Venus Rising

Jennifer Schneider, M.D., Ph.D., is a physician certified in Internal Medicine, Addiction Medicine and Pain Management. She is the author of 15 books and has published numerous articles in professional journals. Not only is Jennifer impressive academically, but she is also a loving mother. This is the intersection where the CBC and Dr. Schneider meets. Jennifer’s daughter, Jessica, is featured in our film Eggsploitation. Jessica tragically passed away just before her 32nd birthday from colon cancer. As a student at Stanford and Columbia, Jessica was persuaded to donate her eggs on three separate occasions. Now, Dr. Schneider worries about the welfare of other women who are egg donors. The fertility drugs used during Jessica’s egg donation cycles could have contributed to her cancer and early passing. Join us today as we talk with Dr. Schneider about her daughter’s legacy as well as her own work in exposing the lack of research on the long-term risks for egg donors. Like Dr. Schneider, we are concerned that there are many more women who have donated eggs and have suffered from an early cancer diagnosis.

You can read the important publication by Dr. Schneider, Jennifer Lahl and Wendy Kramer at: https://www.rbmojournal.com/article/S1472-6483(17)30048-2/abstract

You can find out more about Dr. Schneider at: http://www.jenniferschneider.com
You can visit Jessica’s Memorial Website at: www.jessicawing.com
Jessica's website, created by her, with links to some of her music: www.warmblooded.com

You can watch our documentaries Maggie’s Story and Eggsploitation free on Amazon Prime at: https://amzn.to/2K7Svou and https://amzn.to/2Q3NelW

Today on Venus Rising we have the opportunity to shine the spotlight on our founder and president, Jennifer Lahl. A few weeks ago, the wonderful women at The Free Birth Society invited Jennifer to speak on an episode of their show, The Free Birth Podcast. Jennifer sat down with Emilee Saldaya to discuss several different topics including the launch of the CBC, the deeply concerning language in surrogacy contracts, and the challenges she has faced as she tries to protect women. Emilee faced her own criticism when she put together a three-part series on surrogacy and she opens up about that as well. We are grateful for the generosity of the Free Birth Society in allowing us to bring this episode to our listeners at Venus Rising.

You can find The Free Birth Podcast here: https://www.freebirthsociety.com/blogs/the-free-birth-podcast

You can find each episode of the three part surrogacy series here:
Part 1 "To Buy a Baby, You Must First Rent a Woman": https://www.freebirthsociety.com/blogs/the-free-birth-podcast/to-buy-a-baby-you-must-first-rent-a-woman-with-marylou-singleton-surrogacy-series-part-1-of-3

Part 2: “Pain for the Childless Mother”: https://www.freebirthsociety.com/blogs/the-free-birth-podcast/pain-for-the-childless-mother-brianas-story-of-surrogacy-part-2-of-3

Part 3: “Consent Cannot be Purchased”: https://www.freebirthsociety.com/blogs/the-free-birth-podcast/what-makes-a-motherbaby-part-3-of-3-surrogacy-series

Watch #BigFertility on Amazon Prime: https://amzn.to/33ytpa3

As you shelter in place or quarantine yourself from friends and family, allow us to bring author and activist, Julie Bindel, into your living room for a powerful and inspiring discussion about her life’s work and passion.

Since she was just 17 years old, Julie has been active in the global campaign to end violence towards women and children. She has authored over 30 book chapters and reports on a range of topics relating violence and abuse of women and girls. She writes regularly for The Guardian newspaper, the New Statesman, Truthdig, the Sunday Telegraph and Standpoint magazines, and appears frequently on the BBC and Sky News. Julie is a co-founder of Justice for Women, an organization that supports and advocates on behalf of women who have fought back against violent men. Julie is also an original signer of the international StopSurrogacyNow campaign.

Join us today to find out what triggered Julie’s lifelong mission to end violence toward women and girls. Find out what gets her out of bed in the morning and keeps her up at night. Unite with us all as we fight to end the exploitation of women and girls.

Join Julie and thousands around the world by signing the http://www.stopsurrogacynow.com Campaign

Follow Julie on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bindelj
Follow David Challen on Twitter: https://twitter.com/David_Challen
Support Justice for Women: https://www.justiceforwomen.org.uk
Julie’s newest book is available for you on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Pimping-Prostitution-Abolishing-Work-Myth/dp/1349959464

Our guest today on Venus Rising is Scott Newgent. At the age of 43, Scott made the decision to medically transition from female to male. In 2017 Scott underwent phalloplasty which led to a massive pulmonary embolism. Scott nearly died of an infection which lasted 17 months.

During recovery Scott spent hours reading about transgender health, only to discover how little was known about the physical and psychological risks, as well as how woefully unregulated this area of medicine is for transgender people. Most shocking was the medical and pharmaceutical industry agenda to push children to transition.

As a parent, Scott works tirelessly at the state legislative level assisting lawmakers to write laws that will protect children from being allowed to medically transition. Most recently, Scott was involved in helping pass legislation in the State of Idaho that will not allow transgender girls to participate in school sports designated for biological females.

Scott says, “I can’t be called transphobic, I am transgender, but medically transitioning children is criminal. There is nothing to debate. It’s wrong on every level.”

Follow Scott on Facebook, Twitter and on the web:
@NewgentTGA
https://www.facebook.com/scottnewgent.72
https://www.transsexualglobalalliance.org/

If you’re a book worm, an aspiring writer, a feminist, or any combination, then this two-for-one episode is for you! Today we have the privilege of speaking with two radically brilliant women in one 45-minute episode. Susan Hawthorne and Renate Klein join Jennifer to talk about their journey creating and running an award-winning independent feminist press. Spinifex Press, founded in 1991, is an independent feminist book publisher, based in Australia, that publishes innovative and controversial feminist books with an optimistic edge.

