AmsterDames: An English Feminist Podcast in the Netherlands

In this episode, we are going to break two taboos. This is not me saying this, this is what my guest said. Lex van Delft is the founder of de stoute vrouw, the naughty woman, a lesbian escort service agency. That obviously includes sex work and female sexuality which is still an issue for some people or at least something they have a strong opinion on. But Lex van Delft knows that – even though, y...

In the patriarchy, anyone who is not white, straight and cis-male, has to work extra hard to make it in this world. But for women of color, it is even more difficult. Due to lack of support and chances, the feeling of constantly swimming against the current and the lack of role models. This is why Sela Graaven wants to introduce the world to women of color who have made it on their own terms. With...

The film industry is one of the best (or the worst if you will) examples of male domination and the male gaze. Female actresses earn significantly less than their male counterparts and the amount of women behind the camera is minimal in comparison. That is the status quo. But it is not the future. Because there are women in the industry who are determined to break this system. Women like Valentina...

Did you know that when you ask AI to visualize a professional, less than 20 % are women? In other words: If you tell AI: Show me an image of a pilot, an astronaut, a doctor, most of the results are images of white cis-male. But now, there is Miss Journey. And Helen Pink, my guest for today, is going to explain what Miss Journey has to do with AI and why we all need to be critical in the use of AI...

Sex is everywhere in Amsterdam. At least, so it seems in the Red Light District, with the windows, live sex shows, and in souvenir shops with genitalia-shaped candy. Everything is legal, no big deal and everyone is cool with it. At least, this is the image that the Netherlands wants the world to have. I am sure you already guessed it. It is not that easy. Because even though sex work is – technica...

Traveling with kids is always stressful. Parents hardly have the time to enjoy themselves when they are going on a citytrip with kids, for example. Let Debora Dielingen help you. The founder of Wanderlust Mama & Co offers kid-friendly tours in Amsterdam to entertain your kids and to give you a relaxed time. Also, don't bother either to bring all your baby gear to Amsterdam. That's just...

Girls and women with a disability are rarely seen in Dutch media, in campaigns or in pop culture. And if they are shown, then they are often reduced to only one thing: Their disability. Sophie-Anne Onland knows that girls and women with a disability are so much more and that they are capable of so many amazing things. This is why she wants to be a role model. With her public work, her speeches and...

On July 17, 2014, Flight MH17 takes off from Amsterdam bound for the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. But the plane with 298 people on board never arrives.   The route takes Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine, where an armed conflict is raging between the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian separatists. Civil aviation is banned from flying at low altitudes. But MH17 is flying ten kilometers above...

We have probably all been there at some point, when we were a teenager. We felt like the world is against us and nobody can really understand us. We felt like we were not being heard. Many children and young people in the Netherlands share the same feeling – and they are in fact probably not being heard – because they have a certain cultural background, social class or they are from a certain neig...

If you live in Amsterdam Oost, you have probably come across the Javaplein, the Javastraat or the Molukkenstraat. Right at Amsterdam Central Station, there is the gebouw Batavia. And if you have ever visited Hoorn, then you have probably walked past a statue of a man called Jan Pieterszoon Coen. The history of Indonesia, as it is called today, Nederlands Oost Indie, as it was called in the past, i...

Amsterdam breathes history. I am sure you have already visited the Rijksmuseum, the van Gogh Museum and the Anne Frank House. Maybe you even took a boat tour and learned everything there is to know about this city and this country. But is it really everything? What about the history of Jewish people before the 20th century? Or the history of women? The history of queer people or people with disabi...

There are so many benefits in networking, but still it seems that as women we still sometimes struggle with it. Maybe because we see other women as competition, maybe we feel like we are simply too shy or we just don't know how and where to start. Helen Pink knows: Networking for women is about quality, not quantity. And each woman just needs to find the way of networking that is right for her...

