EPPiC Broadcast

What effects would legislation proposed in various states have on families and the states' child welfare systems? To answer that, we looked to Texas, where the same measures have already become law. This week, we talked with Andrew Brown, vice president of Policy with the Texas Public Policy Foundation, about some of the laws Texas passed in recent years, including a new law guarenteeing a right to a second opinion for parents who have been accused of abuse by a child abuse pediatrician, a law that requires parents to be told their legal rights during a child welfare investigation, and a law that differentiates between poverty and neglect. The EPPiC Broadcast is hosted by Michael Ramey, president of the Parental Rights Foundation. You can sign up for email alerts to keep yourself informed on parental rights news at https://parentalrightsfoundation.org/get-involved/. Support the show

This week we talk with Will Estrada, senior counsel at the Homeschool Legal Defense Association and former president of the Parental Rights Foundation, as well as the former host of the EPPiC Broadcast. Will has also served as attorney with the Federal Department of Health and Human Services. In this episode, Will tells us about his upcoming law review article, in which he argues that parental rights are a pre-political right, and that the family is a basic building block of society. The EPPiC Broadcast is hosted by Michael Ramey, president of the Parental Rights Foundation. You can sign up for email alerts to keep yourself informed on parental rights news at https://parentalrightsfoundation.org/get-involved/. Support the show

This week, we’re talking with Michelle Weidner, executive director of the Family Justice Resource Center in Illinois, which represents families in CPS cases across the country. Michelle is also a parent with lived experience dealing with the child protective system. In this episode, she tells about her experience being falsely accused by a child abuse pediatrician over a blur on her infant son’s medical scan. Michelle also tells about how the Family Justice Resource Center works to reunite parents and children who have been separated by the system, and legislation that the Center is championing in Illinois to protect families from false allegations of abuse. The EPPiC Broadcast is hosted by Michael Ramey, president of the Parental Rights Foundation. You can sign up for email alerts to keep yourself informed on parental rights news at https://parentalrightsfoundation.org/get-involved/. Support the show

This week, we're rewinding to a a conversation with Martin Guggenheim from February 2021.In this episode,  we talk with Martin Guggenheim, who has taught at the NYU School of Law for over 25 years, and is one of the foremost experts on family law and family rights today. Marty tells us about his lengthy career in the family law field, including how the current child welfare system came to be, and why it’s vitally important that parents receive legal representation in court.Marty also explains how the Adoption and Safe Families Act, a cornerstone of the modern child welfare system, provides states with an incentive to permanently remove children from their birth families over the smallest parenting shortcomings, and what a better alternative would look like. Support the show

This week, we’re talking with Kelly Fong, author of Investigating Families: Motherhood in the Shadow of Child Protective Services, published in 2023. Kelly is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of California Irvine. In this episode, Kelly explains how child protective services exert an inescapable surveillance over many parents, especially low income and minority mothers. During her research, Kelly embedded herself in the child protective system to gain an inside perspective on how the system affects families. The EPPiC Broadcast is hosted by Michael Ramey, president of the Parental Rights Foundation. You can sign up for email alerts to keep yourself informed on parental rights news at https://parentalrightsfoundation.org/get-involved/. Support the show

This week, we’re talking with Matt Sharp, senior legal counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom. Matt tells us about the Families Rights and Responsibilities Act, recently introduced into the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives that aims to safeguard parental rights and provide parents with strong legal protections at the national level. Matt explains what’s in the bill, why it was created, and what you can do to help support it. The EPPiC Broadcast is hosted by Michael Ramey, president of the Parental Rights Foundation. You can sign up for email alerts to keep yourself informed on parental rights news at https://parentalrightsfoundation.org/get-involved/. Support the show

Welcome back to the EPPiC Broadcast! We’re kicking off season 8 with a returning appearance of Diane Redleaf. Diane is the legal consultant at Let Grow, an organization that promotes reasonable childhood independence. She’s also the author of They Took the Kids Last Night. In this episode, Diane tells us what reasonable childhood independence is and why it matters for protecting parental and family rights. Plus hear about her work advocating for families caught up in the child welfare system.This episode is dedicated to the memory of Diane Redleaf's mother, Rhoda Redleaf, herself an iconic national leader in child advocacy for six decades who was instrumental as a strategic partner of our speaker in her own career as a child and family advocate. Rhoda passed away on Feb. 3, 2024.The EPPiC Broadcast is hosted by Michael Ramey, president of the Parental Rights Foundation. You can sign up for email alerts to keep yourself informed on parental rights news at https://parentalrightsfoundation.org/get-involved/. Support the show

This week we talk with Will Estrada, senior counsel at the Homeschool Legal Defense Association and former president of the Parental Rights Foundation, as well as the former host of the EPPiC Broadcast. Will has also served as attorney with the Federal Department of Health and Human Services. Today, Will explains some of the parental rights-focused work that HSLDA is currently doing. Plus, hear about what he accomplished during his tenure as president of the Parental Rights Foundation and his perspective on where the parental rights movement is headed in the future.This episode marks the end of Season 7. Thank you for listening, and we will see you again in February 2024 for Season 8! Support the show

