The Mother Of It All

Sarah & Miranda shoot the breeze, talk about some back-to-school feelings, drop some hints about what we'll cover in season 2, and nerd out about THAT EPISODE of The Bear. We had so much fun with Phil Maciak on our Screen Time episode (our most-listened to episode, BTW! thanks for that, friends) that we had to bring him back to talk about *crunch crunch crunch* : the 39 minutes of prestige TV that we call “Ice Chips.”This episode of the podcast will spoil Season 3 of The Bear for you, but it will also cover “Napkins,” and “Fishes” quite extensively. In other words, you may want to catch up on The Bear and then listen. TL;DR: Donna Berzatto — discuss! Phil’s Romper Q&A With Abby Elliott “It’s Abby Elliot Who Makes It Real”Irish President Says Homework Should Be BannedAll About Love by bell hooksCulture recs: The Bear (FX)Slow Horses (Apple TV)Industry (HBO)Baskets (FX) 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 summer, which means Sarah’s rocking a 3-cone-per-day ice cream lifestyle, and Miranda is guzzling $1 slushies by the pool. And work is …. still kind of happening. The brilliant, hilarious Claire Zulkey of the Evil Witches newsletter (which you need to subscribe to, if you don’t already) joins us to talk about the various joys and perils of summertime parenting and yes, of course, the perpetually fraught, exhausting question of the whole camp thing. This episode of Mother of it All is sponsored by our friends at Freeya, a new marketplace for giving and getting free stuff! Links:Summer Camp and Parenting Panics at The New YorkerSummer Child Care Is a Special Kind of Hell on The Cut“Feral Mom Summer” on RomperMelinda Wenner Moyer: “We Don’t Need To Make The Most Of Summer” 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

Canadian writer and The Cut columnist Amil Niazi joins us to discuss what happens when an entire generation follows their dreams, whether our feelings of economic instability are real or imagined, and having children (even a third!) while fighting against upgrade culture. Also, we stan Better Things, and we ask: Even if it’s not really OK, what if it is all going to be OK?Links:* MOFITA summer book club* Should We Expect More From Dads? (and praise for Lucas Mann’s Attachments) (Hua Hsu in The New Yorker)* Welcome To The Millennial Midlife Crisis (Amil Niazi in The Cut)* Will I Ever Retire? Millennials Wonder What’s On The Other Side Of Middle Age (Amil Niazi in The Guardian)* What Are Children For? (Anastasia Berg in The Cut)* It’s Weird Times To Be A Happy Mother (Elissa Strauss in Slate)* Follow Amil on X (formerly known as Twitter) here or her Substack Cry, BabyCulture recs:* Beach Read* Pucking Around* Nightbitch 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 and Miranda are joined by Ruth Whippman, author of Boymom: Reimagining Boyhood in the Age of Impossible Masculinity to talk about how boys need more but get less, the boys who are dying to talk about their feelings, and the radical power of a board book about a boy and his bags. Plus, do we say “no” to toxic-masculinity media or just say “yes” to better things? And a special round of “Marry, F**k, Kill!”Links:* Sarah’s piece in the Cut on cross-gender friendships* Boymom the book* Sarah’s piece in Romper on Boymom* Ruth’s Substack:I Blame SocietyCulture recs for boys:* Cool Runnings* Wednesday* Clive Board Books by Jessica Spanyol 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 juicy, earnestly silly over-think of Mamma Mia and Mamma Mia 2: Here We Go Again (Sarah’s preferred Mamma Mia) in which Sarah’s friend Garrett Bucks joins us with a spicy-hot take on the three (three!) dads of Mamma Mia. When Bucks is not thinking about the rich, layered texts that are Mamma Mia and Mamma Mia 2: Here We Go Again, he keeps busy doing Dad Stuff, as well as working as an anti-racist organizer and educator, and authoring the Substack Newsletter The White Pages. If you like his take on Mamma Mia, you may also love his memoir, The Right Kind of White.Links:* Garrett’s new memoir, The Right Kind of White* Garrett’s great newsletter, , and his “Ten Movies, Ten Stories of Whiteness” series.* Actually good dad screen-recs:* Together (the Swedish one)* The Sandlot* Interstellar* Eighth Grade* How Bluey Made me a Better Dad* ’s 4000 words on Whiteness and Dirty Dancing 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 flew to Iceland, only to be immediately taken down by a stomach flu. Meanwhile, back at home a Covid-like virus knocked Miranda’s family out for 14 days. So we called an emergency recording session of Mother Of It All just to vent about it all together. Why can’t parents have nice things, like occasional vacations or a week or two without absolutely disgusting viruses? Is every virus we get now actually worse since Covid lockdown, or does it just feel that way? What ever happened to the normal cold? Like a nice, 3-5 day stuffy nose? When you s**t your pants on a plane but everyone’s asleep, did it really happen? And is being sick in a hotel room by yourself the only “joy” left for parents?? Links:* Plane landed by diarrhea (true fact)* A quick guide to Norse Gods* Nose sprays are either sketchy or amazing* Miranda’s doctor lady was right* -ollow us on Substack! (Summer reading club is coming!) 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 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 Time* Phil on Instagram* Phil’s review of Season 2 of the Bear in The New Republic* The NOLA Pelicans’ King Cake Baby mascot* The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt* Stephanie Murray’s thoughts in the Dispatch* ’ thoughts in Romper* Melinda Wenner Moyer’s thoughts in* ’s The Art of Screen Time: How Your Family Can Balance Digital Media and Real Life* Sky Guide* Jessica Grose on Screens in Schools* The Digital Wealth Divide in Schools* Phil 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 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 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 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 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, Matrescence* Alexandra Sacks’ The Birth of a Mother in the NY TImes* The Quickening by Elizabeth Rush* Natality by Jennifer Banks* Partum Gardens Portland* Andrea O’Reilly* Sarah’s favorite Bluey episode 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 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 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