On The Issues With Michele Goodwin

In this episode, we're looking at the upcoming midterm elections, the role of women playing in national politics, and the attacks on the women who are running for office. In Ohio, we recently saw an example of this—an unreasonably cruel and debasing attack ad from gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, directed at his Democratic opponent Amy Acton, who has said she was sexually abused as a child by her stepfather who was charged with rape and fled the state. The ad includes her estranged mother, claiming that Acton lied about the traumatic events in her childhood.

What do attacks like these say about our current political climate, and how will they influence voters? How is our cultural climate around gender impacting the midterms? Moira Donegan joins Dr. Michele Goodwin to unpack these important questions, just one week out from the election. 

Moira Donegan: Moira Donegan is a feminist writer and opinion columnist with the Guardian U.S., as well as a writer in residence for the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University.

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It's been five since the United States exited Afghanistan. How are women doing?

The exit process followed the a 2020 Doha Agreement signed by the Trump administration and the Taliban. The Afghan government collapsed as the Taliban seized Kabul five years ago, on August 15, 2021. In the aftermath, gains for women's rights were immediately under attack. While the drama of the mass exodus and airlifts are still visible in the minds of many, the plight of the women and girls left behind has largely been forgotten.

Joining Dr. Goodwin to unpack these issues is our very special guest: 

• Dr. Sima Samar is a physician and an outspoken advocate for women's and human rights in Afghanistan. She served as Afghanistan's first Minister of Women's Affairs and as Vice President/Deputy Chair of the Interim Administration. 

Check out this episode’s landing page at MsMagazine.com for a full transcript, links to articles referenced in this episode, further reading and ways to take action.

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What's the deal with tradwives? From Turning Point to Instagram, the movement has found a strong following—and built a commercial empire. It's even hit the runways, marketing "traditional" clothing to women as the next wave of what's fashion forward. But what's behind the curtain? Beyond the idyllic images of returning to the prairie and a slower pace of life, there's discontent, abuse and women who want out.

Joining us to unpack the movement is a very special guest: 

• Madeline Peltz is a writer, journalist and researcher, born in Chicago. Over the last decade, her reporting has appeared on Media Matters for America, MS Now, Newsweek, and elsewhere. She is the author of Good Girls and Alpha Males: How the Conservative Media Is Recruiting Gen Z. 

Check out this episode’s landing page at MsMagazine.com for a full transcript, links to articles referenced in this episode, further reading and ways to take action.

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In this special episode, Dr. Michele Goodwin, host of Ms. magazine’s flagship podcast, On the Issues, reflects on Gloria Steinem’s courageous life and enduring legacy, including her fight for contraception and abortion rights, women’s political power and participation, equal pay for equal work, and ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. Steinem passed away at the age of 92, surrounded by many people who loved her, in peace at home in New York City on September 2, 2026. 

In this episode, Dr. Goodwin recalls Steinem’s unwavering sense of justice and powerful truth-telling, which led to her co-founding Ms. magazine with Dorothy Pitman Hughes.  Unlike any popular magazine or publication before it, Ms. addresed women's social, economic, and political perspectives and reported on discrimination against them.  It took women seriously.  It spoke directly to their concerns and women were hungry for it.  The magazine sold out in its first week.  Gloria Steinem lit a  revolution.

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In this episode, Dr. Goodwin breaks down what the latest Supreme Court ruling on voting rights actually says and what it doesn't, and of course, it means everyone's hair is on fire.  Given that this Supreme Court has tried in every way possible to make it more difficult for people to vote, dismantling the Voting Rights Act, an act that had been supported over the years by both Republicans and also Democrats, what hot mess is next?    The 1965 Voting Rights Act was one that had been embraced over the years strongly by Republicans and Democrats.  As Dr. Goodwin discusses, it has been this Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, which has unraveled it, pulled the thread where it would knowingly make all of the fabric fall apart into what has been a disintegration of one of the most essential pieses of legislation in American history, which protected all Americans.   As she reminds, let us not forget that the very first suffragists in the United States were white men who had been dispossessed from the right to vote because they were not wealthy.  Sit back and take a listen.

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Today, we take a moment to pause to recognize the incredible life the indefatigable, beautiful, talented, wise Dolly Rebecca Parton Dean, who passed away on August 25th, 2026, at the age of 80. She was a philanthropist, singer, songwriter, actress. Good person. And a person who stood for the civil liberties and civil rights of others, the most vulnerable of Americans.

For us at Ms. magazine, we know that a true hero has passed on. And we know that with all the glitter, silver, diamond, and golds that she wore on her sleeves and on her lapels, and that truly are reflected in her heart, they continue to shine on as an example for us all.

May Dolly Parton rest in power.  

