Alyssa Milano: Sorry Not Sorry

The Supreme Court appears poised to rip bodily autonomy from millions of American women. The draft opinion written by Justice Alito relies heavily on historical rights. In this short film, Alyssa takes you through a primer of the history of abortion and the fight of pregnant people to control their own bodies and access essential reproductive healthcare despite a constant onslaught from an extreme religious right which does not represent the majority of Americans.

Our guest this week is Celeste Headlee. Celeste is award-winning journalist, professional speaker and best-selling author. In her 20-year career in public radio, Celeste has anchored programs including Tell Me More, Talk of the Nation, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition. She is the author of a new piece available on Scribd called “You’re Cute When You’re Mad.”

The midterm elections are quickly approaching, and the stakes are so high. Our guest this week is Charles Booker, candidate for the United States Senate in Kentucky. His new book From the Hood to the Holler: A story of Separate World, Shared Dreams and the Fight for America's Future  is now available.

The internet is a cesspool of horrible people saying and doing horrible things. So much of the worst behavior is directed at women, in an effort to shame and silence us - and if you don't believe us, look at the the comments on every post our host Alyssa Milano makes or the trolling fake reviews of this podcast. So many men are abusive, hateful, and terrified of women who have the temerity to exist online. Our friend Nina Jankowicz’ new book “How to Be A Woman Online” is an essential toolkit for women to navigate the worst of it, to fight back, and to build a safer internet. She joined us this week to discuss.

We know Frederick Douglass as a towering figure in America’s fight for the abolition of slavery in the United States. In the early days of his ascent, he was allied with and managed by publisher William Lloyd Garrison and “The Contessa,” Maria Weston Chapman. In her new book The Color Of Abolition: How a Printer, a Prophet, and a Contessa Moved a Nation, our guest Linda Hirshman reveals the details of the tumultuous relationship between the three, and how it changed history.

"Hirshman’s book is a lively depiction of the antislavery movement, in which the three charismatic characters at the heart of her story provide an engaging avenue into the competing philosophies and strategies that continually challenged abolitionism’s unity and effectiveness. Her writing is breezy, designed to engage readers who are not historians and whose interests may lie more in the present than the past."

Sex trafficking affects millions of women around the globe, generating billions of dollars for the criminals who traffick women. For the few women who escape, it can be extremely difficult to find safety and stability in society. Filmmakers Sadhvi Siddhali Shree and Sadhvi Anubhuti are Jain monks who created the new documentary Surviving Sex Trafficking, which Alyssa Milano executive produced. They joined us to discuss their film which is now in theaters and which will be available to stream on April 15th 2022.

It’s been more than a century since the Equal Rights Amendment was first drafted. And it’s been fifty years since the Equal Rights Amendment was passed by Congress and sent to the states. In 2020, Virginia became the last state needed to ratify the ERA, and yet it is still not in the Constitution. It’s infuriating, and it’s bad for our country and dangerous for women. We’ve devoted extensive time over the years to covering the Equal Rights Amendment, and this week we’re revisiting some of those moments in observance of the ERA’s 50thanniversary.

Shame is everywhere. From advertising to the dinner table, and on every last inch of social media. To examine the origin and effect of this reality, we’ve invited Cathy O’Neil to join us this week. Cathy is the author of the bestselling Weapons of Math Destruction, which won the Euler Book Prize and was longlisted for the National Book Award. She received her PhD in mathematics from Harvard and has worked in finance, tech, and academia. Her new book The Shame Machine: Who Profits in the New Age of Humiliation is now available.

The pandemic has been devastating for everyone in America, but especially for women. We’ve seen our economic power set back years—maybe decades—by the changes to the labor market since the start of COVID. To discuss, we've invited Reshma Saujani on the show. Reshma is an attorney and activist who founded Girls who Code and the Marshall Plan for Moms. She’s also the author of the soon to be released book “Pay Up: The Future of Women and Work and Why It’s Different Than You Think.”

The Supreme Court is supposed to be above partisan politics, but that has not been the case in the past several years. Recent in-depth reporting by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico and The New Yorker confirmed our worst fears about Justice Thomas and his ideologue activist wife Ginni Thomas – that in the wake of the Big Lie the bright red lines that are supposed to protect the impartiality and integrity of the court by placing boundaries between extreme advocacy and cases before the High Court – have all been flouted and perhaps irrevocably blurred.

At the same time, dozens of states have enacted or are trying to enact laws which restrict the right to vote or access to the voting booth for millions, particularly voters of color and others who are traditionally disenfranchised.

Congressman Hank Johnson of Georgia has been at the center of efforts to correct these problems. He joined us for a live episode in front of a virtual studio audience on Monday, March 7, 2022.  This is a recording of that conversation.  Please note that we are using live audio from Zoom, so it might sound a little different than you're used to hearing from us.