The Electorette Podcast

Kathy Hochul, lieutenant governor of New York state, holds the highest elected office of any woman in the state and joins me to discuss her elections, both the victories and the losses, as well as, New York State's Women's Justice Agenda. We also discuss her #HowSheDoesIt Campaign, a social media campaign intended to help women succeed by providing transparency into how she's dealt with the challe...

A conversation with author and activist Gail Ukockis, about her new book Misogyny: The New Activism, where she explores historical examples of misogyny and suggest actions to combat each example chapter by chapter. If you'd like to explore this topic more, please listen to my episode with philosopher Kate Manne, on episode 13, where we discuss her popular book, Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny Lis...

The Men's Story Project, founded by today's guest Dr. Jocelyn Lehrer, is a storytelling and community project that brings critical exploration of social ideas about masculinity into public forums around the world and allowing men to share their stories that are less-often heard with a live audience. On this episode, I talk with Dr. Lehrer about how The Men's Story Projectbreaks silences on issues...

Rhiana Gunn-Wright, the Policy Director of the progressive think tank, New Consensus, and one of the architects behind The Green New Deal, joins me to discuss the details of the GND Climate Change resolution and how its comprehensive approach will address the social justice and economic impacts of transforming the country's primary energy source, as well overhauling our transporation framework and...

Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers discusses her new book "They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South," a book that dispels a common myth about the role of white women within the institution of slavery, as being one of reluctance and passivity. Previous scholarship has often depicted them as bystanders or even as allies to enslaved people; but in her new book, Jones-Rogers un...

Summer Brennan, award-winning journalist and author of the new book High Heel, joins me to discuss the writing process for her book which explores the iconography of the high heel. Summer Brennan methodically explores the high heel using analogies from Greek Mythology and literature; she considers its role in our professional lives, in politics or how the high heel fits into sex culture and histor...

This is Pt II of my conversation with activist and writer, Marisa Kaba, creator of the popular online voter tool, Crush the MidTerms. We discuss the tool's popularity, why she created it; wealso discuss the midterm election outcome, 2020 candidates and what we can do to support our favorite candidates before primary election season begins. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adcho...

Gina Clayton-Johnson, founder and executive director of the Essie Justice Group, an advocacy group for women with incarcerated loved ones, joins to discuss the unique hardships of women who shoulder the burden of America's epidemic of mass incarceration. The US has the highest incarceration rate in the world and the emotional, financial and political burden of this crisis falls upon women. The Ess...

Last week, Michael Cohen, former personal attorney to Donald Trump, who has been convicted on a number of charges, testifihed before the House Oversight Committee. And this was the biggest news of the week. Following Cohen's testimony, several additional investigations and hearings have been scheduled. Marisa Kabas joins me on the Electorette to break the whole thing down. Activist, writer, and cr...

Professor Martha S. Jones, author of the book Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America, discusses the history of birthright citizenship in America, a struggle that began before the Civil War, before the Emancipation Proclamation. During this uncertain and perilous, a time particularly dangerous African Americans, black activists fought for citizenship status, thus ra...

Last fall I had the chance to sit down for a conversations with Congresswoman Barbara Lee at the She The People conference. We discussed the then upcoming midterms and whether voters are connecting our power at the ballot boxes to the changes we want to see in our individual lives. We also discussed her time in Zimbabwe where she observed the election of Nelson Mandela; she describes how driven th...

Canadian comedian Allison Dore founded a record label, Howl & Roar, which focuses on making recordings for women and other artists from under-served groups. Allison is hilarious and we have a fun conversation, we touch on the unique professional needs of women comedians, political tensions between Canada and the US, and of course, the controversy surrounding comedian Louis C.K. Follow Allison Dore...

Christine Grimaldi is a journalist and writer in Washington, D.C., who often covers reproductive and LGBTQ policy in Congress and under the Trump administration. Her reporting has appeared in Rewire. News, DAME Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, and The Rumpus, and her essays in The Washington Post, The Toast, and The Morning News. In this episode, we discuss how the new Democratically cont...

