At a time when governments are willfully failing to preserve all their records, librarians and activists are using archival work to do more than document history. Guerrilla archives—whether digital or analog—are generally nonpartisan acts of preservation to serve the public good.

Who was your first real-life feminist role model?

Staff Reads from our Executive Assistant: "In contrast to cheaply-made, extractive construction methods that disrupt the natural environment, the Khasi and Jaintia people (of India) remind us that all living things can coexist while offering an improved quality of life for it’s people."

"Curriculum for medical students—including in obstetrics and gynecology (OB-GYN)—currently contains zero required hours covering menopause, even though 50% of the population will go through it." Read more in our latest newsletter by @mrsslrss.bsky.social ✉️ ➡️ mailchi.mp/conversation...

Convo Reads by @msmagazine.com: “As the United States marks 250 years, an older Indigenous system of women-led governance offers a radically different blueprint for power and responsibility.”

Looking for a good book rec? We've got you covered. Here are our book recommendations for your next read. 📚: bookshop.org/shop/Convo_ist

"At age 50, people used to think menopause is dried up and over the hill. Age 50 is not the end. Age 50, you're at the top of your game." Everything You Need to Know About Perimenopause (w/ @drsophiayen.bsky.social) in our latest podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

Amplify! 🗣️

I’ve said it many times, in various ways, but especially here: the man’s a genocidal maniac who could burn it all down in a rage conversationalist.org/2023/02/10/d...

I wouldn’t trust anyone to tell us how this will play out, because we don’t know. The threat alone of civilizational destruction is bad enough, and so I’m trying to extend grace to people who are understandably panicking, and encouraging everyone to do what they can with the power they’ve got.

Staff Reads from our Social Media Manager: "Meat and manhood are culturally intertwined, but why? This story by @voxdotcom.bsky.social explores the origins and the growing movement of plant-based male athletes."

"If the French figured out how to stop deifying the king, maybe someday we can figure out how to stop deifying billionaires." Cara Marsh Sheffler on Jacques-Louis David's paintings and the unlearned historical lessons from them.

As I wrote for the incredible @conversationalist.org, “If women’s health research isn’t getting funded, it’s time we reclaim some control and fund the damn research ourselves.” conversationalist.org/2025/09/19/m...

"Guardians of the Mangroves" has been longlisted for the One World Media Awards for Environmental Reporting. Congrats, Aliya Bashir!

"Whether solo or in communion with other Black women, it is not at all hyperbole for me to say that time and time again, I have found salvation in art museums," writes Gabrielle Horton.

New podcast alert! 🚨 Journalist Sara Cincurova reads her article "Motherhood on the Frontlines", sharing stories of the single mothers raising Ukraine's most vulnerable children amidst the ongoing war with Russia. Listen here ➡️ podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/m...

🏺 Female artist using art as her voice 🏺 Based in Perth, Western Australia 🏺 Building a worldwide community This is Day in a Life, a series where we follow interesting people doing interesting things. Meet Claudia Lam, a potter and illustrator making colorful creations. Who do you want to see next?

In an era of rising authoritarianism and billionaire autocrats, defenders of human rights cannot afford to retreat. #MsReads via @conversationalist.org

March Book of the Month 📚: "Will the Future Like You?" by Patricia Martin begins with a declaration: Our personal identities have not kept pace with the tempo of technology. And this imbalance has made us wholly unprepared to explore who we really are.

Convo Reads: "There were women who made headlines, world leaders remembered for decisions that altered the course of a nation, athletes who reimagined what was physically possible, and there were those who died before their time, leaving behind an unfinished draft or a song."

“Supermarkets are rapidly displacing other retailers to become the place of choice to buy food. In doing so, supermarkets have become a major force in the Global South, not just in retailing, but in agricultural purchasing.” How Kenya’s grocery stores might be hurting farmers by @alexcpark.com.

Recording this episode was the last thing I did before maternity leave, and considering how dire things have been, it still left me so hopeful. Listening to the leaders running women and girls nonprofits in Cambodia and Zimbabwe tell US feminists: welcome to the club, here’s how we make it work.

Season 3 of The Conversationalist Podcast is here! 🎙️ We're kicking it off with a hopeful conversation about how global nonprofits are combatting gender inequality around the world. Listen now: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/h...

"But these samba school parades allow communities to reclaim the narrative and ensure these important histories get preserved for generations to come." Read more in our latest Conversationalist newsletter by @mrsslrss.bsky.social ✉️ ➡️ mailchi.mp/conversation...

