Mother Culture 436q1q

Journalist Frankie de la Cretaz s us to talk women’s sports and all things WNBA! We dig into player and WAG fashion, the visibility of queer families on and off the court, the truth about trans athletes, and mother-athletes past, present and future. Links: * Frankie De La Cretaz on Substack * Frankie’s book, Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women’s Football League * Molly Dickens’ the Maternal Stress Project * WNBA Documentaries 144 and The Power of the Dream * Basketball Wives * Angel Reese on Insta * Woxer * WNBA x Skims campaign * TBOY Wrestling * So You Think You Know A Lot About The Titanic by Janet Manley * Oh Mary! * No Taste Like Home * North of North If you love the work we do on Mother Of It All, please consider becoming a paid subscriber, which you can do at motherofitall.substack.com. Paid subscribers get access to everything behind the paywall, like subscriber-only episodes, book reviews and more. If you subscribe at the founding member level, we’ll send you one of our awesome tote bags. If you can’t become a paid subscriber, that’s OK! It’s always free and helpful to follow, share, rate and review our show here and everywhere else you listen to podcasts you love. Thank you! * Visit our Bookshop storefront to find all the books we’ve mentioned here and in previous episodes. When you shop there, we get a small fee (yay, thank you!). * Visit motherofitall.com to send us ideas for a future episode or learn more about the show. * Follow the podcast on Instagram (@themotherofitall) or Bluesky (@motherofitallpod.bsky.social) 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

British author Helen Jukes s us to talk about motherhood in the animal kingdom, and what human mothers can learn from mothers from other species. What is “natural” about motherhood, what is the true nature of motherhood across species? What can we learn by allowing ourselves to truly see and examine the many roles of the mother in nature? At one poetic and rigorous, Helen Jukes’ beautiful new book, Mother / Animal, is an illuminating exploration of her own matrescence through the lens of motherhood in the animal world. Note: Helen’s book is not available in the U.S. yet, so Blackwell’s (a UK based bookseller) has made some signed copies of Mother / Animal by Helen Jukes available to our listeners via this link. LINKS: * Buy Mother/Animal * Follow Helen Jukes on Instagram * How To Catch A Mole by Marc Hamer * The Quickening by Elizabeth Rush * Revolutionary Mothering * Anne Helen Peterson essay on What Makes Women Clean * Amanda Hess on Mother of it All If you love the work we do on Mother Of It All, please consider becoming a paid subscriber, which you can do at motherofitall.substack.com. Paid subscribers get access to everything behind the paywall, like subscriber-only episodes, book reviews and more. If you subscribe at the founding member level, we’ll send you one of our awesome tote bags. If you can’t become a paid subscriber, that’s OK! It’s always free and helpful to follow, share, rate and review our show here and everywhere else you listen to podcasts you love. Thank you! * Visit our Bookshop storefront to find all the books we’ve mentioned here and in previous episodes. When you shop there, we get a small fee (yay, thank you!). * Visit motherofitall.com to send us ideas for a future episode or learn more about the show. * Follow the podcast on Instagram (@themotherofitall) or Bluesky (@motherofitallpod.bsky.social) 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

