Breaking Down Patriarchy

Amy is joined by filmmaker Sarah Perkins to discuss her documentary, The Basement Talks, hearing a powerful and pertinent story about women coming together in the wake of violence, recognizing the humanity in our political rivals, and what we talk about when we talk about abortion.Donate to Breaking Down PatriarchySarah Perkins is a filmmaker and PhD student at Brandeis University in Massachusetts, though she currently resides in rural southeast Idaho with her family. Together with her husband, she is the co-director of The Basement Talks. Previously, she worked as production manager on American Tragedy, which won Best Documentary at the Boston Film Festival and as the editor for the Herbe Nassour story. In her graduate work, she studies 20th-century literature and theology around the question of theodicy.

Amy is joined by Lindsay Hansen Park of Year of Polygamy and The Sunstone History Podcast to shine a light on the painful history of Mormon polygamy, communities who still practice it, and the best ways to uplift and empower plural wives.Donate to Breaking Down PatriarchyLindsay Hansen Park is a women’s rights activist, a feminist writer, and an advocate against gender violence. She was recently the cultural and historical consultant for Hulu’s limited series, Under the Banner of Heaven and is currently heavily involved in the Mormon Feminist movement. Lindsay is the Executive Director for the Sunstone Education Foundation and the founder of the Year of Polygamy podcast. She wrote for six years at FeministMormonHousewives.org about women’s issues and now podcasts for the Sunstone Mormon History podcast. Her work has been referenced by the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, NPR,Quartz Magazine, and many other Utah publications.  She and her family live in Utah where she raises three beautiful kiddos, gardens, and rages against the machine.

Amy returns to a book from Season One - Unwell Women - now joined by the author Dr. Elinor Cleghorn! This conversation unpacks the history of women's healthcare, looks at medical myths and women's pain, and explores the patriarchal shadow which still looms over our health outcomes.Listen to the original episode about Unwell Women here.Donate to Breaking Down PatriarchyDr Elinor Cleghorn has a background in feminist visual culture and history, and her critical writing has been published in several academic journals including Screen. After receiving her PhD in in 2012, Elinor spent three years as a post-doctoral researcher at the Ruskin School, University of Oxford, working on an interdisciplinary medical humanities project. She has given talks and lectures at the British Film Institute, where she has been a regular contributor to their education programme, Tate Modern, and ICA London, and she has appeared on the BBC Radio 4 discussion show The Forum. In 2017, she was shortlisted for the Fitzcarraldo Editions essay prize. She now works as a freelance writer and researcher. Her non-fiction debut, Unwell Women, was published in June 2021. She is currently working on her next book on intersectional feminist history of women and mother-led knowledge around reproduction, pregnancy, birth and mothering.

Amy is joined by educator Ben Blair of Newlane University to discuss actionable steps towards building a more egalitarian education system, how new technologies can expand learning opportunities across the globe, and why we should question the popularity of time-based assessments, student competition, adversarial teachers and more.Donate to Breaking Down PatriarchyBen Blair holds a PhD in Philosophy and Education from Columbia University. He is a co-founder and President of Newlane University. Started in 2017, Newlane is an online university with a mission to make quality liberal arts higher education accessible to anyone on earth by breaking down barriers of cost, schedule, and geography. Ben and his wife Gabrielle have six children. After six years in Oakland, CA they now live in Normandy, France.

Amy is joined by author Koa Beck to discuss her book, White Feminism: From the Suffragettes to Influencers and Who They Leave Behind. This conversation defines white feminism, explains why it can't overcome patriarchy, and offers practical alternatives for white feminists to change tactics and make more meaningful change.Donate to Breaking Down PatriarchyKoa Beck is the author of White Feminism: From the Suffragettes to Influencers and Who They Leave Behind. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of Jezebel, the executive editor of Vogue.com, and the senior features editor at MarieClaire.com. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Observer, The Guardian, and Esquire, among others. For her reporting prowess, she has been interviewed by the BBC and has appeared on many panels about gender and identity at the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Historical Society, and Columbia Journalism School to name a few. She lives in Los Angeles.

