The Spinster Life Podcast

Have you seen the 2019 movie Spinster starring Chelsea Peretti? Eva and Amie have, and they'll tell you exactly what they thought about it. Are they biased because they are spinsters? Not at all. Listen to find out what worked in this movie, and what didn’t from two screenwriters who have watched way too many movies. 

This episode contains spoilers. If you haven’t seen the movie we discuss specific plot points. 

Read Our Full Show Notes Here: https://bit.ly/3AnfMKS

Age ain't nothing but a number. Until you turn 40 and have a reckoning with your own mortality, watch the ceaseless march of time march right across your face, and consider shaving a few years off your age on dating profiles. 

This is the year Eva and Amie turn 40, and they aren't 100% on board with being "over the hill." Listen as they bemoan the return of fashion they thought was long gone, the great skinny jean debate, and open up and show their vulnerable sides. 

In this episode, we welcome our guest Emma Duval (@millennialemma on IG) to discuss the Childfree Movement. Oh, so we're talking about childless women. NO! Let's get something straight. We're talking about being childfree, the intentional choice to abstain from having children. The suffix '-less' implies that something is missing. The suffix '-free' means that childfree people are free from children.

Emma schools us on the history of the childfree movement and what women aren't told about pregnancy before getting pregnant. But this isn't a show bashing motherhood, in fact, we think it's the hardest job in the world. We've thought long and hard about what it means to be a mother. It doesn't matter if you have children, want children, or don't want children, all women need to support one another. If one of us doesn't have a right to choose what happens to her body, none of us do.

What can unmarried, childfree women accomplish? If you're Marie Marvingt, a lot. Marie is Emma's favorite spinster, and she tells us all about the remarkable life and times of the forgotten by history but still influential aviator, public speaker, athlete, war hero, spy, nurse, Marie Marvingt.

And to end the show, we play a variation of our favorite game called "Why Are You Childfree?"

Look for Emma's book, coming soon, and follow her on Instagram.

Show notes can be found here: https://spinsterlife.com/project/were-childfree-not-childless/

Music Credits:
Basic Metal 5 by TeknoAXE | http://teknoaxe.com
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Is the thought of traveling alone as a woman scary to you? Well, it shouldn’t be.

Think you’ll be bored out of your mind if you travel alone? Maybe, but you won't be bored because you're waiting for someone to shower.

Did you know that there's a whole community of people dedicated to turning their cars into hotel rooms on wheels? Well, there are, and it can be much more luxurious than it sounds. 

Eva and Amie discuss their travel-alone adventures camping in their cars. Is it Prius camping, or dirtbagging?  

The benefits outweigh the bad stuff, they’ll talk about the experiences that you can only have when you’re by yourself. Like having a conversation with a rabbit in Montana. Solitude is bliss. 

You’re not going to stop either of them from traveling alone, except maybe in Canada. 

Visit our website, www.spinsterlife.com where you can read blog posts, sign up for our email list and join The Spinster Life Community. Support us on Patreon, or follow us on social media, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest.

In past episodes, we've covered the lives of spinsters and the challenges they faced because they weren't married. 

In this episode, we discuss Russian spinsters with my dear friend Leysan (@leysan.r.khabibullina on IG), a real Russian person! Or we try to at least. Russia did a good job of disposing of their unmarried women, sending them to the gulag or asylums, so spoiler, we weren't able to find a lot of info on the topic. At leasat in the US there are no serious legal repercussions for remaining unwed.

Along the way, we detour into a delightful array of topics, like getting married early, the great housework divide, and children's toys. We also find out that women are working overtime both at work and at home.

Follow @tools_n_tiaras, we mention them in the episode and they teach girls that jobs don't have genders.

Visit our website, www.spinsterlife.com where you can read blog posts, sign up for our email list and join The Spinster Life Community. Support us on Patreon, or follow us on social media, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest.

Music Credits:

Cousin Ben by Savfk | https://www.youtube.com/savfkmusic
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

The Invention Rooms by Savfk | https://www.youtube.com/savfkmusi
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

We're taking back the word Spinster. But why do we even have to take it back? What happened along the way to turn a neutral word that described a woman's occupation into a way to minimize a woman's choice not to get married? On this episode, we examine the lives of the many, many women single, working women who have come before us. We're going back in time to tell the story of the OG Spinsters.

