Venus Rising

If you’ve been following our show for some time, you know we like to have guests from around the globe. Today we welcome a very special guest all the way from the United Kingdom, going by his Twitter handle TullipR.  Tullip R is here to share his story as a male detransitioner. Fom the ages of 26 to 34 TullipR lived as a trans woman, including hormone therapy and full genital surgery in 2018.  Tul...

A few weeks ago, I received an email from a young woman that was exposed to the dangers and tragedy of the surrogacy industry as a young child. She shared with me her childhood story about the untimely passing of her mother from complications after a surrogate pregnancy. Now, as a young adult, Jaida lives in Orange County with her husband and is an undergraduate student studying Theology at Grand...

We have had the opportunity to talk with so many wonderful people this season and today is no exception. Today we welcome Rachel, a 31-year-old detransitioned lesbian woman, brave enough to share with us her deeply personal story. Rachel lived for 5 years as a transman, taking injectable testosterone, but stopped medical transition and ceased identifying as transgender. She became popular on Twitt...

Wow! Today is our 50th episode on Venus Rising! To celebrate, Kallie sits down with best-selling author and award-winning academic, Dr. Kathleen Stock. Dr. Stock is well-known in the United Kingdom and the United States for bravely recognizing the importance of biological sex. She regularly discusses and writes on gender identity ideology and its effects on women and girls. Until October 2021, Kat...

Today, we have a very special guest with us, all the way from Sydney Australia, Edward Saulig. Edward brings a voice to Venus Rising that we haven’t yet heard, the voice of a sperm donor.  In his day to day life, Edward works as a town planner for the local government in Sydney, Australia. Part of his work is creating new neighbourhood parks in established areas. He has successfully created a new...

Today, we have a very special guest with us, Katy Francisco. Her name might sound a little familiar to some listeners as her brother, Matt Doran, was a special guest on our show in Season 1. Like her brother, Katy was born from donor conception and has been an advocate for the donor conceived community by sharing her story and supporting restorative reproductive medicine. Katy served 6 years as Op...

Today we welcome Libby Emmons, Editor-in-chief for The Post Millennial to the show. Libby holds a Masters of Fine Arts from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts from Sarah Lawrence College. Before Libby became a journalist, she was in the world of theater. In this episode we talk with Libby about her shift from playwright to editor and why good debate and conversation around contriversial to...

Venus Rising welcomes Lexi with Stop Surrogacy Now UK . Stop Surrogacy Now is a global campaign that brings together a worldwide, ethnically, religiously, and culturally diverse group opposed to the exploitation of women and the human trafficking of children through surrogacy. You can find more and join this global campaign at stopsurrogacynow.com . Stop Surrogacy Now UK was formed by a group of w...

In this episode of Venus Rising we shift from our normal programming to bring you an interview between Jennifer Lahl, CBC Founder and President, and surrogate mother, Kimberly. Kimberly sits down with Jennifer to share her horrific surrogacy story where she was left fighting for custody of her own biological child.  The baby Kimberly gave birth to as part of a gestational surrogacy arrangement was...

We are kicking off the New Year with another wonderful episode of Venus Rising featuring researcher, author and professor Dr. Theresa Morris! Theresa Morris, Ph. D. is Professor of Sociology and Women’s and Gender Studies as well as the Coordinator of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at Texas A&M University. When she’s not busy teaching undergraduate and graduate students, Dr. Morris als...

Today we welcome attorney, public speaker, writer, and consultant, Kara Dansky. Kara has an extensive background in criminal justice law and policy and is unabashedly committed to protecting the rights, privacy, and safety of women and girls on the basis of sex in law and throughout society. Kara currently serves on the steering committee of the U.S. chapter of the Women's Human Rights Campaign (W...

Today on Venus Rising I sit down with reproductive science research expert, author, academic and educator Joyce Harper, BSc, PhD. Currently Dr. Harper is Professor of Reproductive Science at University College London in the Institute for Women’s Health where she is Head of the Reproductive Science and Society Group. She is a Director of the Embryology and PGD Academy and founder of Global Women Co...

