Stuff Mom Never Told You

The 2017 Women's March on Washington will be another chapter in women's rich, though often hidden, history of rallying for change. Cristen and Caroline explore past marches, the whitewashing of activist history and what it takes to maintain momentum. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

By shooting Andy Warhol, Valerie Solanas embodied the reviled stereotype of the feminist man hater. Cristen and Caroline unpack the etymological root of misandry and the chilling effect of crying man hater. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

IUDs and implants are among the most effective contraceptive options, but their popularity in the US is only now spiking. Cristen and Caroline explain the different types and explore how stigma and sterilization fears have slowed their spread. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nearly one fifth of pregnancies and births are associated with mental health disorders. Cristen and Caroline detail why antenatal and postpartum anxiety and depression happen, where the gaps are in treatment and how culture factors into healthcare. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Adoption has always been fraught with stigmas surrounding sexuality, single motherhood, race and immigration. Cristen and Caroline decode the underlying messages of how we perceive orphaned children, adoption stereotypes and the meaning of family. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Brands like Zara and H&M churn out mass-produced fashion at an astounding rate, but the true cost is left off the price tags. Cristen and Caroline explore fast fashion's effects not only for the environment, but for women's rights around the globe. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For LGBTQ characters on TV, it's been an especially deadly year, and fans are fed up. Cristen and Caroline unpack the Bury Your Gays trope, how it affects offscreen culture and whether the Lexa Pledge will make a difference. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cristen and Caroline trace the intersectional origins of social work, celebrate unsung African-American women social workers and why the job has grown notorious for overwork. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The nonprofit sector is made up of 74 percent women, but men tend to fill organizations' highest ranks. Cristen and Caroline donate an episode to nonprofit's not-so-generous gender dynamics and burnout-prone working conditions. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What is mansplaining, and why are millennial women complaining about it all the time? Cristen and Caroline unpack its origin, meaning and why you don't have to be a man to be guilty of it. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What happens after America elects its first female President? With history as their guide, Cristen and Caroline forecast to what extent a gender revolution in the Oval Office will affect long-term equality at large. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer has been hailed as one of the most feminist shows in TV history. Cristen, Caroline and HowStuffWorks galpal Lauren Vogelbaum dive into the Hellmouth to assess how effectively Buffy and the Scooby gang slayed the patriarchy. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Evil women and villainesses are the spice of pop culture life. Cristen and Caroline mine the dark side for what Ursula, Catwoman, Cersei and other mavens of immorality can tell us about real-world women. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Until recently, invention and patenting have been guy things, though not for women's lack of innovation. Cristen and Caroline discover the American history of women inventors and why the patent gender gap has been so challenging to close. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Shirley Chisholm didn't want to be known solely as the first African-American woman in U.S. Congress and to run for the Democratic nomination for president. Cristen and Caroline detail the life and legacy of this Brooklyn educator ahead of her time. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ads selling empowerment might depict women in a better light than sexist ads of yore, but do they actually contribute to equality? Cristen and Caroline look at the history of using feminism to sell products and whether advertisers' intentions matter. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Yogurt is one of the most gendered foods in the grocery store -- but why? Cristen and Caroline cook up the uncanny marketing history of how the soured dairy product sweetened up to women. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Uber, AirBnb and others are reshaping how we work, but they leave loopholes to discrimination and abuse. Cristen and Caroline look at sharing economy privilege and why collaborative consumption leaves out the people who most need its services. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As commercial airlines took off, so did the fetishizing of the white, eligible stewardesses on board. Cristen and Caroline discuss the original stewardesses, how sex sold airline tickets and flight attendants' fight for professional recognition. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There are more than 40,000 period apps, some of which claim to help you get pregnant or prevent pregnancy. Cristen and Caroline explore the apps' effectiveness and dig into one developer's claim that infertility is just an "information problem." Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From suffragists to Grace Jones to Hillary Clinton, the pantsuit has been a symbol bucking feminine norms. Cristen and Caroline trace the power suit's history and ask why such a seemingly simple fashion has the power to embolden and enrage. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A century ago, lunch ladies were on the front lines of giving kids the nutrition they needed. Today, many are rewarded with poverty-level wages. Cristen and Caroline trace lunch ladies' history in the nutrition, labor and Civil Rights movements. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Custodians keep our schools, work places and public spaces clean, but they're often treated downright dirty. Cristen and Caroline cover the distinct gendering of janitorial work, why it's harder on women and how janitors organized for justice. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ronald Reagan made "welfare queens" a household epithet during his unsuccessful 1976 presidential campaign. Considering the 20th anniversary of so-called welfare reform, Cristen and Caroline examine the deeper origins and implications of the racist, classist welfare queen stereotype as well as the surprising history of how welfare was originally for white ladies. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cristen and Caroline trace why heroin is more popular among suburban, white women than ever before. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Women work nearly half of all ad jobs, but the industry remains rife with sexism. Cristen and Caroline spotlight the discrimination, harassment and culture that continue to complicate the ad business' relationship with women and people of color. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the early advertising industry, career-minded white women were copywriters, department heads and even agency owners. But their very mission of selling products to women helped erect the industry's glass ceiling. Cristen and Caroline talk trailblazers, monetizing femininity and the whiteness of early ad industry in part one of Mad Women. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The associations between unicorns and all things feminine is nothing new, but where did it come from? Cristen and Caroline dive into unicorns' history as goddesses' pets, symbols for Christ and the stars of Lisa Frank trapper keepers. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lisa Frank is a real person, and she has a stable of sad unicorns and wilted rainbows hidden away in her closet. Cristen and Caroline explore Lisa Frank's rise to girlhood fame and descent into corporate chaos. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Studies have found that breasts have a significant impact of if and how girls and women exercise. Cristen and Caroline work out how breast variety, bounce embarrassment and sports bra technology impact female fitness. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Breast ptosis -- the fancy name for sag -- has way more to do with aging and genetics than gravitiy. Cristen and Caroline explore what's "normal" in in the boob realm to get to the bottom of how and why boob sag happens. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the 2016 Summer Olympics women's boxing event, all eyes are on U.S.A. phenom Claressa Shields. Cristen and Caroline share Shields' inspiring backstory and women's boxing's long road to Olympic glory. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

