Are diaries the ultimate form of authenticity? How do our stories shift when we're journaling for no one to see? On Theme co-hosts Yves Jeffcoat and Katie Mitchell read into Black women's diaries for the personal reflections, everyday details and emotional nuance that goes unseen elsewhere. Highlights include: social media vs. journal authenticity,…

What do 400 years-worth of women's published diaries tell us about the kinds of secrets and feelings we keep to ourselves? From a 16th-century spiritualist to the diaries of Anne Frank and Ma Yan, writer Sarah Gristwood reveals the everyday histories they document, the age-old frustrations they share and why she's a proponent of hanging onto your o…

How did Bumble get its (celibacy-themed) rebrand so wrong? What does it tell us about general dating app burnout? Cristen revises the brand's millennial girlboss origin story, its promise of female empowerment and Whitney Wolfe Herd's path to self-made billionaire. Highlights include: AI dating coaches, a sketchy Russian billionaire, corporate apol…

Imagine having to host the Pope and the Chinese President. On the same day. Plus, a whole press corps and socialite circle is watching and waiting to blame you for anything that goes wrong. That’s what Deesha Dyer walked into when she was promoted to White House Social Secretary for the Obama administration in 2015. But even more than her high-stak…

NeW ePiSoDeS returning next week, unladies! In the meantime . . . What happens when women in long-term relationships with straight men realize they're bi, and why are they less likely to come out? Writer and Culture Club host Maggie Zhou shares her own reckoning with the "Bittersweet Privilege of Straight-Passing in Queer Communities," queer impost…

What happens when adult women discover they're autistic? Cristen busts the gender stereotypes and neurotypical myths of Autism Spectrum Disorder with help from unladies who've been there. The Loudest Girl in the World host and producer, Lauren Ober, details the (expensive!) jungle gym she had to cross for a middle-age diagnosis. Meanwhile, listener…

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. Deat…

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 includ…

**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;…

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 eff…

**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 <3<3 Learn more about you…

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 Whit…

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 …

**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 mig…

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 ti…

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 …

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…

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 peo…

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 change…

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, s…

Why is penis size and performance the go-to butt of the joke, especially when we're talking about shitty 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 …

**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 lik…

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…

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 earlie…