The Mother Of It All

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit motherofitall.substack.comSarah & Miranda kiss winter break goodbye with a chat about resolutions, witchy solstices, cyclical time, Pamela Adlon, school start times, time jelly, and more! This episode is for our beautiful *paid subscribers* (thank you!) and could also be called Winter Break: The Good, The Bad & The Either Way It's Almost Over. How are you all holding up out ther…

Author Mac Barnett and author and illustrator Jon Klassen join Sarah and Miranda to explain what makes a great picture book and why kids might be better readers than adults. Plus, preschoolers with hammers, Where the Wild Things Are is a true story, the sad blunting our “keenness” as we age, and why we still love our bullies. LINKS:* Looking at Picture Books * The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell (Miranda’s Bake Off mystery)* Rebecca by Daphne de Maurier* Shape Island on Apple TV* “How Does Santa Go Down The Chimney” by Mac Barnett & Jon Klassen * Reagan Iran Contra SNL Sketch* Jon & Mac on Margaret Wise Brown over on their substack, Looking at Picture Book* The Elephant and The Bad Baby* Eloise Rickman on Children’s Rights* The Marginalian * “I’ll Fix Anthony” by Judith Viorst* Mac and Jon on Wild Things* Children’s book author Remy Charlip * Children’s book author David Crews This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit motherofitall.substack.comIn this bonus episode, Sarah and Miranda talk the best parenting advice for kid explosions and their reactions to the new Nightbitch film. Also, Sarah offers a “Hannukah Surprise,” the Nightbitch theme song she’s been working on for a year. Links:* Dan Siegel and the “Flipped Lid”

Poet and author Nancy Reddy joins us to discuss her forthcoming book, The Good Mother Myth: Unlearning Our Bad Ideas About How to Be a Good Mom (pre-order it now!). In it, Nancy explores the historical, cultural, and scientific roots of many of our modern ideas about ‘goodness’ + motherhood, like attachment parenting. Spoiler alert: they’re pretty sketchy. Links: * Take our survey about parents and the pandemic (thank you!)* The Good Mother Myth by Nancy Reddy* Nancy’s piece in Slate on the Golden Hour* The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood* Jessica Valenti on Mother Tongue* The Texas OB-GYN Exodus (The New Yorker) * Marielle Heller Profile (The New Yorker)* Women Who Run With Wolves: Myths & Stories Of The Wild Woman Archetype by * 1996: The Year That Shook Hip-Hop* Pre-order The Good Mother Myth and join Nancy and Maggie Smith in February for a live conversation! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

If any season is movie-watching season, it’s now. When we knew we wanted to make a Christmas movie-focused episode, 2008’s A Christmas Tale and 2005’s The Family Stone sprang to mind right away: These are matriarch-centric Christmas movies that take the whole mom-at-Christmastime thing to the Nth degree. Each in their own way, they put the intense time we spend gathered together with our families of origin at the holidays under a microscope. So, what do The Family Stone and A Christmas Tale have in common? Just about everything, except that one is American and has Dermot Mulroney at his hottest(?) and the other is extremely French and involves a LOT of people smoking cigarettes non-stop. We get dig under the surface of these two films — both of which are centered around big families gathered at the holidays around powerful, complicated matriarchs — with our (new) friends Andie and Sabrina of the Pop Culture Moms podcast.Links: * A Christmas Tale* The Family Stone* Pop Culture Moms on Apple Podcasts, Instagram, and Spotify This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

Feminist writers Tracy Clark-Flory and Amanda Montei join Sarah and Miranda for Part 2 of our discussion on relationships between men and women (listen to Part 1 here). We talk about the post-election landscape of gender relations — including the rise in both misogynistic rhetoric interest in boycotting men. Is this a gender war or a war on women? Is feminism responsible for the young male Trump voter? What do men and women owe each other, and what do we do with the men in our lives? Links:* Sophie Kemp on Gen Z Men (LA Review of Books) * Jia Tolentino on the Gender Wars (The New Yorker) * The Warrior Mamas Who Elected Trump: Why Tradwife Ideology Continues To Matter (via In Pursuit of Clean Countertops) * Blue Marriage and The Terror of Divorce by Anne Helen Petersen * A feminist utopianism : Sophie Lewis argues against the 'fatalism' of both 4B and heteropessimism, and calls for a collective movement built on solidarity. (via TCF Emails ) * It’s not the economy. It’s the misogyny. (via Mad Woman) * The “Your Body My Choice” movement This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

