Exiled from a world of engineered perfection, Demetria crash-lands into the brutal reality of the Outerlands. Distrusted by the defiant survivors, her only hope lies with a mysterious AGI, First Belle. But the secrets it holds could break her... or forge her into the hero she never knew she could be. From Wondery, the makers of Academy and Dr. Death, The Last City stars actors Rhea Seehorn, Jeannie Tirado, and Maury Sterling. Listen to The Last City on the Wondery App or wherever you get...

Could an 1873 law that hasn't been enforced in nearly a century be a national abortion ban just waiting to happen? Legal friend of the pod Natalie Birnbaum (Repro Solutions) returns to explain what the Comstock Act is, why it's getting so much attention lately and whether it could it ban medication abortion and even birth control. Highlights include: Gilded Age abortionist Madame Restell, a postmaster general gone wild, fake-out abortion referenda and Justice Samuel Alito's revisionist legal...

**Unladies' Room Patreon preview** What does it take to erect a monument to women's history? Just ask Diane Carlson Evans, without whom the Vietnam Women's Memorial would not exist... To hear the full, ad-free episode, join the Patreon - and THANK YOU!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Magician Nicole Cardoza has never met another illusionist who looks like her. The reasons why are no stage magic secret. This episode, Nicole debunks the default pale, male magician and his "lovely assistant" and reclaims the power of suspending disbelief. Highlights include: spiritual appropriation; taboo magic; the Queen of Coins; sexist pockets; and America's first Black female magician, Ellen Armstrong.  Follow Unladylike on Instagram and TikTok Join the Unladies' Room Patreon Shop...

What do vision boards and Princess Diana conspiracy theories have in common? They both rely on a kind of magical thinking called proportionality bias. It's one of many cognitive biases that returning guest Amanda Montell connects to all the woo-woo and delulu going around these days. From the sunk cost fallacy of toxic relationships to the halo effect of female celebs to the declinism of everyday doomsday speak, Amanda makes even the most mindboggling and brainrotting realities of today's...

**Unladies' Room Patreon preview** A labor-free life of feminine leisure, and/or the ultimate self-care con? The SAHGs (stay-at-home girlfriends) of TikTok have been described as a manifestation of Gen Z, anti-girlboss culture. Except, they’re still getting paid to work!! To hear the full, ad-free episode, join the Patreon 33 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's the difference between a white feminist and a mean girl? Not so much, as Kim Hong Nguyen explains this episode. From colonial era white women to TERFs on main today, mean girl feminism is a new term for an old problem that's all show, no go and oblivious to racialized white feminisms. We also meet its four familiar faces: Whitesplaining White Lady of Liberal Reason; Girlboss, a Self-Promotional Equity Lady; Karen with Illegible Rage; and Power Couple Wife with Resting Bitch Face. Kim...

Are butch-femme roles in queer relationships just recycling the same old hetero his 'n' hers gender boxes? What happens when toxic masculinity invades queer relationships and spaces? In an Unladylike FIRST, we're re-asking and re-answering a listener advice request–and with empathetic expertise from Autostraddle editor in-chief Carmen Phillips and membership editorial and ops wrangler and writer Nico Hall. Carmen and Nico break down butch misogyny, femme objectification and why lesbian...

**Unladies' Room Patreon teaser** With spring a few days away, tis the season to talk BODY HAIR! But my 2019 interview with spoken word artist and performer Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa isn't the same old to-shave-or-not-to-shave body hair binary. Sukhjit is a practicing Sikh, and letting it all grow (aka keeping kesh) is an article of faith. And as you might imagine, that was easier said than done for Sukhjit once puberty rolled around, and visible hairiness attracted ALL of the unwanted...

Have you ever wondered what the zodiac can reveal about your favorite artists? Then you have to listen to Stars and Stars with Isa, the podcast where we look to the stars above with the stars below. Every episode our charismatic, funny and insightful host and astrologer, Isa Nakazawa, sits down with the most talented creators and thinkers of our time to read them their birth chart. In the show, Isa delves into what the planets reveal about the star’s life’s purpose and why they love, create,...

Of all the aunt tropes in pop culture–spinster aunts, sinister aunts, weird aunts, witchy aunts–why is The Cool Aunt so popular these days? More importantly, who is she really, beyond (alleged) disposible income and TikTok aesthetics? Los Angeles Times art and design columnist Carolina Miranda appraises the figure as a timely foil to tradwives, as well as an underappreciated part of the family. Highlights include: Cristen's formative fictional cool aunt, Fresh Prince's Aunt Viv, Empire's...

It's not like a regular podcast episode. It's a cool episode. Right, Regina? Andi Mitchell and Sabrina Kohlberg from Pop Culture Moms take us on a pop cultural tour of The Cool Mom, from Mean Girls to Euphoria, and her defining qualities on screen. But as we also learn from her disregard for boundaries, the Cool Mom isn't all trope and no substance. Highlights include: Munchausen by proxy, Peg Bundy, cool dads and whether The Cool Mom is just The Cool Girl with kids. Follow Unladylike:...

