White Picket Fence

4.1 (307)
SOCIETY & CULTURE
UPDATED WEEKLY

White Picket Fence interrogates the structures of inequity affecting women since America’s founding. On the newest season, host Julie Kohler investigates the institution of marriage to uncover what’s behind this latest push for the return of a traditional family structure. Join us in exploring where America—and Americans—have fallen short and what we can do to create a better future.

OCT 28

Bonus: Introducing the Brown Girls Guide to Politics Unpacking Project 2025 Mini Series

Hey listeners, we're bringing you an episode of another Wonder Media Network show we think you'll love: The Brown Girls Guide to Politics. This season, A'shanti is doing a deep dive into Project 2025. The 920 page document represents a vision for government unlike anything we've seen before. In this first episode, A'shanti speaks with Kimberly Atkins Stohr and Dr. Tammy Greer about the authors and vision of Project 2025, and why former President Donald Trump has been quick to distance himself from it. Plus: how its policy proposals would change the way the U.S. government operates. The Brown Girls Guide to Politics Podcast is all about amplifying the voices of women who are too often forgotten in media coverage. Host A’shanti Gholar leads conversations with women changing the face of politics. In the BGG to Politics blog, A’shanti created a space for women of color to learn about the current state of politics, to support others breaking into the political sphere, and to celebrate incredible women changing the course of the country. A’shanti founded the blog in 2018 and Wonder Media Network is thrilled to extend her platform to audio.

33 min
JUL 18

How We Build Family

When host Julie Kohler became a mom, a community of care sprouted up around her. The people who showed up to support her and her family were essential -- and they would be whether or not she was a single mom. All season, we've dissected the institution of marriage in the US. But what are we missing when talk only about marriage? For the final episode of this season, we're asking what the future of family could look like if marriage wasn't the ideal. We're talking to people who have created networks of support within and around marriage and examining the language and policies that can enable us to lead the lives we want to live. Whether that includes marriage, or... something else!

34 min
JUL 11

37 Ways

We’ve spent a lot of time this season investigating the current marriage panic. The pro-marriage crew is sounding alarm bells that if we don’t start marrying, and quit divorcing, things in the U.S. will only get worse. But our theory on this show is that the path to stability and happiness actually leads in the opposite direction. What if we could look beyond our shores, at a country that was taking a very different approach? This episode, we’re visiting Denmark: One of the countries that consistently, year after year after year, has some of the happiest citizens in the world. And we’re taking a look at Danish culture around marriage and divorce and relationships and family to see if we can learn some secrets from the experts.

31 min
JUL 3

Our Divorce Dilemma

In 1969, California Governor Ronald Reagan signed the country's first no-fault divorce bill into law. Since then, Americans have been able to leave their marriages without having to prove their spouse committed any wrongdoing. But now, there's a growing movement on the right to make ending a marriage much harder. This week, host Julie Kohler digs into this current attack on no-fault divorce — and rolls back the clock to explore the "Wild West" of American divorce laws that existed before.

38 min
JUN 27

The Mess Moynihan Made

In 1965, a government report on Black families that was never supposed to be public leaked... and permanently influenced how our country thought about marriage, poverty, and personal responsibility. It was called the Moynihan Report. The report affirmed the belief that family structure – specifically, families headed by single mothers – caused people to be poor. This week, host Julie Kohler traces the roots and repercussions of the Moynihan report, and why the solutions to the issues it puts forth run far deeper than marriage.

27 min
JUN 20

Exalted Status

The idea that marriage is a fundamental, American institution isn’t just a cultural one – it has serious economic and legal implications. For most of its history, the U.S. has used marriage as a vessel to confer privilege and status onto some people, while marginalizing others. This week, our host, Julie Kohler, takes us on a historical marriage tour to examine how marriage achieved its exalted status, and how it became a tool – one that creates order, defines cultural norms, and maintains hierarchies of inequality.

26 min
JUN 13

The Marriage Panic

Maybe you’ve noticed it -- we're in the midst of a moral panic about marriage. Pundits and politicians have become awfully concerned that people are marrying later, and less often. That a growing number of adults are living alone, without a spouse or partner. That divorce remains relatively common. That many women are having and raising kids as single mothers. Now, conservatives waxing poetic about family values is hardly new. But this is more than just hand-wringing with a microphone -- these folks are actually doing something about it. In the first episode of our new season, we're exploring the return of the marriage panic.

27 min
JUN 7

Season 5 Coming Soon!

This season, we're diving into the hallowed institution of marriage. We want to know why so many people are getting so whipped up over the ways that Americans are — or are not — forming relationships and building families. Why marriage is becoming, once again, the catch-all policy solution for all of our country's challenges. And what becomes possible when we broaden our imaginations around what relationships can look like. We'll go beyond the rosy sheen of love and commitment and expose the darker side to all of this marriage talk -- one that we have to pay attention to, if we want to maintain our social progress in this country.

3 min

See All (35)

Julie Kohler

Host

4.1

out of 5

307 Ratings

Thank you!

04/12/2023

Clarissa Lunday

This is such a great podcast and I listened to the who podcast in two whole days! I am a history buff, a feminist, and hopefully one day, a future mom. I loved that this podcast balanced both current events and history and how white women today really need to take a good look at how they have used the same rhetoric to leave out those of different classes and races, even those who aren’t mothers or different genders. Women, all of us and especially us white women, really need to stop being one issue feminists because it leaves out WHOLE groups. Democracy will be the better for it.
Misleading

Sep 10

JessM 75

I’ve listened to all seasons of this podcast and I really enjoy the historical perspective, but there is a lot of opinion injected, so you need to take some things with a grain of salt. It has got me thinking about a lot of our social constructs, but so much of it is focused on making women’s lives better. I keep wondering if the solutions suggested would make the lives of children better. For example, in the recent season, there was discussion of divorce being a blip in the happiness of adults, but what about the affect of divorce on children’s lives? Prior seasons discussed child care, but is more institutional child care better for children? In my experience, the answer is no.
Almost laughable

Jun 21

Ernest Lew

They’re definitely stretching to say marriage is bad. Pro tip: if an institution has been around and lauded across different cultures for literally thousands of years, there’s probably something good about it smh. I don’t know who this benefits to try to put down marriage. The host is also happily married and born and raised from a married couple. Hypocritical.
Fascinating but frightening

03/21/2023

SamSnead1

I’ve only listened to your 2023 podcasts so far but will definitely go back and listen to 2022. The history behind Moms of Liberty is fascinating but frightening. Their sudden rise wasn’t sudden at all but a resurgence. Thank you for the historical context. A new weekly listener.

White Picket Fence interrogates the structures of inequity affecting women since America’s founding. On the newest season, host Julie Kohler investigates the institution of marriage to uncover what’s behind this latest push for the return of a traditional family structure. Join us in exploring where America—and Americans—have fallen short and what we can do to create a better future.