Amy is joined by influencer Rosie Card for a riveting conversation about her career as a businesswoman, Temple clothes and contradictions, and the LDS Church's untapped potential for radical change.Donate to Breaking Down PatriarchyRosemary Card is an entrepreneur, author and passionate advocate for women’s rights, inclusion and nuanced cultural conversations. She is the founder of Q.Noor and Card Wear and author of “Model Mormon” and “House of Light.” She firmly believes in the power of education and open conversation to bridge divides and promote understanding. She lives in Salt Lake with her husband, 2-year-old son, and two dogs.

Amy is joined by lawyer and author, Iris Mwanza, to discuss her novel - The Lion's Den - plus the status of patriarchy in Zambia, worldwide, and the critical role that books play in shaping public attitudes.Donate to Breaking Down PatriarchyIris Mwanza is a Zambian-American author and gender equality advocate. Born and raised in Zambia, early exposure to inequality has been a driving force in her life - from becoming a lawyer, writing a Ph.D. dissertation on women and children’s rights, a career fighting for gender equality, and now a thriller with gender equality as its heart.Iris has spent an inordinate amount of time studying and has law degrees from Cornell University and the University of Zambia, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in International Relations from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Her day job is Deputy Director of the Women in Leadership team in the Gender Equality Division of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and her night job is to write. Her debut novel The Lions’ Den took nine years of nights and weekends to finish. 

Amy is joined by activist, advocate, and influencer Mr. Jones X to strategize around hot topics and confrontations, including DEI, Critical Race Theory, and bringing men into our movement for a more just future. Donate to Breaking Down PatriarchyMr. Jones X is a well-known activist, political commentator, and courageous debater. His mastery of intersectionality and the importance of advocating from the bottom up distinguish him from the average content creator. These abilities have earned him numerous speaking engagements, invitations to panel discussions, and national attention for his debates. Jones is also an entrepreneur with TUFF (Transformative Uprising for Freedom), a socially conscious clothing company, in which his products are manufactured by a local minority women-owned business and the designs allow customers to wear their protest.

Amy is joined by adrienne maree brown to discuss her latest book, Loving Corrections, and learn about improving our accountability practices, plus what it takes to live in right relationship with the friends and family with whom we most disagree.Donate to Breaking Down Patriarchyadrienne maree brown (she/they) is growing a garden of healing ideas. Informed by decades of movement facilitation, somatics, science fiction scholarship and doula work, adrienne has nurtured Emergent Strategy, Pleasure Activism, Radical Imagination and Loving Correction as ideas and practices for transformation. adrienne is the NYT-bestselling author/editor of several published texts, a ritual singer-songwriter, co-generator of the Lineages of Change Tarot Deck, and co-creator/host of How to Survive the End of the World podcast with Autumn Brown. adrienne’s latest book Loving Corrections is now available from AK Press.

Amy is joined by Dr. Lexie Kite to revisit her book, More Than A Body: Your Body Is an Instrument, Not an Ornament, exploring the ways women and girls are looked at, predatory practices of the beauty industry, plus how to escape the sea of objectification and come home to your whole self.Donate to Breaking Down PatriarchyDr. Lexie Kite is co-author of the book More Than a Body: Your Body Is an Instrument, Not an Ornament and co-director of the nonprofit Beauty Redefined, along with her twin sister Dr. Lindsay Kite. They both received PhDs from the University of Utah in the study of female body image and have become leading experts in body image resilience and media literacy. Authors of numerous studies and books have cited Lindsay and Lexie’s original research and they have been featured in a variety of national media outlets, including The New York Times, CNBC, the Boston Globe, Slate, Shape, Glamour, Teen Vogue, and more.Lindsay and Lexie help girls and women recognize and reject the harmful effects of objectification in their lives through their significant social media reach, online Body Image Resilience course and facilitator program for dieticians and therapists, their popular book (More Than a Body), and regular speaking engagements for thousands of people of all ages. Lexie lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.