This article was published on The 19th in partnership with The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system. Sign up for The Marshall Project’s newsletters, and follow them on Instagram, TikTok, Reddit and Facebook. 

Kwaneta Harris suddenly developed intense shoulder pain in 2019. Incarcerated in Texas, she began the process of requesting a specialized medical visit, certain she needed to see an orthopedist. Then, she started having heart palpitations and tachycardia, an abnormally fast resting heart rate, and requested a visit to the cardiologist. Around the same time, acne broke out across her face, something she’d never dealt with, even as a teenager. She filed a request for a dermatologist. Once a calm and collected figure on her cell block, she began to cry easily, and struggled to recall details and words that previously felt ingrained. Her long, dark hair began to thin. 

Harris, a former nurse who is now 53, was quick to self-diagnose. Assuming she had a thyroid problem, she requested a visit to an endocrinologist. Getting each specialty visit took months. First, she had to exhaust any recommendations from the in-prison medical provider, a process that often took three or more months. When those remedies failed, she could request a second opinion, after which she’d wait two to three more months to get approved. Each specialty visit then required an hours-long trip across the state to Galveston on a bus, shackled to another woman. None of these appointments brought relief. 

Three years after the shoulder pain began, Harris was listening to NPR when a TED Talk about perimenopause came on. Suddenly, the constellation of medical symptoms all made sense.

“She said the most magical words I’ve ever heard, and I felt so much better: ‘You are not crazy,’” Harris said. “I remember saying ‘thank you’ out loud.”  

But even once she knew the origin of her symptoms, Harris said medical providers continued to dismiss her. It took two more years for her to get a prescription for Premarin, a hormone replacement therapy (HRT). A provider agreed to prescribe a 60-day trial supply after Harris pleaded for relief, in tears. The prescription was never refilled when it ran out.

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Harris’ Kafkaesque journey isn’t unusual for perimenopausal and menopausal people in prison, where access to information about this life transition is scarce. Menopause is diagnosed after someone has gone without a period for 12 months. Perimenopause is the months- to years-long transitional period leading up to this cessation. Social media is crammed with celebrities sharing their experiences and influencers giving tips for managing symptoms or singing the praises of HRT. But that wave of advice and resources hasn’t reached most carceral settings. 

Many incarcerated people approaching menopause are left to navigate these seismic physical shifts on their own, self-diagnosing and advising each other. For some, the lack of information and knowledge about menopause makes it difficult to even name what they’re experiencing. Makeshift tools and tricks cobbled together to manage symptoms can trigger disciplinary action. Requesting menopause-related medical care in a system that often fails to provide the bare minimum can be a frustrating and ultimately fruitless process. While new networks of care are emerging, offering hope in some prisons, these advances remain inaccessible in many places.

Lori Pults, 52, remembers laying on her bunkbed, working on a prison ministry course on her tablet, when she was suddenly overcome by heat. She mistook her first hot flash for a fever.

“It starts in your chest, and you just have this overwhelming feeling, like you stepped under a spotlight,” Pults said. 

Pults, who is serving a life sentence in Missouri, lost her mother when she was young and was raised by a grandmother who never told her about menopause. Fortunately, a nurse practitioner at the prison explained it to her. 

But Pults’ relative ease in finding a medical provider well-versed in menopause is highly unusual in prison health care, and literature on the subject is hard to come by. Prisons sharply restrict access to news and information, wielding censorship as a tool for maintaining security. Libraries often have scant resources and unreliable hours, and doing basic online research is virtually impossible. Resources sent by mail, including medical reference books, are sometimes banned, misconstrued as pornographic. All of these barriers can make it challenging, if not impossible, for people behind bars to learn about menopause.

“There is no information whatsoever available for women on this topic,” said Ann, who is serving a life sentence at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in New York. (Because of the high-profile nature of her case, she asked that we use only her middle name.) “There was never any effort by anyone to get me any information when I asked about menopause. I would have to ask a friend to get me information off of the internet.”  

Thomas Mailey, director of public information for the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, said that there is a full-time gynecologist on staff at Bedford Hills available to answer questions on “all women’s health care related subjects.” 

There has long been a dearth of research on menopause, and even less on how it plays out in prisons. Dr. Andrea Knittel, an obstetrician and gynecologist at the University of North Carolina, published a first-of-its-kind qualitative study in 2025 with a group of researchers examining how menopause symptoms “shape experiences of the criminal legal system.” It’s the largest study of this intersection of issues to date, and one of fewer than 10 peer-reviewed studies touching on menopause in prisons. The lack of information available to incarcerated women, and their subsequent confusion, was a recurring theme in Knittel’s research. 

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“The vast majority of people that we talked to were confused and scared,” Knittel said. “They thought maybe they had some infectious condition. They thought maybe they had taken something terrible … the first thought was not, ‘This is a normal physiologic experience that everyone goes through.’”

Harris, an incarcerated journalist who has written extensively about women’s health care behind bars, often finds herself advising fellow incarcerated women in the absence of practitioners versed in gender-specific health care. More than once she scrawled a picture of the female reproductive system on a wall with a Sharpie to help explain things to her peers. 

Even as bits and pieces of the current menopause moment trickle into prisons through TV, radio and other media, that information sometimes merely increases awareness of resources that are just out of reach. 

“I know there are several new medications that I’ve seen on commercials, but the [Department of Corrections] has said that they are too expensive to give here,” said Denise Hein, 72, who is incarcerated in Missouri.

According to Karen Pojmann, communications director of the Missouri Department of Corrections, “Physicians prescribe medications and provide other treatments to residents based on each patient’s diagnosis and assessed needs, just as they would in the community. Hormone replacement therapy is available to residents.”

Raquel Glenn, 71, who is incarcerated at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in New York, said she still struggles with lingering hot flashes, exacerbated by a prison without air conditioning and a broken ice machine.

“Our cells are a stagnant, suffocating and humid den once summer hits,” said Glenn, who resorts to sleeping on the floor on the hottest nights. 

