It’s been just over a year since Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died. We reckon with recent revelations and ask the important questions: How did her death shape the current fight around abortion rights and other issues? Should she have retired? And what comes next at the Supreme Court?  Helping us to sort out these questions and set the record straight is special guest:Irin Carmon, senior correspondent at New York Magazine and the co-author of Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Rate and review “On the Issues with Michele Goodwin" to let us know what you think of the show! Let’s show the power of independent feminist media. Check out this episode’s landing page at MsMagazine.com for a full transcript, links to articles referenced in this episode, further reading and ways to take action.Tips, suggestions, pitches? Get in touch with us at ontheissues@msmagazine.com. Support the show

In this episode, we discuss the dark money underwriting anti-abortion laws like Texas's near-total abortion ban, S.B. 8, which bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy with no exceptions for rape or incest AND places a bounty on those who aid or abet people who want to terminate their pregnancies. But people are fighting back. The Abortion Ban Accountability project—led by Corporate Accountability Action—is calling out corporations who fund legislators who stand against abortion rights and LGBTQ rights. While the #OffTheBANWagon campaign aims to put pressure on several companies, one is singled out in particular: AT&T. The company has spent almost $700k financing the campaigns of the primary sponsors of S.B. 8 in Texas—all while claiming “one of the company’s core values is gender equity and the empowerment of women.” We’re diving right in with a very special guest:Cecile Richards, an activist, reproductive rights advocate and former president of Planned Parenthood. She is also the co-founder of the women’s political action group Supermajority, and co-chair of American Bridge PAC. Most recently, she helped launch the #OffTheBANWagon project, which aims to hold the corporations that bankroll extreme anti-abortion state legislators accountable. Richards is the author of the memoir Make Trouble: Standing Up, Speaking Out, and Finding the Courage to Lead and the daughter of former Texas Gov. Ann Richards.Rate and review “On the Issues with Michele Goodwin" to let us know what you think of the show! Let’s show the power of independent feminist media. Check out this episode’s landing page at MsMagazine.com for a full transcript, links to articles referenced in this episode, further reading and ways to take action.Tips, suggestions, pitches? Get in touch with us at ontheissues@msmagazine.com. Support the show

In August, the United Nations General Assembly moved to create a Permanent Forum on People of African Descent. There was pushback. Yet, on an international level, the demand for a reckoning with anti-Blackness reverberates around the world. Advocates know learning about the African Diaspora, histories of anti-Blackness and the need for reparations is more important than ever.Consider this: The British government paid the equivalent of 17 billion pounds (in today’s currency) to compensate slave owners for the lost capital associated with abolition. These reparations debts by the British government to slaveowners and their descendants were paid off in 2015.  How does this hidden history fit into contemporary discourse about global slavery, Black Lives Matter, civil rights and more?  We’re diving right in with a very special guest:Dr. Amara Enyia, a public policy expert and strategist. She is also the managing director of Diaspora Rising, a transnational advocacy organization working on issues of concern to the Global Black Diaspora around the world.  Rate and review “On the Issues with Michele Goodwin" to let us know what you think of the show! Let’s show the power of independent feminist media. Check out this episode’s landing page at MsMagazine.com for a full transcript, links to articles referenced in this episode, further reading and ways to take action.Tips, suggestions, pitches? Get in touch with us at ontheissues@msmagazine.com. Support the show

Today’s show is all about reproductive health, rights and justice. We are unpacking the Texas abortion law, S.B. 8, talking about the Supreme Court, and what the legacies of legislative interference with reproductive decision-making and autonomy mean for women, people who can become pregnant, and for U.S. democracy.    We’re diving right in with a very special guest and pioneer in the reproductive justice movement and thought leader on reproductive health and rights:  Professor Dorothy Roberts, author of Killing the Black Body, Shattered Bonds and the forthcoming page-turner, Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families—and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World. She is the George A. Weiss University professor of law and sociology, the Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander professor of civil rights, as well as a professor of Africana studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where she also serves as the director of the Program on Race, Science and Society.  Rate and review “On the Issues with Michele Goodwin" to let us know what you think of the show! Let’s show the power of independent feminist media.  Check out this episode’s landing page at MsMagazine.com for a full transcript, links to articles referenced in this episode, further reading and ways to take action. Tips, suggestions, pitches? Get in touch with us at ontheissues@msmagazine.com. Support the show

