FemmSouth

In this podcast episode, Leigh, Lindsay, and Mette welcome guests Lauren and Jasmine, members of the Pensacola Abortion Rights Task Force (PART), to discuss Pensacola's history with abortion care and activism, as well as Florida's current Amendment 4 initiative. PART was founded in 2022 in response to the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and the closure of the local family planning clini...

In this gripping episode, we delve into the heart of the battle for intellectual freedom with Angie Hayden, the visionary founder of Read Freely Alabama, and Elizabeth Williams, a passionate member of FemmSouth and organizer for Read Freely Alabama's Baldwin County chapter. Join us as Angie sheds light on the harrowing frontlines in Alabama, where the public library in Prattville stands as ground...

In this episode, Lindsay, Mette, and Leigh meet with two guests from the Alabama Campaign for Adolescent Sexual Health (ACASH) to hear how the the overturn of Roe continues to shape Sex Education policy in Alabama. Christina Clark Okarmus, the Executive Director of ACASH, and ShaKaya Darrington, member of the Youth Advocacy Group, explain how sex education is a critical component to Reproductive J...

Episode 3.3 “Faith Leaders Speak Up for Choice” with Rev. Ginny Phillips Allen and Rev. Renee Adcock. In this session, you will hear our conversations with two local faith leaders talking about abortion rights in lower Alabama. If you attended a protest following the overturn of Roe v. Wade in either Mobile or Fairhope, you likely saw Rev. Ginny Phillips Allen in her clerical collar standing on th...

In this second segment we talk with Rev. Latishia James, an ordained minister in The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries, and the Co-Director of Spiritual Alliance of Communities for Reproductive Dignity (also known as SACReD) where they advance reproductive justice for marginalized communities through congregations and spiritual communities grounded in a progressive moral framework. Latishia is a...

Across three segments—all guided by ordained faith leaders—we’ll shine a light on the patriarchal systems and colonialist histories that lead to trauma, abuse, and violations of the autonomy of pregnant people. We explore the supposed schism between spirituality and sexuality. And we discuss the role of clergy and share resources and advocacy tools for both clergy and members of faith communities....

What happens when a pregnant person is denied an abortion? How does it impact their life trajectory, financial security, and the wellbeing of existing and future children? And how does it compare with those who are able to access a wanted abortion? In this episode of the “Reproductive Freedom in the Deep South” series, we address these and many other crucial questions related to the socio-economic...

This is the first episode in the "Reproductive Freedom in the Deep South" Series where we talk with representatives from reproductive justice organizations with boots on the ground in Alabama. Our special guests are Tish Gotell Faulks, Legal Director at the ACLU of Alabama; Robin Marty, the Director of Operations for the West Alabama Women's Center; and Kelsea McLain, Deputy Director of the Yellow...

This is our kick-off episode introducing audiences to the six-part series where we will host conversations with a range of people and professionals who are experiencing first-hand the effects and the fallout of the Dobbs decision here in Alabama. In June of 2022, the constitutional right to access abortion care in the US was revoked when the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade, which had been th...

This episode is the first of a two-part series exploring financial feminism and impact investing in women. In this first episode, we consider several definitions for the term financial feminism. We explore the barriers women face with finances and investing in a post-pandemic world and examine whether we can actually know if our investments are closing the gender wage gap and securing women a seat...

For this kick off episode, I have asked two of my favorite FemmSouth bookclub members and podcast guests, Shannon Fountain and Kadine Christie, to discuss their successes, joys, and transitions over the last few months. Kadine, a published local author, has been birthing a new book and shares the ups and downs of transitioning into full-time writing. Shannon discusses balancing motherhood and a ne...

Jolene @_thibodeaux_ is a local singer, songwriter, poet, and published author. Her writing and music draw from her experiences growing up in Alabama and time spent with her father in the Pacific Northwest. She is a rich and down-to-earth storyteller with imagery steeped in rural living and a passion for nature. In this episode, Jolene talks about growing up surrounded by poetry both in words and...

