Transcript:

00:00:00 Michele Goodwin:

Ms. Magazine readers, Ms. Studios listeners, and those who interact with us across listening, reading, reviewing, welcome to our episode of The Magazine, one where we preview the forthcoming issue of Ms. Magazine and in these special podcasts I’m joined by Kathy Spillar. She is the executive editor of Ms. Magazine, and as well the executive director of the Feminist Majority Foundation. 

In this episode, we’re looking at January 2026 and what’s loaded in this special issue, which is powerful and gripping. So, sit back and take a listen as Kathy Spillar unpacks what you can expect as you get to the next magazine copy.

Kathy, it’s great to be with you. We have another very impressive issue of the magazine coming out. Give us a breakdown about what our readers can expect.

00:01:34 Kathy Spillar: 

Thank you, Michele. Good to see you. This is a jam-packed issue that will be out in January. The cover story is about the many other uses for the abortion pill, mifepristone, but how anti-abortion politics have blocked research and develop for those uses. These are uses that a lot of your listeners are going to identify with.

Mifepristone is a potential treatment for fibroids. Fibroids are the major cause of hysterectomies in this country. Something like 70 percent of white women will develop fibroids, 80 percent of black women, and the only solution now is hysterectomy or some kind of invasive surgery. Mifepristone shrinks the fibroids. They essentially go away and they’re no longer a problem for women. 

Another issue that young women in their reproductive ages typically suffer from, endometriosis. Ten percent of women in the reproductive age range suffer from endometriosis, again with severe cases the only solution is surgery, invasive surgery of some kind, maybe even hysterectomy. And then there’s cancers, breast cancer, ovarian cancer. It’s being researched in Europe for a preventive measure for breast cancers, 

and Gulf War illness, and PTSD. So, it’s potentially also a treatment because it also impacts the adrenal glands and that is the source of depression in many cases, the source of Gulf War Syndrome and PTSD. And then, finally I want to mention it’s also potentially a treatment for long COVID, chronic fatigue syndrome. Again, very serious diseases that disproportionately impact women, but also some of these impact men. 

And it’s the abortion politics in this country from the very beginning that has interfered with bringing mifepristone to the American marketplace. From the earliest days, the pharmaceuticals in France and Germany who were producing the drug refused to market it in the U.S. because of abortion politics. And since it’s been approved here, abortion politics has interfered with the development of these other uses and with even research into these other uses. And yet women in other parts of the world have access to this to treat fibroids, to treat endometriosis. So, we want American women to know that abortion politics here is interfering not only with access to reproductive healthcare services, to abortion, and its use in miscarriages, for example, but also that it’s interfering with other healthcare advances that could be made. That’s the cover story. 

And of course, another major piece, Michele, by you, an extraordinary piece. Your interview with one of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims, a real survivor, Jess Michaels. A very powerful piece. You know, I think the big takeaway for our readers as they read the piece is going to be, you know, when she finally realized it was not her fault. I mean, it was just an extraordinary moment, and I think many, many, many women and men who have been subjected to sexual violence and assault also carry those feelings. And I think it’s a tremendous opportunity for them to also identify not only with her, but with their own experiences and to understand it’s not their fault. And then, there’s all the other stuff that, you know, we have. National news pieces on the most extraordinary results from the fall elections…

00:05:31 Michele Goodwin:

They were quite extraordinary. 

00:05:35 Kathy Spillar:

And the decisive nature of women’s votes, young women’s votes especially, but all women’s votes delivered those victories in New Jersey and in Virginia and Pennsylvania. 

And we have a very good piece on how black women have suffered the most from all of these thoughtless layoffs in the Federal Government. Everything that was done by DOGE and everything since disproportionately impacted black women who now, you know, are having trouble finding jobs. 

And then, we’ve got a great piece on an upcoming tour, reenacting some of the suffrage tours that…the first two women to ever drive across the country in an automobile in the 1910s and retracing their steps.

00:06:20 Michele Goodwin:

Not Thelma and Louise. 

00:06:24 Kathy Spillar:

No, but they could’ve been, but just a great story and…

00:06:29 Michele Goodwin:

Of their generation. 

00:06:30 Kathy Spillar:

Yes. Absolutely. And how the final push for the Equal Rights Amendment is very much tied to the 2026 elections that are coming up. And so, it’s a reminder of all that. So, just a jam-picked issue that I think your listeners and Ms. readers are going to thoroughly enjoy.

00:06:49 Michele Goodwin:

And Kathy, with that, I think something really important that’s been part of the Ms. Legacy and part of the work of the feminist majority is that lawmakers will have something to hold onto as they move forward, both state and federally, when thinking about these issues. Whether it is mifepristone and having a much clearer understanding that this isn’t just abortion. Abortion is critically important, but as a fundamental health right mifepristone is part of that conversation and when it’s removed from the marketplace there are going to be many people who suffer just as you mentioned. And going forward also, the conversations that are yet to be had still on Epstein and those files, and given that we’ve recently heard from President Trump with this financial speech to the country and world about how great things are going. The response back about those jobs lost, we’ve seen hundreds of thousands of them with black women, but women across the country have been affected by all of this. So, our readers and listeners will be able to get so much out of this issue and so will the lawmakers as well. 

00:08:01 Kathy Spillar:

And we’ll be sure that lawmakers receive this issue. We also want to be a resource for policy makers and you’re absolutely right, it contains such good information across the board that I think it will get a lot of attention in the halls of power. 

00:08:16 Michele Goodwin:

Kathy, thank you so much for all the work that you do with making sure that this critically important magazine puts out the information that matters. We’re doing the same on the side of Ms. Studios, and it’s aways wonderful to be joined by you, Kathy.

00:08:33 Kathy Spillar:

Well, thank you, Michele, and Happy New Year. 

00:08:36 Michele Goodwin:

And Happy New Year. 

So, friends be sure to check out this issue when it hits the newsstands. And in the meantime, you can always take a look at what we have online in our digital space and be sure to turn into the myriad of our podcast from the On the Issues to 15 Minutes of Feminism, and so much more.