Family Proclamations: Rethinking Relationships, Gender, and Sexuality

Lauren Sandler is an "only child" expert. She is one. She has one. And as an award-winning journalist, Lauren dug deep to answer some of the most pressing questions about singletons. Are they more lonely? Are they more selfish? Would they be better off with siblings? She answers these questions and more in her book, One and Only: The Freedom of Having an Only Child and the Joy of Being One. About the Guest Lauren Sandler is an award-winning journalist and author based in Brooklyn. She is author of multiple best-selling books including This Is All I Got: A New Mother’s Search for Home, Righteous: Dispatches from the Evangelical Youth Movement, and One and Only: The Freedom of Having an Only Child, and the Joy of Being One. Her essays and features have appeared in dozens of publications including Time, The New York Times, Slate, The Atlantic, The Nation, The New Republic, The Guardian, New York Magazine, and Elle. She has been on staff at Salon and at NPR, where she worked on All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Weekend Edition, and the Cultural Desk. And there’s even more! Visit laurenosandler.com/about to see what she's up to now. Complete transcript available at familyproclamations.org.

As an ultra-Orthodox Jew, Sara Glass was raised to believe her purpose in life was to marry a righteous man and bear children, all to the glory of God. On the outside, she was following that plan to perfection. But on the inside, something was pulling her in a very different direction. It was traumatic, and she would have to risk everything to find healing. Sara joins us to discuss her new memoir, Kissing Girls on Shabbat. Note: This episode includes discussion of miscarriage and also sexual violence. Listener discretion is advised. If you or someone you know is experiencing intimate partner abuse, help is available. Contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233, text the word "START" to 88788, or visit thehotline.org. About the Guest Sara Glass is a psychotherapist and writer in New York City. She earned her a Master’s in Social Work from Rutgers University and a PhD in Psychology from Capella University. She is the clinical director of Soul Wellness NYC, a private psychotherapy practice in Midtown Manhattan, and serves as a Clinical Supervisor for Jewish Queer Youth, a non-profit organization that supports and empowers LGBTQ youth. Learn more at drsaraglass.com or follow her on social media: @drsaraglass. Complete transcript available here: familyproclamations.org.

What does it mean to be a man? It depends on who you ask. And it depends on *when* you ask, because masculinity has always been a moving target. In this episode we travel back to ancient Rome, where manly men loved war, violence, and sexual conquest. Mike Pope says this history has powerful relevance for us today. We're talking about his book, Lucretius and the End of Masculinity. About the Guest Mike Pope is Associate Professor of Classical Studies at Brigham Young University. He is author of the book, Lucretius and the End of Masculinity. Complete transcript available here (familyproclamations.org).

Eris Young is author of the go-to book on everything non-binary. They break down the basics of the gender binary, painting a more expansive, inclusive, and accurate picture of human identity. What is it like to be nonbinary? What challenges do people face? What about healthcare for nonbinary folks? All this and more, as we talk to Eris Young about their book, They/Them/Their: A Guide to Nonbinary and Genderqueer Identities. About the Guest Eris Young is a queer, transgender writer of fiction and nonfiction. Their books They/Them/Their: A guide to nonbinary and genderqueer identities (2019) and Ace Voices: What it means to be asexual, aromantic, demi or gray-ace (2022), are published by Jessica Kingsley. They were the writer-in-residence at Lighthouse, Edinburgh's radical bookshop, from 2019 to 2022, in 2020 received a Scottish Book Trust New Writer Award for fiction, and are a 2023 IPSE Freelancer Award finalist, in the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion category. Full transcript available here (familyproclamations.org).

Maggie Smith gives us an unflinching look at divorce today and what it means to live and write our own lives. Her best-selling memoir, You Could Make This Place Beautiful, is a story about a mother’s fierce and constant love for her children, and a woman’s love and regard for herself. Need some divorce catharsis? Want to hear what it's like to keep going? Join us. About the Guest Maggie Smith is a poet and best-selling award-winning author of the memoir, You Could Make This Place Beautiful. She also wrote Good Bones and Keep Moving. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, New Yorker, The Nation, The Paris Review, and The Best American Poetry. Her awards include the Academy of American Poets Prize, Pushcart Prize, and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Full transcript is available here (familyproclamations.org).

Jessica Pryce believed a career at Child Protective Services would be a rewarding way to help keep kids safe. What she learned on the job completely changed her mind, as the system itself kept getting closer and closer to home. Now she's a scholar of the system and works as a public advocate to help change it for the better. About the Guest Dr. Jessica Pryce earned her Master's of Social Work degree from Florida State University and a PhD from Howard University. She is currently a research professor at Florida State University’s College of Social Work. Her book is called Broken: Transforming Child Protective Services—Notes of a Former Caseworker. Full transcript available here (familyproclamations.org).

Caregiving for aging and dying parents can be tough for anyone, but it's even tougher when it forces you to confront longtime family dynamics of abuse. Sociologist Deborah Cohan blurs the lines between academic research on family caregiving and violence, and her own personal story about a father she calls both adoring and abusive. Her memoir is called Welcome to Wherever We Are: A Memoir of Family, Caregiving, and Redemption. About the Guest Deborah J. Cohan is a professor of sociology at the University of South Carolina-Beaufort. She earned her PhD in Sociology and Joint Master of Arts in Women’s Studies and Sociology at Brandeis University. Alongside her many academic publications, she is the author of the popular blog “Social Lights” for Psychology Today. Full transcript available here (familyproclamations.org).

