The 2020 election revealed the deep fractures in U.S. democracy and its electoral system. Many were already there, but this past election truly pushed our voting system to its limits.  “Many of the familiar procedures for translating the people’s will into the choice of a president depend on norms of behavior, not laws,” guest Rick Hasen put it—evident from the significant efforts undertaken to undermine and interfere with the results of the election. Part of this dysfunction played out in the Senate, where the institution itself protects arcane rules and undemocratic processes. Is the Senate truly representative? Is the electoral system fair? Is it time to eliminate the electoral college? What other electoral reforms should we be considering? What does contemporary voter suppression look like?  One of the important Senate rules at issue today is the filibuster, which has been weaponized at various times to defeat important legislation. What purpose does the filibuster serve? Is it a barrier to real progress?  Helping us to sort out these questions and more are very special guests:Rick Hasen, chancellor’s professor of law and political science at the University of California, Irvine and a nationally recognized expert in election law and campaign finance regulation. He is co-author of leading casebooks in election law and remedies, and served in 2020 as a CNN election law analyst. He has authored over 100 articles on election law issues, published in numerous journals including the Harvard Law Review, Stanford Law Review and Supreme Court Review. Barbara R. Arnwine, president and founder of the Transformative Justice Coalition. She also served as the executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law from 1989 until 2015. Arnwine is internationally renowned for contributions on critical justice issues, including the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1991 and the 2006 reauthorization of provisions of the Voting Rights Act. She also serves as co-chair and facilitator of the National Commission for Voter Justice, the Millennial Votes Matters Convenings and the Voting Rights Alliance. She is the radio host of Igniting Change and is a regular presence in the national media.Cynthia Richie Terrell, founder and executive director of RepresentWomen (formerly Representation2020), a regular Ms. contributor and an outspoken advocate for rules and systems reforms to advance women’s representation and leadership in the United States. Terrell has been published in numerous print journals; appeared on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal; and has participated in numerous radio shows and panel discussions on the topics of electoral reform and structural strategies to elect more women.  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

"Women’s rights are human rights," proclaimed then-First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in September 1995 at the United Nations’ Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. This groundbreaking speech marked a turning point for feminism and international efforts toward gender equality, articulating women’s rights as a basic fundamental concept of civil rights, human rights and dignity. During the conference, 189 countries unanimously adopted the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action for women’s equality.   In this show we consider the impact of the U.N. agenda for gender equality and women’s empowerment. Where has there been progress?  What are the setbacks? What comes next in the global agenda on women’s rights? Helping us to sort out these questions and more is our very special guest: Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, United Nations under-secretary-general and executive director of U.N. Women. Sworn into office on August 19, 2013, Mlambo-Ngcuka brings a wealth of experience and expertise to this position, having devoted her career to issues of human rights, equality and social justice. Mlambo-Ngcuka has worked in government and civil society, as well as within the private sector, and was actively involved in the struggle to end apartheid in her home country of South Africa. 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

