A chat about mothers and family court. After years of researching and documenting women’s experiences in family court, Elle and Natalie share their observations and insights of what happens in this very hidden and secret world.  Through the lens of “what’s old is new,” we discover that while the tools have changed, the aim is the same - to punish women who dare to defy the patriarchal script for marriage and motherhood. What used to be the scold’s bridle, lobotomy, or being thrown in the psych ward - today looks more like gag orders, criminalization of mothers, forced impoverishment through vexatious litigation, and many other legal instruments that sabotage the mother-child relationship. In this episode, we talk about how the system of family court is used by abusers to maintain their power and control, we talk about the misogyny that permeates the institution, and share the shock most women experience upon discovering the realities of these courts.  We highlight how this is not a court of law, but rather a court of discretion which has no oversight, transparency or accountability.  In Motherhood on Trial, we try to understand why this is happening and what we can do to disengage from, and fight, the damage being done to women through this multibillion dollar industry.  EPISODE LINKS Project 2025 - Fatherhood p.481 Grant Wyeth | Subject to Power WeSpoke Take Care of Maya Mothers Lost | WeSpoke Three Planets Model - Marianne Hester | What Doesn’t Kill Me Joan Meier 2020 Study on Child Custody Outcomes UN Special Rapporteur on VAW&G | Reem Alsalem UN Report on Parental Alienation  Family Court Power and Control Wheel NY Senate Joint Public Hearing on Family Courts 2023 Wendy Murphy on the ERA | Phil in the Blanks CONTACT US Website:  www.chatinthecommons.com Instagram: @chatinthecommons X: @ChatInCommons Email:  https://www.chatinthecommons.com/contact

A continued chat about sex. In this episode we reveal the remaining results of our sex survey and chat about the risks women take when we have sex with men - from STDs to pregnancy to men’s sexual violence. We also cover contraception, revenge porn, candaulism, sexual coercion, sex strikes, the 4B movement in South Korea, and the shape that this movement is taking in the West.   EPISODE LINKS Male Contraception Pill | Dr. Harini Bhat He Chose Porn Over Me | Melinda Tankard Reist The Hellscape Files with Melinda Tankard Reist | Subject to Power Practicing Celibacy | Tera Chantelle TikTok Men Sharing Wive’s Naked Pictures | Psychology Today Resistance Through No Sex CONTACT US Website:  www.chatinthecommons.com Instagram: @chatinthecommons X: @ChatInCommons Email:  https://www.chatinthecommons.com/contact 

A chat about sex. In this third episode of our series on the 4B movement, we explore the various reasons why many women are opting out of sexual relationships with men. Elle and Natalie share some of their own lived experiences, along with interesting new research, and a lot of giggles. In Sexodus Part 1, we talk about the differences between female and male sexuality and sexual pleasure, the pornification of sex, candaulism, revenge porn, sexual coercion, and dangerous sexual practices - versus  what women actually want and need in bed. EPISODE LINKS South Korean Pink Map | The Guardian 6B4T Movement Why Women Boycott Men | NPR Colin McEnroe Show She Comes First | Ian Kerner Come As You Are | Emily Nagoski Sex At Dawn | Dr. Christopher Ryan  Dr. Christopher Ryan | The Minimalists Podcast  Masters and Johnson Pornland | Gail Dines Culture Reframed Porn is a Battlefield with Gail Dines | Subject to Power Collective Shout He Chose Porn Over Me | Melinda Tankard Reist The Hellscape Files with Melinda Tankard Reist | Subject to Power Porn Speak | Whitt Marie TikTok Strangulation Report 2024 DV Stroke Report 2022 Strangulation Institute Factsheet CONTACT US  Website:  www.chatinthecommons.com Instagram: @chatinthecommons X: @ChatInCommons Email:  https://www.chatinthecommons.com/contact

