FemmSouth

In this episode, we go out into the community to see how Christian Feminism is being discussed and practiced in the local area. Leigh interviews Judith Comer, an ordained Episcopal Minister, and Jessica Deese, a mother of four children who is active in her local church community and school. In this episode, we discuss the value of Feminist Theology from seminary to the pulpit. Although Feminism an...

In this episode, Leigh and Shannon discuss restoring the equality of the Divine Feminine in Christianity by centering on biblical women and feminine expressions of the Divine in scripture. We look at Christian supremacy and its legacy of oppression. We learn the historical roots of feminism in Christianity, investigate where feminism has already shaped the Church, and identify where feminist theol...

Bonus episode featuring singer, songwriter and musician, Brenda Bledsoe. For over 17 years, Brenda has been writing songs inspired by the people and places that have impacted her life. She's been playing the flute and guitar for even longer. In this episode, Brenda shares her new song, Let Your Truth Out, inspired by the recent violations against women's reproductive rights in Alabama. Brenda also...

For the second part of our episode on Trans Feminism, Sarah and Leigh interview transgender friends in the community to talk about coming out in the south. We hear transwomen’s perspectives on living with gender dysphoria, what coming out to their families has been like, how the church has influenced their transitioning, and what they think about passing within the socially constructed gender spec...

Join us as we explore Sarah McBride's book, "Tomorrow Will Be Different," a touching, personal memoir that covers her transition story, her journey into transgender activism, and the tragic loss of her husband to cancer. Sarah's book is also a primer on the many complex issues facing the transgender community through the lens of her life as a transgender woman and LGBTQ+ activist. It's a great way...

In part II of Episode 10: Reflecting on Audre Lorde, Leigh is joined by three local women (Valerie Montgomery, Claire Hallblack, and Valencia Wilson) to talk about race and infrastructure in our local community as an extension of our discussion about Audre Lorde's book Sister Outsider. Audre Lorde calls for women to unite and build new paths across difference, but what are the obstacles to buildin...

This episode examines Audre Lorde’s collection of essays and lectures in her book, "Sister Outsider." Join Leigh and new cohost, Jillian Rosandich, as we talk about Audre Lorde’s theory of difference, a foundational pillar of Intersectional Feminism that recognizes the particular experiences and issues of women of color and other groups that were being left out of the broader feminist conversation...

Why is anger a particularly challenging emotion to acknowledge and express for women? Many of us grew up in a culture or a home that discouraged any expression of anger or discontent. We learned to suppress our darker emotions, drive them down deep, and sacrifice our needs to be the peacekeepers in the home and at work. How did women get to this point historically, and what can we do to reframe an...

Anger, one of the darker emotions that women have historically learned to suppress & transfer into other more acceptable emotions like anxiety, sadness, and depression, is actually a valid and valuable tool for creating change in our personal lives and in the world. This is not the first time in history women’s anger has been at the front line of activism. Women’s anger has always fueled change. A...

Join Leigh as she interviews Matt Myrick, singer, songwriter, and father of two small children, to get his take on the story of the Skeleton Woman in Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ Women Who Run With the Wolves. Skeleton woman is the archetype of the life/death/life cycle, which, according to Clarissa, is the natural cycle of death and rebirth that determines the transformative cycles of all physical and...

We are continuing our three part series honoring Clarissa Pinkola Estes' Women Who Run With the Wolves. Clarissa connects readers with the archetypal wild woman who sings over collected bones to revive the Shewolf, La Loba. We all possess this wild woman deep inside our psyches, but many of us have forgotten, suppressed, ignored or simply lost connection. In In this episode, Leigh interviews singe...

Are we enjoying the full shapes and functions of our bodies, and do we feel at home in our own skin? Join us as we explore the answers to these questions in the second part of a three-part series honoring Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ book, Women Who Run With The Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype. In this episode, Leigh interviews two friends, Lukcy and Kate, about their favorite sto...

This episode is the first of a three-part focus on Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ book, Women Who Run With the Wolves, Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype. For those that have not read this book, first let me say that it is one of those life-changing, must reads for a women’s book club. Estes’ writing is poetic, inspiring, and connects with emotions deep and elemental in women. She reaches symp...

