Podcast: What happens when a man wears a pussy hat?

“Don’t be a pussy!” is apparently the thing every little boy is supposed to not be. So what happens when the occasion arises during the Women’s March on Washington for this guy when he dons a #pussyhat? As our new president and lawmakers get to work destroying environmental protections in the first days of a Trump presidency, we get some personal reflections from environmental activist Matt Wasson, whose life’s work was recently featured in this NPR story. The work ahead is personal and powerful: sorting through masculinity and seeing the progressive movements best opportunity is in pussy power.

Women are now leading a resurgent and increasingly united progressive movement and it’s the greatest opportunity we’ve seen in years for the majority of this country to recapture the reins of power. I want to help men overcome their resistance to following the leadership of women by delving into its roots – like the “pussy-shaming” we faced in locker rooms by the likes of Donald Trump (and unfortunately, bought into and dealt out ourselves).

Here’s a link to the GOOD MEN PROJECT that was brought up during the interview.

Take a listen (talk starts at 3:38 mark):

About Our Guest

Matt Wasson is an ecologist and the director of programs for Appalachian Voices where he oversees the award-winning online campaign to stop mountaintop-removal coal mining on iLoveMountains.org.

This show originally aired live on Wednesday, January 25th on WPRK 91.5fm.

Podcast: Making of the Central Florida Women’s Rally

photo by Julie Wilder

The Women’s Rally–Central Florida, at Lake Eola Amphitheater, is a Solidarity event in conjunction with the Women’s March on Washington. This is the origin story of how first time organizers Gricel & Autumn decided to volunteer their time to bring a grassroots gathering in Central Florida.

Take a listen:

The rally was a huge success – I estimate at least 10k and possibly more were in attendance.

About Our Guests

Gricel & Autumn are two friends who met 20 years ago at their kids’ preschool. Autumn is passionate about family, education and social justice. She has been a professional storyteller for over a decade. She agreed to co-organize the Women’s Rally – Central Florida because she believes each of us, especially women and and marginalized groups, has a voice that deserves to be heard. Gricel has been newly relieved of her full-time stay-home-mom duties by her son’s heading off to college. She joined a fledgling Facebook Group of 50 people interested in doing “something” in Orlando in solidarity with the DC event. She agreed to organize the Rally because she believes silence makes you complicit and “if not us, who?”

This show originally aired live on Wednesday, January 18th on WPRK 91.5fm.

Podcast: Frontline report of Refugee Crisis in Greece with Kelly Milligan

We are witnessing a global refugee crisis unfold before our eyes and when we look to our own country, racism and fascism are on the rise.   Kelly Milligan of Sisters in Health,  spoke to us just before she left for Greece last year (listen to that podcast here) and has returned to the states to tell the tale from a front line account of the refugee rescue operation on the shores of Greece. This show aired live on WPRK 91.5fm on Wednesday, March 23, 2016.

Listen to the podcast here:

About OUR GUEST

 

Kelly Milligan is a Midwife and Naturopath & the Executive Director of Sisters in Health. In the process of attaining her ND with a specialty in women’s and community health, Kelly specializes in low resource women’s health care and disaster relief. Providing care on the front lines is her passion.

In addition to continuous education in Biology, Psychology, Global Women’s Health, Alternative Medicine and Disaster Relief, Kelly has also lived and worked around the world learning about women from their own communities and is currently writing a book about her adventures traveling the world, the world of women around the globe, and providing health care for women and families and chronicles her life in the field on her blog.

In 2014, while responding to the devastation that was left from Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines, Sisters In Health came to her as she sat in the birth tent with her sisters from around the globe & from there her non-profit organization, Sisters In Health, was born to serve all sisters of the globe on the premise that we all deserve to live our lives healthy, well and empowered. The Sisters in Health mission is to bring humanized health care, peace, and love to the women that have given up everything in order to survive.

Podcast: Trusting Women with their Bodies

Reproductive healthcare often gets brought into the headlines when organizations such as Planned Parenthood are under attack by false claims & fraudulent accusations. Mass media reporting is male dominated and rarely allows time for more than a sound bite.

Three experts in our community: Dr. Jennifer A. Sandoval, Dr. M.C. Santana and Anna Eskamani will discuss in depth what is at the heart and root of reproductive healthcare and the imperative to cultivate a socio-cultural climate that trusts women to make decisions about their bodies and health, while understanding the impact on women of color and LGBT individuals better. We will also touch on recent legislation and the role that abortion stigma plays in supporting restrictive bills.

