Episodios

  • America's Gender Whiplash

    America's Gender Whiplash
    Sep 25 2025
    America is facing a gender backlash—a backlash so swift and severe, it feels more like a whiplash. Right now, no group is more at risk than trans Americans. On his first day back in the White House, Trump signed a controversial executive order meant to deny trans identity and push transgender people out of public life. Since then, attacks on trans rights—trans existence—have become increasingly hostile and widespread. But even as many conservatives work overtime to focus the public's ire on trans people, it's clear that their attempt to enforce a strict gender binary could have much broader consequences. Consequences that will reach all Americans.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    33 m
  • Season 6 Coming Soon!

    Season 6 Coming Soon!
    Sep 11 2025
    Right now, we're in the midst of a gender backlash. A growing number of voices have started calling for a return to a simpler time. A time, they say, when men were men and women were women. But "gender" is being used as Trojan horse, a way to advance an extremist agenda that stands to harm millions of Americans. This season on White Picket Fence, we're pulling back the curtain. We'll examine the ways this backlash is showing up in our policies, our culture, and the social media content we scroll past every day. And we're asking what becomes possible when we imagine a better future -- and what we owe the next generation. New episodes drop this September.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    3 m
  • We Won a Webby Award! And – A Sneak Peek at Our New Season

    We Won a Webby Award! And – A Sneak Peek at Our New Season
    Jul 10 2025
    We’re thrilled to share that our fifth season of White Picket Fence won the Webby Award for the best News & Politics limited series! It’s such an honor to be recognized and to continue to shed light on the manufactured “marriage panic” that, if anything, has only grown more pronounced since the season was released. If you haven’t had a chance to listen yet, please check it out and share with your friends. And stay tuned for our next season dropping this fall… check out this sneak peek.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    3 m
  • How We Build Family

    How We Build Family
    Jul 18 2024
    When host Julie Kohler became a mom, a community of care sprouted up around her. The people who showed up to support her and her family were essential -- and they would be whether or not she was a single mom. All season, we've dissected the institution of marriage in the US. But what are we missing when talk only about marriage? For the final episode of this season, we're asking what the future of family could look like if marriage wasn't the ideal. We're talking to people who have created networks of support within and around marriage and examining the language and policies that can enable us to lead the lives we want to live. Whether that includes marriage, or... something else!

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    34 m
  • 37 Ways

    37 Ways
    Jul 11 2024
    We’ve spent a lot of time this season investigating the current marriage panic. The pro-marriage crew is sounding alarm bells that if we don’t start marrying, and quit divorcing, things in the U.S. will only get worse. But our theory on this show is that the path to stability and happiness actually leads in the opposite direction. What if we could look beyond our shores, at a country that was taking a very different approach? This episode, we’re visiting Denmark: One of the countries that consistently, year after year after year, has some of the happiest citizens in the world. And we’re taking a look at Danish culture around marriage and divorce and relationships and family to see if we can learn some secrets from the experts.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    31 m
  • Our Divorce Dilemma

    Our Divorce Dilemma
    Jul 3 2024
    In 1969, California Governor Ronald Reagan signed the country's first no-fault divorce bill into law. Since then, Americans have been able to leave their marriages without having to prove their spouse committed any wrongdoing. But now, there's a growing movement on the right to make ending a marriage much harder. This week, host Julie Kohler digs into this current attack on no-fault divorce — and rolls back the clock to explore the "Wild West" of American divorce laws that existed before.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    38 m
  • The Mess Moynihan Made

    The Mess Moynihan Made
    Jun 27 2024
    In 1965, a government report on Black families that was never supposed to be public leaked... and permanently influenced how our country thought about marriage, poverty, and personal responsibility. It was called the Moynihan Report. The report affirmed the belief that family structure – specifically, families headed by single mothers – caused people to be poor. This week, host Julie Kohler traces the roots and repercussions of the Moynihan report, and why the solutions to the issues it puts forth run far deeper than marriage.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    27 m
  • Exalted Status

    Exalted Status
    Jun 20 2024

    The idea that marriage is a fundamental, American institution isn’t just a cultural one – it has serious economic and legal implications. For most of its history, the U.S. has used marriage as a vessel to confer privilege and status onto some people, while marginalizing others. This week, our host, Julie Kohler, takes us on a historical marriage tour to examine how marriage achieved its exalted status, and how it became a tool – one that creates order, defines cultural norms, and maintains hierarchies of inequality.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    26 m