567Wed, 05 Jan 2022 04:35:00 -070030:23falsefull188881Minisode: A Room of One's OwnAmy discusses Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own with guest Susannah Harmon Furr.

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]]>Amy discusses Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own with guest Susannah Harmon Furr.

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]]>522af433-8006-423d-9563-652d59a7dc05Wed, 05 Jan 2022 04:35:00 -070026:29falsefull187871Minisode: The Morality of Birth Control, by Margaret SangerAmy discusses Margaret Sanger's The Morality of Birth Control with guest Courtney McPhie.

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]]>Amy discusses Margaret Sanger's The Morality of Birth Control with guest Courtney McPhie.

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]]>c45ca10a-336b-4fb8-b0a4-03d1bd6be30cWed, 05 Jan 2022 04:34:00 -070030:48falsefull186861Minisode: The Fundamental Principle of a RepublicAmy discusses Anna Howard Shaw's The Fundamental Principle of a Republic with guest Dr. Amy Osmond Cook.

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]]>Amy discusses Anna Howard Shaw's The Fundamental Principle of a Republic with guest Dr. Amy Osmond Cook.

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]]>7a2dc1b8-f61b-4f70-85ac-988dabc40205Wed, 05 Jan 2022 04:33:00 -070028:04falsefull185851Minisode: The Awakening, by Kate ChopinAmy discusses Kate Chopin's The Awakening with guest Shauna Rensch.

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]]>Amy discusses Kate Chopin's The Awakening with guest Shauna Rensch.

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]]>1025516b-0115-4974-ba69-c209ff7cf961Wed, 05 Jan 2022 04:33:00 -070031:27falsefull184841Minisode: The Yellow WallpaperAmy discusses Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper with guest Shannon Hyatt Johnson.

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]]>Amy discusses Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper with guest Shannon Hyatt Johnson.

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]]>4d7431c9-bdbf-4308-873f-88c0f4405e43Wed, 05 Jan 2022 04:33:00 -070030:43falsefull183831Minisode: The Gospel of Mary MagdaleneAmy discusses The Gospel of Mary Magdalene with guest Kayleen Asbo.

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]]>Amy discusses The Gospel of Mary Magdalene with guest Kayleen Asbo.

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]]>5a81e5b1-18e2-4ee1-8fae-4abc60908727Wed, 05 Jan 2022 04:33:00 -070028:40falsefull182821Minisode: The Subjection of WomenAmy discusses John Stuart Mill's The Subjection of Women with guest Franceskay Allebes.

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]]>Amy discusses John Stuart Mill's The Subjection of Women with guest Franceskay Allebes.

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]]>6de546a8-39a1-4e9a-ba88-7e692bfd95bfWed, 05 Jan 2022 04:33:00 -070029:27falsefull181811Minisode: Ain't I A Woman?Amy discusses Sojourner Truth's Ain't I A Woman? with guest Rayna Clay MacKay.

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]]>Amy discusses Sojourner Truth's Ain't I A Woman? with guest Rayna Clay MacKay.

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]]>a5929bd6-e540-4e1b-9c3d-d2457e5a7625Wed, 05 Jan 2022 04:33:00 -070030:29falsefull180801Minisode: Speeches from The Seneca Falls Women's ConventionAmy discusses Elizabeth Cady Stanton's Speeches from The Seneca Falls Women's Convention with guest Courtney McPhie.

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]]>Amy discusses Elizabeth Cady Stanton's Speeches from The Seneca Falls Women's Convention with guest Courtney McPhie.

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]]>0794a2e8-d829-4d70-ae0f-ff16f67359f9Wed, 05 Jan 2022 04:33:00 -070026:37falsefull179791Minisode: Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of WomanAmy discusses Sarah Grimke's Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Woman with guest Rebecca Archibald.

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]]>Amy discusses Sarah Grimke's Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Woman with guest Rebecca Archibald.

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]]>d37fd596-c4cf-457f-b3fd-eb631480bf60Wed, 05 Jan 2022 04:32:00 -070030:32falsefull178781Minisode: On the Equality of the SexesAmy discusses Judith Sargent Murray's On the Equality of the Sexes with guest Jennie Austin Preece.

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]]>Amy discusses Judith Sargent Murray's On the Equality of the Sexes with guest Jennie Austin Preece.

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]]>764a85b8-f3de-4df2-877e-76e1c9466d07Wed, 05 Jan 2022 04:31:00 -070030:25falsefull177771Minisode: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Part 2Amy discusses Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman with guest Dr. Meagan Cahoon Alder.

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]]>Amy discusses Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman with guest Dr. Meagan Cahoon Alder.

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]]>aba9a731-8562-42e1-8d11-6c6f67ed88a0Wed, 05 Jan 2022 04:31:00 -070024:45falsefull176761Minisode: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Part 1Amy discusses Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman with guest Dr. Meagan Cahoon Alder.

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]]>Amy discusses Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman with guest Dr. Meagan Cahoon Alder.

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]]>e9fb6792-1847-49d5-a3e4-d610e5f3e399Wed, 05 Jan 2022 04:30:00 -070030:40falsefull175751Minisode: Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female CitizenAmy discusses Olympe de Gouge's Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen with guest Lindsay Allebest.

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]]>Amy discusses Olympe de Gouge's Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen with guest Lindsay Allebest.

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]]>1b10a5be-6029-4e61-8143-e2634b2873b8Wed, 05 Jan 2022 01:16:00 -070030:11falsefull174741Minisode: The Creation of Feminist ConsciousnessAmy discusses Gerda Lerner's The Creation of Feminist Consciousness with guest Janette Canare.

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]]>Amy discusses Gerda Lerner's The Creation of Feminist Consciousness with guest Janette Canare.

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]]>683b91ae-31e5-4a59-8e41-e747f90f7188Wed, 05 Jan 2022 01:16:00 -070029:54falsefull173731Minisode: Mary, Mother of God: Women in Early ChristianityAmy discusses multiple texts about the Virgin Mary with guest Sophie Allebest.

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]]>Amy discusses multiple texts about the Virgin Mary with guest Sophie Allebest.

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]]>07f7f47f-f5fc-490a-81e7-e0de0b839b2fWed, 05 Jan 2022 01:01:00 -070029:10falsefull172721Minisode: The Creation of Patriarchy, Part 2Amy discusses Gerda Lerner's The Creation of Patriarchy with guest Sherrie Crawford.

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]]>Amy discusses Gerda Lerner's The Creation of Patriarchy with guest Sherrie Crawford.

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]]>f6a4ed0b-415c-4287-bf85-fc9ca5031144Wed, 05 Jan 2022 00:46:00 -070030:25falsefull171711Minisode: The Creation of Patriarchy, Part 1Amy discusses Gerda Lerner's The Creation of Patriarchy with guest Sherrie Crawford.

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]]>Amy discusses Gerda Lerner's The Creation of Patriarchy with guest Sherrie Crawford.

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]]>fd90dc86-4513-4bc5-90f3-6ebb903e876bWed, 05 Jan 2022 00:31:00 -070033:01falsefull170701Minisode: The Chalice & The BladeAmy discusses Rian Eisler's The Chalice & The Blade with guest Malia Morris.

Listen to the full episode here.

]]>Amy discusses Rian Eisler's The Chalice & The Blade with guest Malia Morris.

Listen to the full episode here.

]]>95c52e18-89b3-42c1-bfef-91f8338c8198Wed, 05 Jan 2022 00:16:00 -070029:00falsefull169691Bonus Episode: Amy and Erik Allebest Recap Season 1**This episode is also viewable as a video on www.breakingdownpatriarchy.com under the "episodes" heading, and on YouTube on the Breaking Down Patriarchy channel.

Welcome to BDP! I’m AMA, and today we are doing a very special episode, summarizing all the works we read this year and sharing thoughts and lessons learned as well as answering some FAQ’s. And my guest today is fan-favorite, Erik Allebest! Welcome back to BDP, Erik! 

Another cool thing is that for the first time, we’re recording video as well as audio. So if you want to see us as well as hear us, you can watch this video on our website or on YouTube.

I want to start this episode at the very beginning - the very first words I spoke on the podcast were from Gerda Lerner’s The Creation of Patriarchy, where she says “Men and women live on stage. Now that I know more about gender, I would rephrase that to say “all human beings live on a stage.” She describes how all of us are up there performing, doing our best to read the scripts we’re supposed to be reading, some have big parts, some small… but in this play, the writer of the scripts, the directors, the people who built the set and produced the whole thing are all men. So even if I, as a woman, get assigned a bigger role, that might placate me because I get more power in the play, but as long as the role has been given to me by directors who are all men (and who choose to keep women out), the power balance hasn’t changed at all.

The rest of The Creation of Patriarchy, and the entire podcast, has been a study to try to figure out how it got to be this way, and I want to start with something that we haven’t been able to do yet: an actual historical timeline!

• Timeline:

Highlight Catal Hayuk

From a recent BBC article that I read just today:

“An examination of male and female skeletons show that both sexes ate the same diet, performed the same work, and spent the same amount of time outdoors. In life, they inhabited the same physical space; in death they were given the same kind of burials. There is no evidence for either a patriarchal or matriarchal system. In Catalhöyük a woman’s biology was not her fate.

People have long accepted that political power is man-made rather than god-given. But it’s been different for female inequality. History, religion, science, everything in fact, has seemed to condemn feminism for being against the natural order. Thanks to Catalhöyük, we can say with confidence that there is nothing natural about patriarchy or matriarchy. Society can take many forms and shapes. Sex is genetic, but gender is cultural.”

This highlights a debate between sociologists: is patriarchy “natural” and “inevitable” or is it NOT natural, and we could have just as easily have gone in a different direction?

 

The fact that all societies all over the world, for all time have been at least in some degree patriarchal seems to be an argument that there is a natural element to it. But if there were thousands and thousands of years of non-patriarchy, then it shows that it’s not natural, not inevitable.

(Quiz: When did early humans leave Africa? 2 million years ago.

When did the first humans arrive in Australia? 60,000 years ago

Arrive in the Americas? 30,000 years ago

So… long time. 

But does it even matter if it’s “natural”? Lots of terrible things happen all throughout human societies, so they are thus “natural” too. Just because people everywhere have murdered and tortured and enslaved other people, does that mean we say “oh well! I guess we lean into violence because it’s natural.”?

My argument would be no. So let’s dive into the books:

The Chalice and the Blade, Riane Eisler, 1987 - Malia Morris

Evidence of multiple matrifocal, matrilocal societies. Symbols of goddesses, priestesses,...]]>**This episode is also viewable as a video on www.breakingdownpatriarchy.com under the "episodes" heading, and on YouTube on the Breaking Down Patriarchy channel.

Welcome to BDP! I’m AMA, and today we are doing a very special episode, summarizing all the works we read this year and sharing thoughts and lessons learned as well as answering some FAQ’s. And my guest today is fan-favorite, Erik Allebest! Welcome back to BDP, Erik! 

Another cool thing is that for the first time, we’re recording video as well as audio. So if you want to see us as well as hear us, you can watch this video on our website or on YouTube.

I want to start this episode at the very beginning - the very first words I spoke on the podcast were from Gerda Lerner’s The Creation of Patriarchy, where she says “Men and women live on stage. Now that I know more about gender, I would rephrase that to say “all human beings live on a stage.” She describes how all of us are up there performing, doing our best to read the scripts we’re supposed to be reading, some have big parts, some small… but in this play, the writer of the scripts, the directors, the people who built the set and produced the whole thing are all men. So even if I, as a woman, get assigned a bigger role, that might placate me because I get more power in the play, but as long as the role has been given to me by directors who are all men (and who choose to keep women out), the power balance hasn’t changed at all.

The rest of The Creation of Patriarchy, and the entire podcast, has been a study to try to figure out how it got to be this way, and I want to start with something that we haven’t been able to do yet: an actual historical timeline!

• Timeline:

Highlight Catal Hayuk

From a recent BBC article that I read just today:

“An examination of male and female skeletons show that both sexes ate the same diet, performed the same work, and spent the same amount of time outdoors. In life, they inhabited the same physical space; in death they were given the same kind of burials. There is no evidence for either a patriarchal or matriarchal system. In Catalhöyük a woman’s biology was not her fate.

People have long accepted that political power is man-made rather than god-given. But it’s been different for female inequality. History, religion, science, everything in fact, has seemed to condemn feminism for being against the natural order. Thanks to Catalhöyük, we can say with confidence that there is nothing natural about patriarchy or matriarchy. Society can take many forms and shapes. Sex is genetic, but gender is cultural.”

This highlights a debate between sociologists: is patriarchy “natural” and “inevitable” or is it NOT natural, and we could have just as easily have gone in a different direction?

 

The fact that all societies all over the world, for all time have been at least in some degree patriarchal seems to be an argument that there is a natural element to it. But if there were thousands and thousands of years of non-patriarchy, then it shows that it’s not natural, not inevitable.

(Quiz: When did early humans leave Africa? 2 million years ago.

When did the first humans arrive in Australia? 60,000 years ago

Arrive in the Americas? 30,000 years ago

So… long time. 

But does it even matter if it’s “natural”? Lots of terrible things happen all throughout human societies, so they are thus “natural” too. Just because people everywhere have murdered and tortured and enslaved other people, does that mean we say “oh well! I guess we lean into violence because it’s natural.”?

My argument would be no. So let’s dive into the books:

The Chalice and the Blade, Riane Eisler, 1987 - Malia Morris

Evidence of multiple matrifocal, matrilocal societies. Symbols of goddesses, priestesses, evidence of egalitarianism and peace. These were Partnership cultures. They all existed prior to written records, so archaeologists and cultural anthropologists are making informed guesses about what the evidence means. Which is why it’s so important to have women archaeologists and cultural anthropologists!!

Then came the Dominator cultures. War, death, reflected in their mythology: the powerful goddesses lost their status and became wives or consorts of male gods. 

And the Partnership vs. Dominator model is a really useful tool of analysis to apply to power dynamics between humans, even today.

-----

The Creation of Patriarchy, Gerda Lerner. 1986 (Part 1) - Sherrie Crawford

• The metaphor of the stage

• Men have always written down “history,” and claimed universality for that history. But it has until that last nanosecond of history, totally excluded women’s lives.

• In addition to writing history, men have created the “symbol systems,” like philosophy and religion. (This is what happened and this is what it means.)

• Men have created the laws. The Code of Hammurabi and The Middle Assyrian Laws were some of the first records on Earth, and they are male-centered and so violently misogynistic

Show on timeline

Read quotes

**Many men and women have suffered exclusion and discrimination because of their class. No man has been excluded from the historical record because of his sex, yet all women were. (This has broad application and is a good arrow to have in our quiver when people say “men experience this too.”)

***IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT WHEN WE SPEAK OF RELATIVE IMPROVEMENTS IN THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN A GIVEN SOCIETY, THIS FREQUENTLY MEANS ONLY THAT WE ARE SEEING IMPROVEMENTS IN THE DEGREE IN WHICH THEIR SITUATION AFFORDS THEM OPPORTUNITIES TO EXERT SOME LEVERAGE WITHIN THE SYSTEM OF PATRIARCHY. (the stage again)

“The system of patriarchy is a historic construct; it has a beginning; it will have an end.”

-----

The Gospel of Mary - Dr. Kayleen Asbo

The road not taken:

A woman was truly an apostle to the apostles, there’s a record of it, it could have been in our Bible. But a group of all men decided it didn’t suit the hierarchical structure of the church, so they left it out.

Includes a record of Peter saying to a woman “I don’t believe you.” And Andrew standing up to Peter. This would have been so validating and comforting.

The point is to become more anthropos -  more fully human.

------

 Mary, Mother of God - Sophie Allebest

Takeaways: in the New Testament, Jesus is a revolutionary figure who breaks all kinds of rules.

Mary was seen as the “New Eve” - Yay!! 

She becomes the Madonna - if real women are supposed to be like Mary, we are screwed! (Or rather, precisely not screwed). Title: Alone of All Her Sex

Also it’s just like the quote by Lerner: Mary “affords opportunities to exert some leverage within the system of patriarchy.” Her power is 100% determined by whatever pope is determining the symbol systems - in history you see her power grow and shrink according to what the men say about her. 

There’s a book out right now: 

The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth

------

The Creation of Feminist Consciousness, Gerda Lerner, 1993. - Janette Canare

“Men develop ideas and systems of explanation by absorbing past knowledge and critiquing and superseding it. Women, ignorant of their own history, did not know what women before them had thought and taught. So, generation after generation, they struggled for insights others had already had before them. I illustrate this by surveying women’s bible criticism over a period of one thousand years and show the endless repetition of effort, the constant reinventing of the wheel.”

I gained information, knowledge, and a whole community of women role models and fellow seekers throughout time.

---------

Declaration on the Rights of Women and the Female Citizen, Olympe de Gouges (1791) - Lindsay Allebest

Abigail Adams in the US said “We will not be will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.”

Olympe de Gouges saw her country’s “Declaration of the Rights of Man” and immediately said “NOT GOOD ENOUGH. TRY AGAIN.” 

“Women, wake up!!!”

-----

A Vindication of the Rights of Women, Mary Wollstonecraft (1792) (Part 1)  - Dr. Meagan Alder

“Here I throw down my gauntlet, and deny the existence of sexual virtues, not excepting modesty.”

“It cannot be demonstrated that woman is essentially inferior to man, because she has always been subjugated.”

“Taught from infancy that beauty is woman’s sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison. Men have various employments and pursuits which engage their attention, and give character to the opening mind; but women, confined to one, and having their thoughts constantly directed to the most insignificant part of themselves, seldom extend their views.”

her reason… is employed rather to burnish than to snap her chains.”

 

------

 “On the Equality of the Sexes” Judith Sargent Murray (1791) - Jennie Preece

“As their years increase, the sister must be wholly domesticated, while the brother is led by the hand through all the flowery paths of science. Let there be then no coercion established in society, and the common law of gravity prevailing, the sexes will fall into their proper places.”

--------

Letters on the Equality of the Sexes, Sarah Grimke (1838) - Rebecca Archibald

My hero. My biggest takeaways are about Sarah Grimke as a person, how she lived her life.

What she said, remember she was speaking out about slavery, and was getting violent pushback not just about slavery but about being a woman speaking publicly about anything. So there was this pastor who was worried that Sarah (and women following her example) were getting too much power, so he said “when you have a question, ASK YOUR PASTOR.” So these letters were in some ways a response to that patriarchal model.

So Sarah all the way through claims her own right to interpret scripture as an equal of any pastor. And she says:

“Here then I plant myself. God created us equal.”

------

 "Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions,” Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1848) - Courtney McPhie

Laws of Couverture: coral necklace story 

“The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise. 

He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice. 

Having deprived her of this first right of a citizen, the elective franchise, thereby leaving her without representation in the halls of legislation, he has oppressed her on all sides.

He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead.

He has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she earns.

