Greta’s guest today will be familiar to longtime Nerdette listeners -- her name is Kate Schatz, and she’s an activist and author. She co-wrote Do the Work: An Antiracist Activity Book with W Kamau Bell, and she’s the author of Rad American Women A-Z and Rad Women Worldwide.

Now, she’s back with her first novel for adults! Where the Girls Were takes place in the Bay Area in 1968. It’s about Baker, a teenager whose future is bright -- until she meets a boy, and has sex with that boy, and gets pregnant. 

Baker ends up at a “home for wayward girls,” a residence program where young pregnant women would be hidden from society until they gave birth. Their babies would be put up for adoption and the girls were expected to return home as if nothing ever happened. 

“This is a book about choice and reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy and how truly complicated and nuanced it all is,” Kate says. 

Kate talks with Greta about why she set the book in ‘68, the sneaky nefariousness of the word “unfit,” and where she finds comfort during tumultuous times. 

SHOW CREDITS

Creator and host: Greta Johnsen

Senior Producer: Ben Goldberg

Composers: Ross Bellenoit and Jeremy Thal

Show art: Mac Maclean

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