Good Mom, Bad Puppy with Ashley Austin Morris

About this episode

Ophira Eisenberg and Ashley Austin Morris discuss the challenges and realities of pregnancy and parenting from a comedic perspective.

In this episode of Parenting Is a Joke, Ophira Eisenberg revisits a favorite conversation with actor and comedian Ashley Austin Morris recorded while Morris was four months pregnant and still adjusting to the surreal reality of becoming a parent after never planning to be one. The two comics swap very specific pregnancy experiences from the perspective of performers who work nights, including the strange logistics of building a comedy career while anticipating sleep deprivation and childcare. Morris talks openly about miscarriages, including the emotional whiplash of feeling relief after one pregnancy ended because severe hormonal changes had left her sobbing on the floor and convinced she couldn’t care for the baby. She explains how an unexpected catalyst—a chaotic rescue puppy whose needs sparked a new instinct to nurture—suddenly rewired her thinking about motherhood. The conversation also gets into the uncomfortable realities of pregnancy culture: genetic testing debates with an OB-GYN, the anxiety-producing medical environment of New York prenatal care, body changes that hit faster than expected, and the strange intimacy of discussing weight and cravings with strangers…

People in this episode

Host: Ophira Eisenberg

Guest: Ashley Austin Morris

Topics covered

• pregnancy
• parenting
• comedy
• mental health
• eating disorders
• puppy adoption

Keywords

• pregnancy experiences
• comedy career
• miscarriage
• eating disorder recovery
• puppy
• parenting culture

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: New York

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