The Feminist Present

In this episode, Cat Bohannon joins Laura and Adrian to discuss her most recent book, Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution, where she reframes the stories we tell about human evolution with women at the center.Cat Bohannon’s is a poet, academic, and scientist. She completed her PhD in 2022 at Columbia University, where she studied the evolution of narrative and cognition. Her work has appeared in Science, The Atlantic, Scientific American, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, Lapham’s Quarterly, The Georgia Review, and Poets Against the War.

In this enlightening chat, Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs, a Queer Black Troublemaker and Black Feminist Love Educator, shares her groundbreaking insights from her biography of Audre Lorde. She dives into Lorde's deep connections with nature and mentorship, shedding light on how these elements shaped her poetry. The conversation touches on the significance of storytelling and community engagement, along with the emotional process of honoring Lorde's legacy. Gumbs emphasizes the need for compassion and understanding in navigating feminist spaces, making her reflections both poignant and inspiring.

Samhita Mukhopadhyay, former executive editor of Teen Vogue and now editorial director at the Meteor, dives into the evolution of women's leadership beyond the 'girlboss' era. She discusses the pandemic's role in reshaping work-life balance and the quest for fulfillment over hustle culture. With humor, she critiques tech industry's impact on inequality and reflects on the evolution of feminism, emphasizing intersectionality and the importance of mentorship. Personal anecdotes and literary recommendations enrich the conversation, making it a thought-provoking listen.

Vanessa Angélica Villarreal is a celebrated author and poet, known for her insightful essays blending music, memory, and personal narrative. In this discussion, she dives into the queered pop culture icons of the '90s, unpacking the complexities of identity with figures like Selena and Beyoncé. The conversation touches on the impact of Kurt Cobain's legacy on societal issues, as well as the significance of Ricky Vasquez in shaping bisexual representation. Villarreal also emphasizes the power of magical realism in addressing loss and cultural narratives.

Sarah Manguso joins Laura to talk about her newest book, Liars. Telling the blistering story of a marriage as it burns to the ground, Liars depicts the slow and normalized forms of abuse and misogyny baked into marriage. Pre-order liars now, for release on July 23rd.Sarah Manguso's book tour comes to San Francisco on Wednesday, July 24, 2024 at 7:00pm @ The Booksmith! Details and RSVP here.Sarah Manguso is a poet and author of nine books. Her poetry has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Review of Books, the New York Times Magazine. Her work has been recognized by an American Academy of Arts and Letters Literature Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and her writing has been translated into twelve languages.

Jessica Calarco joins Laura and Adrian to unpack her newly released book, Holding It Together: How Women Became America’s Social Safety Net. They discuss the histories and the sociological interviews central to Calarco's book, painting a picture of the women who are tasked with holding society together with their labor.Dr. Jessica Calarco is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an expert on education, families, and health decision-making. Her award-winning research reveals how structures power and privilege maintain socioeconomic, racial/ethnic, and gender inequalities in these settings. She is the author of Negotiating Opportunities, A Field Guide to Grad School, and most recently Holding It Together: How Women Became America’s Social Safety Net.

Author and self-described "soccer mom Simone de Beauvoir" Lyz Lenz makes a triumphant return to the pod to discuss her new book THIS AMERICAN EX-WIFE with Laura and Adrian. (Please refer to TFP Episode 7 from December 2020 for Lyz's first mid-derecho podcast appearance!) Her third book in five years, THIS AMERICAN EX-WIFE brings Lenz's characteristic blend of incisive sociological research and searing personal commentary to a highly relevant post-pandemic issue: divorce. Discussion topics include how Laura and Lyz just missed each other in the early-2000s Twin Cities, why the movie Fargo is the Beetlejuice of the Midwest, and what we really talk about when we talk about women and divorce. 

After a stunning revelation about a life-changing moment THE Dr. Roxane Gay offered Laura, Adrian and Laura join acclaimed memoirist Nicole Chung to discuss her second book, A Living Remedy. Following the contours of A Living Remedy, this discussion travels through the national tragedy of American healthcare, what an elite education and successful writing career can and can't do for class mobility, and much more.

Laura interviews novelist Lydia Kiesling about her second novel Mobility. Related discussion topics also include the astrology of The Sopranos (Laura and Lydia are both Christopher suns, Mobility's protagonist Bunny Glenn is more of a Meadow rising), the '90s in girlhood, the time Lydia joined a panel Laura organized at Stanford with a newborn on her chest, how mothers write whole books in stolen moments, and what we really talk about when we talk about girlbosses in the oil and gas industry.

Laura and Adrian embark on their new series: feminism and the horror genre. We dedicate the first episode of this series to two favorites of ours: Hollywood treasure Sigourney Weaver and slimy aliens with acid for blood. A discussion of 1986’s Aliens, horror and motherhood, and dueling queens.