MAHA (or “Make America Healthy Again”) motherhood is a bit of a mindf*uck. What, one asks oneself, unites “crunchy” hippie-leaning momfluencers (like Rudy Jude & her wannabes) of the world with someone as spray-tanned Marjorie Taylor Green? One looks like a sentient carcinogen, and one looks like she's never even heard of food dye! So how do we understand their alliance under the umbrella of Making American Healthy Again? For many of us, there are some points of connection with these MAHA moms, which where this conversation gets juicy and frankly a little disconcerting. As Sara Petersen wrote, most moms probably would agree with the MAHA moms in that we prefer that our kids’ treats came without red dye #6, a food dye associated with behavioral side effects. But, unlike a MAHA mom, we’re proud to be up-to-date on our Covid boosters instead of guzzling raw milk and curing our own cancer with red light therapy (or something, tbh we couldn’t bear to go too deep into that one). At the same time that motherhood taps us into our need to give and receive care, the conditions of modern millennial motherhood seem to have stoked a fear-driven and anxiety-ridden individualism. It’s a confusing time, and it’s getting more baffling by the minute. If MAHA mothers care so much about banning food additives like red dye, why have they aligned themselves with an istration that has effectively gutted the FDA? How did we get to a place where expertise is up for grabs and there is so much mistrust in our public health systems? Can we recover? OG motherhood writer and New York Times opinion columnist Jessica Grose s us to talk through all this and more. LINKS: * Jessica Grose, The Kind of Moms Who Fall for ‘Make America Healthy Again’ (New York Times, Oct 2024) * Screaming on the Inside by Jessica Grose * Sara Petersen: “MAHA Moms Are Wrong About Wellness” * Necessary Losses by Judith Viorst * Ariana Hendrix * Katie Beck On Child-Friendly City Design * Eloise Rickman on Children’s Rights * Sprawl Is A Parenting Problem by Erin Sagan * Noah Wylie being hot again on The Pitt * John Early bit If you love the work we do on Mother Of It All, please consider becoming a paid subscriber, which you can do at motherofitall.substack.com. Paid subscribers get access to everything behind the paywall, like subscriber-only episodes, book reviews and more. If you subscribe at the founding member level, we’ll send you one of our awesome tote bags. If you can’t become a paid subscriber, that’s OK! It’s always free and helpful to follow, share, rate and review our show here and everywhere else you listen to podcasts you love. Thank you! * Visit our Bookshop storefront to find all the books we’ve mentioned here and in previous episodes. When you shop there, we get a small fee (yay, thank you!). * Visit motherofitall.com to send us ideas for a future episode or learn more about the show. * Follow the podcast on Instagram (@themotherofitall) or Bluesky (@motherofitallpod.bsky.social) 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 Some people have told us that this podcast is for “literary mom nerds” and we’re into that! So, today for our beloved die-hard paid subscribers we’re leaning into that! (Please consider becoming one of those, if you aren’t already!) We decided to make an episode about what we’re reading and loving right now, and what’s in our TBR piles. We’re still in t…

New York Times critic at large Amanda Hess s us to talk about the convergence of parenthood and technology. We dig in to everything from freebirthers to prenatal testing, and from “complicated” pregnancies to the many anxieties (and joys, too) of raising a child in a world where a $1600 Snoo has become a newborn must-have and corporations know about our pregnancies before our immediate families do. Hess’s much anticipated memoir, Second Life: Having A Child In The Digital Age (which we both LOVED), is out May 6th. Links: * Prenatal Testing Offers Pregnant Women More Information Than Ever — But No To Deal With It (Romper) * Unfit Parent by Jessica Slice * Girl on Girl by Sophie Gilbert * Happiest Baby On The Block If you love the work we do on Mother Of It All, please consider becoming a paid subscriber, which you can do at motherofitall.substack.com. Paid subscribers get access to everything behind the paywall, like subscriber-only episodes and if you subscribe at the founding member level, we’ll send you one of our awesome tote bags. If you can’t become a paid subscriber, that’s OK! It’s always free and helpful to follow, share, rate and review our show here and everywhere else you listen to podcasts you love. Thank you! * Visit our Bookshop storefront to find all the books we’ve mentioned here and in previous episodes. When you shop there, we get a small fee (yay, thank you!). * Visit motherofitall.com to send us ideas for a future episode or learn more about the show. * Follow the podcast on Instagram (@themotherofitall) or Bluesky (@motherofitallpod.bsky.social) 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 reunite with author and parent Jessica's Slice ahead of the release of her tremendous book, Unfit Parent: A Disabled Mother Challenges an Inaccessible World, to learn how her life with a second child has taught her to throw out the milestones and ask for help (even when it involves a dead possum!). Then, you get to listen to Sarah’s initial interview with Jessica, which remains one of our all time favorites and touches on parenting perfectionism, disability justice, and parenting neurodivergent kids. Links: * Order Unfit Parent * Jessica’s website and Substack newsletter: Jessica Slice writes about disability, poems, and waterfowl * Disability Visibility, edited by Alice Wong * Lucy Webster’s The View From Down Here * Andrew Leland’s The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight * We've Got This: Essays by Disabled Parents, edited by Eliza Hull 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

