Why do women in contemporary western societies experience contradiction between their autonomous and maternal selves? What are the origins of this contradiction and the associated ‘double shift’ that result in widespread calls to either ‘lean in’ or ‘opt out’? How are some mothers subverting these contradictions and finding meaningful ways of reconciling the ... Show More
Feb 2023
Jane Lasonder, "Red Alert: The Inside Story of Prostitution and Human Trafficking" (Scholten Uitgeverij BV, 2016)
We love the tradition of the Amsterdam red light district, where many women stand in the windows in their underwear. Busloads of tourists and school children come by every day to look at them. In the Netherlands, where it has been taken out of the dark and made legal, we can even ... Show More
1h 2m
Oct 2022
Kirsty Loehr, "A Short History of Queer Women" (Oneworld Publications, 2022)
Kirsty Loehr talks about her new book, A Short History of Queer Women (Oneworld Publications, 2022). Queer women have always existed – let’s put them back in the history books No, they weren't ‘just friends’! We’ve read Jane Eyre, but what about the five hundred love letters Char ... Show More
33m 4s
Nov 24
Amy Hughes, "An Actor's Tale: Theater, Culture, and Everyday Life in the Nineteenth-Century United States" (U Michigan Press, 2025)
Harry Watkins was no one special. During a career that spanned four decades, this nineteenth-century actor yearned for fame but merely skirted the edges of it. He performed alongside the brightest stars, wrote scores of plays, and toured the United States and England, but he neve ... Show More
1h 4m
Oct 2018
Jacqueline Rose ,”Mothers: An Essay on Love and Cruelty” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018)
I left the kitchen radio on while reading Jacqueline Rose‘s Mothers: An Essay on Love and Cruelty (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018) in preparation for this interview. It was June. Putting the book down for a minute to get a glass of water, I heard a news report that the children ... Show More
54m 11s
Oct 2021
What Does Mothering Look Like?
“We all share the universal experience of having been born,” says design historian Amber Winick and co-author of Designing Motherhood: Things That Make and Break Our Births. In the book, Winick and co-author Michelle Fisher explore how designs, from the menstrual cup to the breas ... Show More
38m 36s
Dec 2023
Helena Vissing, "Somatic Maternal Healing: Psychodynamic and Somatic Trauma Treatment for Perinatal Mental Health" (Routledge, 2023)
Today we spoke with Dr. Helena Vissing about her new book Somatic Maternal Healing Psychodynamic and Somatic Trauma Treatment for Perinatal Mental Health (Routledge, 2023). What does the research of neuro science, immunology and biology tell us about the complex links between tra ... Show More
1h 3m
Nov 2022
Thriving Moms, Thriving Families: Jill Koziol of Motherly
The expectations put upon parents, and mothers, specifically, have changed a lot over the years, but one thing is certain: it’s never been easy. Whether we’re washing clothes in a river with a baby tied to our backs, or managing quarterly reports while soothing a crying child, wo ... Show More
39m 9s