Look I’m tired. I’m tired, and I’m scared, and I don’t feel like I have anything new to say. But we’re doing this anyway. Because there’s no other choice.

My rule is when I feel overwhelmed, I look for a way to take an action (something beyond just scrolling on my phone or reading a news story that will make me angry). Because if I can find a way to learn more or do more or help more, I usually stop feeling so damn overwhelmed and instead feel like at least I did something. And today I want to talk about learning more.

Podcasts

These days I learn best by listening, and podcasts are the perfect, bite-sized bit of information. These seven episodes from three of my favorite podcasts are especially good.

Live Like the World is Dying:

• Managing Fertility and Pregnancy Outside a Clinical Context April 4, 2025 Yeah, so, this seriously changed the way I think about the very earliest days of a potential pregnancy and helped me find language to think about approaching conception and fertility within a fundamentally different framework. Plus now I know how Ella and Plan B are different (cough, something that always bugged me since Plan B is less effective for people who weigh more than 165lbs and Ella isn’t). Link to the guest Samantha Zipporah’s work below.
• Hazel on How to To Do It Anyway March 21, 2025 I love this so much that I, at the age of 46, actually printed out and put together a god damn zine (pretty sure me doing that only after having published a stack of more traditional books says something fundamental and concerning about my psyche and childhood…but if it helps, I did give it coloring pages and a sewn binding and stickers). This episode and accompanying zine (linked below) talks about all the tremendously important stuff the patient information sheet that comes with a packet of pills doesn’t cover. The one I printed out lives with the pills in my closet now, just in case.
• Bay Area Doula Project on Abortion and Abortion Access June 3, 2022 This episode is from right before Roe was overturned and it contains a line that resonates with me more and more every time I hear it. At about 50 minutes in, Cobalt, one of the guests says “the reality is that the biggest complication and risk of, of abortion is being incarcerated for it and being criminalized for it.” If that doesn’t leave you horrified over the state of the medical system here, I don’t know what will. And it’s only gotten worse over the last three years.

Propaganda by the Seed:

• Herbal Abortion and Fertility Control with August Sender June 14, 2022 First in a two part series, this episode focuses on the long history of abortion (yes, we have always always always had abortions, and we will continue to have abortions, because control of our bodies is so fundamental to our autonomy and our survival).
• Herbal Abortion & Fertility Control wuth Mischa Schuler July 22, 2022 Second in the series, this episode talks about the sorts of ways a person might think about and manage their fertility.

You’re Wrong About:

• Roe v. Wade November 21 2018 How much do you actually know about the case that made abortion (somewhat) more accessible (for some people…for a little while). Because I bet you don’t know as much as you think. And you should probably know more!
• The “Pro-Life” Movement with Megan Burbank January 25, 2024 You know how those christian nationalist fuckwits keep going on about how they should be in charge of your body, not you? Yeah…turns out there’s a reason for that. And a big chunk of that reason is literally just racists not wanting to pay taxes. You think I’m kidding, but that really is at the heart of a lot of the current situation. And this will explain why.

Publications

When you’re done with those and want to put something in your handy dandy post apocalyptic library (no really, I’m not kidding, I have a shelf in my library I think of as ‘the books I’ll want if things get worse,’ and this stuff is on it), these should be on your shelf.

• How to do it Anyway: A guide to self managing an abortion at home by Hazel Acacia 2025 This is the most comforting blend of easily accessible, factually correct, and emotionally engaged information I have ever encountered. You can get the pdf for free and print it yourself, or order paper copies for what it costs to print them. I printed out several copies and tucked them in with the pills in my closet, because if somebody needs one, having the other is going to be important too. I think you should do the same.
• Natural Liberty: Rediscovering self-induced abortion methods by the Sage-Femme Collective 2008 I mean it pretty much does what it says on the tin. The book details how a menstrual cycle works, what different types of abortions entail, and what the risks and benefits of different options are. The pdf is freely available at the link I posted, and you can find print copies online if you want.
• The works of Samantha Zipporah I bet you know less about your body than you think. Which is totally not your fault! Bodies are complicated, and medicine has a long history of treating our bodies like we’re just malfunctioning dudes. Plus society works really hard to train you to believe that there’s something wrong and bad and dirty and probably even sinful about your body (and then to sell you products to handle that). But if you learn more about your body, you’ll have more control over your life. And if you do that learning in a supportive and affirming space, you’ll probably have a lot more fun with your life too. And Samantha can help with that.

That’s all for today. I wish I could give you something to do that would fix it. But I can’t. All I can do is encourage you to learn something new so you can be better equipped to take care of yourself and your family and friends and your community as we all navigate this shitstorm together.

Because they can’t stop us. They can never stop us. We’re going to keep deciding for ourselves what we do with our bodies, no matter what stupid law they pass next. All they can do is make it harder and more dangerous. But the more we know, the safer we are and the better we can care for each other.

So go learn something. And help when you can.