As women continue to be hit by job loss, increased home responsibilities, family caretaking, unaccounted for invisible labor, homelessness and domestic violence, it’s clear the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed underlying institutional and infrastructural inequalities in our society. It’s time to check in on and reimagine the international status of women and girls. What would a feminist foreign policy agenda look like in the United States? How does it look globally? How does it take into account vulnerable women and girls? What hope exists for ending inequality based on race, sex and gender? What differences do women and girls make as social, political and economic motivators for change?  Helping us to sort out these questions and more are very special guests: Karen Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham Law, an international studies fellow at New America, and a permanent member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She is the host of "Vital Interests Podcast," the editor-in-chief of three online publications, and has written and edited numerous books including Rogue Justice: The Making of the Security State. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the L.A. Times, the Nation, the Atlantic and many other major news outlets. Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, author of the New York Times bestsellers Ashley’s War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield (2015)—currently being developed into a major motion picture at Universal—and The Dressmaker of Khair Khana (2011). Her newest book, The Daughters of Kobani, was published in February 2021. Lemmon serves as an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, along with private sector leadership roles in emerging technology and national security. Pardis Mahdavi, dean of social sciences and director of the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University (ASU) and former acting dean of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. She has published five single-authored books and one edited volume in addition to numerous journal and news articles. She has been a fellow at the Social Sciences Research Council, the American Council on Learned Societies, Google Ideas and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.  Lyric Thompson, senior director of policy and advocacy at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) and frequent Ms. contributor. She is an adjunct professor at the George Washington University, where she teaches a graduate level course on women’s rights advocacy. Thompson is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations Advisory Committee on Advancing Gender Equality in Foreign Affairs and a member of the Civil Society Strategic Planning and Leadership Group for the Global Forum for Gender Equality. 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 special bonus episode, we remember our friend and advocate for women in prison, Sue Ellen Allen, who died this week on February 24, 2021.  In the latter part of her life, she became an internationally renowned advocate for incarcerated women and girls.  She championed banning the box, promoting reentry, and protecting the integrity and dignity of people tethered to the criminal justice system. She was a reformer.  She spoke with tremendous grace and power about being formerly incarcerated.   Take a listen as we revisit Sue Ellen Allen’s final interview—a wide-ranging and intimate conversation with her long-time friend, Michele Goodwin. Rest in power, Sue Ellen. Sue Ellen Allen is the founder and executive director of Reinventing Reentry. A University of Texas grad, educator, community leader, former inmate at Arizona State Prison and current activist, she found her purpose from serving time in prison. She is the author of The Slumber Party from Hell, a memoir about prison life, and the recipient of the Dawson Prize in Memoir in the 2009 Prison Writing Contest for PEN American Center.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

On January 16, 2021, the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Dustin Higgs became the 13th and final person executed by the Trump administration—just days before Inauguration Day for President Joe Biden, the first sitting president to openly oppose the death penalty. President Trump’s spate of executions began six months before Biden's inauguration, with six executions occurring in the period after he lost the election. Overall, the former president oversaw “the most consecutive civilian executions by the federal government or any state in the 244-year history of the United States” and “ended a 17-year bipartisan federal moratorium” on executions, according to this week’s guest Stephen Rohde. What purpose does the death penalty serve? How have race and racism marked the implementation of the death penalty? Is there ever a humane way to kill another person? With public support for the death penalty waning in the U.S. and across the world, how can the U.S. continue to justify it, both federally and in individual states?  Helping us to sort out these questions and more is a very special guest: Stephen Rohde, a constitutional scholar, lecturer, writer, political activist and retired civil rights lawyer who serves on the board of Death Penalty Focus. Rohde has represented two inmates on California’s death row. He is a founder and chair of Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace, past president of the ACLU of Southern California, and past chair of Bend the Arc: a Jewish Partnership for Justice. Rohde is the author of two books and has written for Ms., the Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, Truthout and American Prospect and is a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Review of Books. 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

Women make up the fastest growing incarcerated population in the U.S—yet, politicians and the media frequently frame incarceration as an issue that affects only boys and men.  Why is so little attention paid to women and mass incarceration?  What does the failure to include women in the analysis on mass incarceration mean for communities, families and the women themselves? What are the unique challenges women and girls face behind bars and after they are released?  Helping us sort out these questions and more are very special guests: Sue Ellen Allen, founder and executive director of Reinventing Reentry. A University of Texas grad, educator, community leader, former inmate at Arizona State Prison and current activist, she found her purpose from serving time in prison. She is the author of The Slumber Party from Hell, a memoir about prison life, and the recipient of the Dawson Prize in Memoir in the 2009 Prison Writing Contest for PEN American Center. Piper Kerman, author of the memoir Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison. The book has been adapted by Jenji Kohan into an Emmy Award-winning original series for Netflix, which ran for seven seasons. Piper collaborates with nonprofits, philanthropies and other organizations working in the public interest and serves on the board of directors of the Women’s Prison Association and the advisory boards of the PEN America Writing For Justice Fellowship, InsideOUT Writers, Healing Broken Circles and JustLeadershipUSA. Kamilah Newton, a writer for Yahoo Lifestyle and associate producer for MAKERS. Her background is in advocacy, activism and social justice reform. She has been featured on CNN, Career Contessa, Miss Grass and Hello Beautiful among other publications. Most recently, she participated in a virtual reality piece directed by Al Jazeera called Still Here, which will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this year. 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.Support the show

