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Becky and Taina break down two former NBA players (Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White) declaring themselves eligible for the 2027 WNBA draft as a bad-faith stunt riding the wave of anti-trans hysteria in women's sports.

They trace the manufactured controversy back to comments from Sophie Cunningham and Riley Gaines, unpack the real legislative threat (the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act), and connect the dots between "protecting girls," Title IX defunding, eugenics, and control of women's bodies.

Timestamps:
00:06 – Cold open / catching up
00:36 – Setting up today's topic: two ex-NBA men declaring WNBA draft eligibility
01:14 – Background: Sophie Cunningham's "protect biological women" comments, Riley Gaines, XXXY Apparel
03:05 – Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve's "protect trans children" shirt; Gabby Williams pushes back
04:45 – Race dynamics around Caitlin Clark vs. Black WNBA players
04:59 – Enes Kanter Freedom formally declares for the WNBA draft
06:49 – Royce White follows suit; his failed Senate runs and political motives
07:48 – Royce White's "in touch with his feminine energy" routine
09:45 – The real legislative threat: Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act (H.R. 28 / Senate Bill 9) and Title IX
11:46 – "They're just dumb": basic biology, every fetus starts genetically female
13:35 – The real agenda: control, not trans people — "heterosexual family values"
17:10 – Sex is a spectrum: intersex variation explained
19:15 – The slippery slope from body-as-utility thinking to eugenics
21:37 – Bathroom policing, dehumanization, and the Gaza parallel
22:47 – "Protecting girls" via pelvic exams — the Larry Nassar comparison
24:23 – Shoutout to Megan Rapinoe; Title IX funding, Heritage Foundation, Project 2025
33:00 – Sitting with your own fear/bias instead of outsourcing the work to trans people
36:39 – Real harm comes from inside the home, not from trans strangers
39:04 – Race and the policing of femininity — why this falls hardest on Black women
42:12 – Where are the men calling this out? Fragile masculinity
43:14 – Declaring draft eligibility means nothing — no team is taking either of them
43:48 – Closing thoughts: go meet a trans person; "we love you"

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Becky and Taina are back from their summer Everything Is Political series with their regular weekly episode, kicking things off with the internet-breaking trailer for Wicker — the upcoming movie starring Olivia Colman, Alexander Skarsgård, and Peter Dinklage about a woman who marries a man made of wicker. What starts as trailer reactions turns into a wider conversation about the booming romance and "smutty romance" book industry, the trad wife movement's contradictions, media literacy, and who gets conditioned to be curious versus who doesn't.

What we discussed:
00:00 – Welcome back after the summer Everything Is Political series
00:28 – Introducing today's topic: the Wicker trailer
01:33 – First reactions to the trailer and the Bookstagram/BookTok buzz
04:11 – Breaking down the premise (and the jokes about it)
09:52 – "It's all men until it's not all men" — men continuing to fall short
10:08 – The wicker husband, village jealousy, and the metal-collar marriage symbolism
12:17 – Why this topic: free publicity and the bigger conversation about romance/smut
15:39 – Trad wife influencers, rising conservatism, and the contradiction underneath it (Nara Smith)
16:54 – Aside on the novel Yesteryear
20:16 – Romance publishing stats: 52% revenue growth, $1.44B a year
22:59 – Wicker as a modern fairy tale / parallels to Beauty and the Beast
24:26 – Entertainment as propaganda: military movies and Hollywood contracts
26:14 – Media literacy: why it matters for everything we consume, not just news
31:21 – Privilege, curiosity, and who gets conditioned not to question things
34:07 – Curiosity as joy; how liberal arts education changed things for Becky
36:22 – The power of "why" and "what if" as questions
43:00 – Wrap-up and plans to revisit after they've both seen the movie in October

Resources mentioned:
• Wicker trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP0BWBWn14I
• "The Wicker Husband" short story: https://www.scribd.com/document/163478512/The-Wicker-Husban1
• "Yesteryear" by Caro Claire Burke: https://amzn.to/3TEeLNs

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On this episode of Messy Liberation, hosts Becky Mollenkamp and Taina Brown look back on their "Everything Is Political" series — reflecting on agency, systemic bias, and intersectional feminism through conversations on trash and environmental racism, clothing equity, comedy and queer identity, book diversity, AI and data bias, and podcasting access. It's a candid, funny, and grounding recap for anyone trying to hold onto hope while facing systems designed to wear you down.

In This Episode, We Get Into:
• Why disengaging from online arguments can be an act of agency, not avoidance
• The "not my ministry" mindset and choosing which conversations are actually worth your energy
• How trash pickup reveals environmental racism and the myth of "universal" utilities
• The beautification effect and why cared-for spaces get cared for
• How access to clothing that fits shapes self-worth, agency, and daily choices
• Becky's deep dive into Universal Standard sizing and why "medium" is doing a lot of political work
• What Dahlia Belle's Netflix special Gender Agenda revealed about comedy, pronouns, and survival
• Becky's book-tracking dashboard and what it exposed about whose voices she was (and wasn't) reading
• Why AI and algorithms only look backward, and what that means for bias and representation
• Who gets the mic in podcasting, and why access doesn't always mean equity

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In this episode of Messy Liberation, hosts Becky Mollenkamp and Taina Brown sit down with data and analytics professional Millie to explore why data is never as neutral as it looks — and why that matters for everyone. From biased medical studies and skewed incarceration stats to the politics of AI, the census, and your personal data being sold without your consent, this conversation connects the dots between numbers on a screen and the power structures shaping our lives.

In This Episode, We Get Into:
• Why data isn't neutral, and how human bias gets baked in at every stage of collection, analysis, and presentation
• How manipulated charts, skewed infographics, and decontextualized research statistics mislead the public
• Real-world examples of data bias causing serious harm: medication dosages, Plan B effectiveness, census undercounting, and school funding
• The deeply troubling way incarceration data is used to reinforce racist narratives about Black and brown communities
• How AI inherits and amplifies data bias, and why "garbage in, garbage out" is a phrase everyone should know
• What data literacy actually looks like, and how to become a smarter, more critical consumer of statistics and studies
• The GDPR, browser cookies, and why your personal data is already a product being sold without your cut
• How to use public open data resources (like NYC Open Data) to engage with information in your community

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In this episode of Messy Liberation, hosts Becky Mollenkamp and Taina Brown sit down with Sarah Heeter — podcast producer, strategist, and founder of PodFox Media — to dig into the deeply political nature of the podcasting world. From who gets to profit and who gets erased by the algorithm, to how podcasts are reshaping elections and what your listening habits actually mean, this is the intersectional feminist media analysis you didn't know you needed.

In This Episode, We Get Into:
• Why podcasting is a political medium, even when the content has nothing to do with politics
• The gatekeeping problem: who profits most from podcasting (spoiler: it's mostly white men) and what that means for independent creators
• How the 2020 celebrity podcast boom reshaped the entire industry, and who it left behind
• The 2024 election strategy of using podcasts as campaign tools, and what that means for democracy and misinformation
• The responsibility of podcast hosts and producers to vet guests, set core values, and decide what they put their name on
• Why podcast listeners are disproportionately persuadable and what top creators are doing with that influence
• How consumers and independent creators can make intentional, values-aligned choices in both what they listen to and who they platform
• The power of community resources like the Feminist Podcasters Collective to amplify marginalized indie voices
• Why 50 loyal podcast listeners means more than 100K TikTok views, and how to think about audience depth vs. follower counts
• The unresolved questions about video podcasting, transcripts, AI, and accessibility that are already shaping who can participate in this space

Resources Mentioned:
• PodFox Media: https://podfoxmedia.com/
• Big Brave Business podcast: https://bigbravebusiness.com/
• Feminist Podcasters Collective: https://feministpodcastcollective.com
• Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/
• Listen Notes: https://www.listennotes.com/

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In this episode of Messy Liberation, host Becky Mollenkamp sits down with comedian and writer Mx. Dahlia Belle to pull back the curtain on the deeply political world of stand-up comedy. From gatekeeping and blacklisting to biased algorithms and the consent politics of who gets to make jokes about whom, this conversation is an essential intersectional feminist guide to understanding comedy as a site of power and resistance.

In This Episode, We Get Into:
• How Mx. Dahlia Belle went from writing a viral Guardian piece about Dave Chappelle to appearing on Hannah Gadsby's Netflix special Gender Agenda, and what happened to their career immediately after
• Why comedy is a pyramid scheme: how the most powerful comics in any scene control who gets booked, who gets stage time, and who gets shut out
• The self-replicating myth that women and trans people "aren't funny," and how internalized bias keeps marginalized audiences away from shows that could change that
• How biased algorithms compound gatekeeping, and what it means when a comic's social media following matters more than their actual craft
• The nuanced take on punching up vs. punching down, and why Mx. Dahlia Belle's real gauge is whether the joke lands for someone who loves them and someone who hates them
• The violence and predation inside comedy scenes, and how it was the women who blew the whistle on abusers who got blacklisted, not the abusers themselves
• Why stand-up is uniquely inseparable from the artist's character, and why "separating the art from the artist" doesn't work the same way for comedy as it does for painting or fiction
• The concept of consent in comedy: who has the right to tell a joke about a particular identity, and what it means when that consent is absent
• Where to actually find queer and alt comedy in your city (and why you should probably boycott your local mainstream comedy club)
• Why marginalized people tend to be more creative, funnier, and more imaginative because survival demands it

