Parental Rights and Youth Epistemic Restriction on the Moms for Liberty Podcast

• In Event: Civic Practices, Education Policy and Diverse Perspectives

Abstract

This study examines the Joyful Warriors Podcast, a prominent platform for the parental rights organization Moms for Liberty (2021-2024), amid political debates over the education, healthcare, and moral development of young people. Through interaction and discourse analysis of a single episode, I investigate how the podcast mobilizes individual parental anxieties by invoking culturally resonant images of youth. Drawing on theories of the cultural construction of childhood and emotional configurations, the analysis explores how emotion and sensemaking work together to stabilize intuitive beliefs about young people and authorize restrictive interventions. The findings contribute to understanding how emotion shapes epistemic authority and education policy discourse in politically polarized contexts.

Author

• June Jackson, University of Washington