Discover an extraordinary journey of redemption on this episode of Motherhood Unstressed. New York Times bestselling author Lara Love Hardin shares her gripping transformation from suburban soccer mom to opioid addict, her time behind bars, and her remarkable resurgence as a thriving ghostwriter. Join us for a riveting discussion about her candid memoir, "The Many Lives of Mama Love: A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing." Lara's story is a rollercoaster of resilience and humor that you won't want to miss. Tune in now for this incredible tale of hope and recovery.

Connect with Lara Love Hardin

Web https://www.laralovehardin.com

Instagram @laralovehardin

Facebook @lara.l.hardin

Find out more about Lara's non-proft The Gemma Project

Connect with Liz

Website: https://www.motherhoodunstressed.com

Instagram @motherhoodunstressed

Twitter @lizziecarlile

No one expects the police to knock on a million-dollar, two-story home in a picture-perfect cul-de-sac. But soccer mom Lara Love Hardin has been hiding a shady secret: she is funding her heroin addiction by stealing her neighbors' credit cards. Until it all comes crumbling down. Lara is convicted of thirty-two felonies and becomes inmate S32179. She learns that jail is a class system with a power structure that is somewhere between an adolescent sleepover party and Lord of the Flies. Furniture is made from tampon boxes, and Snickers bars are currency. But Lara quickly discovers that jailhouse politics aren't that different from the PTA meetings she used to attend, and she climbs the social ladder to become the "shot caller" and earns the nickname “Mama Love.”

When she’s released, harnessing lessons learned from women she was incarcerated with, she reinvents herself as a ghostwriter and successful agent. Now legally co-opting other people’s identities through her writing, she goes on to meet Oprah, meditate with The Dalia Lama, and have dinner with Archbishop Desmond Tutu. But the shadow of her past follows her. Shame is a poison worse than heroin—there is no way to detox. Lara must learn how to forgive herself and others, navigate life as a felon on probation, and prove that she is more good than bad.

The Many Lives of Mama Love is a heartbreaking, tender, and ultimately inspiring journey from shame to redemption, despite a system that makes it almost impossible for us to move beyond the worst thing we have ever done.

 

Praise for The Many Lives of Mama Love

 

“A suburban mom weathers addiction, jail, and parole in this roller-coaster debut memoir…Hardin mixes despair and comedy in her evocative prose: “I carefully pick through the bottom-of-purse debris until I find some small brown chips.... I don’t know if I’m smoking heroin or food crumbs or lint, but I feel the anxiety slowly leave my chest.” This redemption story feels well earned.”—Publishers Weekly

 

“In addition to revealing the struggles of female felons in a misogynist justice system, the author celebrates her own determination to accept herself and begin again. A courageous and inspiring memoir.”—Kirkus

 

“A hilarious and heartbreaking confession that will not let you go until it is done—and then it will haunt you. It will give you hope in what is possible for each of us if we allow others—and ourselves—to move beyond our shame, find redemption, and write a new, more inspiring story of our lives.”—Lori Gottlieb, author of the New York Times bestseller, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone

 

“Lara Love Hardin writes with the same humor and bravery that helped her navigate incarceration, sobriety and a daunting return to the community to regain her place in her children's lives. This beautifully told story flies in the face of assumptions about substance use disorder and incarcerated women and shows how community and connection help people rebuild themselves for the better.”—Piper Kerman, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, Orange is the New Black

 

“A compelling and timely rebuttal to the perverse and unjust notion that people who are convicted of crimes can only be criminals. This critically important idea is essential for a nation that has been so derailed by destructive “law and order” narratives that have left us both less just and less safe.”—Bryan Stevenson, author of the New York Times bestseller Just Mercy

 

“The Many Lives of Mama Love is a masterclass in perseverance. This brilliant memoir is a reminder and inspiration that sometimes the only way out of suffering is to go straight through it. This book will leave you inspired and empowered to reveal your own most authentic self.”—Rich Roll, bestselling author of Finding Ultra and host of The Rich Roll Podcast

 

“Laced with penetrating wit, written with unsparing honesty and manifesting irrepressible resilience, The Many Lives of Mama Love is a book to intrigue, enchant, instruct, entertain and inspire readers of all ages and backgrounds. It speaks to our common human experience of suffering and the healing that can follow.”

—Gabor Maté M.D., author of the New York Times bestseller, The Myth of Normal

 

“Start this thrilling, heartrending, funny book, and you won’t stop. I couldn’t. From page one, I was swept into Hardin's remarkable, un-put-down-able, artfully told story of suffering and redemption. This book can help anyone who’s struggled and felt hopelessness (and who hasn’t?). shows that not only can we survive the bleakest times, but we can thrive in them and because of them.”—David Sheff, author of #1 New York Times bestseller, Beautiful Boy

 

“Hardin reveals who we truly are deep inside: infinite souls of limitless possibility. We are far more than the sum of what we have done and not done, what we have and do not have. In her profound, moving memoir, Hardin is honest, courageous, and challenges us to exceed the limiting definition we impose on ourselves and one another. We all can be redeemed.”—Dr. Lisa Miller, psychologist and author of the New York Times bestseller, The Spiritual Child

“This book will make you laugh, cry, and realize that everyone deserves a chance and, sometimes more than one. A powerful, poignant memoir filled with grace, enlightenment and love.”—Dr. James Doty, author of the New York Times bestseller, Into The Magic Shop

AUTHOR BIO:

LARA LOVE HARDIN is a literary agent, author, prison reform advocate, and president of True Literary. Prior to founding True Literary, she was the co-Ceo of Idea Architects. She has an MFA in creative writing and is a four-time New York Times bestselling collaborative writer, including the #1 New York Times bestseller Designing Your Life, and 2018 Oprah Book Club pick, The Sun Does Shine, which she coauthored with Anthony Ray Hinton about his 30 years as an innocent man on Alabama’s death row. In 2019, she won a Christopher Award for her work “affirming the highest values of the human spirit,” nominated for an NAACP Image Award, and short-listed for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Love Hardin lives in La Selva Beach, California, with her husband, Sam. She has four children, two stepchildren, five dogs, three cats, twenty-one chickens, and four ducks. For more information, visit her website at laralovehardin.com.