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The Natural Womanhood Podcast
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The Natural Womanhood Podcast

Author: Grace Emily Stark

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The Natural Womanhood Podcast brings together experts in the field of fertility awareness for candid, informative, and friendly conversations about authentic women's health. From pelvic floor physical therapy, to surgical interventions, to relationships and mental health, no topic is off limits as we seek to bring the empowering truth about women, their bodies, and their cycles to our listeners: that is, that women's cycles are essential, powerful, beautiful, and do not need to be "controlled." 

The Natural Womanhood podcast is hosted by Grace Emily Stark, Natural Womanhood's Editor-in-Chief. Grace is an award-winning journalist, a certified instructor of the Sympto-Thermal Method of fertility awareness, and she holds a M.A. in Bioethics and Health Policy. 

The Natural Womanhood Podcast is a production of Natural Womanhood, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving women's health literacy through the promotion of evidence-based fertility awareness methods (FAMs) of natural family planning. Natural Womanhood exists because all women can learn to claim their natural fertility as beautiful, powerful, and healthy. 

29 Episodes
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When Erin Dewey first started at Texas A&M University, she never imagined that she'd be fondly known across campus as "the period girl" by the time she graduated. But that's the reputation she garnered from leading the very first Cycle Mindfulness Club—Natural Womanhood's peer-led university campus initiative designed to create a supportive community for young women to learn the science and truth of their God-given fertility and womanhood. But what Erin—and all the participants in the fir...
We ask kids all the time "what do you want to be when you grow up?" but how often do we ask them "do you want to be a mom?" or "do you want to be a dad?" These questions are the very basics of the concept known as reproductive life planning, a topic we unpack in detail during this enlightening episode of The Natural Womanhood Podcast featuring Dr. Danielle Miller, MD. As the founder of Luz Medicine, a direct primary care practice in Lancaster, PA, Dr. Miller focuses on the full spectrum of pr...
In May 2024, Melinda Gates pledged $1 billion dollars to defend “reproductive rights” in America. But back in 2012, she was throwing around even bigger sums and broader goals: she publicly pledged to dedicate $5 billion to fund a massive pro-contraception campaign in 69 of the poorest countries in the world, most of which, at the time, were in Sub-Saharan Africa. From her apartment in the UK, a young, female, Nigerian biomedical scientist watched her TV in anger and disbelief as Gates pledged...
As more women awaken to the reality that birth control has been used as a bandaid for so many of their health issues, the search for root-causes and authentic solutions has led many to consider alternatives to allopathic medical care, such as naturopathic medicine. But how does naturopathic medicine differ, especially for women's health? In today's episode of The Natural Womanhood Podcast, Grace interviews Dr. Jessica Whelan, ND (also a FertilityCare™ Practitioner and Medical consultant) who ...
An estimated 44% of girls don't know what's happening when they start their first period. And when it happens, many of those girls are fearful that they are sick—even dying—and suffer in silence, too embarrassed to admit what's happening or ask any questions about it. Fear, confusion, lies: This is the sad reality of puberty for far too many young American girls today. But it doesn't have to be that way for your daughter. In today's episode of The Natural Womanhood Podcast, Grace Emily Stark ...
For years, Jennifer Lahl has been one of the lone voices screaming into the void about the ethical dangers of assisted reproductive technology (ART), including egg and sperm donation, and surrogacy. She specializes in sharing the stories of those people the billion dollar ART industry likes to hide, like those of the children conceived by anonymous donor gametes longing to know their genetic parents, or surrogates and babies abandoned by commissioning couples. More recently, she's been workin...
"What started as an ambitious crowdfunding campaign back in 2014 has since grown into the world’s first wearable [basal body temperature] sensor, advancing women’s reproductive health throughout every stage." So reads TempDrop's "About Us" page. As it happens, Natural Womanhood's website also began 10 years ago, in 2014, and so it only feels right that we'd have the distinction of being the first podcast to ever interview TempDrop's inventor and founder, Michael Vardi.In this episode of The N...
Abigail Anthony knew a thing or two about pain and perseverance as a former competitive ballerina. But when her increasingly painful periods and other seemingly disparate side effects made her workload at Princeton harder and harder to manage, people treated her as if she just needed to mentally "toughen up."Now a graduate student at Oxford (and the current Collegiate Network Fellow at National Review), Abigail wrote the story of her endometriosis journey for The Free Press, where she interne...
Talking about intimacy can be tough, which can make communicating about natural family planning (NFP) with our spouse—or sharing about NFP and its benefits with others—a little bit... uncomfortable. How can we communicate better about sex, intimacy, and natural family planning to benefit not only our own marriages, but others', as well? In this intimacy-focused, third episode of season 3 of The Natural Womanhood Podcast, NW’s Editor-in-Chief, Grace Emily Stark, interviews Ellen Holloway, Cath...
One miscarriage is painful enough, but imagine suffering two in a row, only to be told that you "got unlucky twice," and that it's still "too early" to look into any potential underlying causes. Maybe you don't have to imagine; maybe this is your reality, as it is for so many women suffering the heartbreak of repeated miscarriage. In this miscarriage-focused, second episode of season 3 of The Natural Womanhood Podcast, NW’s Editor-in-Chief, Grace Emily Stark, interviews Jamie Rathjen, co-crea...
Emily and Kirk had just suffered their second miscarriage, and they were done: done with the pain, done with the fear, and done having kids. They had already had two children, and had made their peace with their family size, so they made the decision to have Kirk undergo a vasectomy. Done. Until... Join us for the first episode of season 3 of The Natural Womanhood Podcast, where NW's Editor-in-Chief, Grace Emily Stark, and Managing Editor, Anne Marie Williams, interview Emily and Kirk about ...
So many women wonder if they can reliably use a fertility awareness method (FAM) while breastfeeding—and it's little wonder, given that this can be the trickiest of times to learn and use a FAM. But with a little guidance and perseverance, it absolutely can be done, and we're here to talk about how! In this episode of The Natural Womanhood Podcast, co-host Cassondra Moriarty is in the hot-seat, using her expertise and experience as an IBLCE-certified lactation consultant, postpartum doula, FA...
Can Catholics Use NFP?