In Part 1 of our jam-packed conversation with feminist writers Tracy Clark-Flory and Amanda Montei, Sarah and Miranda attempt to unpack why this has been such a big year for examining sex in hetero-marriage, the specter of patriarchy haunting all of our marital beds, and whether or not good sex is possible anymore in a hetero-marriage. Links:* Amanda Montei’s “Can a Sexless Marriage Be a Happy One? Can a Sexless Marriage Be a Happy One?” in the New York Times Magazine* Liars by Sarah Manguso* All Fours by Miranda July* Tracy on The Endless Repetition of Heterosexuality* Want by Gillian Anderson* Anne Hathaway’s The Idea Of You * Nicole Kidman’s Babygirl* Ester Perel* Tracy Clark-Flory’s fabulous newsletter, TCF Emails and her book, Want Me.* Amanda Montei’s fabulous newsletter, Mad Woman, and her book, Touched Out. Culture Recs:* Lisa Taddeo’s Three Women and the related television series* Brian Jordan Alvarez This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

Writer Janet Manley joins us to break down her recent piece, “Pity the Dadfluencers: Their content is for men, but their audience is all women.” We dig into all of our favorite -isms: sexism, feminism, social media-ism (just roll with it), parasocial relationships, plus Wild Robot, Nightbitch, and what the heck you’re supposed to do with all those baby teeth. Links:* Chelsea Conaboy on The Wild Robot* Arnold of the Ducks* KAFKA'S BABY Janet’s newsletter* The Real Sarah Miller by Sarah Miller* Laurie Stone’s Everything is Personal* Attachments by Lucas Mann, and our interview with Lucas* Drawing Links by Edith Zimmerman* Looking at Picture Books by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen* Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

Sarah and Miranda are checking in the morning after the election on what’s going through our minds, how we’re thinking about motherhood and our kids, and whether it’s too soon to do silver linings. With a special appearance from Nellie, three-year-old witch.Links:* Amanda Montei says “It’s not the economy, it’s misogyny.” * Witch podcast on BBC* Seven Year B***h is the today’s soundtrack This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

Miranda and Sarah are joined by actor and comedian Lauren Lapkus and actor and filmmaker Nora Fiffer to talk about their tender, hilarious new film, Another Happy Day. We discuss the isolation and absurdity of early motherhood, taking care of care-takers at work, and why Hollywood should be just as saturated with postpartum movies as it is with World War II movies. Links:* Another Happy Day on Amazon and Apple* Is the Future of Movie Sets An Eight-Hour Work Day with Childcare?? in Variety* All Fours by Miranda July* The Creative Act by Rick Rubin This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit motherofitall.substack.com*This is a paid-subscriber only episode. To become a subscriber, click HERE and sign up for any level of paid membership. P.S. If you subscribe as a “founding member” we’ll send you a snazzy Mother Of It All tote bag. Join us as we hash Halloween out. Do we believe in the Switch Witch? DIY costumes: Y/N? Should Halloween happen at school? Do we have to …

No one wants to think about school shootings. But nearly every day in our country, a gun is fired on a campus. Often, when that happens, entire student bodies are then traumatized by spending hours in lockdown. David Riedman of the K-12 school shooting database — an unparalleled collection of data about school shootings that has been used as a resource by publications like The Economist and New York Times, as well as organizations like the FBI— joins Sarah and Miranda to talk about the thing none of us want to talk about but that we absolutely must: American school’s gun violence problem. Links: * David’s Substack* David’s Podcast* Robin Cogan* ​​https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/16/opinion/gabby-giffords-its-the-guns-its-always-the-guns.html* Violence Prevention Project* Everytown This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

What if we considered care to be a sacred practice? What if the everyday tasks of parenting were backtracked by the dramatic score of the British Baking Show? Elissa Strauss, author of When You Care: Unexpected Magic of Caring for Others joins Sarah and Miranda to mull over what it would mean to value care as a society and in our personal lives. We talk about trusting others with your children, why it’s so fraught to admit you like being a parent, alloparents, the Hero’s Journey, and kids singing Lean on Me. Plus, Elissa gives us some free couples therapy!Links* Elissa’s Book, When You Care: The Unexpected Magic of Caring for Others* Elissa Strauss’s Substack, Made with Care* Elissa’s Slate Piece: It’s a Weird Time to Be a Happy Mom* Economist Nancy Folbre* A Thousand and One Movie* The Care Justice Movement* Alloparenting * Rosalynn Carter* Sarah Blaffer HrdyCulture Recs* Young Sheldon* The Golden Spoon This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

