Renee Bracey Sherman and Regina Mahone proudly share their abortion stories, which led one of them to realize she wanted to be a mom and confirmed for the other that she didn’t. Plus: the problematic ways we talk about "readiness" for parenthood… and sex after abortion.

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Recommendations from the archive

• Listen to The Scarlet A, about one of the rare OBGYNs who provides abortions (and needed one herself)

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More from Renee and Regina

• Book: Liberating Abortion

• Podcast: The A Files

• Website: liberatingabortion.org

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Get involved

Renee and Regina say there’s a lot you can do to help improve abortion access in your community. Start by contacting your local clinic, abortion fund, or doula collective. These places are always looking for volunteers with a wide range of skills.

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Renee and Regina’s recommended reading list

• The Abortion Companion by Becca Rea-Tucker

• Killers of Roe by Nancy Littlefield

• Expecting Inequity by Khiara M. Bridges

• Killing the Black Body by Dorothy Roberts

• Relinquished by Gretchen Sission

• A book about bodies for kids: Boobies by Nancy Vo

*When you buy through these links, we receive a commission, so your purchase supports the show!

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• Join LST+ for community and access to You Know What, another show in the Longest Shortest universe!

• Follow us on Instagram

• Sign up for our newsletter, where we recommend other parenting + reproductive health media

• Buy books by LST guests (your purchase supports the show!)

• Website: longestshortesttime.com

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How do you make a baby when you’ve got a uterus and your partner does, too? We hear how one family did it, in this two-parter. And how some of their plans… don’t go according to plan.

⭐️ This episode originally ran on November 23, 2016 and is a favorite from the archives. We hope you enjoy, and we’ll be back next week with a brand new episode. (And tune in the following week for the second part of this episode!)

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• Join LST+ for community and access to You Know What, another show in the Longest Shortest universe!

• Follow us on Instagram

• Sign up for our newsletter, where we recommend other parenting + reproductive health media

• Buy books by LST guests (your purchase supports the show!)

• Website: longestshortesttime.com

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Feeling enraged lately? Dr. Kameelah Phillips gives us the facts about perimenopausal mood swings — and gets personal about her own. (Red lipstick while listening is not mandatory, but highly encouraged!)

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Disclaimer: Information presented by Dr. Phillips does not constitute medical advice or medical care. All medical concerns should be discussed with your healthcare professional.

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Recommendations from the archive

Check out the other episodes in our perimenopause series:

• WTF Is Perimenopause?

• Painful Sex and Elusive Orgasms in Perimenopause

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Episode resources

• Dr. Kameelah Phillips is the founder of Calla Women’s Health in New York City

• Check out Dr. Phillips’s book, The Empowered Hysterectomy

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• Join LST+ for community and access to You Know What, another show in the Longest Shortest universe!

• Follow us on Instagram

• Sign up for our newsletter, where we recommend other parenting + reproductive health media

• Buy books by LST guests (your purchase supports the show!)

• Website: longestshortesttime.com

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Cover photo credit: Ginny Suss

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Have you been obsessing over Heated Rivalry? Us too. It feels like EVERYONE's been crazy about this show — yes, even the lesbians. So what makes this series SO HOT even for people who aren't gay men?

Today, we bring you a special episode of one of our fave pods, Sex Ed with DB. Join DB for a fun and illuminating conversation about Heated Rivalry, BL, and yaoi, with guest Lina Dune!

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Recommendations from the archive

• Want more Heated Rivalry content? We discussed Lessons in Love from YA TV on an episode earlier this year!

• We had DB on the show back in January for a fun and informative episode about Birth Control Troubles and Vibrator Triumphs.

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Episode resources

• DB’s guest on this episode is Lina Dune, a kink writer, content creator, host of the Ask A Sub podcast and fairy submother to all who seek her advice. She can be found writing about desire over on Substack at askasub.substack.com and on Instagram at @askasub2.0

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Sponsors (using our links supports the show!)

• Join LST+ for community and access to You Know What, another show in the Longest Shortest universe!

• Follow us on Instagram

• Sign up for our newsletter, where we recommend other parenting + reproductive health media

• Buy books by LST guests (your purchase supports the show!)

• Website: longestshortesttime.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Marvel asked Dennis Hopeless to create a new story for Spider-Woman, he knew he wanted her to be pregnant. In this episode, he explains why. And we hear from his wife Jessie, the real-life superhero behind Spider-Woman. 

⭐️ This episode originally ran on February 29, 2016 and is a favorite from the archives. We hope you enjoy, and we’ll be back next week with a brand new episode.

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Episode resources

• Buy Mom tattoos designed by Jessie Hopeless for Mother’s Day! And check out all our other cool merch.

• See panels from Dennis Hopeless’s Spider-Woman series on our website, including drawings of a pregnant Spider-Woman…

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Sponsors (using our links supports the show!)

• Join LST+ for community and access to You Know What, another show in the Longest Shortest universe!

• Follow us on Instagram

• Sign up for our newsletter, where we recommend other parenting + reproductive health media

• Buy books by LST guests (your purchase supports the show!)

