My Body. My Pod. with Mini Timmaraju

Content warning: this episode includes adult language and mature themes. Parental discretion is advised.  This special episode was filmed LIVE at the 2026 Women’s Convening, hosted by our friends at the Women’s March in Houston, Texas on September 26, 2026. Mini Timmaraju sits down with Rachel O’Leary Carmona, Women's March Executive Director, and Nsé Ufot, Solidarity Analytics & Media Fo...

Troy Jackson has a hell of a story. He’s a fifth-generation Maine logger who got into politics because he was angry about the way working people were being treated in America. And, he once opposed abortion rights. So what changed? He listened. To women, doctors, and people in his own community. “I just started to understand that I was wrong on this issue,” he tells Mini. And then? He did something...

Content note : This episode includes a brief discussion of sexual assault (~4:30-8:30).  Michigan Governor Gretchen “Big Gretch” Whitmer has helped transform reproductive freedom in Michigan and shown what’s possible when reproductive freedom champions have the power to govern. In this episode of My Body. My Pod., Mini Timmaraju sits down with Gov. Whitmer to talk about Michigan’s transformat...

Dr. Kristin Lyerly has experienced the fight for reproductive freedom from nearly every angle imaginable: as an OB-GYN, abortion provider, advocate, candidate for Congress, and as a named physician plaintiff in the landmark lawsuit challenging Wisconsin's 1849 abortion law. That case cleared the way for abortion care to resume in Wisconsin. In this episode of My Body. My Pod., Mini Timmaraju and D...

Republican officials are trying to enforce their abortion bans across state lines. Democratic governors and attorneys general are using shield laws to fight back, and protect providers and their patients. This is why the governors and attorneys general we elect matter more than ever.  Here’s how a shield law looks in practice. In December 2024, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued a New York pro...

When Ashley and Marcus Brandt learned they were expecting twins, they imagined their family finally feeling complete. Just weeks later, everything changed. During a routine ultrasound, one of the twins was diagnosed with a fatal condition. Because of Texas' abortion ban, their doctors couldn't provide the medical care they needed. The family traveled to Colorado for a procedure that protected Ashl...

"If you want to get something done in Congress, people say you go to Diana DeGette." In this episode of My Body. My Pod., Mini Timmaraju sits down with Rep. Diana DeGette, co-chair of the Congressional Reproductive Freedom Caucus and one of the most effective reproductive freedom champions in Congress, to discuss the plan to restore abortion rights nationwide. From passing Colorado's landmark clin...

Four years after the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade , Rep. Ayanna Pressley joins Mini Timmaraju to reflect on power, policy, and why the fight for reproductive freedom demands both urgency and hope. In this special episode we’re joined by reproductive freedom champion Rep. Pressley, co-chair of the Congressional Reproductive Freedom Caucus to reflect on where the movement stand...

We've got something really special for you this week. For the first time ever, we're bringing you a live recording of My Body. My Pod. from Reproductive Freedom for All's 2026 Activist Summit at the Howard Theatre in Washington, DC, where hundreds of activists from across the country gathered to build community, sharpen their organizing skills, and prepare for the fights ahead. At the heart of thi...

In this episode of My Body. My Pod. , Mini Timmaraju sits down with Skye Perryman—President and CEO of Democracy Forward and one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People of 2025—to discuss the legal fights shaping reproductive freedom, voting rights, and democracy itself. From defending access to mifepristone against legally baseless fringe theories peddled by anti-abortion extremists, to challenging...

In collaboration with Abortion in America , our latest episode of My Body. My Pod. with Mini Timmaraju features Avery Davis Bell, a Georgia mother and genetics researcher who was forced to wait for emergency abortion care until complications were life-threatening. Avery was 18 weeks pregnant when her water broke—a medical emergency that made her pregnancy nonviable and placed her at risk for sever...

Abortion clinics have long been targets of coordinated blockades, harassment, and violence.  This reality has never stopped Rene Chelian, an abortion provider and advocate who has spent decades caring for patients and fighting for access. In this episode of My Body. My Pod. , Mini Timmaraju sits down with Renee, Founder and CEO of Northland Family Planning Centers, to talk about what it takes to d...