In the covenant of marriage, she is compelled to promise obedience to her husband, he becoming, to all intents and purposes, her master - the law giving him power to deprive her of her liberty, and to administer chastisement. (physical beatings)

--------

 “Ain't I a Woman?” speech, Sojourner Truth (1851) - Dr. Rayna Clay Mackay

1. “Women are weak, they need to be helped over mud puddles.” “Nobody helps me over mud puddles. Look at my arm. And am I not a woman?” This still happens. White people say “Woman” and they’re referring to white, privileged women. It’s not right.

1. Frances Gage changed her words. 
2. Rayna’s experience as a Black woman

------

The Subjection of Women, John Stuart Mill (1869) - Frances Kay Allebes

“The burden of proof is supposed to be with those who are against liberty.”

“Nobody thinks it necessary to make a law that only a strong-armed man shall be a blacksmith. Freedom and competition suffice to make blacksmiths strong-armed men, because the weak-armed can earn more by engaging in occupations for which they are more fit.”

Then he says it’s unnecessary to make a rule “that certain persons are not fit to do certain things. ...Even if it be well grounded in a majority of cases, which it is very likely not to be, there will be a minority of exceptional cases in which it does not hold: and in those it is both an injustice to the individuals, and a detriment to society, to place barriers in the way of their using their faculties for their own benefit and for that of others.”

--------

 “The Yellow Wallpaper,”  Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892)  - Shannon Johnson

Paternalism! “Oh, my sweet husband, he knows what’s best for me. I don’t know my own symptoms or my own body or my own mind.” Sometimes benevolent patriarchy is even more insidious than more overt forms of patriarchy because women don’t notice that they’re in a cage, being kept in the role of a child for their whole life, because the patriarch is being nice.

The Rest Cure vs. the West Cure - still see this!!

----

The  Awakening, Kate Chopin (1899) - Shauna Rensch

“At a very early period she had apprehended instinctively the dual life – that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions. ...She had all her life long been accustomed to harbor thoughts and emotions which never voiced themselves.”

And this is what makes her blow up her life.

------

“The Fundamental Principle of a Republic,” Anna Howard Shaw (1915)  - Dr. Amy Cook

Arguments against women’s suffrage - still relevant today! 

“Whenever any question is to be settled in any community, then the people of that community shall settle that question. The women people equally with the men people. That is all there is to it.”

Ask yourself if you belong to any organizations where the argument is made that things are fair because the men listen to the women and represent their interests, and that “women don’t want to have added responsibilities.”

------

 “The Morality of Birth Control,” and “The Case for Birth Control,” Margaret Sanger (1921) - Courtney McPhie

Margaret Sanger’s own mother conceived 18 times in 22 years, birthing 11 alive before dying aged 49.

The Comstock Act: In Massachusetts, anyone disseminating contraceptives -- or information about contraceptives -- faced stiff fines and imprisonment. In  Connecticut, the act of using birth control was even prohibited by law. Married couples could be arrested for using birth control in the privacy of their own bedrooms, and subjected to a one-year prison sentence. 

---------

 “A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf (1929) - Susannah Furr

“Get off the grass.” Interrupts her train of thought - all the ideas wasted

 “You can’t come into the library.” Her face burning with humiliation. “I will never go back.”

In the British Library: “Women, relation to men of.” Men are at the center - we see ourselves as auxiliary

Susannah’s explanation of the much better facilities and dining in the men’s college v. the women’s college. “What was behind the thin gravy soup in the plain dish v. the succulent meats and glasses of wine and desserts” Reminded me of the different amounts of money and resources spent on boys and young men in our church v. girls and young women

“Think only of the jump.” 

-----

 Killing the Angel in the House, Virginia Woolf (1931) - Rachelle Burnside

Separate spheres ideology, men praise women to be the self-sacrificers, the ones who give up their dreams.

Woolf describes that when she would try to write, the angel would constantly say “what will men think of this??” and it was so distracting it stopped her from doing good work/achieving her potential.

Also, that “Affable Hawk” character always saying “women can’t be good writers.” This will come up later - it’s been proven in experiments that when you tell someone they’re not good at something, they perform worse. So it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. This is why Woolstonecraft and Mill said “we don’t know the differences between the sexes yet, because it’s never been a fair world yet. Men think less of women, and women think less of themselves.” 

Bobby Fischer saying, “They're all weak, all women. They're stupid compared to men. They shouldn't play chess”

Garry Kasparov: Women, by their nature, are not exceptional chess players.” and  “All women are inferior to men.”

----------

 “An Open Letter to the Women of the World,” Eleanor Roosevelt at the U.N. (1946) 

And “Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” U.N. (1948) - Lucy Allebest

“To recognize the progress women made during the war and to participate actively in an effort to improve their standard of life in their countries, and participate in the work of reconstruction so that there will be qualified women ready to accept responsibility when new opportunities arise.” 

And that...]]>27262ab8-5008-4353-9fe9-084577e8bd7aTue, 04 Jan 2022 05:15:00 -070002:30:42falsefull168681Amy and Erik's TL;DR of the TL;DRWomen Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype, by Clarissa Pinkola EstesAmy is joined by guest Bergen Hyde to discuss Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés. Topics include the power of female archetypes, bluebeard, baba yaga, the sacred feminine, and creating our own myths.

Bergen Hyde has lived in Provo, Utah for the past 13 years with her Husband and their three kids. Her favorite things are dancing, salty snacks, spending time in the mountains, preferably in a body of water. She is the oldest of 4 and grew up in Wisconsin. Bergen is the Co-Founder and Creative Director of WOMB, which she founded with her two sisters Jentri and Sarah. They hold women’s circles, workshops and retreats and one-on-one mentoring designed to support women in healing internalized patriarchy, integrating the sacred feminine, and reclaiming personal sovereignty. Bergen has been devoted to the sacred feminine for the last 4 years and is currently training under Sarah Durham Wilson as a Wounded Maiden to Mature Feminine practitioner.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Bergen Hyde to discuss Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés. Topics include the power of female archetypes, bluebeard, baba yaga, the sacred feminine, and creating our own myths.

Bergen Hyde has lived in Provo, Utah for the past 13 years with her Husband and their three kids. Her favorite things are dancing, salty snacks, spending time in the mountains, preferably in a body of water. She is the oldest of 4 and grew up in Wisconsin. Bergen is the Co-Founder and Creative Director of WOMB, which she founded with her two sisters Jentri and Sarah. They hold women’s circles, workshops and retreats and one-on-one mentoring designed to support women in healing internalized patriarchy, integrating the sacred feminine, and reclaiming personal sovereignty. Bergen has been devoted to the sacred feminine for the last 4 years and is currently training under Sarah Durham Wilson as a Wounded Maiden to Mature Feminine practitioner.

]]>ee509d6d-096b-4895-beb3-db9648f06c20Tue, 28 Dec 2021 05:15:00 -070002:13:55falsefull167671Women Who Run With the Wolves is a 1989 compilation of myths and fables by Jungian psychologist, Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes. It spent 145 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list over a three-year span, a record at the time.Unwell Women: Misdiagnosis and Myth in a Man-Made World, by Elinor CleghornAmy is joined by guest Cassy Chsitianson to discuss Unwell Women by Elinor Cleghorn. Topics include midwifery, witch trials, forced sterilization, and how patriarchy has hindered women’s healthwork.

Cassy Christianson is a therapist working in pediatrics and maternal health and inclusion specialist. Much of her writing focuses on Global Women’s Health—a subject she is really passionate about. Her research involves the history of medicine, especially women’s health in the Early Modern period in France. Cassy talks and writes about this alongside covering current research in both pediatrics and maternal health and is currently working on an exhibition on Women in Science and Medicine during the Renaissance that will be at Stanford in Fall 2023. Cassy has been happily living on the West coast for a long time but grew up in Florida, living for quite a while on the island of Key West. Her family, originally midwesterners, came from strong Scandinavian roots so she is a mix of that and the Latin culture so prevalent in Florida. She is also French, through marriage, and raising three bilingual, bicultural boys.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Cassy Chsitianson to discuss Unwell Women by Elinor Cleghorn. Topics include midwifery, witch trials, forced sterilization, and how patriarchy has hindered women’s healthwork.

Cassy Christianson is a therapist working in pediatrics and maternal health and inclusion specialist. Much of her writing focuses on Global Women’s Health—a subject she is really passionate about. Her research involves the history of medicine, especially women’s health in the Early Modern period in France. Cassy talks and writes about this alongside covering current research in both pediatrics and maternal health and is currently working on an exhibition on Women in Science and Medicine during the Renaissance that will be at Stanford in Fall 2023. Cassy has been happily living on the West coast for a long time but grew up in Florida, living for quite a while on the island of Key West. Her family, originally midwesterners, came from strong Scandinavian roots so she is a mix of that and the Latin culture so prevalent in Florida. She is also French, through marriage, and raising three bilingual, bicultural boys.

]]>32a89984-fa69-4aa3-8e11-4be1424ee0fbTue, 21 Dec 2021 05:15:00 -070001:16:02falsefull166661Unwell Women: Misdiagnosis and Myth in a Man-Made World is a 2021 book on the history of medicine by British cultural historian, Dr. Elinor Cleghorn.Untamed, by Glennon DoyleAmy is joined by guest Lane Anderson to discuss Untamed by Glennon Doyle. Topics include the ways patriarchy cages women, social conditioning, self-knowing, and the integrity of not disappointing ourselves.

Lane Anderson was raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. She has an undergraduate degree from BYU, and a graduate degree from Columbia University. She has spent much of her career as a full-time journalist, publishing hundreds of articles on inequality, human rights, gender, and social and family issues. She has received several Society of Professional Journalists Awards, and a fellowship from the USC Annenberg School of Journalism for her writing on human trafficking. She lives in New York City with her partner and young daughter, and she is full-time faculty at New York University where she is a Clinical Associate Professor teaching writing. She co-writes Matriarchy Report, a newsletter about family issues from a feminist perspective on Substack, and on Instagram @matriarchyreport

]]>Amy is joined by guest Lane Anderson to discuss Untamed by Glennon Doyle. Topics include the ways patriarchy cages women, social conditioning, self-knowing, and the integrity of not disappointing ourselves.

Lane Anderson was raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. She has an undergraduate degree from BYU, and a graduate degree from Columbia University. She has spent much of her career as a full-time journalist, publishing hundreds of articles on inequality, human rights, gender, and social and family issues. She has received several Society of Professional Journalists Awards, and a fellowship from the USC Annenberg School of Journalism for her writing on human trafficking. She lives in New York City with her partner and young daughter, and she is full-time faculty at New York University where she is a Clinical Associate Professor teaching writing. She co-writes Matriarchy Report, a newsletter about family issues from a feminist perspective on Substack, and on Instagram @matriarchyreport

]]>70bd45cc-2f0d-4ea1-bff0-6f300c773930Tue, 14 Dec 2021 05:15:00 -070001:42:59falsefull165651Untamed is a wildly successful 2020 memoir by Glennon Doyle.For the Love of Men: From Toxic to a More Mindful Masculinity, by Liz PlankAmy is joined by guest Jenny DeGraaff to discuss For the Love of Men by Elizabeth Plank. Topics include toxic masculinity, testosterone, men’s mental health, the pressure to provide, and what it means to be a real man.

Jenny DeGraaff was raised in West Virginia and Nebraska, but currently lives in the Bay Area, California, where she teaches science in elementary school. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in German from Duke University and her Master’s degree in education from Stanford University, where she focused on culture in bilingual education programs. She and her husband have three sons, one in high school and two in college. She enjoys hiking with her dog, taking road trips with her family, and, as part of self-care, watching animal videos. She is honored and thrilled to be a part of this remarkable podcast.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Jenny DeGraaff to discuss For the Love of Men by Elizabeth Plank. Topics include toxic masculinity, testosterone, men’s mental health, the pressure to provide, and what it means to be a real man.

Jenny DeGraaff was raised in West Virginia and Nebraska, but currently lives in the Bay Area, California, where she teaches science in elementary school. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in German from Duke University and her Master’s degree in education from Stanford University, where she focused on culture in bilingual education programs. She and her husband have three sons, one in high school and two in college. She enjoys hiking with her dog, taking road trips with her family, and, as part of self-care, watching animal videos. She is honored and thrilled to be a part of this remarkable podcast.

]]>5ca6a3f1-0d66-4d88-acb1-d1045bcec718Tue, 07 Dec 2021 05:15:00 -070001:29:37falsefull164641For the Love of Men: From Toxic to a More Mindful Masculinity, is a 2019 book by journalist Liz Plank, exploring the ways that patriarchy harms men and boys.The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World is a 2019 book in which Melinda French Gates shares thoughts and experiences from her life as an executive, a mother, and a philanthropist.Amy is joined by guest Sara Abbasi to discuss The Moment of Lift by Melinda French Gates. Topics include the delicacy of implementing change, honor killings, contraceptive access, and the transformative power of education.

Sara Abbasi is a philanthropist who has been committed to spreading access to education worldwide. Her charitable work on various boards is marked by a dedication to breaking down cultural barriers and enabling cross-cultural understanding. Sara is Founding Board member of Developments in Literacy (DIL), an international nonprofit organization working to advance literacy in remote areas of Pakistan. Sara currently serves on the Board of Directors of Stanford Healthcare, is a member of the Community Council at Stanford Health Care, and serves on the Director’s Advisory Board of the Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University. In 2003, Sara and her husband, Sohaib Abbasi, endowed the Sohaib and Sara Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies at Stanford University, a key forum for interdisciplinary research and teaching in Islamic Studies on the west coast. Sara holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business from Santa Clara University, and a Master of Liberal Arts degree from Stanford University.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Sara Abbasi to discuss The Moment of Lift by Melinda French Gates. Topics include the delicacy of implementing change, honor killings, contraceptive access, and the transformative power of education.

Sara Abbasi is a philanthropist who has been committed to spreading access to education worldwide. Her charitable work on various boards is marked by a dedication to breaking down cultural barriers and enabling cross-cultural understanding. Sara is Founding Board member of Developments in Literacy (DIL), an international nonprofit organization working to advance literacy in remote areas of Pakistan. Sara currently serves on the Board of Directors of Stanford Healthcare, is a member of the Community Council at Stanford Health Care, and serves on the Director’s Advisory Board of the Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University. In 2003, Sara and her husband, Sohaib Abbasi, endowed the Sohaib and Sara Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies at Stanford University, a key forum for interdisciplinary research and teaching in Islamic Studies on the west coast. Sara holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business from Santa Clara University, and a Master of Liberal Arts degree from Stanford University.

]]>a45b3a6d-e07e-4f68-b1de-a23b27bdc846Tue, 30 Nov 2021 05:15:00 -070001:24:22falsefull163631Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed For MenAmy is joined by guest Barbie Harper to discuss Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez. Topics include the generic masculine, women’s restrooms, unconscious bias, and the real cost of overlooking data from women.

Barbie Hada Harper was born and raised in Mission Viejo, California where academics, team building, and community service were early core values. She attended Brigham Young University where she studied Public Relations and Psychology, then ultimately received an undergrad in Fitness and Wellness Management. She has worked for early-stage companies in public relations, content marketing, and social media. Barbie is currently working towards credentials in the fields of functional nutrition and bio-lymphatic detoxification. She loves spending time with her husband and their four children, and feels most balanced when she makes it to her Pilates class.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Barbie Harper to discuss Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez. Topics include the generic masculine, women’s restrooms, unconscious bias, and the real cost of overlooking data from women.

Barbie Hada Harper was born and raised in Mission Viejo, California where academics, team building, and community service were early core values. She attended Brigham Young University where she studied Public Relations and Psychology, then ultimately received an undergrad in Fitness and Wellness Management. She has worked for early-stage companies in public relations, content marketing, and social media. Barbie is currently working towards credentials in the fields of functional nutrition and bio-lymphatic detoxification. She loves spending time with her husband and their four children, and feels most balanced when she makes it to her Pilates class.

]]>7b3745bf-30c9-4c3c-956b-914b58e4c5b2Tue, 23 Nov 2021 05:15:00 -070001:19:10falsefull162621Invisible Women: Dias Bias In a World Designed for Men, is a book published in 2019 by Caroline Criado Perez. It exposes the gender gap in data in education, healthcare, economic development, public policy, and many other areas of society.Women and Power: A Manifesto, by Mary BeardAmy is joined by guest Louisa Gillett to discuss Women and Power by Mary Beard. Topics include hostility towards women speaking publicly,  victimhood, and how we recognize female power.

Louisa Gillett has produced, presented, written and commissioned documentaries about arts, culture and science, for British public radio and tv, and theatrical release. Since the birth of her daughter and her move to the USA five years ago, she has returned to the joys of academic life, and is currently a postgrad at Stanford writing a thesis that draws on theories of art, literature, philosophy, aesthetics, embodied cognition, and comic books(!) to examine the radical art and visionary poems of William Blake. If she had to give herself a label, it would probably be ‘womanist humanist’ and she is honored to be a part of this incredible project.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Louisa Gillett to discuss Women and Power by Mary Beard. Topics include hostility towards women speaking publicly,  victimhood, and how we recognize female power.

Louisa Gillett has produced, presented, written and commissioned documentaries about arts, culture and science, for British public radio and tv, and theatrical release. Since the birth of her daughter and her move to the USA five years ago, she has returned to the joys of academic life, and is currently a postgrad at Stanford writing a thesis that draws on theories of art, literature, philosophy, aesthetics, embodied cognition, and comic books(!) to examine the radical art and visionary poems of William Blake. If she had to give herself a label, it would probably be ‘womanist humanist’ and she is honored to be a part of this incredible project.

]]>e8fc6a7f-7771-4b9d-be9f-f02ef88ba21bTue, 16 Nov 2021 05:15:00 -070001:36:14falsefull161611Women and Power: A Manifesto, is a 2017 book written by renowned Cambridge University Professor Mary Beard.Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong, and the New Research That's Re-Writing the Story, by Angela SainiAmy is joined by guest Dr. Chantal Dolan to discuss Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong by Angela Saini. Topics include women in STEM, outdated ideas about the female brain, and our evolving views of sexuality.

Dr. Chantal Dolan received her BA in Human Biology from Stanford University, her MPH in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from UC Berkeley, and her PhD in Epidemiology from the Stanford University School of Medicine. She brings over a decade of experience working in the biotechnology industry both in-house and as a consultant. She has worked in all phases of clinical trials to design and implement scientifically sound epidemiology and outcomes research studies to support the biologic license applications of biotechnology products. She has experience working in many clinical areas including oncology, endocrinology, immunology, pulmonary diseases, and ophthalmology. Dr. Dolan is committed to protecting and enhancing public health by providing the highest level of scientific epidemiology and health outcomes research to her clients. Dr. Dolan lives in Sandy, Utah, with her husband, two kids, and a dog and cat.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Dr. Chantal Dolan to discuss Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong by Angela Saini. Topics include women in STEM, outdated ideas about the female brain, and our evolving views of sexuality.