Activist and Journalist for Media Matters, Parker Molloy, explores the social science explaining why Fox News wants viewers to believe masculinity is under threat. We discuss the Gillette Ad and other cultural events, and the negative response from the conservative media. The conversation centers around Molloy's piece titled, The social science explaining why Fox News wants you to believe masculin...

Christina Reynolds, Vice President of Communications for Emily's List, discusses the #2020 Primary Race, the challenges that face the women seeking the Democratic nomination, how best to support women running for office, and how not to repeat the mistakes from 2016. We also discuss the newly elected women to Congress including Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Lucy McBa...

Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom discusses her new book of essays "Thick: And Other Essays." Dr. Cottom is an assistant professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her work has been featured by the Washington Post, NPR’s Fresh Air, The Daily Show, the New York Times, Slate, and The Atlantic, among others.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode we discuss the experiences of US asylum seekers from all over the world, the conditions they face and our broken asylum process. Joan Hodges-Wu Founder & Executive Director of the Asylum Seekers Assistant Project (A.S.A.P.) and immigration attorney Anam Rahman who is also on the board of the Asylum Seekers Assistant Project join to discuss the asylum cases they've seen through thei...

Sylvia Chan-Malik, Rutgers University professor, scholar of Race, Women's and Gender Studies, and author of "Being Muslim: A Cultural History of Women of Color in American Islam" discusses Muslim womanhood and feminism, from a historical perspective to modern times. She explains how women of color throughout history, viewed Islamic traditions as acts of resistance and a way to express their agency...

Thank you for listening, subscribing and supporting the Electorette in 2018. Please listen to this special, holiday mini-episode to close out the year. And so we can bring you a better Electorette in 2019, please drop Jenn a line at Electorette.com/email and give her your feedback! And until next year, keep up the good fight! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Fiona Vera-Gray is join Electorette to discuss her study titled Women on Porn, the largest ever study solely focused on  women's experiences and views of mainstream pornography in the United Kingdom. She launched the survey in 2016 and closed it after 3 months, she got 2000 responses from women and of those carried out a further 100 in-depth interviews. We discuss the study's findings as well...

On this episode, Amy Stanton and Catherine Conners, authors of the book "The Feminine Revolution," join me to discuss how feminine traits, such as sensitivity, intuition, and showing emotion, are often painted as weaknesses in women; while the same traits are lauded in men. We discuss the value in seeing these traits as strengths and how our real power lies in our authenticity and in embracing our...

In this episode I discuss the Russia's and Putin's history of launching cyber-warfare and espionage campaigns including the one against the US during the 2016 presidential election. My guests are Laura DuBois and Marley Clements, producers of the documentary Active Measures. We discuss how Russia successfully compromised the 2016 election as well as Trump's connections to Russia dating back to the...

Public Sexual Harassment with Dr. Fiona Vera Gray, Sarah Myhre & Emily May This episode explores public sexual harassment and cat-calling, a.k.a. "wolf-whistling" in the UK, with Dr. Fiona Vera-Gray, a Research Fellow in the Durham Law School and author of the new book "The Right Amount of Panic: How Women Trade Freedom For Safety." Over the course of 5 years, Dr. Gray spoke to women in the UK abo...

Do you ever wish that there was a guide to help you navigate and understand our new gender culture? Do you find yourself wondering which pronoun to use and when? Or have you ever wanted a guide on how to be an effective ally to the LGBTQ and transgender community, especially given the recent attacks on those communities by the Trump administration? This episode explores the book "Gender: Your Guid...

In this episode, Nicole Fleetwood, an Associate Professor in the Department of American Studies at Rutgers University and Graduate Faculty in the Department of Women's and Gender Studies, discusses her moving essay titled "Raising a Black Boy Not to Be Afraid: On the Casual Street Violence of Whiteness." The essay explores an experience her son had while walking to school alone in New York City. W...