Becky and Taina try something new in this episode—a looser, more conversational format inspired by their friends from BRB, Crying. Each host brings a “messy situation” to unpack together.
Taina starts with a real-life scare: police chasing a man through her backyard in Baltimore. The conversation unfolds into a raw discussion about policing, white conditioning, racialized fear, and what “abolish the police” really means. Together, they pull apart the myths of “good cops” and community safety, tracing policing back to its roots in slavery and exploring what real care-centered community safety could look like.
Then Becky brings her own messy topic: a threads debate about whether all landlords are unethical. As a small-scale landlord herself, she wrestles with her own complicity in a capitalist system while still trying to do right by her tenant. The pair examine how housing, like policing, reflects deeper systemic issues—and why nuance matters when we talk about ethics and liberation.
The conversation winds into reflections on whiteness, masculinity, and how even our attempts to “opt out” of oppressive systems (like calling yourself a “non-practicing white”) can be another form of avoidance. This one is layered, uncomfortable, and exactly the kind of conversation Messy Liberation is built for.
🧠 Themes
🔗 Resources Mentioned
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Coaching can feel like a solo sport, but it doesn’t have to!
Join Becky Mollenkamp and Taina Brown for a free live workshop on October 30th at 2 p.m. ET where we’ll explore what it really takes to grow as a coach rooted in liberation, not just business.
🌟 In this session, you’ll learn:
This isn’t just another workshop—it’s a doorway into deeper connection with coaches who share your values.
👉 Reserve your free spot today: https://evt.to/eodmahasw
(If you can’t make it live, sign up anyway—replay will be available!)
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Becky and Taina are joined by fitness coach Laura Thomas for a brutally honest conversation about body image, aging, and what it really means to feel at home in your body.
They unpack how diet culture is a tool of patriarchy and capitalism, how the “male gaze” shapes even the most “empowering” wellness trends, and how we can start to reclaim movement as a way to care for ourselves rather than control ourselves.
This episode invites all of us, especially those socialized as women, to stop outsourcing our worth and start listening to our bodies again
Discussed in this episode:
Resources mentioned:
💪 Learn More About Laura Thomas
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Coaching can feel like a solo sport, but it doesn’t have to!
Join Becky Mollenkamp and Taina Brown for a free live workshop on October 30th at 2 p.m. ET where we’ll explore what it really takes to grow as a coach rooted in liberation, not just business.
🌟 In this session, you’ll learn:
This isn’t just another workshop—it’s a doorway into deeper connection with coaches who share your values.
👉 Reserve your free spot today: https://evt.to/eodmahasw
(If you can’t make it live, sign up anyway—replay will be available!)
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What happens when two podcasts built on honesty, healing, and humor come together?
In this special crossover between Messy Liberation and brb crying, Becky and Taina sit down with Angela (“Nins”) and Ariana (“Arns”), lifelong best friends and co-hosts of brb crying, for a heartfelt, hilarious, and deeply real conversation about what it means to feel your feelings in a world that rewards suppression.
They unpack why crying is a radical act of self-trust, how vulnerability is a muscle that takes practice, and what it looks like to de-armor yourself in a culture that treats emotions like weakness. They also talk about creative rebirth through fan fiction (yes, really), the burnout cycle of podcasting, and how anti-capitalist rest practices can help us find joy again.
This one’s equal parts therapy session, slumber party, and masterclass in liberation.
Check out brb, crying:
Website: https://www.brbcryingpodcast.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brbcrying.podcast
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB3O5-2SWBN4AYpb061iipg
Discussed in this episode:
🎤 PROUD MEMBERS OF THE FEMINIST PODCAST COLLECTIVE: http://feministpodcastcollective.com/
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Coaching can feel like a solo sport, but it doesn’t have to!
Join Becky Mollenkamp and Taina Brown for a free live workshop on October 30th at 2 p.m. ET where we’ll explore what it really takes to grow as a coach rooted in liberation, not just business.
