Anita has long taken a laissez-faire approach to digital security. But as she's learned (the hard way), just because she doesn't have something to hide, doesn't mean she has nothing to lose. She calls in experts, including an abortion doula and sex worker, to learn strategies for keeping personal information safe online.

Meet the guests:

- Amanda Bennett, a project manager for Digital Defense Fund, walks us through the basics of digital security and shares practical tips

- Kestrel, an abortion doula and member of the Mountain Area Abortion Doula Collective, shares what they and their collective members do to protect themselves

- Dr. Olivia Snow, a sex worker and research fellow at UCLA’s Center for Critical Internet Inquiry, talks about what we can learn from sex workers when it comes to digital security

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- How to keep your abortion private and secure, from the Digital Defense Fund

- A report tracking abortion criminalization

- Digital Security tools from the Electronic Frontier Foundation

Anita revisits a conversation with folks who've undergone facial feminization surgery as part of their gender confirmation process. FFS is a set of bone and soft tissue surgical procedures that reshape the forehead, brow, jaw and more. They share what the surgery meant for them, plus a medical anthropologist helps unpack who gets to decide what femininity looks like.

Meet the guests:

- Emma Ward, songwriter, producer and community manager, shares her experience of facial feminization surgery

- Eric Plemons, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Arizona, discusses some of the history of this set of procedures and how we define a "feminine" face

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Guest host Omisade Burney-Scott is a proud Aries Sun-Leo moon-Virgo rising and has been looking to the stars since the ‘70s. She and her best friend of over 50 years look back on how astrology influenced their relationship growing up and how they move in the world today. Plus, she talks to two astrologers about how this practice can play a role in social justice movements and in the intersections of our identities.

Meet the guests:

- Cheyanne Headen, a community and de-escalation specialist and Omisade's cousin and best friend, talks about how astrology influences her work and parenting styles

- Jessica Lanyadoo, astrologer and host of "Ghost of a Podcast," explains how our cultural understanding of astrology has evolved and how this practice can be applied to social justice

- Zacchary Powell, astrologer and former president of the Association of Young Astrologers, explores how a spiritual practice of astrology can deepen self-understanding

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Anita shares an episode of “This Is Uncomfortable,” a podcast from Marketplace that explores the ways money messes with our relationships and life plans. Rebecca Danigelis never planned to stop working. Raising two kids as a single mom, everything she earned went to making sure they got the best education she could afford. But when her son Sian-Pierre's career took off, hers started to crumble.

Find “This Is Uncomfortable” wherever you get your podcasts. Look out for their next season in early October.

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Anita grew up betwixt and between two religious communities and never felt like she fully belonged to either. The upside? She had a lot of room to figure things out on her own. She talks with two people who didn't find that freedom until they left their conservative religions. They tell her about extracting themselves from tight-knit religious communities and reconnecting with their sexuality and identity on their own terms.

Meet the guests:

- Nicole Hardy, writer and author of the memoir "Confessions of a Latter-Day Virgin," tells Anita about why she left the Mormon church as a single woman in her mid-30s, and how that process shaped her sexuality and relationships.

- Dr. Jon Paul Higgins, creator and executive producer of "Black, Fat Femme" podcast, shares their experience growing up as a Jehovah's Witness, what led them to leave, and their ongoing healing work to make sense of religious trauma.

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Before recording this episode, Anita would have turned to Google for her burning questions about abortion. But now, she knows better. She meets two abortion doulas who share the practical and philosophical components of their job. They reflect on what has changed for them since the overturn of Roe v. Wade, and what's stayed the same for their alternative and community-based networks of care.

Meet the guests:

- KáLyn Banks Coghill, an abortion doula, writer, organizer, educator and doctoral student at Virginia Commonwealth University, shares their on-the-ground experience serving their community as part of the Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project

- Raven Freeborn, full spectrum doula and community educator, brings us into their work training abortion doulas

If you’re interested in finding an abortion fund or practical support organization in your area and learning more about what they do, these sites may be helpful:

https://apiaryps.org/pso-list

https://www.ineedana.com/

https://abortionfunds.org/funds/

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Anita had a terrible 18th birthday (she'll tell you later), but not much changed for her when she legally became an adult. For tens of thousands of young folks in the U.S. each year who turn 18 while in foster care, "legal adulthood" brings a slew of new challenges. Two women who aged out of foster care tell Anita about their experiences and how they informed the relationships they're building today. Plus, she meets someone who's seen the foster care system from both sides — as a kid, and as a foster parent.

Meet the guests:

- Stephani Smith, a mental health professional, shares how her time in foster care shaped her philosophy on relationships — especially the relationship with her stepdaughter

- Ángela Quijada-Banks, holistic purpose coach and author of "The Black Foster Youth Handbook," explains how her foster care experience impacted her romantic relationships

- Jessica Lloyd-Rogers, chair of the National Foster Parents Association Council of State Affiliates, talks about how her own time in the system informed how she parented her daughter and the young people she fostered

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Anita is a dog mom. Her wire-haired, bearded terrier Oliver has been her companion through heartbreak, job changes and pandemic turmoil. She's never going to feel ready to say goodbye, but she knows from watching others lose family pets, that pet grief can wreck you, and it's better to acknowledge this reality sooner rather than later. She talks with pet owners, a veterinary social worker, a vet and her own parents about making space for pet grief and memorializing the animal companions we have loved.

Meet the guests:

- Corban Smith, adjunct professor at James Madison University, jail/emergency services clinician at Valley Community Services Board talks about being the pet guardian of the late Dallas

- Sarina Manifold, certified grief recovery specialist and owner of Authentic Healing Counseling shares what it’s like to be a veterinary social worker

- Dr. Erika Lin-Hendel, board member of Not One More Vet and a relief veterinarian, opens up about the veterinary mental health crisis and what community care for vets could look like

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Anita's idea of relaxation often involves a good book. She's begun exploring the vast world of romance novels and was surprised to learn how much more diverse the genre has become since the days when Fabio was the only inspiration for sexy book covers. Three neurodivergent authors tell her about writing the characters they longed for as readers and making space for new takes on the "happy ending."

Meet the guests:

- E.S. Yu, author of the paranormal romance “Human Enough” talks about the way indie publishing has welcomed her as a reader and writer

- Ceillie Simkiss, author of two romance novella series, including "Learning Curves" shares her favorite romance tropes to upend in her writing

- Emery Lee, author of "Meet Cute Diary" talks about the art of writing neurodiverse characters in young adult books

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Anita does not work with her boo, but after sharing home office space for two pandemic years, she's started to wonder how couples who *do* work together make it work. She talks with two sets of couples in very different professional industries about their strategies for tackling finances, alone time and intimacy.

Meet the guests:

- Sarah & Austin McCombie, the married duo behind the North Carolina-based band Chatham Rabbits talk about how they learned to give each other constructive creative feedback

- Brandé Elise and Danielle Gray, co-founders of CBD product and lifestyle company Unoia share why they felt ready to start a business together just three months after they started dating

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