Mamas Talkin' Loud

We're back!! (kind of)... This special bonus episode is coming to you live from the red carpet at the opening night of Broadway's "How to Dance in Ohio". "How to Dance in Ohio" is a heartwarming musical based on a true story. It follows a group of young adults on the autism spectrum who attend a group counseling center in Columbus, Ohio. As they prepare for a spring formal dance, a major rite of passage for many teenagers, they navigate their anxieties, hopes, and dreams about love, independence, and fitting in. Through humor, music, and genuine connection, the characters overcome their challenges and discover the courage to step outside their comfort zones. The show is praised for its uplifting message, its celebration of neurodiversity, and its talented cast, which features seven autistic actors. So, it's not just about learning to dance, but about embracing individuality, facing fears, and finding your place in the world. This episode features Paula Abdul, Conor Tague, Desmond Luis Edward, Amelia Fei, Imani Russell, Ashley Wool, Alex Brightman, Jessica Vosk, Andy Karl, Orfeh, Ingrid Michaelson and Will Chase. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The last time we spoke to Elizabeth Stanley she was deep in the world of new motherhood, pumping in the bathroom at the Tony Awards and preparing to return to her Tony Nominated starring role in Jagged Little Pill. Today she joins us to discuss what it was like to job share on Broadway, the emotional whiplash that omicron brought and how she is learning to balance her career and motherhood moving forward.  Find more info about the podcast via BPN.fm/mamas.  Produced by Dori Berinstein and Alan Seales. Edited by Cara Cooper Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In celebration of International Women's History Month, co-host Jessica Rush sat down in studio with her co-stars & fellow 'mamas' of TINA: THE TINA TURNER MUSICAL on Broadway. Tony Award nominee Myra Lucretia Taylor, NaTasha Yvette Williams and Katie Webber graciously joined her on a two show day to share how their own motherhood journey's and relationships with the maternal figures in their lives informs the work they do on stage 8 times a week, bringing the story of this iconic, powerful warrior, Tina Turner, to life. *clips and footage from in the studio can be seen on the @tinabroadway social media channels. For MTL merch! https://mamas-talkin-loud-podcast.myshopify.com Find more info about the podcast via BPN.fm/mamas.  Produced by Dori Berinstein and Alan Seales. Edited by Jessica Rush Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Faith Salie is an Emmy award winning journalist, radio host, podcaster, writer, and actress, proving time and again there is nothing she can’t do. She joins Cara and Jess today amidst the run of her Off-Broadway one woman show Approval Junkie, based on her memoir of the same name, to share how it’s never too late to to find your purpose and how important it is to model that pursuit for our children. Find more info about the podcast via BPN.fm/mamas.  Produced by Dori Berinstein and Alan Seales. Edited by Cara Cooper Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The last time we spoke with Elizabeth Stanley, she was anxiously awaiting the arrival of her baby girl. Continuing our Returning Reborn series, this mama joins us with her sweet babe now in her arms. From the way becoming a mother changes you forever, to pumping in the bathroom of the Tony awards, she shares where she is in her motherhood journey and how she is feeling about her forthcoming return to her Tony Award nominated role in Broadway's Jagged Little Pill.  Find more info about the podcast via BPN.fm/mamas.  Produced by Dori Berinstein and Alan Seales. Edited by Cara Cooper Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In an unexpected turn of events, co-host Jessica Rush takes the hot seat, sharing her journey back to Broadway post pandemic as part of our "Returning Reborn: The Rebirth of the Broadway Mom" series. Navigating a move out of lockdown, returning to her role in TINA: The Tina Turner Musical, and negotiating 8 shows a week, on top of the new #mompreneur life she created during Covid, this conversation is intimate, honest and unfiltered - talk therapy in the best way. Featuring special guest co-host Brooke Jacob. Find more info about the podcast via BPN.fm/mamas.  Produced by Dori Berinstein and Alan Seales. Edited by Jessica Rush Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Breaking her three year silence over her discrimination and eventual termination from her starring role in Romy and Michele: The Musical, Cortney Wolfson joins us following her bravely transparent social media post that went viral. She shares, in her own words, what it felt like to be fired for being pregnant, opening up a conversation that is desperately needed in our industry. Find more info about the podcast via BPN.fm/mamas.  