A chat with campers at an all-women’s summer camp.  In this special episode, we take you on a trip into the woods, where you’ll meet women from every walk of life and hear why they made the long journey into the wilderness to gather.  In the midst of what we perceive to be a profound cultural awakening, the women we met spoke from the heart about what is happening around them and the burning issues that are impacting their inner lives, their families, communities and the culture at large. Our chats touch on the importance of female friendships, women’s sex-based rights, what we are teaching NextGen, the impacts of gender ideology on women, lesbian spaces, our relationships to men, pursuing freedom and safety, sexism, radical feminism and political organizing, fighting isolation and the healing properties of women’s gatherings.  EPISODE LINKS Irreversible Damage | Abigail Shrier MATRIA | Association of Women, Mothers & Workers of Brazil LGB Alliance The Galavan  FIST - Feminists In Struggle WDI - Women's Declaration International CONTACT  Website:  www.chatinthecommons.com Instagram: @chatinthecommons X: @ChatInCommons Email:  https://www.chatinthecommons.com/contact 

A chat about women and work. When talking about labor, we divide paid work from unpaid work, men’s work from women’s work, domestic labor from professional work, and work that is considered valuable versus work that is invisible. In a conversation that goes far beyond the pay gap, we examine what “work” means to women. In this episode Elle and Natalie unpack the man-as-breadwinner myth, the working mother double bind, the varied reasons women exit the paid workforce, the mirage of the stay-at-home-mom life, and women’s true contributions to the world economy. EPISODE LINKS Teetads | Tik Tok Cynthia Enloe Interview | Subject to Power Globalization and Militarism | Cynthia Enloe Gender Pay Gap | Pew Research Why Women Leave Their Jobs | Forbes Women in the Workplace Report | LeanIn Willmar 8 | PBS Willmar 8 | MN Historical Society Penalty of Unpaid Work | UN Women Maternity Leave | World Population Review Working Moms work 2 ½ full time jobs | ABC7 NY Paris Paloma Interview Paris Paloma | The Late Show CONTACT US Website:  www.chatinthecommons.com Instagram: @chatinthecommons X: @ChatInCommons Email:  https://www.chatinthecommons.com/contact  CREDITS Hosted by Natalie Blundell and Elle Kamihira Produced by Natalie Blundell and Elle Kamihira Edited by Elle Kamihira Audio Engineering by Jason Sheesley at Abridged Audio Cover Art by Reda Tomingas Music by Midnight Door Theme Song by Moushumi

A chat about being single by choice. More and more women are opting out of not just marriage, but out of relationships with men altogether - and choosing new paths to economic independence, professional and personal fulfillment, and adventure - that does not include a man as part of the plan. Women are also connecting with each other across cultures and creating new, unconventional women’s communities at exponential rates - all while unsubscribing to patriarchal norms.  In this hour we talk about the act of de-centering men, the liberation women experience when going solo, the explosion of women-only travel, the rise of mommunes, and the increasing demand for women’s communities.   EPISODE LINKS In Her Nature | Rachel Hewitt Living by yourself | Anxiously Alej Women Only Space | Briggygee  Stop Waiting | Healwithmegs Solo Travel | Wonder Tours Solo Travel | Women in the Wild Feminist City Guide | Unearth Woman Being Single Backlash | I am Jannah Santana Communal Living | CoAbode  Communal Living | Commune Mommune | NBC The Today Show Dating Yourself | ChloBow Not Looking for a Man | Rihanna Golden Girl Gang Forum | Brigg Co-Housing Houston OWCH Women’s Community Fempowerment App  CONTACT US Website:  www.chatinthecommons.com Instagram: @chatinthecommons X: @ChatInCommons Email:  https://www.chatinthecommons.com/contact  CREDITS Hosted by Natalie Blundell and Elle Kamihira Produced by Natalie Blundell and Elle Kamihira Edited by Elle Kamihira Audio Engineering by Jason Sheesley at Abridged Audio Cover art by Reda Tomingas Theme song by Moushumi Music by Midnight Door