Author and editor Kaitlyn Teer (you may know her as the editor of Joanna Goddard’s Big Salad newsletter ) joins Sarah and Miranda to chat about how weirdly hard and wonderful it is to have hobbies as a mom, and the unique joy of being new (even bad!) at something. We get into such pressing questions as: What is “contaminated leisure time,” and how can we carve out ‘uncontaminated’ time to explore who we are beyond work and caregiving? If modern motherhood is defined by a sense of pressure to optimize our every decision, what does it mean to chase ‘beginners mind,’ uncertainty, and inefficient uses of time? Are our hobbies an expression of millennial economic dread, and an effort to detach our sense of self-regard from the capitalistic value systems that have left us in the lurch? Are we totally overthinking this? We also touch on: Kaitlyn’s amazing hair, Doggy Land, and Sarah’s recent swimming pool cannonball-ing achievements. Plus culture recs, moving as a mom (hard!), and more. This episode is sponsored by Freeya, a marketplace for free stuff. Links* Anne Helen Petersen on quality leisure time vs. ‘contaminated leisure time’ * Follow Kaitlyn on Instagram* Kaitlyn Teer on Mountain Biking In New Motherhood* ‘Popsicles Can’t Fix This New Heat’, Kaitlyn Teer over at Electric Lit* Big Salad, Joanna Goddard’s newsletter (edited by Kaitlyn!)* Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport* The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature by J. Drew Lanham * Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World By Christian Cooper* Hike Clerb* Family-oriented family (brene brown pod— sarah can you add?)* Crayola Air-Dry Clay & how to make a clay flower frog* Doggy Lands affirmations* Madwoman by Chelsea Bieker * Skull King This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit motherofitall.substack.comSarah and Miranda check in on Miranda’s daughter’s very first day of big kid school (even though she claims she’s “still little”), watch the just-dropped Nightbitch trailer in real time, discuss Sarah’s impending move after 15 years in the same apartment, and talk hetero-exceptionalism and Sarah Manguso’s “Liars,” family camp and “Get S**t Done Days.”Links:* Nightbitch Trailer* Necessary Losses by Judith Viorst* How to Manage Back to School Feelings by Sarah* Liars by Sarah Manguso* Tracy Clark-Floryon hetero-exceptionalism* Kathryn Jezer-Morton on affirmation culture in Brooding* Female Friends Spend Raucous Night Validating the S**t Out of Each Other in the Onion* Berenstain Bears Moving Day

We are thrilled to kick off season 2(!) with a bang in the form of a meaty, rich conversation with Eloise Rickman, author of It’s Not Fair: Why It’s Time For A Grown-Up Conversation About How Adults Treat Children. We hadn’t thought about children’s rights much before reading Eloise’s book (have you?) and now it’s all we want to think about. What are children’s rights? How can we think about them in the context of parenting? What is adultism? Should kids vote? What even is a child and who gets to decide? Why hasn’t the U.S. ratified the UN Convention on the Rights Of The Child? (anyone, anyone?) If it’s our goal to respect the rights of our children at all times, how do we get our kids to go to bed?Also: Random TMI about Sarah & Miranda’s exercise habits. Tune in, and share your thoughts below. Links: * It’s Not Fair: Why It’s Time For A Grown-Up Conversation About How Adults Treat Children. * The UN Convention on the Rights Of The Child* Download a poster of the CRC here This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

Sarah & Miranda shoot the breeze, talk about some back-to-school feelings, drop some hints about what we'll cover in season 2, and nerd out about THAT EPISODE of The Bear. We had so much fun with Phil Maciak on our Screen Time episode (our most-listened to episode, BTW! thanks for that, friends) that we had to bring him back to talk about *crunch crunch crunch* : the 39 minutes of prestige TV that we call “Ice Chips.”This episode of the podcast will spoil Season 3 of The Bear for you, but it will also cover “Napkins,” and “Fishes” quite extensively. In other words, you may want to catch up on The Bear and then listen. TL;DR: Donna Berzatto — discuss! Phil’s Romper Q&A With Abby Elliott “It’s Abby Elliot Who Makes It Real”Irish President Says Homework Should Be BannedAll About Love by bell hooksCulture recs: The Bear (FX)Slow Horses (Apple TV)Industry (HBO)Baskets (FX) This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

