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Welcome to another episode of The Gynarchy Podcast! Today, I am speaking with Dr. Neel Shah, an ob/gyn, Chief Medical Officer of Maven Clinic, visiting scientist at Harvard Medical School, and advisory board member of the National Institutes of Health, Office of Women’s Health Research, about the ob/gyn doctor shortage in the US.

In “Episode 21: The Ob/Gyn Doctor Shortage”, we discuss a growing crisis in women’s healthcare - the severe shortage of ob/gyns. With rising burnout, increasing restrictions on reproductive care, and medical students steering away from the specialty, we discuss what the future holds for obstetric and gynecologic care and possible solutions.

Here are some topics we discuss:

• The scope of the ob/gyn shortage and its serious impacts on women’s health, particularly maternal health and access to care
• The especially dire situation in rural America
• Factors contributing to the shortage: physician burnout, aging workforce, restrictive laws affecting reproductive healthcare, litigation fears, limited number of residency slots, less medical students entering the field
• Healthcare system issues that contribute to the problem, including undervaluing women’s healthcare, leading to low reimbursement for women’s healthcare services, often resulting in closures of maternity units at small hospitals
• Possible solutions, including healthcare policy changes, expanding healthcare coverage, improving reimbursements, increasing telehealth and virtual care, increasing the ob/gyn physician pipeline, creative solutions to find balance and prevent burnout for physicians in the field

Tune in on Monday, May 5, 2025 and make sure to subscribe to stay updated on all our episodes.

Where to connect with Neel Shah, MD:

Substack: Neel Shah, MD | Substack

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neeltshah/

Website: Maven Clinic - The next generation of care for women and families

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Website: www.thegynarchypodcast.com

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Medical disclaimer: The content provided on this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

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Welcome to another episode of The Gynarchy Podcast! Today, I am speaking with information technology leader, gender equity researcher, and co-author Amy Diehl, PhD about her book Glass Walls: Shattering the Six Gender Bias Barriers Still Holding Women Back.

In “Episode 20: Shattering Glass Walls” we discuss the structural and cultural barriers that hinder women’s success in the workplace, despite decades of progress we have made. Dr. Diehl names the problematic behaviors, offers examples from her book, and practical advice and strategies for overcoming these biases so women can empower themselves and others.

Here are some topics we discuss:

• An overview of Dr. Diehl and co-author Dr. Dzubinski’s gender bias research
• Defining ‘glass walls’, the six gender bias barriers that hold women back in the workplace: male privilege, disproportionate constraints, insufficient support, devaluation, hostility, acquiescence
• The importance of recognizing and naming the behaviors that reflect these biases
• How male privilege is the bedrock from which all the other biases grow
• Examples from the book of the six gender bias barriers
• How to approach solutions and strategies for dealing with these barriers
• How one can check their own bias with the “flip it to test it” technique

Tune in on Monday, April 21, 2025 and make sure to subscribe to stay updated on all our episodes.

Where to connect with Amy Diehl:

Website: Amy Diehl, PhD / Gender Bias and Gender Equity Expert + Speaker

Bluesky: Amy Diehl, Ph.D. (@amydiehl.bsky.social)

Instagram: Instagram (@amydiehlphd)

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-diehl/

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Follow Us for Updates:‌

• Bluesky: @thegynarchy
• Instagram: @thegynarchy
• TikTok: @thegynarchy
• YouTube: @thegynarchy

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Website: www.thegynarchypodcast.com

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Medical disclaimer: The content provided on this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

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Welcome to another episode of The Gynarchy Podcast! Today, I am speaking to award-winning fashion stylist, lifestyle blogger, and podcaster Tara West about the positives and negatives of the fashion industry.

In “Episode 19: The Fashion Industry: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” we discuss the powerful force that is the fashion industry and how it shapes culture, identity, and even politics. We discuss its dark side, including environmental dangers, exploitation of labor, poor representation, and unrealistic beauty standards, but also how we can harness its power to empower ourselves and for others.

Here are some topics we discuss:

• The fashion industry’s influence in creating unrealistic beauty standards
• Poor representation of women, LGTBQ+, and people with disabilities
• How the fashion industry is evolving
• How fashion can be a tool of empowerment
• What is empowering vs. exploitative to women
• Embracing femininity and recognizing its power
• Using fashion to push back against gender stereotypes
• Environmental dangers of fast fashion
• Fashion as a tool of protest

Tune in on Monday, April 7, 2025 and make sure to subscribe to stay updated on all our episodes.

