EP71: Without Children - Redefining Motherhood with Peggy O'Donnell Heffington

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In today's episode, Amanda engages in a thought-provoking conversation with Professor and Historian Peggy O'Donnell Heffington. They explore Peggy's deep work as a historian and her research on motherhood in America and the context of family, society, and choice in the past, present, and future.

1. The societal divide between mothers and women who are not mothers

2. The history of infertility treatment and unspoken truths behind its development

3. Ingenious contraception techniques used by women in the past

4. Appropriate terms to describe people without kids and why language matters

5. Challenges associated with motherhood in modern times

Resources mentioned in this episode

• Without Children: The Long History of Not Being a Mother by Peggy O'Donnell Heffington | Kindle and Hardcover
• EP61: In Pursuit of Liberation and Reproductive Justice with Sabia Wade
• Birthing Liberation: How Reproductive Justice Can Set Us Free by Sabia Wade | Kindle and Hardcover

About Peggy O'Donnell Heffington

Peggy O'Donnell Heffington is the author of Without Children: The Long History of Not Being a Mother. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, TIME, Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere. Peggy received her Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Berkeley, and is now a professor of history at the University of Chicago. She teaches courses on gender and women's history and historical research and writing methods. She lives outside Chicago with her husband, Bob, and their two pugs, Ellie and Jake.

Connect with Peggy

• Website: Peggy O'Donnell Heffington
• Instagram: @peggyohdonnell
• X: @peggyohdonnell

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