A new episode of On the Issues with Michele Goodwin—Sex Ed 101: The Talk You Wish You Got From Your Parents—is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and MsMagazine.com.

In this episode, Goodwin tackles the taboo subjects of sex, menstruation, periods, LGBTQ+ health and more. Her guests talk about what’s left out in schools, in family discussions, and the media—even the basics of what we don't know or ignore about our own bodies. Probing what’s on the docket and on the ballot in 2021 related to sex and reproductive health, rights, and justice, Goodwin asks, "Whose rights are at stake?" The new episode answers all these questions, and more.

Joining Goodwin on the podcast are guests Kelly Davis, Dr. Fatu Forna, Mary Emily O'Hara and Jennifer Weiss Wolf. Here are some highlights from the episode: 

“Our nation does a grave disservice to sexual and reproductive health, and we see that. We see that when it comes to the really ballooning epidemic of sexual transmitted infections. We see that when we come to the Black maternal mortality and morbidity crisis.” —Kelly Davis, vice president for global birth equity and innovation at the National Birth Equity Collaborative

“We do have to educate our young, our children, our teens, our young adults, and give them the information they need to be able to have a healthy sexual and reproductive health, and most importantly, empowerment." —Dr. Fatu Forna, maternal health consultant, obstetrician-gynecologist and epidemiologist

“I think there is a lot of considerations for LGBTQ people when it comes to sexual and reproductive health in general, and the main one really is a lack of education, a lack of appropriate care, a lack of understanding, and that does start with sex ed.” —Mary Emily O’Hara, rapid response manager at GLAAD

“We’ve all grown up with the stigma and taboo and shame that surrounds menstruation, and we also have grown up, I would say here in the United States, in a fully unrepresentative democracy, as much as we like to tell ourselves otherwise sometimes.” —Jennifer Weiss Wolf, founder of Period Equity

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