Ordinary Unhappiness

96: Mediating Motherhood feat. Hannah Zeavin


Listen Later

Abby and Patrick welcome returning guest Hannah Zeavin – scholar, write, editor, co-founder of the Psychosocial Foundation and Founding Editor of Parapraxis magazine – to talk about her brand-new book, Mother Media: Hot and Cool Parenting in the 20th Century. It’s an exploration of the complex relationships that have tied together the figure of the mother as an abstraction, the work of mothering as a practical matter, and academic and popular discourses about what mothers should be and how they should go about doing it. What does it mean to think about the mother as a “medium” for containing, nurturing, and shepherding the development of a child, and why do debates about mothering pivot so invariably around questions of media consumption and technological mediation? The conversation spans the history of academic research into parenting from behaviorism to attachment theory; clinical and popular discourses about mothers from Freud to Dr. Spock; the profusion of tools that promise to “help” mothers with their kids; “good-enough” mothering, mother-blaming, and vicious double binds; moral, political, and legal debates about nannies, “helicopter mothers,” incarcerated mothers, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome; and much, much more. 


Read and subscribe to Parapraxis here: https://www.parapraxismagazine.com/

Learn more about the Psychosocial Foundation here: https://www.thepsychosocialfoundation.org/

Mother Media is available here: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262049559/mother-media/

An excerpt from Mother Media in the Los Angeles Review of Books: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-heir-conditioner/

Zeavin, “Composite Case: The Fate of the Children of Psychoanalysis”: https://www.parapraxismagazine.com/articles/composite-case

Zeavin, “Unfree Associations”: https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-42/essays/unfree-associations/

Zeavin, “Parallel Processes”: https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-49/politics/parallel-processes/


A podcast about psychoanalysis, politics, pop culture, and the ways we suffer now. New episodes on Saturdays. Follow us on social media:


Linktree: https://linktr.ee/OrdinaryUnhappiness

Twitter: @UnhappinessPod

Instagram: @OrdinaryUnhappiness

Patreon: patreon.com/OrdinaryUnhappiness


Theme song:

Formal Chicken - Gnossienne No. 1

https://open.spotify.com/album/2MIIYnbyLqriV3vrpUTxxO

Provided by Fruits Music


...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Ordinary UnhappinessBy Patrick & Abby

  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6

4.6

215 ratings


More shows like Ordinary Unhappiness

View all
The LRB Podcast by The London Review of Books

The LRB Podcast

294 Listeners

New Books in Critical Theory by Marshall Poe

New Books in Critical Theory

150 Listeners

New Books in Psychoanalysis by Marshall Poe

New Books in Psychoanalysis

189 Listeners

Jacobin Radio by Jacobin

Jacobin Radio

1,445 Listeners

The Dig by Daniel Denvir

The Dig

1,562 Listeners

Why Theory by Why Theory

Why Theory

578 Listeners

Politics Theory Other by Politics Theory Other

Politics Theory Other

180 Listeners

This Wreckage by Sean KB and AP Andy

This Wreckage

931 Listeners

Hermitix by Hermitix

Hermitix

345 Listeners

Death Panel by Death Panel

Death Panel

537 Listeners

Know Your Enemy by Matthew Sitman

Know Your Enemy

2,035 Listeners

Psychoanalysis On and Off the Couch by Harvey Schwartz MD

Psychoanalysis On and Off the Couch

160 Listeners

Acid Horizon by Acid Horizon

Acid Horizon

198 Listeners

What's Left of Philosophy by Lillian Cicerchia, Owen Glyn-Williams, Gil Morejón, and William Paris

What's Left of Philosophy

261 Listeners

On the Nose by Jewish Currents

On the Nose

227 Listeners