When we hear about racial profiling and police brutality, we often think of the US. But these problems also exist in the Netherlands. On the street, during protests, or by institutions. In the daily life of way too many people. One person that knows this all too well is my guest Marisella de Cuba who works for Controle Alt Delete that wants to fight ethnic profiling in the Netherlands. AmsterDames...

Loverboys trick women into sexwork by making them believe that they are in a relation and that they are doing this out of love for their partner. And this happens more often than we think, and surely not only in the Netherlands.  Esther Ehlting is a victim of a loverboy and a survivor of forced prostitution and now she wants to help other girls and women in the Netherlands.  Website Mere...

Not getting a house because of the way you look. Being stopped by the police because of the way you look. Being physically attacked because of the way you look. If you never had any of these experiences, then there is a good chance that you are white. The city of Amsterdam prides itself of being a home to more than 170 nationalities, but they clearly do not all have the same every day life realiti...

There are so many ways to tell a story. In a book, in music, face to face, in podcasts, like this one. Or in movies. Sometimes, these movies manage to change our perspective on the world we live in and sometimes they manage to open our eyes. Those are the movies that matter. Movies that matter is a film festival in the Netherlands and Julie Nederkoorn, my guest for today, is going to tell us more...

When was the last time you ordered something online? Maybe on bol.com or by H&M? When was the last time you went to the supermarket, to Albert Heijn for example, or that you bought flowers? Or the last time that you received a parcel by Post NL? All of these examples are usual things to do, for us who live in the Netherlands. We do not even conciously think about it. And we definitely do not t...

Dear listeners, first of all, let me wish you a happy, healthy and successful new year 2023. I hope that this year is going to be everything that you need it and want it to be. Second of all, thank you very much for being such a strong supporter of my work and of all the amazing women that have spoken on this podcast. I greatly appreciate every single person that has listened to one or more episod...

For months and years even, the right to have an abortion has caused heated discussions all over the world. In Poland, women took to the streets to demand their right to have an abortion. In the US, this right was recently taken away from them. But even though in the Netherlands, abortions are theoretically legal and there are abortion clinics available at least in the cities, not everything goes s...

For those among us who do not have a law degree, legal issues can be quite overwhelming. But it is still very likely that we will have to face them at some point in our life. Maybe after being fired, getting divorced and when we wish to take someone to court who caused us harm. Then it is important to know our rights. But if we don’t know them, there is a place that can help. It is called the vrou...

Food always brings people together. During a family dinner, a religious holiday or birthdays. Also, living in a foreign country, most of us have probably experienced the feeling of loneliness in one way or another. So why not bringing these two things together: food and making new friends? This is exactly what Samantha Wolfson is trying to do with her project And the Table. & the Table www.and...

Babies and children grow out of their clothes insanely fast. So, what are parents supposed to do? Buy new outfits every other week? And what happens to the old clothes that were barely worn. Puck Middelkoop came up with an idea to make the lives of parents a lot easier.  Hulaaloop Website: https://www.hulaaloop.com/ Hulaaloop Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hulaaloop/ Hulaaloop Facebook:...

Sadly, IT is still a field where women are underrepresented – for multiple reasons. But there is a woman who wants to change that. After graduating from a Coding Bootcamp herself in 2017, Valerie Fuchs founded Cafe Robot that aims to be a little different to your usual tech community. Book Recommendations “Broad Band - the untold story of the women who made the Internet” by Claire L Evans “Brotopi...

Frederike Geerdink is a Dutch journalist who specializes in reporting on Kurdish people and political issues in Turkey. Her work has been nominated for the Brusseprijs, an annual prize for the best journalistic book in the Netherlands. The nomination stated, Fréderike Geerdink is one of those courageous Dutch journalists who do their work in dangerous conflict zones. Her book became a both politic...

There are certain rules that our society follows that we accept as a given. We do not think much about it. One of these rules is the following one: A person who commits a crime goes to prison. But what if prisons didn't exist? Could you imagine a world without prisons? Rescaled most certainly can, because they are challenging the concept of prisons, offering a replacement: small detentions houses....