It’s 20 years after 9/11—what have we learned? In May, when U.S. and international troops began to withdraw from Afghanistan, feminists and Afghanistan experts warned of the brutal impact that would likely be felt by women and minorities with the return of the Taliban and in the vacuum of leadership. They were right.  The Taliban have announced their provisional government, which does not include a single woman. What does this mean for national security? The safety of women and girls? What are the geo-political dynamics yet to be sorted?     Helping us sort out these questions and set the record straight are special guests: Karen Joy Greenberg, expert on national security, terrorism and civil liberties and the director of the Center on National Security. Her latest book is Subtle Tools: The Dismantling of American Democracy from the War on Terror to Donald Trump. Greenberg's work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Nation, The National Interest and Mother Jones, among others.  Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, award-winning author and adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. She is the author of The Daughters of Kobani and Ashley's War, and writes regularly on Afghanistan’s politics and economy, entrepreneurship in fragile states, the fight to end child marriage, and issues affecting women and girls for publications including the New York Times, Financial Times, Fast Company, Christian Science Monitor and CNN.com.  Renee Montagne, NPR correspondent and host. From 2004 to 2016, Montagne co-hosted NPR's "Morning Edition," the most widely heard radio news program in the United States. Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Montagne has made 10 extended reporting trips to Afghanistan, where she has traveled to every major city, from Kabul to Kandahar. She has profiled Afghanistan's presidents and power brokers, while also focusing on the stories of Afghans at the heart of their complex country: schoolgirls, farmers, mullahs, poll workers, midwives and warlords.Gaisu Yari, a human rights defender from Afghanistan and survivor of child marriage who holds a master’s degree in human rights from Columbia University and a bachelor’s in Middle Eastern and gender studies from the University of Virginia. Yari is a writer and active speaker on women’s issues in Afghanistan and worked with the government of Afghanistan as a commissioner to the Civil Service Commission of Afghanistan, as well as with national and international organizations. The focus of her expertise is in human rights and gender justice. She has extensive knowledge and professional experience working in both the U.S. and Afghanistan.   Rate and review “On the Issues with Michele Goodwin" to let us know what you think of the show! Let’s show the power of independent feminist media. Check out this episode’s landing page at MsMagazine.com for a full transcript, links to articles referenced in this episode, further reading and ways to take action.Tips, suggestions, pitches? Get in touch with us at ontheissues@msmagazine.com. Support the show (http://msmagazine.com)Support the show

The recent rise in documented anti-Asian violence—which saw grandmothers being punched on the streets, and a major shooting in Atlanta—has raised questions about the current status of Asian American identity and safety in the U.S.   How does “Asian” fit into the American racial taxonomy, which has for so long relied on a dichotomy of Black and white?   Helping us to sort out these questions and set the record straight are very special guests:·         Nobuko Miyamoto, actor, activist, singer and third-generation Japanese American whose work has blended art and activism since the 1960s. She’s also the founder of Great Leap, a performing arts organization that promotes Asian American artistic works. She recently published a memoir, titled Not Yo' Butterfly: My Long Song of Relocation, Race, Love, and Revolution. ·         Dr. Claire Kim, professor of political science and Asian American studies at the University of California, Irvine. She has written two books—Bitter Fruit: The Politics of Black-Korean Conflict and Dangerous Crossings: Race, Species, and Nature in a Multicultural Age—and is currently working on a third book, Asian Americans in an Anti-Black World.  ·         Yang Huang, award-winning novelist and short story writer. She grew up in China’s Jiangsu province and participated in the 1989 student uprisings before coming to the U.S. to study computer science. She’s written two novels—My Good Son and Living Treasures—and a collection of linked short stories, My Old Faithful. Rate and review “On the Issues with Michele Goodwin" to let us know what you think of the show! Let’s show the power of independent feminist media.  Check out this episode’s landing page at MsMagazine.com for a full transcript, links to articles referenced in this episode, further reading and ways to take action. Tips, suggestions, pitches? Get in touch with us at ontheissues@msmagazine.com.Support the show

The 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games have been rife with controversy—from rulings targeting Black athletes like Sha’Carri Richardson, to COVID protests taking place just outside the stadium, to transphobia directed at the first openly trans athletes to ever compete on this highest international stage. And what about protecting mental health and threats against Simone Biles? Is the Olympics an uneven playing field?Helping us to unpack this and more is a very special guest: Ria Tabacco Mar, director of the Women’s Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), where she oversees women’s rights litigation. She was previously a senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender & HIV Project, where she helped argue the landmark civil rights case of Aimee Stephens which culminated in last year’s Bostock v. Clayton County ruling that expanded federal employment protections to LGBTQ+ people.  Rate and review “On the Issues with Michele Goodwin" to let us know what you think of the show! Let’s show the power of independent feminist media.Check out this episode’s landing page at MsMagazine.com for a full transcript, links to articles referenced in this episode, further reading and ways to take action.Tips, suggestions, pitches? Get in touch with us at ontheissues@msmagazine.com.Support the show

