Jerra Latrice Mitchell is such an inspiration! She knew she was a teenager that she didn’t want kids, but later when she was diagnosed with fibroids and learned she couldn’t get pregnant, that brought up some big emotions that she needed to work through. Recognising that black women face different expectations around motherhood, and different experiences of infertility, Jerra created a space for other childfree and childless women called Unfertilized Eggs. I loved getting a fresh perspective on ...
Aug 16, 2022•33 min
Anna Brooke was born with a health issue which means that pregnancy and childbirth could be very dangerous for both herself and the child. Over time, she came to accept that she wouldn’t be able to have biological kids of her own. So instead of becoming a mother to the teen daughter she used to write to in her diary, Anna now works as a high school teacher. She’s showing her students that there are other ways to live. I’m so happy to be able to complicate the narrative around people without chil...
Aug 02, 2022•47 min
For Jenny Castano, being childfree is so much more than a lifestyle choice - it’s meant having the freedom to create the life she’d always dreamed about. When she moved from Colombia to Queens, New York, as a teenager, Jenny already knew that she wanted to learn English, go to college, find a profession and travel the world. Check, check, check - she’s done all that! Even though she’s too modest to admit it, Jenny is a real trailblazer helping to make the world a better place. Follow Jenny on In...
Jul 19, 2022•38 min
We are Childfree is back for season 2 with one of my dream guests! Caitlin Durante is an LA-based comedian and co-host of the Bechdel Cast, which takes a look at movies through an intersectional feminist lens. I spoke to Caitlin a year after her tubal ligation, in the run up to what she’s calling “raw dog summer part 2”! We shared our experiences getting permanent birth control, the hoops we had to jump through and the dumb comments we heard from doctors, nurses, and random dudes. Join us for a ...
Jul 05, 2022•1 hr 7 min
Keltie Maguire is a clarity coach who's originally from Canada and now lives in Germany. It's only in the last six months, as she nears her 40th birthday, that Keltie's reached a 95% confidence in her choice to embrace a life without children. That last 5% is super important, because Keltie isn't someone to fully close the door on any possibility, preferring to live the most dynamic life possible. You'll hear about how for Keltie, like so many of us, the desire to be a mother simply never arrive...
Feb 15, 2022•1 hr 10 min
Shelley is a clinical psychologist and second-wave feminist who's been fighting for our rights since the 70s. She was an early beneficiary of Roe vs Wade, which legalised abortion in the US, and chose to be sterilised at 21. Now that she's 65, it was a pleasure to look back with her over an action-packed life, to see how far we've come in the struggle for gender equality and bodily autonomy... and why we're still fighting! Shelley was the perfect person to speak to about the question of whether ...
Feb 01, 2022•1 hr 1 min
In Donna Freitas' new novel, The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano , the eponymous heroine faces a dilemma. Before she got married, her husband promised her he didn't want children - but now he's changed his mind. Could happily childfree Rose will herself to become a mother in order to save her relationship, and if so, what might her life look like? Author Freitas found herself in this very scenario in her real life, and it made her question everything - her lack of a maternal instinct, her worth as...
Jan 18, 2022•1 hr 5 min
Doreen Caven was raised in a Catholic household in Nigeria, and she was a baby feminist even before she knew what the F-word meant. At an early age, she saw the role she was expected to fill, as a wife, a mother, submissive to men, and she wasn’t having any of it. Doreen and her younger sister, also childfree, now live in Los Angeles and run The Girls Like Me, a wonderful platform which amplifies the voices of African women, who are too often left out of the narrative around feminism and female ...
Jan 04, 2022•1 hr 1 min
Mohita Solanki was born in India, where pronatalism is everywhere. Her parents hoped their daughters would have children one day, but also insisted they get an education - and it’s this education that Mohita credits with opening her eyes to different options, other ways of living. Determined to live the life they wanted, Mohita and her husband left for Melbourne, Australia, where she works as a data analyst and runs a meetup group for 80 childfree women. We had a super eye-opening chat about her...
Dec 21, 2021•45 min
In 1974, Marcia Drut-Davis appeared on TV news show 60 Minutes , explaining to her in-laws and the American public watching that she’d decided not to have children. The backlash was swift and severe: Marcia lost her job as a teacher, had her life threatened (and her dog’s!) and faced judgment from pro-natalists and even some in the childfree community. For 46 years, she’s been fighting to show the world, and childfree people ourselves, that we are valuable, that our choices are valid, and that c...
Dec 07, 2021•47 min
For 20 years, Dr Kate Tomas has worked with badass women and non-binary people to radically improve every element of their lives. In this open and empowering conversation, Kate shares professional insights and her own journey, from trying to get pregnant to living her best, ethically non-monogamous, childfree life. Content warning: brief discussions of childhood abuse, infertility and abortion. Follow Kate on Instagram at @katetomasphd This episode is from the best of season 1 of We are Childfre...
Nov 23, 2021•43 min
Celebrating an amazing year for We are Childfree, and an amazing first season of the podcast! 🥳 I was lucky enough to speak with 20 inspiring women and gender diverse people from all over the world, of all ages, from twenty-somethings up to role models in their 60s and 70s. Join me as I share my top 5 moments of season one, from my conversations with a women's spiritual empowerment mentor to a trailblazer who's been campaigning for the childfree for nearly 50 years. Oh, and I share some news ab...
Nov 10, 2021•13 min
Keltie Maguire is a clarity coach who's originally from Canada and now lives in Germany. It's only in the last six months, as she nears her 40th birthday, that Keltie's reached a 95% confidence in her choice to embrace a life without children. That last 5% is super important, because Keltie isn't someone to fully close the door on any possibility, preferring to live the most dynamic life possible. You'll hear about how for Keltie, like so many of us, the desire to be a mother simply never arrive...
Oct 19, 2021•1 hr 10 min
Shelley is a clinical psychologist and second-wave feminist who's been fighting for our rights since the 70s. She was an early beneficiary of Roe vs Wade, which legalised abortion in the US, and chose to be sterilised at 21. Now that she's 65, it was a pleasure to look back with her over an action-packed life, to see how far we've come in the struggle for gender equality and bodily autonomy... and why we're still fighting! Shelley was the perfect person to speak to about the question of whether ...
Oct 05, 2021•1 hr 1 min
Elizabeth Ho is an actor who you might have seen on the Netflix stoner sitcom Disjointed featuring an up-and-coming star called *checks notes * Kathy Bates. She's also a postpartum doula, which has given her a close-up view of motherhood, and the mom role that Hollywood may soon expect her to play. Elizabeth knows "bone deep" that she doesn't want kids, and she's content to support her community, her parent friends, and she's happy being the weird other part of the family, the most authentic exp...
Sep 21, 2021•1 hr 1 min
In Donna Freitas' new novel, The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano , the eponymous heroine faces a dilemma. Before she got married, her husband promised her he didn't want children - but now he's changed his mind. Could happily childfree Rose will herself to become a mother in order to save her relationship, and if so, what might her life look like? Author Freitas found herself in this very scenario in her real life, and it made her question everything - her lack of a maternal instinct, her worth as...
Sep 07, 2021•1 hr 5 min
This is part two of my conversation with the incredible Dana, who came through childhood abuse and infertility to create a fulfilling and rewarding life. Listen to part one for Dana's childfree journey, which brings us to the story of how she and her husband became guardians and role models for the young people in their life. They volunteered to train military cadets, earning their trust so that they became confidantes - Dana even advised a woman who graduated from her youth group on her own dec...
Aug 24, 2021•40 min
Enjoy part one of my conversation with the incredible Dana, a Filipino immigrant to the US who overcame childhood trauma to make sure that the kids in her life were looked after. She went through so much as a child, but that hasn't stopped her from living her life to the fullest, becoming a guardian to her godchildren and a role model for many other young people who look to her for support. When she met her husband, they found that they shared fertility issues, which became an unspoken ally in t...
Aug 10, 2021•44 min
Daze used to think they had two options: become a homeschool mother on a farm in the valley where they grew up, or become a nun. Instead, they left their tiny fundamentalist Catholic community and went to college, where they learned about the outside world and their inner self. In recent years, Daze has found the language to describe who they really are: non-binary, autistic and childfree. It was fascinating to hear about how undiagnosed mental illness runs through Daze's family, how their own n...
Jul 27, 2021•58 min
Imungu Kalevera defies the expectations for Kenyan women in a few ways. She's queer, childfree and a self-proclaimed career feminist, all of which make her a real rarity in majority Christian, sub-Saharan Africa. On a personal level, she's challenged her family's beliefs about all these parts of her identity, showing them that she can still create community, contribute to society and love the children in her life. And she had so much to teach me about the fight for gender equality in her country...
