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Monday Mini: Supply Chain Shortages and Women · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Anny and Samantha. I'm not gonna Stephane
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: never told you. Production of I Heart Radio kind of
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: put a time stamp on this one just because things
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: might have changed by the time it comes out. Today
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: is June two. Uh, Samantha, I want to ask you
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: in your area, which you're a new area now because
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: you moved, Um, are you do you see a lot
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: of shortages when you go out? Yeah? You know, Honestly,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: I don't know if I would have known there are
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: shortages versus if I just happened to come at a
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  Speaker 1: different time and didn't realize. You know, I'm thinking they're
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: just out of stock because you know, it's popular whatnot. Um,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: But then later finding out, oh, literally there's it's not been,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: it's not going to be here. I didn't. Oh, I
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: didn't know that. Honestly. Since it's a pandemic, I've noticed
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: it more and more because you know, things like toilet paper, paper,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: towels and whites and disinfectant was gone so quickly and
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: then they'll be like, you can only limited. I didn't know.
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  Speaker 1: But now that I've become more aware, I have realized. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: I tried to figure out what it's on the shortage
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  Speaker 1: and try to figure out what is like just out
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  Speaker 1: of stock for that day. I have noticed the increasinging
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: of prices for everything and less sales, which I was like, huh,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: that's interesting. Mm hmmm. As we said, our office is
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: also moving. We went in and they kind of had
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: sort of a free for all with like take whatever
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  Speaker 1: you can, and a lot of us took things like
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: aluminum foil or paper towels or wipes because of the shortages.
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  Speaker 1: And I think I've mentioned before I shop at a
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  Speaker 1: very small grocery store, and I would say half the time,
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  Speaker 1: like most of the time I go and they don't
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  Speaker 1: have a third two and a half of the things
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  Speaker 1: on my list. So I have did a just um,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: they are out of stuff all the time if something
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  Speaker 1: is going to be out at a store exactly. Yet
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: I refused to change my routine. It's left to some
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: interesting substitutions. For sure, people are not happy with the
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: toilet paper I have right now because it's single apply.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: But that's what I should have sent you home with
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: a couple of rolls. Okay, I got it. Just funny
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  Speaker 1: I found out they were kind of whispering about it
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  Speaker 1: by my back. I was like, I'm aware, I'm aware. Okay,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: you know, I think people would be like, you know,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: you should get a bid day. You would never have
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: to deal with that situation's statement. Well, sponsors, if you
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: were listening, if you want to give us some day,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: you know, suh. Yeah. So obviously we wanted to talk
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  Speaker 1: about some shortages in the supply chain. And you probably
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: either from the title or from the news, no which
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  Speaker 1: one is growing to talk about because it's sort of
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  Speaker 1: it made the news lately that it hadn't made the
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  Speaker 1: news until now that there is a pretty severe shortage
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  Speaker 1: of tampons, right, so, people who men straight are having
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: trouble finding tampons, and the ones they do find are
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  Speaker 1: often ridiculously overpriced. I saw, I saw there was like
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: someone debated as over a hundred dollars for eighteen pack
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  Speaker 1: I think maybe sixteen pack, but very expensive, very very expensive.
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  Speaker 1: Instacart recently reported that they were have wriking trouble filling
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  Speaker 1: orders of tampons as well, and kind of the big
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  Speaker 1: news was that this has been going on for much
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  Speaker 1: longer than a lot of us realize, lasting longer than
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: shortages of cleaning supplies and toilet paper, and there are
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: several things going on here, understaffed factories, transportation issues, and
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: increasing costs of materials. The price of tampons rose ten
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  Speaker 1: in the last month, and yeah, I've seen like really
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  Speaker 1: ridiculous markups online, not to mention the gas prices, making
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  Speaker 1: it so everyone can't afford multiple trips in different stores
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  Speaker 1: to try to find some because people are like, well,
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  Speaker 1: you could just try different stores, and then other people
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  Speaker 1: rightfully pointed out, maybe I don't have the money for
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: the gas. There's an option for me, Maybe there aren't
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  Speaker 1: that many stores in my area those Um. And obviously
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  Speaker 1: people are already screaming about this and are very upset,
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  Speaker 1: partially because people who manstrate are having to pay for
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  Speaker 1: something like this when people who don't minstrate do not
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  Speaker 1: have to. And it is again the conversation about paink
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  Speaker 1: tax and this is like the bigger issue. And then
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  Speaker 1: they're hiking it up and no one's stopping this type
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  Speaker 1: of inflation when it's unnecessary. Um. Yeah. According to the
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  Speaker 1: founder of I Support the Girls Data Marlowe, the organization
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  Speaker 1: has seen a large drop in tampon donations this year,
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  Speaker 1: down sixty percent when compared to twenty twenty. Marlow says
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  Speaker 1: that this shortage and the price hikes mean that people
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  Speaker 1: that ministrate are being forced to use unsanitary ID in
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: their place. And we already know the conversations we've had.
