The Mother Of It All

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit motherofitall.substack.comSarah and I check in about how summer is treating us so far. We wonder about nostalgia for imagined summers of the past where kids were a certain kind of sweaty, dirty, healthy bored rather than annoying-whining-and-begging-for-screens bored. Is long, lazy, shapeless summer within reach for parents in 2026? If so, how do we grab it? Plus: Each of our TO…

In this episode, Sarah and Miranda Rake kick things off with some Mariah Carey karaoke and a rundown of their favorite “laundry folding films.” Then journalist Courtney Martin joins to talk about the messy, tender, and often overwhelming realities of caring for aging parents while raising kids—the ultimate sandwich generation hustle. Courtney shares what it’s been like to relocate her whole family, the heartbreak and beauty of moving her dad into memory care, and how communal living and worker-owned elder care centers have shaped her journey. Grab a mug of tea, add another bag (Sarah’s jam), and settle in for a conversation that’s equal parts comfort and reality check.Other Links:* Learning in Public: Lessons for a Racially Divided America from My Daughter’s School by Courtney Martin * What Our Intergenerational Household Taught All of Us About Care (Greater Good Science Center)* Opinion: Whoever needs to hear this: It’s OK to put your loved one with dementia in residential care (SF Chronicle)* Elder Care (Courtney’s Substack)* On Vanishing: Mortality, Dementia, and What It Means to Disappear by Lynn Castiel Harper* Creative Care: A Revolutionary Approach to Dementia and Elder Care by Anne Basting * Travelers to Unimaginable Lands: Dementia, Caregiving, and the Hidden Humanity of Memory by Dasha Kiper * Wise Unknown Podcast * Slate’s How-To Podcast * the examined family (Courtney’s Substack)* Mother of It All Bookshop (Bookshop.org)* Caring Across Generations (Ai-jen Poo)* Doulagivers Elder Care Doula Directory (Doulagivers: Find a Doula)* Home Care Cooperatives* Holiday Movies We Love (Or Don’t)* Mariah Carey’s Christmas Specials * A Merry Scottish Christmas * A Merry Little Ex-mas * White Christmas * Christmas in Connecticut * Desk Set* A Very Murray Christmas (Netflix)* Freakier Friday* Sarah’s Letterboxd If you love the work we do on Mother Of It All, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. 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. And 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 affiliate 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’re joined by science journalist Melinda Wenner Moyer, author Hello, Cruel World! Science-Based Strategies for Raising Terrific Kids in Terrifying Times. Melinda’s work has long been a trusted source for parents, and here, we talk a little bit about a lot of things that are on our minds right now. Melinda shares thoughts everything from Botox and dying our hair to resilience & kids, to nervous-system regulation to whether divorced moms are quietly judging their married friends and so much more! We end with an invigorating lightning round of a new game that Sarah Wheeler created called “Parent Advice Gut Check.” It’s complicated! Links:* How to Raise Kids Who Aren’t A******s (Melinda’s first book) * Hello, Cruel World! Science-Based Strategies for Raising Terrific Kids in Terrifying Times (Melinda’s new book!)* Now What? Melinda’s Substack* The Facts of Lice in Slate* What’s on Her Mind: The Mental Workload of Family Life by Allison Daminger* The Emotional Lives of Teenagers by Lisa Damour* Lily Allen’s West End GirlIf you love the work we do on Mother Of It All, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. 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. And 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 affiliate 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

Sarah and Miranda are joined by guests Christie George and Jihii Jolly to discuss how motherhood and creativity fuel or constrain one another, and how we navigate life as mothers who also want to make art, or artists who want to mother. Links:* Christie George’s Practice Practice* Jijii Jolly’s Time Spent* Christie’s book, The Emergency Was Curiosity * The Mother Artist by Catherine Ricketts* Scrap SF* Ruth Asawa* Designing Motherhood exhibit at the Museum of Art and Design* We Live For The We by Dani McClain* How To Do Nothing by Jenny Odell* The Cost of Performing Childhood for Your Parent’s Art by By Parul Sehgal (New York Times) 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

To celebrate ADHD Awareness Month, Sarah is doing a little read aloud for us. Her essay, Call Me By My Name: How I Studied ADHD for 15 Years and Didn’t Know I Had It, remains one of the most read pieces on her newsletter. Listen to an audio recording of the essay — about identity, relationships, and what getting a diagnosis does and doesn’t do for us — read by Sarah. Links:* Call Me By My Name on Mompsreading 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.comHey hey paid subscribers! This one is for you! It’s just the two of us, today, your trusty hosts with the mosts, Sarah Wheeler and Miranda Rake, chatting about what’s on our parent-minds. We meander our way into deep and not-so-deep topics like: Self-perception, dirty floors, recent parenting challenges, neurodiversity, personal values and personal spac…

Kathryn Van Arendonk is a critic at New York Magazine who writes about TV and comedy, and I (Miranda) have loved her work for a long time. I was watching a lot of Bluey when I first started realizing that all my favorite TV reviews on New York Magazine’s Vulture site were written by the same person, and that person was Kathryn! It felt like magic when she started writing about Bluey and like even MORE magic when Kathryn announced that she will be writing a book (a “cultural deep-dive”) about Bluey that will be out in 2027. She’s currently elbow-deep in Bluey research and she joined us to explore the phenomenon that is Bluey, to answer all our questions about Bluey creator Joe Brumm (like has he left the show?? is Bluey about to be ensh•ttified??) and more. Links: * Lev Vygotsky* Kathryn’s Joe Brumm profile for New York Magazine* The Bluey house Airbnb* Waldorf education* Rudolf Stiener* Beginners Mind* The Daniel Tiger Conspiracy subreddit* Grizzy and the Lemmings* Steven Universe* HildaIf you love the work we do on Mother Of It All, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. 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. And 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 affiliate 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