Dr. Chantal Dolan received her BA in Human Biology from Stanford University, her MPH in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from UC Berkeley, and her PhD in Epidemiology from the Stanford University School of Medicine. She brings over a decade of experience working in the biotechnology industry both in-house and as a consultant. She has worked in all phases of clinical trials to design and implement scientifically sound epidemiology and outcomes research studies to support the biologic license applications of biotechnology products. She has experience working in many clinical areas including oncology, endocrinology, immunology, pulmonary diseases, and ophthalmology. Dr. Dolan is committed to protecting and enhancing public health by providing the highest level of scientific epidemiology and health outcomes research to her clients. Dr. Dolan lives in Sandy, Utah, with her husband, two kids, and a dog and cat.

]]>0e7ec008-7b48-482a-894c-5c23cd1aee83Tue, 09 Nov 2021 05:15:00 -070001:15:33falsefull160601Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong, and the New Research That's Re-writing the Story, is a book written by British Science journalist Angela Saini in 2017.Girls and Sex, by Peggy OrensteinAmy is joined by guest Natasha Helfer to discuss Girls and Sex by Peggy Orenstein. Topics include feeling sacred and icky, sexuality versus sexualization, modesty, and purity culture.

Natasha Helfer is an AASECT Certified Sex Therapist, speaker, writer, podcaster and supervisor with 20 years of experience treating individuals, couples and family systems. She has a special interest in helping clients work through issues regarding their interpersonal relationships, sexual development, and faith or spiritual journeys. She especially enjoys helping those wanting to navigate their religious cultures in healthy ways—whether they desire to stay within their faith communities or leave all together. Natasha presents at various conferences, speaks at universities, holds retreats, trainings and workshops, and has worked with thousands of clients in private practice and agency settings. She is an advocate for sexual health in marginalized populations (LGBTQ+, religious minorities, women) and champions de-stigmatizing sexual lifestyle choices due to cultural/personal/religious bias.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Natasha Helfer to discuss Girls and Sex by Peggy Orenstein. Topics include feeling sacred and icky, sexuality versus sexualization, modesty, and purity culture.

Natasha Helfer is an AASECT Certified Sex Therapist, speaker, writer, podcaster and supervisor with 20 years of experience treating individuals, couples and family systems. She has a special interest in helping clients work through issues regarding their interpersonal relationships, sexual development, and faith or spiritual journeys. She especially enjoys helping those wanting to navigate their religious cultures in healthy ways—whether they desire to stay within their faith communities or leave all together. Natasha presents at various conferences, speaks at universities, holds retreats, trainings and workshops, and has worked with thousands of clients in private practice and agency settings. She is an advocate for sexual health in marginalized populations (LGBTQ+, religious minorities, women) and champions de-stigmatizing sexual lifestyle choices due to cultural/personal/religious bias.

]]>97a07a01-c36b-44f8-a229-7da0c7fac181Tue, 02 Nov 2021 05:15:00 -070001:21:34falsefull159591Girls and Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape, is a 2016 book by Peggy OrensteinUnfinished Business: Women, Men, Work, Family, by Anne-Marie SlaughterAmy is joined by guest Neylan McBaine to discuss Unfinished Business by Anne-Marie Slaughter. Topics include half truths, resilience, the continuum of competition and caregiving, and what it really means to be a working parent.

Neylan McBaine was born and raised in New York City. She studied piano at the Juilliard School in high school, then graduated from Yale University in English literature. In 2009, she and her family settled in Salt Lake City, and she became creative director at Bonneville Communications where she worked on the “I’m a Mormon” advertising project. Neylan self-published her first book in 2009, How to be a Twenty-First Century Pioneer Woman. In 2010, Neylan founded the Mormon Women Project, a 501c3 nonprofit that collects and publishes interviews of Mormon women from various countries around the world. Her second book, Women at Church: Magnifying LDS Women’s Local Impact, was published in 2014. In 2017, McBaine co-founded Better Days 2020, a non-profit that popularizes Utah women’s history through education, legislation, and art, and her third book, Pioneering the Vote: The Untold Story of Suffragists in Utah and the West, was published in 2020.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Neylan McBaine to discuss Unfinished Business by Anne-Marie Slaughter. Topics include half truths, resilience, the continuum of competition and caregiving, and what it really means to be a working parent.

Neylan McBaine was born and raised in New York City. She studied piano at the Juilliard School in high school, then graduated from Yale University in English literature. In 2009, she and her family settled in Salt Lake City, and she became creative director at Bonneville Communications where she worked on the “I’m a Mormon” advertising project. Neylan self-published her first book in 2009, How to be a Twenty-First Century Pioneer Woman. In 2010, Neylan founded the Mormon Women Project, a 501c3 nonprofit that collects and publishes interviews of Mormon women from various countries around the world. Her second book, Women at Church: Magnifying LDS Women’s Local Impact, was published in 2014. In 2017, McBaine co-founded Better Days 2020, a non-profit that popularizes Utah women’s history through education, legislation, and art, and her third book, Pioneering the Vote: The Untold Story of Suffragists in Utah and the West, was published in 2020.

]]>d64767a4-dd0a-404c-a66e-eae2e820a8deTue, 26 Oct 2021 05:15:00 -070001:15:23falsefull158581Unfinished Business: Women Men Work Family is a 2015 book by Princeton professor Anne-Marie Slaughter.Men Explain Things to Me, by Rebecca SolnitAmy is joined by guest Malia Morris to discuss Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit. Topics include the intersection of sex and racism, calling in v. calling out, bossiness, mansplaining,  and seeing humanity in others.

Malia Morris is a performing artist and voice teacher in the Bay Area. She studied Music Performance and Sociology in her undergraduate at Arizona State University, where she graduated with honors. In graduate school, she studied Dramatic Arts at Harvard University. Malia was awarded a thesis prize for her research on Broadway director Diane Paulus. Her research was selected for presentation at Harvard Symposium.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Malia Morris to discuss Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit. Topics include the intersection of sex and racism, calling in v. calling out, bossiness, mansplaining,  and seeing humanity in others.

Malia Morris is a performing artist and voice teacher in the Bay Area. She studied Music Performance and Sociology in her undergraduate at Arizona State University, where she graduated with honors. In graduate school, she studied Dramatic Arts at Harvard University. Malia was awarded a thesis prize for her research on Broadway director Diane Paulus. Her research was selected for presentation at Harvard Symposium.

]]>9bdc8c85-3fa9-48e3-8da5-dd97f773deefTue, 19 Oct 2021 05:15:00 -070059:06falsefull157571Men Explain Things to Me is an essay collection by feminist author Rebecca Solnit, published in 2014, which (accidentally) coined the term "mansplain."Bad Feminist, by Roxane GayAmy is joined by guest Malia Morris to discuss Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit. Topics include the intersection of sex and racism, calling in v. calling out, bossiness, mansplaining,  and seeing humanity in others. 

Setareh Greenwood (she/they) is a queer Iranian-American from the California Bay Area. She is currently a first-year student at Mount Holyoke College considering majoring in sociology with a minor in music. Setareh is interested in studying queer theory, social psychology, and literature. She also enjoys painting, Shakespeare, and writing mediocre poetry.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Malia Morris to discuss Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit. Topics include the intersection of sex and racism, calling in v. calling out, bossiness, mansplaining,  and seeing humanity in others. 

Setareh Greenwood (she/they) is a queer Iranian-American from the California Bay Area. She is currently a first-year student at Mount Holyoke College considering majoring in sociology with a minor in music. Setareh is interested in studying queer theory, social psychology, and literature. She also enjoys painting, Shakespeare, and writing mediocre poetry.

]]>44bb1420-9cfc-4569-a7e3-d347dd859193Tue, 12 Oct 2021 05:15:00 -070001:15:38falsefull156561Bad Feminist: Essays is a 2014 collection of essays by cultural critic, novelist and professor Roxane Gay. The book explores being a feminist while loving things that could seem at odds with feminist ideology.feminism is for everybody, by bell hooksAmy is joined by guest Gina Haney to discuss feminism is for everybody by bell hooks. Topics include the importance of being aware of identity, breaking free of colonial thinking, and holding the door open behind us.

Gina Haney specializes in economic development and equitable community engagement surrounding cultural heritage. In 2008 she founded Community Consortium and began, with the government of Iraq, an inclusive stakeholder-driven management plan and World Heritage nomination for the site of Babylon. In addition to working in the Middle East, Gina manages projects in South America and Africa. She is currently pursuing graduate studies at Stanford University. Gina lives in the Bay Area with her partner, two daughters, and corgi. She longs to spend a significant portion of her life in New Zealand.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Gina Haney to discuss feminism is for everybody by bell hooks. Topics include the importance of being aware of identity, breaking free of colonial thinking, and holding the door open behind us.

Gina Haney specializes in economic development and equitable community engagement surrounding cultural heritage. In 2008 she founded Community Consortium and began, with the government of Iraq, an inclusive stakeholder-driven management plan and World Heritage nomination for the site of Babylon. In addition to working in the Middle East, Gina manages projects in South America and Africa. She is currently pursuing graduate studies at Stanford University. Gina lives in the Bay Area with her partner, two daughters, and corgi. She longs to spend a significant portion of her life in New Zealand.

]]>311da37f-e5e3-47af-99d1-6e6ef3c3c01fTue, 05 Oct 2021 05:15:00 -070001:00:21falsefull155551feminism is for everybody: passionate politics is book published in 2000 by author and activist bell hooks. it lays out the history of modern feminism, as well as its goals for the future.LGBTQ History Part 4: No Future, by Lee Edelman, and Cruising Utopia, by José Estaban MuñozAmy is joined by guest Matthew Nelson to conclude their discussion of LGBTQ+ History. This is Part Four of Four and covers the texts No Future by Lee Edelman and Cruising Utopia by José Esteban Muñoz. Topics include the AIDs epidemic, necropolitics, queer ethics, moral panic, and how we think about the future for LGBTQ+ individuals.

Matthew Nelson currently serves as the Dean of the Sophomore class and teaches interdisciplinary courses in the History Department at Menlo School in Atherton, CA. He hopes to offer a seminar to Menlo students on queer theory and gender studies in the near future. Prior to these glorious years at Menlo, he was the chair of the Theology Department at the Woodside Priory School leading students in explorations of the history of religion, philosophy, and Benedictine Catholic spirituality. Matthew received his M.Div. from Harvard University and is striving to finish his studies in Stanford’s Master of Liberal Arts program. Matthew and his loving husband call their industrial loft in Oakland home.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Matthew Nelson to conclude their discussion of LGBTQ+ History. This is Part Four of Four and covers the texts No Future by Lee Edelman and Cruising Utopia by José Esteban Muñoz. Topics include the AIDs epidemic, necropolitics, queer ethics, moral panic, and how we think about the future for LGBTQ+ individuals.

Matthew Nelson currently serves as the Dean of the Sophomore class and teaches interdisciplinary courses in the History Department at Menlo School in Atherton, CA. He hopes to offer a seminar to Menlo students on queer theory and gender studies in the near future. Prior to these glorious years at Menlo, he was the chair of the Theology Department at the Woodside Priory School leading students in explorations of the history of religion, philosophy, and Benedictine Catholic spirituality. Matthew received his M.Div. from Harvard University and is striving to finish his studies in Stanford’s Master of Liberal Arts program. Matthew and his loving husband call their industrial loft in Oakland home.

]]>7f5dbd77-257d-413f-959f-102e1702d3ebTue, 28 Sep 2021 05:30:00 -070001:48:10falsefull154541No Future, written by Lee Edelman in 2004, and Cruising Utopia, written by Muñoz in 2009, represent critical arguments in queer theory.LGBTQ History Part 3: The Trouble With Normal, by Michael WarnerAmy is joined by guest Matthew Nelson to continue their discussion of LGBTQ+ History. This is Part Three of Four and covers the queer theory of Michael Warner, heteronormative temporality, the drive to be normal, and the challenge of imagining a new social order.

Matthew Nelson currently serves as the Dean of the Sophomore class and teaches interdisciplinary courses in the History Department at Menlo School in Atherton, CA. He hopes to offer a seminar to Menlo students on queer theory and gender studies in the near future. Prior to these glorious years at Menlo, he was the chair of the Theology Department at the Woodside Priory School leading students in explorations of the history of religion, philosophy, and Benedictine Catholic spirituality. Matthew received his M.Div. from Harvard University and is striving to finish his studies in Stanford’s Master of Liberal Arts program. Matthew and his loving husband call their industrial loft in Oakland home.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Matthew Nelson to continue their discussion of LGBTQ+ History. This is Part Three of Four and covers the queer theory of Michael Warner, heteronormative temporality, the drive to be normal, and the challenge of imagining a new social order.

Matthew Nelson currently serves as the Dean of the Sophomore class and teaches interdisciplinary courses in the History Department at Menlo School in Atherton, CA. He hopes to offer a seminar to Menlo students on queer theory and gender studies in the near future. Prior to these glorious years at Menlo, he was the chair of the Theology Department at the Woodside Priory School leading students in explorations of the history of religion, philosophy, and Benedictine Catholic spirituality. Matthew received his M.Div. from Harvard University and is striving to finish his studies in Stanford’s Master of Liberal Arts program. Matthew and his loving husband call their industrial loft in Oakland home.

]]>6f438cd6-e71f-4c80-a8d8-1eaeba225a29Tue, 28 Sep 2021 05:25:00 -070001:26:26falsefull153531The Trouble with Normal: Sex, Politics, and the Ethics of Queer Life was written by Michael Warner in 1999. It discusses the role of same-sex marriage as a goal for gay rights activists.LGBTQ History Part 2: Obergefell v. HodgesAmy is joined by guest Matthew Nelson to continue their discussion of LGBTQ+ History. This is Part Two of Four and covers intersections of patriarchy and trans-queerphobia, the history of queer liberation, the Supreme Court’s decision to grant marriage equality to queer people, and how we can support LGBTQ+ liberation today.

Matthew Nelson currently serves as the Dean of the Sophomore class and teaches interdisciplinary courses in the History Department at Menlo School in Atherton, CA. He hopes to offer a seminar to Menlo students on queer theory and gender studies in the near future. Prior to these glorious years at Menlo, he was the chair of the Theology Department at the Woodside Priory School leading students in explorations of the history of religion, philosophy, and Benedictine Catholic spirituality. Matthew received his M.Div. from Harvard University and is striving to finish his studies in Stanford’s Master of Liberal Arts program. Matthew and his loving husband call their industrial loft in Oakland home.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Matthew Nelson to continue their discussion of LGBTQ+ History. This is Part Two of Four and covers intersections of patriarchy and trans-queerphobia, the history of queer liberation, the Supreme Court’s decision to grant marriage equality to queer people, and how we can support LGBTQ+ liberation today.

Matthew Nelson currently serves as the Dean of the Sophomore class and teaches interdisciplinary courses in the History Department at Menlo School in Atherton, CA. He hopes to offer a seminar to Menlo students on queer theory and gender studies in the near future. Prior to these glorious years at Menlo, he was the chair of the Theology Department at the Woodside Priory School leading students in explorations of the history of religion, philosophy, and Benedictine Catholic spirituality. Matthew received his M.Div. from Harvard University and is striving to finish his studies in Stanford’s Master of Liberal Arts program. Matthew and his loving husband call their industrial loft in Oakland home.

]]>8b8033b0-9456-4820-b76e-a57b9140f9c0Tue, 28 Sep 2021 05:20:00 -070001:38:32falsefull152521Obergefell v. Hodges was a landmark civil rights case in 2015, whereby the Supreme Court guaranteed same-sex couples the right to marry.LGBTQ History Part 1: Amy's and Matthew's StoriesAmy is joined by guest Matthew Nelson to begin their discussion of LGBTQ+ History. This is Part One of Four and features powerful personal stories from both Amy and Matthew. Topics include Proposition VIII, Obergefell v Hodges, and the experience of spiritual rape.

Matthew Nelson currently serves as the Dean of the Sophomore class and teaches interdisciplinary courses in the History Department at Menlo School in Atherton, CA. He hopes to offer a seminar to Menlo students on queer theory and gender studies in the near future. Prior to these glorious years at Menlo, he was the chair of the Theology Department at the Woodside Priory School leading students in explorations of the history of religion, philosophy, and Benedictine Catholic spirituality. Matthew received his M.Div. from Harvard University and is striving to finish his studies in Stanford’s Master of Liberal Arts program. Matthew and his loving husband call their industrial loft in Oakland home.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Matthew Nelson to begin their discussion of LGBTQ+ History. This is Part One of Four and features powerful personal stories from both Amy and Matthew. Topics include Proposition VIII, Obergefell v Hodges, and the experience of spiritual rape.

Matthew Nelson currently serves as the Dean of the Sophomore class and teaches interdisciplinary courses in the History Department at Menlo School in Atherton, CA. He hopes to offer a seminar to Menlo students on queer theory and gender studies in the near future. Prior to these glorious years at Menlo, he was the chair of the Theology Department at the Woodside Priory School leading students in explorations of the history of religion, philosophy, and Benedictine Catholic spirituality. Matthew received his M.Div. from Harvard University and is striving to finish his studies in Stanford’s Master of Liberal Arts program. Matthew and his loving husband call their industrial loft in Oakland home.

]]>b257e135-647f-497d-b197-799097123ed2Tue, 28 Sep 2021 05:15:00 -070042:02falsefull151511Amy McPhie Allebest and Matthew Nelson introduce this four part series by sharing personal essaysThe Gender Knot: Unraveling Our Patriarchal Legacy, by Allan G. JohnsonAmy is joined by guest Kasey Cruz to discuss The Gender Knot by Allan G Johnson. Topics include overcoming the association of leadership and maleness, the invisibility of privilege, and some practical tips for unraveling gender knots.

Kasey Cruz was born and raised in sunshine state, California. In the year of 2020, she graduated with a Bachelor’s in Kinesiology and a minor in Adapted Physical Education. She currently works as a personal trainer, an F45 coach, and a strength & conditioning coach for aspiring young athletes. Besides working out, she loves to spend her time connecting with her Guamanian (Chamorro) heritage by learning the Chamorro language and cooking dishes with her grandma. Her favorite is freshly made lumpia and shrimp kådu (nothing tastes more like home then Grandma’s cooking)! In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her puppy Mila and finding new plant shops in the Bay Area to add her indoor plant collection. A quote she lives by, “Let us fill our hearts with our own compassion- toward ourselves and towards all living beings.”

]]>Amy is joined by guest Kasey Cruz to discuss The Gender Knot by Allan G Johnson. Topics include overcoming the association of leadership and maleness, the invisibility of privilege, and some practical tips for unraveling gender knots.