With the legalization of same-sex marriage in 2015, queer families are more visible today than ever. But the path to becoming a parent is complicated for LGBTQ people. We talk about about the challenges and joys of queer family building with expert Abbie Goldberg, author of LGBTQ Family Building: A Guide for Prospective Parents. About the Guest Dr. Abbie E. Goldberg is a psychologist and researcher who provides LGBTQ parents and prospective parents with the detailed, evidence‑based knowledge they need to navigate the transition to parenthood and help their children thrive. Full transcript of this episode available here (familyproclamations.org).

Divorce can be a difficult process today, but it's nothing compared to what it used to be. In the late 1800s, women from around the country had to fight for the right to separate from their husbands on their own terms. April White explains how their stories still impact us today. About the Guest April White is author of The Divorce Colony: How Women Revolutionized Marriage and Found Freedom on the American Frontier. She has served as an editor and writer at Atlas Obscura and Smithsonian Magazine. Her historical stories have also appeared in publications including the Washington Post, Boston Globe Magazine and The Atavist Magazine. Full transcript available here (familyproclamations.org).

Angela Tucker is a Black woman who was adopted by white parents as a very young child. Angela says transracial adoptees like her grow up wrestling with complicated feelings of gratitude and love, but also rejection, loss, and confusion about their heritage. About the Guest Angela Tucker is author of “You Should Be Grateful:" Stories of Race, Identity, and Transracial Adoption. Her family story was featured in the documentary Closure. She has over 15 years of experience working within adoption and foster care agencies, mentoring over 200 adoptees as founder of the Adoptee Mentoring Society. In addition to producing the podcast The Adoptee Next Door, she consulted with NBC’s This Is Us. Full transcript available here (familyproclamations.org).

When Jessi Hempel came out of the closet she had no idea her whole church-going family had been hiding in there with her. And things got complicated fast when the closet door kept swinging open. About the Author Jessi Hempel is author of The Family Outing: A Memoir. She is also host of the award-winning podcast Hello Monday, and a senior editor-at-large at LinkedIn. Her features and cover stories have appeared in Wired, Fortune, and TIME. She has appeared on CNN, PBS, MSNBC, Fox, and CNBC, addressing the culture and business of technology. Hempel is a graduate of Brown University and received a master’s in journalism from UC Berkeley. She lives in Brooklyn with her wife and children. REFERENCES Jessi Hempel, "My Brother’s Pregnancy and the Making of a New American Family," TIME (Sept. 12, 2016). Full transcript available here (familyproclamations.org).

One hundred years ago, a bright new age for children was dawning in America. Child labor laws were being passed, public education was spreading, and more. But Adam Benforado says America stopped short in its revolution of children's rights. Today, more than eleven million American children live in poverty. We deny young people any political power, while we fail to act on the issues that matter most to them: racism, inequality, and climate change. That's why Adam is calling for a new revolution for kids. He joins us to discuss his book, A Minor Revolution: How Prioritizing Kids Benefits Us All. About the Guest Adam Benforado is a professor of law at the Drexel University Kline School of Law and the New York Times best-selling author of A Minor Revolution: How Prioritizing Kids Benefits Us All and Unfair: The New Science of Criminal Injustice. His research, teaching, and advocacy is focused on children’s rights and criminal justice. A graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School, he served as a clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and an attorney at Jenner & Block in Washington, D.C. He has published numerous scholarly articles, and his popular writing has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Scientific American, Slate, and The Atlantic. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife and children. Full transcript available here (familyproclamations.org).

Your family is...loving? Your family is...hurtful? Your family is...all this and more? If you feel overwhelmed when you think about your family, this episode will help you understand your anxiety and give you evidence-based tools to repair it. Dr. Mariel Buqué is a leading specialist in trauma psychology. She says our physical and mental health challenges can be rooted in family trauma passed down through the generations—not just culturally, but even biologically. We're talking about her new book, Break the Cycle: A Guide to Healing Intergenerational Trauma. About the Guest Dr. Mariel Buqué is an Afro-Dominican psychologist who received her doctorate in counseling psychology from Columbia University, where she also trained as a fellow in holistic mental health. She is a world-renowned intergenerational trauma expert. Full transcript available here (familyproclamations.org).

Cat Bohannon says for far too long the story of human evolution has ignored the female body. Her new book offers a sweeping revision of human history. It's an urgent and necessary corrective that will forever change your understanding of birth and why it's more difficult for humans than virtually any other animal species on the planet. Her best-selling book is called Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution, and we're talking all about it in this episode. About the Guest Cat Bohannon is a researcher and author with a Ph.D. from Columbia University in the evolution of narrative and cognition. Her essays and poems have appeared in Scientific American, Mind, Science Magazine, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, The Georgia Review, The Story Collider, and Poets Against the War. She lives with her family in Seattle. Full transcript available here (familyproclamations.org).

Dad, mom, two kids, a white picket fence, and everybody knows their role. It's the classic nuclear family. I grew up believing this was the one right way to be a family—until I started getting to know real people who didn’t fit that mold. Now we're watching this old nuclear family model explode in real time, but we don't need to hit the panic button. We can let curiosity lead the way. I'm Blair Hodges, host of Family Proclamations. I'm on a quest to find out everything I can about family, gender identity, and sexuality. I want you to join me. On this podcast I'm talking to best-selling authors about marriage, divorce, cohabitation, single adulthood, parenting, childlessness, adoption, fostering, gender identity, human biology, and lots more. We'll learn more about different families and identities, past, present, and future. So please get ready to surrender old stereotypes and embrace new perspectives. There’s no single way to be a family. And every kind of family has something we can learn from. Family Proclamations arrives in January. Follow for updates on IG @famprocs.