In our premiere episode, we go back—way back—to the women who laid the emotional, intellectual, and literal groundwork for American democracy.
We’re talking Abigail Adams, Mercy Otis Warren, and Phillis Wheatley—three women who never got a seat at the table but still pulled up with receipts, rage, and revolutionary fire.

From letters to husbands to poems that challenged tyranny, these founding mothers were raising babies and raising hell. We explore what they might say about today’s school voucher battles, book bans, and ongoing fights for equality. Spoiler: they wouldn’t be quiet about it.

As suburban moms with a mic, we reflect on our own letters to America, the ways our lives echo theirs, and why joy is resistance in 2025.

What We Cover:

• “Remember the Ladies”: Abigail’s demand to be heard
• Mercy Otis Warren and the pen that mocked kings
• Phillis Wheatley’s poems of protest and power
• What Texas school voucher hearings have in common with revolutionary resistance
• What we would say if we could write our own Letter to America

Further Reading:

• Abigail Adams' letters: Massachusetts Historical Society
• Mercy Otis Warren bio: National Women’s History Museum
• Phillis Wheatley’s poetry: Poets.org
• Primary Source Material:
  Abigail Adams:
  • “Remember the Ladies” Letter (March 31, 1776)
    Massachusetts Historical Society
    🔗 https://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/doc?id=L17760331aa
• Mercy Otis Warren:
  • Biography (NWHM) – Overview of her political writings and role in the Revolution
    National Women’s History Museum
    🔗 https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mercy-otis-warren
  • Selected Works:
    Observations on the New Constitution (1788)
    The Group (1775) – Political satire play
    Full text collection:
    🔗 https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/warren/revolution/revolution.html
• Phillis Wheatley:
  • Poetry Collection: Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773)
    Available through Poets.org
    🔗 https://poets.org/poet/phillis-wheatley
  • Letter and Poem to George Washington (1775):
    Library of Congress
    🔗 https://www.loc.gov/resource/mgw4.028_0384_0385/?sp=1

📝 “Dear America, I’m a mom and I…”
Finish the sentence. Send us your voice memo or tag us on social:

📧 momsagainstthemachinepod@gmail.com
📸 Insta @MomsAgainstTheMachine
🎥 TikTok: @momsandmachines

Episode Summary:
In this episode, Chelsey and Jenn dive deep into [insert theme—e.g., modern censorship, erasure of historical contributions, or attacks on working-class families], drawing powerful lines between past struggles and today’s political climate. They unpack recent news, connect the dots across state and federal actions, and spotlight voices being silenced—whether through defunding public institutions or rewriting the past.

From personal stories of motherhood and activism to brutal honesty about what it's like living in a red state under regressive leadership, this episode is a rally cry for everyday Americans who refuse to stay quiet. They also highlight [insert a few key moments: e.g., the Six Triple Eight, USPS attacks, or Trump-era fascism parallels] and call on listeners to show up, speak out, and stay grounded in truth.

Topics Covered:

• Local + national news updates
• Historical connections (e.g., WWII resistance, Black women's service, or free speech issues)
• Current legislative threats
• Emotional and political labor of motherhood in red America

📝 “Dear America, I’m a mom and I…”
Finish the sentence. Send us your voice memo or tag us on social:

📧 momsagainstthemachinepod@gmail.com
📸 Insta @MomsAgainstTheMachine
🎥 TikTok: @momsandmachines

In Episode 6, “She Fought the Machine, Part 2,” Chelsey and Jenn reveal the untold stories of World War II’s home-front and battlefield heroines: the Navajo Code Talkers—boarding-school survivors whose language was weaponized to save lives; Betty Masket, an aeronautical engineer who inspected SB2C Helldivers then became a NIH lab chief; Betty McIntosh, an OSS propaganda operative who wielded black-leaflet campaigns and clandestine radio as weapons; the over-looked valor of Black units from the Tuskegee Airmen to the 6888th Postal Battalion; and the ongoing erasure of these legacies through modern policy moves—from federal website purges and trans-military bans to the end of affirmative action at service academies. Through these stories, they draw a straight line from cultural genocide and segregation to today’s systematic silencing of marginalized voices—and call on listeners to reclaim memory as resistance.

Sources to Check

• Linn, Brian McAllister. The Navajo Code Talkers. Bison Books, 2002.
• Adams, David W. Education for Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience, 1875–1928. Univ. Press of Kansas, 1995.
• Haulman, Daniel L. “The Tuskegee Airmen’s Combat Record,” Air Force Historical Research Agency, 2019.
• Stanton, Shelby L. The Forgotten Six Triple Eight: The Incredible Story of the First All-Black Women’s Battalion in WWII. Sterling, 2020.
• Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. “Curtiss SB2C Helldiver,” si.edu.
• NPR, “Federal Agencies Scrub Websites of Women and BIPOC Service Member Profiles,” March 2025.

Supreme Court, Trump v. Pennsylvania (trans military ban), May 2025.

📝 “Dear America, I’m a mom and I…”
Finish the sentence. Send us your voice memo or tag us on social:

📧 momsagainstthemachinepod@gmail.com
📸 Insta @MomsAgainstTheMachine
🎥 TikTok: @momsandmachines