It’s summer, which means Sarah’s rocking a 3-cone-per-day ice cream lifestyle, and Miranda is guzzling $1 slushies by the pool. And work is …. still kind of happening. The brilliant, hilarious Claire Zulkey of the Evil Witches newsletter (which you need to subscribe to, if you don’t already) joins us to talk about the various joys and perils of summertime parenting and yes, of course, the perpetually fraught, exhausting question of the whole camp thing. This episode of Mother of it All is sponsored by our friends at Freeya, a new marketplace for giving and getting free stuff! Links:Summer Camp and Parenting Panics at The New YorkerSummer Child Care Is a Special Kind of Hell on The Cut“Feral Mom Summer” on RomperMelinda Wenner Moyer: “We Don’t Need To Make The Most Of Summer” This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

Canadian writer and The Cut columnist Amil Niazi joins us to discuss what happens when an entire generation follows their dreams, whether our feelings of economic instability are real or imagined, and having children (even a third!) while fighting against upgrade culture. Also, we stan Better Things, and we ask: Even if it’s not really OK, what if it is all going to be OK?Links:* MOFITA summer book club* Should We Expect More From Dads? (and praise for Lucas Mann’s Attachments) (Hua Hsu in The New Yorker)* Welcome To The Millennial Midlife Crisis (Amil Niazi in The Cut)* Will I Ever Retire? Millennials Wonder What’s On The Other Side Of Middle Age (Amil Niazi in The Guardian)* What Are Children For? (Anastasia Berg in The Cut)* It’s Weird Times To Be A Happy Mother (Elissa Strauss in Slate)* Follow Amil on X (formerly known as Twitter) here or her Substack Cry, BabyCulture recs:* Beach Read* Pucking Around* Nightbitch This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

Sarah and Miranda are joined by Ruth Whippman, author of Boymom: Reimagining Boyhood in the Age of Impossible Masculinity to talk about how boys need more but get less, the boys who are dying to talk about their feelings, and the radical power of a board book about a boy and his bags. Plus, do we say “no” to toxic-masculinity media or just say “yes” to better things? And a special round of “Marry, F**k, Kill!”Links:* Sarah’s piece in the Cut on cross-gender friendships* Boymom the book* Sarah’s piece in Romper on Boymom* Ruth’s Substack:I Blame SocietyCulture recs for boys:* Cool Runnings* Wednesday* Clive Board Books by Jessica Spanyol This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

A juicy, earnestly silly over-think of Mamma Mia and Mamma Mia 2: Here We Go Again (Sarah’s preferred Mamma Mia) in which Sarah’s friend Garrett Bucks joins us with a spicy-hot take on the three (three!) dads of Mamma Mia. When Bucks is not thinking about the rich, layered texts that are Mamma Mia and Mamma Mia 2: Here We Go Again, he keeps busy doing Dad Stuff, as well as working as an anti-racist organizer and educator, and authoring the Substack Newsletter The White Pages. If you like his take on Mamma Mia, you may also love his memoir, The Right Kind of White.Links:* Garrett’s new memoir, The Right Kind of White* Garrett’s great newsletter, , and his “Ten Movies, Ten Stories of Whiteness” series.* Actually good dad screen-recs:* Together (the Swedish one)* The Sandlot* Interstellar* Eighth Grade* How Bluey Made me a Better Dad* ’s 4000 words on Whiteness and Dirty Dancing This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

Sarah flew to Iceland, only to be immediately taken down by a stomach flu. Meanwhile, back at home a Covid-like virus knocked Miranda’s family out for 14 days. So we called an emergency recording session of Mother Of It All just to vent about it all together. Why can’t parents have nice things, like occasional vacations or a week or two without absolutely disgusting viruses? Is every virus we get now actually worse since Covid lockdown, or does it just feel that way? What ever happened to the normal cold? Like a nice, 3-5 day stuffy nose? When you s**t your pants on a plane but everyone’s asleep, did it really happen? And is being sick in a hotel room by yourself the only “joy” left for parents?? Links:* Plane landed by diarrhea (true fact)* A quick guide to Norse Gods* Nose sprays are either sketchy or amazing* Miranda’s doctor lady was right* -ollow us on Substack! (Summer reading club is coming!) This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