This week we talk with Kevin Boden, director of HSLDA International. Kevin tells us about the victories and challenges homeschooling is facing internationally. Kevin is the lead attorney for the Romeike family, who came to the US in 2006 after facing legal hardships in Germany for homeschooling their children. Support the show

This week we talk with Jim Mason, president of the Home School Legal Defense Association and former president of ParentalRights.org and the Parental Rights Foundation. In this episode, Jim explains how homeschooling has grown from its fringe roots in the 70's into an enduring education option today, with abundant resources to help parents best educate their children. He also explains what he believes is next for the homeschooling movement.Support the show

This week we talk with Jane Spinak, author of The End of Family Court: How Abolishing the Court Brings Justice to Children and Families. Jane is a Clinical Professor of Law Emerita at Columbia Law School, where she directed clinical programs in family regulation for forty years. In this episode, Jane traces her journey from working to reform the family court system to advocating for its abolishment. She tells us about the history of the family court system, which was created to be benevolent toward families, but harshly punishes parents and children. Jane’s book lays out the case for abolishing family court completely, and replacing it with programs designed to truly support families rather than surveilling and policing them. Support the show

This week we talk with Michael Farris, constitutional law scholar, founding president of ParentalRights.org, and the former CEO and president of Alliance Defending Freedom. In this episode, Michael responds to a recent Washington Post article about his role in the parental rights movement and gives us an update on the projects he’s been working on recently. Support the show

This week, we talk with Joyce McMillian. Joyce is a thought leader, advocate, community organizer, educator, and the Founder and Executive Director of Just Making A Change for Families (JMACforFamilies). Joyce walks us through her work advocating for families that find themselves caught up in New York’s child welfare system, the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS). Black, low income families are targeted by the ACS at a disproportionate rate. Joyce explains what factors play into this disproportionality and how New York could do better. Support the show

This week, we talk with Melissa Moschella, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the Catholic University of America, where her teaching focuses on bioethics and the moral and political status of the family. Melissa is also the author of To Whom Do Children Belong? Parental Rights, Civic Education, and Children's Autonomy.Melissa explains her argument that parental rights are pre-governmental and rely on the natural rights of parents, rather than being conferred by the government, and why the family is the most important, basic building block of society. She explains why schools keeping secrets from parents, even with the best interest of children in mind, ultimately harms both children and parents. This episode contains discussion of controversial subject matter. The EPPiC Broadcast welcomes discussion on a variety of viewpoints regarding parental rights issues; however, the views and opinions expressed by guests are solely their own.Support the show

This week, we talk with Anna Arons. Anna is the Impact Project Director at the New York University Defense Clinic and formerly the acting assistant professor of lawyering at the New York University School of Law. She’s also an assistant professor of law at the Saint John’s University School of Law. In this episode, Anna discusses her law review article, The Empty Promise of the Fourth Amendment in the Family Regulation System. In her article, she explains how the child welfare system unfairly targets and polices poor and minority families and denies them the constitutional protections they are promised under the Fourth Amendment. Support the show

This week, Michael talks with William Wagner, vice president of the Parental Rights Foundation. William is a distinguished Professor Emeritus of Law at the Western Michigan University Cooley Law School, and founder of Salt and Light Global. William has served as a federal magistrate judge in the U.S. Courts, as Legal Counsel in the U.S Senate, and as Senior Assistant United States Attorney in the Department of Justice.William tells us about his background in constitutional law and how he came to care passionately about parental rights, plus the work he’s been doing recently on parental rights cases. Support the show

This week, we talk with Erin Phillips, president of Power2Parent, an organization uniting parents who want to advocate for their children’s education. Power2Parent is based in Nevada, but maintains chapters in many states. Erin tells us about recent challenges to parents rights in Nevada that her organization has faced, plus victories in Nevada and across the country. Support the show

Vivek Sankaren is a clinical professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School, and director of their Child Advocacy Law Clinic and the Child Welfare Appellate Clinic. He’s authored over three dozen journal and law review articles, including “The Ties That Bind Us: an Empirical, Clinical, and Constitutional Argument Against Terminating Parental Rights”. In this episode, Vivek discusses the arguments he makes in his law review article that children are best cared for and protected when they maintain an attachment and connection to their families of origin. Support the show

This week, we talk with Jerry Milner, former Associate Commissioner of the Children’s Bureau in the US Department of Health and Human Services. Far too often, the US child welfare system creates incentives to unnecessarily separate families, harming the children it tries to protect. During his tenure with the Children’s Bureau, Jerry worked to create reforms that prioritize family preservation and reunification instead. Now, Jerry serves as the Director of the Family Justice Group. Support the show

This week, we talk with Dr. Josh Gupta-Kagan, Professor at Columbia University School of Law and author of “The Hidden Foster Care System.” Josh explains how many parents in child welfare investigations find their children placed with relatives, completely off the official record. While placing children with relatives, sometimes called kinship care, is not an inherently bad thing and can result in good outcomes for families, the severe lack of oversight and documentation in these placements is a glaring problem. Josh tells us what happens during an off-the-record placement, why the child welfare system doesn’t keep track of these cases, and how he’s fighting for reform and better oversight.Support the show