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  Speaker 1: I would love to see the conversation about toxic shock syndrome,
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  Speaker 1: whether that's become more of an issue. What is happening
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: as of a problem solver we did, thanks to our
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: sponsor think get period panties, which is such a nice alternative,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: but again it's kind of if you. Our sponsor was
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: nice enough to get sit it to us and give
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: our listeners a discount, but it is fairly expensive, even
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  Speaker 1: though it's more of a durable I guess unless you
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: don't have access to being able to clean your laundry. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: there were some heartbreaking quotes included in some of these
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: articles from people, especially like younger younger people who just
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: felt so much shame already around their bodies from having
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: to use like a dirty rag or something, right, um,
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  Speaker 1: and that only increasing kind of this feeling of feeling
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  Speaker 1: gross in your own body and being shame feeling shame
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  Speaker 1: in your own body. While a Proctor and Gambles pokespers
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: in and and there. The producer of Tampax has assured
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  Speaker 1: that this shortage is temporary. They've also said that production
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  Speaker 1: quote continues to be costly and highly volatile. When The
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  Speaker 1: Times reported on this last week, so that'd be two
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  Speaker 1: weeks ago, I think when I compiled this research, um,
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  Speaker 1: they made the point that a lot of the top
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  Speaker 1: decision makers in these companies are men and perhaps don't
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  Speaker 1: prioritize things like this, like it doesn't really occurred to them.
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  Speaker 1: They're like whatever. Once again, while we didn't know there
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: was a shortage, and everybody was just confused, like where's
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  Speaker 1: the tampons? And honestly, I'm like, is this because of
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: what was happening in Texas and them like stopping any
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  Speaker 1: of the trailers and trucks coming in with the supplies.
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  Speaker 1: What is happening? Yeah? Yeah. And then just to make
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  Speaker 1: this whole thing first, as she always does, Marjorie Taylor
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  Speaker 1: Green recently spoke out, as you had this accusation, horrific
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: accusation that the shortage was because of trans people, which
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  Speaker 1: I'm just trying to figure out how because even then
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  Speaker 1: there was no existence of trans people, that would still
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  Speaker 1: be the same number of people and strating, I can
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: someone tell me if I'm vastly wrong in this, because
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: I'm like, wait, are you talk about trans men getting tampons,
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  Speaker 1: because even if they weren't trans, they would still need
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: fun Yeah, I mean it was obviously she a lot
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  Speaker 1: of her arguments still makes sense. She was saying, it's
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: because they're printing tampons and men's bathrooms, but it's gross
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  Speaker 1: and ridiculous, and would stop saying stuff like why why
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: just why why do they exist? And you know what
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: on that same lines, if they really want to think
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  Speaker 1: about it. For those of us who choose to have
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: I U d s, who choose to be regulated through
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  Speaker 1: birth control, who choose to have his direct mas because
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: we do not want children, this is a great option
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: to help release all of the tampon needs. Yet herbs
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: probably same argument would be like, yeah, but you don't
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  Speaker 1: need there's so many the level of frustration moving on
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: to things that affect people with uteruses. We are having
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: that long conversation once again about baby formula, and there's
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: always been a little bit of controversy back and forth
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  Speaker 1: and back and forth about who those who really think
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  Speaker 1: they know best, who are not the parents typically which
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  Speaker 1: is really interesting. But analysis have pointed out that this
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  Speaker 1: is another example of the supply chain having a larger
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  Speaker 1: impact on women or those who have uterus ThM who
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  Speaker 1: can have children. One of the most obvious is the
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  Speaker 1: baby formulas shortage, with American mothers struggling to not only
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  Speaker 1: locate baby formula, but to afford it is a financial
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  Speaker 1: burden that is hitting women harder and harder as in fact,
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  Speaker 1: and then we have kind of that same level of
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  Speaker 1: people hoarding it and selling it at very marked up prices. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: and there's there's a lot of nuance in this. This
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: is uh coming from the Time article as well, and
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  Speaker 1: they were saying like that. As we've discussed, it is