Kasey Cruz was born and raised in sunshine state, California. In the year of 2020, she graduated with a Bachelor’s in Kinesiology and a minor in Adapted Physical Education. She currently works as a personal trainer, an F45 coach, and a strength & conditioning coach for aspiring young athletes. Besides working out, she loves to spend her time connecting with her Guamanian (Chamorro) heritage by learning the Chamorro language and cooking dishes with her grandma. Her favorite is freshly made lumpia and shrimp kådu (nothing tastes more like home then Grandma’s cooking)! In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her puppy Mila and finding new plant shops in the Bay Area to add her indoor plant collection. A quote she lives by, “Let us fill our hearts with our own compassion- toward ourselves and towards all living beings.”

]]>6d785303-6336-43b2-8557-b0c099a9ea46Tue, 21 Sep 2021 05:15:00 -070001:23:06falsefull150501The Gender Knot: Unraveling Our Patriarchal Legacy, was written in 1997 by Dr. Allan G. Johnson. Johnson dissects patriarchal systems and identifies practical ways that people can create meaningful change.Declaration of the Elimination of Violence Against Women, by the United Nations, 1993Amy is joined by guests Elena Gonzalez & Abby Madrigal to discuss the Declaration of the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Topics include sobering data, the escalating cycle of violence in Native communities, personal stories of abuse, and how our justice system needs to do better.

Elena Gonzalez was born in Mexico, the youngest of 7 children. She immigrated to the US as a teenager and now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her children and her dogs. She loves to go to the beach and go on long hikes.

Abby Madrigal is a high school senior who plans to study law next year at college. She enjous playing lacrosse and running track. She loves to advocate for justice, and plans to make that happen as a lawyer.

]]>Amy is joined by guests Elena Gonzalez & Abby Madrigal to discuss the Declaration of the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Topics include sobering data, the escalating cycle of violence in Native communities, personal stories of abuse, and how our justice system needs to do better.

Elena Gonzalez was born in Mexico, the youngest of 7 children. She immigrated to the US as a teenager and now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her children and her dogs. She loves to go to the beach and go on long hikes.

Abby Madrigal is a high school senior who plans to study law next year at college. She enjous playing lacrosse and running track. She loves to advocate for justice, and plans to make that happen as a lawyer.

]]>d4fc07f2-ec4f-4672-a058-52e20adcaabdTue, 14 Sep 2021 05:15:00 -070001:08:54falsefull149491The Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, adopted by the United Nations in 1993, was the first international instrument explicitly addressing violence against women.The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions, by Paula Gunn AllenAmy is joined by guest Sherrie Crawford to discuss The Sacred Hoop by Paula Gunn Allen. Topics include trusting our inner wisdom, questioning the European records of Indigenous culture, and the challenge of overcoming labels when they’re foisted on us.

Sherrie Crawford was born in Utah, the fifth of six children, and grew up in Arizona. She graduated from BYU-Idaho with a degree in Social Work, and completed a Master’s degree in Social Work from Boise State University. She is an elementary school counselor, and lives in Idaho with her husband and four children. Sherrie enjoys spending time with her family and friends, hiking, nature, adventures, learning, and any time spent in any body of water.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Sherrie Crawford to discuss The Sacred Hoop by Paula Gunn Allen. Topics include trusting our inner wisdom, questioning the European records of Indigenous culture, and the challenge of overcoming labels when they’re foisted on us.

Sherrie Crawford was born in Utah, the fifth of six children, and grew up in Arizona. She graduated from BYU-Idaho with a degree in Social Work, and completed a Master’s degree in Social Work from Boise State University. She is an elementary school counselor, and lives in Idaho with her husband and four children. Sherrie enjoys spending time with her family and friends, hiking, nature, adventures, learning, and any time spent in any body of water.

]]>564817ac-5b9d-49e6-934e-c6a3d5143a19Tue, 07 Sep 2021 05:15:00 -070001:23:13falsefull148481The Sacred Hoop, by Paula Gunn Allen, is a pioneering work that highlights the crucial role of women in Native American traditions. It was published in 1986.WomanSpirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion, edited by Carol Christ and Judith PlaskowAmy is joined by guest Maxine Hanks to discuss WomanSpirit Rising edited by Carol Christ and Judith Plaskow. Topics include why women need their own theology, the importance of symbols, acknowledging historical sexism, and how we can build new rituals.

Maxine Hanks is a historian and theologian who lectures and writes on Women’s Studies, History, and Religious Studies, particularly Mormon and Christian traditions and liturgy. Her bachelor’s degree was in Gender Studies and her master’s degree was in History, with additional graduate work in Theology and Religion.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Maxine Hanks to discuss WomanSpirit Rising edited by Carol Christ and Judith Plaskow. Topics include why women need their own theology, the importance of symbols, acknowledging historical sexism, and how we can build new rituals.

Maxine Hanks is a historian and theologian who lectures and writes on Women’s Studies, History, and Religious Studies, particularly Mormon and Christian traditions and liturgy. Her bachelor’s degree was in Gender Studies and her master’s degree was in History, with additional graduate work in Theology and Religion.

]]>27dd75b3-7a1c-4ad1-a610-51d627bae85bTue, 31 Aug 2021 05:15:00 -070001:26:44falsefull147471WomanSpirit Rising, published in 1979 and again in 1992, is a compilation of 20th-century feminist writings that attempts to re-think the ideas and traditions of male-dominated Western religion.Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, by Judith ButlerAmy is joined by guest Maxine Hanks to discuss Gender Trouble by Judith Butler. Topics include complicating the distinctions between sex and gender, sex as a social construct, intersex and transgender issues, and the importance of controlling our own identity.

Maxine Hanks is a historian and theologian who lectures and writes on Women’s Studies, History, and Religious Studies, particularly Mormon and Christian traditions and liturgy. Her bachelor’s degree was in Gender Studies and her master’s degree was in History, with additional graduate work in Theology and Religion.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Maxine Hanks to discuss Gender Trouble by Judith Butler. Topics include complicating the distinctions between sex and gender, sex as a social construct, intersex and transgender issues, and the importance of controlling our own identity.

Maxine Hanks is a historian and theologian who lectures and writes on Women’s Studies, History, and Religious Studies, particularly Mormon and Christian traditions and liturgy. Her bachelor’s degree was in Gender Studies and her master’s degree was in History, with additional graduate work in Theology and Religion.

]]>c038a01f-45a3-416b-97da-0114774970aeTue, 24 Aug 2021 05:15:00 -070001:27:20falsefull146461Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity is a book published in 1990 which describes gender as a performance, and sex as a constructed characteristic.The Beauty Myth, by Naomi WolfAmy is joined by guest Vanessa Loder to discuss The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf. Topics include internalized patriarchy, how patriarchy profits off the beauty industry, beauty qualifications in the professional world, and how beauty standards can leave us exhausted.

Vanessa Loder is an inspirational keynote speaker and sought-after expert on women’s leadership, mindfulness, stress management and sustainable success. Vanessa’s work has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, the Huffington Post and Glamour magazine, among others. Her TEDx talk “How To Lean In Without Burning Out” has over 150,000 views, over 18,000 people have taken Vanessa’s paid online courses and her guided meditations have been streamed over 787,000 times globally. After spending close to a decade working in finance on Wall Street and Silicon Valley, Vanessa felt that she had climbed to the top of the wrong ladder. Her personal transformation and soul awakening, subsequent research and work have led to thousands of brilliant, overwhelmed women finding their way back to soul. Vanessa received her MBA from Stanford University and her BA from Columbia University where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude. Loder is a certified Executive Coach, trained in Neuro-Linguistic Programming, past life regression and Vipassana meditation with Jack Kornfield. Vanessa currently lives in Lafayette, CA with her husband and two children, who remind her to take “mommy time-outs” when she’s about to lose her marbles. Visit her at www.vanessaloder.com.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Vanessa Loder to discuss The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf. Topics include internalized patriarchy, how patriarchy profits off the beauty industry, beauty qualifications in the professional world, and how beauty standards can leave us exhausted.

Vanessa Loder is an inspirational keynote speaker and sought-after expert on women’s leadership, mindfulness, stress management and sustainable success. Vanessa’s work has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, the Huffington Post and Glamour magazine, among others. Her TEDx talk “How To Lean In Without Burning Out” has over 150,000 views, over 18,000 people have taken Vanessa’s paid online courses and her guided meditations have been streamed over 787,000 times globally. After spending close to a decade working in finance on Wall Street and Silicon Valley, Vanessa felt that she had climbed to the top of the wrong ladder. Her personal transformation and soul awakening, subsequent research and work have led to thousands of brilliant, overwhelmed women finding their way back to soul. Vanessa received her MBA from Stanford University and her BA from Columbia University where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude. Loder is a certified Executive Coach, trained in Neuro-Linguistic Programming, past life regression and Vipassana meditation with Jack Kornfield. Vanessa currently lives in Lafayette, CA with her husband and two children, who remind her to take “mommy time-outs” when she’s about to lose her marbles. Visit her at www.vanessaloder.com.

]]>690a8149-9958-4dd7-8b31-c7d9639df9dfTue, 17 Aug 2021 05:15:00 -070001:45:13falsefull145451The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women, is a 1990 book by Naomi Wolf.Sister Outsider, by Audre LordeAmy is joined by guest Suzette Duncan to discuss Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde. Topics include the daily toll of hatred, modeling action instead of guilt, Black hair, and code switching.

Suzette Duncan is a proud first generation American, born to parents from the Caribbean nation of Guyana. She has spent most of her adult life working in education and has been lucky enough to work in both Japan and the United States, and to teach students ranging in age from 5 to 80. Her working life is now paused because of disabling chronic illnesses, but she is fortunate to be able to continue to learn and to create, two of her favorite parts of working in education. Suzette is currently learning a lot about music theory, philosophy, history, economics, and baseball, and is making a lot of music, as well as doing a bit of writing. She is also a butch lesbian, and a wife and mother, to the most amazing early childhood education expert, and 18 year old Shakespeare nerd, respectively.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Suzette Duncan to discuss Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde. Topics include the daily toll of hatred, modeling action instead of guilt, Black hair, and code switching.

Suzette Duncan is a proud first generation American, born to parents from the Caribbean nation of Guyana. She has spent most of her adult life working in education and has been lucky enough to work in both Japan and the United States, and to teach students ranging in age from 5 to 80. Her working life is now paused because of disabling chronic illnesses, but she is fortunate to be able to continue to learn and to create, two of her favorite parts of working in education. Suzette is currently learning a lot about music theory, philosophy, history, economics, and baseball, and is making a lot of music, as well as doing a bit of writing. She is also a butch lesbian, and a wife and mother, to the most amazing early childhood education expert, and 18 year old Shakespeare nerd, respectively.

]]>2f234570-ee5e-4dbe-9fac-e397cd87e7a6Tue, 10 Aug 2021 05:15:00 -070001:47:58falsefull144441Sister Outsider is a collection of essays and speeches by Black, lesbian poet and intellectual, Audre Lorde.ain't i a woman, by bell hooksAmy is joined by guests Manuela Zoninsein & Ashley Jackson to discuss ain’t i a woman by bell hooks. Topics include sexual repression, the reclamation of Black beauty standards, having difficult conversations, and the importance of making our feminism intersectional.

Manuela Zoninsein is a Brazilian-American passionate about accelerating the transition to a sustainable and circular economy as an entrepreneur, investor, and educator. She believes that solving for the climate crisis means identifying root causes, not just reducing emissions. Existing oppressive structures, beginning with colonialism, must be deconstructed to ensure a world where all can prosper and lead healthy, fulfilling lives. Currently, Manuela is the CEO and Founder of Kadeya, a closed-loop water vending service (think Citi Bike, for water bottles). As an angel investor, Manuela has invested in over 30 women-led companies focused on sustainability. Her interests span materials science, circularity, hardware, software, energy, and consumer.

Ashley Jackson is a neurobiologist currently residing in New York City. She is also a wife, a mom, expert foodie, and Star Trek enthusiast. Ashley hails from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

]]>Amy is joined by guests Manuela Zoninsein & Ashley Jackson to discuss ain’t i a woman by bell hooks. Topics include sexual repression, the reclamation of Black beauty standards, having difficult conversations, and the importance of making our feminism intersectional.

Manuela Zoninsein is a Brazilian-American passionate about accelerating the transition to a sustainable and circular economy as an entrepreneur, investor, and educator. She believes that solving for the climate crisis means identifying root causes, not just reducing emissions. Existing oppressive structures, beginning with colonialism, must be deconstructed to ensure a world where all can prosper and lead healthy, fulfilling lives. Currently, Manuela is the CEO and Founder of Kadeya, a closed-loop water vending service (think Citi Bike, for water bottles). As an angel investor, Manuela has invested in over 30 women-led companies focused on sustainability. Her interests span materials science, circularity, hardware, software, energy, and consumer.

Ashley Jackson is a neurobiologist currently residing in New York City. She is also a wife, a mom, expert foodie, and Star Trek enthusiast. Ashley hails from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

]]>46a0a3ce-549c-4e55-ae54-ae57f8b2595eTue, 03 Aug 2021 05:15:00 -070001:45:56falsefull143431ain't i a woman? is a 1981 book by bell hooks, titled after Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman?" speech. hooks examines the effect of racism and sexism on Black women, the civil rights movement, and feminist movements from suffrage to the 1970s.Women, Race, and Class, by Angela DavisAmy is joined by guest Brianna Jovahn to discuss Women, Race and Class by Angela Davis. Topics include the legacy of racialized violence in the United States, the significance of natural hair, having integrity in our beliefs, and the challenges Black women face in the workforce.

Brianna Jovahn was born August 7th, 1992 in Cedar Hill, Texas. She received her bachelor’s degree from Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas and her master’s from Grand Canyon University. Brianna is the Founder of the What’s Good Productions platform. Podcasting is not only her full-time job, but for her is something that fulfills her as she serves others in her journey. In the beginning, the goal was to learn more about Dallas’ business owners and creatives, but later it became a celebration as she connected with them. She is on a mission to build genuine and authentic connections through storytelling, and the podcast allows her to do just that.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Brianna Jovahn to discuss Women, Race and Class by Angela Davis. Topics include the legacy of racialized violence in the United States, the significance of natural hair, having integrity in our beliefs, and the challenges Black women face in the workforce.

Brianna Jovahn was born August 7th, 1992 in Cedar Hill, Texas. She received her bachelor’s degree from Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas and her master’s from Grand Canyon University. Brianna is the Founder of the What’s Good Productions platform. Podcasting is not only her full-time job, but for her is something that fulfills her as she serves others in her journey. In the beginning, the goal was to learn more about Dallas’ business owners and creatives, but later it became a celebration as she connected with them. She is on a mission to build genuine and authentic connections through storytelling, and the podcast allows her to do just that.

]]>1d739b81-2420-4602-b57c-1f57f642c267Tue, 27 Jul 2021 05:15:00 -070001:10:26falsefull142421Women, Race and Class is a 1981 book by American academic Angela Davis. It covers U.S. history from the slave trade and abolitionism movements to the women's liberation movements which began in the 1960s.This Bridge Called My Back: Writings By Radical Women of Color, by Cherrie MoragaAmy is joined by guest Jenn Lee Smith to discuss This Bridge Called My Back by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua. Topics include the burden of being a cultural ambassador, false equivalencies, and how white supremacy hurts people of all races.

Jenn Lee Smith was born on the friendly, vibrant island of Taiwan. She is a filmmaker who focuses on women-led stories of underrepresented people. In a previous life, she worked on a PhD in feminist geography. She began her producing career focused on stories at the intersection of religion and sexual/gender orientation, and has since collaborated on BIPOC and environmental films. She welcomes your recommendations for live comedy and films of all genres @bewilderfilm

]]>Amy is joined by guest Jenn Lee Smith to discuss This Bridge Called My Back by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua. Topics include the burden of being a cultural ambassador, false equivalencies, and how white supremacy hurts people of all races.

Jenn Lee Smith was born on the friendly, vibrant island of Taiwan. She is a filmmaker who focuses on women-led stories of underrepresented people. In a previous life, she worked on a PhD in feminist geography. She began her producing career focused on stories at the intersection of religion and sexual/gender orientation, and has since collaborated on BIPOC and environmental films. She welcomes your recommendations for live comedy and films of all genres @bewilderfilm

]]>d84a23bd-d20b-4d1a-8a23-08edcc65283cTue, 20 Jul 2021 05:15:00 -070001:28:36falsefull141411This Bridge Called My Back: Writings By Radical Women of Color, is an anthology edited by Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua. Published in 1981, it features essays and poems by Latina, Native American, Black, and Asian women, and changed the landscape of women's literature forever.Roe v. Wade, Part 2Amy is joined by guest Lindsay McPhie Hickok to conclude their discussion of Roe V. Wade. This is Part Two of Two and covers personal stories of loss, the health and life of mothers, the right to privacy, the remaining text of the decision. 

Lindsay McPhie Hickok is a labor and delivery nurse and a mother of three children. She loves biochemistry, the Rocky Mountains, and water slides. She especially loves caring for new babies and empowering mothers because the process of labor and delivery is, to her, a true miracle.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Lindsay McPhie Hickok to conclude their discussion of Roe V. Wade. This is Part Two of Two and covers personal stories of loss, the health and life of mothers, the right to privacy, the remaining text of the decision. 

Lindsay McPhie Hickok is a labor and delivery nurse and a mother of three children. She loves biochemistry, the Rocky Mountains, and water slides. She especially loves caring for new babies and empowering mothers because the process of labor and delivery is, to her, a true miracle.

]]>fa72f1cc-909e-4e61-bfe3-22ad3bf82995Tue, 13 Jul 2021 06:00:00 -070001:08:45falsefull140401Roe v. Wade was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protects a pregnant woman's liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction.Roe v. Wade, Part 1Amy is joined by guest Lindsay McPhie Hickok to begin their discussion of Roe V. Wade. This is Part One of Two and covers the language of Pro-Choice and Pro-Life, the preamble to the supreme court decision, the life of Jane Roe, and the history of abortion.

Lindsay McPhie Hickok is a labor and delivery nurse and a mother of three children. She loves biochemistry, the Rocky Mountains, and water slides. She especially loves caring for new babies and empowering mothers because the process of labor and delivery is, to her, a true miracle.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Lindsay McPhie Hickok to begin their discussion of Roe V. Wade. This is Part One of Two and covers the language of Pro-Choice and Pro-Life, the preamble to the supreme court decision, the life of Jane Roe, and the history of abortion.

Lindsay McPhie Hickok is a labor and delivery nurse and a mother of three children. She loves biochemistry, the Rocky Mountains, and water slides. She especially loves caring for new babies and empowering mothers because the process of labor and delivery is, to her, a true miracle.

]]>1ec65a0a-9c74-4637-8bf3-5e8462972f51Tue, 13 Jul 2021 05:15:00 -070056:53falsefull139391Roe v. Wade was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protects a pregnant woman's liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction.Title IXAmy is joined by guest Whitney McPhie Griffith to discuss the congressional bill known as Title IX authored by Patsy T. Mink. Topics include sexual assault on school campuses, lived experiences with Title IX, and how much progress still needs to be made to keep our students safe.