A chat about dating. In part two of our series on the 4B movement, Elle and Natalie take a read on what is happening in dating culture, listening to a diverse cross-section of women to try to understand why a growing number of women are saying no to dating. EPISODE LINKS Influence of Sex and the City | Emily the Recruiter Hook-Up Culture | Cunty Chanel Transactional Dating | Pure Michigangster Backlash to Women’s Standards | Shawnda Being Bitter vs Being Aware | Professional Sassatron Internet Boyfriend | Joshua Summerfield Self-Love Journey | Caitlin Checker Women Benefit Men | Fashionably Divorced Burning the Haystack | Crazylocks918 Burned Haystack Method | Jennie Young Rising Standards | Jennifer Moxley Bumble Ad Campaign | Daily Mail RESOURCES Are We Dating the Same Guy? | App Tea for Women | App FROM THE COMMONS FiLiA is the largest international women’s rights conference in the world. They know that building a global sisterhood is essential for the dismantling of patriarchy. Learn more and buy your tickets for the October 10-12, 2025 conference in England at: https://www.filia.org.uk CONTACT Website:  www.chatinthecommons.com Instagram: @chatinthecommons X: @ChatInCommons Email:  https://www.chatinthecommons.com/contact  CREDITS Hosted by Natalie Blundell and Elle Kamihira Produced by Natalie Blundell and Elle Kamihira Edited by Elle Kamihira Audio Engineering by Jason Sheesley at Abridged Audio Cover Art by Reda Tomingas Music by Moushumi

A chat about coming of age in a man’s world. As Rebecca Solnit says, “It gets you even if it doesn’t get you. You have to think every day of your life as a girl and a young woman, if I wear this what will happen? If I go out, what will happen?” and girls and women are getting the message that “this is not your world, this is not your street, this is not your city, this is not your adventure, you are not the protagonist.” In this hour, Elle and Natalie reflect on growing up female, and unpack the conditioning all girls and women are subjected to. EPISODE LINKS Rebecca's English Hub |Tik Tok Science of Smiling | National Library of Medicine  Lake Bell Interview | CBS Mornings Why Some Grown Women Sound Like Girls | Psychology Today In A World | Lake Bell Inside Voice | Lake Bell Untamed | Glennon Doyle The Gift of Fear | Gavin de Becker Men Hazing Girls & Women | Rebecca Solnit Men Explain Things to Me | Rebecca Solnit The Hero’s Journey | Joseph Campbell The Heroine’s Journey | Maureen Murdoch Twelve Feminist Lessons of War | Cynthia Enloe Cynthia Enloe Interview | Subject To Power Women’s War Stories | Sonora Jha I’m Gonna Be an Engineer | Peggy Seeger CONTACT Website:  www.chatinthecommons.com Instagram: @chatinthecommons X: @ChatInCommons Email:  https://www.chatinthecommons.com/contact  CREDITS Hosted by Natalie Blundell and Elle Kamihira Produced by Natalie Blundell and Elle Kamihira Edited by Elle Kamihira Audio Engineering by Jason Sheesley at Abridged Audio Cover Art by Reda Tomingas Music by Moushumi

A continued chat about Project 2025 and the Trump Administration. In this episode we cover the gutting of the Department of Education and its ripple effects, and Trump’s inaugural-day declaration that there are only two sexes, and what that means for women. Elle and Natalie talk frankly about how the Democratic Party abandoned women during the Biden years and how the Trump administration capitalized on that. We also explore alternatives to US right-left party politics and how women leaders in other countries are showing the way. EPISODE LINKS Eliminating Dept of Education | MSNBC The Roots of Eliminating Dept of Ed | NEA  Declaring Two Genders | NBC News  Trump’s Executive Orders | The White House Erasing Harriet Tubman | CNN Claudia Scheinbaum’s First 100 Days | Mexico News Daily Vigdís Finnbogadóttir's Election | Pace TV Women in Politics | Pew Research The National Women’s Party | Alice Paul Women’s Rights Party New Zealand Party of Women, UK Suppressing the Democratic Process | Marianne Williamson The Reckoning | Kara Dansky Victoria Smith | The Critic Magazine Council of Women World Leaders Vigdís Finnbogadóttir on Women in Politics | Inspired by Iceland Trump’s Executive Orders Align with Project 2025 | Forbes CONTACT US Website:  www.chatinthecommons.com Instagram: @chatinthecommons X: @ChatInCommons Email:  https://www.chatinthecommons.com/contact  CREDITS Hosted by Natalie Blundell and Elle Kamihira Produced by Natalie Blundell and Elle Kamihira Edited by Elle Kamihira Audio Engineering by Jason Sheesley at Abridged Audio Cover Art by Reda Tomingas Music by Moushumi