Where to connect with Tara West:

Website: TARA WEST FASHION

Podcast: Shorts: Beyond Measure w/ Tara, Caroline & Allison

Instagram: Instagram (@tarawestfashion)

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Follow Us for Updates:‌

• Bluesky: @thegynarchy
• Instagram: @thegynarchy
• TikTok: @thegynarchy
• YouTube: @thegynarchy

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Website: www.thegynarchypodcast.com

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Medical disclaimer: The content provided on this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

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Welcome to another episode of The Gynarchy Podcast! Today, I am speaking to sociology professor, award-winning teacher, expert on families, school, and inequalities, and author, Jessica Calarco, about her book Holding it Together: How Women Became America’s Safety Net.

In “Episode 18: Women: Society’s Safety Net”, Dr. Calarco offers insights from her groundbreaking research on how women’s labor is undervalued, often taken for granted, and routinely left unpaid. We discuss societal myths, how we can push back against these harmful narratives, and advocate for better policies to create a more equitable future.

Here are some of the topics we discuss:

• Examples of how women are society’s safety net
• How the COVID-19 pandemic starkly brought these inequities to light
• Harmful myths that contribute to this problem, including: the Myth of Meritocracy, the Mars-Venus Myth, the Supermom Myth, the Myth of Good Choices
• Socioeconomic impacts of social policies on women
• How women are forced into motherhood
• Men’s incentives to avoid care work
• The appeal of the “trad wife” trend
• The outsize influence of billionaires and corporations on policies
• Policies in other countries with greater gender equality that do work

Tune in on Monday, March 17, 2025 and make sure to subscribe to stay updated on all our episodes.

Where to connect with Jessica Calarco:

Website: Jessica Calarco

Bluesky: Jess Calarco (@jessicacalarco.bsky.social)

Instagram: Instagram (@jesscalarco)

Threads: https://www.threads.net/@jesscalarco

Support the show

Follow Us for Updates:‌

• Bluesky: @thegynarchy
• Instagram: @thegynarchy
• TikTok: @thegynarchy
• YouTube: @thegynarchy

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Website: www.thegynarchypodcast.com

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Medical disclaimer: The content provided on this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

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Welcome to another episode of The Gynarchy Podcast! Today, I am speaking to Afghan women’s rights activist and writer Mina Sharif about the dire situation of women and girls in Afghanistan.

In “Episode 17: Global Women’s Voices: Afghanistan”, Mina brings her background, experience, and insights as an Afghan woman, volunteer, and advocate to share about the culture and life of women in Afghanistan, discuss the current challenges, and what we as global citizens and women's rights activists can do to support them.

Here are some of the topics we discuss:

• Afghan culture and misconceptions about it
• A brief overview of women’s rights in Afghanistan
• Life under Taliban rule and impact of restrictions on the people of Afghanistan
• The dismal state of legal and reproductive rights and healthcare for women
• Resistance efforts to fight for basic human rights
• Cultural preservation efforts
• Pros and cons of international aid and policies
• How best to help women of Afghanistan

Tune in on Monday, March 3, 2025 and make sure to subscribe to stay updated on all our episodes.

Where to connect with Mina Sharif:

Instagram: Instagram (@missminakabul)

Website: mina sharif

Support the show

Follow Us for Updates:‌

• Bluesky: @thegynarchy
• Instagram: @thegynarchy
• TikTok: @thegynarchy
• YouTube: @thegynarchy

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Website: www.thegynarchypodcast.com

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Medical disclaimer: The content provided on this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

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Welcome to another episode of The Gynarchy Podcast! Today, I am speaking to the National Policy Coordinator for Period, Sydney Ramon, about the critical topic of menstrual health equity.

In “Episode 16: Menstrual Rights”, Sydney brings her experience in public policy and nonprofit leadership to discuss how we can eradicate period poverty and menstrual stigma through advocacy, education, and service.

Here are some of the topics we discuss:

• What is period poverty and what contributes to it
• What is the tampon tax and what efforts are being made to eliminate it
• Efforts to increase access to menstrual products and other efforts to eliminate period poverty
• Impacts of menstrual stigma and shame
• The lack of and need for menstrual health education among young people
• How lack of access to menstrual products, menstrual stigma, and lack of menstrual health education all contribute to menstrual inequity and overall poorer health and life outcomes
• Intersectional barriers to menstrual equity: socioeconomic, racial, and gender factors
• Home ’s efforts in advocacy and education, nationally and in schools and communities
• Call to action, how you can help

Tune in on Monday, February 17, 2025 and make sure to subscribe to stay updated on all our episodes.

