The Mother of it All
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© Sarah and Miranda
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Taking on culture through the lens of motherhood and motherhood through the lens of culture.
27 Episodes
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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 TimePhil on InstagramPhil’s review of Season 2 of the Bear in The New RepublicThe NOLA Pelicans’ King Cake Baby mascotThe Anxious Generation by Jonathan HaidtStephanie Murray’s thoughts in the Dispatch’ thoughts in RomperMelinda Wenner Moyer’s thoughts in ’s The Art of Screen Time: How Your Family Can Balance Digital Media and Real LifeSky GuideJessica Grose on Screens in SchoolsThe Digital Wealth Divide in SchoolsPhil 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 Get full access to The Mother Of It All at 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 Get full access to The Mother Of It All at 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, MatrescenceAlexandra Sacks’ The Birth of a Mother in the NY TImesThe Quickening by Elizabeth RushNatality by Jennifer BanksPartum Gardens PortlandAndrea O’ReillySarah’s favorite Bluey episode Get full access to The Mother Of It All at 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 Get full access to The Mother Of It All at 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 Get full access to The Mother Of It All at 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 Get full access to The Mother Of It All at 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 Get full access to The Mother Of It All at 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 Get full access to The Mother Of It All at 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 Get full access to The Mother Of It All at 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 Get full access to The Mother Of It All at 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 Get full access to The Mother Of It All at 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 Get full access to The Mother Of It All at 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 Get full access to The Mother Of It All at 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 Get full access to The Mother Of It All at 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 Get full access to The Mother Of It All at 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 Get full access to The Mother Of It All at 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 Get full access to The Mother Of It All at 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 Get full access to The Mother Of It All at 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 Get full access to The Mother Of It All at 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 Get full access to The Mother Of It All at motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe
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