The Paid Leave Podcast

In this episode of The Paid Leave Podcast, we are focusing on women's mental health and well-being, and the challenges pregnancy can have before and after the baby is born. March 8th is International Women’s Day. This Day gives focus to issues like gender equality, reproductive rights and violence and abuse against women.  International Women’s Day serves as a platform to address the mental health issues that disproportionately affect women. While mental health conditions can affect anyone, women face unique challenges due to societal pressures, biological factors, and caregiving responsibilities.

My guest on this episode is the Founder & Executive Director of the Alliance Center in Stamford, Carolyn Kagan. Carolyn is a licensed clinical social worker and perinatal psychotherapist who designed a holistic maternal mental health practice that provides individual therapy, group support, yoga, and wellness programming for expecting new and experienced mothers and their families. Carolyn talked about the benefits of CT Paid Leave with moms and caregivers. She also sees the benefits as an employer who has had a worker take CT Paid Leave when their baby was premature. She sees how paid leave benefits the retention of good workers because they come back to work as a more whole version of themselves.

To get in touch with Carolyn at The Alliance Center go to their website at The Alliance Center | Rooted in Motherhood | Stamford, CT (thealliancecenterct.com).

For more information or to apply for benefits please go to CT Paid Leave
 (ctpaidleave.org).
https://ctpaidleave.org/s/?language=en_US

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In this episode of The Paid Leave Podcast, we talk to a paid leave expert. It was back in 2022 that we were able to give employees in Connecticut benefits for CT Paid Leave. It’s been 4 years and we have given benefits totaling more than 1.4 billion dollars to about 170 thousand workers in Connecticut. An expert in all thing’s paid Leave is Vicki Shabo works at New America and is a gender equity expert, policy strategist, and coalition builder, who has helped to win paid family and medical leave, paid sick time, equal pay, and pregnancy fairness policies affecting tens of millions of people in the United States. 
Vicki highlights the disparities in paid leave policies, noting that while 13 states and D.C. have comprehensive policies, the U.S. lacks federal legislation. Schabo emphasizes the importance of paid leave for economic stability and family well-being, citing research showing strong public support. She also discusses the role of Hollywood in influencing cultural perceptions and policies through storytelling.

To Find information about Vicki Shabo and her work go to newamerica.org/betterlifelab or newamerica.org/entertainment or click here Vicki Shabo
For more information or to apply for benefits please go to ctpaidleave.org
https://ctpaidleave.org/s/?language=en_US

https://www.facebook.com/CTPaidLeave

https://www.instagram.com/ctpaidleave/

https://twitter.com/CTPaidLeave

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February 14th is National Donor Day, February 10th is Safer Internet Day, and in March it is National Kidney Awareness Month. 
In this episode of The Paid Leave Podcast, I speak with Ellie Doyle who is a storyteller, content creator, social media influencer, and founder of Reheated Coffee Club, a Connecticut lifestyle brand rooted in motherhood, community, and small-business love. After moving her family from Florida to Connecticut, she began sharing her real-life journey of raising three kids, building community, and finding joy in everyday moments across the state. In Florida, Ellie was a kidney donor to her sister who suffers from kidney disease. She talks about the difficult recovery and how things would have been different if she had lived in Connecticut. She is a big fan of CT Paid Leave and believes this will help her if they decide to grow their family.  She also has ties to Connecticut as a child, so the move wasn’t out of the blue! Reheated Coffee Club is her name on Tick Tok where she has almost 35,000 followers and 1.9 million likes. On Instagram, she has over 51,500 followers and 1 million likes. Because of her big influence on social media, her move to Connecticut was widely publicized and she has been featured in newspaper articles and TV news about her move to CT. 

You can find Ellie Doyle and her travels throughout Connecticut on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook @reheatedcoffeeclub. Her website is reheatedcoffeeclub.com. 

For more information or to apply for benefits please go to ctpaidleave.org.
 
https://ctpaidleave.org/s/?language=en_US

https://www.facebook.com/CTPaidLeave

https://www.instagram.com/ctpaidleave/

https://twitter.com/CTPaidLeave

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ct+paid+leave

In this episode of The Paid Leave Podcast, we talk about the fact that It was 4 years ago, in January of 2022, when CT Paid Leave started giving benefits to eligible CT workers. Since then, we have given over 1.4 billion dollars in benefits to over 182 thousand workers in Connecticut! 
Senior Lecturer in the Honors Program at Loyola University Chicago, Megan Sholar joins me to discuss state programs and the hope for a national paid leave policy. Megan teaches courses on women and politics, Latin American politics, and European politics. Her first book, Getting Paid While Taking Time: The Women’s Movement and the Development of Paid Family Leave Policies in the United States (2016), explores the reasons that the United States remains the only industrialized country in the world without paid family leave at the national level. She has also written about paid leave in The Hill and The Washington Post. Her most recent book is Chasing Equality: Women’s Rights & US Public Policy (2023). 
Scholar, an expert on paid leave, emphasizes its importance for women, noting the U.S. is the only industrialized nation without a national paid leave program. She cites pivotal moments like the 2016 presidential candidates' support and the 2019 federal parental leave policy. Megan also discusses the economic benefits and the need for state-level initiatives, using Connecticut as a model for efficient and successful implementation.
To get in touch with Megan Sholar, Megan Sholar: Loyola University Chicago.

For more information on her books, Getting Paid While Taking Time: The Women's Movement and the Development of Paid Family Leave Policies in the United States: Sholar, Megan: 9781439912959: Amazon.com: Books.

Lynne Rienner Publishers | Chasing Equality Women s Rights and US Public Policy.

for more information or to get apply for benefits go to ctpaidleave.org.

https://ctpaidleave.org/s/?language=en_US

https://www.facebook.com/CTPaidLeave

https://www.instagram.com/ctpaidleave/

https://twitter.com/CTPaidLeave

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ct+paid+leave

In this episode of The Paid Leave Podcast, I speak with a doctor who I have followed for over a year on social media. Her inspirational storytelling has created her as a viral medical social media influencer, with over 150 million views and close to 900 thousand followers just on TikTok. Dr. Erin Nance is a board-certified orthopedic surgeon and viral TikTok creator known as @littlemissdiagnosed, where she uses humor and storytelling to make medicine feel human again. She’s the bestselling author of Little Miss Diagnosed, co-host of The Medical Detectives Podcast, and the founder and CEO of FeelBetr, a new platform bringing doctors and patients together to share real, credible health stories in the social media age.
Dr. Nance shares her journey to becoming a surgeon, influenced by a childhood experience with an orthopedic surgeon after she was injured. She discusses the importance of social media in raising disease awareness, citing her "31 for 31" campaign that reached over 100 million views. Dr. Nance highlights the significance of paid leave programs, sharing personal stories and the impact on her brother's life.  On her first day of residency, her brother had an accident in a swimming pool and became a paraplegic. He lives in Connecticut and has utilized bonding leave with Connecticut Paid Leave, when they welcomed their new child.

To follow Dr. Erin Nance on social media go to @littlemissdiagnosed on TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram. Dr. Erin Nance 🇺🇸 (@littlemissdiagnosed) | TikTok
To get to the FeelBetr platform go to FeelBetr | The FeelBetr Founder Story: Meet Erin Nance
For more information on Dr. Erin Nance go toErin Nance, MD | Orthopedic Hand Surgeon | Midtown East, NY
For more information or apply for benefits go to ctpaidleave.org
https://ctpaidleave.org/s/?language=en_US

https://www.facebook.com/CTPaidLeave

https://www.instagram.com/ctpaidleave/

https://twitter.com/CTPaidLeave

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ct+paid+leave