New Episode of Ms. Magazine’s On The Issues with Michele Goodwin Podcast looks abroad—How Does the U.S. Rebuild Global Relationships?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | December 15, 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—How Does the U.S. Rebuild Global Relationships?—is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and MsMagazine.com.

Government leaders worldwide met the election of President-Elect Joe Biden with a collective sigh of relief. But while they celebrate Biden’s win, many are also left wondering if the possibility of another presidency that devalues global treaties and relationships related to protecting global health, the environment, and stemming nuclear proliferation is in America’s future.

How is the U.S. viewed abroad? What are the opportunities and challenges ahead for the next administration? Where are the biggest tensions in U.S. foreign relationships and diplomacy? Does the U.S. have an international legitimacy problem? The world has witnessed amazing leadership from women in other nations, especially during COVID—so what can the U.S. learn from them?

To answer these questions this week on the podcast, Dr. Goodwin is joined by Penelope Andrews, president of the Law and Society Association and professor of law at New York Law School, where she co-directs their Racial Justice Project; David Kaye, former United Nations special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and the independent board chair of the Global Network Initiative; Gregory Shaffer, chancellor’s professor of law at UCI, and director of the UCI Center on Globalization, Law and Society; and Lyric Thompson, senior director of policy and advocacy at the International Center for Research on Women.

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

“The Biden-Harris administration has committed to a government that looks more like America, both Biden and Harris committed to gender parity on the campaign trail, and I think we’ve seen from the stream of appointments—Linda Thomas-Greenfield was already mentioned as UN Ambassador—that they seem to be very intentionally walking the talk on that commitment.” —Lyric Thompson

“The United States has been lecturing other countries and sending observers regarding their adherence to democracy; we now see a basic questioning of U.S. democratic norms.” —Gregory Shaffer

“One of the things that these past few years have shown is that the United States is no longer exceptional.” —Penelope Andrews

“Come January 20th, when Trump doesn’t have the same exact kind of platform—presumably he’ll still have a Twitter account, but he won’t have the same platform of the presidency of the United States—and when Joe Biden comes in, privileging science and fact and Dr. Fauci and so forth, I think that there will be somewhat of a change.” —David Kaye

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.