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  Speaker 1: women who do a lot of the shopping, So even
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  Speaker 1: if there are multiple guardians involved, it's usually the woman
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  Speaker 1: that's doing the shopping and who's sort of handling this
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  Speaker 1: aspects and who is expected to handle this aspect um
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  Speaker 1: so financially and time wise. It's also that same conversation
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  Speaker 1: because there's been that argument, constant argument, because of course
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: has become political, that we'll just breastfeed, which is such
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  Speaker 1: an above privileged, uh, an insensitive remark in general, and
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  Speaker 1: that really should just be just stop talking. Yeah. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: The article also linked to a Twitter thread that was
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  Speaker 1: a person who was like, it's clear, it's become clear
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  Speaker 1: to me that many men do not understand how breast
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: reading works. Let me help, let me tell you about this. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: And the FDA later admitted that they were quote too
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  Speaker 1: slow to address the the problem, and many women argued
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: that if men had to breastfeed, we wouldn't be in
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: this situation like we're talking like we airlifted baby formula
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  Speaker 1: from other countries. This was very, very serious and continues
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  Speaker 1: to be a problem. The article also pointed out that
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: there's a shortage of a menopause dug in the UK,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: and their ultimate point was again, we have men, a
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  Speaker 1: lot of times, men in these positions of power who
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  Speaker 1: are making these decisions and because of that, we're seeing
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  Speaker 1: these impacts on women, primarily uh, financially and um just
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  Speaker 1: like the burden and it's not getting talked about in
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  Speaker 1: the news, right and can we talk about wick and
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: all of that exists, thank goodness. However, the cost of
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: formula is extensive. It's high, like if you know much
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: about it, and then to get the right one with
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: all of the allergies that typically happened with babies. That
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: in itself also feels like just kind of an overall
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: jab at mothers and babies and all of that, but
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: also this conversation that we need to have about the
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: I think this is technically a pro life issue, and
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: those who would be screaming the hardest and the most
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  Speaker 1: about pro life are the ones that that you should
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  Speaker 1: just breastfeed instead of having a solution to provide or
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: actually talk about why it's necessary to provide and support
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  Speaker 1: the mothers who are in dire need it. Just it
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  Speaker 1: was very obviously on the nose on on all that conversation.
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  Speaker 1: But I will say when it came to Facebook, I'm
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: not giving shout out to Facebook, but the communities, in
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: the neighborhood communities, there were a lot of people who
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: were on the lookout and would shout it out and
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: be like, hey, y'all, there's this amount of formula over
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  Speaker 1: here compared so that community is coming together. Was significantly
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: heartening to see that happen. Was nice to see, Yeah, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: it's that's probably been the most still relying side about,
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  Speaker 1: like that woman being like, you don't know what's happening here?
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: Let me tell you, are these organizations trying to u
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: domnate tampons and all of that. Yeah, it's heartening, but
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: it is It's also like we could, we could break
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: down a lot of these into I mean, the things
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: we're talking about of like reprojective rights, uh and just
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: kind of like really conservative and traditionalist understandings of women
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  Speaker 1: and motherhood and women's bodies that are also extremely contradictory. Right,
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: So there is a lot to be said here. It's
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  Speaker 1: confounding but not surprising, yep. But unfortunately, we'll continue to
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: keep an eye on these things. Will probably have another
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: update in the future, but in the meantime, listeners, we
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: would love to hear from you if you have any
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: organizations we should shout out. Uh. Any thoughts about shortages
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: you've noticed that people aren't talking about, or your experiences
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: with any of this. You can email us at stuff
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: your Mom, Stuff at ihart me dot com. You can
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: find it on Twitter at most of podcast or Instagram
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: and stuff I've Never told you. Thanks as always too,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: are super producer Christina. Thank you and thanks to you
• 12:49
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• 12:52
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• 12:53
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