Any housing unit without an operating ice machine can access ice from a neighboring unit, according to Mailey, and areas of the prison without air conditioning are “properly ventilated in accordance with national standards set by the American Correctional Association.”

The population of women in prison increased by 600 percent between 1980 and 2023, and is currently growing at twice the rate of men in prison. As that number grows, so too does the segment of incarcerated people going through perimenopause and menopause. The overall prison population is rapidly aging, posing a host of challenges for older adults in facilities where basic medical care can be hard to come by. Experts estimate that 40 percent of women behind bars are either already experiencing or will soon experience menopause. 

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Despite these swelling numbers, specialized care for women’s health issues remains difficult to access in many prisons. Nadia Sabbagh Steinberg, a professor of social work at the University of Iowa whose dissertation focused on gynecological care in prison, said during the years she conducted her research, there was only one in-house medical practitioner available to the entire Iowa Correctional Institute for Women. The doctor was a man with no specific gynecological training, whose medical license had previously been revoked. The prison has since hired more nurse practitioners.

This lack of specialized care was commonly reported among incarcerated women who spoke to The Marshall Project, many of whom said they were dismissed by providers when describing perimenopause symptoms, and even chided by some male medical practitioners for using accurate language to describe their own bodies. “Every doctor I have dealt with here says they don’t know much about menopause, so they really don’t provide any help,” Ann said.

Others described the lack of empathy from nonmedical staff who were unfamiliar with or misunderstood perimenopause and menopause. Linda Cayton, who was in prison in North Carolina on her 50th birthday, struggled with debilitating mood swings. 

“The guards were like, ‘You just came to prison, you’re supposed to be upset,’” Cayton said. 

Even when someone is able to access an informed provider — often after a long wait — getting consistent treatment can be yet another mountain to climb. 

After Harris was able to identify the underlying cause of her symptoms, she asked a friend outside of prison to print and mail her information on HRT. For many years, clinicians recommended against estrogen replacement for perimenopausal and menopausal people, relying on research from the early 2000s that suggested HRT contributed to increased risk of cardiovascular issues, cancer and neurological side effects. Harris had experienced resistance to getting a prescription for HRT in light of this research. 

Then last year, the “black box” FDA warnings were removed from prescribing HRT related to menopause. In the past two decades, additional research was conducted, revealing new findings about the benefits of HRT, and researchers highlighted methodological flaws in the early 2000s analysis. While age and individual medical histories dictate whether HRT is a safe and appropriate option for each person, clinicians are now far more likely to prescribe this treatment. Armed with an article she tore out of an issue of Good Housekeeping and research from the North American Menopause Society, Harris finally convinced a doctor to prescribe HRT. The hard-won prescription was life-changing.

For most of her life, Harris prided herself on having a great memory and “the kind of brain where before the teacher finished solving the math problem, I had already figured it out.” But during a period of multiple years when she was in solitary confinement, something shifted. 

“I started noticing that I was writing stuff down on the walls of my cell with a pencil, using it like a whiteboard,” Harris said. “Something was off with my memory … I kept forgetting words.”

She assumed the memory loss was a byproduct of her isolation or a symptom of long Covid. It wasn’t until she was prescribed HRT that she felt the brain fog lift, and realized that it too, was a symptom of perimenopause.  

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“It was like I was back to me. My skin cleared up, my hair got thick, I was able to sleep, my memory improved,” Harris said.

But after the prescription ran out, Harris struggled to get a refill for the next year, and her symptoms returned. 

Chronic health problems, undiagnosed illnesses and inadequate nutrition all contribute to poor health outcomes for incarcerated people. Substance use and mental health problems are more prevalent among incarcerated people than in the general population, and some symptoms of menopause, such as irritability and insomnia, can be misinterpreted as longer-term symptoms of withdrawal from multiple kinds of drugs. Combined with what is often substandard medical care and the prevalence of sexual trauma among incarcerated women, linking symptoms to menopause can prove challenging.

“There are lots of different ways where learning to not trust your body, learning to not trust the world with your body, would lead to it being really complicated to interpret what was going on in your body through a big physiologic change like menopause,” said Dr. Knittel, the OB/GYN and researcher from the University of North Carolina. 

A lack of trauma-informed medical providers and staff, coupled with distrust of medical systems that have previously failed people in and out of prison, can also pose a barrier to care. 

“They didn’t trust the medical system in there, and they didn’t trust that they would get accurate information,” Sabbagh Steinberg said of the incarcerated women she interviewed in Iowa. Others had simply neglected to care for their health for years while caring for other people, like their children. 

The fact that for women incarcerated in Iowa there was only one male provider available was “very triggering for many women in prison, in particular, who have sexual trauma histories.”

Dismissing or declining to treat menopause symptoms can dramatically impact quality of life as people age, leading to serious medical issues that may compound: osteoporosis, heart conditions and major depressive disorder, to name a few. Menopause accelerates bone loss, and osteoporosis is the most prevalent disease in postmenopausal people; without treatment, patients run the risk of fractures and chronic pain. In Missouri, Hein suffers from osteopenia, or lower than average bone density. Without regular testing, she isn’t sure how fast the problem is progressing. She said that calcium tablets are the only medication she’s provided with at Chillicothe Correctional Center.

“You have to look at the long-term ramifications of osteoporosis,” Hein said. “That’s inexplicable not to treat a long-term illness like that.” 

The failure to treat menopause can ultimately cost prisons more to treat in the long run. 

“By our estimation, it was at least four times less expensive to just treat menopause at the source than to not treat it,” said Kelly Stewart Danner of Impact Justice, a criminal justice reform organization that conducted a cost-modeling exercise to determine the long-term cost to prisons of not treating menopause. Ideally, perimenopause and menopause care would include a combination of regular preventative screenings; adjustments to diet and exercise; stress management tools and practices; and access to hormonal and nonhormonal medication options to manage symptoms.