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In this special episode of On the Issues: The Magazine, host Dr. Michele Bratcher Goodwin and Ms. executive editor Kathy Spillar preview Ms.’ latest issue. 

The Summer 2026 features Ms.' FEMINIST 250 project—an ambitious effort to reclaim women’s place in America’s history and imagine what a truly inclusive democracy could look like. 

From indigenous women’s early models of democratic governance and the overlooked contributions of enslaved women during the Revolution, to more than five decades of feminist organizing and journalism, Spillar argues that understanding women’s history is essential to understanding the country itself.

Goodwin and Spillar also turn to the urgent challenges facing women today, including attacks on voting rights, cuts to Medicaid and food assistance, the lack of paid leave and affordable childcare, and the broader targeting of women under the Trump administration. 

Looking ahead, they discuss bold proposals featured in the issue—from using the Equal Rights Amendment to advance reproductive and maternal health justice, to Supreme Court reform and LaTosha Brown’s proposal for a federal Department of Democracy—and what it will take to build a democracy grounded in equality and social justice.

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In this special episode of On The Issues, Dr. Michele Goodwin records live before a packed audience in Washington, D.C. at Georgetown University to review and analyze the Supreme Court's 2025-2026 term.  This Supreme Court's term included major decisions related to birthright citizenship, immigration, tariffs, voting rights, and the reach of presidential authority. 

She is joined by esteemed guests, including:

-Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of Berkeley Law

-Mark Joseph Stern, Senior Writer at Slate

-Jamelle Bouie, columnist at the New York Times

-Moira Donegan, a columnist at The Guardian

- Sherrilyn Ifill, Professor of Law at Howard Law School and former CEO and President of the Legal Defense Fund

-Chris Geidner, legal editor at Law Dork. 

 The acclaimed and award-winning orator H. Adam Harris opens this special episode. 

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At Ms. Studios and Ms. Magazine, we have long recognized that reproductive justice is not a matter that begins and ends with pregnancy.  Rather the call for reproductive justice endures after birth, into childhood, and teenage years for so many mothers, especially Black mothers.  Mamie Till Mobley comes to mind—the mother of Emmett Till.  Emmett was murdered just after his 14th birthday in drew, Mississippi.  He was abducted, shot, lynched and his murderers were acquitted by an all-male, all white jury.  

His killers would later confess in look magazine.  

·        Trayvon Martin comes to mind.  Killed in Florida, just after his 17th birthday.  Brutally murdered by George Zimmerman while walking home carrying iced tea and a packet of candy--skittles.  Zimmerman was found not guilty.

·        Tamir Rice, twelve years-old, shot dead by Officer Timothy Loehmann, within mere seconds upon encountering this child who was in a park holding a toy gun.

·        Ruby Bridges integrating William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana in 1960—comes to mind.  An all-white mob outside of the school threatening to harm her.  For Ruby’s mother—Lucille Bridges—reproductive justice wasn’t just about birth—it was about her daughter being able to flourish in a society wherein Jim Crow and Jane Crow racial segregation and discrimination were the normalized landscape.

In this episode we shine a light and ask what happened to Nolan Xavier Wells, a teenager found dead on Horn Island in Mississippi.  His death has been ruled a drowning by local law enforcement, although he could swim.  We issue a special call to action for local law enforcement and for all that saw Nolan on the last day of his life. 

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In this episode of On The Issues, we confront American democracy on fire.  How did we get here and who lit the match? In a 6-3 decision in Louisiana v. Callais, the United States Supreme Court gutted a fundamental provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA), landmark legislation enacted by Congress at the height of the civil rights movement to eradicate entrenched patterns of voter suppression and promote equality at the ballot box. With key mandates in the VRA now eviscerated under the hand six justices on the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, what’s next? The Court has the lowest approval ratings since confidence in the court has been measured. Many Americans now wonder—can the Court be trusted?  

The Supreme Court has emphasized that if women want reproductive freedom and don't like abortion bans, they should go vote.  But what happens when the Court plays a strategic role in diluting voting power and making voting more difficult by stripping away protections? 

Joining our host Dr. Michele Goodwin in unpacking these issues and more are two very special guests:

Stephen I. Vladeck is the Agnes Williams Sesquicentennial Professor of Federal Courts and is author of the New York Times-bestselling book, “The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic,” which has won numerous awards.  

 Moira Donegan is writer in residence for the Clayman Institute, and a columnist at The Guardian. Her first book, Gone Too Far: MeToo, Backlash, and the Future of Feminist Politics, is forthcoming from Scribner. 

Check out this episode’s landing page at MsMagazine.com for a full transcript, links to articles referenced in this episode, further reading and ways to take action.

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