On this week’s 51%, we sit down with longtime feminist activist Muriel Fox to chat about how the National Organization for Women got started in the 1960s, and how it fought for many of the rights and opportunities women cherish today.

On this week’s 51%, we speak with sports journalist Jane McManus about the history and business of women’s sports, as detailed in her new book The Fast Track.

On this week’s 51%, we chat with Kimberly Heckler about her book A Woman of Firsts: Margaret Heckler, Political Trailblazer.

When most of us think of the Viking Age, we think of its men: powerful warriors sailing ships, building armies, and sacking cities across Europe. But new research shows Viking women were warriors, too – and that they were traders, artisans, explorers, landowners, and respected leaders in their own right. On this week’s 51%, we kick off Women’s History Month by speaking with science writer Heather Pringle about her book The Northwomen, on how women helped shape Viking society and culture.

On this week’s 51%, we speak with Carol Cleaveland and Michele Waslin, author of Private Violence: Latin American Women and the Struggle for Asylum. As President Trump effectively shuts down processing at the southern border and ramps up deportations, asylum seekers in the U.S. are left in a precarious position, especially women fleeing domestic and gender-based violence. Through interviews and eyewitness accounts of closed court proceedings, Cleaveland and Waslin demonstrate how difficult it is for these women to seek shelter in the U.S., and why “gender-based violence” is still not considered grounds for asylum — even before the second Trump Administration.

What makes a good life? According to the world’s longest scientific study of human happiness, our relationships play a key role. On this week’s 51%, we speak with Dr. Robert Waldinger, a psychiatry professor at Harvard Medical School and director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development. In his book with researcher Marc Schulz, called The Good Life, Waldinger details the study’s findings and gives advice on how to make connections and nurture your relationships. WAMC’s Sarah LaDuke also chats with her friend, singer-songwriter Al Olender, about finding strength in vulnerability, and writing about love.

On this week’s 51%, we speak with author Joelle Kaufman about her new book Crushing the Cancer Curveball. After helping both her mother and sister battle breast cancer, Kaufman voluntarily sought a mastectomy in 2023 — only to be diagnosed with cancer the day before her surgery. Part memoir, part guidebook, Crushing the Cancer Curveball compiles Kaufman’s best advice on how to advocate for yourself as a patient, how to break the news to family and friends, and how to feel like you’re still living your life, even when you're fighting for it.

Before leaving office, former President Joe Biden declared that he considered the Equal Rights Amendment to be “the law of the land.” On this week’s 51%, we speak with Georgetown Law Professor Victoria Nourse about why the ERA has been in limbo for so long, what it would do, and whether it currently stands as the 28th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

On this week's 51%, we speak with journalist and author Pagan Kennedy about her new book The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story, tracking the life and work of Martha “Marty” Goddard, who invented the country’s first extensive rape kit system in the 1970s.

On this week’s 51%, we sit down the director of Safe Inc. of Schenectady to discuss the many risks faced by homeless youth, and what they’re doing as an organization to help combat human trafficking. We also learn about a New York law granting paid prenatal leave to pregnant workers. And our Dr. Sharon Ufberg chats with singer-songwriter Morley about her new album, Follow the Sound, and how her humanitarian work inspires her music.