A chat about the Trump Administration and their 180-Day Playbook. Were fears about Project 2025 justified or was it simply fear-mongering from the Left? In this 2-part series, Elle and Natalie attempt to decode key chapters of Project 2025 and what it means for women. Part 2 will be out next week. EPISODE LINKS Identity Politics - Jackson Katz | The Spectator Project 2025 Authors | Revolving Door Project Trump’s Denial of Project 2025 | Washington Post The Heritage Foundation - Kevin Roberts | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Project 2025 CSAM Report 2021 | Australian Institute of Criminology Project 2025 Tracker  Abortion Law Tracking | Jessica Valenti  Rep. Jasmine Crockett Immigration | NAACP S.A.V.E. Act | NPR Trump 2028 Hats | The Times CONTACT US Website:  www.chatinthecommons.com Instagram: @chatinthecommons X: @ChatInCommons Email:  https://www.chatinthecommons.com/contact  CREDITS Hosted by Natalie Blundell and Elle Kamihira Produced by Natalie Blundell and Elle Kamihira Edited by Elle Kamihira Audio Engineering by Jason Sheesley at Abridged Audio Cover Art by Reda Tomingas Music by Moushumi

A chat about marriage. In this first episode of our four-part series on 4B, the feminist movement from South Korea, Elle and Natalie dive into all things marriage. We explore why we marry, how women are faring within marriage, and why women are choosing not to marry. Episode Links 4B Movement | ABC Australia I Don’t | Clementine Ford Letters from a War Zone | Andrea Dworkin Leta Hong Fincher | Subject to Power Left Over Women | Leta Hong Fincher  Mel Hamlett | TikTok GirlOnTheCouch | TikTok Looking for a Man in Finance | TikTok  Hope Peddler | TikTok Mariam Tazi-Preve | Subject to Power Motherhood in Patriarchy | Mariam Tazi-Preve  CocoHasideas | TikTok Marriage Rates Worldwide US Marriage Rates Suffer in Silence | Cecilia Regina TikTok  Women’s Co-Housing Community Contact Us Website:  www.chatinthecommons.com Instagram: @chatinthecommons X: @ChatInCommons Email:  https://www.chatinthecommons.com/contact  Credits Hosted by Natalie Blundell and Elle Kamihira Produced by Natalie Blundell and Elle Kamihira Edited by Elle Kamihira Audio Engineering by Jason Sheesley at Abridged Audio Cover Art by Reda Tomingas Music by Moushumi

A chat about the highs and lows of feminist movements past and present. We spotlight significant events across the world that have had huge impacts for women. We also take a hard look at the current state of feministing and its promises of so-called women’s empowerment and individual liberation.  Episode Links Gail Dines | Subject to Power 1975 Iceland Women’s Strike | BBC Elisa in Iceland | Tik Tok Equal Rights Amendment | PBS Ann Pettitt | Greenham Commons  Pray the Devil Back to Hell | PBS UK Supreme Court Decision | The Guardian 4B Movement | ABC Australia Trials of Brett Kavanagh & Clarence Thomas | CBC News Mexico City Femicide Protest | The London Standard Yesenia Zamundio, Mexico | Brut India  President Claudia Scheinbaum | Latina Republic National Coalition For Men Contact Us Website:  www.chatinthecommons.com Instagram: @chatinthecommons X: @ChatInCommons Email:  https://www.chatinthecommons.com/contact  Credits Hosted by Natalie Blundell and Elle Kamihira Produced by Natalie Blundell and Elle Kamihira Edited by Elle Kamihira Audio Engineering by Jason Sheesley at Abridged Audio Cover Art by Reda Tomingas Music by Moushumi