Motherhood is always a hot topic at our book club discussions, whether we are talking about our own mothers or the challenges of motherhood. In this new episode, Leigh & Amaya tackle motherhood and discuss Kathryn Black’s book, Mothering Without a Map: The Search for The Good Mother Within. This book explores the author's own story, testimonies from other mothers and research from top thinkers in...

Modern Witchcraft & Earth Magic Wisdom with Riyana Rose Amaya is flying solo for this episode, on assignment in the San Francisco Bay Area a place for all things mystical, magical and witchy. She interviews Riyana Rose a modern day witch, herbalist, coach, and writer who has been practicing witchcraft in her tradition called Reclaiming for over 20 years. In this episode, Riyana demystifies the ter...

In light of the feminist uprising that is giving women a resurgence in power and voice, we are still having to hold our ground against dismissal and outright hostility. We still have unanswered questions that history has for too long ignored. Why do we feel disconnected from our bodies and ashamed to seek pleasure? Why do we feel such a deep loss of empowerment over our own bodies as they become m...

In this episode, we look back at 2018 and what it was like deciding to do a podcast in the south, the emotional roller coaster that comes with putting yourself out there, and launching successfully to our community and the world. What a tremendous endeavor we have taken on! We reflect on the challenges of speaking so openly about our experiences and putting our voices out in the world for the firs...

Leigh and Amaya dive into Sarah Blaffer Hrdy's book, "Mother Nature: Maternal Instincts and How They Shape the Human Species." They discuss the female's active role in reproduction across species, they look at allomothers and communal support for motherhood, and they consider reproductive rights, female sexuality, and female choice in alignment with nature. For more information, visit us at FemmSo...

Building on Sarah Blaffer Hrdy's concepts of female choice and agency in evolution, Amaya and Leigh discuss reproductive rights with former abortion worker, Anne (pseudonym). They all talk openly about their own abortions in order to break the taboo and shame surrounding the topic, and offer ideas to support women in their reproductive choices regardless of whether to have the baby or not. They ta...

Amaya and Leigh interview local women that participated in Baldwin County's very own Handmaid's resistance, protesting Roy Moore's campaign for the 2017 Alabama Senate election. Mette McCall, Lyza Davidson, and Hanh Hua talk about their passion for protesting his candidacy and for supporting the #MeToo movement. They question female republican voters that supported Moore despite allegations of sex...

The Handmaid's Tale is the next book on our feminist book club's list, and we discuss its current significance and the #MeToo Movement. We look at how themes in the book are connected to the movement and other current political issues. We look deep into what the movement is really about, and we debunk the myth that the movement has gone too far as we discuss the more subtle manifestations of misog...

Amaya and Leigh have the great pleasure of interviewing River Blue Lotus, a local Tantrica and Tantric couples coach. River has a degree in contemplative psychotherapy from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, was raised in a Goddess centered community, and has been helping couples go deeper into their relationships through a Tantric approach to therapy. She goes deep into trauma and healing tr...

Join us as Amaya and Leigh discuss Naomi Wolf's book, Vagina. We talk about female sexuality and the connection between the vagina and inspiration, healing, and transcendence. We look at the historically repressed and traumatized vagina, the porn industry, and then we shift to the last half of Wolf's book where she discusses the Goddess Array, which is honoring the feminine and bringing intimacy a...

In this episode, Leigh and Amaya go out into the community to ask people their views on feminism. Listen as they interview men and women of all ages to see what they think feminism means, to discuss their associations with the word feminism, especially in the south, and to find out if they do indeed identify with feminist ideology. Surprise interviewees include feminist writer, Anne Kent Rush and...

Amaya and Leigh launch their podcast with this first episode about what it's like being a feminist living in the deep south and how southern women need to become more active in the current conversations. Amaya and Leigh discuss the challenges of being raised in the south and speaking out for women's rights, and their calling for doing women's work and healing the feminine and the masculine. For mo...