Legal scholar Mary Ziegler talks about the legal battles shaping reproductive rights across the U.S. — including the scope of abortion access and the fate of IVF. And we look ahead at two very different outcomes with the election. "I don't think in the past 50 years we've had an election where the stakes could be as high, simply because Roe v. Wade isn't there as a floor anymore," Ziegler says. Also, John Powers controversial French writer Michel Houellebecq's new novel, Annihilation. Subscribe to Fresh Air's weekly newsletter and get highlights from the show, gems from the archive, and staff recommendations.

"Fighting Mad is a book about what "reproductive justice" means and what it looks like to fight for it. Editors Krystale E. Littlejohn and Rickie Solinger bring together many of the strongest, most resistant voices in the country to describe the impacts of the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision and what it means for abortion access and care. The essayists and change agents in Fighting Mad represent a remarkable breadth of expertise: activists and artists, academics and abortion storytellers, health care professionals and legislators, clinic directors and lawyers, and so many more. They discuss abortion restrictions and strategies to provide care, the impacts of criminalization, efforts to protect the targeted, shortcomings of the past, and visions for the next generation. Fighting Mad captures for the social and historical record the vigorous resistance happening in the early post-Roe moment to show that there are millions on the ground fighting to secure a better future"--