Amie and Eva also learn about some other words that used to be deployed at unmarried women. Is Spinster really the best we can do? They also display their complete lack of knowledge of history, fight the patriarchy, and of course, play a round of "Why Aren't You Married?"

Visit our website, www.spinsterlife.com where you can read blog posts, sign up for our email list and join The Spinster Life Community. 

Support us on Patreon, https://www.patreon.com/thespinsterlife or follow us on social media, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. 

To wrap up Black History Month on a high note, Eva and Amie learn more about science-fiction author Octavia E. Butler. She predicted the future with her writing, left us some amazing stories, and her notes, which are filled with inspiration and motivation for any writer.

Show Notes

Happy Galentine's Day! It's that time of year where love is in the air. But what about love in friendships? In this bonus episode, Eva and Amie talk about what makes Galentine's Day better than Valentine's Day. The answer is friends, especially friendships between women, like the 51-year friendship between Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

They also talk about discounted drug store candy, escargot, and how to do Valentine's Day correctly.
Oh, and there's a Ken Burns inspired audio story full of quotes. Actual real things Susan and Elizabeth said about each other, or were said about their friendship.

For more about Susan and Elizabeth's friendship, watch the Ken Burns documentary Not For Ourselves Alone.

Visit our website, www.spinsterlife.com where you can read blog posts, sign up for our email list and join The Spinster Life Community. 

Support us on Patreon, https://www.patreon.com/thespinsterlife or follow us on social media, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. 

Music Credits:

Basic Metal 5 by TeknoAXE | http://teknoaxe.com
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.co
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Additional Music By:

Zachariah Hickman

Does being a spinster mean you can never have kids? No. Not at all. Not even a little bit. You can choose to be a single mom. It's not an easy choice, or a decision to take lightly, but if you want to have children, you don't have to wait around for a spouse. Case in point, actor/writer/producer Mindy Kaling. She has two children and no ring on her finger. Mindy is a person who knows herself very well.

Mindy knew she wanted kids, she was very confident that having kids would make her feel fulfilled. But she wasn't going to wait around to find a husband or partner to make it happen. So she started the family she wanted, she defied the expectation that you follow the protocol:

Boyfriend -> Fiance -> Husband -> Buy House -> Have Kids

And to us, not following the "rules" is peak spinster. Being a Spinster isn't just about not being married, it's about making the life for yourself you want, even if you don't have a romantic partner. Why wait to do the things you really want?

Mindy does have a lot going for her that makes her a great single mom by choice. She's got support from her family, and probably a nanny or two. She has a successful career and is financially able to provide for her children. And she has seemingly boundless energy. That last one might be the most important, kids are a lot of work.

Come with us as we learn more about Mindy's life and choice to be a single mom.

Visit our website, www.spinsterlife.com where you can read blog posts, sign up for our email list and join The Spinster Life Community. 

Support us on Patreon, https://www.patreon.com/thespinsterlife or follow us on social media, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. 

Music Credits:

Wagner Bridal Chorus Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Basic Metal 5 by TeknoAXE | http://teknoaxe.com
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Motivational Piano Background Music by Nikita Lukyanov | https://soundcloud.com/lukyanovnikita
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported

Princeton graduate. Oxford student. Harvard Law School Graduate. Chicago Law School Professor. Harvard Law School Dean. First woman appointed as Solicitor General. Supreme Court Justice.

Yeah, but what a pity that she's not married. 🙄 It doesn't matter how much a woman achieves, the question still remains, how are we supposed to understand her if she's not attached to a man? 🙄🙄🙄

We're doing what we can to shut down questions like that by talking about the amazing life, career, and practical hairdo of Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan and reminding us of the hard work she does for all Americans. Because of the judicial nature of this episode, there is some technical language used, but Eva decodes it for us using her law degree.

We also get to read some quotes, which is exciting.

Visit our website, www.spinsterlife.com where you can read blog posts, sign up for our email list and join The Spinster Life Community. 

Support us on Patreon, https://www.patreon.com/thespinsterlife or follow us on social media, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest.