Breaking Down Patriarchy and the Challenge of Change – with Shauna Rensch & Lauren Prakke

In the course of this season, we’ve gone in depth and up close with dozens of people’s experiences navigating present-day patriarchy. We’ve heard stories of personal struggle, of generational trauma, of feminist revelations. We’ve listened to fantastic essays on what a more egalitarian future might look like, and we’ve been pointed towards critical changes that our world and our culture are sorely overdue for. On today’s episode, we’re going to be talking about what it takes to actually make those changes happen, about the process of change itself. We’ll be talking about how challenging the idea of change can be, about some of the forces which fight against it – tooth and nail – and about the harm that those conflicts can cause. But ultimately, we’re going to be talking about how essential these acts of transformation are – for ourselves, for our culture, for our world – and how everyday people just like you and I can make these changes manifest.

To help us in this exploration we're joined by Shauna Rensch and Lauren Prakke. We're so grateful to feature their voices.

Shauna Rensch (she/her) is a wife and mother of four kids ages 16 to 6. She grew up in the north suburbs of Chicago but moved to Arizona with her family at the end of high school. She went to ASU looking at various degrees, but decided on education before taking time off to get married and have her first child. She went back to school in order to complete a bachelor's degree at NAU and started teaching. She has taught from kindergarten through sixth grade but loves teaching math above anything else. She completed a master's in elementary education from NAU in 2015. She is currently taking time off from teaching but looks forward to more work within the education field in the future. Shauna loves reading, embroidery, long walks with beautiful views and road trips with her family.

Lauren Prakke (she/her) is a cultural innovator, strategic advisor and futurist. Prakke founded Restless Buddha Productions which harnessed a team of international experts across a broad spectrum of the arts including film, theatre, art to simultaneously raise capital and social awareness. Restless Buddha has been featured in numerous newspapers and magazines from Vanity Fair to The Times. Prakke is an int’l lecturer, writer, and curator of contemporary art, a theatre producer and a social activist with an expertise on woman's issues. Prakke is a TED speaker, founded & chaired The Tate Young Patrons at The Tate, served as co-chair of Women for Women International Leadership, Chairman of The Whitechapel Patrons and on the Board of Women of the World at The Southbank Centre. Prakke was an Interest Rate Swaps broker in both NYC & in London for nearly a decade. She was graduated in 19th Century English Literature and has a post grad degree Contemporary Art. She is a relentless reader and an autodidact polymath.