The consequences of fast fashion are well known: worker exploitation, environmental damage and poor quality items. And yet many of us keep buying it — either unknowingly, in willful ignorance or because it feels like there is no other option. Fashion industry insider and “Clotheshorse” podcast host Amanda Lee McCarty joins Anita to interrogate why fast fashion has such a particular hold on us and what we can do about it.

Meet the guest:

- Amanda Lee McCarty is the host of the “Clotheshorse” podcast and a self-employed fashion consultant

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You can find Amanda Lee McCarty on Substack and Instagram!

Dina Gilio-Whitaker knows that it’s complicated to talk about Native American identity. She occupies a gray zone herself: she’s a legal descendant of the Colville Confederated Tribes but not an enrolled member. As she worked to make sense of her own liminal identity, she also started witnessing a troubling phenomenon: people coming forward with fraudulent claims to Nativeness. Dina — now an academic — tells Anita about the personal experiences that led her to research this phenomenon, the harms this “pretendianism” perpetuates and the conversations she’s starting about possible solutions.

Meet the guest:

- Dina Gilio-Whitaker is a lecturer at California State University San Marcos and the author of “Who Gets to Be Indian? Ethnic Fraud, Disenrollment, and Other Difficult Conversations About Native American Identity” 

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When married couple Pat McAulay and Margaret Roesch were in their 40s, they had a shared dream for old age: living in a big house with other lesbians where everyone took care of each other. That vision — and their experiences with isolation and discrimination — inspired them to build Village Hearth, the first 55+ co-housing community for LGBTQ seniors and allies in the U.S. They tell Anita what it’s been like to live there for the past five years, and then a young activist shares how she’s helping connect queer folks with other models for aging in community, from RV parks to affordable housing.

Meet the guests:

- Pat McAulay and Margaret Roesch, co-founders of Village Hearth in Durham, the first 55+ cohousing community for LGBTQ seniors and allies

- Jane Haskell, director of impact and engagement at SAGE, a non-profit advocacy and service organization focused on LGBTQ seniors

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There's a growing number of women challenging the expectation that you need a partner to have a child. Anita meets two single moms by choice. They talk about why they chose this parenting path and how they navigate everything from false assumptions to dating. Plus, one of their daughters – 10-year-old Estela – joins the conversation to share her take on growing up in a nontraditional family.

Meet the guests:

- Hera McLeod, mother and civil rights activist, walks us through her decision to become a single mother and how she's made some of the logistics work — like living in an intergenerational household with her parents

- Estela McLeod, Hera's oldest daughter and cohost of the "Seeking Different" podcast, shares what questions she gets from her peers and how she's thinking about the family she wants to build in the future

- C. Nicole Mason, president and CEO of Future Forward Women, talks about how she's balanced dating with being a single mom of choice and how she's reflecting on her parenting journey now that her twins are teenagers

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Please note: This episode originally aired May 10, 2024.

Update: Hera McLeod published a romantic spy thriller, “The Asset Within.”

You’ve likely seen some version of the headline: “Gen Z Is In a Sex Recession.” But there’s a lot more to the story. Journalist Carter Sherman takes Anita into the many conversations she had with people under 30 about their sex lives for her book “The Second Coming: Sex and the Next Generation’s Fight Over Its Future.” She talks about how cultural and political forces like the #MeToo movement and the overturning of Roe v. Wade have shaped how Gen Z feels about sex — and why you should care no matter your generational identity.

Meet the guest:

- Carter Sherman is a reproductive health and justice reporter at the Guardian US and the author of “The Second Coming: Sex and the Next Generation’s Fight Over Its Future” 

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The Broadside EVENT Details are here

Mainstream adaptive fashion lines are relatively new, but creating clothes to fit and flatter a range of bodies has long been part of disability culture. Anita meets three disabled fashionistas who design with disabled bodies as a starting point, not an afterthought.

Meet the guests:

- Dr. Ben Barry is the Dean of Fashion at Parsons School of Design who's pushing for further inclusion in fashion – particularly when it comes to the ways clothing is designed, marketed and modeled for folks with disabilities

-  Sky Cubacub is a Chicago-based fashion designer focused on making size-inclusive garments for queer and trans disabled folks through their company, Rebirth Garments

- Samantha Jade Durán is a designer and influencer also known by the handle “A Disabled Icon"

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Please note: This episode originally published November 7, 2024.

Update: Samantha Jade Durán launched a disability and chronic illness awareness merch brand called Thanks Icon. She plans on expanding to adaptive clothing and accessories in the future.

The Broadside EVENT Details are here

On Dr. Sharon Malone’s new podcast, women take back the conversation on health with straight talk, real experience and the care we all deserve. You’ll hear prominent female advocates, experts and patients sharing how they confronted gaps in our healthcare system and got second opinions that saved their lives. Alongside each guest, Dr. Sharon tackles the questions and topics we’ve been conditioned to ignore — the ones we search for at 3 a.m. but never bring up at the doctor’s office. 

In this episode, Dr. Sharon talks to journalist Elaine Welteroth about Elaine’s birthing journey, how she's working to make birth joyful again and how her new non-profit, birthFUND, is helping families get access to life-saving midwifery care.

Find more episodes of The Second Opinion with Dr. Sharon Malone here.

For almost 29 years, journalist Jennifer Senior was a self-described “brilliant sleeper.” Then, one night, something changed…and Jennifer has struggled with chronic insomnia ever since. She talks to Anita about insights on insomnia from both her reporting and personal life. Then, we meet a couple who share suggestions for navigating insomnia in a romantic partnership.

Meet the guests:

- Jennifer Senior is a staff writer for The Atlantic and the author of "Why Can't Americans Sleep?"

- Gabrielle Moss and Jesse Rifkin are writers living in New York City

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When Kit Heyam was first trying to understand their gender identity as an adolescent, they looked to history. But they only found stories that painted a very narrow picture of what it means to be trans. Years later, when Kit started studying history professionally, a different picture emerged. They talk to Anita about the trans histories they found from around the globe and how those stories paint a more diverse and messy picture of the ways people have been pushing the boundaries of gender for millennia.

Meet the guest:

- Kit Heyam is the author of "Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender"

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It's been half a century since the psychedelic era, but some baby boomers are returning to the drugs of their youth — not for rock and roll, but to confront aging. Writer Abbie Rosner re-experienced mushrooms in her 60s, and she tells Anita about her subsequent investigation into why other boomers are taking psychedelics to grapple with aging. Plus, a medical professional shares what it’s like to facilitate these experiences for her peers.

Meet the guests:

- Abbie Rosner is a writer who shares her own experience and the stories of other baby boomers, which she plans to publish in a book called “ELDEREVOLUTION: Psychedelics and the New Counterculture of Aging”

- Dr. Crystal Dawn is a physician who's board-certified in family medicine and provides ketamine-assisted therapy

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Please note: This episode originally aired January 9, 2025.

Update: Abbie Rosner’s book, “Psychedelics and the Counterculture of Aging,” will be available in July of 2026. Abbie also writes a newsletter on Substack about psychedelics in older life called ELDEREVOLUTION.