Renate Klein, Ph.D., is a biologist and social scientist and long-term women's health researcher and has written extensively on reproductive technologies and feminist theory over the last thirty years. She was Associate Professor in Women's Studies at Deakin University in Melbourne and co-founder of FINRRAGE (Feminist International Network of Resistance to Reproductive and Genetic Engineering) and an original signatory to Stop Surrogacy Now.

Susan Hawthorne has her Ph.D., in Women’s Studies and Political Science from the University of Melbourne. Hawthorne’s award-winning writing includes poetry, fiction and non-fiction books. Her novel The Falling Woman was selected as one of The Australian’s Year’s Best Books (1992) and a Top Twenty Title in the Listener Women’s Book Festival. In 2015 she received the George Robertson Award for her services to the publishing industry.

We really hope you enjoy this interview from Down Under!

Link to Spinifex Press: http://www.spinifexpress.com.au

Link to Radically Speaking: Feminism Reclaimed: http://www.spinifexpress.com.au/Bookstore/book/id=131/

Link to Surrogacy: A Human Rights Violation: http://www.spinifexpress.com.au/Bookstore/book/id=301/

Link to Broken Bonds: http://www.spinifexpress.com.au/Bookstore/book/id=315/

On Venus Rising we talk a lot about surrogacy, but we haven’t brought you a real, honest interview with a woman who’s living the life of a surrogate. All of that changes today. ‘Lynn’, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, sits down with Jennifer for an authentic discussion about her ongoing experience as a commercial gestational surrogate. What started as a desire to help others has morphed into an experience that has risked her health and left her with worry.

We share her story because we know the risks, we know the dangers, and we know that many more ‘Lynn’s’ exist. We want to give them all a voice and an opportunity to share their story.

UPDATE: Since recording this episode, "Lynn" had an anatomy scan which showed the baby is on track at 20 weeks.When she is 35 weeks into the pregnancy she will move 5 hours away from home to deliver in a larger and better equipped hospital.

Today on Venous Rising Jennifer speaks with a Ph.D. candidate who is researching female body sex dolls and robots. Specifically, how men conceptualize these products and the implications of this kind of technology for women. Allow us to introduce you to a very influential activist and write, Ms. Caitlin Roper.

Ms. Roper is also very active in campaigning against the sexual exploitation of women and girls. Caitlin is the campaign manager for Collective Shout, she serves on the committee of Reclaim the Night, and is a founding member and chair of Adopt Nordic Western Australian Project. You can find her writings on ABC, the Guardian, Huffington Post, and the Sydney Morning Herold.

On this episode of Venous Rising, Caitlin speaks about her research, shares the current victories and future challenges at Collective Shout, and illuminates the parallels between pornography (the commercializing of sexuality) and surrogacy (the commercializing of reproduction).

I hope you allow her to inspire and empower you to begin speaking out against the exploitation of women and girls!

You can find out more about Collective Shout and support their work at:
www.collectiveshout.org
https://www.facebook.com/collectiveshout/
https://twitter.com/CollectiveShout

We are overjoyed to finally introduce our next guest on Venus Rising, Nick Isel. At age 15, Nick learned that he and his sister were donor conceived. Nick is one of 215 babies known infamously as “Nobel babies”; products of eugenicist Robert Graham’s Repository for Germinal Choice, a California-based sperm bank known as “The Nobel Bank”, claiming to only to accept “genius” sperm specimens.

Nick Isel was featured prominently in the book Genius Factory as a teenager under the pseudonym "Tom Legare". The author "David Plotz" interviewed him about his experiences growing up as a progeny of the Repository for Germinal Choice. Nick has also been featured in Esquire magazine, NPR Snap Judgement, "This is Life with Lisa Ling", and a short documentary titled The Need to Know.

Importantly, now, Nick is an advocate for the rights of the "Donor-Conceived" community and recently filed a citizen's petition to the US FDA regarding ending "Donor Anonymity" for sperm/egg donation establishments and increasing regulations and oversight. Specifically, Nick, wants donor- conceived children to have access to medical information, including plausible genetic diseases. This petition is still under review and is available for your comment here: https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=FDA-2016-P-2955-0087 . Today we get the unique opportunity to talk candidly with Nick about his advocacy work and this important petition he authored.

Citizen’s Petition: https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=FDA-2016-P-2955-0087

IMDB Page: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8749966/

Genius Factory is available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Genius-Factory-Curious-History-Nobel/dp/0812970527

Genius Factory Trailer: https://www.cbc.ca/documentarychannel/docs/genius-factory

The Need to Know Full-Length Video: https://vimeo.com/331831472

Today we travel to Canada to speak with Alison Motluk, a Toronto-based journalist with a special interest in reproductive technology. Alison writes on a broad category of topics and issues, but today we talk to her about third-party reproduction and the changes in Canada's Human Reproduction Act. Alison’s written in publications such as New Scientist, The Economist and the Globe and Mail. Alison also has a weekly email newsletter called HeyReprotech. You can sign up for her newsletter here: https://heyreprotech.substack.com.

Happy New Year! We are jump starting this year with an eye-opening and powerful
interview about freezing eggs and egg banking. For the first time, Jennifer sits down with Crystal Schnurr, a women who decided to freeze her own eggs for later use. Please join us as Crystal opens up with Venus Rising and tells us about her journey of freezing her own eggs.