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I’m proud to be a returning guest on Civilla Morgan’s ‘Childless Not By Choice‘ podcast. Our last discussion was in 2018 (episode 90) and so much has changed in both our lives (and our world) since then.
Some of the things we touch on in this episode 166:
Being involved in the care of our olders and, after their deaths, the feeling of being both childless AND parentless.
About how getting older doesn’t necessarily lead to emotional maturation (and how integrating loss, such as childlessness, can be an opportunity for deep growth).
About the ‘othering’ of women without children in public discourse (crazy cat ladies anyone?) and how this misses both our incredible potential as well as our actual societal contributions.
About the experience of death and dying as a single childless woman, and the transformative experience Jody (and others involved) had in supporting a member of the Childless Collective online community during her death and dying over the last year.
About my emerging ‘Alterkin’ project which is a plan to create a pilot study of a local, intergenerational, mutual-aid network for those ageing without children and from that, hopefully a framework others can use, and how I’ll be writing about that as it unfolds on my Gateway Elderwomen Substack.
About the training I’m undertaking with the team from The Work That Reconnects, based on the work of Joanna Macy, and how I hope to weave that into the eco-socio-cultural-healing work I hope to develop as I strive to become a good ancestor.
I also thank Civilla for being a regular panellist on my Fireside Wisdom with Childless Elderwomen webinars which take place quarterly (next one coming up Sep 19th as part of World Childless Week, register for that here).
Links & resources mentioned in our talk:
- To support Civilla Morgan’s podcast on Patreon click here
- The July 2024 Pew research that Jody mentions can be found here.
- To listen to Civilla and Jody’s previous conversation (Episode 90) from 2018 click here
- Christine Erickson’s New Legacy Institute
- The Childless Collective online community (the new generation of the Gateway Women online community).
- Jody’s ‘Gateway Elderwomen’ site on Substack: https://jodyday.substack.com/
- Jody’s Instagram accounts @gatewaywomen & @apprenticecrone
- A free download of the introduction & chapter 1 of Jody’s book: bit.ly/free-ltlu
- Sign up to the next ‘Fireside Wisdom with Childless Elderwomen’ free webinar here
If you’d like to listen to more of the podcast interviews I’ve given over the years, click here. And if you’d like to stay up to date with my work, please join my email newsletter that I’ve been sending out on the first Saturday of the month for 13 years now – it features links to all the content/events I’m involved in and news of interest to the childless community globally. No spam, ever. Click here to sign up.
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