Incarcerated people are forced to be creative to manage symptoms of menopause and perimenopause. To ease the discomfort of a night of hot flashes, Cayton filled every little vessel she could find with cool water — empty pill bottles, cups and shampoo bottles — and took them to her cell. An older woman advised her to wet her clothes to get through the night (and to do so at a certain time to avoid getting caught by guards), so she’d shower in her nightgown and slip under the covers soaking wet, pouring more water on herself as hot flashes struck. 

The heat in her North Carolina prison, where there is no air conditioning, was intolerable as her hot flashes worsened. 

“I was drenched in sweat, and my emotions were all over the place. I was miserable,” Cayton said.

But self-management of symptoms, and a failure to understand the shifts in mood that can accompany perimenopause and menopause, can result in disciplinary infractions when misinterpreted by corrections staff. 

In Texas, Harris said women are often denied an adequate supply of menstrual products — a particular problem for the subset of perimenopausal women who experience heavier than typical bleeding during their periods. Lacking sufficient pads and tampons, Harris said women have ripped up sheets and folded them to absorb menstrual blood, a hack that is then punished and written up as “destruction of state property.” These infractions add up.

“The consequences just ripple outward,” Harris said. “When we get disciplinary infractions, these can justify parole denials.”

According to Amanda Hernandez, director of communications for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, there is “no limit on the amount [of menstrual products] that can be requested and provided,” and the department previously launched an education campaign to teach incarcerated women about these products. 

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Among the 29 incarcerated people across five states whom Knittel interviewed for her research, disciplinary action in response to menopause-related symptoms and their management was a common thread.

Multiple participants in Knittel’s study described receiving write-ups for having uniforms soiled by blood. Others described being written up for not having the covers pulled over them at night while trying to stay cool, or getting sent to solitary confinement for mood swing-related behavior. “I saw women go from being model inmates to getting back-to-back write-ups,” reported one participant in the study, identified as Rhonda.

“My patients are so creative and resourceful in trying to get their needs met, and often that creativity and very genuine trying to get to a base level of humanity is met with the assumption that they are being manipulative, that they are trying to game the system and get something that they’re not supposed to have,” Knittel said.

In California, Stewart Danner and her colleagues at Impact Justice are piloting a first-of-its-kind project to address the lack of information and adequate medical care for perimenopausal and menopausal incarcerated women. In January, the organization launched a novel program to train prison medical providers to identify and effectively treat the symptoms of perimenopause and menopause. Ultimately, they hope to train all corrections staff to increase awareness of menopause, not just medical providers. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has worked closely with Stewart Danner and her team to help facilitate the program. 

Providers who participate in the program — including OB/GYNs, lead nurses, primary care providers and mental health providers — will earn continuing education credits, a requirement for many in health care. In addition to medical training, the program has a significant focus on education for incarcerated women. Impact Justice is providing infrastructure for peer support groups, and distributing flyers, posters and bookmarks with information about menopause throughout the state’s two women’s prisons. 

“We’re really just trying to canvass these institutions, so that at the provider and the patient level they have all the training and awareness they need to both provide great menopause and perimenopause care, and then also request it and advocate for themselves and know the basics of what menopause even is,” Stewart Danner said. 

In addition to education about pharmaceutical interventions like HRT and antidepressants, which are commonly prescribed to treat people in perimenopause, the organization’s training for providers includes modalities of care such as meditation, yoga and pelvic floor therapy, and they are disseminating information about these methods through books and other resources. 

While the project is in its infancy, Stewart Danner and her colleagues are in talks with corrections departments in Idaho, Michigan and South Carolina, where they hope to provide more practitioner training, information and tools.

Meanwhile, in the many places without such programs, women are trying to care for each other in the absence of information and institutional support. In Missouri, Ginny Twenter, 64, has been tiptoeing around an increasingly moody 56-year-old friend she plays cards with, encouraging her to get help.

“We just finally told her she’s going through perimenopause, and she agreed to go to medical and see what they have to say,” Twenter said. “To me, that’s a good start … but they need to make more information available, whether on tablets or pamphlets. Sometimes people believe more what they read than what they hear.” 

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In Texas, Harris is trying to spread the word and support the women around her who are struggling to navigate this bodily sea change. 

“We have to remove the stigma of talking about it,” Harris said. “We really need community, instead of hoping you can go through it alone.” 

The post What It’s Like to Go Through Perimenopause and Menopause in Prison appeared first on The Story Exchange.

Saima Adil Zafar, founder of True Homecare. (Credit: Courtesy of True Homecare)

1,000 Stories

Her Agency Offers Personalized At-Home Care

Saima Adil Zafar founded True Homecare after struggling to find the in-home help she needed for an older loved one.

April 15, 2026

By Victoria Flexner

When Saima Adil Zafar was looking for in-home care for an aging family member, the British entrepreneur struggled to find a company that provided the specialized services she sought. In 2012, Adil Zafar decided to launch her own company to fill that gap – that’s when her business, True Homecare, was born. Today, the Stockport, England company continues to provide their ever-growing roster of clients with individualized care where “each person is treated with respect, compassion, and dignity,” Adil Zafar tells us. “My passion for making a real difference in people’s lives and the drive to fill this market need pushed me to leap into entrepreneurship.”

Here’s our lightly edited Q&A, from The Story Exchange 1,000+ Stories Project.

How is your business different from others in your industry?

Our deep commitment to personalized care. We don’t just provide services – we build meaningful relationships with our clients. We tailor our care plans to each individual’s unique needs to ensure that they feel heard, seen and valued. Our focus is not only on providing physical support, but also on emotional and social well-being, which truly sets us apart in the home care industry.

Tell us about your biggest success so far. 

The trust we have earned from our clients and their families. Watching True Homecare grow from a small family-run business into a recognized name in the community has been incredibly rewarding. 

What is your top challenge and how have you addressed it?

