51 Percent

On this week’s 51% , we speak with activist and sociologist Betsy Leondar-Wright about her new book, Is it Racist? Is it Sexist? examining why white Americans increasingly disagree on their definitions of the two. WAMC’s Samantha Simmons also sheds light on Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month with Rensselaer County District Attorney Mary Pat Donnelly.  Guests:  Betsy Leondar-Wright, co-...

On this week’s 51% , we speak with Carol Cleaveland and Michele Waslin, author of Private Violence: Latin American Women and the Struggle for Asylum. As President Trump effectively shuts down processing at the southern border and ramps up deportations, asylum seekers in the U.S. are left in a precarious position, especially women fleeing domestic and gender-based violence. Through interviews...

What makes a good life? According to the world’s longest scientific study of human happiness, our relationships play a key role. On this week’s 51% , we speak with Dr. Robert Waldinger, a psychiatry professor at Harvard Medical School and director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development. In his book with researcher Marc Schulz, called The Good Life , Waldinger details the study’s findings and gi...

On this week’s 51% , we speak with author Joelle Kaufman about her new book Crushing the Cancer Curveball . After helping both her mother and sister battle breast cancer, Kaufman voluntarily sought a mastectomy in 2023 — only to be diagnosed with cancer the day before her surgery. Part memoir, part guidebook, Crushing the Cancer Curveball  compiles Kaufman’s best advice on how to advocate for...

Before leaving office, former President Joe Biden declared that he considered the Equal Rights Amendment to be “the law of the land.” On this week’s 51% , we speak with Georgetown Law Professor Victoria Nourse about why the ERA has been in limbo for so long, what it would do, and whether it currently stands as the 28th amendment to the U.S. Constitution. We also stop by a local version of the Peop...

On this week's 51% , we speak with journalist and author Pagan Kennedy about her new book The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story, tracking the life and work of Martha “Marty” Goddard, who invented the country’s first extensive rape kit system in the 1970s. The kit and process designed by Goddard and Louis Vitullo, a Chicago police sergeant, has allowed countless survivors of sexual...

On this week’s 51% , we sit down the director of Safe Inc. of Schenectady to discuss the many risks faced by homeless youth, and what they’re doing as an organization to help combat human trafficking. We also learn about a New York law granting paid prenatal leave to pregnant workers. And our Dr. Sharon Ufberg chats with singer-songwriter Morley about her new album, Follow the Sound , and how her...

A lot of Americans’ resolutions for the new year revolve around money, but could you hold off shopping for a full year? On this week’s 51% , we explore the concept of a “no-buy year” with Elysia Berman, a Brooklyn-based content creator tracking her journey away from excessive shopping toward financial savings. By challenging herself not to buy items she doesn’t need, like clothing and beauty suppl...

The state of Texas has sued a New York doctor for prescribing abortion pills to a Texas patient via telemedicine. On this week’s 51% , we discuss the case with Mary Ziegler, a law professor at UC Davis and a leading historian on the U.S. abortion debate. We also get some tips on how to destress around the holidays and speak with psychiatrist Dr. Judith Orloff about why empathy is important not jus...

On the latest 51% , we speak with sociologist Gretchen Sisson about her book Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood . Sisson studies the relationship between abortion and adoption in the U.S., and is part of a team of researchers for "The Turnaway Study" at the University of California, San Francisco. In Relinquished , Sisson compiles a decade's worth of in...

On this week's 51% , we speak with journalist and author Julie Fingersh about her debut memoir Stay: A Story of Family, Love, and Other Traumas . Fingersh is the former executive director of the volunteer organization Boston Cares, and her journalistic work has appeared in The New York Times , O Magazine , and The Huffington Post . In Stay , she reflects on her decision to leave her career and bec...

On this week's 51%, WAMC's Ian Pickus speaks with NPR Life Kit  host Marielle Segarra about the importance of breast cancer screening, and her own battle with breast cancer as a woman in her mid-30s. We also speak with Dr. Niraj Sharma of Cardinal Spine & Pain Medicine about some non-surgical treatments for chronic pain, and the struggles faced by independent, small-town doctors.  Guests: &nbs...

On this week’s 51% , we speak with physician and author Dr. Alice Rothchild about her new memoir, "Inspired and Outraged: The Making of a Feminist Physician." Rothchild worked almost 40 years as an OB/GYN, taught at Harvard Medical School, contributed to the first edition of "Our Bodies, Ourselves," and co-founded an all-women’s practice in Boston in the late 1970s. In "Inspired and Outraged," Rot...

On this week’s 51% , we speak with Erin Loos Cutraro, founder and CEO of the nonprofit She Should Run, about why Kamala Harris’ loss should not discourage women from running for office. Also, the reelection of former President Donald Trump has piqued some Americans’ interest in the “4B movement,” a fringe freminist movement from South Korea where women swear off sex, dating, marriage and childbear...

Donald Trump will once again be president of the United States. The former president defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in this month's general election, marking the second time Americans have chosen Trump over a woman candidate. On this week’s 51% , we check in with Ange-Marie Hancock, a political science professor and Kamala Harris Project scholar with The Ohio State University. Also, for 10...

Election Day is November 5. Is anyone else nervous? We speak with Shevaun D. Neupert, a professor of psychology at North Carolina State University, about the impacts of election anxiety and how to cope before and after voting. We also hear from the sisters behind the “Vote Without Fear” campaign, reminding women — especially those in controlling relationships — that who they vote for is not public...

On this week’s 51% , we recognize Domestic Violence Awareness Month. WAMC’s Samantha Simmons speaks with Equinox Inc. counselor Melissa Kovelman about what domestic violence looks like in different types of relationships and how to seek help. We also check in with Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood about the various services it offers to patients struggling with menopause.   Guests:  Melissa Kovelman...

On this week’s 51% , we recognize Breast Cancer Awareness Month and learn why doctors are being instructed to tell patients about their breast density after mammograms. We also speak with Dr. Elizabeth Lucal of Nuvance Health about the impacts of iron deficiency and anemia on women. And Natasha Senjanovic of the New York Public News Network brings us a report on how the healthcare industry is resp...

On this week’s 51% , we stop by a traveling exhibition using photography to explore the physical and emotional realities of fertility and childbirth. “Reproductive: Health, Fertility, Agency” — from Columbia College Chicago — is now on view at Vassar College’s Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center through February 2. We also stop by a ceremony celebrating a new statue of Sojourner Truth in Kingston, New...

On this week’s 51% , we speak with Brady President Kris Brown about her work advocating for gun control measures in Washington, and why it’s harder today. We also hear from New York State Senator Liz Krueger about the state’s proposed Equal Rights Amendment, which voters will decide on in November. Guests:  Kris Brown, president of Brady: United Against Gun Violence; New York State Senator Liz Kru...

On this week’s  51% , we sit down with author Theo Boyd to discuss her book  My Grief is Not Like Yours,  and the various forms that grief can take. Boyd, a former teacher and self-described "farm girl" from Texas, experienced a string of life-altering losses beginning in 2019, including the deaths of both of her parents. Combining personal anecdotes and advice from mental health counselors, Boyd...

On this week’s 51% , we speak with writer and mental health advocate Jessica Hoppe about her new book First in the Family: A Story of Survival, Recovery, and the American Dream . The debut memoir chronicles Hoppe’s experience recovering from drug and alcohol abuse as a first-generation Latinx woman. Tracing the history of substance abuse across her family, Hoppe explores the pressures that come wi...

Has dating gotten harder in recent years? On this week’s 51%, we speak with sociologist Sabrina Strings about the changing romantic landscape for women in the U.S., from dating app horrors to low-commitment “situationships.” In her new book, The End of Love, Strings argues that traditional romance has always been more elusive for women of color, and now it is practically on its deathbed. Why? Beca...

On this week’s 51% , our associate producer Jody Cowan speaks with ethnobotanist Dr. Ina Vandebroek and anthropologist Dr. Cynthia Fowler about efforts in the science community to address racism and decolonize the way we study and name native plants around the world. WAMC’s Samantha Simmons also stops by a community center in New York that’s using cooking classes to promote kids’ interest in the S...