Welcome back! Today I am thrilled to host award winning independent journalist and author,  Jennifer Block . I have the opportunity to talk with Jennifer about women's health, gender, the conflict of interest found in medicine, and her newest book  Everything Below The Waist: Why Health Care Needs a Feminist Revolution (St. Martin's Press). You might have read her other publications in The BMJ, Ne...

Welcome back to another interesting episode of Venus Rising . This week I have the pleasure of chatting with  a young freelance writer and literary scholar, Donovan Cleckley.  Donovan holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Montevallo and a Master of Arts in English from Tulane University. His research focuses on the relationship between wome...

Today’s guest is Jasmine Esmay, a Registered Nurse Certified in Inpatient Obstetrics with over 20 years of frontline healthcare experience. Jasmine is also a Certified Lactation Counselor and an Internationally Board Certified Lactation Consultant.  Jasmine believes that lifelong health and strong family relationships start with pregnancy and birth. Families today face almost insurmountable strugg...

On today's episode of Venus Rising, I sit down with the fearless advocate, Toni Bare. In 2016 Toni agreed to be a gestational surrogate for a couple with hopes that she would make enough money to pay for her own fertility treatment. Toni’s experience as a surrogate mother was so horrific and harmful she has committed to publicly speaking out against surrogacy. Toni’s story is complex and painful,...

Hello and welcome back to Venus Rising Season THREE!  I have so many wonderful guests lined up for this season, but before introducing someone new I decided to kick-off season three with someone you met last season, Alyssia Wood. I spoke with Alyssia about her experience as a surrogate mother in season 2, but only touched the tip of the iceberg.  Today I talks more in-depth about Alyssia's experie...

Welcome back to this season’s final episode of Venus Rising. Today Kallie has a candid and informative talk with Brynne, one of the brave mothers featured in our newly released documentary “Trans Mission: What’s the Rush to Reassign Gender”. At age 13, Brynne's daughter began suffering from "Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria” (ROGD), a poorly understood phenomena currently affecting hundreds of thousan...

Today I have the pleasure of sitting down with four-time surrogate mother, Alyssia Wood. Having wonderful pregnancy experiences with each of her four children, Alyssia felt that surrogacy was an obvious way for her to help others start or build their own families. She is here today to talk about her different experiences as a surrogate mother, which included two miscarriages, two premature deliver...

If you are an aspiring labor and delivery nurse or nurse midwife or have ever wanted to chat with a nurse that works at an IVF clinic then today’s show is just for you. I am especially excited about this episode because I get to sit down with nursing colleague, Kelly Wilson. I had the opportunity of meeting and working with Kelly when I was fresh out of nursing school, several years ago. Kelly has...

Welcome back to Venus Rising! With me today is Dr. Susan Caldwell, a primary care physician specializing in women’s health practicing in New Orleans, Louisiana. Today we tackle an emotionally sensitive topic, especially as we approach Mother's Day- infertility and IVF. Dr. Caldwell has three children of her own, all of whom were conceived through IVF. Today she explains why, in retrospect, she wou...

Welcome back to Venus Rising! One of the main commodities in the ever-growing infertility industry is human eggs. Young women all over the world are targeted by ads to "donate" their eggs. Who are these women and what are the risks to their health? In this episode I have the opportunity to talk with Kylee Kwiatkowski about her harrowing story of egg "donation" and the aftermath that followed this...

In the early 2000s, Liz Scheier’s mom was facing eviction, so Liz, like many young women, turned to egg donation to raise funds to escape financial crisis. Over the next several years, Liz underwent a total of three rounds of egg retrieval. In the years since, Liz has spent a significant amount of time analyzing the situation and asking important ethical questions related to it. She sits on the le...

Welcome back to an informative new episode of Venus Rising! This week Kallie sits down with Wendy Kramer, Co-Founder and Director of the Donor Sibling Registry (DSR), a network of over 72,000 members worldwide, united by their shared experience as individuals conceived as a result of egg, sperm, or embryo donation and their mutual desire to be connected with others who share their genetic ties. We...

You will not want to miss this week’s episode of Venus Rising, as Kallie sits down with award winning author and writer Pamela Mahoney Tsigdinos for a frank discussion on a painful topic: infertility. Pamela’s book Silent Sorority, became the first account of reconciling infertility that was not written by a mother. With raw honesty Pamela drew from her experience to explore the stigma associated...