On The Issues With Michele Goodwin

"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. Duri...

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 pol...

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 sys...

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 pe...

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 chal...

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 ex...

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...

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...

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? W...

COVID-19 has had an undeniable negative impact on the economy—an impact felt most deeply by women, especially women of color. Women are being pushed out of their jobs and there are significant barriers to pursuing new ones—from an imbalance in the division of household responsibilities, to stagnancy and job loss in women-dominated industries like retail, dining and the government sector.    What s...

On Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. was elected the 46th president of the United States. Vice President-Elect Kamala Devi Harris made history becoming the first woman, the first Black person, and the first South Asian person to ever hold the office. This news resulted in widespread celebrations throughout the country and all across the world. Additionally, a significant number o...

Dr. Goodwin and her guests answer some of your pressing election questions—and have a bit of fun. Let them keep you company (and keep you calm!) while you wait for results. Joining host Michele Goodwin to keep you company, and to reflect on what this election means for our nation, are very special guests:  Sandra Bernhard is a performer, actor, singer and author. She is currently starring as Nurse...

At the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, voting activist and civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer described the violent injustice she and others had endured while living under the South's Jim Crow rules and fighting for the right to vote: "I am sick and tired of being sick and tired!” Over 50 years later, ahead of the 2020 election, we see record early voting across t...

Recently, Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Samuel Alito, lashed out at the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision, which guaranteed marriage equality, calling it ruinous for religious liberty.  In response, the New Yorker posed a sobering question: “Does Clarence Thomas now speak for the majority of the Supreme Court on LGBTQ Rights?" The use of religious liberty to discrimin...

On January 15, 2020, Virginia became the critical 38th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, or ERA—a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution that reads: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”  Virginia’s ratification raised important questions about the viability of an amendment that had been stymied for...

President Trump has appointed and confirmed a near record number of judges to the federal bench in four years. In fact, nearly one-third of all active federal judges on the U.S. appeals courts have been appointed by Trump.  On the federal courts of appeal, the president has not appointed one African American and only one Latino judge.    These issues are magnified by Trump’s recent nomination of J...

On today’s show, we focus on the question: Can the president suspend the elections? The short answer: No. But while the law is clear, President Trump’s efforts to delay the elections, sow distrust in our democratic processes, and wreak havoc on the U.S. electoral process are already well underway.   On July 30, President Trump tweeted mail-in voting will make this year’s elections “the most inaccu...

On today’s show, we focus on going back to school during the COVID-19 pandemic.  The beginning of the 2020 school year is nothing like before. The word “difficult” is an understatement—and it’s difficult for all: for teachers, for students, for parents, (especially mothers) and for our colleges and universities too. Meanwhile, economic strains on families are sky-high as many families face evictio...

From a frozen asylum system, huge camps on the Mexico border and family separation policies, to the worsening lack of healthcare and the aftereffects of COVID-19, Latinx communities are at a disadvantage both inside and outside U.S. borders. In this episode, we focus on events over the last few years greatly impacting Latinx communities: socially, economically and politically—as Trump administrati...

Tune in on September 8, 2020 for an important episode on immigration in the United States. Support the show

In this episode, in the midst of the centennial anniversary of women's securing the right to vote, we focus on the 19th Amendment. The perpetual struggle for U.S. voting rights has been fraught with conflict, and the fight for women’s suffrage was no exception. Even after the 19th Amendment was passed, women of color were denied the opportunity to vote: Black women were kept from voting throu...

In this episode, we focus on why #WeHaveHerBack.  You heard it recently in the wake of Sen. Kamala Harris’s selection as the vice presidential candidate for the Democratic ticket. #WeHaveHerBack is as a powerful challenge to newsrooms to avoid sexism in media representation. Tina Tchen, president and CEO of Time’s Up Now, joins host Dr. Michele Goodwin to talk the importance of having Harris’s bac...

On this episode of On the Issues with Michele Goodwin, we review the 2019-2020 Supreme Court term. Since 1790, of the 113 individuals who have served on the Supreme Court, only four have been women.  Similarly, in over 230 years, only three justices have been persons of color—two of whom presently serve on the Court.  Under Trump, the vast majority of judges confirmed to the nation’s federal court...

On this special episode, we focus on toxic masculinity in the U.S., including online misogyny, and how it translates into real-world violence—highlighted most recently in the horrific murder of Daniel Anderl, the son of U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas, and the shooting of her husband Mark Anderl.  The person assumed responsible for those tragedies is Roy Den Hollander, a self-proclaimed “me...

On today’s show, we focus on June Medical v. Russo and the future of abortion rights—a case where the Supreme Court struck down a challenge to abortion rights in Louisiana, a state in which reproductive health care access is already fraught. The law would have required all doctors performing abortions to obtain hospital admitting privileges. Even though this case has put such challenges to rest, l...