Older & Wilder

Two Dusty Travelers: COVID Front Lines, L&D Mistrust, and Choosing a Childfree Life

Joy and Claire hosts Emily Scott (Two Dusty Travelers), an RN known for caring for the first diagnosed hospitalized COVID patient in the U.S., to discuss how her platform evolved beyond “the COVID lady” and how politics and misinformation have fueled distrust in healthcare. Emily, now a labor and delivery nurse with a background in peace studies and global health work in East Africa, describes rising patient suspicion since 2020, including refusal of newborn hepatitis B vaccination, vitamin K, and other standard care, and notes anti-vax sentiment even among some nurses. They discuss the difficulty of changing minds at scale versus through long one-on-one conversations, the pressures and taboos around being childfree by choice and parental regret, and gaps in pain management for IUD insertion. Emily shares hope as sustained effort plus balance, and highlights Tanzania as a favorite destination, inviting interest in her group trips and naming Namibia as a future goal.

02:37 Politics and Online Unfollows

03:54 From Global Health to L&D

05:10 Mistrust in Healthcare Now

06:43 Newborn Shots and Misinformation

08:07 Wild Hospital Stories

12:06 Anti Vax Nurses and Vaccine Clinics

13:55 Bridging the Gap with Skeptics

16:41 Childfree by Choice Conversation

25:09 Pressure, Regret, and Nuance

28:51 Sliding Doors and What Ifs

33:19 Childfree Without Shame

33:44 TikTok Narratives and Stigma