Balancing the growth of the business with my personal life. As a family-run operation, I found it difficult to separate work from personal time in the early days. To address this, I’ve learned the importance of delegating responsibilities, setting clear boundaries, and creating time for self-care. Balancing both has been an ongoing learning process, but it’s key to sustainable success.

Have you experienced any significant personal situations that have affected your business decisions?

Being a full-time entrepreneur and running a domiciliary care agency – whilst still trying to be the best wife, mother, daughter-in-law, daughter and sister – is still quite challenging. 

What is your biggest tip for other startup entrepreneurs? 

Be patient and persistent. Starting a business takes time, and there will be challenges along the way. Learn from your mistakes, surround yourself with a supportive team, and always remember why you started. Persistence is key to overcoming obstacles and building something meaningful. 

How do you find inspiration on your darkest days?

I remind myself of the difference we’re making in people’s lives. The feedback from clients and their families, along with the relationships we’ve built, keeps me focused. I also lean on my team and family for support, as they are my greatest motivators. Taking a step back and focusing on the bigger picture always helps me reset, too. 

What is your go-to song to get motivated on tough days?

“Survivor – The Moment of Truth” by The Karate Kid OST. It’s an anthem of strength and perseverance, and it always helps me push through challenging moments.

Who is your most important role model? 

My mother. She taught me the importance of compassion and integrity, as well as the value of hard work. She always emphasized that it’s not just about what you do, but how you make people feel in the process. Her guidance has shaped both my personal and professional life.

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Nicole Kidman is embarking upon a surprising career change.

The beloved actress, best known for her compelling performances in films such as the splashy musical “Moulin Rouge!,” period drama “The Hours” and HBO hit series “Big Little Lies,” recently told an assembly of students at the University of San Francisco that she was training to become a death doula.

Most know the term “doula” in the obstetric context – individuals who guide patients through their pregnancies, deliveries and postpartum periods. Death doulas, or end-of-life doulas, similarly guide individuals and families, but through the process of dying, rather than giving birth.

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Kidman, 58, explained to the students gathered this past weekend that she was drawn to the work following the loss of her mother, Janelle Ann Kidman, in September 2024. “As my mother was passing, she was lonely, and there was only so much the family could provide,” she shared. 

In order to become a death doula, one must train through organizations such as the International End-of-Life Doula Association. It’s a lesser-known career path, to be sure – less than 2,000 people have signed on for the job, as of last August.

But it’s helpful work, the IEOLDA says – providing “psychosocial, emotional, spiritual and practical care to empower dignity throughout the dying process.” Yes, Kidman admitted, the work may strike some as “a little weird,” but her lived experience taught her that it’s also critical.

“Between my sister and I, we have so many children and our careers and our work, and wanting to take care of her because my father [also] wasn’t in the world anymore,” she recalled. “That’s when I went, ‘I wish there was these people in the world that were there to sit impartially and just provide solace and care.’”

That, Kidman continued, is “one of the things I will be learning” to be.

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The post Actress Nicole Kidman’s Next Role: Death Doula appeared first on The Story Exchange.

The recent, historic NASA moon mission was piloted by four astronauts. And one plush.

Known to the Artemis II crew as “Rise,” the soft, smiling, globe-shaped mascot served primarily as an indicator that the team aboard the Orion spacecraft – which consisted of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen – was experiencing zero gravity.

But he quickly became a fixture beyond his purpose. In video transmissions to Earth, his rotund happiness was often present, spinning in the foreground with the help of one of his crewmates.

Rise wasn’t a necessary addition – at least, not in the scientific sense. Something less whimsical surely could have served the same function. But that toy’s inclusion in the mission, and in the crew’s communications, represents in its way what is so compelling about science and exploration in general, and the Artemis II crew specifically: It’s all about openness.

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Openness to dreaming of going to space. Openness to putting in years of study and work to make it so. Openness to learning new things, and being wrong about things, along the way. Openness to wondering, and questioning, and yes, maybe even to being silly sometimes.

The crew’s openness drew us in because it’s something we so desperately need here on Earth.

It’s no secret that we are living through a period of not only regression and violence, but extreme upheaval as well. When looking out at the world, and how the bad actors in charge are shifting and twisting and bombing reality into something that is at once depressingly old and alarmingly uncertain… it can feel as though there’s nothing to hold onto for balance.

This recent space expedition captured the world’s attention not just because it was an unprecedented and otherworldly sight – but also, because it was real, and fun, and hopeful, and full of wonder and heart.

But you don’t get to join the crew that flies to the moon with a plush packed beside you by accident, or by being unaffected, or inert. You don’t get to experience the vastness of space firsthand, or the sight of Earth as a distant crescent, without thinking and feeling and acting beyond yourself.

You don’t become the first woman and the first Black man to visit the moon – as Koch and Glover were, respectively – by being passive. You have to give enough of a damn to rise above the obstacles put in place by a sexist, racist society that’s growing more so by the day. And, you have to work for people who embody that cherished openness to others, who will light the path to the rocket that launches you into the stars.

In order for the seemingly unreachable to come into your grasp, you have to open your heart enough to care – and then, you have to try.

If you want to do something as miraculous-sounding as exploring the cosmos – or, to shift back to earthly concerns, building bridges between people divided by chasms – you can. Humans have now performed both miracles, right before our very eyes.

But you have to have a mind that is curious enough to ask questions, outwardly and inwardly… a mind so dedicated to knowing more that it will sit atop an explosion, for the sake of being tossed through the atmosphere, just to see what lies beyond. And, you need to have a heart big enough and open wide enough to care – enough to transmit love and joy as well as data from space to Ground Control, enough to place the names of lost loves upon the moon, enough to adore all of the children looking up from Earth below… and even the plush orbs among us.

And then, you have to actually reach up, and out.

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The post 4 Astronauts Reminded Us What’s Possible When We Laugh, and Care, and Try appeared first on The Story Exchange.

Women’s sports are turning into a major moneymaker.

Hot on the heels of the Winter Olympic Games in February, global revenues in women’s elite sports are projected to reach at least $3 billion in 2026, a 25% increase compared to last year, according to Reuters, citing a new report from Deloitte.

The industry has grown rapidly and women’s elite leagues have expanded their viewership in recent years, which is translating into returns — basketball and soccer, for instance, raked in about $2.4 billion worldwide in 2025, according to the report.

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Women’s sports have seen a 248% increase between 2022 and 2025, and that figure is expected to grow to 340% this year thanks to broadcast and matchday revenues.

The lion’s share of the growth comes from North America, with $1.64 billion in revenue, and Europe, with $434 million. They are “expected to remain the largest revenue-generating markets for women’s sport,” the report states.

Hitting the $3 billion mark “would be a phenomenal achievement and would cement women’s sport firmly in the spotlight,” said Jennifer Haskel, knowledge and insight lead in the Deloitte Sports Business Group.

The next Women’s World Cup will be held in Brazil in 2027 — another big year for women’s sports, Deloitte predicts. It will be the first time the women’s tournament has been held in South America, according to The Independent.

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The post Women’s Sports Are About to Hit $3 Billion—Here’s What’s Driving It appeared first on The Story Exchange.

This week, the world learned that Aubrey Plaza is pregnant with her first child.

The 41-year-old actress confirmed that she and partner Chris Abbott, also a performer, will be having a baby together this fall. It’s good news for Plaza, who had been rocked by the loss of her estranged husband, Jeff Baena, to suicide in January 2025.

While appearing on Amy Poehler’s “Good Hang” podcast late last summer, Plaza spoke about her grief over Baena’s death. She likened the experience to “a giant ocean of awfulness.” She added that “sometimes, I just want to dive into it, and just, like, be in it. Then sometimes, I just look at it. And sometimes, I try to get away from it.”

Either way, Plaza concluded, “it’s always there.”

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But now, it appears she has found some level of happiness after weathering that pain and confusion. Grief persists, of course – but we still exist, and eventually, we do start living again. 

Not that the general public is concerned with such things, of course.

The announcement of her pregnancy was met by a wave of social media users branding Plaza as heartless for being with Abbott, and being pregnant with Abbott, after the loss of her former partner. (Whom, it should be noted, she had been separated from for months before his death.) As if a stranger’s comfort with her life should even matter.

But in rather callous terms, people felt comfortable all the same expressing that they felt Plaza had been a bad partner to Baena in hindsight, that Hollywood had rendered her unfeeling… that she is a terrible human being for finding a new love and building a family with him. Comment after comment after comment derided her for the act of moving forward. Even the New York Post centered Baena’s death in their coverage of her pregnancy.

First things first: Shall we look at the numbers around how men handle illnesses in, and the deaths of, their female partners?

Because research tells us that men are six times more likely than women to abandon partners who fall gravely ill, and are 42% more likely to have remarried within two years following the death of a partner than women are. Those tempted to scrutinize Plaza’s timeline should keep in mind that men are study-proven to move on from such struggles and losses at far faster rates.

The bigger truth, though, is that it isn’t our business how a person navigates that “giant ocean of awfulness” one finds themselves in when grief comes, regardless of their gender. There’s no socially agreed-upon timeline of propriety when it comes to how long a person must mourn, or how long someone must be alone after a death before they are “allowed” to start imagining, even building a new life.

But as is often the case in our society, stemming back to Victorian times, when a widow was expected to wear black for years after her husband’s death, there is disproportionate pressure heaped upon women to publicly show their grief.  That expectation – particularly when it appears in the wasteland of social media comments – often comes from people who have been lucky enough not to suffer such profound losses themselves.

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On Poehler’s podcast, Plaza summed up her experience with grief, up to that point, as an exercise in simply putting one foot in front of the other. “Overall, I’m here and I’m functioning. I feel really grateful to be moving through the world. I think I’m okay. But it’s, like, a daily struggle – obviously.”

If a person, especially one whose work has brought joy to others, has found some modicum of peace and hope for herself after living in survival mode, that’s something to celebrate – not deride.

Or, if one simply can’t handle that, there’s always the option of minding one’s business.

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This week, our eyes have been collectively drawn to the skies by an ongoing NASA mission.

The Artemis II crew – composed of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen – is presently guiding NASA’s Orion spacecraft on an historic mission to orbit our moon. The group has already successfully circled Earth’s natural satellite, and is now making its way back home.

It’s been an affecting ride into the void thus far – in particular, the moment when the Artemis II crew proposed naming a bright spot on the moon after Wiseman’s deceased wife, Carroll, who died in 2020 of cancer. Here on Earth, people have been gripped by the notion of someone loving someone else so much that they carried their love further than any human has ever gone – and then bestowed her name upon a bright spot they found in the sky.

But it’s also been dotted with flashes of joy, and delight. From the reaches of space have come a spoof of the opening credits of sitcom “Full House,” as well as the sight of a jar of Nutella spread hurtling its way through the cabin during an otherwise routine moment.

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And, one “morning,” the crew was awakened by the triumphant playing of “Pink Pony Club,” the 2020 queer pop anthem by queer pop artist Chappell Roan that’s become a beloved hit song. Its selection wasn’t some grand statement – just a fun song, effective for coaxing astronauts from their slumber.

But then, you add the context of Dr. Sally Ride – and a sweet wake-up “call” becomes something sweeter, still.

Ride, famously the first woman to ever go to space, was and is a hero for generations of girls and women. But even as she went where no woman had ever gone before – in her career, and in her trip to space – she was held back on Earth from being open about her partnership with Tam O’Shaughnessy, a woman she loved and lived with for nearly 30 years. All because Ride lived in a time when “being an icon” and “being a lesbian” didn’t go together.

While re-establishing contact with us terrestrials, Koch noted that “when we leave Earth, we do not leave it – we choose it. We will always choose Earth, we will always choose each other” In response to this sentiment, Ground Control offered: “Integrity from Earth, our single system, fragile and interconnected, we copy.”