Friday, January 22 marked the 48th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court’s landmark decision affirming a constitutional right to abortion. Yet, decades later, reproductive health care access remains illusory for many women and people of birthing capacity.  Is the constitutional right to abortion a reality today? If so, for whom? How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted women’s health and exacerbated existing disparities? What can we expect from the first 100 days of the Biden-Harris administration? What is the status of reproductive health, rights and justice—48 years after Roe?  Helping us to sort out these questions and and more are special guests: Carrie Baker, a frequent Ms. contributor, lawyer, professor and director of the program for the study of women and gender at Smith College. Dr. Baker was a co-founder and former co-director of the Five College Certificate in Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice, a certificate available to undergraduate students at Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.Joia Crear-Perry, founder and president of the National Birth Equity Collaborative. Dr. Crear-Perry is a thought leader around racism as a root cause of health inequities, as well as a speaker, trainer, advocate, policy expert and fighter for justice. Recently, Dr. Crear-Perry addressed the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to urge a human rights framework to improve maternal mortality. Julia Kaye, a staff attorney with the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project, Kaye leads the ACLU’s litigation challenging the FDA’s unjustified restrictions on medication abortion, as well as the project’s advocacy efforts to remove outdated laws banning nurse practitioners and other qualified clinicians from providing abortion care. Leah Litman, 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 co-founder of Women Also Know Law and is one of the co-hosts and creators of Strict Scrutiny, a podcast about the U.S. 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

On today’s show, we planned to introduce listeners to the new feminists in Congress—and we do.  But, in the period since our team at Ms. curated the design and content of this episode, another shoe has dropped in American politics: the insurrection.  We examine what the Jan. 6 riot and insurrection at the U.S. Capitol signify for our nation, including what we can learn from it. Why did it happen? Will the president be impeached?  And what does this atmosphere mean for the new feminists in Congress? Helping us to sort out these questions and more are very special guests: Rep-Elect Carolyn Bourdeaux: Carolyn Bourdeaux is a representative-elect of the U.S. House, representing Georgia's 7th Congressional District. She is an associate professor of public management and policy at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University in Atlanta, as well as the director of the Center for State and Local Finance. From 2007-2010, Rep-Elect Bourdeaux was on leave from the university to serve as director of Georgia’s Senate Budget and Evaluation Office. Rep-Elect Teresa Leger Fernandez: Teresa Leger Fernandez is a representative-elect of the U.S. House, representing New Mexico's 3rd Congressional District. She was counsel and strategist at Leger Law & Strategy and worked for 30 years as counsel for tribes and their business entities, as well as with community leaders on affordable housing, Hispanic civil rights and community development. From 2013 to 2016, Rep-Elect Leger Fernandez was appointed by President Obama to serve as vice chair of the Council on Historic Preservation in the Obama administration. Rep-Elect Marie Newman: Marie Newman is a representative-elect of the U.S. House, representing Illinois’s 3rd Congressional District. After founding her own anti-bullying non-profit, she founded a national non-profit program called “Team Up To Stop Bullying” with her partner, Sears, to address the problem—ultimately expanding it to a coalition of 70 anti-bullying groups working nationwide. Rep-Elect Newman become a partner in one of the largest ad agencies in the U.S. before leaving to start her own successful consulting business, Marie Newman & Associates. Jennifer Steinhauer: Jennifer Steinhauer has been a New York Times journalist for more than 30 years, covering Congress, the West Coast, politics, business and health care. She has worked on the Metro, Business and National desk, and served as City Hall bureau chief and Los Angeles bureau chief before moving to Washington in 2010. She is the author of a novel, two cookbooks, and her most recent book, The Firsts: The Inside Story of the Women Reshaping Congress—the story of the women of the 116th Congress who changed Congress and Washington. 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.Support the show