Debbie Reber, the host of the Tilt Parenting podcast, talks to us about what she’s learned from having hundreds of conversations on raising differently-wired kids. We discuss independence versus self-determination, low-demand parenting, how to find your parenting integrity, and whether even having these conversations is a parenting privilege. Links: * Miranda is So Busy So Bored * The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet and Other Stories by Vandana Singh * Our new Bookshop storefront! * Tilt Parenting Podcast * Differently Wired: A Parent's Guide to Raising an Atypical Child with Confidence and Hope * I Who Have Never Known Men * Jessica Slice’s Unfit Parent * I Will Die on This Hill * Ross Greene’s Explosive Child * Low-Demand Parenting * The Declarative Language Handbook * Dr. Gina Riley on Self-Determination Theory Culture recs: * The Traitors * Bather’s Library Oakland * Lego Masters * How to Talk to Kids When The World Feels Like a Scary Place * Dr. Megan Anna Neff Neurodivergent Insights 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

“I the bizarre feeling of my baby kicking inside me while taking care of patients dying of COVID in the hospital.” Brett was a doctor in a small town when the pandemic hit, with a toddler at home and a baby on the way. In this episode, she and Miranda (who are childhood friends) talk through her experience as a parent, spouse, and physician during those intense years, and the way they continue to impact her and her family five years later. Also, we agree that a cold juice box actually does cure a lot of things, it’s just a fact. Links: * Our pandemic parenting survey (you can still take it if you want to) * The first episode of our pandemic parenting survey If you love (or honestly even just like) the work that Sarah & Miranda do here on Mother Of It All, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. You this work (thank you) and will get access to super special content like subscriber-only episodes and even very awesome tote bags for founding . 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

“Coming into parenthood for the second time, I knew a lot. And I think I had this vision of what I would do differently, and I was going to plug into the local mom's groups, or plug into the play dates and take the yoga classes with the kids and things like that. And it became not that. It became just very, very isolating.” Sarah talks to Marta, who had a fresh professional and parenting start planned, only to be hit with the pandemic. We discuss her desires to tend to her self now that her kids are a bit older, and to find the community she had wanted to build when shut-down struck. Links: * Our pandemic parenting survey (you can still take it if you want to) * The first episode of our pandemic parenting survey If you love (or honestly even just like) the work that Sarah & Miranda do here on Mother Of It All, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. You this work (thank you) and will get access to super special content like subscriber-only episodes and even very awesome tote bags for founding . 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 still trying to figure out life’s hack (life’s ONE hack), and caring for each other as we do. Other things we’re trying to figure out together in this episode include: * Hosting regular(ish?) casual hang outs even when it’s super scary to send text messages because rejection is a bummer. * How to tell other adults that you want to be friends as freely as kids do, but also * Sometimes not doing the parent chit-chat at drop off because it can be overwhelming. * Chocolate cake. * Everyone is leaving Instagram, canceling Prime, VRBO-ing instead of AirBnb-ing, and maybe that’s something good? Links: * “How to build community after having kids” (Serious Eats) * Scruffy Hospitality (Parents) * Katherine Goldstein ’s :How To Find Your People” community building project * Come As You Are (Emily Nagoski) * Sarah’s favorite one bowl chocolate cake and insanely reliable vanilla frosting * Miranda’s one bowl chocolate cake * Oat Scones If you love (or honestly even just like) the work that Sarah & Miranda do here on Mother Of It All, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. You this work (thank you) and will get access to super special content like subscriber-only episodes and even very awesome tote bags for founding . 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 speaks with Arianne, who gave birth just days into the pandemic lockdown. They discuss how birth trauma and isolation led Arianne to doubt her attachment to her daughter, tricky family relationships, and how she’s healed and found what they call “heart family.” Links: * Our pandemic parenting survey (you can still take it if you want to) * The first episode of our pandemic parenting survey If you love (or honestly even just like) the work that Sarah & Miranda do here on Mother Of It All, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. You this work (thank you) and will get access to super special content like subscriber-only episodes and even very awesome tote bags for founding . 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

