Venus Rising

Today, we have a very special guest with us, Katy Francisco. Her name might sound a little familiar to some listeners as her brother, Matt Doran, was a special guest on our show in Season 1. Like her brother, Katy was born from donor conception and has been an advocate for the donor conceived community by sharing her story and supporting restorative reproductive medicine. Katy served 6 years as Operations Manager for CanaVox, the marriage and family project of the Witherspoon Institute, and 3 years for the International Institute for Restorative Reproductive Medicine as secretariat.  

Read Katy’s Story Here: https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2020/01/59169/
Listen to her brother, Matt’s, interview on Venus Rising.

To find out more information on restorative reproductive medicine visit: Iirrm.org

Listen to Dr. Naomi Whittaker or Dr. Susan Caldwell, both physicians practicing restorative reproductive medicine, on Venus Rising!

Support for the Donor Conceived Community: 

Anonymousus.org 

Wearedonorconceived.com 

Donorchildren.org 

Today we welcome Libby Emmons, Editor-in-chief for The Post Millennial to the show. Libby holds a Masters of Fine Arts from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts from Sarah Lawrence College. Before Libby became a journalist, she was in the world of theater. In this episode we talk with Libby about her shift from playwright to editor and why good debate and conversation around contriversial topics is rare, often resulting in cancel culture. You can find Libby’s work published in many different outlets including Quillette, Spectator, New York Post, The Federalist, just to name a few.

Come see Libby and more amazing women at our event in NYC on March 16th where we will discuss the challenges facing women today to provide true Equality and Empowerment for women and children. 

Follow Libby on twitter with the handle @libbyemmons

Read Libby’s review of Trans Mission: What’s the Rush to Reassign Gender here: https://thepostmillennial.com/trans-mission-exposes-the-fallacy-of-the-gender-transition-narrative

Venus Rising welcomes Lexi with Stop Surrogacy Now UK. Stop Surrogacy Now is a global campaign that brings together a worldwide, ethnically, religiously, and culturally diverse group opposed to the exploitation of women and the human trafficking of children through surrogacy. You can find more and join this global campaign at stopsurrogacynow.com. Stop Surrogacy Now UK was formed by a group of women who were and still are concerned about the proposals the UK Law Commission put forward in its 2019 consultation to reform UK law. Stop Surrogacy Now UK aims to raise awareness of the truth of surrogacy and challenge the erosion of language through media spin and raise up the voices of women and children heard when it comes to the laws that concern them. 

You can find and follow Stop Surrogacy Now UK on Twitter with the handle @WombsNotForRent

In this episode of Venus Rising we shift from our normal programming to bring you an interview between Jennifer Lahl, CBC Founder and President, and surrogate mother, Kimberly. Kimberly sits down with Jennifer to share her horrific surrogacy story where she was left fighting for custody of her own biological child.  The baby Kimberly gave birth to as part of a gestational surrogacy arrangement was her own child, and not the baby for a Chinese couple who hired her. Surrogacy in China is still illegal and unfortunately Kimberly is not the only mother that has experienced this preventable tragedy. To protect her privacy, Kimberly is using an alias.

You can also watch this interview on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er2OjZmINCI&t=8s 

We are kicking off the New Year with another wonderful episode of Venus Rising featuring researcher, author and professor Dr. Theresa Morris! Theresa Morris, Ph.D. is Professor of Sociology and Women’s and Gender Studies as well as the Coordinator of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at Texas A&M University. When she’s not busy teaching undergraduate and graduate students, Dr. Morris also conducts research on gender, reproduction, and birth. Her first book, Cut It Out: The C-Section Epidemic in America (NYU Press 2013), examining the exponential increase in c-sections in the United States, was positively reviewed in several venues, including the New York Times, and her second book, Health Care in Crisis: Hospitals, Nurses, and the Consequences of Policy Change (NYU Press 2018), received an Honorable Mention for the 2019 Adele E. Clarke Book Award. Today we talk with Dr. Morris about her research, her books, and teaching college students in the twenty first century. 

Today we welcome attorney, public speaker, writer, and consultant, Kara Dansky. Kara has an extensive background in criminal justice law and policy and is unabashedly committed to protecting the rights, privacy, and safety of women and girls on the basis of sex in law and throughout society. Kara currently serves on the steering committee of the U.S. chapter of the Women's Human Rights Campaign (WHRC), which seeks to promote the Declaration on Women's Sex-Based Rights and also serves as the Chair of the Committee on Law and Legislation for WHRC globally. Most recently, Kara has a new book out titled The Abolition of Sex: How the "Transgender" Agenda Harms Women and Girls.

