A Generational Thing

Send a text Nat and Ang are joined by Nichola Hines, President of the League of Women Voters of Georgia. Questions, so many questions. And answers! What's it like to work in a passionate non-partisan organization in a major swing state during one of the most sharply partisan, politically charged, and democracy challenged eras in US history? What's up with the Georgia legislature? BTW, di...

Send a text It’s time to vote and here we all are, bombarded at every turn by misinformation, disinformation, malinformation, and outright lies. Nat and Ang to the rescue, with a lot of help from Delany Zimmer, Voter Services Coordinator for the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin. Delany valiantly supports voter efforts to find truth in spite of our poisonous politics and polluted information eco...

Send a text In 1925, John Scopes, a high school biology teacher in rural Tennessee, was indicted for violating a new state law against teaching evolution. The record of his trial is a textbook all its own for today. A century later the very issues that played out in a small-town courthouse––from politics to religion and everything in between––still divide Americans. Join Natalia and Angela as they...

Send a text      The one thing most Americans agree on besides apple pie is that November 5, 2024 is a very big day in US history. What are the issues we should be reflecting on as we choose our national, state, and local leaders? Does it really all come down to the economy (stupid)? Or Project 2025? Or reproductive rights?      How about this one? Educational equity? Now there's an election...

Send a text The gals are back from hiatus and ready to take on the world. But not before they inter-generationally process their respective summer school lessons and what's in the fall syllabus. Consider this episode your back-to-school primer, just in time for the coming apocalypse, or at least for the 2024 elections.  Transition music: "Sunshine Strum" by Humans Win AGT and Nat an...

Send a text Nat and Ang are feeling wistful about the end of Season 1. Things won’t be the same without the thrill of a hot mic this summer. But the gals will survive the break like all schoolgirls do, mostly because they'll be using their hiatus to gear up for Season 2!         Before they sign off, Nat and Ang consider the art of podcasting in all its glory and messiness. Some shocking stat...

Send a text Mother’s Day is a perfect occasion for intergenerational processing! Nat and Ang take full advantage of this opportunity to explore a disconcerting array of topics: the evolutionary contributions of grandmothers, the panic over plunging fertility rates, the changing expectations of motherhood, how expensive kids are, etc. They even tackle (but fail to answer) the “to be or not to be (a...

Send a text Be not afraid! It’s poetry month at the pod and Nat and Ang are here to cure your BARDOLOTRYPHOBIA. The gals serve up an irreverent crash course in love poetry, from Shakespeare’s sonnets to Solomon’s songs with (almost) nothing and no one in between. Find out which of our featured really famous, really dead poets is the literary heartthrob of the ages. Discover at last why Shakespeare...

Send a text The gals unpack their recent adventures and discoveries––from stray dogs and library story hours to things they wish they had asked recent pod guests. It’s a ride. Nat hums a few bars and ponders eschatology. Ang reads from a kids book and considers the nature of truth-with-a-capital-T. Together they decide that all we need is … well, love, sure … but a good book and a gospel tune help...

Send a text If an episode drops on a major Christian holiday, trust the gals not to ignore the drama of it all. Just in time for Easter, they get help from a new friend of the pod, Bart Campolo, who is the son of a famous evangelist and who was a minister in the evangelical tradition himself for decades. That’s right, was . His later-in-life leap of non-faith led him all the way to secular humanis...

Send a text Nat and Ang continue their Women’s History Month exploration of all things feminism. This time, their focus is the newly released and fabulous book, Mean Girl Feminism: How White Feminists Gaslight, Gatekeep, and Girlboss! In their wide-ranging conversation with author Kim Hong Nguyen, the gals ask some burning questions. Just who exactly is a mean girl? Is her name Karen, perchance? I...

Send a text       The best laid plans can and often do go awry. But the best prepared gals always have a backup plan. Maybe even two.       The previously announced interview with Kim Hong Nguyen is slightly delayed, but is now in post production and will be out soon! The good news is that, right on schedule, here’s a new episode. The other good news is that you get to hear Nat and Ang in all thei...

Send a text No, not that one.  FEMINISM.   Yes, that one.  In this episode, we share responses to our sophisticated survey questions:  What the heck is feminism? Are you one? How come?  (Ok, maybe they were more sophisticated than that.) But the results are clear! Feminism is just as messy and wonderful and crucial and misunderstood as ever . . . you’ll have to tune in for the deets though. What t...

Send a text Part 2 of Nat and Ang’s exploration of Whiteness. This time the sources are less bookish, except for Caste , written by Isabel Wilkerson, a national treasure and, well, QUEEN. Check out our resources list to see how scintillating this episode is. Resources: Leslie Jones The Racism Spectrum (video) Saroful How to Survive in Intersectional Feminist Spaces 101 (blog) John Scalzi Straight...

Send a text The gals decided to honor Black History Month. Playwrights came to mind as usual—Lorraine Hansberry, August Wilson, Suzan-Lori Parks. Great writers and thinkers: Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Audre Lorde, James Baldwin. Visual artists like. . . Hold up. What can White/White passing gals really add to the Black History Month conversation? Not a lot, they figured. So, Nat and Ang decided...

Send a text Wellness, that is. Mental wellness, to be exact. Thriving even though it may be very January where you are. Even though holidays are few and far between now. Even though you might prefer to hibernate this time of year like a lot of other creatures do. For National Mental Wellness month Nat and Ang consider what the pros have to say about mental wellness and how to get and/or keep it. A...

Send a text Feeling blah about your New Year’s Resolutions? Good luck with that. Had just about enough Best-of-This and Worst-of-That reviews? We can help you with that! In this episode, Natalia and Angela take on 2023. But don’t expect a numbered list or polite conversation. This rearview mirror view of 2023 is about sex, religion, and politics. Find out what gob smacking things in each of these...

Send a text What’s Christmas without a dab of doubt, a smidge of heresy, maybe even a dash of Greek mythology? Not much of a Christmas at all, if you ask Angela and Natalia. These nice and occasionally naughty evangelical preachers’ daughters prove why book banning is so popular these days and how the road to perdition almost always starts in a theatre. They ponder the essential questions of Chris...

Send a text      Natalia and Angela, two country gals with big city aspirations, talk about how places shape us. They celebrate and critique their own "backwoods" origins in an episode packed with riffs on rural life and art: country music, political signs,  woodsy adventures, red-neckery, church, tractors, even Andrew Wyeth!      The girls have questions, so many questions. Are we mostl...

Send a text What does it feel like to be young? To be old? What are the perils and pleasures of aging, at any stage of life? Natalia and Angela ponder the mysteries of the ultimate identity spectrum, age. And yes, Zoomers and Boomers both get some backlash as well as love. Show notes: With great respect and admiration for Rosalynn Carter (1927-2023). RIP The Hidden Moral Injury of "Ok Boomer,...

Send a text Natalia and Angela begin with the backstory, from personal demographics to cultural heroines to religion to  names of pets. All the things you need to know to make sense of the world of A Generational Thing podcast and where our conversations will go in future episodes. References: Rolling Stone article about Lana Del Rey - https://www.rollingstone.co.uk/music/features/lana-del-rey-she...

Send a text In these snippets from early episodes of A Generational Thing Podcast, hosts Natalia and Angela talk about intergenerational communication and courage. AGT and Nat and Ang on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/agenerationalthingpodcast/ https://www.instagram.com/natalia_latham/ https://www.instagram.com/angelajoylatham/ Logo by Kara Joy Schrock: https://www.instagram.com/kjreliquaries...