Welcome to Season 5 of Breaking Down Patriarchy. I'm Amy McPhee all the best. I don't know about you,

but as I record this episode at the beginning of 2025, things feel different than any past

seasons of Breaking Down Patriarchy. When I launched season one in 2021, President Biden

had just beaten Donald Trump in the 2020 election. I was so relieved to never see that man in power

again. Also, thanks to the Black Lives Matter movement, more white people than I remember ever before in my lifetime

were waking up to the reality of white supremacy and trying to become better allies.

And people's hearts and minds were opening toward LGBTQ people, even within conservative

religious communities like the one I come from.

I also remember that during season one,

I aired an episode on the Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, like the actual document, because I wanted

people to be familiar with a legal text that I thought was as solid and foundational as the

Magna Carta. I could never in a million years have imagined that four years later, Donald Trump would be on his way back to the White House, having beaten such a qualified and dignified opponent, the candidate I believed, would be our first woman president. In 2021, I couldn't have fathomed a bill called Don't Say Gay. I could not have

predicted that the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion could possibly be seen negatively,

let alone mocked in conversation and banned from schools. And the overturn of Roe v. Wade? Unthinkable. But here we are.

I know a lot of people are feeling really discouraged right now, wondering if all the phone calls

to senators and get out the vote efforts and difficult conversations with grandparents

and protests and donations

were even worth it. And you know what? These are the right questions to ask. Maybe some of our

activism actually wasn't that effective. I think it's important to pause and reassess and remember

what our values are and what our goals are and then develop a

strategy based on those values and goals. That will look different for different people, but I'll tell you

mine. Some of my values, egalitarianism, fairness, courage, compassion.

...