Produced by Dori Berinstein and Alan Seales. Edited by Cara Cooper Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the very first guests on Mamas Talkin' Loud, Pearl Sun, rejoined Cara and Jess a month ago to talk about her unexpected return to Broadway. From resuming 8 shows a week after spending more time than she ever has with her son Max, to her anxiety about moving through the city as an Asian American, her emotions ran the gamut. However, she looked toward the reopening of Come From Away with more hope than hesitation, and most importantly compassion for herself and others. Find more info about the podcast via BPN.fm/mamas.  Produced by Dori Berinstein and Alan Seales. Edited by Cara Cooper Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

About a month ago, Khori Petinaud joined us again as part of our 'Returning Reborn' series, sharing her ongoing journey of discovery as a new mom, and her overwhelming anticipation of returning to work in Moulin Rouge. When Broadway shuttered, she wasn’t even pregnant and when she walked back on stage at the Al Hirschfeld theater, she had a 9 month old. She prepped for the reopening with classes and working out, but most importantly with grace and compassion for herself, as she knows she is not the same person that took a bow in March 2020. Find more info about the podcast via BPN.fm/mamas.  Produced by Dori Berinstein and Alan Seales. Edited by Cara Cooper Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Seven years ago co-hosts Cara Cooper & Jessica Rush started a support group for mothers in the New York theater community, Broadway Baby Mamas, and about a month ago they invited them to join in a group “scream”. Like The NY Times did earlier this year, the Mamas wanted to provide a space where the women could just let go of everything they'd been holding onto. This episode is a raw and emotional glimpse into what working artist mothers have been grappling with these past 18 months and how they are moving forward one step, one breath at a time. Find more info about the podcast via BPN.fm/mamas.  Produced by Dori Berinstein and Alan Seales. Edited by Cara Cooper Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Seven years ago co-hosts Cara Cooper & Jessica Rush started a support group for mothers in the New York theater community, Broadway Baby Mamas, and about a month ago they invited them to join in a group “scream”. Like The NY Times did earlier this year, the Mamas wanted to provide a space where the women could just let go of everything they'd been holding onto. This episode is a raw and emotional glimpse into what working artist mothers have been grappling with these past 18 months and how they are moving forward one step, one breath at a time. Find more info about the podcast via BPN.fm/mamas.  Produced by Dori Berinstein and Alan Seales. Edited by Cara Cooper Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kicking off our third season, as well as our special four-part miniseries Returning Reborn: The Rebirth of the Broadway Mom, Tony Nominee (Jagged Little Pill) Elizabeth Stanley joined us just weeks before giving birth to her baby girl to share with us her journey to having a #pandemicbaby. While motherhood was not always a path she saw in her future, she is mindfully navigating this new territory with a sense of purpose and curiosity, advocating for herself and her new life as a mother in ways to which we can all relate and aspire. Find more info about the podcast via BPN.fm/mamas.  Produced by Dori Berinstein and Alan Seales. Edited by Cara Cooper Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kitt Shapiro is the daughter of icon, legend, feminist, activist and sex symbol Eartha Kitt and joins co-host Jessica Rush for a special ‘Santa Baby’ holiday episode. After meeting while Jess was on tour with Kitt's mother Eartha, they reconnect here to discuss her best selling memoir Eartha & Kitt: A Daughter’s Love Story in Black & White. Kitt shares the incredible bond she and her mother had, how important humanity and the betterment of it was to Eartha, several ‘Kittisms’ to take away in your own life, and how her connection with her mother influenced her own motherhood journey. For MTL merch! https://mamas-talkin-loud-podcast.myshopify.com Find more info about the podcast via BPN.fm/mamas.  Produced by Dori Berinstein and Alan Seales. Edited by Jessica Rush Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The superhuman powers of this week’s guests are awe-inspiring. Tony award nominee De’Adre Aziza and Broadway regular Jennifer Sanchez join us to share their journeys as single mothers in show business. From hustling to get their first break with toddlers in tow, to experiencing empty nest after their sons have spread their wings, these mothers truly redefine the mom juggle... doing it all... on their own...from day one.  