Sarah and Miranda host their first dad, cultural critic Phillip Maciak, and dig into screen time, shame, nostalgia, hugs, and multi-level marketing for second-graders.Links:* Phil’s book, Avidly Reads Screen Time* Phil on Instagram* Phil’s review of Season 2 of the Bear in The New Republic* The NOLA Pelicans’ King Cake Baby mascot* The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt* Stephanie Murray’s thoughts in the Dispatch* ’ thoughts in Romper* Melinda Wenner Moyer’s thoughts in* ’s The Art of Screen Time: How Your Family Can Balance Digital Media and Real Life* Sky Guide* Jessica Grose on Screens in Schools* The Digital Wealth Divide in Schools* Phil on Frog and Toad* on Bluey as the Breaking Bad of family televisionCulture Recs:* She-ra and the Princess of Power * Hilda * City of Ghosts * Harriet the Spy Show * Muppet Babies * with and This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

Sarah and Miranda are joined by their moms, Bev and Linda, to talk about modern motherhood, what has and hasn’t changed in a generation, “Folly Fridays,” and whether mothers ever truly get their flowers.Links:* Terry Brazelton* Lydia Kiesling’s Golden State This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

Sarah and Miranda talk to Lucy Jones, author of the book Matrescence, out May 7th, about how becoming a mother is truly a biopsychosocial evolution, how motherhood in nature is more often about chaos and violence than dyads and instincts, Kafka’s Metamorphosis, and our favorite Bluey episodes.Links:* Order Lucy’s book, Matrescence* Alexandra Sacks’ The Birth of a Mother in the NY TImes* The Quickening by Elizabeth Rush* Natality by Jennifer Banks* Partum Gardens Portland* Andrea O’Reilly* Sarah’s favorite Bluey episode This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

A little one-on-one time with Sarah and Miranda! A fun chit-chatty check-in about vasectomies, the third kid question, the weird pressure of turning 40, why Sarah "doesn't get" Hawaii, mole moms, hopping on the 'crone train, and calendar reminders gone wild. Plus, a big announcement! How To Catch A Mole by Marc HamerPoser by Claire DedererKrtek The Mole, Clementine, Psychic Sister--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mother-culture-pod/message This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

Columnist and sociologist Kathryn Jezer-Morton returns to give the inside scoop on her recent profile of Dr. Becky. Sarah, Miranda and KJM dive deep into what’s great (and maybe no so great) about the advice Dr. Becky doles out, and Kathryn explains what ultimately surprised her most about spending time with Dr. Becky and the “Good Inside” parent community. Links: KJM’s NY Magazine Profile of Dr. Becky. More thoughts about the profile in her Cut column, Brooding. Dr. Becky on Instagram--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mother-culture-pod/message This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

Sarah and Miranda are joined by Rebecca Kronman, a licensed clinical social worker and co-founder of Plant Parenthood, a community that explores the intersection of psychedelics and the family. She talks about the importance of set and setting, the false dichotomy between healing and joy, and about how psychedelics help some parents heal intergenerational trauma and connect more easily with their children by tapping them into a more child-like perspective.Links: Rebecca Kronman of Plant Parenthood Miranda’s feature on Mushroom Moms Sarah’s Cut piece Moms Gone Wild Study: Your Brain on LSD Looks A Lot Like A Baby’s Santo Daime Ismail L. Ali of MAPS Fireside Project Trip Support Hotline How To Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan Global Psychedelic Society Culture Recs: The Upstairs House by Julia Fine The Hidden Life of Pets show on Netlfix This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

LitHub contributing editor Janet Manley joins us to talk about the postpartum comedy with a horror twist that started it all, 2018’s Tully. We discuss how the conversation around the postpartum period has changed in six years, what the New York Times got wrong about this film, and what we would go back and offer our postpartum selves.Links: Janet’s newsletter, Kafka’s Baby Janet’s coverage of the movie here and here Stupid NYT review Better Vulture review Book Recs: Samantha Hunt’s Mr. Splitfoot Rachel Yoder’s Nightbitch Julia Fine’s The Upstairs House--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mother-culture-pod/message This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