🌟 In this session, you’ll learn:
This isn’t just another workshop—it’s a doorway into deeper connection with coaches who share your values.
👉 Reserve your free spot today: https://evt.to/eodmahasw
(If you can’t make it live, sign up anyway—replay will be available!)
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In this fiery, messy conversation, Becky Mollenkamp and Taina Brown dive headfirst into celebrity culture, capitalism’s endless hunger, and the idea of enough. What started as a chat about Taylor Swift’s latest grift spirals—naturally—into reflections on fascism, fire-hose overwhelm, and why local action matters more than ever.
They talk about:
• Why celebrity “side hustles” and billionaire branding keep us chasing more
• How capitalism turns “enough” into failure
• The illusion of American exceptionalism and what fascism actually looks like
• Why your local school board might matter more than Congress
• What iteration (not hustle) really means for liberation
• How collective care—and choosing one or two issues you actually have energy for—is the real resistance
Resource mentioned:
• Deepa Iyer’s Social Change Ecosystem Map
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Coaching can feel like a solo sport, but it doesn’t have to!
Join Becky Mollenkamp and Taina Brown for a free live workshop on October 30th at 2 p.m. ET where we’ll explore what it really takes to grow as a coach rooted in liberation, not just business.
🌟 In this session, you’ll learn:
This isn’t just another workshop—it’s a doorway into deeper connection with coaches who share your values.
👉 Reserve your free spot today: https://evt.to/eodmahasw
(If you can’t make it live, sign up anyway—replay will be available!)
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👉 On October 9, 2025, Feminist Founders is hosting The Weight We Carry, a free, focus-group-style conversation on invisible labor. We’ll share stories, hold space, and imagine what collective relief might look like. And your stories will directly shape a white paper we’re writing to push this issue into wider conversations where it belongs. ✨ Reserve your free spot here
In this episode of Messy Liberation, Becky Mollenkamp and Taina Brown are joined by their dear friend and collaborator Faith Clarke. Faith is a workplace culture strategist who challenges extractive systems and works to build restorative, liberatory environments rooted in belonging.
Together, the three dig into what “belonging” really means—not as a buzzword, but as an embodied experience of communal care, shared responsibility, and accountability. Faith shares stories from her corporate and nonprofit experiences, connects belonging to invisible labor, and explains why true belonging requires honesty about what spaces can and can’t hold.
This is a conversation about work, family, faith, identity, power, and the hard truth that belonging isn’t something leaders “create”—it’s something communities must practice together.
In this episode, we discuss:
🎤PROUD MEMBERS OF THE FEMINIST PODCASTERS COLLECTIVE
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Coaching can feel like a solo sport, but it doesn’t have to!
Join Becky Mollenkamp and Taina Brown for a free live workshop on October 30th at 2 p.m. ET where we’ll explore what it really takes to grow as a coach rooted in liberation, not just business.
🌟 In this session, you’ll learn:
This isn’t just another workshop—it’s a doorway into deeper connection with coaches who share your values.
👉 Reserve your free spot today: https://evt.to/eodmahasw
(If you can’t make it live, sign up anyway—replay will be available!)
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Becky’s sick, Taina’s tired, and somehow that makes for the best kind of messy conversation. From writing smut to why summer feels like winter, this grab bag episode runs the gamut of sex, TV, astrology, and systemic injustice.
Discussed in this episode:
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Coaching can feel like a solo sport, but it doesn’t have to!
Join Becky Mollenkamp and Taina Brown for a free live workshop on October 30th at 2 p.m. ET where we’ll explore what it really takes to grow as a coach rooted in liberation, not just business.
🌟 In this session, you’ll learn:
This isn’t just another workshop—it’s a doorway into deeper connection with coaches who share your values.
👉 Reserve your free spot today: https://evt.to/eodmahasw
(If you can’t make it live, sign up anyway—replay will be available!)
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THIS IS FOR COACHES (or anyone who uses coaching skills)...
