White Picket Fence

EXPLORE

Society & Culture

© 2024 PodJoint

https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts221/v4/b9/fc/d3/b9fcd300-1112-5e12-f83f-ca8be0b44344/mza_13488840535616770525.jpeg/600x600bb.jpg

White Picket Fence

Wonder Media Network

42 episodes

1 week ago

White Picket Fence interrogates the structures of inequity affecting women since the United States' founding. On the newest season, host Julie Kohler investigates a long-brewing gender backlash that’s reached a boiling point in American politics. Join us in pulling back the curtain on an extremist agenda designed to enforce strict gender roles. An agenda that stands to harm millions of Americans. We're examining the ways this backlash is showing up in our policies, our culture—even the social media content we scroll past every day. And we're asking what becomes possible when we imagine a future beyond the gender binary.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Show more...

Society & Culture

All content for White Picket Fence is the property of Wonder Media Network and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.

White Picket Fence interrogates the structures of inequity affecting women since the United States' founding. On the newest season, host Julie Kohler investigates a long-brewing gender backlash that’s reached a boiling point in American politics. Join us in pulling back the curtain on an extremist agenda designed to enforce strict gender roles. An agenda that stands to harm millions of Americans. We're examining the ways this backlash is showing up in our policies, our culture—even the social media content we scroll past every day. And we're asking what becomes possible when we imagine a future beyond the gender binary.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Show more...

Society & Culture

Episodes (20/42)

White Picket Fence

"Hope is a Discipline"

In the midst of a virulent gender backlash and relentless attacks on our rights and freedoms, imagining a better future can feel impossible. In this season finale, we suggest an antidote to this feeling of doom: hope. Not as an emotion but as a practice. As inspiration, we highlight the unique power of women-led resistance efforts, tell the overlooked stories of a trans survivor of Nazi Germany, and begin to articulate our north star vision for gender, family, and a more just, pluralistic nation.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1 week ago

42 minutes 3 seconds

White Picket Fence

Sisyphus in a Sundress

Tradwives. Stay-at-home girlfriends. Femcels. If you're a young woman in America, this is the kind of content you've likely seen on your feed lately. Last episode, we explained how the Right's investment in the "manosphere" fueled the current gender backlash. But for conservatives to successfully cement their Christian nationalist agenda, they can't just appeal to young men. They also need young women. So today, we're diving into the burgeoning "womanosphere," the social media content and political messaging designed to shift a generation of young women to the right....and back into the home.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2 weeks ago

30 minutes 48 seconds

White Picket Fence

The Business of Masculinity

We're starting this week's episode with a bit of a rewind, back to the 1970s in the U.S. As women gained new rights and visibility, a backlash took shape among men who felt left behind. What began as scattered grievances soon grew into a movement promising to restore a vision of power they believed had been lost. Over time, this ideology found fertile ground online, fueling everything from digital echo chambers to cultural battles over faith and identity. In this episode, we explore how the market for masculinity became a cornerstone of America’s broader gender backlash—and what its staying power reveals about our politics today.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

3 weeks ago

24 minutes 24 seconds

White Picket Fence

Seizing the Means of Reproduction

Lately, our government has seemed a little...baby crazy. President Trump declared he will be the "fertilization president." Vice President JD Vance announced he wants to see "more babies in the United States of America." Today, we're diving into the American pronatalist movement, a coalition of tech bros, religious traditionalists, and right-wing extremists determined to raise the American fertility rate. We'll cover who is in this movement, what they hope to accomplish, and how this iteration of pronatalism is tied to Christian nationalism and white supremacy.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1 month ago

32 minutes 43 seconds

White Picket Fence

Hatred Rolls Downhill

Nearly a century ago, Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin, Germany became the first establishment in the world to offer comprehensive medical services, counselling, and sex education to the LGBTQ community. The Institute reflected the progressive values that were foundational to the Weimar Republic, Germany’s first democratic government. But authoritarianism was on the rise. And to the Nazi Party, the Institute was an existential threat.

What we’re experiencing today in the U.S. is frightening. But it’s not unprecedented. The weaponization of gender and sexuality is a universal feature of authoritarianism. In this episode, Julie digs more deeply into the connection between attacks on women and LGBTQ people and authoritarianism, by looking at other autocratic regimes, both past and present.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1 month ago

37 minutes 11 seconds

White Picket Fence

America's Gender Whiplash

America is facing a gender backlash—a backlash so swift and severe, it feels more like a whiplash. Right now, no group is more at risk than trans Americans. On his first day back in the White House, Trump signed a controversial executive order meant to deny trans identity and push transgender people out of public life. Since then, attacks on trans rights—trans existence—have become increasingly hostile and widespread. But even as many conservatives work overtime to focus the public's ire on trans people, it's clear that their attempt to enforce a strict gender binary could have much broader consequences. Consequences that will reach all Americans.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1 month ago

33 minutes 15 seconds

White Picket Fence

Season 6 Coming Soon!

Right now, we're in the midst of a gender backlash. A growing number of voices have started calling for a return to a simpler time. A time, they say, when men were men and women were women. But "gender" is being used as Trojan horse, a way to advance an extremist agenda that stands to harm millions of Americans. This season on White Picket Fence, we're pulling back the curtain. We'll examine the ways this backlash is showing up in our policies, our culture, and the social media content we scroll past every day. And we're asking what becomes possible when we imagine a better future -- and what we owe the next generation. New episodes drop this September.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2 months ago

3 minutes 1 second

White Picket Fence

We Won a Webby Award! And – A Sneak Peek at Our New Season

We’re thrilled to share that our fifth season of White Picket Fence won the Webby Award for the best News & Politics limited series! It’s such an honor to be recognized and to continue to shed light on the manufactured “marriage panic” that, if anything, has only grown more pronounced since the season was released. If you haven’t had a chance to listen yet, please check it out and share with your friends. And stay tuned for our next season dropping this fall… check out this sneak peek.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

4 months ago

2 minutes 59 seconds

White Picket Fence

How We Build Family

When host Julie Kohler became a mom, a community of care sprouted up around her. The people who showed up to support her and her family were essential -- and they would be whether or not she was a single mom. All season, we've dissected the institution of marriage in the US. But what are we missing when talk only about marriage? For the final episode of this season, we're asking what the future of family could look like if marriage wasn't the ideal. We're talking to people who have created networks of support within and around marriage and examining the language and policies that can enable us to lead the lives we want to live. Whether that includes marriage, or... something else!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1 year ago

34 minutes

White Picket Fence

We’ve spent a lot of time this season investigating the current marriage panic. The pro-marriage crew is sounding alarm bells that if we don’t start marrying, and quit divorcing, things in the U.S. will only get worse. But our theory on this show is that the path to stability and happiness actually leads in the opposite direction. What if we could look beyond our shores, at a country that was taking a very different approach? This episode, we’re visiting Denmark: One of the countries that consistently, year after year after year, has some of the happiest citizens in the world. And we’re taking a look at Danish culture around marriage and divorce and relationships and family to see if we can learn some secrets from the experts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1 year ago

31 minutes 4 seconds

White Picket Fence

Our Divorce Dilemma

In 1969, California Governor Ronald Reagan signed the country's first no-fault divorce bill into law. Since then, Americans have been able to leave their marriages without having to prove their spouse committed any wrongdoing. But now, there's a growing movement on the right to make ending a marriage much harder. This week, host Julie Kohler digs into this current attack on no-fault divorce — and rolls back the clock to explore the "Wild West" of American divorce laws that existed before.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1 year ago

38 minutes 25 seconds

White Picket Fence

The Mess Moynihan Made

In 1965, a government report on Black families that was never supposed to be public leaked... and permanently influenced how our country thought about marriage, poverty, and personal responsibility. It was called the Moynihan Report. The report affirmed the belief that family structure – specifically, families headed by single mothers – caused people to be poor. This week, host Julie Kohler traces the roots and repercussions of the Moynihan report, and why the solutions to the issues it puts forth run far deeper than marriage.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1 year ago

27 minutes 24 seconds

White Picket Fence

The idea that marriage is a fundamental, American institution isn’t just a cultural one – it has serious economic and legal implications. For most of its history, the U.S. has used marriage as a vessel to confer privilege and status onto some people, while marginalizing others. This week, our host, Julie Kohler, takes us on a historical marriage tour to examine how marriage achieved its exalted status, and how it became a tool – one that creates order, defines cultural norms, and maintains hierarchies of inequality.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1 year ago

25 minutes 51 seconds

White Picket Fence

The Marriage Panic

Maybe you’ve noticed it -- we're in the midst of a moral panic about marriage. Pundits and politicians have become awfully concerned that people are marrying later, and less often. That a growing number of adults are living alone, without a spouse or partner. That divorce remains relatively common. That many women are having and raising kids as single mothers. Now, conservatives waxing poetic about family values is hardly new. But this is more than just hand-wringing with a microphone -- these folks are actually doing something about it. In the first episode of our new season, we're exploring the return of the marriage panic.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1 year ago

26 minutes 40 seconds

White Picket Fence

Season 5 Coming Soon!

This season, we're diving into the hallowed institution of marriage. We want to know why so many people are getting so whipped up over the ways that Americans are — or are not — forming relationships and building families. Why marriage is becoming, once again, the catch-all policy solution for all of our country's challenges. And what becomes possible when we broaden our imaginations around what relationships can look like. We'll go beyond the rosy sheen of love and commitment and expose the darker side to all of this marriage talk — one that we have to pay attention to, if we want to maintain our social progress in this country.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1 year ago

2 minutes 59 seconds

White Picket Fence

Beyond Maternalism

Organizing around motherhood works. It can activate women politically by helping them tap into a powerful identity. But maternal activism can also have some unintended consequences that don't advance justice. So in the final episode of the season, we're asking this season’s guests: should the left still be playing into maternalist politics? Or can we evolve beyond it — to a kind of politics that focuses on values, not a fixed identity, and makes space for all caregivers?

This season's cover art features a photograph by Jonathan Wilkins.

White Picket Fence is supported by Planned Parenthood. For more information or to book an in-person or virtual appointment, visit plannedparenthood.org or call 1-800-230-PLAN.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2 years ago

35 minutes 43 seconds

White Picket Fence

Much of the motherhood activism that is lifted up in our politics portrays women in a certain way: as uniquely moral, even apolitical, actors who were compelled to take action because they fear for their children’s safety. It’s a myth that's highly racially coded and obscures the realities of motherhood. The truth? Motherhood is political. Moms are political. And when we start acknowledging that and centering the most marginalized moms in our activism — their needs and experiences — we end up building better policies for all of us.

This season's cover art features a photograph by Jonathan Wilkins.

White Picket Fence is supported by Planned Parenthood. For more information or to book an in-person or virtual appointment, visit plannedparenthood.org or call 1-800-230-PLAN.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2 years ago

28 minutes 34 seconds

White Picket Fence

The political identity of "mother" is not owned by the right. There's also a rich history of mothers working to advance progressive change. Yet the framing of much of this activism—a mother spurred to action when awakened to a threat to her child's safety—remains grounded in an image of motherhood that is riddled with race and class privilege. Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action, began her activism journey as a stay-at-home suburban mom of five who felt compelled to fight for common-sense gun violence prevention in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting. But when Shannon met Rep. Lucy McBath, then a mother grieving the loss of her son, Jordan, to gun violence, something shifted. The more Moms Demand Action expanded their focus and passed the microphone to Black women who had been working on the issue for years, the more powerful Moms Demand Action became.

This season's cover art features a photograph by Jonathan Wilkins.

White Picket Fence is supported by Planned Parenthood. For more information or to book an in-person or virtual appointment, visit plannedparenthood.org or call 1-800-230-PLAN.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2 years ago

31 minutes 58 seconds

White Picket Fence

Tradwife, Tradlife

In the summer of 2022, Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orban, flew to Texas to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Onstage, his tirades against immigration, gender studies, and LGBTQ rights were met with roars of approval. Orban has made it his mission to codify traditional family values into law—and dismantle democracy in the process. American conservatives are taking note. And paving the way for these extremist policies is a group of social media "momfluencers" touting the glory of traditional family life. Are Moms for Liberty and #tradwives the harbingers of a backslide when it comes to women’s rights...and American democracy?

This season's cover art features a photograph by Jonathan Wilkins.

White Picket Fence is supported by Planned Parenthood. For more information or to book an in-person or virtual appointment, visit plannedparenthood.org or call 1-800-230-PLAN.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2 years ago

34 minutes 12 seconds

White Picket Fence

The Mothers of Conservatism

Moms for Liberty didn't appear out of thin air. They're building on a long history of white, conservative women who, for decades, have used their motherhood as a tool for political credibility. And it all started in 1960s California, where thousands of middle-class moms transformed into suburban warriors and helped build the modern-day conservative movement.

This season's cover art features a photograph by Jonathan Wilkins.

White Picket Fence is supported by Planned Parenthood. For more information or to book an in-person or virtual appointment, visit plannedparenthood.org or call 1-800-230-PLAN.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2 years ago

33 minutes 57 seconds