New Legacy Radio

Today's guest is Stephanie Joy Phillips, the founder of World Childless Week. Stephanie is childless not by choice (CNBC) and will share with us her motivation for launching World Childless Week, and the work that she does year-round in the same space. Today we will discuss the focus of this year's World Childless Week, which both acknowledges and share the stories of those who are childless, and delves into a variety of topics, which directly affect our lives. We will also touch on the need for greater communication and collaboration among the larger community of people without children, which at times must transcend labels and differences, which so intimately define our experiences and diverse journeys. How do we find and honor our differences, while finding our commonalities, for mutual advocacy and benefit? Join is for a detailed conversation about the intentions and topics of World Childless Week, to be held from 12-18 September 2022. Learn who it is for, and how to attend and participate in in a week that acknowledges and celebrate those who are childless. You don't want to miss this year's event!

Our focus for this episode, will be on the origins of the childfree-parenthood-by-choice movement, the fight against pronatalism in the United States, and where we are today.

Pronatalist culture, policy and language continues to permeate within personal relationships, across cultures, in the workplace, and through media and entertainment narratives. How do we become fully acknowledged as a diverse community of people who comprise approximately 25% of the overall population?

Today we will honor the foundational work of the National Organization for Non-Parents (NON), later renamed the National Alliance for Optional Parenthood (NAOP), founded by Ellen Peck and Shirley Radl, in 1972. And although not having children wasn’t new, and has been a reality for centuries, creating a visible movement, and speaking publicly to these issues was, particularly as it relates to the matter of choice.

The purpose of NON was to support those who chose not to have children, educating the public around non-parenthood as a choice, bringing greater awareness of overpopulation, and supporting other groups with aligned goals.

Our guest for this episode is social justice activist and entrepreneur, and former NON spokesperson, Joan Eisenstodt. Joan will share her journey to being childfree, and her history making experience in her home state of Ohio, as well as their experiences in the childfree movement.

We will discuss reproductive justice, and voluntarily sterilization, for those who choose not to have children. We will reflect on what has changed since the start of the childfree-parenthood-by-choice movement, and not. Our conversation will assess the status of reproductive rights today, the perception of those without children, and what is needed going forward, for our community.

Today's guests are LeNora Faye and Cody Hetzel, two of the three co-founders of Childfree Convention. Jared Hansen is the other co-founder. All three are visible advocates for those who are childfree, through their individual public and private platforms, and their collective work as co-founder. They are creators of content, conversation and connection that brings childfree people together, while engaging meaningful conversations for change. Today we will discuss the breadth of the Childfree Convention and the importance of Childfree Representation. We will also touch on the need for greater communication and collaboration among the larger community of people without children, that transcends label and differences, where we can honor our diverse journeys while finding our commonalities, for mutual advocacy and benefit. Join is for a detailed conversation about the breadth and depth of the 2022 Virtual Childfree Convention! Learn who it is for, and how to attend and participate in ways that work best for you. There is no cost to attend and there will be various platforms through which to access content and sessions. You don't want to miss this year's event!

In today’s episode, we will discuss the history of the IVF industry, and its latest strategies for expanding its market reach and services. This 44-year-old for-profit industry is estimated to reach to $37 billion dollars globally by 2027. It has done a masterful job positioning itself as a ‘cure’ for infertility and, more recently, selling the ‘promise’ of future family through egg freezing and other third-party services. The hope sale is central to its business model.

Pamela Mahoney Tsigdinos has fought for the last decade+ to raise the visibility of those who have been negatively impacted by what she calls “the industry’s saccharine siren song.” She’s educated and brought much needed attention to the prevalent failure rates and health risks that accompany IVF and egg freezing as well as to the heavy personal toll when the reality doesn’t match the marketing.

Here in the U.S., this industry is predominantly self-regulated. Without external oversight, clinics routinely market their reproductive services solely to the upside of the IVF process. Their websites and materials are filled with curated success stories. We will explore what is not being said, in our discussion today.

There is also a concerning trend among larger companies to encourage the use of ‘fertility’ services, targeting young, presumably healthy females, through services such as egg freezing. This is offered under the guise of creating a solution for women to delay having a child or children, in order to remain fully employed. This also allows for some employers to dismiss more immediate workplace needs for parents, such as paid parental leave and childcare, while also dismissing the potential medical consequences and mental health impacts on women.

In 2019, when Goldman Sachs, began offering a $10,000 stipend for egg retrieval and a $20,000 stipend for egg ‘donation’, they also began offering 26 weeks of paid parental leave regardless of gender, caregiver status or method of parenthood (birth, adoption, surrogacy).

While companies are offering much needed, extended parental leave policies and unvetted, one could argue, predatory fertility services subsidies, these pronatal efforts still fail to recognize or reward employees without children. The $10-20k benefit, in addition to parental leave, is hardly an equitable proposition for those unable or uninterested in having children.

Companies must begin to engage benefits for all employees, regardless of parental or family status, from equitable subsidies to universal paid leave, regardless of reason.

Join us for a highly informative discussion, to learn more about the reproductive services industry, and in recognition of survivors.