With author and essayist Lydia Kiesling, we talk about the conflict in Gaza, which has taken the lives of tens of thousands of our fellow mothers and their children. We explore the ways that motherhood has the potential to awaken activism, about feeling frozen, helpless or overwhelmed, as well as how we can take our tender hearts and protective instincts and direct them towards activism and real change. LINKS: - United Nations report on Gaza Casualties March 12, 2024- UNRWA report more children killed since Oct 7 than 4 years of conflict world wide. - Birds of Gaza- Mobility by Lydia Kiesling- Lydia’s Link DocJoin our Patreon!--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mother-culture-pod/message This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

Author and New York Magazine writer Emily Gould joins Sarah and Miranda to discuss her controversial personal essay, The Lure of Divorce, published in The Cut last month. We tackle the current divorce discourse, the work it takes to support our own mental health, what it’s like to write so intimately and so publicly at the same time, and whether it’s “basic” to be married right now.LINKS: Emily’s piece The Lure of Divorce in the Cut Excerpt from Leslie Jamison’s Splinters in the New Yorker Emily’s profile of Adelle Waldman’s “Help Wanted” All Fours by Miranda JulyJoin the Patreon!--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mother-culture-pod/message This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

Sarah and Miranda are joined by Priya Joi, a Barcelona-based science journalist and the author of the memoir M(other)land: What I’ve Learned About Parenthood, Race, and Identity. Joi was born in the UK, spent part of her childhood in India, and is raising her own daughter in Barcelona. In this episode we explore how motherhood made questions of race, belonging and identity that Joi had spent her life navigating even more urgent and complex. Links: Motherland: What I’ve Learnt about Parenthood, Race and Identity by Priya JoiPriya Joi’s Substack Newsletter, the Art of Freelance How we Dealt with our Black Daughter’s Obsession with Frozen – And the Very White Elsa in RomperThe Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read by Phillippa PerryI Am Not Your Baby Mother by Candice BrathwaiteSubscribe to our ⁠Patreon--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mother-culture-pod/message This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

We’re giving our listener’s a little treat – a free February Movie Club episode! Author and podcaster Jo Piazza comes on the pod to break down the beloved 1987 working-mom classic, Baby Boom. We talk overt vs. covert misogyny, why it’s time to retire the phrase “having it all,” and of course, the brilliance of style acumen of Diane Keaton. Subscribe to our Patreon to get access to past and future Movie Club episodes! Links: Pre-order Jo’s new novel, The Sicilian Inheritance Subscribe to Jo’s SubstackRead Miranda’s piece on watching Baby Boom in Romper--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mother-culture-pod/message This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

Sociologist and writer Kathryn Jezer-Mortonjoins Sarah and Miranda to talk about the intersection of motherhood and what she calls “technological storytelling,” or, the way we construct our identities in the age of social media. We talk about her recent piece on the “core memories” trend as a microcosm of our desire to control our kids’ perception of childhood, why we imitate the visual language of influencers and brands in our personal content, and if doing so influences the way we understand the meaning of our lives and our children's lives. Also discussed: Reservation Dogs, what happens when teens doodle, and whether or not Michel Foucault would have a special interest in the parenting advice of Dr. Becky. LINKS: KJM’s newsletter, Brooding, via The CutKJM on Ballerina Farm & Trad Wife ContentPoog with Kate Berlant and Jacqueline NovakJohn Early Max SpecialReservation Dogs, on FX / HuluHow To Be A Family by Dan KoisJoin our Patreon!--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mother-culture-pod/message This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

Precise, poetic and deeply moving, Tamarin Norwood's much-anticipated book, The Song of the Whole Wide World: On Grief, Motherhood and Poetry, chronicles her experience of having a son, Gabriel, who lived just 72 minutes. In this episode, she joins Miranda and Sarah to share and reflect on passages from her gorgeous book, talk about the ultimate "taboo within a taboo" that is infant loss, as well as the urgent, wonderful work she is doing today to help other bereaved parents.LINKS: Something Good Enough, an excerpt of the book in The Lancet Tamarin on Instagram and on TwitterJoin our Patreon!--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mother-culture-pod/message This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