A chat exploring a new perspective on coercive control. Natalie and Elle have a wide-ranging conversation about the evolution of coercive control - as a behavior and as a covert strategy used by men to control women. Also discussing the many challenges in defining this behavior in law and language, as well as how we as a society, deal with men who ensnare women into long-term abusive relationships. Episode Links The Goodness Paradox | Richard Wrangham Carol Christ  When Love Goes Wrong | Ann Jones, Susan Schechter Coercive Control | Evan Stark See What You Made Me Do | Jess Hill No Visible Bruises | Rachel Louise Snyder How He Gets Into Her Head | Don Hennessy  Why Does He Do That? | Lundy Bancroft Coercive Control Legislation Global Database Murder of Jennifer Dulos  Murder of Jennifer Magnano Jennifer's Law gets Turned on its Head in Chaotic Family Court Case | CT Inside Investigator Women Who Kill | Ann Jones Contact Us Website:  www.chatinthecommons.com Instagram: @chatinthecommons X: @ChatInCommons Credits Hosted by Elle Kamihira and Natalie Blundell Produced by Elle Kamihira and Natalie Blundell Edited by Elle Kamihira Audio Engineering by Jason Sheesley at Abridged Audio Cover Art by Reda Tomingas Music by Moushumi

A chat about relationship abuse. In this episode, Natalie and Elle have a provocative discussion about how men’s violence within the four walls of the home is never contained - it spills over into our communities and all of society. We also have a critical look at the well-funded industry built to respond to domestic violence and reflect on why men’s abuse is worse now than ever.  Men’s violence in the home does not exist in a vacuum and we unpack the patriarchal bargain that continues to grant men dominion over women and children. Episode Links Jane Gilmore | TEDx Grant Wyeth Article Judith Herman Quote Laura Richards | Crime Analyst  VAWA Biennial Report NNEDV Annual Report Dr. Jacqueline Campell | Danger Assessment Tool DASH Risk Checklist Dr. Christine Cocchiola | Perfect Prey Podcast  Reem Alsalem | UN Special Rapporteur Deborah Tuerkheimer | Credible Contact Us Website:  www.chatinthecommons.com Instagram: @chatinthecommons X: @ChatInCommons Credits Hosted by Elle Kamihira and Natalie Blundell Produced by Elle Kamihira and Natalie Blundell Edited by Elle Kamihira Audio Engineering by Jason Sheesley at Abridged Audio Cover Art by Reda Tomingas Music by Moushumi

A chat about women’s collective awakening to patriarchal backlash. At a time when women are enjoying unprecedented gains and liberties, we are also seeing a roll-back of rights and a rise of violent misogyny. The collective actions of yesteryear’s feminism won women significant freedoms, protections and material gains, but where are we now? In the first episode of Chat In The Commons, hosts Natalie and Elle reflect on coming of age and living life as a woman amidst the historical human rights struggle called feminism. We look at the battles we’re losing and winning, trying to hold on to our hard-won autonomy and agency. We unpack the patriarchal backlash and ever-evolving attempts to regain control over women, and how women resist and persist.   We connect individual events to macro patterns - to better understand what this cultural moment holds for women. We zoom out in order to see the interconnected systems that trap women and men in destructive structures, but also to see the millions of like-minded humans - now connecting, gathering and shaping a new consciousness. Episode Links Man v. Bear TikTok Telegram Rape Chatgroup Article Mia on TikTok   Jessica Valenti on TikTok   A World Without Rape Pregnancy Justice  PBS News Hour - No Fault Divorce  Contact Us Website:  www.chatinthecommons.com Instagram: @chatinthecommons X: @ChatInCommons  Credits Hosted by Elle Kamihira and Natalie Blundell Produced by Elle Kamihira and Natalie Blundell Edited by Elle Kamihira Audio Engineering by Jason Sheesley at Abridged Audio Cover Art by Reda Tomingas Music by Moushumi

Have women achieved equality or are we losing all our rights?Clashing narratives tell us women can do anything, while we’re simultaneously being shackled and shut down. Hosts Natalie Blundell and Elle Kamihira chat candidly about how women are actually faring, in our cultures and in our lives.