FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | September 22, 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—The Ms. Back to School Special—is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and MsMagazine.com.
In the new episode, Dr. Goodwin and her guests focus on going back to school during the COVID-19 pandemic. The beginning of the 2020 school year is like none before it. To call it “difficult” is an understatement—and it’s difficult for all involved: for teachers, students, parents—especially mothers—and our colleges and universities, too. Economic strains on families are sky-high right now, as many families face eviction and affordable child care is out of reach. So where do we go from here?
Dr. Goodwin was joined this week by Representative Katherine Clark of Massachusetts; Fatima Goss Graves, CEO of National Women’s Law Center and co-founder of the TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund; and Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.7 million-member American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO.
Their conversation covered a wide range of topics; you can find a full transcript here, as well as a few excerpts below:
“If Trump was not so reckless and chaotic and confusing and incompetent, we could’ve actually had some semblance of normalcy going into the school year.” —Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO
“We have to really rethink the way we look at child care. It is part of our education system. It is not just a decision between parents—and predominantly moms—and child care providers. It is as critical economic infrastructure as anything.” —Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts
“What you’re seeing is really a perfect storm of problems that existed before the pandemic that have been amplified. It is the problem of paying women too little, in part, because they’re women, right? So it’s not an accident that child care workers—the vast majority of whom are Black and brown women—are paid so little in this country.” —Fatima Goss Graves, CEO of National Women’s Law Center & co-founder of the TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund
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 Maddy Pontz at 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.
