Breaking Down Patriarchy

Amy is joined by film-maker Jenn Lee Smith to discuss Patriarchy in East Asia: A Comparative Sociology of Gender by Sechiyama Kaku and (En)gendering Taiwan: The Rise of Taiwanese Feminism, and to explore patriarchy specifically within Confucianism and Taiwan.Jenn Lee Smith was born on the friendly, vibrant island of Taiwan. She is a filmmaker who focuses on women-led stories of underrepresented people. In a previous life, she worked on a PhD in feminist geography. She began her producing career focused on stories at the intersection of religion and sexual/gender orientation, and has since collaborated on BIPOC and environmental films. She welcomes your recommendations for live comedy and films of all genres @bewilderfilm

Amy is joined by Marissa Lila and Rachel Lam to discuss Buddhism After Patriarchy by Rita Gross and begin our exploration of patriarchy in East Asia. Rachel Lam is a professor of psychology and integrative medicine caregiver in Salt Lake City, Utah. She identifies as a biracial-female educator, healer, and advocate for social justice and mental health.Marissa Lila (she/they) is a Thai-American documentarian who grew up in Hong Kong and Thailand and is now based in Salt Lake City. As a multicultural filmmaker, she directs and produces projects with characters who cross boundaries set by dominant cultures or identities. Marissa’s projects have been selected to play at international film festivals (DOC NYC, Camden, IFF, Big Sky Documentary FF, and MountainFilm). Two projects she produced, Transmormon and Oxygen to Fly, went viral with over 160 million total views. These projects were featured in The Huffington Post, New York Times, The Atlantic, People Magazine, and Dazed. Marissa is co-founder of OHO Media, a creative content agency for which Marissa creates documentaries and documentary-based branded content. Marissa directed, produced, and wrote for the docu-reality television series The Generations Project, for which one of the episodes she produced won a Regional Emmy. Marissa also spent six years creating educational content to increase equitable outcomes for students inclusive of race, ethnicity, language, cultural, sexual orientation, or ability.

Amy is joined by Rev. Cynthia Brix, Dr. William Keepin, and Harin Jeong to discuss their groundbreaking work with Gender Equity and Reconciliation International.Rev. Cynthia Brix, is co-founder of Gender Equity and Reconciliation International, which has organized 280 intensive trainings in twelve countries for healing and reconciliation between women and men, and people of all genders. She is an ordained interfaith minister and Co-Director of Satyana Institute. She was formerly a campus minister at the University of Colorado for United Ministries of Higher Education. Cynthia co-chaired the Race Relations Committee for the City of Muncie, Indiana, and served in numerous leadership positions for Planned Parenthood in Dallas and in Indiana. A long-time student of Eknath Easwaran’s Passage Meditation, Cynthia leads retreats on interfaith spirituality. She co-organized five international conferences on interspirituality, one of which brought women spiritual masters together from Buddhist, Christian, and Hindu traditions, and she produced a DVD video from this conference entitled Cultivating Women’s Spiritual Mastery.  Cynthia holds an M.Div. from Iliff School of Theology (2006), a double M.A. in wellness management and applied gerontology, and an honorary doctorate from the California Institute of Integral Studies. She is contributing author of Divine Duality: The Power of Reconciliation between Women and Men (Hohm Press, 2007), and co-author of Women Healing Women: A Model of Hope for Oppressed Women Everywhere (Hohm Press, 2009). William Keepin, PhD, is co-founder of the Gender Equity and Reconciliation International project. A mathematical physicist widely published in the fields of sustainable energy, global warming, archetypal cosmology, comparative mysticism, and the intersection of science and spirituality, Will has presented testimony to European and Australian parliaments, and the US House of Representatives.  He became a whistleblower in nuclear science policy, recounted in The Cultural Creatives (Paul Ray and Sherry Anderson, Harmony Books, 2000). Will co-founded the Satyana Institute, and together with Rev. Cynthia Brix organized five international conferences to facilitate dialogue, interspiritual practice, and collaboration across the major religions and science. Will trained extensively in spiritual traditions East and West, and holds a Ph.D. in applied mathematics, M.S. in mathematical physics, M.A. in East-West psychology, and honorary doctorate from the California Institute of Integral Studies. He is a Fellow of the Findhorn Foundation, and has facilitated Grof holotropic breathwork since 1989. Will is author of Divine Duality: The Power of Reconciliation Between Women and Men (Hohm Press, 2007), and Belonging to God: Spirituality, Science, and a Universal Path of Divine Love (SkyLight Paths, Turner Publishing, 2016).  He is co-author of Women Healing Women (Hohm Press, 2009); and Song of the Earth: The Emerging Synthesis of Spiritual and Scientific Worldviews (Permanent Publications, London, UK, 2012). Harin Jeong, MA is a GERI facilitator and lead coordinator for GERI in South Korea based in Seoul. And I'll just make a note that the full title of this organization is Gender Equity and Reconciliation Institute, but we'll abbreviate that sometimes by just saying GERI. So listeners, when you hear the word GERI, you'll know tha

