Chat In The Commons

A chat about our trip to FiLiA, the largest grassroots feminist conference in Europe.  Celebrating their tenth anniversary, FiLiA 2025 was held in Brighton, UK and hosted 300 speakers from 75 countries and nearly 3,000 attendants - and Elle was there to soak it all up.  In this episode Elle shares the inside scoop about what she saw and heard - the good, the bad and the ugly. From the powerful pan...

A chat about boys and men. Natalie and Elle explore the current state of masculinity - male attitudes, behaviors and culture. And how do men perceive themselves and the challenges they face? In this episode, we highlight both struggles and positive shifts, digging into men’s economic anxiety, loneliness, violence, and the growing manosphere, but also new models for raising boys and young men, and...

A chat about babies and birthrates. In our final episode on the 4B movement, Natalie and Elle unpack the many reasons why women across the world are opting out of procreating. It is being proclaimed that the human birthrate is in free fall and that we are in a ‘plummeting population crisis’ - but is the birthrate panic warranted? We look at the environmental, economic, political,  evolutionary and...

A chat about mothers and family court. After years of researching and documenting women’s experiences in family court, Elle and Natalie share their observations and insights of what happens in this very hidden and secret world.  Through the lens of “what’s old is new,” we discover that while the tools have changed, the aim is the same - to punish women who dare to defy the patriarchal script for m...

A continued chat about sex. In this episode we reveal the remaining results of our sex survey and chat about the risks women take when we have sex with men - from STDs to pregnancy to men’s sexual violence. We also cover contraception, revenge porn, candaulism, sexual coercion, sex strikes, the 4B movement in South Korea, and the shape that this movement is taking in the West.   EPISODE LINKS Male...

A chat about sex. In this third episode of our series on the 4B movement, we explore the various reasons why many women are opting out of sexual relationships with men. Elle and Natalie share some of their own lived experiences, along with interesting new research, and a lot of giggles. In Sexodus Part 1 we talk about the differences between female and male sexuality and sexual pleasure, the porni...

A chat with campers at an all-women’s summer camp.  In this special episode, we take you on a trip into the woods, where you’ll meet women from every walk of life and hear why they made the long journey into the wilderness to gather.  In the midst of what we perceive to be a profound cultural awakening, the women we met spoke from the heart about what is happening around them and the burning issue...

A chat about women and work. When talking about labor, we divide paid work from unpaid work, men’s work from women’s work, domestic labor from professional work, and work that is considered valuable versus work that is invisible. In a conversation that goes far beyond the pay gap, we examine what “work” means to women. In this episode Elle and Natalie unpack the man-as-breadwinner myth, the workin...

A chat about being single by choice. More and more women are opting out of not just marriage, but out of relationships with men altogether - and choosing new paths to economic independence, professional and personal fulfillment, and adventure - that does not include a man as part of the plan. Women are also connecting with each other across cultures and creating new, unconventional women’s communi...

A chat about dating. In part two of our series on the 4B movement, Elle and Natalie take a read on what is happening in dating culture, listening to a diverse cross-section of women to try to understand why a growing number of women are saying no to dating. EPISODE LINKS Influence of Sex and the City | Emily the Recruiter Hook-Up Culture | Cunty Chanel Transactional Dating | Pure Michigangster Bac...

A chat about coming of age in a man’s world. As Rebecca Solnit says, “It gets you even if it doesn’t get you. You have to think every day of your life as a girl and a young woman, if I wear this what will happen? If I go out, what will happen?” and girls and women are getting the message that “this is not your world, this is not your street, this is not your city, this is not your adventure, you a...

A continued chat about Project 2025 and the Trump Administration. In this episode we cover the gutting of the Department of Education and its ripple effects, and Trump’s inaugural-day declaration that there are only two sexes, and what that means for women. Elle and Natalie talk frankly about how the Democratic Party abandoned women during the Biden years and how the Trump administration capitaliz...

A chat about the Trump Administration and their 180-Day Playbook. Were fears about Project 2025 justified or was it simply fear-mongering from the Left? In this 2-part series, Elle and Natalie attempt to decode key chapters of Project 2025 and what it means for women. Part 2 will be out next week. EPISODE LINKS Identity Politics - Jackson Katz | The Spectator Project 2025 Authors | Revolving Door...

A chat about marriage. In this first episode of our four-part series on 4B, the feminist movement from South Korea, Elle and Natalie dive into all things marriage. We explore why we marry, how women are faring within marriage, and why women are choosing not to marry. Episode Links 4B Movement | ABC Australia I Don’t | Clementine Ford Letters from a War Zone | Andrea Dworkin Leta Hong Fincher | Sub...

A chat about the highs and lows of feminist movements past and present. We spotlight significant events across the world that have had huge impacts for women. We also take a hard look at the current state of feministing and its promises of so-called women’s empowerment and individual liberation.  Episode Links Gail Dines | Subject to Power 1975 Iceland Women’s Strike | BBC Elisa in Iceland | Tik T...

A chat exploring a new perspective on coercive control. Natalie and Elle have a wide-ranging conversation about the evolution of coercive control - as a behavior and as a covert strategy used by men to control women. Also discussing the many challenges in defining this behavior in law and language, as well as how we as a society, deal with men who ensnare women into long-term abusive relationships...

A chat about relationship abuse. In this episode, Natalie and Elle have a provocative discussion about how men’s violence within the four walls of the home is never contained - it spills over into our communities and all of society. We also have a critical look at the well-funded industry built to respond to domestic violence and reflect on why men’s abuse is worse now than ever.  Men’s violence i...

A chat about women’s collective awakening to patriarchal backlash. At a time when women are enjoying unprecedented gains and liberties, we are also seeing a roll-back of rights and a rise of violent misogyny. The collective actions of yesteryear’s feminism won women significant freedoms, protections and material gains, but where are we now? In the first episode of Chat In The Commons, hosts Natali...

Have women achieved equality or are we losing all our rights? Clashing narratives tell us women can do anything, while we’re simultaneously being shackled and shut down. Hosts Natalie Blundell and Elle Kamihira chat candidly about how women are actually faring, in our cultures and in our lives.