About Our Guests

Jennifer A. Sandoval, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor and Graduate Faculty at the Nicholson School of Communication at UCF and holds a Ph.D. in Communication and Culture from the University of New Mexico and a Master’s of Dispute Resolution from Pepperdine University School of Law.

Dr. Sandoval brings her experience as a mediator, project manager, trainer, and consultant to the classroom and her research program at UCF. Her research focuses on the communicative elements involved in the intersection of identity, the body, and health policy. Currently, she is continuing to investigate these elements in the context of fertility tourism- specifically international surrogacy in India. Additionally, she examines the rhetoric of choice and Assistive Reproductive Technology for women, as well as looks at reproductive health access for the LGBT community. Dr. Sandoval also continues work with community based-participatory research projects focusing on health intervention in underserved and underrepresented populations.  Jennifer has published this research with her colleagues in journals such as Health Education Research, Communication Monographs and the Journal of International and Intercultural Communication.

M. C. Santana, Ph.D. is the Director of the Women’s and Gender Studies program at UCF where she teaches First and Second Wave Feminism, Theory of Feminism, Women, Race & Struggle and Introduction to Women’s Studies, among other courses. She is a firm believer of action, not just talking! Her students think of her as funny and caring. She is co-Chair of the International Task Force of the National Women’s Studies Association and a national member of the American Association of University Women and Winter Park/Orlando branch. Dr. Santana has won five leadership awards and four teaching awards in the last 12 years.

Anna Eskamani serves as the Director of Public Policy and Field Operations for Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida. Anna holds dual bachelor degrees in Political Science and Women’s Studies and a certificate in Service Learning and was awarded Order of Pegasus – the highest honor that a UCF senior can receive. She also holds a masters in both Public Administration and Nonprofit Management with a certificate in Gender Studies. A Certified Nonprofit Professional, she will begin teaching at UCF with the Women’s and Gender Studies Program while pursuing a PhD in Public Affairs.

Anna is often recognized for her community involvement. She sits on boards of several nonprofit and political groups including the League of Women Voters of Orange County, Valencia College Peace & Justice Initiative, Women’s Studies Program at UCF Advisory Council, and Bithlo Advisory Board. She is the founder of Project Bithlo, an effort to streamline UCF engagement with the community of Bithlo. She was recently recognized by the Orlando Sentinel’s ‘Central Florida 100’ list, naming her as one of the most influential leaders in the greater Orlando region.

A passionate and focused individual, Anna is proud to call herself a feminist. Her writing has been published in the Central Florida Future, Orlando Sentinel, The Huffington Post, and Independent Journal Review.

This was recorded live for Front Porch Radio on WPRK 91.5fm on February 10th at 4pm.

Podcast: Workers Voice Tour with Lupe Gonzalo

There have been incredible strides in the Florida Fight for Fair Food, but there are still a few holdouts, notably Wendy’s, which made an interesting decision recently. According to the Coalition for Immokalee Workers: “Just as the industry was being called “the best working environment in American agriculture” on the front page of the New York Times for its commitment to the human rights standards of the Fair Food Program, Wendy’s moved its substantial purchases of fresh tomatoes away from Florida in early 2015.  That’s right, they affirmatively decided to buy their tomatoes from farms offering workers fewer protections.

Guadalupe Gonzalo, a farmworker with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers & interpreter Daniel Cooper brought us the latest from the fields of Florida and the Workers’ Voice Tour that is happening on March 2-12 and gave us insight into the organizing structure of the CIW & how they are now sharing their activism throughout the country with farmworkers around the nation.

Listen to the interview here:

About the Fair Food Program

The Fair Food Program (FFP) is an historic partnership among farmworkers, Florida tomato growers, and 14 multibillion-dollar tomato retailers. By committing to the FFP, participating retailers require more humane labor standards from their suppliers, agree to purchase exclusively from those who meet these higher standards, and pay a “penny-per-pound” premium which is passed down through the supply chain and paid out to workers by their employers. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) is a worker-based human rights organization based in Immokalee, FL and the creator of the internationally recognized Fair Food Program (FFP).

About the Workers’ Voice Tour

This March, Immokalee farmworkers will embark on the 10-day, 5-city Workers’ Voice Tour where, joined by thousands of consumer allies, they will take the powerful message of Fair Food directly to Wendy’s doorstep.

The final march will be help Saturday, March 12 in Palm Beach, FL to amplify CIW’s call for justice in the fields and demand that Wendy’s become part of an industry that hears, respects – and gives a rightful, dignified place to – workers’ voices.

This program originally aired live on WPRK 91.5 fm at 4pm on Wednesday, February 3, 2016.