Whitney McPhie Griffith is a musician, graphic designer, and interdisciplinary artist. Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, she eventually made her way to the Pacific Northwest by way of Utah and Northern California. Now living in Portland, she sails the Columbia River, plays Mario Kart, and goes for bike rides with her partner.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Whitney McPhie Griffith to discuss the congressional bill known as Title IX authored by Patsy T. Mink. Topics include sexual assault on school campuses, lived experiences with Title IX, and how much progress still needs to be made to keep our students safe.

Whitney McPhie Griffith is a musician, graphic designer, and interdisciplinary artist. Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, she eventually made her way to the Pacific Northwest by way of Utah and Northern California. Now living in Portland, she sails the Columbia River, plays Mario Kart, and goes for bike rides with her partner.

]]>ca53616b-a3b6-4eb3-b305-8cd81665d17dTue, 06 Jul 2021 05:15:00 -070001:00:26falsefull138381Title IX is a federal civil rights law in the United States of America that was passed as part of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or other education program that receives federal money.Our Bodies, Ourselves by The Boston Women's Health CollectiveAmy is joined by guest Jessica Harder to discuss Our Bodies, Ourselves by the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective. Topics include shortcomings of representation, birth control, shame, and the liberation that comes with knowing our bodies.

Jessica Harder has spent her life revolved around the human body. She began filtering her creativity into designing clothing for the body at the age of four, which led into a fifteen-year career in the fashion industry. At the age of 23 she moved to the Netherlands, where she ,met her husband and lived for six years. After moving back to the United States she changed careers and began teaching yoga and meditation. As a yoga teacher, Jessica has taught athletes training for the Olympics, rock climbers, senior citizens, babies, children, convicted convicts, people with drug and alcohol addiction, yogis, mothers, and pregnant women. She has devoted her career to teaching individuals to come into a deeper awareness of the body and mind. During the pandemic, she started a women’s group called Moms Together Six Feet Apart, which provides support to mothers giving birth during the pandemic. Jessica is currently working on her first book about prenatal yoga and raising her two children.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Jessica Harder to discuss Our Bodies, Ourselves by the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective. Topics include shortcomings of representation, birth control, shame, and the liberation that comes with knowing our bodies.

Jessica Harder has spent her life revolved around the human body. She began filtering her creativity into designing clothing for the body at the age of four, which led into a fifteen-year career in the fashion industry. At the age of 23 she moved to the Netherlands, where she ,met her husband and lived for six years. After moving back to the United States she changed careers and began teaching yoga and meditation. As a yoga teacher, Jessica has taught athletes training for the Olympics, rock climbers, senior citizens, babies, children, convicted convicts, people with drug and alcohol addiction, yogis, mothers, and pregnant women. She has devoted her career to teaching individuals to come into a deeper awareness of the body and mind. During the pandemic, she started a women’s group called Moms Together Six Feet Apart, which provides support to mothers giving birth during the pandemic. Jessica is currently working on her first book about prenatal yoga and raising her two children.

]]>110d80d1-e333-4fb9-bd96-d986fd4730a6Tue, 29 Jun 2021 06:00:00 -070001:41:44falsefull137371Our Bodies, Ourselves is a book about women's health and sexuality produced by the nonprofit organization Our Bodies Ourselves (originally called the Boston Women's Health Book Collective). First published in 1970, it contains information related to many aspects of women's health and sexuality, including: sexual health, sexual orientation, gender identity, birth control, abortion, pregnancy and childbirth, violence and abuse, and menopause. The most recent edition of the book was published in 2011. The book was revolutionary in that it encouraged women to celebrate their sexuality, including chapters on reproductive rights, lesbian sexuality, and sexual independence. The move towards women's active engagement with their actual sexual desires was contradicting the popular gendered belief of "passive" women and "active" men in sexual relationships.Sexual Politics, by Kate Millett, Part 2Amy is joined by guest Maxine Hanks to conclude their discussion of Sexual Politics by Kate Millett. This is Part Two of Two and covers sexism among the leftist authors of Millett’s time, interior colonization, distinctions between constructivist and biological ideas of identity, and the possibility of sexual revolution. 

Maxine Hanks is a historian and theologian who lectures and writes on Women’s Studies, History, and Religious Studies, particularly Mormon and Christian traditions and liturgy. Her bachelor’s degree was in Gender Studies and her master’s degree was in History, with additional graduate work in Theology and Religion.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Maxine Hanks to conclude their discussion of Sexual Politics by Kate Millett. This is Part Two of Two and covers sexism among the leftist authors of Millett’s time, interior colonization, distinctions between constructivist and biological ideas of identity, and the possibility of sexual revolution. 

Maxine Hanks is a historian and theologian who lectures and writes on Women’s Studies, History, and Religious Studies, particularly Mormon and Christian traditions and liturgy. Her bachelor’s degree was in Gender Studies and her master’s degree was in History, with additional graduate work in Theology and Religion.

]]>60562002-9712-4ce4-956d-4fd7c093d3cbTue, 22 Jun 2021 05:30:00 -070001:11:20falsefull136361Sexual Politics is a 1970 book by Kate Millett. It is regarded as a classic of feminism and one of radical feminism's key texts.Sexual Politics, by Kate Millett, Part 1Amy is joined by guest Maxine Hanks to begin their discussion of Sexual Politics by Kate Millett. This is Part One of Two and covers the author’s biography, the repressive context which created Second Wave and Radical Feminism, compulsory heterosexuality, and bridging the gap between academics and public discourse around gender. 

Maxine Hanks is a historian and theologian who lectures and writes on Women’s Studies, History, and Religious Studies, particularly Mormon and Christian traditions and liturgy. Her bachelor’s degree was in Gender Studies and her master’s degree was in History, with additional graduate work in Theology and Religion.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Maxine Hanks to begin their discussion of Sexual Politics by Kate Millett. This is Part One of Two and covers the author’s biography, the repressive context which created Second Wave and Radical Feminism, compulsory heterosexuality, and bridging the gap between academics and public discourse around gender. 

Maxine Hanks is a historian and theologian who lectures and writes on Women’s Studies, History, and Religious Studies, particularly Mormon and Christian traditions and liturgy. Her bachelor’s degree was in Gender Studies and her master’s degree was in History, with additional graduate work in Theology and Religion.

]]>b8bd08e2-773b-43f5-be60-786f7b405432Tue, 22 Jun 2021 05:15:00 -070001:12:42falsefull135351Sexual Politics is a 1970 book by Kate Millett. It is regarded as a classic of feminism and one of radical feminism's key texts.The Equal Rights AmendmentAmy is joined by guests Emily Bell McCormick & Kelly Whited Jones to discuss the Equal Rights Amendment authored by Alice Stokes Paul. Topics include the history of equal rights legislation, common counter-arguments against this legislation, and the ongoing struggle to pass the ERA today.

Emily Bell McCormick is founder of The Policy Project— a group of individuals and like-minded organizations that help move forward healthy, long-term policy at a local and national level. Emily is also the editor of Utah’s NBC affiliate KSL Studio 5 “Smarter” series–informing viewers about issues, government, policies and politics of the time and helping to empower viewers to find their place in it all. She also co-presents “The State of Women in Utah” on local news radio, KSL. She is co-president of the Utah ERA Coalition. Emily earned a Master’s degree from The Ohio State University and a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University.

Kelly Whited Jones is a life-long Utahn raised on a small farm in Utah County. She is an educator, fundraiser, and activist and holds a master’s degree in Environmental and Health Communication from the University of Utah. Kelly teaches college communication and is co-founder and co-president of the Utah ERA Coalition, a group of 35+ local and national organizations committed to passing equal rights legislation in the Beehive state. She served two years as chair of the ERA Committee for Utah Women Unite, a group responsible for reviving ERA legislation in Utah in 2016 and staging the largest march on the Utah Capitol in Utah history — in a snowstorm. In 2018, she consulted with Rep. Karen Kwan on HJR 021, the Reaffirm the Value of Utah Women Resolution, a first-step bill that passed unanimously. In 2020, a year celebrating Suffrage, she stood with women outside the House of Representatives as a Silent Sentinel at the Capitol every day of the 45-day legislative session. Though bills to ratify have been held in Rules Committee every year since 2016, progress is being made, and 71% of Utahns now support ratification efforts. Most recently, in 2021, Sen. Kathleen Riebe and Sen. Kirk Cullimore ran a bi-partisan bill to ratify SJR 008, the first time both major parties have come together in support of equal rights. Kelly believes that constitutional protection under the law is worth the conversation.

]]>Amy is joined by guests Emily Bell McCormick & Kelly Whited Jones to discuss the Equal Rights Amendment authored by Alice Stokes Paul. Topics include the history of equal rights legislation, common counter-arguments against this legislation, and the ongoing struggle to pass the ERA today.

Emily Bell McCormick is founder of The Policy Project— a group of individuals and like-minded organizations that help move forward healthy, long-term policy at a local and national level. Emily is also the editor of Utah’s NBC affiliate KSL Studio 5 “Smarter” series–informing viewers about issues, government, policies and politics of the time and helping to empower viewers to find their place in it all. She also co-presents “The State of Women in Utah” on local news radio, KSL. She is co-president of the Utah ERA Coalition. Emily earned a Master’s degree from The Ohio State University and a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University.

Kelly Whited Jones is a life-long Utahn raised on a small farm in Utah County. She is an educator, fundraiser, and activist and holds a master’s degree in Environmental and Health Communication from the University of Utah. Kelly teaches college communication and is co-founder and co-president of the Utah ERA Coalition, a group of 35+ local and national organizations committed to passing equal rights legislation in the Beehive state. She served two years as chair of the ERA Committee for Utah Women Unite, a group responsible for reviving ERA legislation in Utah in 2016 and staging the largest march on the Utah Capitol in Utah history — in a snowstorm. In 2018, she consulted with Rep. Karen Kwan on HJR 021, the Reaffirm the Value of Utah Women Resolution, a first-step bill that passed unanimously. In 2020, a year celebrating Suffrage, she stood with women outside the House of Representatives as a Silent Sentinel at the Capitol every day of the 45-day legislative session. Though bills to ratify have been held in Rules Committee every year since 2016, progress is being made, and 71% of Utahns now support ratification efforts. Most recently, in 2021, Sen. Kathleen Riebe and Sen. Kirk Cullimore ran a bi-partisan bill to ratify SJR 008, the first time both major parties have come together in support of equal rights. Kelly believes that constitutional protection under the law is worth the conversation.

]]>455e403d-2168-437b-929c-75efa1514739Tue, 15 Jun 2021 05:15:00 -070001:19:40falsefull134341The Equal Rights Amendment was introduced shortly after women in the US were granted suffrage. Women knew then that voting rights did not guarantee equal protection under the law or freedom from discrimination, and the US Constitution entirely excludes women in its language. After 98 years of battle, the ERA still hasn't been ratified - find out what you can do to help in this important effort!!Living the Revolution, by Gloria SteinemAmy is joined by guest Amy Pal to discuss the speech “Living the Revolution” delivered by Gloria Steinem. Topics include feminism as a humanist movement, the work of unlearning hurtful ideas, the damaging influence of Sigmund Freud, and how women’s liberation is men’s liberation as well.

Amy Pal grew up in California and Utah. She attended Boston University where she completed her bachelor’s degree in communication disorders and master’s degree in speech and language pathology. As part of her career in education, Amy was drawn to issues related to social justice, gender equity, and multiculturalism. She enjoys learning about topics through various people’s perspectives. Amy also loves to run in nature, read, and spend time with her family.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Amy Pal to discuss the speech “Living the Revolution” delivered by Gloria Steinem. Topics include feminism as a humanist movement, the work of unlearning hurtful ideas, the damaging influence of Sigmund Freud, and how women’s liberation is men’s liberation as well.

Amy Pal grew up in California and Utah. She attended Boston University where she completed her bachelor’s degree in communication disorders and master’s degree in speech and language pathology. As part of her career in education, Amy was drawn to issues related to social justice, gender equity, and multiculturalism. She enjoys learning about topics through various people’s perspectives. Amy also loves to run in nature, read, and spend time with her family.

]]>8b53cb47-d1af-4ea0-8101-ab545cbe53afTue, 08 Jun 2021 05:15:00 -070001:20:12falsefull133331In May of 1970, Gloria Steinem gave a commencement address to the graduating class of newly coeducational Vassar College. Called the "Living the Revolution" speech, Steinem discusses the problems with history and education always being defined by white, male, patriarchal structures.Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female, by Frances Beal, Part 2Amy is joined by guest Rayna Clay MacKay to conclude their discussion of Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female by Frances Beal. This is Part Two of Two and covers reform versus revolution, the history of medical cruelty carried out against Black bodies, and the fallacy of thinking all women face oppression equally. 

Rayna Clay MacKay is a wife, mom, and Obstetric Anesthesiologist. She married a dreamy Scotsman for much more than his accent and gained two fantastic bonus kids as a result. They added three more kiddos to the mix, including identical twin boys, and a daughter. They also have the best Cavoodle in the world named Hamish. She is a firm believer that differences are what make us great, and they should be applauded and supported. As she’s gotten older and wiser, She’s found her voice becoming louder championing for the injustices in the medical system, and society as a whole. Her hope is that the future is more glorious with a rainbow of differing people and opinions that are equally acknowledged.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Rayna Clay MacKay to conclude their discussion of Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female by Frances Beal. This is Part Two of Two and covers reform versus revolution, the history of medical cruelty carried out against Black bodies, and the fallacy of thinking all women face oppression equally. 

Rayna Clay MacKay is a wife, mom, and Obstetric Anesthesiologist. She married a dreamy Scotsman for much more than his accent and gained two fantastic bonus kids as a result. They added three more kiddos to the mix, including identical twin boys, and a daughter. They also have the best Cavoodle in the world named Hamish. She is a firm believer that differences are what make us great, and they should be applauded and supported. As she’s gotten older and wiser, She’s found her voice becoming louder championing for the injustices in the medical system, and society as a whole. Her hope is that the future is more glorious with a rainbow of differing people and opinions that are equally acknowledged.

]]>058ca1d7-5945-4c73-9250-799118569ad3Tue, 01 Jun 2021 05:30:00 -070001:21:26falsefull132321Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female is an essay written in 1969 by Black Civil Rights activist Frances Beal.Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female, by Frances Beal, Part 1Amy is joined by guest Rayna Clay MacKay to begin their discussion of Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female by Frances Beal. This is Part One of Two and covers the author’s biography, The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, state violence against peaceful protestors, and racism in academics and professional spheres.  

Rayna Clay MacKay is a wife, mom, and Obstetric Anesthesiologist. She married a dreamy Scotsman for much more than his accent and gained two fantastic bonus kids as a result. They added three more kiddos to the mix, including identical twin boys, and a daughter. They also have the best Cavoodle in the world named Hamish. She is a firm believer that differences are what make us great, and they should be applauded and supported. As she’s gotten older and wiser, She’s found her voice becoming louder championing for the injustices in the medical system, and society as a whole. Her hope is that the future is more glorious with a rainbow of differing people and opinions that are equally acknowledged.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Rayna Clay MacKay to begin their discussion of Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female by Frances Beal. This is Part One of Two and covers the author’s biography, The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, state violence against peaceful protestors, and racism in academics and professional spheres.  

Rayna Clay MacKay is a wife, mom, and Obstetric Anesthesiologist. She married a dreamy Scotsman for much more than his accent and gained two fantastic bonus kids as a result. They added three more kiddos to the mix, including identical twin boys, and a daughter. They also have the best Cavoodle in the world named Hamish. She is a firm believer that differences are what make us great, and they should be applauded and supported. As she’s gotten older and wiser, She’s found her voice becoming louder championing for the injustices in the medical system, and society as a whole. Her hope is that the future is more glorious with a rainbow of differing people and opinions that are equally acknowledged.

]]>92167f85-71f1-4e0a-a574-ec9181a7888dTue, 01 Jun 2021 05:15:00 -070001:32:21falsefull131311Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female is a pamphlet written by Frances M. Beal in 1969. This highly influential pamphlet explores the intersections of oppression, and captures the revolutionary vision of ardent racial- and gender-justice activists at the end of the 1960'sJane Crow and the Law: Sex Discrimination and Title VIIAmy is joined by guest Rochelle Briscoe to discuss Jane Crow and the Law by Pauli Murray and Mary Eastwood. Topics include the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’, civil rights, originalist interpretations of the Constitution, and the ‘mommy track’ for professional women.

Rochelle Briscoe is a legal and policy wonk, who is passionate about improving the global landscape! Rochelle has always been struck by the central role strong, yet underrepresented, leaders play in the success of businesses and teams. For more than a decade she practiced law in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC. In 2016, Rochelle joined Google’s Leadership Team, and from 2013 to 2016 Rochelle led the selection and recruitment of senior presidential appointments for the United States Government while serving as special assistant to President Obama in the Office of Presidential Personnel. Currently, Rochelle is YouTube’s Tech People Person and Chief of Staff to its Black Board of Advisors.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Rochelle Briscoe to discuss Jane Crow and the Law by Pauli Murray and Mary Eastwood. Topics include the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’, civil rights, originalist interpretations of the Constitution, and the ‘mommy track’ for professional women.

Rochelle Briscoe is a legal and policy wonk, who is passionate about improving the global landscape! Rochelle has always been struck by the central role strong, yet underrepresented, leaders play in the success of businesses and teams. For more than a decade she practiced law in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC. In 2016, Rochelle joined Google’s Leadership Team, and from 2013 to 2016 Rochelle led the selection and recruitment of senior presidential appointments for the United States Government while serving as special assistant to President Obama in the Office of Presidential Personnel. Currently, Rochelle is YouTube’s Tech People Person and Chief of Staff to its Black Board of Advisors.

]]>1fc34dea-4329-47b8-8ef2-44ee5cd0ad85Tue, 25 May 2021 05:15:00 -070001:15:28falsefull130301Following the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Pauli Murray published a landmark article in The George Washington Law Review entitled “Jane Crow and the Law: Sex Discrimination and Title VII,” where she explains how certain legal statutes meant to protect the civil rights of African Americans still limited the scope of women.Keep the Damned Women Out: The Struggle for Coeducation, by Nancy Weiss MalkielAmy is joined by guest Christie Skousen to discuss Keep the Damned Women Out by Dr. Nancy Weiss Malkiel. Topics include the struggle for co-education, gender ratios in U.S. colleges, and the sexist backlash against female students.

Christie Skousen is the founder of the Peery Piano Academy in Mountain View, CA and the author of the Peery Piano Curriculum, a certification and training system for piano teachers. Mrs. Skousen’s primary teachers include Dr. Irene Peery-Fox and Leon Fleisher. She gave her Carnegie Hall debut at age 18 and has performed as a soloist and with orchestras throughout the United States, Europe and Russia. She has served on the faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory Preparatory Division and teaches students around the world online in partnership with ArtistWorks. Her students are frequent prizewinners in local and national competitions.

