When the #MeToo movement exploded in 2017, journalist Ruth Whippman — nearly nine months pregnant with her third son — experienced a profound conflict. As a feminist, she celebrated the movement; as a mother, she worried: "How am I gonna raise these boys to be good?" This tension launched Ruth on a quest to understand modern American boyhood and what's not working. Ruth and her husband Neil Levine tell Anita about their journey of putting Ruth’s research into practice, working to give their sons the emotional tools to thrive in a changing world — and what’s at stake if we don’t shift our approach to raising boys.

Meet the guests:

- Ruth Whippman is the author of "BoyMom: Reimagining Boyhood in the Age of Impossible Masculinity"

- Neil Levine is Ruth's husband

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Please note: This episode originally published May 8, 2025.

Kaila Yu spent years as an Asian American pinup model, singer and actress, leaning into a hypersexualized image of Asian femininity and burying her doubts about it. But after the 2021 Atlanta spa shootings, she started reckoning with how fetishization can lead to violence — and interrogating her own role in perpetuating harmful stereotypes. She talks with Anita about her new memoir. Plus, a sociologist breaks down how history and Hollywood built the stereotypes in the first place and what we can do to break free.

Meet the guests:

- Kaila Yu is a culture writer and the author of "Fetishized: A Reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism and Beauty"

- Nancy Wang Yuen is a sociologist and a professor in the department of ethnic studies at Crafton Hills College and the author of “Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism”

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Gen Z is anxious about climate change, and it’s impacting their family planning. Anita talks to researcher Jade Sasser, who's been studying young people’s attitudes about climate change and reproductive choices while unpacking her own experiences with climate anxiety. They’ll talk about how to manage climate emotions while making big life decisions, and how “the kid question” isn’t just about babies — it’s about what bringing new life into an uncertain world represents.

Meet the guest:

- Jade Sasser is the author of “Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question: Deciding Whether to Have Children in an Uncertain Future” and an associate professor at the University of California, Riverside

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Please note: This episode originally published May 15, 2025.

Update: Jade Sasser is working on a third book, tentatively titled “Climate Change Hates Mothers.”

When you board a plane, flight attendants greet you with practiced smiles and seamless service. But there’s a lot of mental and emotional labor that passengers don’t see. Missy, a Hawaii-based flight attendant, takes Anita inside her world and shares stories from her close to five years on the job — from managing unruly passengers to dealing with medical emergencies. Travel journalist Natalie Compton also shares her reporting on the financial precarity some flight attendants face and how understanding more about their reality has changed the way she approaches air travel.

Meet the guests:

- Missy is a Hawaii-based flight attendant who is using only her first name since she's not authorized to speak on behalf of her airline

- Natalie Compton is a travel reporter for The Washington Post

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Dig deeper:

Natalie's reporting on the financial precarity of early-career flight attendants

Natalie's reporting on flight attendant training

Please note: This episode originally published on June 19, 2025.

When Chris Mosier became the first openly trans athlete to qualify for Team USA in 2015, he catalyzed policy change for trans people in sports. Now, more than a decade later, his legacy is beginning to unravel. Chris talks to Anita about how sports have affirmed him as a trans person and why they’ve become a battleground for trans rights. They also discuss the assumptions that underpin many of the bans on trans athletes in the U.S. and solutions that Chris says could make sports better for all athletes.

Meet the guest:

- Chris Mosier is an eight-time Team USA athlete who wrote the forward to and conducted interviews for the recent book “Fair Game: Trans Athletes and the Future of Sports”

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You can read the new International Olympic Committee's policy on gender here.

American men are in a friendship recession. Compared to a few decades ago, five times as many men have no close friends. So what’s going on? Anita talks with Mark Pagán, creator and host of the podcast “Other Men Need Help,” about what makes close friendships among men so fraught — and what we can do about it. They talk about everything from why Mark loves secret handshakes to his ongoing journey of making himself say the hard stuff out loud.

Meet the guest:

- Mark Pagán is the creator and host of the podcast "Other Men Need Help" and writes the substack "Other Men"

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Please note: This episode originally published April 17, 2025.

When B. Chionne first heard about sugar dating in college, she was intrigued — what if in exchange for her time and attention she could earn enough money to pay her bills? She ended up dating sugar daddies on and off for about a decade. B. tells Anita about what the sugar dating life looks like and how years of exchanging companionship for financial support reshaped the way she thinks about money, power and intimacy. Plus, a researcher shares insights into the sugar daddy perspective and broader trends in sugar relationships.

Meet the guests:

- B. Chionne is a digital content creator and former sugar baby

- Lauren Cormier is a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at the University of New Brunswick who studies human sexuality and relationships

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Rebecca Auman is a witch. That’s not an insult — it literally says “head witch” on her LinkedIn profile. Rebecca has been able to read people and pick up on energy and vibrations for as long as she can remember. But as the daughter of a Methodist minister growing up in the South, she was encouraged to turn away from that intuition for a long time. She tells Anita about the long and winding road to reclaim her magic and how she has turned her gift into a service for others.

Meet the guest:

- Rebecca Auman runs her own witchy business offering tarot readings and intuition training, and she hosts the podcast “Voices in the River”

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