One of The Cut’s parenting columnists and official friend-of-the-pod, Amil Niazi, s us to talk about her recent essay on weaning her kids off YouTube. We’ve covered screen time, but this time we’re talking about algorithmic content. Is the algorithm as unavoidable as it feels to many of us? Or is it worth it for parents to push back — even when it makes for some awkward moments with other families — and try to hold out as long as they can? If your kids are already hooked on YouTube, like Amil’s were, is there a way to reign it in without a dreaded, endless household meltdown? And if you do manage to kick the algo out of your home, and come out as a non-YouTube family, is the grass really greener? Plus, Sarah and Miranda on “life’s hack” (life’s ONE hack), the very corporeal fascinations of switching to menstrual cups, first periods, and what it feels like to finally be deeply learning about our menstrual cycles in our 40s. * My Family’s YouTube Ban by Amil Niazi (The Cut) * The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt * If Books Could Kill review of The Anxious Generation * The Fun Cup * My Son’s Favorite Toy Is A Tampon by Sarah (Scary Mommy) * Babeland * Period: The Real Story of Menstruation by Kate Clancy * 28-ish Days Later BBC Podcast * Second Life by Amanda Hess (episode coming soon!) * Teens, Social Media and Technology 2023 (Pew Research Report). “Roughly nine-in-ten teens say they use YouTube, making it the most widely used platform measured in our survey.” * Meta (Facebook & Instagram & WhatsApp parent company) is not going to moderate content anymore. If you like the work that we do here on Mother Of It All, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. You this work (thank you!) and will get access to super special content like subscriber-only episodes and even very awesome tote bags for founding . 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

“I truly believe in the power of policy, and I have been like radicalized by that, since becoming a mom and living here.” Sarah chats with Ariana, a mom in Norway, about how it felt to be a fresh ex-pat when the world shut down. They discuss the overlap and many differences between parenting in the U.S. and Norway during covid, the impact that financial makes, and how hard it can be to navigate new places at a time when people are holing up. Links: * Ariana wrote more about her pandemic experience on her Substack: What the pandemic taught me about parenting (and life) in Norway * Our pandemic parenting survey (you can still take it if you want to) * The first episode of our pandemic parenting survey If you love (or honestly even just like) the work that Sarah & Miranda do here on Mother Of It All, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. You this work (thank you) and will get access to super special content like subscriber-only episodes and even very awesome tote bags for founding . 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

“Our foster daughter was doing virtual school. My partner was doing virtual school in the other room. My foster daughter couldn't really stay in virtual school unless I was right next to her, and I was often also on a video call with her social worker ,whose daughter was in virtual school. So it was just like, infinity schools in our house.” Ashleigh had recently quit her job to become a foster parent, and found herself intensively parenting almost 24/7 when Covid lockdowns began. Here, she and Miranda discuss what life was like then, and how those dense days continue to impact her perspective as a parent now. Links: * Our pandemic parenting survey (you can still take it if you want to) * The first episode of our pandemic parenting series If you love (or honestly even just like) the work that Sarah & Miranda do here on Mother Of It All, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. You this work (thank you) and will get access to super special content like subscriber-only episodes and even very awesome tote bags for founding . 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

“I had already formed an identity as a parent, which made it easier for me to make decisions in the best interest of my family and kids during that time without heightened fear of judgment. I continue to be grateful for that. If I had had my first child during Covid I know it would have been different.” As part of our pandemic parenting series, Christine, a parent in Brooklyn, s Miranda to share her reflections on giving birth for the 4th time in 2020, as well as her observations as a teacher about how pandemic isolation impacted not so much child development but parental development. Links: * Our pandemic parenting survey (you can still take it if you want to) * The first episode of our pandemic parenting series If you love (or honestly even just like) the work that Sarah & Miranda do here on Mother Of It All, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. You this work (thank you) and will get access to super special content like subscriber-only episodes and even very awesome tote bags for founding . 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