You can find her work at www.etsy.com/shop/BlueGardensBeauty or BlueGardensBeauty.com.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Christie Skousen to discuss Keep the Damned Women Out by Dr. Nancy Weiss Malkiel. Topics include the struggle for co-education, gender ratios in U.S. colleges, and the sexist backlash against female students.

Christie Skousen is the founder of the Peery Piano Academy in Mountain View, CA and the author of the Peery Piano Curriculum, a certification and training system for piano teachers. Mrs. Skousen’s primary teachers include Dr. Irene Peery-Fox and Leon Fleisher. She gave her Carnegie Hall debut at age 18 and has performed as a soloist and with orchestras throughout the United States, Europe and Russia. She has served on the faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory Preparatory Division and teaches students around the world online in partnership with ArtistWorks. Her students are frequent prizewinners in local and national competitions.

You can find her work at www.etsy.com/shop/BlueGardensBeauty or BlueGardensBeauty.com.

]]>1bcdc8cc-fe7a-4e51-b31d-b985328278a6Tue, 18 May 2021 05:15:00 -070001:27:27falsefull129291Professor Nancy Weiss Malkiel's "Keep the Damned Women Out" is an in-depth look at the long, difficult process by which top-tier American and British schools finally admitted women.The Feminine Mystique, by Betty FriedanAmy is joined by guest Marta Luna Wilde to discuss The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan. Topics include womanhood in 50’s and 60’s America, housewife identity, Hegel’s dialectics, and the hierarchy of needs.

Marta Luna Wilde is the youngest of nine children, born and raised (with 7 brothers and 1 sister) in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her family immigrated from Central Mexico in 1962, her father having worked in the Bracero Program after World War II. In the 60s to early 1980s, her father worked as a cook at Stanford University which allowed her to play in and around campus throughout her childhood. She feels it was an amazing backyard in which to grow up. She received her BA from Stanford in 1987 and M.Ed from UCLA in 1990. Her professional career includes teaching in Los Angeles, Redwood City, and Palo Alto; serving as a program trainer with the Accelerated Schools Project (for disadvantaged schools) at Stanford’s School of Education, and working as a social science researcher developing curricula at the Prevention Research Center at Stanford’s School of Medicine. Currently, she is interested in finding ways to use her background in education to promote environmental education in schools, specifically with bilingual Spanish/English language learners. On a personal level, she and her husband have three daughters aged 13,13, and 21. Despite the pandemic, her family is thriving in a world turned upside down. Frequent Covid-safe visits with her 94-year-old mother help ground her and provide perspective on day-to-day living.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Marta Luna Wilde to discuss The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan. Topics include womanhood in 50’s and 60’s America, housewife identity, Hegel’s dialectics, and the hierarchy of needs.

Marta Luna Wilde is the youngest of nine children, born and raised (with 7 brothers and 1 sister) in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her family immigrated from Central Mexico in 1962, her father having worked in the Bracero Program after World War II. In the 60s to early 1980s, her father worked as a cook at Stanford University which allowed her to play in and around campus throughout her childhood. She feels it was an amazing backyard in which to grow up. She received her BA from Stanford in 1987 and M.Ed from UCLA in 1990. Her professional career includes teaching in Los Angeles, Redwood City, and Palo Alto; serving as a program trainer with the Accelerated Schools Project (for disadvantaged schools) at Stanford’s School of Education, and working as a social science researcher developing curricula at the Prevention Research Center at Stanford’s School of Medicine. Currently, she is interested in finding ways to use her background in education to promote environmental education in schools, specifically with bilingual Spanish/English language learners. On a personal level, she and her husband have three daughters aged 13,13, and 21. Despite the pandemic, her family is thriving in a world turned upside down. Frequent Covid-safe visits with her 94-year-old mother help ground her and provide perspective on day-to-day living.

]]>233eadae-0776-4f44-90ca-eb7d8b814c78Tue, 11 May 2021 05:15:00 -070001:29:25falsefull128281"The Feminine Mystique", by Betty Friedan, is widely credited with sparking the beginning of second-wave feminism in the United States. Its description of "the problem that has no name" resonated with many American women in the 1950's and 60's, who felt that being relegated to the domestic sphere caused them to lose their individual identities.The Second Sex, by Simone de Beauvoir, Episode 3Amy is joined by guest Fya Parvis Jazra to conclude their discussion of The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir. This is Part Three of Three and covers de Beauvoir on abortion, childbirth, beauty, and consequences of subordination.

Fyza Parviz Jazra, originally from Pakistan, is a Graduate Student in Stanford’s MLA Program. She is currently working on her Master’s thesis on the Seventeenth-Century English interest in Arabic Astronomy. Previously she worked as a Software Engineer at Apple. She loves to read 19th-century fiction and, along with her husband, is a zealous bibliophile. She is also a mother to a 19-month-old boy.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Fya Parvis Jazra to conclude their discussion of The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir. This is Part Three of Three and covers de Beauvoir on abortion, childbirth, beauty, and consequences of subordination.

Fyza Parviz Jazra, originally from Pakistan, is a Graduate Student in Stanford’s MLA Program. She is currently working on her Master’s thesis on the Seventeenth-Century English interest in Arabic Astronomy. Previously she worked as a Software Engineer at Apple. She loves to read 19th-century fiction and, along with her husband, is a zealous bibliophile. She is also a mother to a 19-month-old boy.

]]>596f1707-47b1-48f9-9a95-1697e0544c88Tue, 04 May 2021 06:00:00 -070056:27falsefull127271Fyza and Amy continue their discussion of Beauvoir's masterpiece, The Second Sex.The Second Sex, by Simone de Beauvoir, Episode 2Amy is joined by guest Fyza Parvis Jazra to continue their discussion of The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir. This is Part Two of Three and covers the distinction between sex and gender, a girl’s transition from subject to object, and reaching our potential as human beings.

Fyza Parviz Jazra, originally from Pakistan, is a Graduate Student in Stanford’s MLA Program. She is currently working on her Master’s thesis on the Seventeenth-Century English interest in Arabic Astronomy. Previously she worked as a Software Engineer at Apple. She loves to read 19th-century fiction and, along with her husband, is a zealous bibliophile. She is also a mother to a 19-month-old boy.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Fyza Parvis Jazra to continue their discussion of The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir. This is Part Two of Three and covers the distinction between sex and gender, a girl’s transition from subject to object, and reaching our potential as human beings.

Fyza Parviz Jazra, originally from Pakistan, is a Graduate Student in Stanford’s MLA Program. She is currently working on her Master’s thesis on the Seventeenth-Century English interest in Arabic Astronomy. Previously she worked as a Software Engineer at Apple. She loves to read 19th-century fiction and, along with her husband, is a zealous bibliophile. She is also a mother to a 19-month-old boy.

]]>76590f98-910b-4f86-80aa-59a701df3bceTue, 04 May 2021 05:15:00 -070001:19:08falsefull126261Fyza and Amy continue their conversation of Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex.The Second Sex, by Simone de Beauvoir, Episode 1Amy is joined by guest Fyza Parvis Jazra to begin their discussion of The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir. This is Part One of Three and covers the author’s biography, a brief overview of Existentialism, and initial thoughts on motherhood.

Fyza Parviz Jazra, originally from Pakistan, is a Graduate Student in Stanford’s MLA Program. She is currently working on her Master’s thesis on the Seventeenth-Century English interest in Arabic Astronomy. Previously she worked as a Software Engineer at Apple. She loves to read 19th-century fiction and, along with her husband, is a zealous bibliophile. She is also a mother to a 19-month-old boy.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Fyza Parvis Jazra to begin their discussion of The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir. This is Part One of Three and covers the author’s biography, a brief overview of Existentialism, and initial thoughts on motherhood.

Fyza Parviz Jazra, originally from Pakistan, is a Graduate Student in Stanford’s MLA Program. She is currently working on her Master’s thesis on the Seventeenth-Century English interest in Arabic Astronomy. Previously she worked as a Software Engineer at Apple. She loves to read 19th-century fiction and, along with her husband, is a zealous bibliophile. She is also a mother to a 19-month-old boy.

]]>c3966f5b-4c92-438d-a5a4-3a9844177b0dTue, 04 May 2021 04:45:00 -070058:51falsefull125251The Second Sex is a 1949 book by the French existentialist Simone de Beauvoir, in which the author discusses the treatment of women throughout history. Beauvoir researched and wrote the book between 1946 and 1949, and published it in two volumes, Facts and Myths and Lived Experience. It was published in English in the United States in 1953, and has been considered a defining feminist text ever since.The Real Wealth of Nations, by Riane EislerAmy is joined by guest Dr. Julie de Azevedo Hanks to discuss The Real Wealth of Nations   by Riane Eisler. Topics include the distinction between power with and power over, the value of women’s labor, and the concept of benevolent patriarchy.

Dr. Julie de Azevedo Hanks holds an MSW from the University of Utah and a PhD from the University of Louisiana at Monroe. In 2002, she founded Wasatch Family Therapy an outpatient therapy clinic in Salt Lake City and Bountiful, UT. Dr. Hanks has authored two books: The Burnout Cure and The Assertiveness Guide for Women, and has written over 1000 blog posts. As a national and local media contributor Dr. Hanks has appeared on hundreds of TV, print, radio, and podcast programs, and she currently hosts her own podcast, Ask Dr. Julie Hanks. Her research interests include mental health, social work education and technology, gender roles in family life, and the development of partnership families.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Dr. Julie de Azevedo Hanks to discuss The Real Wealth of Nations   by Riane Eisler. Topics include the distinction between power with and power over, the value of women’s labor, and the concept of benevolent patriarchy.

Dr. Julie de Azevedo Hanks holds an MSW from the University of Utah and a PhD from the University of Louisiana at Monroe. In 2002, she founded Wasatch Family Therapy an outpatient therapy clinic in Salt Lake City and Bountiful, UT. Dr. Hanks has authored two books: The Burnout Cure and The Assertiveness Guide for Women, and has written over 1000 blog posts. As a national and local media contributor Dr. Hanks has appeared on hundreds of TV, print, radio, and podcast programs, and she currently hosts her own podcast, Ask Dr. Julie Hanks. Her research interests include mental health, social work education and technology, gender roles in family life, and the development of partnership families.

]]>8c6e425c-6d67-4459-896e-4604d820c663Tue, 27 Apr 2021 05:15:00 -070059:55falsefull124241"The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics" applies Riane Eisler's model of "partnership" values (as opposed to "dominator" values) to the field of economics.The UN Open Letter to the Women of the World, and Universal Declaration of Human Rights, by Eleanor RooseveltAmy is joined by guest Lucy Allebest to discuss an “Open Letter to the Women of the World” and the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” by Eleanor Roosevelt. Topics include women in World War II, equality from a global perspective, and the primacy of men in language.

Lucy Allebest is a high school senior who plans to study History in college next year, either at the University of Saint Andrews in Scotland or Trinity College in Dublin (she can’t decide!). Aspiring to be as Celtic as possible, she studies Gaeilge and reads about her Scottish ancestry in her free time, and her senior thesis is on the extinction of the Irish language as a result of British colonial suppression. she loves organizing, writing, marveling at California poppies, and singing loudly while driving.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Lucy Allebest to discuss an “Open Letter to the Women of the World” and the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” by Eleanor Roosevelt. Topics include women in World War II, equality from a global perspective, and the primacy of men in language.

Lucy Allebest is a high school senior who plans to study History in college next year, either at the University of Saint Andrews in Scotland or Trinity College in Dublin (she can’t decide!). Aspiring to be as Celtic as possible, she studies Gaeilge and reads about her Scottish ancestry in her free time, and her senior thesis is on the extinction of the Irish language as a result of British colonial suppression. she loves organizing, writing, marveling at California poppies, and singing loudly while driving.

]]>85f43675-574e-4fce-ae12-4960376cb682Tue, 20 Apr 2021 05:15:00 -070001:02:21falsefull123231Considered a foundational text in the history of human and civil rights, the Declaration claims individuals' "basic rights and fundamental freedoms" and affirms their universal character as inherent, inalienable, and applicable to all human beings.Killing the Angel in the House, by Virginia WoolfAmy is joined by guest Rachelle Burnside to discuss Killing the Angel in the House by Virginia Woolf. Topics include the Victorian cult of domesticity, the intersections of being adored and being oppressed, as well as the challenge of battling our own angels.

Rachelle Burnside has spent over 20 years working in education. During that time, she has taught all levels of high school English, from English Learners to both AP English Literature and AP Language and Composition. She currently works as the Secondary English, History, and AVID Teacher on Special Assignment for Santa Clara Unified School District. In her role, she is part of a network of TOSAs who work to improve equitable learning outcomes for students by developing and supporting sustainable systems for collaboration, communication, and cohesion, helping teachers improve instructional practice, and expanding content/curriculum expertise for the purpose of increased student engagement, learning, and achievement. Rachelle is currently enrolled in the Masters of Liberal Arts program at Stanford and is writing her thesis on William Blake’s illustrations for Dante’s Divine Comedy. She is also the owner of Blue Gardens Beauty, a small business which makes handmade, artisan bath and beauty products.

You can find her work at www.etsy.com/shop/BlueGardensBeauty or BlueGardensBeauty.com.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Rachelle Burnside to discuss Killing the Angel in the House by Virginia Woolf. Topics include the Victorian cult of domesticity, the intersections of being adored and being oppressed, as well as the challenge of battling our own angels.

Rachelle Burnside has spent over 20 years working in education. During that time, she has taught all levels of high school English, from English Learners to both AP English Literature and AP Language and Composition. She currently works as the Secondary English, History, and AVID Teacher on Special Assignment for Santa Clara Unified School District. In her role, she is part of a network of TOSAs who work to improve equitable learning outcomes for students by developing and supporting sustainable systems for collaboration, communication, and cohesion, helping teachers improve instructional practice, and expanding content/curriculum expertise for the purpose of increased student engagement, learning, and achievement. Rachelle is currently enrolled in the Masters of Liberal Arts program at Stanford and is writing her thesis on William Blake’s illustrations for Dante’s Divine Comedy. She is also the owner of Blue Gardens Beauty, a small business which makes handmade, artisan bath and beauty products.

You can find her work at www.etsy.com/shop/BlueGardensBeauty or BlueGardensBeauty.com.

]]>7d3de7d5-b12a-462a-9c6f-c362e485e5aaTue, 13 Apr 2021 05:15:00 -070001:28:38falsefull122221Killing the Angel in the House is a collection of lectures and essays written by Virginia Woolf between 1905 and 1941. The most prominent essay, from which the phrase "killing the angel in the house" is taken, is the speech "Professions For Women," delivered at Cambridge University in 1931.A Room of One's Own, by Virginia WoolfAmy is joined by guest Susannah Harmon Furr to discuss A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf. Topics include the importance of personal space, privilege, accessibility, and learning to listen to yourself.

Susannah Harmon Furr is a designer and art historian with a research focus on the Dutch Baroque period. She founded a women’s clothing line inspired by her research of intricate embroidery Dutch women found the time to painstakingly render on their otherwise prescribed uniforms—details often hidden to all but the wearer—and its significance in their daily lives. She lives in Paris with her husband and three of her four kids and their yellow lab, Cosi. Susannah and her husband, Nathan, have co-authored a book on the possibility that comes from facing uncertainty: www.uncertaintypossibility.com (forthcoming from Harvard Business Review Press in Summer 2022.) Another project close to her heart is The Earnest Project. On Instagram @theearnestproject.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Susannah Harmon Furr to discuss A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf. Topics include the importance of personal space, privilege, accessibility, and learning to listen to yourself.

Susannah Harmon Furr is a designer and art historian with a research focus on the Dutch Baroque period. She founded a women’s clothing line inspired by her research of intricate embroidery Dutch women found the time to painstakingly render on their otherwise prescribed uniforms—details often hidden to all but the wearer—and its significance in their daily lives. She lives in Paris with her husband and three of her four kids and their yellow lab, Cosi. Susannah and her husband, Nathan, have co-authored a book on the possibility that comes from facing uncertainty: www.uncertaintypossibility.com (forthcoming from Harvard Business Review Press in Summer 2022.) Another project close to her heart is The Earnest Project. On Instagram @theearnestproject.

]]>8c4fcdd7-7f0f-4374-bd93-731de70ffb94Tue, 06 Apr 2021 05:15:00 -070001:50:17falsefull121211A Room of One's Own is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf, first published in September 1929. We experience Woolf's musings as if we were inside her own head or as a confidante, privy to her brilliant analysis of patriarchy in interwar England.Bonus Episode: Amy and Erik Allebest Answer Men's Frequently Asked QuestionsAmy is joined by the show’s first male guest, Eric Allebest, to discuss men’s questions and concerns about Breaking Down Patriarchy. Questions include whether patriarchy is a natural construct, if masculinity and patriarchy are connected, and what’s wrong with patriarchy in the first place?

]]>Amy is joined by the show’s first male guest, Eric Allebest, to discuss men’s questions and concerns about Breaking Down Patriarchy. Questions include whether patriarchy is a natural construct, if masculinity and patriarchy are connected, and what’s wrong with patriarchy in the first place?

]]>62a71935-326c-4b7b-9135-581ea1b41ceeFri, 02 Apr 2021 05:15:00 -070001:11:03falsefull120201Join Amy and Erik Allebest for a conversation discussing men's questions and concerns about Breaking Down Patriarchy.The Morality of Birth Control, by Margaret SangerAmy is joined by guest Courtney McPhie to discuss the speeches “Morality and Birth Control” and “The Case for Birth Control” by Margaret Sanger. Topics include marriage as ownership, modesty rules, and sex education.

Courtney McPhie grew up in Colorado, and while she loves the rolling hills of Virginia, she misses the Rocky Mountains. Courtney is a high school English teacher outside Washington, DC, where she fights for equity and representation in the classroom. Another highlight about Courtney is she loves podcasts! Her favorite is NPR’s Code Switch. She has loved participating in Breaking Down Patriarchy because her undergrad offerings of women’s studies courses was extremely limited, so she feels like she is getting the solid education in feminist lit she always wanted.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Courtney McPhie to discuss the speeches “Morality and Birth Control” and “The Case for Birth Control” by Margaret Sanger. Topics include marriage as ownership, modesty rules, and sex education.

Courtney McPhie grew up in Colorado, and while she loves the rolling hills of Virginia, she misses the Rocky Mountains. Courtney is a high school English teacher outside Washington, DC, where she fights for equity and representation in the classroom. Another highlight about Courtney is she loves podcasts! Her favorite is NPR’s Code Switch. She has loved participating in Breaking Down Patriarchy because her undergrad offerings of women’s studies courses was extremely limited, so she feels like she is getting the solid education in feminist lit she always wanted.

