In Episode Nine of The Persistence, Angélica Cordero connects today’s personal and societal headaches to the messy fight for progress throughout history. She zeroes in on Margaret Sanger, the birth control trailblazer whose game-changing fight for reproductive rights is forever complicated by her ties to the eugenics movement. It’s a story that proves people, like history, are rarely tidy, and progress is always tangled in contradictions. With her signature mix of wit, heart, and a healthy dose of side-eye, Angelica breaks down Sanger’s legacy without sugarcoating it, challenging listeners to sit with the discomfort, learn from the past, and keep pushing forward anyway—because persistence isn’t about being perfect, it’s about showing up.

This episode was written by and produced by Angélica Cordero, with a little help from ChatGPT.

Our theme song is Don’t Kid Yourself Baby by Fold, used with their blessings. Podcast artwork for The Persistence features Mexican-American activist Jovita Idar and was created by Tamra Collins of Sunroot Studio.

Get into the groove with our Spotify playlist of episode title references!

Resources For Fellow Wascally Wabbits

Books

Between the Wars: America. 1919-1941 by David A. Shannon

Daily Life in the United States, 1920-1940 by David E. Kyvig

Sex and the Constitution: Sex, Religion, and Law from America's Origins to the Twenty-First Century by Geoffrey R Stone

Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady’s Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners by Therese Oneill

Links

"Birth Control or Race Control? Sanger and the Negro Project" Newsletter #28 (Fall 2001) - The Margaret Sanger Papers, New York University

Eugenic Value of Birth Control Propaganda (1921) - Social Welfare History Project, Virginia Commonwealth University

Interview with Margaret Sanger - Harry Ransom Center Digital Collections

The Mother of Mothers: Margaret Sanger - Vol. 17, Hohonu 2019, University of Hawai‘i at Hilo

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