Can Catholics Use NFP?

2023-04-1351:32

It's no secret that fertility awareness methods (FAMs) can be a controversial subject. For non-Catholics, using FAMs for family planning is seen as controversial when they're (mis)understood as ineffective iterations of the Rhythm Method (of course, in reality, they're lightyears ahead of the Rhythm Method in scientific validity, and therefore incredibly effective when used appropriately). But for Catholics (who refer to the use of FAMs for family planning purposes as "Natural Family Planning...
"Does the world we build welcome mothers, or does it treat them as a problem to be solved?" That's the question author Leah Libresco Sargeant wrestles with over and over again in her writings on her Substack and elsewhere, and especially in her essay "Designing Woman" for Comment. For this episode of The Natural Womanhood Podcast (S2E8), Grace and Cassie were thrilled to interview Leah about her essay, and her thoughts on what it would take to build workplaces and a society that would truly w...
When it comes to adolescent sex education programs, do we have to choose between "abstinence-only" or "comprehensive?" Dr. Sarah Denny doesn't think so. In this episode of The Natural Womanhood Podcast, Grace and Cassie interview Dr. Denny about her beautiful and innovative vision of a "third way" for sex education—one which gives teens a full picture of both the biology and dignity of human reproduction. The Natural Womanhood Podcast brings together experts in the field of fertility awa...
In this episode of The Natural Womanhood Podcast (Season 2 / Episode 6), Grace and Cassie interview Dr. Matthew Loftus, a family doctor who currently lives (with his wife and four children!) and practices medicine in Kenya. As you might have guessed from the title, this is "the episode where we talk about porn," and we approached Dr. Loftus as a guest speaker on this topic after reading his excellent article on overcoming porn addiction in Plough. While this topic might seem a bit off-the-bea...
In this episode (Season 2 / Episode 5), Grace and Cassie interview Tiffany and Kelly of Beautiful One Midwifery, a practice based out of Encinitas, CA. In this wide-ranging interview, we discuss the key differences of midwifery care vs. obstetrical care when it comes to pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum—learning a lot about the power of women's bodies in the process. "Your body is not broken," says the Beautiful One Midwifery website, "it is simply begging you to take it out of the system...
FAM for Single Women

FAM for Single Women

2023-01-2751:19

In this episode (Season 2 / Episode 4), Grace and Cassie interview Julia McElhenny on the benefits of fertility awareness methods (FAMs) for single women. Julia is the assistant video editor for a non-profit media studio in Austin, TX called the Emergent Order Foundation, and she actually edited the first season of The Natural Womanhood Podcast for us—oh, and she happens to be Grace's little sister! Most importantly (for the purposes of this episode) Julia has been charting her cycles with a ...
PCOS & Nutrition

PCOS & Nutrition

2023-01-1301:02:20

In this episode (Season 2 / Episode 3), Grace and Cassie interview functional nutritionist and registered dietician Victoria Coglianese of Wonderfully Made Nutrition. We discuss not only what good nutrition looks like for women suffering from PCOS, but also how to be mindful of the ways we nourish our bodies as women. Women are not just small men, and our nutritional needs differ in some very important ways, which Victoria breaks down for us in the fascinating, highly-informative episode. We ...
In this episode (Season 2 / Episode 2), Grace interviews Leah Jacobson, author of Wholistic Feminism: Healing the Identity Crisis Caused by the Women's Movement, and founder and CEO of The Guiding Star Project. Grace and Leah have a fascinating conversation that discusses the implications of the women's movement, from its origins, to its effects on modern women's health and well-being, and how organizations like Natural Womanhood are paving the way for a more authentic vision of women's healt...
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