Join Becky Mollenkamp and Taina Brown for a free live workshop on October 30th at 2 p.m. ET where we’ll explore what it really takes to grow as a coach rooted in liberation, not just business.
🌟 In this session, you’ll learn:
This isn’t just another workshop—it’s a doorway into deeper connection with coaches who share your values.
👉 Reserve your free spot today: https://evt.to/eodmahasw
(If you can’t make it live, sign up anyway—replay will be available!)
•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•
Coaching can feel like a solo sport, but it doesn’t have to!
Join Becky Mollenkamp and Taina Brown for a free live workshop on October 30th at 2 p.m. ET where we’ll explore what it really takes to grow as a coach rooted in liberation, not just business.
🌟 In this session, you’ll learn:
This isn’t just another workshop—it’s a doorway into deeper connection with coaches who share your values.
👉 Reserve your free spot today: https://evt.to/eodmahasw
(If you can’t make it live, sign up anyway—replay will be available!)
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This week, Becky and Taina cut through the noise—what “compromise” really means in a deeply divided America. Triggered by Jerry Greenfield’s exit from Ben & Jerry’s, Tad Stoermer’s critique of liberal nationalism, and the recent killing of Charlie Kirk, we unpack how stories are told, how power is preserved, and who gets to be the “martyr.”
We talk about:
This is a heavy one. We name the fear, the grief, and the hope in imagining a future beyond duct-tape solutions. And, as always, we find a little levity at the end (Cardi B, Beyoncé, and witchy weekends).
Resources Mentioned:
Death isn’t something most of us are taught to face with honesty, compassion, or ritual. In this episode of Messy Liberation, hosts Becky Mollenkamp and Taina Brown sit down with Nikki Smith, The Death Doula, to explore what it means to navigate dying, grief, and collective loss with more humanity.
Nikki shares how her personal experiences with loss led her to become a death doula and grief coach, and why she believes grief doesn’t have to suck. Together, we talk about how our culture fails us in grief (three days of bereavement leave? really?), the myths of the “stages of grief,” what collective grief looks like in moments like COVID and global injustice, and why rituals matter.
We also touch on end-of-life dignity, hospice care, and what Nikki has learned about her own mortality from walking alongside others in their final days. This conversation is real, tender, and surprisingly hopeful—it’s about love, legacy, and finding joy even in the hardest moments.
If you’ve ever felt alone in your grief, questioned how to support someone through loss, or wondered what it means to prepare for your own death, this episode will meet you right where you are.
Discussed in this episode:
Resources:
What does it mean to rest in a world that’s constantly demanding more from us—and why is rest such an essential part of resistance?
In this episode, Becky and Taina sit down with Jordan Maney (aka The Radical Joy Coach) to talk about rest as resistance, how to distinguish between anger and rage, and why “rest so you can rage” is a mantra worth remembering.
Together they unpack:
Jordan reminds us that rest isn’t an excuse to check out. It’s a strategy for sustaining ourselves in the long fight against oppressive systems. Without it, burnout wins.
If you’ve ever felt guilty about slowing down, or wondered how to balance caring for yourself while also showing up for justice, this episode will leave you with a radical new lens on why rest isn’t optional—it’s part of the work.
Jordan Maney is The Radical Joy Coach and the host of Rest Lab podcast. She helps “bleeding hearts”—people who deeply give a damn—center rest, joy, and care in their lives as an act of resistance.
Resources & Links
🎤 PROUD MEMBERS OF THE FEMINIST PODCASTERS COLLECTIVE
Becky and Taina sit down with Tiana Dodson, a body liberation facilitator who helps people reconnect with their bodies, destigmatize fatness, and confront the oppressive systems that keep us at war with ourselves.
Together, we dig into the messy, nuanced truths about body liberation: what it really means beyond “body positivity,” why loving your body isn’t always possible (or required), and how systemic oppression—not personal failure—shapes our relationships with our bodies.
Tiana shares her four-step framework for body liberation—education, reframing, resilience/self-care, and advocacy—and we talk about the real-life challenges of living in a fat body in a fatphobic, racist, capitalist culture. This conversation unpacks how liberation isn’t a destination but an ongoing practice of resistance, reclamation, and joy.
Discussed in this episode:
Resources Mentioned:
Connect with Tiana Dodson:
This week on Messy Liberation, Becky and Taina dive headfirst into the chaos of U.S. politics, personal rights under threat, and the culture wars playing out in real time. From the militarization of D.C. to the looming Supreme Court cases threatening Obergefell, they unpack how Project 2025 is already reshaping daily life and why “just wait and see” isn’t an option when democracy is on the line.
They also get personal: what it means to feel unsafe in your own country, how queer couples are already strategizing to protect their families, and why pride flags signal more safety than American flags these days.
And because no episode is complete without calling out cultural contradictions, Becky and Taina take on Taylor Swift and the problem with white feminism. Can you enjoy the music while still holding celebrities accountable for their choices? Absolutely—but ignoring privilege and power isn’t an option.
It’s a heated, unfiltered conversation. If you’re activated by it, you’re not alone—just don’t forget to take care of your nervous system afterward.
Discussed in This Episode:
Misogyny isn’t just something “other people” do. In this conversation, Becky and Taina unpack the invisible ways it shows up in our language, our friendships, our relationships, and even inside ourselves.
From judging women for wearing too much makeup to men who call women “females,” we explore the sneaky red flags we’ve normalized. And we get real about the internalized misogyny we all carry, even as feminists.
We also talk about gay male culture borrowing from Black women, the emotional labor of womanhood, and why calling women “crazy” is more dangerous than it sounds. This episode is a gut-check for anyone raised inside patriarchal systems (so, all of us).
If you’ve ever wondered “Am I being too hard on other women?” or “Why do I feel unsafe in rooms full of women who all look alike?”—this one’s for you.
Here's Becky's Thread that prompted this episode
Discussed in This Episode:
Polyamory isn’t what you think it is. In this episode of Messy Liberation, we sit down with Frances Crusoe to talk about ethical non-monogamy, what it really looks like in practice, and how she navigates parenting, faith, and family while living a polyamorous life. We tackle misconceptions (no, it’s not all orgies), explore how jealousy really works, and dig into the radical idea that love isn’t a finite resource. If you’ve ever wondered how polyamory intersects with feminism, religion, and raising kids, this one’s for you.
Discussed in this episode:
• Frances’s journey from church life to polyamory
• The difference between polyamory, polygamy, and ethical non-monogamy
• How she talks to her kids about multiple partners
• Deconstructing jealousy and religious conditioning
• Why consent and communication are the cornerstone of poly relationships
• Polyamory myths and misconceptions (and what’s actually true)
• The intersection of feminism, faith, and love
Resource mentioned:
• “Opening Up” by Tristan Taormino: https://amzn.to/4mfzO2x
☀️ Join us in the Messy Liberation Coaches Circle: https://coaches.teachery.co/join
🎤 PROUD MEMBERS OF THE FEMINIST PODCASTERS COLLECTIVE: http://feministpodcastcollective.com/
Pedro Pascal’s red carpet style, Malcolm Jamal Warner’s tragic passing, and the chaos around the Epstein files — this episode of Messy Liberation goes everywhere at once. Becky Mollenkamp and Taina Brown dive into pop culture, politics, astrology, and messy real-life feminism with zero polish and plenty of swearing. From debating Pedro Pascal’s “daddy energy” and Leo season’s chaos to unpacking the Cosby Show legacy and the William McNeil police brutality video, they keep it bold, irreverent, and intersectional.
Discussed in this episode:
Resource mentioned:
☀️ Join us in the Messy Liberation Coaches Circle
🎤 PROUD MEMBERS OF THE FEMINIST PODCASTERS COLLECTIVE
Ever feel superior for hating the mainstream? Same. In this episode of Messy Liberation, Becky and Taina dig into the hidden hierarchies we create when we judge popular culture, and how that feeds into white supremacy, fatphobia, and American exceptionalism. From YouTube vlogs and Hallmark movies to queer fanfiction and Audre Lorde, they explore how internalized systems show up in even our most frivolous pleasures. This is a funny, challenging, and honest convo about how true liberation means dismantling shit inside ourselves first—without killing joy in the process.
Discussed in this Episode
• Toxic traits around rejecting popular culture
• Fanfiction as a space for safety and creativity
• Hallmark’s evolving portrayal of queer characters
• Superiority complexes and gifted child syndrome
• Exceptionalism and American individualism
• Intersectional readings of pop culture (like Christmas in July)
• Fatphobia and anti-fat bias in medical systems
• Language policing and supremacy in grammar norms
• Audre Lorde’s ‘master’s tools’ and internalized systems
• How liberation work demands internal accountability
Resources Mentioned
• Ryan Trahan's 50 States in 50 Days YouTube Series
• St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
• "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" by Paulo Freire
• "The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House" by Audre Lorde
• Somebody Somewhere on HBO Max
• "An Actress of a Certain Age" by Jeff Hiller
Grief is always in the room—and in this raw and powerful conversation, Becky and Taina explore the emotional weight of loss, anger, and what it means to truly feel your feelings. They unpack their personal experiences with recent death, the stigma around female rage, and why American culture is so broken when it comes to grief. From pet loss to patriarchal mindsets, they dive deep into the intersections of anger and grief, why somatic expression matters, and how caretaking roles often obscure our own needs. This episode is a tender reminder that grief and joy, anger and love, can—and do—coexist.
Discussed in this episode
Resources mentioned
What if making art wasn’t about monetizing, optimizing, or gaining followers—but about freedom? In this episode, artist and writer Krishna Kayastha joins Becky and Taina to talk about reclaiming creativity from capitalism. From journaling to fanfic, motherhood to self-trust, Krishna shares her journey of redefining what it means to be an artist in a world that demands constant output and productivity.
They explore how hustle culture and girlboss messaging warped her creativity, why she stopped making art for money, and what it looks like to reclaim joy as a daily practice. She offers insights into how her habit tracking system, morning pages, and refusal to commodify everything have helped her stay rooted in her creative process—and why rest, fun, and fanfiction are deeply radical acts. This episode is a must-listen for anyone struggling with burnout, self-doubt, or wondering if it’s okay to just make art for art’s sake.
Krishna’s website | Ink Blots and Fragments on Spotify | Krishna's Substack
Discussed in this episode:
Resource mentioned:
If you’ve ever wondered how a Harry Potter course can be a masterclass in teaching white supremacy, systemic oppression, and feminist critique—you’re gonna love this episode. We’re joined by Professor Julian Womble, who uses the Wizarding World to help his students explore the messy intersections of identity, power, and representation. We dig into fanfiction as reclamation, Hermione’s white savior complex, Lavender Brown’s erasure, and how to love problematic art without ignoring its dangers. Come for the Draco redemption arc, stay for the discussion on teaching critical consciousness through pop culture.
Prof. Julian Wamble (Womble), he/him, is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at George Washington University, where he teaches a popular class called Harry Potter & the Politics of Social Identity. He’s also the host of Critical Magic Theory podcast.
Tiktok: @profw | Instagram: @prof.jw
Discussed in this episode:
Fanfic etiquette:
Resources mentioned:
☀️ Join us in the Messy Liberation Coaches Circle
You ever feel like the world is on fire and you're holding the matches and a bucket of water? Yeah, us too. In this raw and candid convo, Becky and Taina unpack their experiences around the No Kings protest, the complicated dynamics of white allyship, what it means to show up (and what it doesn’t), and the impossible standards placed on parents, especially moms. From the emotional labor of unlearning white supremacy to the tension between safety and activism, this episode dives deep into the mess of trying to do liberation right—and how there’s no one right way. This one’s for anyone caught between burnout, rage, and hope.
📝 Discussed in this episode
🔗 Resources mentioned