]]>7c11f701-4b17-4176-a2b5-be959d86c7b1Tue, 30 Mar 2021 05:15:00 -070001:03:48falsefull119191Margaret Sanger was a nurse and educator, and a tireless advocate for women's reproductive education and sovereignty. Her tracts such as "What Every Woman Should Know," "What Every Girl Should Know," "The Morality of Birth Control" and "The Case for Birth Control" led to her being prosecuted for indecency, but they also led to the legalization of birth control in the US in 1965.The Fundamental Principle of a Republic, by Anna Howard ShawAmy is joined by guest Dr. Amy Osmond Cook to discuss the speech “The Fundamental Principle of a Republic” delivered by Anna Howard Shaw. Topics include white prejudice in the suffrage movement, arguments against the right to vote, and work-life balance for mothers.

Dr. Amy Osmond Cook was born and raised in Provo, Utah, the daughter of musicians (her mother was an opera-singer; her father was one of the original four Osmond brothers). She obtained a bachelor’s and master’s degree at BYU, and a PhD from the University of Utah in Organizational Rhetoric. She works as the CMO of Simplus, an Infosys company, and founder of Osmond Marketing. She lives in Southern California and loves spending time with her husband and five kids.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Dr. Amy Osmond Cook to discuss the speech “The Fundamental Principle of a Republic” delivered by Anna Howard Shaw. Topics include white prejudice in the suffrage movement, arguments against the right to vote, and work-life balance for mothers.

Dr. Amy Osmond Cook was born and raised in Provo, Utah, the daughter of musicians (her mother was an opera-singer; her father was one of the original four Osmond brothers). She obtained a bachelor’s and master’s degree at BYU, and a PhD from the University of Utah in Organizational Rhetoric. She works as the CMO of Simplus, an Infosys company, and founder of Osmond Marketing. She lives in Southern California and loves spending time with her husband and five kids.

]]>165ec650-8bb7-4d24-bb3f-a00ab7d9e6e1Tue, 23 Mar 2021 05:15:00 -070001:08:18falsefull118181Anna Howard Shaw's 1915 speech, "The Fundamental Principle of a Republic" is an incisive yet warm-hearted call for women's suffrage. Addressing many of the anti-suffrage arguments used at the time, this document illuminates the debate over women's rights, many of which still have echoes today.The Awakening, by Kate ChopinAmy is joined by guest Shauna Rensch to discuss The Awakening by Kate Chopin. Topics include structural inequity, the panopticon of patriarchy, and contemporary feminist awakenings.

Shauna Rensch is a wife and mother of four kids ages 15 to 5. She grew up in the north suburbs of Chicago but moved to Arizona with her family at the end of high school. She started at ASU but took time off to get married and have her first child. She went back to school in order to complete a bachelor’s degree at NAU and started teaching kindergarten. She has taught from kindergarten up through sixth grade and completed a master’s in elementary education from NAU in 2015. She has taken the last two years off from teaching but looks forward to more work within the education field in the future. Shauna loves reading, long walks with beautiful views, and road trips with her family.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Shauna Rensch to discuss The Awakening by Kate Chopin. Topics include structural inequity, the panopticon of patriarchy, and contemporary feminist awakenings.

Shauna Rensch is a wife and mother of four kids ages 15 to 5. She grew up in the north suburbs of Chicago but moved to Arizona with her family at the end of high school. She started at ASU but took time off to get married and have her first child. She went back to school in order to complete a bachelor’s degree at NAU and started teaching kindergarten. She has taught from kindergarten up through sixth grade and completed a master’s in elementary education from NAU in 2015. She has taken the last two years off from teaching but looks forward to more work within the education field in the future. Shauna loves reading, long walks with beautiful views, and road trips with her family.

]]>61435163-8eae-4488-bcc0-4874fe920505Tue, 16 Mar 2021 05:15:00 -070001:54:54falsefull117171The Awakening is a novel by Kate Chopin, first published in 1899. Set in Louisiana at the end of the 19th century, it is seen as a landmark work of early feminism, generating a mixed reaction due to its honest treatment of women's sexuality.The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins GilmanAmy is joined by guest Shannon Hyatt Johnson to discuss The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Topics include hysteria, gaslighting, and the ideology of separate spheres.

Shannon Hyatt Johnson grew up in the Western U.S., graduated from BYU, and is currently working and studying at Stanford. She likes watching tv that provokes impassioned family discussions with her husband and four daughters. Lately, that includes Derry Girls, Cobra Kai, and Ted Lasso. She loves the f-word. Both “feminist,” and the other one.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Shannon Hyatt Johnson to discuss The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Topics include hysteria, gaslighting, and the ideology of separate spheres.

Shannon Hyatt Johnson grew up in the Western U.S., graduated from BYU, and is currently working and studying at Stanford. She likes watching tv that provokes impassioned family discussions with her husband and four daughters. Lately, that includes Derry Girls, Cobra Kai, and Ted Lasso. She loves the f-word. Both “feminist,” and the other one.

]]>20e1e000-bf8e-49f2-8c2e-87af92f76184Tue, 09 Mar 2021 05:15:00 -070001:21:00falsefull116161"The Yellow Wallpaper" is a short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, published 1892 in The New England Magazine. It is regarded as an important early work of American feminist literature for its illustration of the attitudes towards mental and physical health of women in the 19th century.The Gospel of Mary MagdaleneAmy is joined by guest Kayleen Asbo to discuss The Gospel of Mary Magdalene. Topics include the history of gnostic texts, the gender of the Holy Spirit, and the value of self-knowledge.

Kayleen Asbo is a passionate scholar: a cultural historian, musician, writer and teacher who weaves myth, music, psychology, history and art with experiential learning. A faculty member of the Pacifica Graduate Institute and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Kayleen also teaches regularly for the Osher Life Long Learning Institutes at UC Berkeley, Sonoma State University and Dominican University. Her classes on a wide array of topics ranging from Depth Psychology to Dante to the History of Classical Music have been hailed as “inspirational”, “fascinating and compelling”, “transformational” and “truly life changing” . Her favorite description came from an event producer who introduced her as a cross between Joseph Campbell, Leonard Bernstein and Wonder Woman. In 2020, Kayleen joined the faculty of Ubiquity University where she will be offering online courses for both graduate students and lay learners on the wisdom traditions of the world, with a focus on the Sacred Feminine.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Kayleen Asbo to discuss The Gospel of Mary Magdalene. Topics include the history of gnostic texts, the gender of the Holy Spirit, and the value of self-knowledge.

Kayleen Asbo is a passionate scholar: a cultural historian, musician, writer and teacher who weaves myth, music, psychology, history and art with experiential learning. A faculty member of the Pacifica Graduate Institute and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Kayleen also teaches regularly for the Osher Life Long Learning Institutes at UC Berkeley, Sonoma State University and Dominican University. Her classes on a wide array of topics ranging from Depth Psychology to Dante to the History of Classical Music have been hailed as “inspirational”, “fascinating and compelling”, “transformational” and “truly life changing” . Her favorite description came from an event producer who introduced her as a cross between Joseph Campbell, Leonard Bernstein and Wonder Woman. In 2020, Kayleen joined the faculty of Ubiquity University where she will be offering online courses for both graduate students and lay learners on the wisdom traditions of the world, with a focus on the Sacred Feminine.

]]>a3663b94-a014-4c9f-87c6-fd4bc5fd59d2Tue, 02 Mar 2021 05:15:00 -070001:33:48falsefull115151The Gospel of Mary Magdalene is an ancient text, written around the same time as the Gospels of the New Testament, but excluded from canonical scripture by the early Church fathers. It includes passages depicting Mary Magdalene as a leader, truly an "apostle to the apostles," as well as a tense scene illustrating the conflicting views on women among the original apostles.The Subjection of Women, by John Stuart MillAmy is joined by Franceskay Allebes to discuss The Subjection of Women by John Stuart Mill. Topics include the burden of proof for equality, the veil of ignorance, and complementarianism.

Franceskay Allebes is a first generation American, born to parents who immigrated to the United States from the Netherlands after World War II. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University and a Master’s in education from UCLA, and has worked as an Art teacher and Art therapist. She loves her husband, her three amazing, creative children, learning, and adventuring in the outdoors.

]]>Amy is joined by Franceskay Allebes to discuss The Subjection of Women by John Stuart Mill. Topics include the burden of proof for equality, the veil of ignorance, and complementarianism.

Franceskay Allebes is a first generation American, born to parents who immigrated to the United States from the Netherlands after World War II. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University and a Master’s in education from UCLA, and has worked as an Art teacher and Art therapist. She loves her husband, her three amazing, creative children, learning, and adventuring in the outdoors.

]]>6a3a9ed7-d166-4e0d-8531-938e1a80ece1Tue, 23 Feb 2021 05:15:00 -070001:09:16falsefull114141The Subjection of Women is an 1869 essay by English philosopher John Stuart Mill, with ideas he developed jointly with his wife Harriet Taylor Mill. At the time of its publication, the essay's argument for equality between the sexes was an affront to European conventional norms regarding the status of men and women.Ain't I A Woman?, by Sojourner TruthAmy is joined by Rayna Clay MacKay to discuss the speech ‘Ain’t I A Woman?’ by Sojourner Truth. Topics include the history and multiple versions of this speech, microaggressions, and the legacy of racism in America.

Rayna Clay MacKay is a wife, mom, and Obstetric Anesthesiologist. She married a dreamy Scotsman for much more than his accent and gained two fantastic bonus kids as a result. They added three more kiddos to the mix, including identical twin boys, and a daughter. They also have the best Cavoodle in the world named Hamish. She is a firm believer that differences are what make us great, and they should be applauded and supported. As she’s gotten older and wiser, She’s found her voice becoming louder championing for the injustices in the medical system, and society as a whole. Her hope is that the future is more glorious with a rainbow of differing people and opinions that are equally acknowledged.

]]>Amy is joined by Rayna Clay MacKay to discuss the speech ‘Ain’t I A Woman?’ by Sojourner Truth. Topics include the history and multiple versions of this speech, microaggressions, and the legacy of racism in America.

Rayna Clay MacKay is a wife, mom, and Obstetric Anesthesiologist. She married a dreamy Scotsman for much more than his accent and gained two fantastic bonus kids as a result. They added three more kiddos to the mix, including identical twin boys, and a daughter. They also have the best Cavoodle in the world named Hamish. She is a firm believer that differences are what make us great, and they should be applauded and supported. As she’s gotten older and wiser, She’s found her voice becoming louder championing for the injustices in the medical system, and society as a whole. Her hope is that the future is more glorious with a rainbow of differing people and opinions that are equally acknowledged.

]]>c515fd5a-7503-436d-a0c3-4e8fe1fee5c4Tue, 16 Feb 2021 05:30:00 -070001:11:55falsefull113131"Ain't I a Woman?" is a speech by Sojourner Truth, published in 1851. Visit www.thesojournertruthproject.com to read why there are two versions of the speech, and what the implications are behind each version.Speeches from The Seneca Falls Women's Convention, by Elizabeth Cady StantonAmy is joined by guest Courtney McPhie to discuss speeches from the Seneca Falls Convention. Topics include how to recruit men as feminist allies, key arguments for suffrage, and the complex relationships between Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and Frederick Douglass.

Courtney McPhie experienced a typical awakening to social justice in high school, but took until college to call herself a feminist. A voracious reader and podcast-listener, Courtney lives in Northern Virginia, in the DC Metro area. She completed her graduate studies at George Mason University and holds a masters degree in education, which she uses as a high school English teacher in Fairfax County. She works largely with English Language Learners, mostly asylum-seekers who have come from Central America in the last three years. Courtney lives with her husband and three cute kids in a Colonial house on a hill.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Courtney McPhie to discuss speeches from the Seneca Falls Convention. Topics include how to recruit men as feminist allies, key arguments for suffrage, and the complex relationships between Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and Frederick Douglass.

Courtney McPhie experienced a typical awakening to social justice in high school, but took until college to call herself a feminist. A voracious reader and podcast-listener, Courtney lives in Northern Virginia, in the DC Metro area. She completed her graduate studies at George Mason University and holds a masters degree in education, which she uses as a high school English teacher in Fairfax County. She works largely with English Language Learners, mostly asylum-seekers who have come from Central America in the last three years. Courtney lives with her husband and three cute kids in a Colonial house on a hill.

]]>9dcfe0ba-0af3-4d53-bd29-f6a1004107a8Tue, 09 Feb 2021 05:30:00 -070001:01:12falsefull112121The Seneca Falls Convention was the first women's rights convention in the United States. Held in July 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York, the meeting launched the women's suffrage movement, which finally, more than seven decades later (seven decades!!!), ensured women the right to vote.Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Woman, by Sarah GrimkeAmy is joined by guest Rebecca Archibald to discuss Letters on the Equality of the Sexes by Sarah Grimké. Topics include abolition, the ideology of separate spheres, and marriage as a means of survival.

Rebecca Archibald grew up in the mountains of Utah with 5 siblings. After graduating from BYU, she moved east for graduate school where she got her Master’s in Teaching Writing. Since, she has moved back and forth across the country, living in 7 states. In each place, one of the first things she did was to find the library. She loves to read, write, teach others to write, and do anything outside in the mountains or near the ocean. She now lives in Southern California with her husband Jared and their 5 kids. Rebecca is one of the world’s worst selfie takers (hence the picture) but one of the best at rationalizing a need for chocolate.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Rebecca Archibald to discuss Letters on the Equality of the Sexes by Sarah Grimké. Topics include abolition, the ideology of separate spheres, and marriage as a means of survival.

Rebecca Archibald grew up in the mountains of Utah with 5 siblings. After graduating from BYU, she moved east for graduate school where she got her Master’s in Teaching Writing. Since, she has moved back and forth across the country, living in 7 states. In each place, one of the first things she did was to find the library. She loves to read, write, teach others to write, and do anything outside in the mountains or near the ocean. She now lives in Southern California with her husband Jared and their 5 kids. Rebecca is one of the world’s worst selfie takers (hence the picture) but one of the best at rationalizing a need for chocolate.

]]>5b85d463-e83a-4086-8e1a-052768c454bbTue, 02 Feb 2021 05:15:00 -070001:22:21falsefull111111Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Woman was a series of letters written in 1837, in response to a prominent pastor’s letter that reinforced Biblical interpretations supporting women’s subordinate status. Sarah Grimke responded to this letter with scripture, encouraging women to fight back, and take on a motto of "The Lord is my light, and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”On the Equality of the Sexes, by Judith Sargent MurrayAmy is joined by Jennie Austin Preece to discuss On the Equality of the Sexes by Judith Sargent Murray. Topics include the artfulness of clothing, bringing men into the emotional sphere, and reinterpreting the story of Eve.

Jennie Austin Preece was born and reared in the great potato-loving state of Idaho. She earned her bachelor’s degree in English/Humanities teaching at Brigham Young University. From there, she traveled down the roads of teaching mothering, writing, and eventually found herself in Cambridge, MA, where she earned her master’s degree at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. After migrating back west to Denver with her family, Jennie founded LemonED LLC, an education consulting business. When she isn’t creating curriculum or perfecting prose, you can find her dabbling in poetry, hiking with her kids and husband, traveling (when possible), or eating anything with peanut butter and chocolate.

]]>Amy is joined by Jennie Austin Preece to discuss On the Equality of the Sexes by Judith Sargent Murray. Topics include the artfulness of clothing, bringing men into the emotional sphere, and reinterpreting the story of Eve.

Jennie Austin Preece was born and reared in the great potato-loving state of Idaho. She earned her bachelor’s degree in English/Humanities teaching at Brigham Young University. From there, she traveled down the roads of teaching mothering, writing, and eventually found herself in Cambridge, MA, where she earned her master’s degree at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. After migrating back west to Denver with her family, Jennie founded LemonED LLC, an education consulting business. When she isn’t creating curriculum or perfecting prose, you can find her dabbling in poetry, hiking with her kids and husband, traveling (when possible), or eating anything with peanut butter and chocolate.

]]>182dbbf7-508f-4289-a012-aec202bbc615Tue, 26 Jan 2021 06:00:00 -070001:37:33falsefull110101In this groundbreaking 1791 essay, published a year before Wollstonecraft’s "Vindication of the Rights of Woman", Judith Sargent Murray claims that men are not intellectually and spiritually superior to women. The essay proposes a different way of reading the male superiority in the Bible, and criticizes educational practices that disadvantage women and girls.A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, by Mary Wollstonecraft, Part 2Amy is joined by guest Dr. Meagan Cahoon Alder to conclude their discussion of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft. This episode is Part Two of Two and covers Wollstonecraft’s thoughts on women’s education, fashion, religion, and chivalry.

Dr. Meagan Cahoon Alder is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is in private practice and works primarily with couples. She studied psychology in undergrad and went on to receive a Master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy in 2005. Ten years later, she went back to school and got a PhD, specializing in trauma and couple relationships. She is married to her best friend and they have three children together. Her mother, who is battling cancer, lives with them and together this three generation household keeps her on her toes. When she is not working or family-ing, she would ideally be watching live musical theater.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Dr. Meagan Cahoon Alder to conclude their discussion of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft. This episode is Part Two of Two and covers Wollstonecraft’s thoughts on women’s education, fashion, religion, and chivalry.

Dr. Meagan Cahoon Alder is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is in private practice and works primarily with couples. She studied psychology in undergrad and went on to receive a Master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy in 2005. Ten years later, she went back to school and got a PhD, specializing in trauma and couple relationships. She is married to her best friend and they have three children together. Her mother, who is battling cancer, lives with them and together this three generation household keeps her on her toes. When she is not working or family-ing, she would ideally be watching live musical theater.

]]>ed529440-13b7-4401-aa6c-8595f1c7fd3aWed, 20 Jan 2021 04:30:00 -070001:03:15falsefull1991A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, by Mary Wollstonecraft, Part 1Amy is joined by guest Dr. Meagan Cahoon Alder to begin their discussion of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft. This episode is Part One of Two and covers Wollstonecraft’s biography and historical context, pertinent authors of the Enlightenment, and the balance between reason and emotion. 

Dr. Meagan Cahoon Alder is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is in private practice and works primarily with couples. She studied psychology in undergrad and went on to receive a Master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy in 2005. Ten years later, she went back to school and got a PhD, specializing in trauma and couple relationships. She is married to her best friend and they have three children together. Her mother, who is battling cancer, lives with them and together this three generation household keeps her on her toes. When she is not working or family-ing, she would ideally be watching live musical theater.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Dr. Meagan Cahoon Alder to begin their discussion of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft. This episode is Part One of Two and covers Wollstonecraft’s biography and historical context, pertinent authors of the Enlightenment, and the balance between reason and emotion. 

