Liberating Motherhood

S4 Ep5: Ushma Upadhyay: What Abortion Research Teaches Us

Right wing opponents of women’s rights and bodily autonomy cannot win on the facts, so they’ve decided to create a fact-free world. And sadly, they’re winning the battle.

S4 Ep4: Anna Louie Sussman: The Impossibility of Family in an Age of Uncertainty

Why is having a child so increasingly out of reach, economically, socially, and emotionally? And for those who choose to have children, why does the burden feel so massiv

S4 Ep3: Wylin Wilson: Womanist Bioethics

For centuries, our ethics—and especially our bioethics—have left out the most marginalized, treating white men and other powerful groups as the default and the norm.  Wy

S4 Ep2: Jess Calarco: How Women Became the Social Safety net

When women are overloaded with the endless burdens of household labor, we tell them to go on strike or lower their expectations. But this advice pretends that women are a

S4 Ep1: Gemma Hartley: No One Loves an Angry Woman

Welcome to season four of the Liberating Motherhood podcast! You can expect to see an episode every Wednesday, except for periodic days off. This first episode is with on

S3 Ep21: Angela Saini: Who Benefits From Convincing Us Oppression is Natural?

Supremacy culture wants to convince us all that it is inevitable. If oppression is natural, it’s hardly worth fighting, after all. Racism, sexism, and other systems of op

S3 Ep20: Angela Jones: Sex as a Political Act

No matter how much we try to relegate sexuality to the most private corner of our lives, it inevitably escapes. Sex is not really a private act. It’s a political one, whi

S3 Ep19: The myth of misandry--and why hating men is not morally equivalent to hating women

Rather than taking the summer entirely off, I’m reducing my podcasting frequency to every other week, and posting reruns of some of my favorite episodes during the off we

S3 Ep18: Valena Beety: The Criminalization of Mothers and Motherhood

Two weeks ago, I interviewed Justine van der Leun about criminalized survival, and why women so often end up in prison for “crimes” of self-defense. The truth is that wom

S3 Ep17: Justine van der Leun: Criminalized Survival

In patriarchy, there is no sure escape from violent relationships. The courts and police may not help. Friends and family may turn their backs. And even when a woman’s li

S3 Ep16: (Rerun) Loretta Ross: Calling In, Building Sustainable Activism, and Changing Minds

Rather than taking the summer entirely off, I’m reducing my podcasting frequency to every other week, and posting reruns of some of my favorite episodes during the off we

S3 Ep15: Dr. Elizabeth Dalgarno: Surviving Family Court and the Normalization of Abuse

“There is always a reason for people to hate on women.” — Elizabeth Dalgarno Why is it so hard for victims of coercive control, domestic violence, and other forms of abu

S3 Ep14: Rerun: Kate Manne: Understanding the Logic of Misogyny

Exciting news: I’m writing a book. Less exciting news: This means I have a little less time right now. It’s also summer break, which means things are in a chronic state o

S3 Ep13: Inimai Chettiar: Fighting for Women's Legal Rights

I’ve often said that there’s a concerted effort to get people to hate lawyers, and it’s because when people hate lawyers, they won’t assert or even learn about their own

S3 Ep12: Stefanie O'Connell: The Ambition Penalty

Mainstream career advice for women loves to pretend we can’t possibly know even the most basic facts about having a career.  We tell women to ask for a raise, as if they

S3 Ep11: Cordelia Fine: Debunking Sex Difference Myths

You’re being lied to about gender difference science. Researchers are inflating, overstating, and falsifying their data, or building biases into the research that render

S3 Ep10: TJ Raphael: Coercive Adoption, Liberty Lost, and Who Gets to Be a Mother

“The adoption industry needs vulnerable pregnant women.” — TJ Raphael Who gets to be a mother? And who gets to decide? This is the question at the heart of TJ Raphael’s

S3 Ep9: Jennie Young: Dating More Safely in a Patriarchy

Patriarchy destroys relationships, and it has turned dating into a nightmare. Jennie Young is fighting back with her Burned Haystack method, and now the method is a book.

S3 Ep8: Soraya Chemaly: Male Supremacy

Why is misogyny so widespread, even when men claim to love and care about women, even among those who believe they are feminists? Male supremacy helps explain this phenom

S3 Ep7: Sarah Ruden: A Short History of Bad Ideas About Women

I wrote recently about how men are using AI to prop up their belief in their own superiority. This propaganda is nothing new. Men have, for thousands of years, used every