This year has been defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, a reckoning on racism and policing in America, the 2020 election, and the ongoing fight for justice.    What does the 2020 election and the Biden/Harris win mean for our democracy? How important is the outcome of the Georgia runoff for the incoming administration? Where are we on immigration? How are we to undo the damage to our federal courts and address the legitimacy of the U.S. Supreme Court? How do we reckon with the racial unrest that exists in our country—especially when it comes to police violence? What hope lies ahead in the realm of reproductive health, rights and justice?  Helping us to sort out these questions and more are very special guests: Russ Feingold, president of the American Constitution Society, and a former U.S. senator from Wisconsin, as well as a state senator.  The author of While America Sleeps: A Wake-Up Call for the Post-9/11 Era, Feingold contributes regularly to various publications, and appears frequently on MSNBC and CNN. Deirdre Fishel, a producer/director whose films have premiered in 35 countries worldwide. She just finished “Women in Blue,” a feature documentary that follows women officers of the Minneapolis Police Department and explores the intersection of gender, power and violence in American policing, which will broadcast on PBS’s Independent Lens Series on Feb 8, 2021.   Stephen Vladeck, a nationally recognized expert on the federal courts, constitutional law, national security law, and military justice and the A. Dalton Cross Professor in Law at the University of Texas School of Law. Vladeck has argued multiple cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Texas Supreme Court and the lower federal courts. He is also the co-host of the award-winning National Security Law Podcast.  Andrea Young, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia. Young is the former vice president for external affairs for Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, as well as the former vice president of the National Black Child Development Institute. 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.Support the show

Government leaders worldwide met the election of President-Elect Joe Biden with a collective sigh of relief. But while many celebrate Biden’s win, many still wonder if the possibility of another presidency that devalues global treaties and relationships related to protecting global health, the environment, and stemming nuclear proliferation is in America’s future. How is the U.S. viewed abroad? What are the opportunities and challenges ahead for the next administration? Where are the biggest tensions in U.S. foreign relationships and diplomacy? Does the U.S. have an international legitimacy problem? The world has witnessed amazing leadership from women in other nations, especially during COVID — so what can the U.S. learn from that?  Helping us to sort out these questions and more are special guests:   Penelope Andrews is the president of the Law and Society Association and a professor of law at New York Law School, where she co-directs their Racial Justice Project. Andrews is a trainer for the Judicial Institute for Africa, and has served as an acting judge of the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, as well as being an arbitrator in hearings on racial discrimination in South Africa. From 2016 to 2018, she served as the first Black dean of the University of Cape Town faculty of law and, from 2012 to 2015, she served as the first female dean of Albany Law School. David Kaye, former United Nations special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and the independent board chair of the Global Network Initiative. He is the author of Speech Police: The Global Struggle to Govern the Internet and a professor of law at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). Gregory Shaffer, chancellor’s professor of law at UCI, and director of the UCI Center on Globalization, Law and Society. He is former vice president of the American Society of International Law and a member of the board of editors of the American Journal of International Law, the Journal of International Economic Law, and Transnational Environmental Law. Shaffer is among the world’s leading scholars on international economic law and the World Trade Organization. His forthcoming book is called Emerging Powers and the World Trading System. Lyric Thompson, senior director of policy and advocacy at the International Center for Research on Women.  Thompson leads the institution’s formulation of evidence-based policy recommendations and oversees her organization’s advocacy efforts with the U.S. government and internationally. Thompson is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations Advisory Committee on Advancing Gender Equality in Foreign Affairs and a member of the Civil Society Strategic Planning and Leadership Group for the  Global Forum for Gender Equality. 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.Support the show