Dr. Meagan Cahoon Alder is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is in private practice and works primarily with couples. She studied psychology in undergrad and went on to receive a Master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy in 2005. Ten years later, she went back to school and got a PhD, specializing in trauma and couple relationships. She is married to her best friend and they have three children together. Her mother, who is battling cancer, lives with them and together this three generation household keeps her on her toes. When she is not working or family-ing, she would ideally be watching live musical theater.

]]>6ef39643-480a-4c30-a714-8943b4a88a67Wed, 20 Jan 2021 04:30:00 -070059:40falsefull1881A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, written by the British proto-feminist Mary Wollstonecraft in 1792, is one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy.Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen, by Olympe de GougesAmy is joined by guest Lindsay Allebest for a discussion of the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen by Olympe de Gouges. Topics include the French Revolution, the origins of natural rights, the Veil of Ignorance.

Lindsay Allebest is currently a student at Boston University, where she studies History and Liberal Arts, as well as Spanish and Ancient Greece. Although she grew up in the sunny Bay Area in California, she loves living on the East Coast and finally getting some use out of her favorite plaid scarf. When she is not busy writing essays for school, Lindsay loves to sing, play board games with friends and family, and gaze lovingly at her cat Minerva. One of my favorite things to do with my reading partner and oldest child, Lindsay, is to make dinner together. Or sometimes I request that she read out loud from her textbooks or talk to me about her college classes while I cook. Lindsay taught me so many things on this episode, just as she teaches me constantly in everyday life.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Lindsay Allebest for a discussion of the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen by Olympe de Gouges. Topics include the French Revolution, the origins of natural rights, the Veil of Ignorance.

Lindsay Allebest is currently a student at Boston University, where she studies History and Liberal Arts, as well as Spanish and Ancient Greece. Although she grew up in the sunny Bay Area in California, she loves living on the East Coast and finally getting some use out of her favorite plaid scarf. When she is not busy writing essays for school, Lindsay loves to sing, play board games with friends and family, and gaze lovingly at her cat Minerva. One of my favorite things to do with my reading partner and oldest child, Lindsay, is to make dinner together. Or sometimes I request that she read out loud from her textbooks or talk to me about her college classes while I cook. Lindsay taught me so many things on this episode, just as she teaches me constantly in everyday life.

]]>962fde1f-7cc6-47f2-83b8-746359511b27Wed, 13 Jan 2021 05:00:00 -070001:02:02falsefull1771The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen, also known as the Declaration of the Rights of Woman, was written on 14 September 1791 by French activist, feminist, and playwright Olympe de Gouges in response to the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.The Creation of Feminist Consciousness, by Gerda LernerAmy is joined by guest Janette Canare for a discussion of The Creation of Feminist Consciousness by Gerda Lerner. Topics include the erasure of women’s history, overcoming gender-based barriers to education, and early examples of women’s literature.

Janette Canare was born and raised in Virginia, but has lived in California since moving to Silicon Valley for a tech start up in the early 90s. Her parents immigrated from the Philippines, moving to Norfolk in the mid-1960s, where her dad was in the Navy. These days, she is currently working towards a Master’s degree in Liberal Arts at Stanford University. She enjoys being outdoors—whether hiking, gardening, or for photography. She also loves art, theatre, and travelling.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Janette Canare for a discussion of The Creation of Feminist Consciousness by Gerda Lerner. Topics include the erasure of women’s history, overcoming gender-based barriers to education, and early examples of women’s literature.

Janette Canare was born and raised in Virginia, but has lived in California since moving to Silicon Valley for a tech start up in the early 90s. Her parents immigrated from the Philippines, moving to Norfolk in the mid-1960s, where her dad was in the Navy. These days, she is currently working towards a Master’s degree in Liberal Arts at Stanford University. She enjoys being outdoors—whether hiking, gardening, or for photography. She also loves art, theatre, and travelling.

]]>be863e2b-61d7-4797-8a57-958313942dabTue, 29 Dec 2020 01:15:00 -070001:17:16falsefull1661Did you know that women wrote plays, music, and essays during the Middle Ages and Renaissance? Did you know that women wrote feminist Biblical commentary for over 1,000 years, unknowingly repeating each other’s ideas? Gerda Lerner laments the continual “reinventing of the wheel,” as generation after generation struggled with the same questions and the same pain, unaware of the women who had come before them. Join Amy McPhie Allebest and Janette Canare as they highlight some of these women’s voices during their discussion of Gerda Lerner’s The Creation of Feminist Consciousness.Mary, Mother of God: Women in Early ChristianityAmy is joined by guest Sophie Allebest for a discussion of the religious figure of Mary. Topics include the Gospel of Paul, artists’ depictions of Mary, and the power of personal ritual.

Sophie Allebest is first and foremost, a Pisces. She loves Art, Architecture, History, and rainy days. She enjoys the ancient art of rhetoric and debate (i.e., arguing), and swimming in a freezing ocean or pool. When she’s not working hard at school and art, Sophie loves spending time with her family, friends, and cat.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Sophie Allebest for a discussion of the religious figure of Mary. Topics include the Gospel of Paul, artists’ depictions of Mary, and the power of personal ritual.

Sophie Allebest is first and foremost, a Pisces. She loves Art, Architecture, History, and rainy days. She enjoys the ancient art of rhetoric and debate (i.e., arguing), and swimming in a freezing ocean or pool. When she’s not working hard at school and art, Sophie loves spending time with her family, friends, and cat.

]]>9bae0392-d19b-48fa-b20a-19a30fda184dTue, 29 Dec 2020 01:00:00 -070001:00:15falsefull1551What happened between the writing of the New Testament and the formation of the Catholic church? What impact did the worship of the Virgin Mary and female saints have on Catholic women, and what happened when the Protestant Reformation demoted Mary and the female saints? Join Amy McPhie Allebest and Sophie Allebest as they review several historical sources and analyze Art masterpieces in an exploration of the Virgin Mary and her legacy.The Creation of Patriarchy, by Gerda Lerner, Part 2Amy is joined by guest Sherri Crawford to conclude their discussion of The Creation of Patriarchy by Gerda Lerner. This episode is Part Two of Two and covers topics spanning from Hebrew civilization through Aristotle and Ancient Greece.

Sherrie Crawford was born in Utah, the fifth of six children, and grew up in Arizona. She graduated from BYU-Idaho with a degree in Social Work, and completed a Master’s degree in Social Work from Boise State University. She is an elementary school counselor, and lives in Idaho with her husband and four children. Sherrie enjoys spending time with her family and friends, hiking, nature, adventures, learning, and any time spent in any body of water.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Sherri Crawford to conclude their discussion of The Creation of Patriarchy by Gerda Lerner. This episode is Part Two of Two and covers topics spanning from Hebrew civilization through Aristotle and Ancient Greece.

Sherrie Crawford was born in Utah, the fifth of six children, and grew up in Arizona. She graduated from BYU-Idaho with a degree in Social Work, and completed a Master’s degree in Social Work from Boise State University. She is an elementary school counselor, and lives in Idaho with her husband and four children. Sherrie enjoys spending time with her family and friends, hiking, nature, adventures, learning, and any time spent in any body of water.

]]>02606266-3b49-41dc-b3f9-51626add6617Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:45:00 -070001:12:50falsefull1441Who were the original authors of the Bible, and when did their oral traditions become scripture? What were the social practices that informed the stories they wrote, especially regarding gender dynamics? Join Amy McPhie Allebest and Sherrie Crawford as they continue the discussion of Gerda Lerner’s The Creation of Patriarchy, highlighting the traditions of the Hebrews and the ancient Greeks.The Creation of Patriarchy, by Gerda Lerner, Part 1Amy is joined by guest Sherri Crawford to begin their discussion of The Creation of Patriarchy by Gerda Lerner. This episode is Part One of Two and covers topics spanning from prehistory through Mesopotamian civilization and the Near Eastern Goddesses

Sherrie Crawford was born in Utah, the fifth of six children, and grew up in Arizona. She graduated from BYU-Idaho with a degree in Social Work, and completed a Master’s degree in Social Work from Boise State University. She is an elementary school counselor, and lives in Idaho with her husband and four children. Sherrie enjoys spending time with her family and friends, hiking, nature, adventures, learning, and any time spent in any body of water.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Sherri Crawford to begin their discussion of The Creation of Patriarchy by Gerda Lerner. This episode is Part One of Two and covers topics spanning from prehistory through Mesopotamian civilization and the Near Eastern Goddesses

Sherrie Crawford was born in Utah, the fifth of six children, and grew up in Arizona. She graduated from BYU-Idaho with a degree in Social Work, and completed a Master’s degree in Social Work from Boise State University. She is an elementary school counselor, and lives in Idaho with her husband and four children. Sherrie enjoys spending time with her family and friends, hiking, nature, adventures, learning, and any time spent in any body of water.

]]>a8941643-7f3c-4e83-8b9f-228f98a53d68Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:30:00 -070001:17:24falsefull1331Where did patriarchy come from? What was the Agricultural Revolution, and how did it change everything for our ancestors? What were gender dynamics like at the time of the “dawn of human civilization” in the fertile crescent? Join Amy McPhie Allebest and Sherrie Crawford as they discuss the creation of patriarchy in ancient Mesopotamia.The Chalice & the Blade: Our Past Our Future, by Riane EislerAmy is joined by guest Malia Morris to discuss The Chalice and The Blade by Riane Eisler. Topics include re-assessing hunter-gatherer societies, partnership and dominator models, and the civilization of ancient Minoan.

Malia Morris is a performing artist and voice teacher in the Bay Area. She studied Music Performance and Sociology in her undergraduate at Arizona State University, where she graduated with honors. In graduate school, she studied Dramatic Arts at Harvard University. Malia was awarded a thesis prize for her research on Broadway director Diane Paulus. Her research was selected for presentation at Harvard Symposium.

]]>Amy is joined by guest Malia Morris to discuss The Chalice and The Blade by Riane Eisler. Topics include re-assessing hunter-gatherer societies, partnership and dominator models, and the civilization of ancient Minoan.

Malia Morris is a performing artist and voice teacher in the Bay Area. She studied Music Performance and Sociology in her undergraduate at Arizona State University, where she graduated with honors. In graduate school, she studied Dramatic Arts at Harvard University. Malia was awarded a thesis prize for her research on Broadway director Diane Paulus. Her research was selected for presentation at Harvard Symposium.

]]>aa739803-01b8-4845-bffc-526cd4bd7b2fTue, 29 Dec 2020 00:15:00 -070057:38falsefull1221Did you know that the most ancient human settlements contain archeological evidence of goddess-worship? Did you know that these female-centric societies seem to have been egalitarian? Join Amy McPhie Allebest and Malia Morris as they discuss what author Riane Eisler labels “partnership cultures,” and how they were all overrun by “dominator cultures,” in this discussion of The Chalice and the Blade.IntroductionEpisode 1: Introduction

 

"Men and women live on a stage, on which they act out their assigned roles, equal in importance. The play cannot go on without both kinds of performers. Neither of them “contributes” more or less to the whole; neither is marginal or dispensable. But the stage set is conceived, painted, defined by men. Men have written the play, have directed the show, interpreted the meanings of the action. They have assigned themselves the most interesting, most heroic parts, giving women the supporting roles. 

As the women become aware of the difference in the way they fit into the play, they ask for more equality in the role assignments. They upstage the men at times, at other times they pinch-hit for a missing male performer. The women finally, after considerable struggle, win the right of access to equal role assignment, but first they must “qualify.” The terms of their qualifications” are again set by the men; men are the judges of how women measure up; men grant or deny admission. They give preference to docile women and to those who fit their job-descriptions accurately. Men punish, by ridicule, exclusion, or ostracism, any woman who assumes the right to interpret her own role or -worst of all sins - the right to rewrite the script.

It takes considerable time for the women to understand that getting “equal” parts will not make them equal, as long as the script, the props, the stage setting, and the direction are firmly held by men. When the women begin to realize that and cluster together between the acts, or even during the performance, to discuss what to do about it, this play comes to an end.”

-Gerda Lerner, The Creation of Patriarchy

 

I’m Amy McPhie Allebest, and this is "Breaking Down Patriarchy."

On this podcast when we say “Breaking Down Patriarchy,” we mean it in both senses of the word. We mean we want to “break it down” as in, understand it. We want to study Patriarchy as deeply and thoroughly as we can so that we can see the roots of this system, and understand how things have come to be the way they are today. And we’re not gonna lie, we also mean we want to “break down Patriarchy” in terms of dismantling it.

But we have a specific vision of how we want to accomplish this deconstruction. Returning to Gerda Lerner’s analogy where men and women are participating in a play together, in close proximity to each other and interconnected with each other, if someone starts swinging around a sledgehammer, trying to bring the set down, two things are likely to happen: one, the hammer will probably hit people in the face – maybe other women, or maybe men, who didn’t build the set or write the script either and are just doing their best trying to play the roles they were taught. Some of my very favorite people in the world are men – my dad, my brother, my brothers-in-law, my father-in-law, my sweet nephews, my male friends, my husband, who is my best friend and my son, who along with my daughters is the absolute joy of my life. I would not want anyone hitting these boys and men in the face with a hammer. So this podcast is not about women breaking down men. This is about women and men learning together and working together to create a system that is more just and happy for everyone.

The other problem with swinging a sledgehammer around on a stage is that it just tends to destroy whatever happens to be nearby. If you’re standing on stage and you start swinging a hammer around, you might take out some lighting or rip up the curtains, but you're not going to bring the whole stage down or cause the entire company to stop the show. So to us, “breaking down patriarchy” means breaking it down intelligently and methodically.

So here's how we are going to go about it: if you’ve ever taken a class on the History of Civilization or had a Liberal Arts curriculum in college, you’ll remember that students usually start with...]]>Episode 1: Introduction

 

"Men and women live on a stage, on which they act out their assigned roles, equal in importance. The play cannot go on without both kinds of performers. Neither of them “contributes” more or less to the whole; neither is marginal or dispensable. But the stage set is conceived, painted, defined by men. Men have written the play, have directed the show, interpreted the meanings of the action. They have assigned themselves the most interesting, most heroic parts, giving women the supporting roles. 

As the women become aware of the difference in the way they fit into the play, they ask for more equality in the role assignments. They upstage the men at times, at other times they pinch-hit for a missing male performer. The women finally, after considerable struggle, win the right of access to equal role assignment, but first they must “qualify.” The terms of their qualifications” are again set by the men; men are the judges of how women measure up; men grant or deny admission. They give preference to docile women and to those who fit their job-descriptions accurately. Men punish, by ridicule, exclusion, or ostracism, any woman who assumes the right to interpret her own role or -worst of all sins - the right to rewrite the script.

It takes considerable time for the women to understand that getting “equal” parts will not make them equal, as long as the script, the props, the stage setting, and the direction are firmly held by men. When the women begin to realize that and cluster together between the acts, or even during the performance, to discuss what to do about it, this play comes to an end.”

-Gerda Lerner, The Creation of Patriarchy

 

I’m Amy McPhie Allebest, and this is "Breaking Down Patriarchy."

On this podcast when we say “Breaking Down Patriarchy,” we mean it in both senses of the word. We mean we want to “break it down” as in, understand it. We want to study Patriarchy as deeply and thoroughly as we can so that we can see the roots of this system, and understand how things have come to be the way they are today. And we’re not gonna lie, we also mean we want to “break down Patriarchy” in terms of dismantling it.

But we have a specific vision of how we want to accomplish this deconstruction. Returning to Gerda Lerner’s analogy where men and women are participating in a play together, in close proximity to each other and interconnected with each other, if someone starts swinging around a sledgehammer, trying to bring the set down, two things are likely to happen: one, the hammer will probably hit people in the face – maybe other women, or maybe men, who didn’t build the set or write the script either and are just doing their best trying to play the roles they were taught. Some of my very favorite people in the world are men – my dad, my brother, my brothers-in-law, my father-in-law, my sweet nephews, my male friends, my husband, who is my best friend and my son, who along with my daughters is the absolute joy of my life. I would not want anyone hitting these boys and men in the face with a hammer. So this podcast is not about women breaking down men. This is about women and men learning together and working together to create a system that is more just and happy for everyone.

The other problem with swinging a sledgehammer around on a stage is that it just tends to destroy whatever happens to be nearby. If you’re standing on stage and you start swinging a hammer around, you might take out some lighting or rip up the curtains, but you're not going to bring the whole stage down or cause the entire company to stop the show. So to us, “breaking down patriarchy” means breaking it down intelligently and methodically.

So here's how we are going to go about it: if you’ve ever taken a class on the History of Civilization or had a Liberal Arts curriculum in college, you’ll remember that students usually start with humanity’s first written language in Mesopotamia, like the Code of Hammurabi, then progress to Homer and then Plato and Aristotle and on through Rome, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, then the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, then the Romantic Era, through thousands of years of essential texts, in order to understand the foundations underlying the way we think today. This is a really useful exercise, and we are going to use the same method. We will start with the earliest human records and work our way through history chronologically in order to understand how things came to be the way they are. 

 

With that said, one thing we’ve already run into as we've begun our research is that as we study ancient Greek women, for example, we've wondered “what were women doing on the African continent during this time? What were the power dynamics between men and women in Asia at this time? How about in the Americas? How about in the Pacific Islands? We've also asked myself about the experiences of LGBTQ+ people in each place, in each time period. These are really important questions to me and to the women working with me on this project, and honestly I find it really disappointing that I for one have never  been asked in any educational setting to study these human beings’ histories. Because of that lack of exposure, I feel unqualified to talk about these subjects at this point on my journey.  So what I've decided to do is start with the path that I am at least somewhat familiar with. That means Mesopotamia, then Greece and then Europe and then the United States, including as many different American women’s voices as I can find. After I have gotten my bearings and understood the chronology through Europe and the United States, I'll be more prepared to dive into paths of History that are new to me.

 

Every week I will invite a guest onto the show who has read and studied an essential text in Women’s History, and we'll discuss the key points and takeaways. Like a book club, you can read it ahead of time and then listen to the discussion, or if you didn’t read it, you can still listen, get the "breakdown" and come away with some fascinating highlights. We want these texts to be accessible, and for you to gain not only interesting, but practical information that you can mull over, and have at the ready next time you're confronted with a difficult conversation on this topic.

 

For our first book club meeting I'll be joined by Malia Morris for a discussion of Riane Eisler's The Chalice and the Blade. Eisler’s book examines prehistoric evidence of a woman-centered past, and proposes that these peaceful societies, whom she labels "partnership" societies," were overtaken by aggressive, warring cultures, which she labels "dominator" societies. These ancient roots of human social systems will kick off our series, so see if you can get your hands on a copy of Riane Eisler's The Chalice and the Blade."

Join us for the discussion on the next episode of  "Breaking Down Patriarchy."

 

]]>059f2f36-ecfa-4b80-a854-fb96399d11e3Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:00:00 -070008:14falsefull1111What is "Breaking Down Patriarchy"? Host Amy McPhie Allebest explains the goals and format of this book club podcast.