We have a new episode release and a very special musical guest, Haley Harkin! Haley is a singer/songwriter of folk medicine music from Austin, Texas.  She joins us to continue our discussion of Women Healers, focusing specifically on writers, poets, and songwriters that use their craft for healing.  In this episode, Haley shares her early struggles with insecurity and anxiety, and how her ability...

In the final episode of our Women Healers series, we are circling back to birth work to talk with our special guest, Pamela Smith, one of the founding members of the Farm community in Summertown,Tennessee.  Pamela tells the story of joining Steven, Ina May Gaskin and the 200+  caravan in 1970 that eventually becomes the Farm community in TN that develops one of the most influential midwifery cente...

Ep 19 Part III of Women Healers with Firestar & Brightheart “Midwifing the soul into wellness” is Firestar’s poetic description of her practice of shamanic healing.  Like our previous class of Women Healers, shamanism is a special calling and an undertaking with a long, rich tradition that spans many cultures across the globe.  In Part III, our special guests are Firestar and Brightheart, two heal...

Our special guest is Eri Guajardo Johnson (she/they), a queer, bi-racial birth worker, community educator, birth consultant for trauma survivors, and founder of Birth Bruja, which is an online educational platform devoted to intersectional, liberational & decolonial approaches to birthwork, healing, and life. Eri's experience working with sexual assault victims and her study of indigenous Mexican...

The first episode in our series on Women Healers is a lovely discussion with Nafeesah Roberts As-Salafeeya, a Community Labor and Postpartum Doula.  Doulas play a critical role as healers because they provide physical and emotional support before, during, and after birth in ways that modern hospital providers cannot. They are birthing advocates that help women actualize their preferred birthing ex...

In this introduction, I set up our discussion about women healers. What do we mean when we refer to women healers, and how does this language differ from the language of modern medicine? As Elisabeth Brooke says, "Medicine has always been political," and those with the authority to practice medicine exert a great power over those they deny. Women have always been healers, midwives, doulas, herbali...

For this episode, I couldn’t be more excited to speak candidly with Jillian and Shannon about all of our personal struggles dealing with 2020 and to acknowledge the accomplishments we did make in our community. As we say in this episode, women are conditioned to find the silver lining in all situations, but sometimes “shitty things can be shitty” and that’s okay. Among the many opportunities for r...

In Sep, our book club read Rachael Louise Snyder’s No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us for our focus on intimate partner violence, which often remains hidden despite the fact that it affects 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. In this episode, Leigh talks with the executive director of the Lighthouse, Rhy...

In this episode, Leigh interviews Kadine Christie, a mother in her eighth year of homeschooling her three children. Kadine has her BA in sociology from Kean University and her Masters in Counseling from Capella University. She’s also a writer, has published work in several magazines, and is currently working on her upcoming memoir, I am Home. Kadine shares her own education background growing up i...

In our commitment to amplify black female voices, this episode is an intimate conversation with Valencia, Clarice, and Wenter, three southern, black women in our FemmSouth book club, about their perspectives on racism and the BLM movement.  Join us as we hear their thoughts on police brutality, speaking out against racial injustice, allyship, corporate integrity, white supremacy, education, and th...

In this episode Leigh and Amaya interview Anna Swisher, a facilitator for Joanna Macy’s The Work That Reconnects. Anna explains the evolution of Macy’s approach over the last half of the century, the foundational basis of Macy’s work in Deep Ecology and Systems Theory, and walks us through the stages of the spiral through which the workshops are organized. Amaya shares her transformative experienc...

In this episode, Shannon and Leigh discuss Octavia Butler’s dystopian, afrofuturistic novel, The Parable of the Sower and the current coronavirus pandemic. Butler has imagined an all-too-real version of the United States if things like climate change and corporate greed are left unchecked. Much like Butler's imagined crisis, this pandemic has amplified the stark social, financial, and political in...

In this episode, Leigh interviews Reverend Ellen Sims from Open Table United Church of Christ in Mobile and Elizabeth Denham, LGBTQ+ advocate and owner of The Franchise Woman magazine. Both are connected to the advocacy & family support groups, Rainbow Mobile and Prism United. If you've lived in the South for long, you know that churches can have a huge impact on the violence, fear, discrimination...