What does it take to fight back—and win? In this episode of My Body. My Pod., Mini Timmaraju sits down with New York Attorney General Leticia James to break down the critical role of attorneys general in protecting reproductive freedom in this moment. From defending abortion providers under attack, to taking on the Trump administration’s overreach, AG James is at the center of the legal fight to p...

Anti-abortion extremists are going after every single person involved in accessing abortion care—from patients to their doctors.  Abortion bans make it impossible for doctors to take care of their patients with the dignity and autonomy we deserve. When you deny people access to abortion care, women and pregnant people die.  In this episode of My Body. My Pod., Mini Timmaraju sits down with OB-GYN...

Abortion is a winning issue. Abortion bans are not. So why are some people on the left still treating reproductive freedom as if it’s negotiable? And how did a small number of anti-abortion extremists manage to chip away at our rights? In this episode of My Body. My Pod. , Mini Timmaraju sits down with journalist, author, and “Abortion, Every Day” founder Jessica Valenti to break down the current...

Award-winning journalist and executive producer Soledad O’Brien joins Mini Timmaraju on My Body. My Pod. to talk about her Oscar-nominated HBO documentary short “The Devil is Busy” that takes viewers inside a health clinic in Atlanta, where staff provide abortion care under relentless threats and a restrictive abortion ban. Told through Tracii, the clinic’s head of security, the film captures the...

In collaboration with Abortion in America , our latest episode of My Body. My Pod. with Mini Timmaraju features Julia and her daughter Daniela, a young immigrant whose access to abortion care was blocked by Florida’s abortion ban. Before we dive in, it’s important to ground ourselves in what’s happening across the country. Right now, undocumented people, immigrants, and people of color are being t...

We’re back with My Body. My Pod. — and this episode is about what happens when fear is used to control who has access to care. Mini Timmaraju sits down with U.S. Senator Tina Smith of Minnesota to connect the dots between reproductive freedom, authoritarian tactics, and what communities across America are being forced to endure. Right now, undocumented people, immigrants, and people of color are b...

Most Americans agree on the right to abortion care—even when they use different words. In collaboration with Abortion in America , our latest episode of My Body. My Pod. with Mini Timmaraju features Oklahoma-based nurse Victoria Parks, who reflects on what it means to speak up in a rural community and connect with people who don’t always see themselves as “activists” or “on a side.” From a convers...

In collaboration with Abortion in America , our latest episode of My Body. My Pod. with Mini Timmaraju features Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an OB/GYN and abortion provider on the frontlines of care under abortion bans. Dr. Bernard shares how she became an abortion provider, the mentors and communities that shaped her work, and what it means to practice medicine when laws override medical judgment.  She w...

Stacey Abrams joins My Body. My Pod. to explain why the U.S. is already in an authoritarian moment—and how abortion bans and attacks on DEI fit into a larger plan to concentrate power and control our bodies. Stacey walks Mini through her “10 Steps to Autocracy,” exposing just how far Republicans have gone to seize power. Then, she shares her 10 steps to freedom and power: concrete ways we can defe...

Politics is personal—and few people embody that more than Congresswoman Sarah McBride. In this episode of My Body. My Pod., Rep. McBride joins Mini to share how caregiving for her late husband, Andy, shaped her belief that access to health care should never depend on luck—it should be a right. Together, they connect the dots between abortion bans, attacks on LGBTQIA+ communities, and Republicans’...

Episode recorded on October 27, 2025 Thanks for listening! Make sure you hit the subscribe button to get notified when new episodes drop, and share this episode with a friend. Explore more episode resources at reproforall.org/podEP6 Sign up to get involved with Reproductive Freedom for All at reproforall.org/podlistener or Text POD to 59791 . *By providing your phone number, you are consenting to...

Why can’t the media tell the full story on abortion? In this episode, Mini sits down with trailblazing journalist and trial lawyer, Katie Phang, to unpack the GOP’s coordinated playbook: the dark-money network funding anti-abortion extremism from judges to disinformation campaigns—and how mainstream coverage so often misses what’s really at stake. Phang joins RFA's Mini Timmaraju to share why she...

In California, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and New Jersey, voters heard about abortion—and it mattered, especially when campaigns clearly defined the threats to reproductive freedom. Together, Mini and Molly map the 2026 playbook: define the threat, bring receipts, and connect abortion to everyday life. Episode recorded on October 7, 2025 Thanks for listening! Make sure you hit the subscribe button to...