Follow Kara on Twitter @Kdansky

Find Kara online: https://www.karadansky.com

Read & Sign the Declaration on Women's Sex-Based Rights: https://www.womensdeclaration.com

Deck the Halls of Congress by donating to the US chapter of WHRC: https://womensdeclarationusa.com/deck-the-halls/

Today on Venus Rising I sit down with reproductive science research expert, author, academic and educator Joyce Harper, BSc, PhD. Currently Dr. Harper is Professor of Reproductive Science at University College London in the Institute for Women’s Health where she is Head of the Reproductive Science and Society Group. She is a Director of the Embryology and PGD Academy and founder of Global Women Connected.
 
Dr. Harper has over 33 years of experience in the fields of fertility, genetics and reproductive science. In fact, she was finishing her PhD just nine years after Louise Brown was born! She has written over 200 scientific papers and published three books, her latest titled Your Fertile Years, What you need to know to make informed choices. Dr. Harper started her career as an embryologist, then moved into reproductive science and genetics, now she is researching fertility education, FemTech, and the social aspects of infertility treatment including donation and IVF add-ons. This is truly an episode you won’t want to miss! It’s not every day that you get to hear from a woman as passionate and knowledgeable as Dr. Harper on topics like women’s fertility, women’s health education, IVF and the marketing of IVF add-ons such as preimplantation genetic testing. 
 
Find out more about Dr. Joyce Harper at www.joyceharper.com
Follow her on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn: @ProfJoyceHarper
Read more about Global Women Connected: www.globalwomenconnected.com
Watch this weeks episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/eqpoq6dB2zg 

Welcome back! Today I am thrilled to host award winning independent journalist and author, Jennifer Block. I have the opportunity to talk with Jennifer about women's health, gender, the conflict of interest found in medicine, and her newest book Everything Below The Waist: Why Health Care Needs a Feminist Revolution (St. Martin's Press). You might have read her other publications in The BMJ, New York Times, Romper, Washington Post Magazine, The Baffler, and in many other outlets. Her first book, Pushed, led a wave of attention to the national crisis in maternity care and was named a "Best Book of 2007" by Kirkus Reviews. A reporter with Type Investigations, Block won several awards for her investigative reporting on the permanent contraceptive implant Essure, which has since been discontinued.  You can find Jennifer and her work at Jenniferblock.com or on Twitter @wrtitingblock. 

Welcome back to another interesting episode of Venus Rising. This week I have the pleasure of chatting with  a young freelance writer and literary scholar, Donovan Cleckley. 

Donovan holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Montevallo and a Master of Arts in English from Tulane University. His research focuses on the relationship between women’s rights and gay rights, literature and sexual politics, and the social and political implications of transgenderism as an ideology, an industry, and an institution. Today, I talk with Donovan about the crossroads of his research and passion and the debate concerning the medical transitioning of children, which we also explore in our recent documentary Trans Mission: What's the Rush to Reassign Gender?

You can learn more about his work at https://donovancleckley.com or join him in discussion by following him on Twitter.

Today’s guest is Jasmine Esmay, a Registered Nurse Certified in Inpatient Obstetrics with over 20 years of frontline healthcare experience. Jasmine is also a Certified Lactation Counselor and an Internationally Board Certified Lactation Consultant. 

Jasmine believes that lifelong health and strong family relationships start with pregnancy and birth. Families today face almost insurmountable struggles when it comes to navigating the healthcare system, juggling the demands of a new baby with no paid parental leave, and the lack of postpartum and breastfeeding support. These struggles show in maternal and infant mortality rates, infant feeding outcomes, and increasing rates of postpartum depression. All things we discuss on today’s episode.

Jasmine currently works to change birth culture by offering continuing education to healthcare providers through her consulting business “Tongass Lactation Consulting, LLC” and serving on the United States Lactation Association Advisory Board. She is the current President of The Alaska Breastfeeding Coalition. Join us as Kallie chats with Jasmine about the current state of maternal fetal healthcare and what can be done to help women and families succeed in a time where we clearly are failing women. 

Find Jasmine at www.tongasslactation.com. Find more about Kathleen Kendall-Tackett, whose work is referenced in the podcast, at https://www.kathleenkendall-tackett.com

This week’s episode is also available for viewing on our YouTube channel.