By Thistle Pettersen
MADISON, May 2, 2024 — WLRN is celebrating our 8th anniversary as a volunteer-powered sisterhood to produce high-quality feminist independent media. I have had a front seat on this ride since it started and I have to say it has been groovy, thoughtful, analytical, connective, curiosity-building, and movement-building. I am proud to have co-created a news and information media center for feminists and to bring music and culture to the WLRN project. Eight years in your ears and now the movement is moving. Imagine that! We kept keepin’ on and now there are the WPath files, the Cass Review, and the Trans Empire is beginning to crumble. Hallelujah!
It’s been a wonderful journey thus far to share space on the internet for feminist discussion, analysis, news, music, and commentary all within a vibrant, yet chill community of women. You mean the sun, the moon, and the stars to me my dear sisters of WLRN!
On May 5th, 2016, we released our first collectively crafted podcast as an act of DIY defiance after I was temporarily banned from WORT FM 89.9 FM Community Radio in my hometown of Madison. It’s a long story, but suffice it to say that I am now permanently banned from Madison’s community radio station after participating in the Sisters for Sisters conference that drew 70 of America’s finest feminists to Madison for a public library panel discussion and a Speakers’ Corner on the steps of the capitol.
We have come a long way since then and since our humble beginnings. Back in 2016, there weren’t too many speaking out about the harms of gender ideology. Certainly, WORT 89.9 FM, a radio station meant to amplify the voices of marginalized people in our community, was not. WORT was producing and continues to create programming and policy that promotes the false claim that some special men have a “female gender” and that women who don’t believe are to be publicly shamed and ostracized.
Thankfully, one WORT staff member saw the injustice of what was done to me and free speech in general and decided to help me set up a little “radio station” around my dining room table. Only with this help and that of a dedicated small crew did we break the sound barrier by banding together and teaching and learning from each other to make and record feminist news and music. This tradition of collective, collaborative work came directly from my experiences working on radio projects at WORT 89.9 FM and organizing with anti-mining environmentalist groups in Madison and across my state. It takes a whole community to create great radio for and by said community and beyond. Each one of our 97 WLRN podcasts has the mark of at least three women from our collective and in most instances, four – six members jump on board and contribute something.
I used to say that WLRN is the “All Things Considered” of the Femisphere until I became disillusioned with NPR and its news coverage and lack of journalistic integrity. Click on the link to find an open letter you can send to NPR Execs generated by our sisters at the Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF).
WLRN is something to celebrate in today’s world of censorship-driven media that distorts and manipulates our body politic and public discussion. Even the former health secretary of Great Britain agrees! Recently Sajid Javid made a statement in the Times UK that not only is the trans lobby hurting children with their medical malpractice, but also all of civil society.
“The trans lobby has distorted public life in Britain, from the hounding of women who affirm the immutability of biological sex to the torturous pronoun etiquette of Whitehall.”
When public officials from departments unrelated to journalism can see that transgenderism harms all of society, you know we are making progress. I like to think that WLRN took up a small portion of the airwaves at a time eight years ago when we needed to bat our butterfly wings to create the perfect storm resulting in the waves of time and herstory speeding toward our collective freedom from male tyranny.
So this is me tooting my own horn for once. This is me standing up for myself and speaking even if my voice shakes. My peers in Madison have stomped down hard on the seed that is little ‘ole me, but I am planted and standing firm in the rich soil of feminism and feminist discourse. I think I even feel sprouted now, and you can be sure there are thorns on my leaves as I grow. But also, like the artichoke, a big and nutritious heart is at my center and I share it with all women in this fight for our freedom.
To make a special 8th-anniversary donation to our work, please take a look at our Merch Tab and purchase an item in honor of this special date. Or if you don’t want merch, please consider an anniversary donation by clicking here. We also receive checks made out to “WLRN” at our PO Box 561 | Madison, Wisconsin 53701 | Thanks for staying tuned! Please write to us at info@wlrnmedia.com to learn about volunteer opportunities or to share your ideas for building feminist community-powered media.
Thistle Pettersen is the founding member of WLRN, an eco-feminist, and a singer/songwriter in her home state of Wisconsin. Her focus is on arts and culture and the role they play in building liberation and justice movements. You can learn more about Thistle and hear her original music at ThistlePettersen.com