Find more info about the podcast via BPN.fm/mamas.  Produced by Dori Berinstein and Alan Seales. Edited by Derek Gunther. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Star of Hamilton and breast cancer survivor, Mandy Gonzalez shares her journey through a diagnosis, the decision to go public with the news, and enduring chemotherapy during the height of the COVID-19 lockdown. Even when faced with the most difficult situation, she never lost sight of the light, pushing through with the help of her family, her “core four”, and the passion that drives her to continue to create even when bedridden from treatment. Mandy’s first book in her YA Series, Fearless comes out in April and our conversation with her leaves no doubt that she is not only the embodiment of the word, but a beacon of positivity to which we all should aspire. Find more info about the podcast via BPN.fm/mamas.  Produced by Dori Berinstein and Alan Seales. Edited by Derek Gunther. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just five weeks postpartum, Khori Michelle Petinaud joins us to share her amazing home birth story. She is amplifying her positive experience to affirm BIPOC women everywhere who dream of someday becoming a mother. Khori is using her voice, her experience and her platform to share and fight the devastating inequities in maternal care in this country for women of color, all while navigating becoming a mother herself.  Find more info about the podcast via BPN.fm/mamas.  Produced by Dori Berinstein and Alan Seales. Edited by Derek Gunther. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kicking off Mental Health Awareness Month, we have Carey Anderson, an actress, known for MAMMA MIA & AVENUE Q, turned psychotherapist. Knowing firsthand the intense anxiety and self doubt that are inherent parts of our industry, she created the #MindfulArtistSeries, giving people tangible tools to move through these emotions and help them break out of the ‘Trance of Unworthiness’. As we are enter a new phase of the pandemic, Carey acknowledges the unique trauma the artist population has experienced, shares her wisdom and helps us process the PTSD of the last year, acknowledging the grief within the hope.  Find more info about the podcast via BPN.fm/mamas.  Produced by Dori Berinstein and Alan Seales. Edited by Jessica Rush Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wrapping up our celebration of Women’s History Month, advocate and change maker extraordinaire, Rachel Spencer Hewitt, joins us this week. Through her own experiences as a mother, she immediately recognized how little caregiver support exists in our industry and she did something about it. She is the founder of PAAL - the Parent Artist Advocacy League, a community, a resource and a salvation to those of us navigating parenting in the arts and the institutions that hire us. With the recent release of the PAAL Handbook for Best Practices, she is effectively working toward making caregiver support the norm, not the exception. Find more info about the podcast via BPN.fm/mamas.  Produced by Dori Berinstein and Alan Seales. Edited by Jessica Rush Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the first BIPOC (and mother!) to play Jenna in Waitress, this weeks guest, Nicolette Robinson, made history. She joins us to share how the state of her career actually led her to motherhood, how her love of Waitress the Musical is the greatest proof of manifestation, and how the two seem undeniably intertwined. During lockdown she and husband, Leslie Odom Jr., shot and executive produced ‘Love in the Time of Corona’, making sure their story was one of authenticity and relevance as people took to the streets in the biggest Black Lives Matter movement our country has seen. They did this all while keeping their love alive by allowing for the chaos but looking for the joy every day. Find more info about the podcast via BPN.fm/mamas.  Produced by Dori Berinstein and Alan Seales. Edited by Derek Gunther. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Continuing our “Journey to Motherhood” series, two time Tony Award winner and star of the hit television show, Younger, Sutton Foster shares her path to becoming a mom. After struggling with infertility for years, choosing adoption brought her incredible daughter into her life and the knowledge that this path was always meant to be. Between balancing motherhood, life on the set of Younger, and a much anticipated return to Broadway in The Music Man, Sutton openly and honestly shares the emotional rollercoaster of the life of a working artist mother. Find more info about the podcast via BPN.fm/mamas.  Produced by Dori Berinstein and Alan Seales. Edited by Derek Gunther. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices