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Youth Activists Fighting for Today and Tomorrow
Welcome to Smart, Amazing Conversations with Dr. Nancy, a podcast that examines the stories of life and leadership for smart, amazing women (and men). Each episode features powerful conversations with people who are changing the world and making a difference in their communities. Our guests share their personal stories, insights, and advice on how to break through barriers and achieve success and, in the process, provide access to new ideas, resources, and expertise that can expand opportunities for us all.
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Show Notes:
Dr. Nancy welcomes four powerful young activists fighting for women’s rights. First, Asha Dahya and Monica Morales-Garcia stop by to talk about their podcast series, “Green Tide Rising.” Borrowing the title from the Green Wave, a movement started by feminists and organizers across Latin America to champion reproductive freedoms, the podcast features a human rights attorney and shares the stories of women suffering from the criminalization of abortion in several countries. Both Dahya and Morales-Garcia hope the movement and podcast will serve as both a warning of what could happen if there is no action and a blueprint for the United States to turn the tide on reproductive rights.
Second, Dr. Sophia Armen of the Feminist Front and Rosie Couture, co-founder of the Young Feminist Party, are also on hand to discuss their passion for being the next generation to take up the fight for the Equal Rights Amendment as their own. They join the 100-year fight to secure women’s constitutional protection, once and for all. All of these amazing young leaders urge others to get involved in whatever way is possible: whether taking the messaging online and posting on social media, donating time, talent, or cash, communicating with elected representatives, speaking out, or educating family and friends. Equality is everyone’s fight, and together we can win.
About Asha Dahya:
Asha is an Emmy-nominated Producer, writer, TEDx speaker and storyteller. She has spent the last 18 years creating, producing and hosting content for networks and organizations such as MTV, MSN.com, Disney, ABC, CW Network, PBS, Nickelodeon, FOX, the ACLU, Snapchat, and more. Asha is the founder of a daily feminist blog site called GirlTalkHQ.com, and the author of Today’s Wonder Women: Everyday Superheroes Who Are Changing The World, featuring inspirational stories of 50 women and girls. She received an Emmy Nomination for her work on “My Name is Siri,” a short documentary about Autism awareness that premiered on PBS in 2023. Asha is passionate about reproductive freedom and gender equality, reflected in her recent projects. She directed and produced a short documentary about later abortion called SOMEONE YOU KNOW, which is currently on the film festival circuit and is the Board Chair of the national non-profit Religious Community for Reproductive Choice (RCRC.org).
About Monica Morales-Garcia:
Monica is an audio journalist, fact-checker, and fashion scholar from Santa Ana, California. She began her audio career as a Fellow at Latino USA, producing stories on underrepresented Latina romance writers and the working-class history of the Little Black Dress. She then went on to work at WNYC’s national daily news show, The Takeaway. Covering everything from El Salvador’s politics to the U.S.’s maternal mortality rate and even the global history of the color pink. You can also catch their work on the public radio show Our Body Politic, and Futuro Media’s political podcast, In The Thick. Monica has a Master of Arts in American Studies from California State University, Fullerton, and received her bachelor’s from Long Beach State.
About Green Tide Rising:
Asha and Monica are behind GREEN TIDE RISING (GTR), an eight-episode audio and video series that spotlights Latin America’s Green Wave movement and how it’s shaping some of the most progressive abortion policies in the world.
Through the eyes of feminist lawyer and reproductive rights advocate Ximena Casas Isaza, we meet the people who have turned the fight for reproductive justice in Latin America and the Caribbean into a powerful, modern feminist movement – from the tip of Argentina all the way to Mexico and beyond. Green Tide Rising positions the Global South as a beacon of hope and a reminder of what’s at stake for the Global North if we don’t act now.
About Dr. Sophia Armen
Dr. Sophia Armen is a Middle Eastern American feminist community organizer and writer. She is the co-founder and serves as the Co-Director of The Feminist Front, a national gender, queer, and racial justice organization for 15-35-year-olds that is fighting for women’s equality and working on key issues such as the Equal Rights Amendment, workers’ rights and equal pay, reproductive healthcare, gender-affirming care access, and survivor-centered initiatives through deep grassroots organizing. Armen was the first Middle Eastern American woman elected student body president in the history of the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her work has appeared in Vice News, Ms. Magazine, The Middle East Eye, NPR, The Feminist Realities Magazine, and in a cover story for The Los Angeles Times, among others.
About Rosie Couture
Rosie Couture is a junior at Harvard College, studying Social Studies and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She chairs the Institute of Politics’ Gender & Sexuality Coalition, organizes with the Harvard Feminist Coalition, and researches social movement-building with the Radcliffe Institute and the Nonviolent Action Lab at Harvard. Couture is also co-founder and co-Executive Director of the Young Feminist Party, a young people’s movement to finalize the Equal Rights Amendment and advance gender justice. Through direct actions, legislative advocacy, electoral organizing, and judicial advocacy, the Young Feminist Party recruits, trains, and mobilizes young people to advance feminist policies and build feminist futures.