Jul 13, 2021•58 min
Barbara Krulik has lived a life! An independent curator and cultural manager, she came of age in New York, where like-minded creatives formed the core of a chosen family that has been there for her through to her 60s, and now spans four generations. In her early 20s, she decided she didn't want children, and has pursued a life of "solo polyamory" ever since, living alone but loving to spoil and nurture her friends and lovers. It was fascinating to hear what drove Barbara to avoid entanglements, ...
Jun 29, 2021•49 min
Siyu is an only child of China's one-child policy, born in a very traditional part of the country. Yet, her parents never pushed her towards motherhood, and she's been able to lead a modern, international life, staying in three countries and six cities in the last five years. As the host of a Mandarin feminist podcast, Siyu was the perfect person to speak to about how her country is now trying to boost falling birth rates by allowing couples to have three children, and the expectations for women...
Jun 15, 2021•54 min
Daniela Echeverry is a 23 year old Colombian woman who recently received permanent birth control. I spoke to her six months after her tubal ligation, and she sounded so happy and healthy, with no regrets about her decision. It was really interesting to hear from someone in a majority Catholic, South American country, where access to reproductive healthcare is really restricted - even though Daniela herself didn't have too much trouble getting the operation she needed. Of course, I'm not a doctor...
Jun 01, 2021•35 min
Doreen Caven was raised in a Catholic household in Nigeria, and she was a baby feminist even before she knew what the F-word meant. At an early age, she saw the role she was expected to fill, as a wife, a mother, submissive to men, and she wasn’t having any of it. Doreen and her younger sister, also childfree, now live in Los Angeles and run The Girls Like Me, a wonderful platform which amplifies the voices of African women, who are too often left out of the narrative around feminism and female ...
May 18, 2021•1 hr 1 min
Mohita Solanki was born in India, where pronatalism is everywhere. Her parents hoped their daughters would have children one day, but also insisted they get an education - and it’s this education that Mohita credits with opening her eyes to different options, other ways of living. Determined to live the life they wanted, Mohita and her husband left for Melbourne, Australia, where she works as a data analyst and runs a meetup group for 80 childfree women. We had a super eye-opening chat about her...
May 04, 2021•45 min
Sarah Chebaro has already done a lot with her life! An avid traveller, Sarah was born in Kuwait, and has lived in England, Spain and the Netherlands. Having trained as an architect, Sarah’s now switched careers to journalism, driven by a desire to tackle sensitive subjects and speak the truth. Sarah attributes her energy to her ADHD diagnosis, and she’s aware that she couldn’t have done half the things she has, if she'd had children to look after. We get into different cultures' expectations for...
Apr 20, 2021•31 min
Singer-songwriter LiLi Roquelin is living her best creative life. Back in France, teenage LiLi was discovering her passion for making and performing music, and daydreaming about one day moving to America. Now based in New York, she works as an award-winning indie composer and producer, something that’s more than a career - it’s LiLi’s life purpose. LiLi wants to inspire her young fans to follow their dreams, and if they don’t include children, to create fulfilling lives of their own. We talked a...
Apr 06, 2021•28 min
Fiona Finsbury is an opera singer, yoga teacher, life coach - and a big believer in the power of intention. One day, she sat down to plan her goals for the next 5, 10 years, and children just didn’t appear in that future. Realising that motherhood was only one of the many paths open to her changed Fiona’s whole outlook on life. Join us as we talk about embracing your choices, supporting others as they do the same, and leaving behind a different kind of legacy. Find out more about Fiona at fionaf...
Mar 23, 2021•28 min
In 1974, Marcia Drut-Davis appeared on TV news show 60 Minutes , explaining to her in-laws and the American public watching that she’d decided not to have children. The backlash was swift and severe: Marcia lost her job as a teacher, had her life threatened (and her dog’s!) and faced judgment from pro-natalists and even some in the childfree community. For 46 years, she’s been fighting to show the world, and childfree people ourselves, that we are valuable, that our choices are valid, and that c...
Mar 09, 2021•47 min
Marie Fisher comes from a big, blended family, and is one of 12 siblings! She’s an aunt to 13 nieces and nephews, and tries to be a role model for the younger girls, to show them they have choices, and that being childfree is a real, and rewarding, option. Marie is focused on limiting her environmental footprint and volunteers for various non-profits, an inspiring example of someone without kids of her own, who is doing her part to leave a better world for future generations. Read more stories o...
Feb 23, 2021•45 min
