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

Katherine Moos, a professor of feminist political economy, discusses the dilution of feminist ideas in pop feminist nonfiction, the Fair Play system for redistributing household tasks, the impact of social media on feminism and motherhood, and shares personal anecdotes about children's books and spy comics.

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

Oliver Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks, joins Miranda and Sarah to discuss time pressure in motherhood. They explore being present with children in the age of distractions, the challenges of grief and loss in parenthood, and the power of reading. Recommended books include Harriet the Spy and Mac B Kid Spy.