It’s the same sense of connection-from-afar Ride herself experienced while on her own trip to the stars. In an interview following her ground-breaking flight, she noted that “all the imaginary lines of humanity … the tribal fears we hold onto … all the arbitrary restrictions we place on ourselves and each other – they mean nothing.”

Ride was held back from living her truth by those arbitrary restrictions while she was alive – she could never hope to publicly name a piece of outer space after O’Shaughnessy, as she might have wanted. But in 2026, a lesbian artist’s work can be played aboard NASA spacecrafts and be greeted with smiles, and without complication.

It’s a little something to hold on to, anyway. A bright spot in the sky, if you will.

Read more about Ride’s journey – on Earth, and above:
Dr. Sally Ride, the Queer Woman Icon Who Was Never Allowed to Be One

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The post A Twinkle of Hope Found Amid the Artemis II Crew’s Playlist appeared first on The Story Exchange.

It’s well-documented that climate change disproportionately impacts women. When there’s extreme weather or disasters, women face higher mortality rates, greater chances of gender-based violence, increased caregiving responsibilities and more economic instability. Crafting solutions that center women could make a global difference.

That’s according to UN Women, which ahead of this year’s Earth Month called 2026 a “pivotal opportunity to advance gender equality in the global environmental agenda.”

In an article on its site, the organization noted that “the climate crisis is not ‘gender neutral’,” and that “the lived experiences, rights, and meaningful participation of all women and girls – especially those in frontline communities – must be kept front and center as we work towards a healthier, safer and more equitable world for all.”

UN Women’s focus follows a 2025 report from United Nations Climate Change, which detailed a decade-long roadmap for combating climate change in ways that center women’s needs and perspectives. “Stronger climate action delivers huge benefits for people in their daily lives. More jobs, more economic opportunities and lower health costs. Applying a gender-responsive approach ensures that those benefits are shared equally,” said Simon Stiell, executive secretary of UN Climate Change.

Women-focused solutions include tapping into Indigenous women’s expertise to improve regional food security, weaving inclusivity into clean energy job creation, and developing low-carbon transportation solutions that help women, in particular, get around.

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The commitment to frame the climate change fight in this way was first made in 2024 at COP29, when nations at the conference decided to extend the Enhanced Lima Work Program on Gender and Climate Change, a plan initially conceived as a three-year effort to mitigate the growing problem.  “[This] decision acknowledges the critical role of gender mainstreaming into all relevant goals and targets,” officials said at the time. “This integration is seen as contributing towards enhancing the effectiveness, fairness and sustainability of climate policy and action.”

In recent years, research has demonstrated how a changing climate increasingly harms women’s economic prospects, autonomy – and lives.

For example, a 2024 analysis by the Association of American Medical Colleges found that women, internationally, are more likely to be injured or killed by extreme weather events – usually due to lack of prenatal care and upticks in sexual violence. “After extreme weather events, risks to women go way up, and they go up in many different ways,” Cecilia Sorensen, director of the Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education at Columbia University, told AAMC at the time.

Not that President Donald Trump’s administration is taking any of it seriously here in the U.S. During his second term, he has signed executive orders that aim to prohibit states from enacting laws to curb fossil fuel use, while also calling for an increase in coal production. It’s part of a broader push during his second tenure to undo American efforts against climate change, which also includes pulling out of the Paris climate agreement.

All the more reason to strategize by centering women in the climate fight, international researchers agree.

UN Women said it will promoting “inclusive and equitable gender action plans” throughout the year, including three upcoming summits — the COP17 on desertification in Mongolia in August, the COP17 on biodiversity in Armenia in October, and COP31 on climate change in Turkey in November.

“It has never been clearer: Climate change, biodiversity loss and desertification are making our economies, our health, and progress on gender equality more precarious,” the organization said. “There is a path forward: just transitions away from economies and societies dependent on fossil fuels and harmful environmental practices – and towards greater sustainability and gender equality.”

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Editor’s Note: This post, updated for 2026, was originally published April 9, 2025.

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Following days of speculation, it’s official: Pam Bondi is out.

The now-former U.S. Attorney General was removed from her post this week. And though President Donald Trump referred to Bondi as “a loyal friend who faithfully served” amid news of her departure, sources close to the Trump administration told NBC News that he’d grown “more and more frustrated” with her job performance.

Her handling of deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s case – and the files from the investigation into him, which cite Trump thousands of times – is said to be central to the decision to let Bondi go. Sources add that Trump had also grown angry with her failure to convert probes of his political enemies – such as former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James – into convictions.

This, despite years of fealty from Bondi. She first entered Trump’s orbit as a lawyer who represented him in his 2021 impeachment proceedings for inciting a failed coup. This year, she’d utilized her elevated platform to, among other things, publicly share the names and photos of anti-Trump protesters on social media.

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She’s the second official to be given the boot by Trump in recent history. Less than one month ago, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was fired from her role, following her much-maligned handling of two killings of civilians by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. This, despite her towing the Trump line that victims Renee Good and Alex Pretti posed threats to U.S. safety even as video evidence circulated to the contrary – and despite her overall dogged implementation of Trump’s aggressively anti-immigrant agenda.

Trump is additionally said to be weighing the prospect of firing White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, whom he has more publicly critiqued. During a recent briefing in the Oval Office, he laid blame for his administration’s negative perception at her feet – telling her to her face, and in front of the press: “You’re doing a terrible job.” This, despite her repeated willingness to greet questions from journalists with blatant, unprofessional disrespect in service of defending Trump.

Incompetence and impropriety are hardly unfamiliar traits among people serving Trump – or Trump himself. Yet when it becomes politically advantageous to put forth a sacrificial firing, it’s increasingly been women on the chopping block.

