Women belong in the House

We're bringing you another podcast from Wonder Media Network that we think you'll love: White Picket Fence. White Picket Fence interrogates the structures of inequity affecting women since America’s founding. On the newest season, host Julie Kohler investigates mothers as a political force — how motherhood has been utilized for political gain and why the identity of “mother” remains so politically potent. In the fall of 2020, a group of mothers gathered around a kitchen table. They were...

In 1961, Norma and Mel Gabler were a quiet couple living in Longview, Texas. One day, they noticed some factual errors in one of their sons’ textbooks. What began as a small complaint morphed into a multi-decade crusade to shape what children of Texas ​​— and therefore the country — read in their textbooks. In an election year with raging debates around education, this audio documentary charts how Texas dictated American education over the last sixty years and examines how the fight over our...

The overturning of Roe v. Wade was one of the most sensational events of the year, though not for the better. In the season 9 premiere, A’shanti sits down with Oriaku Njoku, the new executive director for the National Network for Abortion Funds to talk about what’s next following the fall of this landmark decision. They delve into the reasons abortion is healthcare, the importance of Black women’s voices at the forefront of the reproductive justice movement, and why it’s time for a radical...

Well, here we are. We're on the other side of what we've been talking about for years. Roe v. Wade has been struck down, and for the first time in our lifetime, abortion is no longer protected. In our first episode, Kate and Jamia talk to folks who've been living, and working, and surviving, in a state where abortion access has been under fire for years, even before Roe fell -- Kentucky. To learn more about the Kentucky Health Justice Network, click here. Our sponsor, ActBlue, has tools...

Introducing Wonder Media Network’s first true crime show, I Was Never There. Thirty-four years ago, Marsha “Mudd” Ferber vanished without a trace from Morgantown, WV. Mother-daughter duo Karen and Jamie Zelermyer are going back to the land to figure out what the hell happened. Named a 2022 Tribeca Film Festival official selection for audio storytelling, I Was Never There is as much true crime show as it is an ode to Appalachian countercultural movements of the 1970s and 1980s. Listen...

Given the recent Supreme Court leak, we're bringing you a bonus episode from Ordinary Equality. Executive Producer Jenny Kaplan sat down with OE Hosts Kate Kelly and Jamia Wilson to talk about what comes next in a post-Roe v. Wade world.

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When it comes to the failure of the 1971 Comprehensive Childcare Development Act, it's easy to point a finger at conservatives. But that's not the whole story. This week, join host Julie as she dives into the battle between care feminism and career feminism, and how the winner of that match up has impacted women's right advocacy for the last 50 years.

Although the Build Back Better Act could not deliver on all the care economy issues, there is still reason for hope. With a bipartisan oriented strategy, some of these issues can still get through the House and the Senate – universal pre-k being one of those. On our final episode of the series, Jenny and Julie are joined by Representative Kathy Manning to discuss the importance of universal pre-k and what the future holds for care infrastructure.

This week, Julie dives deep into the economic ideology that arose alongside social conservatism and prevented public investments in care. We’ll break down what “neoliberalism” is and what the rise of it has meant for family life -- how the mix of low taxes, deregulation, and privatization has made family life more economically precarious for the vast majority of Americans.

The American child care system is full of contradiction. For individual families, care costs keep rising. But many caregivers are barely paid a living wage. The Build Back Better Act would have been the first federal intervention in this sector in fifty years. Without it, this broken cycle continues. On today’s episode, Jenny and Julie are joined by Assistant Speaker Katherine Clark to discuss the precarious state of our care economy.

How did the U.S. become a society that treats caregiving as a private family responsibility rather than a public good? In this episode, Julie explores the longstanding and continued role racism has played in preventing investments in public goods that would benefit everyone, including caregiving. We’ll also do a deep dive into the 1970s when the U.S. nearly invested in universal childcare -- and how fear was deployed to block it.

The need to take family or medical leave touches every American. Yet, despite overwhelming popularity, the U.S. stands alone as the only industrialized nation without paid leave. On today's episode, Jenny and Julie are joined by Representative Lauren Underwood to unpack why America continues to lag behind and the ongoing political fight around this crucial issue.

This week, host Julie Kohler travels back to the mid-20th century to examine the creation of the “traditional” nuclear family — a myth only made possible through the exploitation of Black women’s domestic labor — and how the family values and nostalgia of this era continue to exist in today’s debate over “caring economy” policies.

In this new season of Women belong in the House, we’re examining America’s caregiving crisis. In our first episode, Jenny and Julie explore the child tax credit with one of its longtime supporters -- Rep. Rosa DeLauro.

In March 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic became a global health crisis. But from it bore a whole set of complementary crises: an economic crisis and a caregiving crisis. The pandemic erased more than 30 years of gains in women’s labor force participation, while simultaneously leaving women to shoulder the majority of the family responsibilities. But the conditions for these crises existed long before COVID-19 hit American shores. How exactly did we get here?

In this new season of Women belong in the House, we’re examining America’s caregiving crisis. After years of a pandemic that disproportionately affected women, Congress is still working to pass legislation that would address some of our most pressing needs. To dive into the care economy, host Jenny Kaplan is teaming up with another Wonder Media Network original podcast, White Picket Fence, and its host, Julie Kohler. Jenny’s going to talk to the women in the House that are championing...

In light of what's happening at the Supreme Court right now, we're bringing you another show from Wonder Media Network that you need to listen to: Ordinary Equality. Welcome to the final episode of Ordinary Equality Season Two. We’ve covered the history of abortion, the highs and lows of Roe v. Wade, the secret abortion underground of the 70s, and even the way the long southern strategy played into the state of abortion access in this country. Kate and Jamia look towards the future of the...

In light of what's happening at the Supreme Court right now, we're bringing you another show from Wonder Media Network that you need to listen to: Ordinary Equality. When the anti-choice movement couldn’t stop individuals from choosing to get an abortion, they turned to the next biggest roadblock--the abortion providers themselves. Today, hosts Kate Kelly and Jamia Wilson are talking all about TRAP laws. How did the anti-choice movement work around Roe v. Wade? How did these laws create a...

In light of what's happening at the Supreme Court right now, we're bringing you another show from Wonder Media Network that you need to listen to: Ordinary Equality. In 1994, twelve Black women gathered together in a room and redefined the movement for reproductive freedom--they focused on an intersectional freedom, built an entirely new framework, and called it Reproductive Justice. Today, hosts Jamia Wilson and Kate Kelly take us through the history of the Reproductive Justice movement and...