Stuff Mom Never Told You

Women's romantic friendships and lifelong partnerships were common -- and acceptable -- in the Victorian era. Cristen and Caroline discuss how and why these so-called "Boston marriages" flourished and what was behind their early 20th-century demise. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rom coms were invented thanks to Hollywood censorship. In this introduction to a five-episode series exploring the vintage screwballs to the modern screwups, Cristen and Caroline spotlight the hallmarks, hijinks and heteronormativity of the romantic comedy movie genre. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For many LGBTQ folks, the personal takes on an element of the political when it's time to get dressed. Caroline chats with designer Leon Wu, style expert Sonny Oram and beauty editor Aja Aguirre about the growing queer-fashion landscape and the importance of social media in helping shape communities and identities. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Prince died April 21, the tributes came pouring out, centering especially on his genderbending fashion that gave plenty of kids someone to look up to and emulate. Cristen and Caroline look at the origins and evolution of queer and androgynous fashion to pinpoint Prince's purple place in the timeline. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hillary Clinton has been one of the most successful women in American politics, but ever since she became the First Lady of Arkansas, people have both loved and loathed her. Cristen and Caroline travel back in time to look at what shaped Hillary, how the press has treated her and what it means to be a powerful woman in the public eye. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Women are a rare sight in the upper echelons of political campaign management and strategy. Cristen and Caroline put on their detective hats to figure out why women more often end up leading fundraising and grassroots efforts. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Forcible sterilizations of black women in the South were so frequent in the 1960s, civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer nicknamed them Mississippi appendectomies. Cristen and Caroline chart the disturbing American practice of nonconsensually sterilizing women of color and the eugenics movement that started it. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

J. Marion Sims is hailed as the father of gynecology, but his legacy is tainted by his experimental surgeries on enslaved women. Cristen and Caroline contextualize Sims' controversy, diagnose medicine's racist past and honor the unsung mothers of gynecology. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The future of sexual health may be in at-home STD testing. Cristen and Caroline talk to My Lab Box startup founders Lora Ivanova and Ursula Hessenflow about how technology can destigmatize STD testing and what it's like for female founders raising venture capital for a culturally taboo product. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ever since the 1980s epidemic, HIV and AIDS have been misunderstood as exclusively affecting men who have sex with men. Cristen and Caroline discuss the lesbians on the front lines of the AIDS crisis, women and AIDS today and the HIV myths that reinforce its stigma. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.