8: The Industrial Revolution and its Consequences pt.2: The Invention of the Pill

The Industrial Revolution and its Consequences pt.2: The Invention of the Pill

Get ready to dive into this episode that takes elements from an educational and history podcast to present the strange and surprising past of one of the most popular methods of birth control today. Explore the reasons behind the advocation of the pill specifically for women and journey through its initial stages of development with Grant and Maia in this podcast. Also prepare yourself for process of uncovering the dangerous and traumatic actions of Margaret Sanger, one of the loudest advocates for the development of the pill.

This podcast takes you through the course of industrial revolution and its consequences on birth control with Grant and Maia making things light but informative for all listeners.

Key Highlights

Children During Industrial Revolution: Grant and Maia start the podcast by discussing how birth control directly relates to industrial revolution. They talk about the effect of having more or less children on a family in the changing economy of industrial revolution, discuss the stats of children per capita in developed and developing countries of the world and the direct impact of raising children during and after industrial revolution. This discussion prefaces the topics they explore later on in the podcast and gives the listeners the background necessary to understand what comes after.

Margaret Sanger: Grant and Maia move on to talk about Margaret Sanger, a well-known birth control activist and sex educator. The podcast explores her early childhood, the effect seeing her mother pass away due to the excessive strain of childbirth and miscarriage had on her and her later work in the underground abortion clinics that led to her finding the American Birth Control League which later became the Planned Parenthood Federation.

The Birth Control Pill: As the podcast continues, Grant and Maia discuss the history and development of the first birth control pill and Margaret's role in this. The podcast takes a twist, however, when Grant says that Margaret was not the hero in this story because her work created a lot more problems. He discusses her radical beliefs, especially concerning eugenics and white supremacy relating to childbirth and the impact it had on immigrants and people of colour. The shift in the narrative makes listeners question how right can innovation truly be in the name of science and the podcast theme is summed up perfectly by Grant when he says, 'Margaret is the protagonist not the hero.'

Key Quotes

“The Industrial Revolution isn't necessarily responsible for the creation of the birth control pill but it is responsible for the creation of the environment that would make it more prevalent.”
“Women went through a pretty traumatic abortion experience, it is rarely enjoyable but people forget it's especially so when it's super illegal and dangerous but they still picked that option while knowing the consequences because they had to weigh it against the dangers of having a child at that age and I mean, childbirth is still one of the most deadly things a woman can do so just imagine it then.”
“The history of gynecology in the United States is that it just manipulates hyper-vulnerable women, it lies to women and it uses misogyny at both ends by threatening women who do have the same amount of social power but then using it to advocate for their research to people who know even less about the reproductive systems of people who can give birth so it's shady all around.”

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