Staff Reads from our Newsletter Editor: "Many Americans are at least passively aware of the horrors of the commercial meat industry. But I learned so much from this report about animal mistreatment in a relatively newer part of the industry—calf-raising farms—and what can be done to stop it."

“The dominant narratives will tell histories that are important to the elites… Carnival gives us autonomy to tell our own histories.” Samba schools in Brazil are teaching Black history through the parades at Carnival. Story by @nicolefroio.bsky.social.

“The dominant narratives will tell histories that are important to the elites… Carnival gives us autonomy to tell our own histories.” Samba schools in Brazil are teaching Black history through the parades at Carnival. Story by @nicolefroio.bsky.social.

"I rise I rise I rise." - Maya Angelou

“The farmworker movement has always been bigger and far more important than any one individual. … I have kept this secret long enough. My silence ends here.” Read Dolores Huerta's statement on Cesar Chavez in full:

"The art world remains very profitable for the tiny tranche of collectors who treat art as an investment tool, and a house of horrors for those who live and work in it." Cara Marsh Sheffler looks at the cross-continental sloshing of capital beneath the art market bubble.

"As people constantly reminded that they don’t belong, Latinx and AAPI folks in the U.S. face a mental battle over how beauty, health, food, exercise, medicine, and relationships should look." Why eating disorders are so prevalent in Latinx and AAPI communities in the U.S.

What human rights win do you hope to see in your lifetime?

Staff Reads from our Executive Director: " @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social has deep wisdom to share. 'Maybe changing the world is more like caregiving than it is like war. Too many people still expect it to look like war.'"

Horses at Costco. An antique mechanical organ playing Coldplay. A tractor set to EDM. "How weird could my For You Page get? With a bit of effort, as it turns out: very, very weird." @sesmith.lol on the magic of #WeirdTok and how it reveals something deeper about being human.

For @conversationalist.org, I wrote about Ireland's attempt to support artists with a monthly basic income: conversationalist.org/2026/01/07/h...

Convo Reads from @msmagazine.com: “Fear of immigration enforcement is reshaping the daily routines, safety and solidarity of care workers who rely on public spaces to connect and share information.”

“Because once we’ve lost press freedom, it’s only a matter of time before we lose everything it protects.” @katiedd.bsky.social on the growing restrictions of press freedom around the world.

Season 3 of The Conversationalist Podcast is coming! Founder @alindguzik.bsky.social and Contributing Editor Kovie Biakolo will be hosting and chatting with experts about the issues of our time like climate change, women's rights, motherhood, and more. 🎙️: conversationalist.org/2025/11/03/c...

Staff Reads from our Social Media Manager: "Alysa Liu took a break and came back to win two gold medals. If that isn't a reminder of the importance to rest, I don't know what is."

Staff Reads from our Social Media Manager: "Alysa Liu took a break and came back to win two gold medals. If that isn't a reminder of the importance to rest, I don't know what is."

"If your library queue is ready for an early spring refresh, you’ve come to the right place." Read more in our latest Conversationalist newsletter by @mrsslrss.bsky.social ✉️ ➡️ mailchi.mp/conversation...

Writer Spotlight: Marianne Eloise 🔆 @marianneeloise.bsky.social's recent newsletter, "obsessive, intrusive, magical," explores the desire to read writing by a real person, not ChatGPT. "I know that, even if ChatGPT could be prompted to write in an approximation of my voice, it will never be me."

“Holding the line is exhausting. The victories are small and the setbacks are devastating….Hope is understanding that the line we hold today creates and protects the space where tomorrow’s resistance will grow. And sometimes, against all odds, that resistance succeeds.”—@leilaseiitbek.bsky.social

Thanks to everyone who joined our first Conversation Club event last week! We loved bringing everyone together to spotlight our recent article, "A Helping of Something Hopeful" with our author and community. Here are 5 takeaways from the event:

Staff Reads from our Contributing Art Director: "What if we all lived as if every day were our last? This is a beautiful story that explores that idea and reflects on the power of simple living."

What word do you think needs reclaiming?

“A world where a handful of billionaires wield more power than elected governments is inherently incompatible with democracy and human rights. When individuals accumulate resources equivalent to national budgets, they become unaccountable centers of power.” conversationalist.org/2026/02/18/h...

“How much of the breastfeeding debate is really about the health of the child, and how much is about the control of women’s bodies and, moreover, about the performance of successful womanhood?"@lacywarner.bsky.social on a personal history of breastfeeding.

Every month is Women's History Month.

February Book of the Month 📚 “The Mixed Marriage Project” interweaves historical research that might leave you wondering whether anything really changes in these United States. Read why we picked it ⬇️