2020 in Review on Ms. Magazine’s On The Issues with Michele Goodwin Podcast

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | December 29, 2020

On the Issues with Michele Goodwin is a new issues- and policy-focused podcast featuring feminist analysis, insightful conversations and exciting guests. This is the first podcast from Ms. magazine, a legacy feminist publication.

In each bi-weekly episode, host Dr. Michele Goodwin and special guests will tackle the most compelling issues of our times, centering feminist concerns about rebuilding our nation and advancing the promise of equality.

A new episode—Year in Review: Looking Ahead to 2021 and Beyond—is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and MsMagazine.com.

2020 has been defined by the Covid-19 pandemic, a long overdue national reckoning on racism and policing in America, the 2020 election, and the ongoing fight for justice. What does the 2020 election and the Biden/Harris win mean for our democracy—and how important is the outcome of the Georgia runoff for the incoming administration? How are we to undo the damage done to our federal courts and address the legitimacy of the U.S. Supreme Court? And what hope lies ahead?

To reflect on 2020—and look ahead to 2021—this week on the podcast, Dr. Goodwin is joined by Russ Feingold, president of the American Constitution Society and a former U.S. senator from Wisconsin; Deirdre Fishel, a producer/director of “Women in Blue,” a feature documentary that explores the intersection of gender, power and violence in American policing; Stephen Vladeck, a nationally recognized expert on the federal courts, constitutional law, national security law, and military justice; and Andrea Young, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia.

Their conversation covered a wide range of topics; you can find a full transcript here, as well as a few excerpts below:

“The idea that you are a hero because you refuse to throw away legally cast ballots—which is what Lindsey Graham asked our Secretary of State to do, which is what the President probably asked officeholders in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and Michigan to do—it’s just breathtaking. But that’s where we are among people who took an oath to uphold the Constitution, that they would put this kind of pressure on officeholders.” —Andrea Young

“Colonialism is in our Constitution. The first election that I had was Carter against Reagan and I have seen the world change so much. You look and you go—Yeah, it really was different in the ’70s. We were moving a certain way. We were saying incarceration doesn’t work, and look where we are now.” —Deirdre Fishel

“So here’s the problem: Everybody is going to be all, ‘Can’t we just have a good life now and return to a good life?’ And people start bringing up these tragic realities of racial injustice in our country. A lot of people are going to say, ‘Come on, do we have to go back to that?’ Well, we have to go back. It hasn’t been resolved.” —Fmr. Senator Russ Feingold

“That from Saturday, November 7th, when all the major media networks called the election for President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Harris—in any other election year, that would’ve been it, and that night, the candidate who lost would’ve given a gracious concession speech and the transition would’ve started, if not that night, Monday morning.” —Stephen Vladeck

Meet the Host of On the Issues: Dr. Michele Goodwin is a frequent contributor to Ms. magazine and on MsMagazine.com. She is a Chancellor’s Professor at the University of California, Irvine and also serves on the executive committee and national board of the ACLU. Dr. Goodwin is a prolific author and an elected member of the American Law Institute, as well as an elected Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the Hastings Center. Her most recent book, Policing The Womb: Invisible Women and The Criminalization of Motherhood, is described as a “must read.”

About Ms. Magazine: Co-founded by Gloria Steinem in 1972 and published by the Feminist Majority Foundation since 2001, Ms. magazine has been a trusted, popular source for feminist news and information in print and online for nearly 50 years. Ms.’s time-honored traditions of an emphasis on in-depth investigative reporting and feminist political analysis have never been more relevant, bringing a new generation of writers and readers together to create the feminism of the future.

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If you would like more information on the On the Issues with Michele Goodwin podcast, or to schedule an interview with Host Michele Goodwin or Executive Producer & Ms. Executive Editor Katherine Spillar, please email press@msmagazine.com

Launched in 1971, Ms. is the most trusted, popular source for feminist news and information in print and online with a tradition of in-depth investigative reporting and feminist political analysis. Ms. is wholly owned and published by the Feminist Majority Foundation.