Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Welcome to Words That Move Me, the podcast where movers and shakers like you get the information and inspiration you need to navigate your creative career with clarity and confidence. I am your host Dana Wilson, and I move people. I am all about the tools and techniques that empower tomorrow's leaders to make the work of their dreams and live a full life while doing it. So whether you're new to the game or transitioning to your next echelon of greatness, you're in the right place. Hello. Hello my friend. Welcome towards that move me. I am Dana. I'm stoked you're here as always, but especially today, because today we are doing something very different on the pod. I have never done this before, but I am compelled to try switching it up because I think it's important to share what you think is important. And today, I think it is important to share someone else's podcast. <laugh>.
Speaker 0 00:01:02 Yes. Uh, I am going to play you a five minute excerpt of Gray, maybe, which is a new podcast by Jillian Schmitz. And I hope that in the time that you would've spent listening towards that, move me today, you bounce over there and get your ears full of Jillian sharing her own story and the stories of others in an attempt to help lessen the stigma and shame around abortion. This is very important, uh, to me and I believe to all humans, specifically women. Jillian is a friend. She's a phenomenal educator, a wonderful performer, a recovery advocate of all sorts, and she also happens to be an excellent speaker and writer with a whole lot to offer. She's a natural at this. Her story is so important. Her perspective is so open. Um, no, I take it back. Her perspective is pointed, but the way she packages this story is open leaves the listener with so much permission to take it or leave it, change the way they're thinking or commit to the way that they are thinking all so, so, so good.
Speaker 0 00:02:20 Really hope that you love listening to Jillian speak as much as I do. And if you do, jump on back over here to words that move me for episode number 138 in which Jillian Schmitz was my guest. I will definitely link to that in the show notes. I am about to throw it over to Jillian Schitz and her gray maybe podcast. But if you thought you were getting outta here without sharing a win, you thought wrong. <laugh>, Today I am celebrating. What am I celebrating today? Oh, I'll tell you, I will tell you what I'm celebrating today. This morning, although very tired, I did decide to jump on the Peloton for a quick low impact ride, followed by a little morning yoga, some, some chest openers. Um, and after that, I just wasn't done being gentle and kind to my body. So I decided to engage in a little foam rolling of the quads and <laugh>.
Speaker 0 00:03:19 It's funny, the low impact red got like a little sweat on and then the yoga, Yes, we opened the, you know, the chest area, did some backward bending, some forward folding, got into the joints, got the blood flowing. That was great. But this foam roll unlocked something at my emotional core and I started to sob. I was rolling out the quads and rolling out the tears, um, and really leaned into that. I just let that happen and I'm being vulnerable in sharing that with you today. Here on the podcast. I roll, I <laugh>, I foam roll and I cry. Uh, it felt so good. Maybe this was just kind of a, a full theme of the morning. Uh, salt water coming out of my pores. Salt water coming out of my eyes felt great. Very cathartic. Highly recommend you, uh, take, take some moments with the foam roller, um, to work out your kinks and knots both physically and emotionally. That is what I'm celebrating today. Uh, how about you? What are you, what are you working through? What are you working on?
Speaker 1 00:04:41 Yay.
Speaker 0 00:04:44 Congratulations. I am so happy for you. Happy for you, for your body out there in the world doing it. Keep it up. Okay, now let's get right to it. I am going to throw you to five minutes, just fi a little tiny, tiny excerpt of Jillian Schmitt's first episode of Gray. Maybe this will set the tone to the short series, which is, um, a limited series podcast, not a weekly podcast, so you can go and really fill up on that. But this is a piece from the first episode. Enjoy
Speaker 2 00:05:24 A note before we begin. While the topic of abortion and my belief in it being easy and accessible to all people who can become pregnant is a comfortable topic for me, sharing my own personal stories is not, I have a justifiable amount of fear of possible hostility and violence, both in person and or online. I also anticipate the possibility of judgment ranging from my own family members to strangers. In addition to the potentiality of losing certain work opportunities for publicizing my own experiences. I'm telling my story through the lens of my own experience. The revelation of my process is mine to, to tell. If you disagree with me or my views are story, know that I'm not speaking on anything other than my own experiences and viewpoints. Take what you like and leave the rest. Any feelings. My story activates in the listener is for the listener to process and recover from any criticism you have based on my experience and choices are yours and they're not my burden to carry.
Speaker 2 00:06:19 Welcome, welcome and hello. Okay. Obviously the timeliness of this project is on the tail of the Supreme Court's decision to overthrow Roe v Wade, and there's a very important election coming up in just a few weeks, which could eventually either help reverse or would further solidify that decision. There is much discussion about abortion, what circumstances pregnant people should be able to have them when pregnant people should be able to have them, and where pregnant people should be able to have them. There are many stories coming out already about the disastrous effects of removing this vital right of healthcare from women, including young girls and women who are raped and are victims of incest that are forced to birth or jump through hoops and hurdles to attain an abortion, often up against a ticking time clock. Stories of women on death stores simply because they aren't bleeding out fast enough or dead enough from medical intervention.
Speaker 2 00:07:13 Women forced to carry dead or non-viable pregnancies because of some of these restrictions. These stories are gut wrenching and they're true. My abortion story is not like those, mine is. What one ill-informed person on Twitter would classify as an abortion of convenience, implying if an abortion wasn't for the risk of the life of the mother or you weren't raped, it was of convenience or rather convenience. This narrative that only certain circumstances should warrant an abortion. Only perfect victims could justifiably tell their stories and get a moral pass and should be entitled to the possibility of autonomy. The notion that if you didn't wanna find yourself in an inconvenient position, you shouldn't have put yourself there in the first place. You being a woman or pregnant person, good old fashioned misogyny. The only thing missing from all of the abortion conversations conveniently is men. Everyone has either heard talking points from this convenience narrative or they themselves have repeated them.
Speaker 2 00:08:19 Use birth control or, or keep your legs closed. Both direct quotes from a conversation with my immediate family recently, as if birth control doesn't fail. And being abstinent is a realistic solution for any adults in real relationships. The belief that some people are using abortion for birth control and the myth of late term abortions insinuate convenience. I still have yet to meet one woman using abortion as her main method of birth control. This idea that abortion is something only irresponsible, flippant pregnant people do. The convenience argument muddies the real message that women should be held accountable and punished for their actions while men are not, that women have less rights to their bodily autonomy living than they do when they're dead. See, organ donation consent. This entire underlying message of convenience encapsulated exactly why. Still to this day, I was so ashamed of my own abortions. I kept hearing stories of many brave women coming forward exposing their necessary abortions, but I wasn't hearing many stories that I could directly relate to a gray area as far as public opinion and empathy. So deep breath, here is my convenient abortion story.
Speaker 0 00:09:43 All right. All right, my friend. I hope that you are as moved by that story as I was. I really love how Jillian packages this content, which yes, is delicate and nuanced and emotionally loaded. Um, I love her. Take it or leave it approach. I love the permission she gives herself in telling this story and the listeners in, in taking their own experience of it. Um, I, I especially was taken by Jillian's account of working a physical job while going through this physical trauma. I have so much respect for her, her bravery, her clarity in, in, in detail, and her commitment to telling her story and sharing those of others. I am taking a page from her book and sharing her story with you today. I hope you jump over and get the rest of it. There's so much good going on over there at Gray, maybe.
Speaker 0 00:10:39 Um, thank you for being here. Now go get out into the world and keep it exceptionally funky. I'll talk to you soon. Bye. This podcast was produced by me with the help of many music by Max Winnie Logo and brand design by Bree reets. And big thanks to Riley Higgins, our executive assistant and editor. Also massive thanks to you, the mover, who is no stranger to taking action. So go take action. I will not, cannot stop you from downloading episodes or leaving a review in a rating. I will not ban you from my online store for spending your heart earned money on the cool merch and awesome programs that await you there. I will 100% not stop you from visiting words that move me.com. If you wanna talk with me, work with me, and make moves with the rest of the words that move me community. Oh, and also, I will not stop you from visiting the dana wilson.com if you're curious about all the things that I do that are not words that move me related. All right, my friend, keep it funky. I'll talk to you.
