WMC Live
WMC Live #367: The New & Widening Gender Gap! (Original Airdate 1/30/2022)
Robin reports on the latest Gender Gap statistics (hope yet for the world!) and coins a radical new word. Plus, Supreme Court Justice Breyer's retirement, recent crackdowns on domestic terrorism—and librarians.
WMC Live
WMC Live #366: Voting Rights—and Wrongs. (Original Airdate 1/23/2022)
Robin returns and dives deep into voting rights—what you don't know, and what you could never have imagined. Plus, why the Right Wing admits not wanting you to vote!
WMC Live
WMC Live #365: Comfort, At Least. Joy? Hmmm. (Original Airdate 12/19/2021)
Robin ranges the globe collecting traditions for the Solstice and its offspring holidays. Plus, readings from Dorothy Parker, three male poets (Eliot, Yeats, Frost), four female poets (Derricotte, Chang, Le Guin, Morgan) . . . and a Partridge?
WMC Live
WMC Live #363: Vigilantism. (Original Airdate 12/5/2021)
Robin takes on vigilantism—the history, the psychology, and the overlap with law enforcement and the military, from Kyle Rittenhouse's trial to bounty hunters and Texas's abortion ban enforcement.
WMC Live
WMC Live #362: Feminism pre-Feminism. (Original Airdate 11/21/2021)
Robin, with guest historian and feminist chronicler Miriam Schneir, discusses "where were you when . . ." and "so where were all your great women?”—and then they find them!
WMC Live
WMC Live #361: Once More, With Feeling—The ERA. (Original Airdate 11/14/2021)
Robin takes us behind the scenes of how the Equal Rights Amendment got killed in the ‘70s—and what's really at stake today. Guest: Rep. Carolyn Maloney, Chairwoman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.
WMC Live
WMC Live #360: Conspiracy Theories. (Original Airdate 11/7/2021)
Robin confronts the "other pandemic”—the rash of conspiracy theories afflicting our conversations—and what to do about them. Special Guest: Mary Trump, best-selling author and psychologist.
WMC Live
WMC Live #359: All Hallows’ Eve! (Original Airdate 10/31/2021)
On Hallowe’en, Robin explores the increasing death of formal religion in the United States, and the possible birth of “Secular Grace.” She also explains what the group WITCH really was—and takes on the case of Britney Spears.
WMC Live
WMC Live #358: BANNED! (Original Airdate 10/17/2021)
Robin explores rising campaigns in the US and abroad to ban books and censor reporters, and revisits crusading Filipina journalist Maria Ressa, who was a prophetic special guest on the podcast in May 2018, and who has now just won the Nobel Prize.
WMC Live
WMC Live #357: Turning Pain Into Power. (Original Airdate 10/10/2021)
In ironic dis-observance of Columbus Day, Robin devotes the entire episode to Louise McDonald Herne and Jonel Beauvais, two Mohawk women leaders who discuss Indigenous culture and the primacy of its feminism.
WMC Live
WMC Live #356: The Shot That Saves—Vaccination. (Original Airdate 10/3/2021)
Robin (vaccinated twice and awaiting her booster!) takes on vaccines: their scrupulous science, surprisingly feminist history, testing, and mandates. Plus resistance (racist misuse), and opposition anti-vaxxers, Trumpists, and religionists.
WMC Live
WMC Live #355: Infrastructure! (Original Airdate 9/26/2021)
As Congress votes, Robin deconstructs “infrastructure”—and finds a surprise. Special Guest: novelist and poet Sandra Cisneros on her new book, “Martita, I Remember You.”
WMC Live
WMC Live #354: The Two Talibans. (Original Airdate 9/19/2021)
Season premiere! Robin reports on the summer and goes full frontal attack on the end in Afghanistan and the urgent threat to women’s reproductive rights in the U.S. Guest: Alida Brill on her book, “Nobody’s Business,” about privacy and abortion.
WMC Live
WMC Live #353: The Roaring Twenties. (Original Airdate 6/27/2021)
Season Finale! Robin plumbs parallels from the 1920s—from pandemic to pandemic, automobile to Harlem Renaissance, prohibition to evolution, women’s enfranchisement to The Great Migration. So how can we avoid repeating our mistakes this time?
WMC Live
WMC Live #352: Juneteenth! (Original Airdate 6/20/2021)
Robin celebrates Juneteenth, Jubilee or Freedom Day, commemorating the end of enslavement in the United States. Special Guest: Dr. Janet Dewart Bell, social justice activist and author.
WMC Live
WMC Live #351: Cities. (Original Airdate 6/13/2021)
Robin explores both the crucial importance and the crisis in cities, how COVID has forever altered city life, and how those radical changes will inform our future.
WMC Live
WMC Live #350: The Political Parties. (Original Airdate 6/6/2021)
Robin traces the surprising, acidic, and hilarious history of American political parties, from George Washington's denunciation of them up to today, and explores third (or more) party alternatives, and how and why they have so far failed.
WMC Live
WMC Live #349: The Crisis in Journalism. (Original Airdate 5/23/2021)
Robin explores the general crisis in journalism—especially print journalism, despite the current Golden Age for print investigative reporting. Special Guest: Gail Collins, New York Times columnist.
WMC Live
WMC Live #348: Back to Basics—Reproductive Rights. (Original Airdate 5/16/2021)
Robin sends a red alert about women's more-than-ever threatened contraceptive and abortion rights. Special Guest: Deeyah Khan on her new documentary film, America's War on Abortion.
WMC Live
WMC Live #347: A Far Cry from Peace. (Original Airdate 5/9/2021)
Robin explores the original meaning and reasons for what has become another consumer holiday: Mother's Day. Special Guest: Charlotte Gordon, author of Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley.
WMC Live
WMC Live #346: The Supreme Court, Part 2. (Original Airdate 4/25/2021)
Robin on The Verdict in the Chauvin trial, and its deeper meaning. Also, an exploration of the Supreme Court and why/how it can, after all, be expanded.
WMC Live
WMC Live #345: Poetry! (Original Airdate 4/18/2021)
For Poetry Month this spring, Robin reads work by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Louise Erdrich, Dorothy Parker, Audre Lorde, Victoria Chang, Kimiko Hahn, Lucille Clifton, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Suzi F. Garcia, Stevie Smith, Charlotte Mew, and others.
WMC Live
WMC Live #343: Another Original Sin. (Original Airdate 3/28/2021)
Robin's Fighting Words expose centuries of anti-Asian American hate before the Georgia terrorism against AAPI women. Guests: legendary activist Helen Zia; Sung Yeon Choimorrow, Executive Director of the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum.
WMC Live
WMC Live #342: The Pandemic Anniversary. (Original Airdate 3/21/2021)
Robin on “The Year That Was,” where we are now, and the future; plus a special report on women and the vaccine(s). Guest: Linda Goler Blount, President & CEO of Black Women's Health Imperative.
WMC Live
WMC Live #341: A Meditation on Whiteness. (Original Airdate 3/14/2021)
In this unique podcast, Robin explores the complexities of Thomas Jefferson's 40-year-long relationship with the enslaved Sally Hemings—which inspires a meditation on whiteness.