• Website: longestshortesttime.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Laura Kavanagh knew she would encounter challenges as the first female fire commissioner of the FDNY. But she didn’t anticipate the false rumors that she slept her way to the top — or the nastier rumors about her supposed pregnancy. Now, for the first time, she shares what was actually going on in her reproductive life when she ran the fire department.

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Recommendations from the archive

• Listen to Eggs Over Freezy for more about the process of freezing your eggs.

• Curious about IVF? Check out One Woman, 3 Kids, 15 Rounds of IVF.

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Episode resources

• Laura Kavanagh wrote an op-ed for Fortune about her time as FDNY commissioner, and how to change the workplace for the better.

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Sponsors (using our links supports the show!)

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• Join LST+ for community and access to You Know What, another show in the Longest Shortest universe!

• Follow us on Instagram

• Sign up for our newsletter, where we recommend other parenting + reproductive health media

• Buy books by LST guests (your purchase supports the show!)

• Website: longestshortesttime.com

...

Cover photo credit: Guerin Blask for City and State

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As an OBGYN, Jessica thought recovering from childbirth would be a breeze. She didn’t count on her own mother sabotaging her plans of postpartum bliss.

⭐️ This episode originally ran on December 19, 2018 and is a favorite from the archives. We hope you enjoy, and we’ll be back next week with a brand new episode.

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• Join LST+ for community and access to You Know What, another show in the Longest Shortest universe!

• Follow us on Instagram

• Sign up for our newsletter, where we recommend other parenting + reproductive health media

• Buy books by LST guests (your purchase supports the show!)

• Website: longestshortesttime.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you've given birth, or you’re entering menopause, or you simply have a vagina... chances are, at some point, you’ve had painful or uncomfortable sex. Today, Dr. Lauren Streicher, OBGYN and menopause expert, gives us the inside info on sex and perimenopause.

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Disclaimer: Information presented by Dr. Streicher does not constitute medical advice or medical care. All medical concerns should be discussed with your healthcare professional.

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Recommendations from the archive

• Listen to the first episode in our perimenopause series: WFT Is Perimenopause?
• For more about pelvic floor therapy, listen to Healing After Childbirth.
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Episode resources

• Check out Dr. Streicher’s books Sex Rx and The Essential Guide to Hysterectomy.
• You can also listen to her podcasts, Dr. Streicher’s Inside Information: The Menopause Podcast and Come Again. There’s a whole episode about Why Vibrators Work So Well on Come Again. Use code LONGSHORT for 30% off your subscription!
• Watch Dr. Streicher’s videos about how to get a hands-free view of your vulva and how to apply lube properly.

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• Join LST+ for community and access to You Know What, another show in the Longest Shortest universe!

• Follow us on Instagram

• Sign up for our newsletter, where we recommend other parenting + reproductive health media

• Buy books by LST guests (your purchase supports the show!)

• Website: longestshortesttime.com

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Today we bring you an episode from Proxy, the podcast that investigates your niche emotional conundrums. Listeners bring host Yowei Shaw the kinds of problems that don’t have easy answers, and then Yowei connects them with a stranger with relevant life experience, in the hope that they can help.

In this episode, Yowei talks with her friend, journalist Brian Reed, who spends his professional life tracking down and confirming facts. The problem is… he can’t stop fact-checking his mother-in-law, even though he knows she has Alzheimer’s. 

If you like what you hear, you can find more episodes of Proxy wherever you listen. 

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• Join LST+ for community and access to You Know What, another show in the Longest Shortest universe!

• Follow us on Instagram

• Sign up for our newsletter, where we recommend other parenting + reproductive health media

• Buy books by LST guests (your purchase supports the show!)

• Website: longestshortesttime.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Trystan and Biff are back! We catch up with them about parenthood, postpartum bodies, and if there are any more kids in their future.

⭐️ This episode originally ran on October 23, 2019 and is a favorite from the archives. We hope you enjoy, and we’ll be back next week with a brand new episode.

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Check out the entire Accidental Gay Parents series!

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• Join LST+ for community and access to You Know What, another show in the Longest Shortest universe!

• Follow us on Instagram

• Sign up for our newsletter, where we recommend other parenting + reproductive health media

• Buy books by LST guests (your purchase supports the show!)

• Website: longestshortesttime.com

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A lot of us wrestle with whether to start a family, or to grow the one we have. Today, Helena de Groot shares her own kid ambivalence — and the messy, intimate, confusing process of getting her husband to believe her wishes around whether or not to become a mom.

(Plus, Hillary shares something she’s never talked about publicly before!)

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Recommendations from the archive

• Should I Have Kids? Follow a former LST producer’s journey as she confronts this big question.

• Fresh Air’s Terry Gross decided not to have kids. Hear her story: Terry Gross on Not Having Kids

• Still having doubts? Listen to The 36 Questions to Ask Your Partner Before Having Kids

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Episode resources

• Hear the rest of Helena’s story in her series Creation Myth, from CBC Podcasts

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• Join LST+ for community and access to You Know What, another show in the Longest Shortest universe!

• Follow us on Instagram

• Sign up for our newsletter, where we recommend other parenting + reproductive health media

• Buy books by LST guests (your purchase supports the show!)

• Website: longestshortesttime.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices