Mother is a Question

We pick up with the story of Anne, a day after she told her kids that she was so unhappy, so lost that to figure things out, she had to get on a plane and put five thousand miles between herself and her life. Mother is a Question is created by Natasha Haverty and Julia Metzger-Traber. Our editor is Rob Rosenthal. Original Music by Raky Sastri and Julia Read Manager of The Big Questions Project: Courtney Fleurantin Coordinating Producer: Emmanuel Desarme Post-Production: Sandra Lopez-Monsalve Executive Producer: Genevieve Sponsler

We open our season with a story that came to us through a listener. “Can you imagine leaving your child?” Anne asks, “No, of course not. Because none of us do. Nor did I, until four days before I did it.” Here’s Part 1 of her story. Mother is a Question is created by Natasha Haverty and Julia Metzger-Traber. Our editor is Rob Rosenthal. Executive Producer: Genevieve Sponsler Manager of The Big Questions Project: Courtney Fleurantin Coordinating Producer: Emmanuel Desarme Post-Production: Sandra Lopez-Monsalve Original Music by Raky Sastri and Julia Read

Being a mother is a portal into the core of human existence. Join us as we hold a microphone up to that portal and listen for the unanswerable, the unspeakable, the mysterious, the awe-some and the kaleidoscopically different realities of mothers.

As the oldest daughter of the oldest daughter of the oldest daughter, Nicole always knew her life didn’t begin and end with her. But when she became a mother, she gained new awareness of how mothering reaches not only into the past—but also into the future. Join us as Julia speaks with artists Nicole and Richael about how being connected to “deep time” shapes how they mother.

Rita was the mom next door—she moved in when Julia was two years old, but there was so much in the songs and the whispers that Julia didn’t know and couldn’t understand.  What was Rita carrying alone all these years?  How did she make it through?  Join us as we make space for the darkness, listen for the wisdom and witness the hidden journey of the mother next door.

Rae is trying to decide whether to become a mother. And Rae is coming at this decision in a pretty unique way—because Rae really feels like there must be a right answer to this question. Join us as Rae tries to figure out how to know whether to step into the ultimate unknown.

When Julia found out she was pregnant, she was bombarded with voices in her head around what a mother was supposed to be. In this episode, Julia turns to Laurel, who is on her own inspiring journey of reckoning with those voices and creating the motherhood that is true to her. Laurel never wanted to be a parent growing up because she couldn’t imagine herself fitting into the narrow frame of heteronormative parenting. But along her windy path toward becoming a mother, she discovers there is so much more possible in who we can become, how we love, and how we create family. Join us as we reckon with who we are as mothers in the face of societal expectations and narrow definitions, and what is possible when we do.

Our journey into this territory of mothering begins. Tasha searches out someone whose deep wisdom about mothering was totally lost on her when they first met ten years ago. Back then, Teourialier Johnson—who Tasha met as “T”—was a teacher of motherhood in an unlikely context. Now, for us, she’s a teacher of so much more, opening to transformation even when it seems all has been lost. Join us as “T” navigates some of the greatest challenges a mother can face, and shares how she attunes to the eternal dance of mothering another human: the graceful movement between listening and guiding, giving and taking, the known and the unknown.

If you listen all the way to our episodes' end credits (which we hope you do), you know the only way we've been able to make this show is because of something called the Big Questions Project. Well, three other fantastic podcasts came out of the Big Questions Project and in the next few months we’ll be featuring them here on our feed. First up, it’s a show called Rock that Doesn’t Roll. It’s the story of how Christian music shapes the world we live in. It's hosted by the very cool, very thoughtful hosts Andrew Gill and Leah Payne who understand and came from the world of this music--and it really is a world. This episode gets into what happens when motherhood and Christian rock music collide. Enjoy.

This week we're sharing the loving and playful podcast, "How to Survive the End of the World" hosted by Autumn Brown and adrienne maree brown. In this episode, "Loving as Family Practice," the Brown sisters explore what they’ve learned about love at the site of their own family, what they are generating as adults building and holding family, mothering children, and some things they have figured out that increase the possibility of love in intentional familial space. Plus zombies. Plus tattoo plans. Autumn Brown and adrienne maree brown, two sisters, share many identities, as writers, activists, facilitators, and inheritors of multiracial diasporic lineages, as well as a particular interest in the question of survival.  Their podcast delves into the practices we need as a community, to move through endings and to come out whole on the other side, whatever that might be.

To wrap up Season 2 we have a love story about a grandmother and her granddaughter -  how they came to know themselves through each other, and how they’ve saved each other’s lives, again and again. It’s a story about home. How we find our place.  Our longing for Motherland.  It’s about destiny– the kind we create and the kind that creates us. And as we prepare to end our season, it’s also a story about taking flight, and saying goodbye.--------------------Listeners, we want to thank you for joining us for the first two seasons of Mother is a Question. However you found us, it’s an honor to have your attention and your ears. And as we enter this next phase - this unknown territory - and recombobulate, we’d love to hear from you. Write us your thoughts, feelings and stories at motherisaquestion@gmail.com and be sure to subscribe to our show if you haven’t to get any updates in the coming months. Follow us on instagram @motherisaquestionMother is a Question is created by Natasha Haverty and Julia Metzger-Traber. Our editor is Rob Rosenthal.Original Music by Raky Sastri and Julia Read; other music by APMManager of The Big Questions Project: Courtney FleurantinCoordinating Producer: Emmanuel DesarmePost-Production Audio Engineer : Sandra Lopez-MonsalveExecutive Producer: Genevieve SponslerInterview Recording (DC): Stefanie De Leon Tzic Interview Recording (Arusha, Tanzania): Munira KaonekaArt by Richard GrayMother is a Question is a part of the Big Questions Project at PRX and supported by the John Templeton Foundation.

Yeye just crossed the threshold into motherhood. And she thinks what she learned during her crossing—when she gave birth—might be the key into the kind of motherhood in which she could be her truest, fullest self. But she’s also still asking questions. “Can you explain to me how we ended up in that situation? Wait, can you say that again? Was it really necessary, or am I another Latina statistic that ended up in this situation?” Join us for our season finale, and be part of crafting the coming season of Mother is a Question.

Join best friends Julia Metzger-Traber and Tasha Haverty as they listen for the unspeakable and crack open the definitions of motherhood alongside mothers from all walks of life.  Through warm, playful, and surprising interviews, this is an invitation into the depths of mothers’ hearts, minds and stories. Each episode is a portal into the kaleidoscopically different and yet universal experiences of what it means to mother. Not your average mom advice show—this is a space for the whispers, screams, and questions. Episode One drops October 4.

Subscribe now!