Women, Vengeance, and Justice: Elizabeth Flock, THE FURIES. Plus, Stephen Robert Miller, OVER THE SEAWALL
From Francesca Rheannon | 59:20
We talk with Elizabeth Flock about her book, The Furies. It follows three remarkable women — in the US, in India and in Syria — who took justice into their own hands to defend themselves, other women and their communities against abuse.
Then, environmental journalist Stephen Robert Miller tells us about his book, Over The Seawall: Tsunamis, Cyclones, Drought, And The Delusion Of Controlling Nature. He dives into the deep end of disaster mitigation gone wrong. From Arizona’s drought dilemmas to Japan’s daunting seawalls, we hear how “solutions” can turn into bigger problems.
The Furies: Women, Vengeance & Justice
In Ancient Greek mythology, the Furies were Goddesses who came out of the ground to exact vengeance on men. In the plays of Sophocles, they were the daughters of Darkness and of Gaea (The Earth). According to Euripides. They were three in number.
And that’s the number of the modern day Furies in Elizabeth Flock’s book, The Furies. They include a young mother from Alabama who shot and killed her rapist after an assault where he threatened to kill her; a Dalit (what used to be called “Untouchable”) woman in India who organized a band of women to fight back against gender-based violence; and finally, a Kurdish Syrian warrior in a thousands-strong all-female militia that battled ISIS in Syria.
The Furies explores these women’s lives with nuance and compassion, not shrinking from the moral issue of responding to violence with violence, but also showing that these ultimately ordinary women did what they felt they had to do to fight back against oppression.
About the Author
Elizabeth Flock is an Emmy Award–winning journalist whose work has been featured in the New Yorker, the New York Times, and the Atlantic, among other outlets. She is the host of the podcast Blind Plea, about criminalized survival. Her first book, The Heart Is a Shifting Sea, won a Nautilus Book Award.
Unintended Consequences of Climate & Disaster Mitigation
Stephen Robert Miller’s compelling narrative Over the Sea Wall takes us on a journey through the misguided attempts at mitigating natural and climate disasters, emphasizing how our best-intended efforts can backfire and lead to greater problems. In this conversation with the author, we explore the themes of maladaptation, technological interventions, and the pressing need for sustainable solutions in the face of climate change.
Two of the examples in Over The Seawall feature responses to climate disruption: one is a cautionary tale about Arizona’s flawed attempts to save its water supplies as climate change causes mega droughts in the Southwest. The other is a positive example of how communities in Bangla Desh are countering the impact of increased floods. The third example is the source of the book’s title: it’s about Japan’s ham-fisted response to the tsunami of 2011, which killed nearly 20,000 people.
About the Author
Stephen Robert Miller is an award-winning science journalist whose work has appeared in National Geographic, The Guardian, Discover Magazine, Audubon, and many others. He was a Ted Scripps Fellow at the University of Colorado’s Center for Environmental Journalism.
Retrieved [A Women's History Month Special]: Egg Donors Share Their Stories
From Embodied | Part of the Embodied - Specials series | 58:23
Egg donation in the U.S. is a multibillion dollar industry designed to provide infertile folks with the eggs they need to conceive. But how do we decide what human eggs are worth — and how do the characteristics of the donor factor into the equation?
When Julie Ventura’s best friends sat her down and asked her if she would be interested in being their egg donor, she was shocked. Out of all the people they could have asked, why would they want her eggs? Although she knew little about the process, she wanted to help her friends, to give them the opportunity to build the family they’d dreamed of. She said yes. After a weeks-long process of daily shots that left her bloated and uncomfortable — and a less-than-smooth egg retrieval surgery that gave her a six-week stint of internal bleeding — Julie is now Aunt Julie to a pair of young twin girls. While she doesn’t regret her decision in the slightest, there was a lot she didn’t know about the process before she chose to donate. Host Anita Rao talks with Julie about the physical and emotional experience of donation, her unique position as a known donor and questions about potential long-term health risks. Julie is the founder of a nail artist training program called Nail KnowHow. Egg donor Claire Burns also joins Anita to talk about her own donation experience and her broader concerns with the industry as a whole, specifically around compensation for donors and a lack of medical studies on how donation affects the body. Claire is the co-founder of We Are Egg Donors, an online community and support group. She’s also a Canadian playwright, actor and advocate. Plus, Anita meets Daisy Deomampo, associate professor of anthropology at Fordham University. Daisy has interviewed many donors about their experience, with a particular focus on the Asian American community and questions of race and value in egg donation. Special thanks to Emily Arocha and Emily Derrick, members of We Are Egg Donors, for their contributions to this episode!
The Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women - HERO Training Africa’s New Female Leaders
From Rob Sachs | 59:02
In this episode, we learn about two efforts to increase the number of women politicians in Africa. We begin with a surprising reality TV show in Kenya called “Ms President,” where millions of weekly viewers watched dozens of women compete to be the country’s next “head of state,” so to speak. Then, we hear about Nigerian efforts to get more women on the ballot in last year’s election and why they largely failed. Host Reena Ninan - founder of Good Trouble Productions. She is a television journalist who has worked as a White House correspondent, foreign reporter, and news anchor for CBS, ABC, and Fox News.
PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS:
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Reporting from Nairobi, Kenya, journalist Eunice Maina interviews Nereah Amondi Oketch, a contestant on a first-of-its-kind reality TV program called, “Ms President,” which tried to train women to be politicians. The nonprofit Media Focus in Africa produced the show, with funding from the European Union and UN Women, among others. The goal was to increase the number of women politicians in Kenya.
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Then, host Reena Ninan speaks with Nichole Grossman from American University. Grossman conducted dozens of interviews with women candidates who ran for office in Nigeria last year. These women ran with the main political party there, which had a big initiative to increase its female representation. And yet, they failed to deliver this promise. What Grossman learned from female candidates is eye opening – and gives a much fuller picture of what Nigerian politics is like for women.
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Finally, reporter Yecenu Sasetu talks to Honourable Kate Raymond Mamuno, who shares how she got elected as an assembly member in Nigeria, against the odds. This included help from a non-profit focused on influencing male voters, called Connected Development.