Amy is joined by advocate Mariya Taher to learn more about Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting and discuss firsthand accounts from those affected.Mariya Taher has worked in gender-based violence for over a decade in the areas of teaching, research, policy, program development, and direct service.In 2015, she cofounded Sahiyo, an award-winning, transnational organization with the mission to empower Asian and other communities to end FGC. The Manhattan Young Democrats honored her as a 2017 Engendering Progress honoree and in 2018, Mariya received the Human Rights Storytellers Award from the Muslim American Leadership Alliance. In 2020, she was recognized as one of the six inaugural grant recipients for the Crave Foundation for Women. Since 2015, she has collaborated with the Massachusetts Women’s Bar Association to pass legislation to protect girls from FGC. After starting a Change.org petition and gathering over 400,000 signatures, Massachusetts became the 39th state in the U.S. to do so.Mariya is also an extensive writer in fiction and nonfiction and has contributed articles and stories to NPR’s Code Switch, HuffPost, The Fair Observer, Brown Girl Magazine, Solstice Literary Magazine, The Express Tribune, The San Francisco Examiner, and more.She graduated with her MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University, where she received the Graduate School of Arts & Social Sciences Dean’s Merit Scholarship and the Lesley University Graduate Student Leadership Award. She also holds a Master in Social Work from San Francisco State University and a B.A. from UC Santa Barbara in Religious Studies.Learn more at sahiyo.org

Amy is joined by Dr. Srimati Basu to discuss her book The Trouble With Marriage: Feminists Confront Law and Violence in India and explore the complicated gender politics behind divorce.Srimati Basu is a Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies and Anthropology, and a member of the Committee on Social Theory. She serves as the President of the Association for Feminist Anthropology, 2021-2023. Srimati has an Interdisciplinary Ph.D. from Ohio State University in Cultural Studies/ Anthropology/ Women's Studies, and her teaching, research and community work interests include Global Feminisms, Law, Gender-Based Violence, Social Movements, Feminist Methodologies, and Masculinities. At present, she is writing a monograph on anti-feminist men's rights groups, following a 2013-14 Fulbright Fellowship to conduct fieldwork with MRAs across Indian cities. She has recently begun a  research project on Indian women private detectives with fellowships from National Endowment for Humanities/ American Institute of Indian Studies and from Sisters in Crime.

Amy is joined by Thenmozhi Soundararajan to discuss her book The Trauma of Caste: A Dalit Feminist Meditation on Survivorship, Healing, and Abolition and help open our eyes to the oppressive and far-reaching ramifications of the caste system.Thenmozhi Soundararajan is a Dalit Civil rights artist, organizer, and theorist who has worked with hundreds of organizations to better understand the urgent issues of racial, caste, and gender equity. Working across disciplines she is an innovative strategist and thinker that has built bridges between many communities around the world.

