(M)otherhood and Choice, with Pragya Agarwal

10/12/21 • 43 min

What does it mean to contemplate 'motherhood' in a world that values some bodies - and some decisions - over others? Behavioural scientist Pragya Agarwal tells Alice Bloch about her experiences as a woman of South Asian heritage - from abortion, to pregnancy, to surrogacy - and the social, historical and scientific factors that shape how we talk about motherhood. How have women been controlled and contained through history? And how does that continue, worldwide, today?
A candid conversation about maternity and reproductive justice, asking what motherhood means in a world of inequality, prejudice and control.
Hosts: Alice Bloch and Samira Shackle
Exec Producer: Alice Bloch
Sound Engineer: David Crackles
Music: Danosongs
Image artwork: Ed Dingli
If you want access to more fresh thinking, why not subscribe to New Humanist magazine? Head to newhumanist.org.uk/subscribe and enter the code WITHREASON to get a whole year's subscription for just £13.50
Reading list:
'(M)otherhood: On the Choices of Being a Woman' (2021) Pragya Agarwal
Sway: Unravelling Unconscious Bias (2020) Pragya Agarwal
Alice Bloch, Review of 'Childless Voices' by Lorna Gibb (2019) New Humanist Magazine

Previous Episode

Quantum Physics & Philosophy, with Carlo Rovelli

Carlo Rovelli, the globally celebrated physicist and bestselling storyteller of science, talks to Niki Seth-Smith about the history - and sheer wonder - of quantum theory. How did a feverish young man named Werner Heisenberg, working alone on the North Sea island of Helgoland in 1925, develop a radical insight that would shake the world of physics? What’s its legacy for how we think about the nature of reality and perception itself? And how does the ‘relational’ interpretation of quantum mechanics transform the way that we might see not only the physical world, but our relationships and politics, too?
A fascinating conversation about collaboration and mentorship, our attachment to truth and certainty, and the humbling power of science.
Podcast listeners can get a year's subscription to New Humanist magazine for just £13.50. Head to newhumanist.org.uk/subscribe and enter the code WITHREASON Hosts: Niki Seth-Smith and Samira Shackle
Exec producer: Alice BlochSound engineer: David CracklesArtwork: Christopher Wahl (photograph), Ed Dingli (artwork)Music: Danosongs
Further reading:
'Helgoland' (2021), Carlo Rovelli
'There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness' (2020), Carlo Rovelli
'The Order of Time', (2018), Carlo Rovelli
'Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity' (2016) Carlo Rovelli
'Seven Brief Lessons on Physics' (2015), Carlo Rovelli'‘‘The beauty in physics is the kind of beauty that people have embodied in art’’
A Q&A with Frank Wilczek (2015) by Daniel Trilling, New Humanist magazine.

Next Episode

Black Resistance and Racist Policing, with Adam Elliott-Cooper

Racism is not an externality to British policing but is integral to its history, says sociologist and ex-youth worker, Adam Elliott-Cooper. He tells Samira Shackle about the ideas behind his book ‘Black Resistance to British Policing’. Recognising racism as far more than just interpersonal or about prejudice alone, he connects it to colonialism and the state, and highlights the role of resistance - including by women of colour who have long championed justice and radical change.

Plus: why the tendency in the UK to see racism as "something that happens somewhere else"? What’s obscured when we talk about “knife crime”? And why must we insist on continuing to talk about whiteness?

Podcast listeners can get a year's subscription to New Humanist magazine for just £13.50. Head to newhumanist.org.uk/subscribe and enter the code WITHREASON

Hosts: Samira Shackle and Alice Bloch
Executive producer: Alice Bloch
Sound engineer: David Crackles
Music: Danosongs
Reading list:

‘Black Resistance to British Policing’ (2021) Adam Elliott-Cooper

W.E.B Du Bois (1868-1963) collected works

‘Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State, and Law and Order’ (1978) Stuart Hall et al.

‘Folk Devils and Moral Panics’, (1972) Stanley Cohen

‘There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack’ (1987) Paul Gilroy

‘Women, Race and Class’ (1981) Angela Davis

Frantz Fanon (1925-1962) collected works

‘And Still I Rise’ (2006) Doreen Lawrence

‘Shooting an Elephant and Other Essays’ (1950) George Orwell

‘Leviathan’ (1651) Thomas Hobbes

‘On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life’ (2012) Sara Ahmed

‘Assembly’ (2021) Natasha Brown