Resources Mentioned:
• Mx. Dahlia Belle's "Dear Dave Chappelle" piece for the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2021/oct/09/dave-chappelle-letter-trans-comedian-netflix
• Hannah Gadsby's Gender Agenda on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81607199
• "The Algorithms of Opression" by Safiya Umoja Noble: https://amzn.to/439nUPL
• Comedian Devi Kersh: https://www.instagram.com/devikirsch/
• Comedian Sir Lance Edward: https://www.instagram.com/sir_lance_edward_comedy/
• Mx. Dahlia Belle on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MX.DAHLIABELLE/
• Mx. Dahlia Belle on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@mx.dahliabelle/
• Mx. Dahla Belle on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@mxdahliabelle

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In this episode of Messy Liberation, hosts Becky Mollenkamp and Taina Brown sit down with personal stylist and body liberation advocate Dacy Gillespie of Mindful Closet to unpack the deeply political nature of fashion and clothing. From workplace dress codes rooted in white supremacy to the impossible standards placed on larger bodies, the return of "heroin chic," modesty culture, and the radical act of letting your hair go gray — this conversation is for anyone who has ever stood in their closet feeling like nothing fits, nothing's allowed, and nothing will ever be enough.

In This Episode, We Get Into:

• How Dacy's mother organizing workers in a sewing factory planted the seed for her life's work — and why she was raised to believe caring about clothes was shameful
• The way workplace "professionalism" is really just a dress code for "look as much like a white man as possible" — and who pays the price for deviating from it
• Fashion as code-switching: the daily calculation people of color, trans folks, and anyone outside the norm make about how much of themselves to reveal
• Trayvon Martin and the deadly, literal consequences of what you're wearing
• Why Dacy won't tell you what's "flattering" — and why her forthcoming book is called Unflattering
• The return of 90s "heroin chic" body ideals and the terror of watching it happen again in the age of GLP-1s
• Size scarcity: why plus-size people are often left with ten moomoos and good luck — including the callout of Lucy and Yak removing their 4X sizing
• Modesty, the Missouri House's no-bare-shoulders rule, and how women's bodies are treated as a liability in public spaces
• What Chappell Roan at the Grammys has to do with the sexual double standard
• Aging, perimenopause, and the radical act of collecting images of women who actually look like you
• Why your mental health and feeling good in your body is always the top priority — even if that means buying from Target

Resources Mentioned:

• Dacy Gillespie: https://www.mindfulcloset.com/
• Dacy's Substack newsletter, "Unflattering": https://dacygillespie.substack.com/
• "The Body Is Not an Apology" by Sonya Renee Taylor: https://amzn.to/4uNa3L8
• Dress for Success Midwest: https://midwest.dressforsuccess.org/

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In this episode of Messy Liberation, hosts Becky Mollenkamp and Taina Brown sit down with registered dietitian and nutritionist Shana Spence — known as @thenutritiontea on Instagram and Threads — to dig into the deeply political nature of food access, diet culture, and nutrition misinformation. From food deserts and SNAP cuts to GLP-1s and white supremacy's grip on body standards, this conversation connects the dots between what ends up on your plate and the systems of power that put it there (or don't).

In This Episode, We Get Into:
• What a food desert actually is, and why even dense urban areas like New York City and Atlanta have them
• How redlining, gerrymandering, and structural racism shape which communities have access to grocery stores
• The layered barriers to food access: disability, transportation, language, income, and more
• Why "just grow your own food" and other individualist advice is completely disconnected from reality
• The explosion of GLP-1 drugs (like Ozempic and Wegovy) and whether we're in pursuit of health or just thinness
• How diet culture is rooted in white supremacy and Eurocentric beauty standards
• The SNAP cuts in the "Big Beautiful Bill" and the domino effect on food insecurity and health outcomes
• Why seed oils have been debunked as harmful, and how nutrition misinformation spreads
• Lab-grown food, GMOs, and what a more just food future could actually look like
• Shana's core message: how you eat is individual, not a moral failing

Resources Mentioned:
• "Live Nourished: Make Peace with Food, Banish Body Shame and Reclaim Joy" by Shana Spence: https://amzn.to/4e1QlEf
• "Anti-Diet" by Christy Harrison: https://amzn.to/4vjQhXj
• "Fearing the Black Body" by Sabrina Strings: https://amzn.to/4vhq9MM
• "The Body Liberation Project" by Chrissy King: https://amzn.to/4dEzp7O
• Shana's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenutritiontea/
• Shana's Threads: https://www.threads.com/@thenutritiontea
• The Nutrition Tea (Shana's Substack: https://substack.com/@thenutritiontea

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