Taboo Trades

My guest today is Aziza Ahmed, a Professor of Law and N. Neal Pike Scholar at the Boston University School of Law. She is also a Co-Director of BU Law’s Program on Reproductive Justice. She joins me and UVA Law 3L, Nia Saunders, to discuss her new book Risk and Resistance: How Feminists Transformed the Law and Science of AIDS, forthcoming from Cambridge University Press in 2025. 

Prior to teaching, Professor Ahmed was a research associate at the Harvard School of Public Health Program on International Health and Human Rights. She came to that position after a Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellowship where she worked with the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS. Professor Ahmed was a member of the Technical Advisory Group on HIV and the Law convened by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and has been an expert for many institutions, including the American Bar Association and UNDP.

Reading List

• • Ahmed Bio
  • Linda C. McClain & Aziza Ahmed, The Routledge Companion to Gender and Covid-19 (2024)
  • SCHOLARLY COMMONS
• Nicole Huberfeld, Linda C. McClain & Aziza Ahmed,Rethinking Foundations and Analyzing New Conflicts: Teaching Law after Dobbs 17 Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy (2024). SCHOLARLY COMMONS
• Aziza Ahmed, Dabney P. Evans, Jason Jackson, Benjamin Mason Meier & Cecília Tomori, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health: Undermining Public Health, Facilitating Reproductive Coercion 51 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics (2023)
• SCHOLARLY COMMONS
• Aziza Ahmed, Feminist Legal Theory and Praxis after Dobbs: Science, Politics, and Expertise 34 Yale Journal of Law and Feminism (2023)
• SCHOLARLY COMMONS
• Krawiec Bio

My guest today is the always interesting and funny Steve Clowney, a professor of law at the University of Arkansas. He has also worked as a legal consultant in Hawaii, a college admissions officer, and a gravedigger. His main areas of research include zoning regulations, monuments, the history of cities, handwritten wills, and the presence of violence in informal property systems. He joins us today to discuss a paper that I’ve long admired, Does Commodification Corrupt: Lessons From Paintings And Prostitutes, published in the Seton Hall Law Review.

Reading list:

Clowney Bio https://law.uark.edu/directory/directory-faculty/uid/sclowney/name/Steve+Clowney/

Clowney, Nationalize Zoning, 72 Kan. L. Rev. (forthcoming) (symposium essay).

Clowney, Do Rural Places Matter?, 57 Conn. L. Rev. 1 (forthcoming).

Clowney, Anonymous Statues: An Empirical Study of Monuments in One American Neighborhood, 71 Wash. U. J.L. & Pol'y 35 (2023) (symposium essay).

Clowney, The White Houses? An Empirical Study of Segregation in the Greek System, 41 Yale L. & Pol'y Rev. 151 (2023).

Clowney, Sororities as Confederate Monuments, 105 Ky. L.J. 617 (2020) (symposium essay).  

Clowney, Does Commodification Corrupt: Lessons From Paintings and Prostitutes, 50 Seton Hal L. Rev. 1005 (2020). 

Clowney, Should We Buy Selling Sovereignty, 66 Duke L.J. Online 19 (2017).  

Krawiec Bio https://www.law.virginia.edu/faculty/profile/kdk4q/1181653

Krawiec, Markets, repugnance, and externalities, Journal of Institutional Economics 1–12 (2023).

Krawiec, No Money Allowed, 2022 University of Chicago Legal Forum 221–240 (2022).

I’m thrilled today to welcome new friend, Albertina Antognini and old (by which I mean long-time) friend, Susan Appleton. Albertina Antognini is the James E. Rogers Professor of Law at the University of Arizona where she teaches Family Law, Property, Trusts & Estates, and a seminar surveying different legal regimes that shape the contemporary American family. Professor Antognini’s work examines the ways that legal rules actively regulate, and in the process define, families. Her research is centrally preoccupied with considering how categories that may appear “natural” are in fact products of law, with the aim of opening them up to a more rigorous critique.

Susan Appleton is the Lemma Barkeloo & Phoebe Couzins Professor of Law at Washington University School of Law. She is a nationally known expert in family law and feminist legal theory. Her research, scholarship, and teaching address reproductive justice, parentage, gender, sexualities, and public assistance for families. They join us today to discuss their recent article, Sexual Agreements, published in the Wash. U. Law Review. UVA Law 3L, Laura Habib, co-hosts this episode.

Further Reading

• Antognini and Appleton, Sexual Agreements, 99 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1807 (2022)
• Antognini bio https://law.arizona.edu/person/albertina-antognini
• Antognini, Nonmarital Contracts, 73 Stan. L. Rev. 67 (2021)
• Antognini, Nonmarital Coverture, 99 B.U. L. Rev. 2139 (2019)
• Appleton bio https://law.wustl.edu/faculty-staff-directory/profile/susan-frelich-appleton/
• Appleton, Sex Positive Feminism’s Values in Search of the Law of Pleasure, in The Oxford Handbook of Feminism and Law in the United States (Deborah L. Brake, Martha Chamallas, & Verna Williams eds., 2023).
• Appleton, Families Under Construction: Parentage, Adoption, and Assisted Reproduction (with D. Kelly Weisberg) (2021).
• Krawiec bio https://www.law.virginia.edu/faculty/profile/kdk4q/1181653
• Krawiec, Gametes: Commodification and The Fertility Industry, in Routledge Handbook of Commodification, Routledge, 278–289 (1 ed. 2023).
• Krawiec, Markets, repugnance, and externalities, Journal of Institutional Economics 1–12 (2022).
• Krawiec, No Money Allowed, 2022 University of Chicago Legal Forum 221–240 (2022).

My guest today is Courtney Cahill, a Chancellor's Professor of Law at UC Irvine School of Law. Professor Cahill is a scholar of constitutional law, anti-discrimination law, sex equality, and LGBTQ equality. Her work examines the role of disgust in lawmaking and the synergies between sex equality and LGBTQ equality. She joins us today to discuss her latest project, Busted: Policing Women on Top, forthcoming in 2026 from Oxford University Press.

Cahill attended Yale Law School after graduating from Princeton University with a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature. UVA Law 3Ls Anthony Freyre and Kimberly Garcia co-host today’s episode.

Further Reading:

Cahill Bio: https://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/full-time/cahill/

Sex Equality's Irreconcilable Differences, 132 Yale Law Journal (forthcoming)

Reproductive Exceptionalism in and Beyond Birthrights, 100 B.U. L. Rev. Online 152 (2020)

The New Maternity, 133 Harv. L. Rev. 2221 (2020)

After Sex, 97 Neb. L. Rev. 1 (2018)

Krawiec Bio: https://www.law.virginia.edu/faculty/profile/kdk4q/1181653

My guest today is Jill Lens, who serves as the Dorothy M. Willie Professor in Excellence at the University of Iowa school of law. Professor Lens is a leading legal expert in reproductive justice and rights, with a particular focus on the legal treatment of stillbirth and pregnancy more generally. Her research is inspired by her son Caleb’s stillbirth in 2017, when she was 37 weeks pregnant. 

She joins us today to discuss her recent paper, “Valuing Reproductive Loss," published in 2023 by the Georgetown Law Journal and coauthored with Dov Fox. That paper explores the tension between abortion rights and compensating the victims of reproductive loss and argues for a post-Dobbs reasessment of the law. I’m joined by UVA Law 3L, Alyssa Lawrence, who co-hosts this episode.

Further Reading:

Lens bio: https://law.uiowa.edu/people/jill-wieber-lens

"Original Public Meaning and Pregnancy's Ambiguities," with Evan D. Bernick, 122 Michigan Law Review 1443 (2024), Journal | HeinOnline | UI Off-Campus Access (HeinOnline) | Lexis | Westlaw

 "Valuing Reproductive Loss," with Dov Fox, 112 Georgetown Law Journal 61 (2023), Journal | HeinOnline | UI Off-Campus Access (HeinOnline) | Lexis | Westlaw

"Abortion, Pregnancy Loss, & Subjective Fetal Personhood," with Greer Donley, 75 Vanderbilt Law Review 1649 (2022), Journal | HeinOnline | UI Off-Campus Access (HeinOnline) | Lexis | Westlaw

"Counting Stillbirths," 56 UC Davis Law Review 525 (2022), Journal

Krawiec bio: https://www.law.virginia.edu/faculty/profile/kdk4q/1181653

I’m thrilled today to welcome the brilliant and creative Hajin Kim, an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Chicago. Hajin uses principles from social psychology and economics to study how moral and social influence can shape environmental regulation and firm behavior. She joins us today to discuss her new working paper, Does Paying to Pollute Make Pollution Seem Less Bad? UVA Law 3L, Cyrus Tafti, joins me as co-host on this episode.

Hajin received her BA in economics, summa cum laude, from Harvard, her JD from Stanford Law School, and her PhD from Stanford's Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources. Before attending Stanford, Hajin worked for the Boston Consulting Group. She clerked for Judge Paul Watford of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the US Supreme Court.

Further Reading:

Hajin Kim bio: https://www.law.uchicago.edu/faculty/kim

Hajin Kim, Does Paying to Pollute Make Pollution Seem Less Bad?

Hajin Kim, "Does ESG Crowd Out Support for Government Regulation?," Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper No. 983(2023) (with Joshua C. Macey & Kristen A. Underhill). ssrn cu

Hajin Kim, "Expecting Corporate Prosociality," 53 Journal of Legal Studies 267 (2024). www

Hajin Kim, "Financially Equivalent But Behaviorally Distinct? Pollution Tax and Cap-and-Trade Negotiations," 52 The Environmental Law Reporter 10809 (2022) (with K.C. P. Hirsch). www

Kim Krawiec bio: https://www.law.virginia.edu/faculty/profile/kdk4q/1181653

Kimberly D. Krawiec, Markets, repugnance, and externalities, Journal of Institutional Economics 1–12 (2022).

Kimberly D. Krawiec, No Money Allowed, 2022 University of Chicago Legal Forum 221–240 (2022).

My guest today is Brian Bix, the Frederick W. Thomas Professor of Law And Philosophy at the University of Minnesota School of Law. He teaches and writes in the areas of family law, contract law, and jurisprudence. He joins us today to discuss his 2023 book, Families by Agreement: Navigating Choice, Tradition, and Law, published by Cambridge University Press.

I really enjoyed this episode – it was both educational and entertaining. Brian is not only a productive scholar, but a generous one – note his discussion of other important scholars in the field during this episode, including Martha Fineman, June Carbone, Naomi Cahn, and Jody Madeira, among others.

Also interesting is the discussion with my UVA Law student co-hosts, Alexa Rothborth and Tanner Stewart. Alexa is the second donor-conceived co-host to moderate a discussion about gamete donors on the podcast. That Season 3 episode, with Mary Anne Case and co-hosted by Reidar Composano and Bryan Blaylock, is linked in the show notes below. Reidar was also donor-conceived, as he discusses in that episode roundtable.

Further Reading

• Bix Bio https://law.umn.edu/profiles/brian-bix
• Advanced Introduction to Contract Law and Theory (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2023)

Amazon UMN Libraries

• Families by Agreement: Navigating Choice, Tradition, and Law (Cambridge University Press, 2023)

Amazon UMN Libraries

• Jurisprudence: Theory and Context, (Sweet & Maxwell (UK), Carolina Academic Press (US), 1st ed., 1996; 2d ed., 1999; 3d ed., 2003; 4th ed., 2006; 5th ed., 2009; 6th ed., 2012; 7th ed., 2015; 8th ed., 2019; 9th ed., 2023; translated into Chinese (Law Press, 2007), Greek (Kritiki Publications, 2007), Spanish (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, 2010), Italian (G. Giappichelli Editore, 2016), Portuguese (Tirant lo Blanch 2020), and Georgian (Varlam Cherkezishvili Institute, 2023)

Amazon UMN Libraries UMN Libraries

• Krawiec Bio https://www.law.virginia.edu/faculty/profile/kdk4q/1181653
• Donorsexuality with Mary Anne Case https://tabootrades.buzzsprout.com/1227113/episodes/11655810-donorsexuality-with-mary-anne-case

I’m super excited to welcome today’s guest, Marc Edelman – a passionate and influential voice in debates over the rights of college athletes. Marc is a Professor of Law at the Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College, City University of New York, where he writes and teaches on sports law, antitrust law, intellectual property law, and gaming / fantasy sports law. He also serves as the Faculty Athletics Representative for Baruch College. 

In addition to his full-time role as a law professor, Professor Edelman is the founder of Edelman Law, where he provides legal consulting and expert witness services to businesses in the commercial sports, entertainment and online gaming industries. Some of Professor Edelman’s recent clients include a Major League Baseball team, the Arena Football League Players Union, and several online fantasy sports providers. 

He joins us today to discuss his recent paper, The Collegiate Employee-Athlete, recently published in the University of Illinois Law Review, and co-authored with Michael McCann and John Holden.

Recommended Reading:

Marc Edelman website http://www.marcedelman.com

Edelman, Marc, Michael A. McCann, and John T. Holden. "The collegiate employee-athlete." U. Ill. L. Rev. (2024): 1.

It’s the saddest time of year again, when I have to say goodbye to yet another fabulous group of UVA Law students who have put their trust in me (and in you, the audience) for a semester of the Taboo Trades podcast. I know I say this every year, but I mean it every year – it’s been a pleasure and an honor to work with this group. Thanks to all of you and to all of our guests this season. Never fear listeners, although Season 4 is officially ending, I’ll be back in January with some great bonus episodes featuring exciting new scholars discussing their work. So tune in for more in 2024. 

Signing off, are:

Darius Adel (3L)

Mary Beth Bloomer (2L)

Liam Bourque (3L)

Joseph Camano (3L)

Julia D’Rozario (3L)

Anu Goel (3L)

Kate Granruth (3L)

Gabriele Josephs (3L)

Aamina Mariam (2L)

Jenna Smith (3L)

Dennis Ting (3L)