All Ears with Abigail Disney

In the inaugural episode of All Ears, Abby is joined by Columbia University professor and human rights lawyer Terry McGovern to discuss how gender discrimination undermines job security, equal pay, and healthcare for women during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the startling parallels to the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. 

EPISODE LINKS:

• Terry on Twitter: @TerryMMcGovern
• Fork Films on Twitter: @ForkFilms
• Link to Women and Girls Rising, co-edited by Terry 
• Link to Pray the Devil Back to Hell, produced by Abby, directed by Gini Reticker

This week on All Ears Abby talks to author and commentator Heather McGhee. Heather is a distinguished senior fellow at the progressive think tank Demos, where she also served as president for four years. Heather argues that the economic, intellectual, and societal costs of racism affect not only its victims but also its perpetrators. She tells Abby that America’s White middle class grew after WW2, with help from Federal housing subsidies, education grants and other benefits that were largely denied to Black Americans. Once Black Americans began demanding equal treatment, many of those programs were simply dismantled. This kind of racism, McGee tells Abby, cost everyone. Abby and Heather also delve into the political theft of Reconstruction, whether American racism is unique, the misogyny of libertarianism, and if the Karen memes are a harbinger of a backlash on feminism.
Heather’s heavily anticipated book, The Sum of Us, is due out in early 2021.
EPISODE LINKS:
“A White Man Asked C-Span How to Stop Being Racist. Here’s the Fascinating Answer” (Fortune)
“Racism Has A Cost For Everyone” (TED Talk)
“Facebook Fails to Appease Organizers of Ad Boycott” (NY Times)
Color of Change
Demos
Heather on Twitter: @hmcghee
Heather on Instagram: @HeatherCMcGhee

Jane Fonda is a towering figure and an American legend. From Barbarella, to Klute, to 9 to 5, to her workout videos, she’s been gracing our screens for more than 50 years. And, though she may be best known for her role as an artist, surprisingly Jane says that’s not how she thinks of herself: “I consider myself, first and foremost, an activist.” And she has for quite some time.
For the final episode of Season four, Abby talks with Jane about the power of activism– work that Jane defines as building “people power in order to change systems that are wicked and evil.”
In recent years, to protest government inaction on climate change and the burning of fossil fuels, Jane launched Fire Drill Fridays. On select Fridays she can be found in Washington, DC leading thousands in civil disobedience. She’s also working to get “climate champions” elected to office via the Jane Fonda Climate Pac.
Jane reminds Abby that her activism started way back when she was a young actress who opposed the Vietnam War: “I was completely confused,” she admits, yet “it was hard to remain on the sidelines.” She describes the winding path she’s cut ever since.
As the conversation proceeds, Jane and Abby bond over how both find joy in activism. Jane describes the balm it has provided in her life. “One thousand percent activism saved me,” she declares. And, though there’s a lot to be angry, or to despair about, she ends with this rhetorical question: “Do you find–because I do–that when you take action, you get less depressed?”
You can follow Jane on Twitter @Janefonda, on Instagram @janefonda, and you can follow Jane’s climate activism on Twitter @janeclimatepac and @firedrillfridays, or you can go to janepac.com, or firedrillfridays.org.
EPISODE LINKS
The Village of Ben Suc (New Yorker)
Donald W. Duncan, 79, Ex-Green Beret and Early Critic of Vietnam War, Is Dead (NY Times)
Robert Kennedy Jr. (and Abigail Disney) Arrested While Protesting With Jane Fonda (The Hollywood Reporter)
On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal (Naomi Klein)
The evidence is clear: the time for action is now. We can halve emissions by 2030. (IPCC)
CO2 Emissions in 2022 (IEA)
Homeboy Industries (Homeboy Industries)

This week we have a very special episode of All Ears. Breaking from our usual format, we’re reacting in real time to the late night swearing in of the latest Supreme Court justice, Amy Coney Barrett. Abby’s guest this week is Reverend Robert Schenck, an evangelical minister and former prominent anti-abortion activist, who for decades was at the center of the conservative efforts to criminalize abortion and strike down Roe v. Wade. To his regret, those efforts came closer to fruition this week with the long-sought manipulation of the nation’s highest court to reflect an extreme conservative tilt. Describing himself now as a “menace” to vulnerable women during his years of activism, Rob has renounced his work as an anti-abortion crusader, admitting that he was part of a group that in 1995 paid Norma McCorvey (aka Jane Roe) to say that she had changed her mind to come out against abortion. For this All Ears, we air a previously unreleased interview from this past summer between Abby and Rob, where they discuss the origin of their unusual friendship five years ago, the process of setting aside political and religious differences, taking emotional risks to build trust, and how Abby’s experience of sharing her own abortion story shifted their friendship and played a part in Rob’s ideological reversal. Then Abby checks in with Rob by phone after Coney Barrett’s installation to the Supreme Court to react and reflect on the moment, and how they plan to move forward, both personally and politically, with hope and action.
Find Rob on Twitter @@RevRobSchenck1
EPISODE LINKS
Vote Common GoodThe Armor Of Light (dirs. Abigail Disney and Kathleen Hughes)
Costly Grace: An Evangelical Minister's Rediscovery of Faith, Hope, and Love by Rob Schenck
AKA Jane Roe (FX)
Opinion | I Was an Anti-Abortion Crusader. Now I Support Roe v. Wade The New York Times 5/30/19
How a More Conservative Supreme Court Could Impact Environmental Laws Scientific American 9/28/20
The Effects of Stand-Your-Ground Laws RAND Corporation 4/22/20
People of Praise: Inside Group With Reported Ties to Amy Coney Barrett Rolling Stone 9/29/20

This week on All Ears Abby is joined by Supermajority co-founder and former President of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards. Cecile and Abby discuss their shared experiences of having a famous parent, and how being middle school activists landed them in the principal’s office. Cecile also talks to Abby about why she’s never run for political office, how Planned Parent animated the Christian Right, the need right now for a women’s stimulus package, and how to organize a diverse coalition of women to push for childcare- and healthcare-focused policies in response to COVID-19.
EPISODE LINKS:

• Join Supermajority.com
• Supermajority: A New Home For Women's Activism (NPR)
• Former Texas Gov. Ann Richards dies at 73 (Houston Chronicle)
• Ann Richards’ 1988 Democratic National Convention Speech (YouTube)
• What a $15 Minimum Wage Means for Women and Workers of Color (National Employment Law Project)
• Cecile's book, "Make Trouble: Standing Up, Speaking Out, and Finding the Courage to Lead" (Bookshop.org)