Republican lawmakers in Texas seem obsessed with passing extreme voter suppression legislation, banning critical race theory and outlawing abortion outright. In protest, Texas House Democrats have fled the state en masse and are making national news while camped out in the U.S. capital. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has threatened to arrest legislators when they return from Washington, D.C., *and* vowed to call special session after special session until the elections bill passes. On Saturday, July 31, thousands of people descended upon the Texas Capitol with signs demanding lawmakers “Protect Voting Rights," “End the Filibuster” and “Say No to Jim Crow."So … what the heck is happening in Texas?! If you haven’t been following along, don’t worry—we’ve got you covered in this week’s edition of “On the Issues,” 15 Minutes of Feminism. (Okay, 17 minutes!)  Helping us to sort out what the heck is happening in Texas is: Texas state Representative Donna Howard, one of the Democrats that fled the state. She represents Texas’s own district 48, based in Austin. She’s an Austin native, has served in the Texas House of Representatives since 2006, and is a member of the House Appropriations Committee and State Affairs Committee, as well as the chair of the Women’s Health Caucus. Roxy Szal, Ms. magazine’s digital editor and a co-producer for “On the Issues." She’s been reporting on the ground from Texas  and can weigh in status of democracy in the Lone Star State.Check out this episode’s landing page at MsMagazine.com for a full transcript, links to articles referenced in this episode, further reading and ways to take action.Tips, suggestions, pitches? Get in touch with us at ontheissues@msmagazine.com.Support the show

In this exciting episode, we’re having the sex talk you wish you got from your parents. Do you remember Judy Blume’s Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret? Well, today it’s me, host Michele Goodwin, asking the questions and inviting you to join us as we talk about sex, periods, non-binary healthcare, maternal health—and what don’t we know or ignore about our own bodies.     Today we ask: What do you wish you learned from your parents, in school, or even now?  And when it comes to reproductive and sexual health as policy issues, what’s on the docket and on the ballot in 2021? Whose rights are at stake?    Very special guests tackle these questions and more:Kelly Davis, a maternal health policy expert and vice president for global birth equity and innovation at the National Birth Equity Collaborative, an organization devoted to Black maternal and infant health. She is a public health professional and has worked in the past with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to launch programs for maternal health, HIV prevention, food access and more.  Dr. Fatu Forna, a maternal health consultant, obstetrician-gynecologist and epidemiologist. She has worked with the World Health Organization as their lead for reproductive and maternal health in Sierra Leone, and with the CDC as a medical epidemiologist. She is also the founder of the Mama-Pikin Foundation, which works to fight Sierra Leone’s high maternal mortality rates.  Mary Emily O’Hara, an LGBTQ media and policy expert and rapid response manager at GLAAD. They are also an award-winning journalist specializing in LGBTQ+ issues, and have written for Teen Vogue, Vice, Rolling Stone, The Advocate, Al Jazeera and more.  Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, an advocate for menstrual equity and the founder of Period Equity, a legal organization devoted to achieving menstrual equity through advocacy and policy change. She is also a lawyer with expertise in nonprofit leadership and development, and is currently a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law. In addition to being a regular contributor to Ms., her writing has been published in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Time magazine, Harper’s Bazaar and more. She is also the author of the book Periods Gone Public: Taking a Stand for Menstrual Equity.  Check out this episode’s landing page at MsMagazine.com for a full transcript, links to articles referenced in this episode, further reading and ways to take action.Tips, suggestions, pitches? Get in touch with us at ontheissues@msmagazine.com.Support the show

In our second '15 Minutes of Feminism’ episode, the Badass Women of Podcasting take on the Supreme Court. As the court goes into recess, we’re recapping the highs and lows of the past year. What was at stake? What did feminists win — and whose rights remain at risk? We update you on the state of the court, cases feminists should be keeping their eyes on going forward, and more.   Helping us to sort out these questions and set the record straight is our very special returning guest: • Leah Litman, an assistant professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School, where she teaches and writes on constitutional law, federal post-conviction review, and federal sentencing. She is the co-founder of Women Also Know Law—a searchable database of women and non-binary people who have academic appointments in law—and is one of the co-hosts and creators of the popular "Strict Scrutiny" podcast, which focuses on the Supreme Court.Rate and review “On the Issues with Michele Goodwin" to let us know what you think of the show! Let’s show the power of independent feminist media.Check out this episode’s landing page at MsMagazine.com for a full transcript, links to articles referenced in this episode, further reading and ways to take action.Tips, suggestions, pitches? Get in touch with us at ontheissues@msmagazine.com.Support the show