Excluded from policy measures and absent in DEI frameworks, even where laws and policies are designed to prevent discrimination based on family status, pronatalism is so deeply engrained in our social, professional and systemic psyches, that its impact remains unacknowledged. As a result, non-parents remain invisible, while navigating daily and life-long experiences of exclusion and inequity. From our own internalized patriarchal, pronatalist influences, to the ways we continue to cope and mitigate social and professional spaces that do not account for us, it can be challenging for people without children to express why the urgency to dismantle pronatalism matters. How do we begin to unravel the embedded layers of cultural, structural and systemic norms that continue to re-enforce the social devaluation of approximately one quarter of the global population? What is needed to acknowledge the population that is, rather than the one that is theorized, based on marriage and children, to create measurable predictability, as economic units? Join us for a revealing, in-depth conversation with Jody Day. We will explore new perspectives around the question of why the deeply adverse impact of pronatalism matters and why the inclusion of non-parents remains a silent issue within the workplace & beyond.

In today’s episode we recognize the founding and evolution of The NotMom -- its blog, social networks, and events for women without children by choice or by chance. We are happy to join the celebration of The NotMom’s upcoming 10th anniversary.

We have previously discussed on the show the importance of how to come together as a collective community, engaging both childless and childfree community spaces, to influence changes in the workplace and public policy.

Today, we will hear from the partners behind The NotMom: Karen Malone Wright and Laura M. LaVoie.

Through their work and friendship, Karen and Laura have bridged their individual experiences of age, race, geography and living childless and childfree. They bring key insight and expertise to this conversation, and share what they have learned on their shared journey.

We will also discuss how the scope of self-funded work that comprises so much of non-parents’ efforts to create real change are so often limited to what we can do as individuals or partners because our voices, concerns, and initiatives are too often not included, acknowledged, or respected, by businesses, funders, and governments.

We will delve into the realities of how and why inclusion is needed within our own community and beyond, and the underlying reasons for challenges we face to achieve meaningful, impactful change.

With more than two decades of activism, writing and wisdom, focused on the childfree choice, Laura Carroll will share insight around her journey, and the evolution of the childfree movement. She will also discuss her recently published longitudinal research, which followed 25 women over a decade.

In this episode, we will discuss the need to find ways to best bring together the childfree and childless communities, to build a shared movement for meaningful change. New Legacy Institute advocates for a collective “without children” movement, focused on the ways our experiences intersect, and identifying what impacts us most, as a collective community.

We will look at both the perceived and actual differences in our experiences, and how identifying terms often get in the way of recognizing the spectrum and continuum of our shared experiences. We will consider the ways we can choose to actively bridge our communities by reflecting on our common intentions to impact social change and to influence inclusive and equitable policy initiatives.

Join us for this in-depth conversation for change. Share your questions and comments before, during or after the show on any of our platforms, or email [email protected]

People without children, as a collective community, have yet to be recognized as a marginalized group, within the framework of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB). How do we begin to imagine the experience of truly belonging in the environments we work, and beyond? What does it mean when organizations focus on only specific aspects within the spectrum of DEIB frameworks? 'Diversity' and 'Inclusion' seem to be most often used in naming such initiatives, leaving 'Equity' and "Belonging' out of the equation, which is both curious and perhaps telling of organizational culture, from the start. 'Belonging' appears to be most often excluded from this framework. And if not for belonging and equity, what is the true underpinning of the DEIB framework? Today's guest is an expert on belonging in the workplace, and is nationally recognized as a diversity, equity, and inclusion thought leader. Rhodes Perry has written two incredible books on this topic, 'Belonging at Work: Everyday Actions You Can Take to Cultivate an Inclusive Organization' (2018), and 'Imagine Belonging: Your Inclusive Leadership Guide to Building an Equitable Workplace' (2022). We will discuss what is key to creating a culture of belonging, and what this means for people without children. We will also examine the experience of social exclusion and the related individual and organizational impact of not choosing to create a culture of belonging, in the workplace.

Today, we are honored to have Donna Ward as our guest. Donna is the author "She I Dare Not Name: A Spinster's Meditations on Life", her memoir, which was published in 2020. From the use of the term "spinster" and its origins, to the lifelong contemplation of crises and the prioritization of lives, we will discuss a range of topics from her touching and impactful essays and life reflections. We will address the support of single people in catastrophic events from climate change, fires and floods, war and invasions, to the COVID pandemic. We will explore the experiences of those who are living alone, single and without children, against the backdrop of proclaimed phrasing "Women and Children First." Our conversation will include the ways in which current economic and health policies affect single people, given the assumed basic economic unit is a household of two incomes and children. Donna will draw on her writing, lived experience, expertise and current events to highlight the often invisible and potentially dire impact on those who are single and without children, in status quo crisis and policy planning.

Do people keep telling you you'll change your mind about having kids? Have you been told that your choice not to have children is selfish? Award-winning filmmaker Therese Shechter delves into the taboos surrounding childfree women and choice. From social and familial responses to those who choose to remain childfree, to the resistance of the medical community to provide legally and medically approved procedures for those who voluntarily choose sterilization, Therese addresses the gamut of childfree choices and experiences. Today we will discuss her latest documentary, "My So-Called Selfish Life", which is a is a paradigm-shifting journey through one of our society's greatest social taboos: choosing not to become a mother. We also celebrate the upcoming, international release of her film, which will stream everywhere, starting May 6th, on Mother's Day weekend. The opportunity to stream the film be available from May 6-16, 2022 To purchase your tickets, go to https://watch.showandtell.film/watch/my-so-called-selfish-life You also have the option to purchase tickets as gifts! Join us for this introspective, expert conversation and an audio preview of "My So-Called Selfish Life!" For additional information, visit https://trixiefilms.com today!