Wtf just happened with frozen embryos, fertility clinics and IVF in Alabama?? Get ready for the un-true crime, sci-fi Jesus saga of LePage v Center for Reproductive Medicine. As in, the case behind the Alabama state supreme court’s ruling that frozen embryos for IVF are “EXTRAUTERINE CHILDREN” in a “CRYOGENIC NURSERY” and therefore are full-ass people?? Cristen ragesplains how this anti-abortionist legal buffoonery happened, the fetal personhood of it all and why “save IVF” is a bait and...

In 1974, what had started as a sexist gimmick became the first and only (so far) professional women's football league in US history. It wasn't a feminist stunt, either. Sports writer Frankie de la Cretaz tells us the incredible - and incredibly queer - story of the National Women's Football League, the hundreds of women who played and how it changed their lives. Highlights include: breast padding, "Harlem Globetrotters with rip-away skirts," Dallas lesbian bars and your new favorite...

The feminist blogosphere era officially ended last November when Jezebel, website and water cooler of millennial feminism, was shut down by its media overlords. But even though Jezebel was swiftly put on life support by Paste magazine, its long-term survival remains unclear partly due to the same, old "business problems" of feminist media. First, senior lecturer Melanie Waters shares what happened 50 years ago when Ms. magazine launched with a million-dollar investment but never turned a...

Why is penis size and performance the go-to butt of the joke, especially when we're talking about s****y men? Is it punching up at misogyny, or just recycling bad material? Writer Mikala Jameson (Body Type) introduces America's Small Dick Joke Problem, interrogates the instinct to hit misogyny where it hurts and recalls an infamous "hot dog down a hallway." Then, Robin Taylor, Your Trans Friend You Didn't Know You Needed, takes us deeper into the simultaneous objectification and erasure...

**Unladies' Room Patreon preview** Grab your snorkel masks and oxygen tanks, unladies! We're revisiting my 2019 interview with cave diver and underwater explorer Jill Heinerth (ep. 64: How to Dive Into Fear). She takes us along her path into the incredibly dangerous world of cave diving, how she approaches fear as an asset and what sexism looks like in her niche field.  To hear the full, ad-free episode, join the Patreon - and THANK YOU!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...

What if society exalted the love and commitment of friendship as highly as that of marriage and biological family? How would our lives change if close friends were more empowered to be our til-death-do-us-part significant others? Journalist Rhaina Cohen (NPR, Embedded) talks to Cristen about the friendship that shook up her own notions of BFFs; how platonic intimacy became sexually suspect and the legal barriers to nonmarital support systems. Highlights include: passionate but not sexual...

Sharing an episode of another podcast we’re loving: Your Mama’s Kitchen, all about cuisine and culture, ingredients and identities, and the meals and memories that make us who we are. Every week, host Michele Norris talks to guests like Michelle Obama, Glennon Doyle, and José Andrés. They explore the complexities of family life and how their earliest culinary experiences helped shape their personal and professional lives—and of course, each guest shares a recipe from their youth so you can...

If care workers make all work possible, then why aren't they better taken care of? And what if that predominantly low-income women of color workforce would rather care for their own children and families? Answer: racial capitalism. Barnard historian Premilla Nadasen contexualizes today's multibillion-dollar care industry in the domestic worker rights and welfare rights movements and builds the case for redefining work and reimagining care through radical Black feminism. Her newest book is...

**Unladies' Room Patreon preview** Did y'all know women initiate 70% of divorces in husband-wife marriages? Are no-fault divorce laws to blame?? Cristen digs through divorce rate stats, facts and an old LIFE magazine to help explain the paradoxical and persistent relationship between women and divorce. To hear the full, ad-free episode, join the Patreon - and THANK YOU!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At 16 years old, Molly McGlynn discovered why she'd never had a period. Diagnosed with MRKH syndrome, Molly was born without a uterus, cervix and an underdeveloped vaginal canal. Blindsided, teenage Molly was then promptly tasked with "making" her own vagina - and advised to keep it all a secret. Now a grownup and filmmaker, Molly shares how MRKH upended her teenage life, her journey to reconnecting with her own body and turning that trauma into the coming of age comedy Fitting In, starring...

What happens when someone who built their career on being Indigenous turns out to be ... a white lady? Award-winning writer and reporter Michelle Cyca shares how she came face to face with Indigenous identity fraud, why academia and the arts have a 'Pretendian' problem and what these scams means for Indigenous rights and sovereignty. **This episode originally aired on January 31, 2023** Read Michelle's MacLean's cover story, The Curious Case of Gina Adams: A "Pretendian" Investigation Send...

**Unladies' Room Patreon preview** With Real Housewives of Salt Lake City having a pop cultural moment, it's the perfect time for a reality check on women, gender and Mormonism.  Listen to Cristen's uncut 2018 interview with Kate Kelly, who sent shockwaves through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) when she dared to ask why women aren't allowed into the Mormon priesthood. Originally featured in Unladylike episode 8: How to Be a Mormon Feminist. To hear the full, ad-free...