Every month for our Patreon members we release a special Movie Club episode where we take on movies through the lense of motherhood, and motherhood through the lense of movies. This month, we discuss the Oscar nominations with Tracy Clark Flory.Join our Patreon for as little as $5 a month to hear the full episode!--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mother-culture-pod/message This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

Author and speaker Jessica Slice talks to Sarah about how disability culture has taught her to reject perfectionism, how internalized ableism makes parenting harder for all of us, and the beauty of building a family where everyone accepts and expresses their needs.Links:Jessica’s website and Substack newsletterDisability Visibility, edited by Alice WongLucy Webster’s The View From Down HereAndrew Leland’s The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of SightWe've Got This: Essays by Disabled Parents, edited by Eliza Hull⁠Join our Patreon!--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mother-culture-pod/message This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

Midwife, birth trauma healer, and beloved big sister Rebekah Wheeler breaks down what we get wrong about birth trauma, why there is no wrong way to give birth, and what we can do to truly support people through the birth process. Also, Sarah confronts her about never letting her borrow her Oasis t-shirt in middle school, and Miranda gets some free birth healing. Links:Rebekah’s websiteReview of Alison Yarrow’s Birth Control in The NationThe Body Keeps The ScoreRecs for kids:Half MagicWayside School BooksJoin our Patreon!--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mother-culture-pod/message This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

In which Miranda & Sarah define the many reasons they love Evie Ebert’s motherhood writing, and Evie responds to all the flattery by giving an exceptionally satisfying answer to our “where are your kids right now” question. Then we dig into resolution culture, wondering out loud if maybe (MAYBE) we’re done treating resolution season as the super bowl of self-loathing. Instead, we just might be ready to mess around with stuff like earnestly-selected, loosely-defined slacker-level mind-set aspirations, the kind that help us make peace with who and how we are, as opposed to productivity culture in a “self-care” trench coat. Also: “Punch butt,” the importance of doing stuff we’re bad at, and watching a lot of TV. Yer Mates, Evie, Miranda & SarahLINKS: Evie’s Substack: Everything HappenedReally Good, ActuallyThis Fool on Hulu(It’s Great To) Suck At Something--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mother-culture-pod/message This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

Miranda and Sarah welcome Angela Garbes, author of Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change and Like A Mother, to the show this week to talk about drinking, sobriety, and the fuzzy, fine lines that we trace around substance use in motherhood. Though it feels like sober curiosity — or full on sobriety — is on-trend, a recent CDC study indicated that more women than ever are binge drinking and dying from alcohol-related diseases. How should we think about drinking and self-care? What does my choice say about your choice? With holiday gatherings looming, Angela — and a few brilliant listeners — helps us think deeply about how to manage it all with or without drinking to help (or hinder) us.Links:Angela’s SubstackAngela’s Washington Post piece about her sobriety CDC Study about women and alcohol-related mortalityAtlantic Article on Wine Moms Virginia Sole-Smith on Sugar HighsSophie Lucido Johnson on InstagramMonday N/A GinStudio Null N/A BubbleJoin our Patreon!--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mother-culture-pod/message This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

It’s the Mother Culture Origin Story! Sarah and Miranda (that’s us) divulge a little more about who we are, what we’re doing here, how we found each other, and why motherhood continues to earn its place as the focal point of our most obsessive curiosities. We talk pregnancy, anxieties, traps, tenderness, and how we think about what happened to us when we became mothers. What should we tell new moms? What would we have told ourselves? And is anyone listening to this motherhood discourse we love so dearly?LINKS: Ongoingness: The End of a Diary by Sarah MangusoA Life’s Work by Rachel CuskLittle Labors by Rivka GalchenExpecting Better by Emily Oster--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mother-culture-pod/message This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

The lovely writer Nancy Reddy joins Miranda and Sarah to talk (and cry a little bit) about the infamous John Hughes Christmas movie extraordinaire, Home Alone. We get into the weeds of Kate McAllister’s power-mom parenting choices, realizing that this bananas plot line actually feels pretty relatable, WTF a “hyper mom” might be, and the gray areas of our collective nostalgia for all things ‘90s.The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood edited by Nancy Reddy and Emily PerezOrdinary Insanity: Fear and the Silent Crisis of Motherhood in America by Sarah MenkedickWe All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman Wine Country Kid Culture:Greeking OutJoin our Patreon!--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mother-culture-pod/message This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