Amy is joined by Acharya Shunya to discuss her book Roar Like a Goddess: Every Woman's Guide to Becoming Unapologetically Powerful, Prosperous, and Peaceful and discuss the importance of powerful female deities in the Hindu tradition.Acharya Shunya is a truth-teller who facilitates authenticity, self-remembrance, and divine feminine pathways to awakening. The first female head of her spiritual lineage that traces its roots to 2,000-year-ago in India, Acharya Shunya represents the ancient Vedic tradition of India in a way that is completely authentic, yet as relevant as possible to modern sensibilities and needs. Acharya Shunya  reinterprets and re-contextualizes ancient Vedic wisdom and dharma teachings of Advaita Vedanta (nondual teachings), Ayurveda's lifestyle wisdom and Yoga philosophy, to create a learning and awakening path for contemporary seekers, empowering people everywhere to lead spiritually  fearless, fulfilled and enlightened lives. Her teachings acts like a bridge between ancient wisdom and issues faced by modern humans, today.Acharya Shunya is the author of three bestselling books Ayurveda lifestyle Wisdom (2017), Sovereign Self (2020) and her newest book - Roar Like a Goddess: Every Woman's Guide to Becoming Unapologetically Powerful, Prosperous, and Peaceful. In this book, Acharya Shunya honors her progressive Vedic roots while breaking the shackles of tradition to bring modern-day women, an inclusive, feminist spirituality.

Amy is joined by Rabbi Elyse Goldstein to discuss her book New Jewish Feminism: Probing the Past, Forging the Future and learn about the legacy of feminism in the Jewish tradition.As one of the first woman rabbis in Canada, Elyse Goldstein has broken down barriers by founding inclusive communities for learning and prayer. Goldstein graduated from Brandeis University in 1978 and was ordained by the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion in 1983. After ordination, she became assistant rabbi at Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto. Then sole rabbi of Temple Beth David in Canton, Massachusetts in 1986 before returning to Canada in 1991 to become founding director of Kolel, the Adult Center for Liberal Jewish Learning, a major center for a Jewish adult education. Goldstein served as the first female president of both Reform Rabbis of Toronto and the Interdenominational Toronto Board of Rabbis.She retired from Kolel in 2011 and founded the Inclusive City Shul in Toronto, where she still serves as rabbi. Her first book, ReVisions: Seeing Torah through a Feminist Lens, won the Canadian National Jewish Book Award in 1998. And her 2000 book Women's Torah Commentary, which wove together insights from dozens of women's scholars, has left an indelible mark on Jewish thought. And her book, New Jewish Feminism: Probing the Past, Forging the Future, was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in 2008.

Amy is joined by author Angela Saini to discuss her book The Patriarchs: The Origins of Inequality and re-examine patriarchy's foundational roots. Angela Saini is a British science journalist, broadcaster and the author. Saini has worked as a reporter and presenter for the BBC and has written for a number of publications including The Guardian, New Scientist, and Wired UK. She has also produced and presented several radio and television documentaries, including a BBC Radio 4 documentary on biofuels and a BBC World Service documentary on the impact of climate change on Indian agriculture. Saini's writing and reporting focus on how science interacts with society, especially on how it affects marginalized groups, and she has been acclaimed for her work by a diverse range of organizations and institutions.

Amy is joined by Dr. Islah Jad to discuss her book, Palestinian Women's Activism: Nationalism, Secularism, Islamism, and the many roles of Palestinian women as they resist oppression.Dr. Islah Jad is a tenured Assistant Professor of Gender and Development at Birzeit University. She is also the co-founder and current Director of the Institute of Women’s Studies at Birzeit and a Core Group Member of the Arab Families Working Group. A prominent figure in the Palestinian women’s movement, Jad also helped to establish the Women’s Affair Centre in Gaza and Nablus, Les Amies du Francis, the Child Corner project in el-Bireh, and the WATC (Women’s Affairs Technical Committee). Jad carried out Gender Consultancy for the United Nations Development Programme and was a co-author of the United Nation’s Arab Human Development Report of 2005. She earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Cairo University, a master's degree in political theory from the University of Nantes, and a Ph.D. in gender and development studies from the University of London. She currently teaches at Birzeit University.