This phenomenon isn’t unique to the Trump administration. In fact, it’s so common to put women (and other marginalized individuals) in high-profile positions and situations during times of crisis – with an understood presumption of blamable failure – that it has its own name: The “glass cliff.” Studies have also shown that women are generally more likely to be fired for fumbles and failures that men tend to be forgiven for.

Women like Bondi, and Noem, and Leavitt made themselves into agents of a provably anti-woman state. If they weren’t outright defending Team Trump’s questionable moves or blatant wrongdoings, they were obfuscating about them. They were often misleading and disrespectful when confronted by journalists. Worst of all, they harmed others – immigrants, members of the LGBTQ community and victims of sexual abuse have suffered as a result of their words and actions. All in service of insulating Trump and furthering his agenda.

Two of them have now been fired, and the third has been publicly humiliated.

As it turns out, ingratiating oneself into a group that dismisses, disrespects and erases women will do nothing to prevent women from being embarrassed at best, and abandoned at worst, if deemed necessary.

Women who worm their way into such boys’ clubs may think, on some level, that they are securing their place on the lifeboats with their actions – not realizing that they are, instead, more likely to be the first ones tossed overboard to preserve the men’s safety and access to seats. Chum in the water, to keep the metaphorical sharks at bay.

Other women – ones who might find themselves tempted to prioritize self-preservation above sisterhood – should take note of what these men do, and who they’re loyal to, when the chips are down.

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Climate change is real, and it’s here. Thankfully, so are women.

A 2024 United Nations report grimly warns that “urgent action must be taken to prevent catastrophic spikes in temperature and avoid the worst impact of climate change.” Erratic weather patterns, wildfires, hurricanes and floods are already showing us shades of what an unlivable world could look like.

While current leadership is unwilling to tackle or even recognize the issue – the Trump administration has removed the term “climate change” from many government websites – ordinary citizens, community watchdogs and activist organizations around the world continue to sound the alarm. Folks like those at Extinction Rebellion engage in regular acts of civil disobedience, while groups such as the Climate Emergency Fund funnel money toward such efforts. Prominent activists like Jane Fonda have elevated the issue from their considerable platforms, inspiring new generations of eco-warriors.

Research shows that women around the world are more vulnerable to the climate crisis, so it’s perhaps no surprise that women are often front-and-center in these call-outs and actions. In honor of Earth Month, here are several women leaders who have dedicated their lives, and work, to combating climate change. 

1

Madeline Walker, featured as one of our 2026 Women in Science Prize winners, runs a company that focuses on textiles that end up on the cutting room floor during the manufacturing process. (Credit: Courtesy of Madeline Walker)

The 2026 Winners of Our 'Women in Science Prize'

You might not recognize their names, but the 11 winners of our 2026 Women in Science Prize have done innovative work in the name of preserving and protecting our natural resources. These scientists are helping us better understand and navigate droughts, wildfires and more as climate change continues to become an increasingly large part of our lives.

2

(Credit: 3 Cricketeers)

Claire Simons

Our food supply problems seem likely to get worse before they get better. Thankfully, women like Claire Simons, co-founder of 3 Cricketeers, are working hard on offering us an eco-friendly alternative – even if it might be hard for some to stomach. Her cricket-based snacks, including her new toffees, are introducing the sustainable concept of eating insects (something more than a quarter of the world does, by the way) to diners throughout the U.S.

3

Diane Wilson. (Credit: Diane Wilson)

Diane Wilson

Award-winning climate-change activist Wilson was arrested this week amid her weeks-long hunger strike in protest of Dow Chemical Company’s attempts to secure governmental permission to discharge microplastics from its Seadrift-based operations into nearby waters that feed into both San Antonio Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. “Dow is asking Texas to legalize plastic pollution,” Wilson said – and she won’t let that happen without a fight.

4

Rachael Slattery

At Wild Harmony Farm in Exeter, Rhode Island – a family farm that sells organic pork, grass-fed beef and pastured poultry – Rachael Slattery and and co-owner Ben Coerper use regenerative agriculture techniques, which help restore soil health and reduce the impacts of climate change. It’s sharply different from how most food in the U.S. is produced today, which is why Wild Harmony Farm hopes to share its methods, like cover cropping and rotational grazing, with other small farmers.

5

(Credit: Matt Mais of the Yurok Tribe)

Amy Cordalis

Talk about thinking globally and acting locally. Amy Cordalis has led efforts to restore the Klamath River, which runs from Oregon into Northern California and empties out into the ocean, amid a water crisis that has killed its fish population. She’s a lawyer by trade, and was appointed general counsel for the Yurok Tribe in 2016. In 2024, she was named a “Champion of the Earth” by the United Nations for her role in the largest dam removal and river restoration project in history.

6

Karen Washington

An urban farmer and food justice advocate, Karen Washington is the co-founder of both Rise & Root Farm in Orange County, New York, and Garden of Happiness in New York City. She advocates for the belief that nutritious food is a human right by ensuring access to it in underserved neighborhoods – like the ones she grew up in. Still today, “healthy food is based on the color of your skin, how much money you make, and where you live,” she told The Story Exchange – and her mission is to change that by empowering other urban growers.

7

(Credit: Natural Evolution)

Traci Phillips

Traci Phillips’ Natural Evolution recycles dead cell phones, washed-up computers and more, so they can’t clog landfills and release toxic substances into the environment. The Tulsa, Oklahoma, entrepreneur says her Native American roots inspired her to turn a personal mission into a successful business. “My tribe, many years ago, believed we had a responsibility and we were actually stewards of our surroundings and our earth,” she told us. “It feels like I am fulfilling that.”

8

Briana Warner

Fast-growing kelp can help mitigate the impact of climate change by removing carbon and nitrogen from the water. And compared with land plants and animal meats, kelp is loaded with digestive and nutritional benefits. Yet 95% of edible seaweed is imported – something Briana Warner set out to change during her time as CEO of Atlantic Sea Farms. After six years with the company, she stepped away from the role to focus on other professional pursuits, but remained an advisor to the company.