About 500 parents poured their hearts out in the pandemic parenting survey that we sent out into the world last fall. We’ve been reading your words for a few months (THANK YOU) , and now, here we are in March of 2025. Somehow, it’s been five years since the world shut down, and we’re ready to talk through our own pandemic experiences, share some of our favorite quotes from those responses, and we’re also so grateful to share some of the over-arching themes from your many, thoughtful survey responses. This episode also kicks off our pandemic parenting series: Through the month of March, every few days we’ll share conversations with parents whose survey responses were particularly interesting or emblematic. Hey, we all parented hard through a global pandemic! So, that was pretty weird. A lot of us miss those slower days, while a lot of us absolutely do NOT. Some of us moved across the country. Some of us got divorced. We’re still worried about our kids. We’re still a little anxious. We learned everything can change overnight. We know our neighbors better. Any way you slice it, that time is still with us. Let’s talk about it! * Our pandemic parenting survey (you can still take it if you want to) * America’s Mothers Are in Crisis: Is anyone listening to them? Jessica Grose (New York Times) * Pandemic Oral History by Jon Mooallem (New York Times) * “Successes and Lessons Learned in Responding to the Needs of Pediatricians, Children, and Families During the COVID-19 Pandemic” American Academy of Pediatrics * “I'll Be First In Line To Vaccinate My Kids, But I'll Never Forget That We Were Last” Miranda (Romper) * Meaghan O’Connell rules * Every Mom I Know Is On Antidepressants (Romper) A lot of people who took our pandemic parenting survey thanked us for just asking how parenting through a global pandemic was, and giving them space to process it all. We really do want to hear about your pandemic experiences — feel free to share your own experiences in the anonymous survey (linked above) or in the comments below. If you love (or honestly even just like) the work that Sarah & Miranda do here on Mother Of It All, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. You this work (thank you) and will get access to super special content like subscriber-only episodes and even very awesome tote bags for founding . 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 is ed by Garrett Bucks, founder of The Barnraisers Project and author of the The White Pages and The Right Kind of White, to talk about the movies of 2024 and what they say about gender, parenting, sex, and more. Find out which of the 24 and 39 movies Garrett and Sarah watched (respectively) are their best and worst. Also — why Dune is a boymom movie, why Garrett had to fast-forward The Substance, and why Challengers is this year’s Mamma Mia. * Garrett’s Letterboxd * Together (the Swedish one) * Richard Brody’s review of The Brutalist * Richard Brody’s review of Emilia Pérez * Lindy West’s S**t Actually * Babygirl director on Death, Sex, and Money 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 Double Shift’s Katherine Goldstein s Sarah and Miranda to talk about her creative solution to the problem that is American summer, why parents are set up to fail in finding summer care, and how to actively create the kind of community we need to build something better. Links: * The Incredible Things You Can Do Instead of Paying For American Summer Camp * How Other Countries Handle Summer with Kids * Katherine’s How to Find Your People Club * Ezra Klein Show - Sabbath and the Art of Rest 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 continuing to focus on the experience of trans children and their parents this week with this reading of the exquisite essay As They Like It: Learning To Follow My Child’s Lead, by the author, Nicole Graev Lipson. The piece — about gender in Shakespeare and Nicole’s journey of watching her child let go of girlhood — was originally published in the Virginia Quarterly Review and then included in The Best American Essays, 2024, edited by Wesley Morris. It’s also part of Nicole’s collection, Mothers and Other Fictional Characters, which will be published on March 4th. Links: * Order Nicole’s book Mothers and Other Fictional Characters * Read As They Like It: Learning To Follow My Child’s Lead * Check out Nicole’s book events and other great work 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

Today Marlo Mack, of the How To Be A Girl podcast, and her friend, “Kay,” us to talk about their experiences of raising transgender kids in America today. We also dig into what families with transgender kids expect to be dealing with under Trump’s second term, and how those of us with trans kids in our lives and hearts can step up and become more active allies in an increasingly unsafe landscape. Links: * Trump Is Trying to Make It Illegal to Help a Trans Child * Marlo’s beautiful short cartoon about her daughter’s transition * How to Be A Girl Podcast * Erin Reed’s trans youth safety map * Marlo’s memoir, How to be a Girl * Trans Signs and more * March 31st Trans Day of Visibility Events Culture Recommendations: * Vera on BritBox * Morbid Podcast * Two Girls One Ghost * More of Marlo’s author recommendations: * Julia Serano * Jan Morris * Janet Mock * Jennifer Finney Boylan Additional links to trans youth: * Trans Youth Equality Foundation Emergency Fund * Bay Area Rainbow Families Ally Kit * SFUSD’s letter of for trans kids (inspiring template for other districts) * Template for writing to healthcare institutions in of trans care * How parents can educators right now from Garrett Bucks * Claire Zulkey’s fundraiser for the Trevor Project 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