Where to connect with Sydney Ramon and Period:

Email: sydney@period.org

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sydneyraeramon/

Website: Period

TikTok: PERIOD on TikTok

Instagram: Instagram (@periodmovement)

Support the show

Follow Us for Updates:‌

• Bluesky: @thegynarchy
• Instagram: @thegynarchy
• TikTok: @thegynarchy
• YouTube: @thegynarchy

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Website: www.thegynarchypodcast.com

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Medical disclaimer: The content provided on this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

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Welcome to another episode of The Gynarchy Podcast! Today, I'm speaking to sex educator and executive producer and host of The Sex Ed with DB Podcast, Danielle Bezalel, aka “DB”, about the deeply flawed state of sexual health education in the US.

In “Episode 15: The Sex Ed Crisis”, Danielle brings her expertise in comprehensive sexual health education to discuss how our inadequate, outdated, and shame-based sex ed programs are failing young people and what we can do to change that.

Here are some of the topics we discuss:

• The current state of sexual health education in the US
• Religious and cultural influence on sex education, particularly purity culture
• The harmful messages shared in abstinence-only programs
• Goals of comprehensive sexual education
• The need for mandated consent education
• The rise of misogyny and rape culture
• Providing age appropriate sex education to children in the home and at school
• Harms of poor sex ed, including increased risk of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases
• Better, international models for comprehensive sexual education

Resources referenced in this episode:

Guttmacher Institute: Sex Education and HIV Education

Tune in on Monday, February 3, 2025 and make sure to subscribe to stay updated on all our episodes.

Where to connect with Danielle Bezalel:

Instagram: @‌sexedwithdbpodcast Instagram (@sexedwithdbpodcast)

TikTok: @‌sexedwithdb Sex Ed with DB on TikTok

Twitter/X: @‌sexedwithdb Sex Ed with DB (@SexEdwithDB) on X

Email: sexedwithdb@gmail.com

Support the show

Follow Us for Updates:‌

• Bluesky: @thegynarchy
• Instagram: @thegynarchy
• TikTok: @thegynarchy
• YouTube: @thegynarchy

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Website: www.thegynarchypodcast.com

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Medical disclaimer: The content provided on this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

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Welcome to another episode of The Gynarchy Podcast! In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I am thrilled to feature emergency physician, founder of Advancing Health Equity, and author Dr. Uché Blackstock to discuss her New York Times bestselling memoir Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine.

In “Episode 14: Reflections of a Black Physician in America”, Dr. Blackstock shares some of her personal stories as a patient and doctor within the healthcare system, weaving in her knowledge about the impact of systemic racism on patients of color, and her work to create a more equitable healthcare system.

Here are some of the topics we discuss:

• The underrepresentation of Black physicians in medicine and declining numbers despite diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts
• Systemic racism and its impacts on social determinants of health
• Her personal experience as a patient that led to misdiagnosis, delay in care, and complications
• Her personal experiences with racism as a physician and working in academia
• Disparities in care at public versus private hospitals, reflecting the populations they serve
• The inherent political nature of healthcare and physicians’ roles as activists
• Her current work and mission to advance health equity

Tune in on Thursday, January 20, 2025 and make sure to subscribe to stay updated on all our episodes.

Where to connect with Uché Blackstock, MD:

Instagram: @‌ucheblackstockmd Instagram (@ucheblackstockmd)

Bluesky: @‌ucheblackstockmd Uché Blackstock, MD (@ucheblackstockmd.bsky.social)

Twitter/X: @‌uche_blackstock uché blackstock, md (@uche_blackstock) on X

Facebook: @‌uche.blackstock https://www.facebook.com/uche.blackstock

TikTok: @‌ucheblackstockmd Uché Blackstock, MD on TikTok

LinkedIn: @‌uche-blackstock-md https://www.linkedin.com/in/uche-blackstock-md/

Support the show

Follow Us for Updates:‌

• Bluesky: @thegynarchy
• Instagram: @thegynarchy
• TikTok: @thegynarchy
• YouTube: @thegynarchy

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Website: www.thegynarchypodcast.com

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Medical disclaimer: The content provided on this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.