9

Nona Yehia

Architect Nona Yehia thought there must be a better way for Wyoming residents to get fresh produce than importing it from other states. Several years after that initial thought – and following some healthy skepticism from naysayers – Vertical Harvest finally opened in 2016 as the first vertical farm in the northern hemisphere. Today, the farm produces lettuces, tomatoes, microgreens and more for restaurants, shops and her community as a whole.

10

(Credit: Greenpeace)

KlimaSeniorinnen

We admit it: We’re still buzzing over the group of women took their climate change concerns to court – and won. The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2024 that the Swiss government failed to effectively act on curbing the effects of climate change, after the Club of Climate Seniors, a 2,000-member group of 64-and-older Swiss women, brought the matter before them. Experts said the case sets “a crucial, legally binding precedent.”

11

Jessica Schreiber

Jessica Schreiber is fascinated by trash. And in New York City, where she launched fashion recycling startup Fabscrap, there is plenty of it: Residents alone produce some 12,000 tons of it a day. Though she stepped down last March, the nonprofit she started still works in the city’s world-famous fashion industry, picking up and reselling its textile cast-offs — yards of cotton, strips of wool, pieces of luxurious silk, linen and leather. As commercial waste, such scraps aren’t eligible for the city’s residential recycling programs, and more often than not, they end up in landfills. “That, to me, was unacceptable,” she told The Story Exchange.

12

Sarah Montgomery

“As we look at climate change, [amaranth] is a plant that’s so healthy, and that can adapt to so many different places and conditions,” says Sarah Montgomery, co-founder of Qachuu Aloom Mother Earth Association, who hosts events to share ancestral knowledge. The plant is native to Central America, but with permission from a collective of Maya Achi farmers in Guatemala, its seeds are being sown in the U.S. – a boon, Montgomery says, as the solution to climate change lies “within nature. We just need to learn how to listen.”

13

Kerry Kelly

“Climate change, population growth, water diversions — all those are acting together to cause a big decline in the level of the Salt Lake,” says Kerry Kelly, associate professor of chemical engineering at the University of Utah, co-founder of Tellus Networked Air Quality Sensors, and a 2022 winner of our Women in Science Incentive Prize. “And that’s leading to big air quality problems here.” The dust left behind by the drying lake now kicks up on a regular basis, irritating eyes, noses and mouths, and making it tougher for people to breathe – which is why she’s hard at work developing low-cost sensors to monitor air quality.

14

(Credit: Lucy Sherriff)

Diane Ragone

In a world threatened by climate change , breadfruit has been increasingly seen as a stable crop that can help combat global hunger. Diane Ragone is the director emerita of the Breadfruit Institute of the National Tropical Botanical Garden, based in Hawaii. For more than three and a half decades, she has been studying, analyzing, growing and preaching the breadfruit gospel. Almost single-handedly, she has brought this superfood to the world’s attention.

15

(Credit: Rise St. James, Peter G. Forest/Forest Photography, LLC)

Sharon Lavigne

Sharon Lavigne is the founder of RISE St. James, a grassroots environmental organization dedicated to preventing the expansion of petrochemical plants in and around her home in St. James Parish, a district located between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The fumes from a nearby plant didn’t just fill the air there; they likely also gave Lavigne autoimmune hepatitis, a disease created when the body’s immune system attacks the liver. She told The Story Exchange that “if the industry wouldn’t exist, I wouldn’t have these problems.” Now, she’s doing her part to mitigate their harmful effects and save others from the same fate.

16

Sharon Rowe

Sharon Rowe admits that part of her reason for launching Eco-Bags Products, Inc., which makes and sells reusable totes, lunch bags and more, was to have more control of her time. But first and foremost, Rowe wanted to offer her neighbors – and all of us – an alternative to wasteful single-use plastic bags. “[W]hen I realized there were other people thinking like I was [about plastic bags], I decided to start a business,” she told us. Since launching, Eco-Bags has been featured by the likes of Oprah and Time Magazine.

17

NY Sun Works director Manuela Zamora. (Credit: NY Sun Works)

Manuela Zamora

At climate-focused nonprofit, NY Sun Works, Bolivia-born Zamora has helped pioneer a hands-on approach to train the next generation of climate scientists and farmers, as the organization’s executive director. NY Sun Works accomplishes this goal by creating hydroponic farming classrooms that teach students how to grow plants and crops in nutrient-rich water rather than soil. “This is an excellent way to talk about sustainability science,” she told The Story Exchange.

18

(Credit: The Soapbox Project)

Nivi Achanta

Nivi Achanta is the founder of Soapbox Project, a platform that provides bite-sized climate action plans. She was inspired to launch after she noticed her friends disengaging from the news after finding current events to be too overwhelming to process. Today, the Seattle entrepreneur says she’s proud to have built a virtual space that allows people to get involved in social and environmental justice at a more comfortable pace.

19

Amy Keller

Amy Keller, whose family sells the famous Dum Dum lollipops, makes fruit chews from misshapen produce. The goal is to reduce food waste – a big problem to solve, as about 40% of food is wasted globally. The discarded produce often winding up in landfills, where it rots and produces methane, a greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere. Through its industrial machinery and equipment, Keller makes fruit chews at a mass scale, allowing her and her team to rescue an estimated 1 million fruits and vegetables a year.

20

Annie Chun is the co-founder of Gimme Seaweed. (Image: Courtesy of the company)

Annie Chun

Chun grew up in Korea, and has many memories of watching her mother roast seaweed on the stovetop there. She’s now the U.S.-based co-founder of Gimme Seaweed, a popular, healthy and sustainable snack-food brand. Seaweed is considered a regenerative crop, a nutrient dense “superfood” that can absorb carbon dioxide and make the ocean cleaner. Chun’s work brings this human- and Earth-friendly treat to both smaller grocery stores and large retailers like Target, Walmart and Costco.

Editor’s Note: This post, updated for 2026, was originally published April 18, 2024.

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