American Simone Biles is possibly the most talented gymnast in history. Cristen and Caroline somersault across the history of the OIympic event from its iconic hair and leotards to gendered and ethnic coding as well as the women like Simone Biles who have vaulted to worldwide attention. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Betty Friedan's homophobia has haunted the National Organization for Women. In the second part of their up-close look at the early years of NOW, Cristen and Caroline talk to Terry O'Neill about how the group moved forward from its lesbian schism and their crucial activism that continues today. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For 50 years, the National Organization for Women (NOW) has been championed feminist initiatives and gender equalizing political policy. But much of its early developments and intersectionality have been oversimplified by the media and overshadowed by Betty Friedan's controversial legacy. Cristen and Caroline talk to NOW president Terry O'Neill about past pitfalls and immediate progress that got the organization and Women's Liberation marching toward the glass ceiling. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When is it cheating if there's no sex or physical contact? Welcome to the murky world of emotional cheating. Cristen and Caroline confront its warning signs, hallmarks and social media minefield. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Over our working lives, we encounter plenty of pals, acqaintances and even enemies, but the beloved work spouse is rarer -- and, it turns out, more productivity-enhancing. Cristen and Caroline look at what makes our work wives and husbands so special, how gender influences our relationships and how to prevent your IRL spouse from getting jealous. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Women tattoo artists were a rare sight until recently. Cristen and Caroline uncover the history of these ink lovers, stylistic gender stereotyping and female tattoo industry trailblazers. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

More American women have tattoos than men as of 2012. Cristen and Caroline retrace the body art history from spiritual Native American women to sideshow attractions to modern feminists. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The term "lesbian bed death" has become a persistent negative stereotype about the allegedly passionless sex lives of women in relationships with women. Cristen and Caroline revisit the phrase's origin, do some sexytimes mythbusting and call for a broader definition of sex. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Women's sex drives and expression shift in response to a wide range of factors. So when libido dips, why are we so quick to pathologize it? Cristen and Caroline talk with filmmaker Maria Finitzo about her latest project, a look into female desire and women having agency over their own bodies. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Almost as soon as public libraries began flourishing, librarian quickly became one of the most female-dominated jobs in the country. Cristen and Caroline break down was being a librarian was really like back in the day and the badass women who've shaped these community centers of learning and culture. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.