Switch on the twinkle lights, it’s the Mother Culture Holiday Episode! In which Sara P. (author of Momfluenced and the beloved substack, In Pursuit Of Clean Countertops) shares hot tips for Santa training your kids, Sarah W. finds out about Elf On A Shelf’s Jewish cousin. Then, Miranda tries to make everyone talk about big questions — like who and what the holidays are even for, and what ritual does for human beings — and little nice things, like actually really loving the holidays despite the workload, never, ever doing Elf On A Shelf (unless you want to), and the fact that latkes rule. After lots of goofing around, we wrap it all up with a particularly festive holiday edition of our fan-favorite kid culture segment.Links: Sara’s Book: Momfluenced Sara’s newsletter: In Pursuit of Clean CountertopsRitual: An Ancient Solution To Modern Problems from Hidden BrainOur Family Christmas Rituals That Have Nothing To Do With ReligionKid Culture: Arthur ChristmasThe Christmas ChroniclesElf Join our Patreon!--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mother-culture-pod/message This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

What do we really mean when we say capitalist patriarchy, gender politics, or even, feminism? Sarah and Miranda bring on a badass professor of feminist economics to school us on all this, plus the good, bad, and ugly of how this shows up in modern motherhood discourse.Katherine Moos is a professor of feminist political economy at UMASS Amherst. She has a Ph.D. in Economics from the New School for Social Research.Links:Mevre Emre in the New YorkerFair PlayThe Second Shift: Working Families and the Revolution at HomeMomfluenced Kid Culture:Blueberries for SalTime of WonderBrixton BrothersSpy Versus Spy--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mother-culture-pod/message This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

Miranda and Sarah are joined by Amanda Montei, the author of the recently published Touched Out: Motherhood, Misogyny, Consent and Control, to talk about the Britney Spears memoir and what it means for moms. Links: Amanda Montei in her Substack Newsletter Mad WomenJessica Grose in the New York TimesAmanda Hess in the New York TimesLyz in Men Yell at MeVirginia Sole-Smith in Burnt Toast Miranda on Postpartum Mood Disorders’ Exclusion From The DSMNY Times piece on kids being taken away from mothers on medicationsJoin us on Patreon!--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mother-culture-pod/message This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

A recent paper in the journal Pediatrics suggested that parents hover more than they think they do, and that the increases in kids’ anxiety and depression might be related to that lack of independence. Miranda and Sarah explore the implications of this way of thinking about our kids’ well-being, the possibility that they themselves ‘helicopter’ more than they mean to, and what it is about modern parenthood that makes us want to wrap our kids in bubble wrap. Plus, an update on Harriet The Spy, what Ramona Quimby’s parents know that we don’t, and the pros and cons of a Killers of The Flower Moon / Eras movie double feature.Links:Mott Poll on Kids and IndependenceJournal of Pediatrics Study on Children’s Mental Health and Independent PlayMelinda Wenner Moyer on SubstackRaising Kids Would Be So Much Better Without CarsWhen Is It OK To Leave Your Child Alone In A Hotel Room?Kid-Culture Recs:Ramona The PestTaylor Swift & The Eras Tour movie.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mother-culture-pod/message This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

The Portland teachers are going on strike and Miranda is in her feelings about it. Luckily, Sarah invited educator and mother Andria Kemp-Sellers on to talk about the possibilities of growing closer in conflict, the resilience of young children, and the joys of civic engagement.Sarah’s newsletter about the Oakland Teacher’s StrikeWhy US Teachers Have Been Walking Out of Schools NationwideGarrett Bucks: Does Your Tiny, Insignificant Protest Matter?Kid-culture Recs:The Wild Robot SeriesNewsies the Movie--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mother-culture-pod/message This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe

Miranda and Sarah discuss Oliver Burkeman's book, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, and their own struggles with attention, loss, and letting go. Links:Olver Burkeman’s Four Thousand WeeksAllison P Davis on friends with kidsWhy I Don’t Feel Guilty for Not Playing with My KidsSarah’s parenting column, Good Enough ParentAlison Gopnik What do Babies Think?Judith Viorst’s Necessary Losses The Happiness ProjectKid-culture Recs:Harriet the SpyMac B Kid SpyProject Runway Jr.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mother-culture-pod/message This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe