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The Femtastic Podcast

Katie Breen interviews feminist activists, researchers, and advocates working to make "women's issues"...well, non-issues. Femtastic explores issues of reproductive rights and health, progressive politics, gender equality, sexual violence, LGBTQ+ perspectives, racism, social justice, and more - examining topics through the lens of intersectional feminism and reproductive justice. We also laugh.
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Now displaying: October, 2021
Oct 19, 2021

Today on the podcast is Kacie Willis, creator of the podcast You Heard Me Write," a Spotify Studios production. 

Kacie is an arts advocate who brings together Atlanta-based creatives from different disciplines and backgrounds through art. The series has amassed wide popularity, recently trending on Spotify because of its wildly creative, immersive format. Each episode features emerging writers, musicians, sound designers and dynamic thinkers who collaborate on a multimedia project without knowing the identities of their counterparts. It might sound vague, but it *sounds* (pun intended) awesome when you actually hear it. 

The show comes from Spotify’s Sound Up program - an incubator program for the next generation of podcasters from underrepresented backgrounds. Sound Up was created specifically to tackle representation disparities in podcasting among women of color, who are vastly underrepresented in the audio space.  

Today on Femtastic podcast, Kacie tells us more about the concept of the "You Heard Me Write" podcast and how it was inspired. She sheds light on the unique, organic way that her podcast spotlights the diverse arts community in Atlanta, and what it means that the series showcases the creative work of traditionally disenfranchised communities.

Kacie also discusses how creatives from backgrounds that are traditionally underrepresented in the arts are changing the landscape of what art is celebrated and showcased in 2021, what it means to be a “patron of the arts” today, and which art is considered worth supporting.

Lastly, we discuss why women of color are underrepresented in podcasting, how we can change this, and why expanding the diversity of podcasters is only going to make the podcast world and its offerings better and better. 

You Heard Me Write" is available exclusively on Spotify.

Oct 5, 2021

This year marks the 100 year anniversary of the founding of the American Birth Control League, and while we've come a long way since then, fierce battles for reproductive rights are still being waged today. 

Today’s interview is with Planned Parenthood's North Central States CEO Sarah Stoesz, a fierce advocate of over 20 years who has been fighting for reproductive health access in a reliably conservative part of the country. We're also joined by award-winning author Ames Sheldon, grand-niece of the founder of the Birth Control League of Massachusetts in the 1910s, and herself one of the founders of the Women's Studies field in the 1970s.

On the podcast today, Ames will discuss the challenges to just legalize INFORMATION about family planning 100 years ago, and the history of access to birth control and abortion over the course of the last 100 years. Stoesz will explain how this history ties into the struggles for reproductive health access today, and what battles we are still fighting to ensure people have reproductive autonomy. Stoesz also tells us what we can do to help protect abortion access today in the midst of relentless political attacks and the very real threat that Roe faces in the Supreme Court this year. 

NOTE: This interview was recorded in early July 2021, prior to Texas' passing of S.B. 8.

LINKS:

- Lemons in the Garden of Love by Ames Sheldon

- Donate to an abortion fund

- Donate to independent abortion providers: Independent providers serve three out of every five patients who have an abortion; yet they receive only a fraction of public support. They also lack the institutional support, visibility, name recognition, and fundraising capacity of national health centers and hospitals, making it especially difficult for the community-based providers to garner the resources they need and provide care in their communities. It’s time to protect independent clinics, because they provide care when and where others will not, with a commitment to ensuring that no one is left behind.

- Donate to Planned Parenthood

- Donate to NARAL Pro-Choice America

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