Mothering New Worlds

My guest is Vanessa Leveille (@matrescenceincolor). Vanessa is a licensed therapist, health coach, and founder of Matrescence in Color — a private psychotherapy practice and coaching brand supporting women of color through the transition into motherhood and navigating the early years.

Matrescence is a neurological, physical, spiritual, psychological transition that happens when someone becomes a mother. You may have heard this term before, but Vanessa brings a really important perspective because she specializes in how matrescence specifically hits different and might feel uniquely painful for high achieving women of color.

We also talk about mental load, gendered dynamics in parenting, and getting an autism and ADHD diagnosis after becoming a mom. I also share about my breastfeeding journey, also referred to as My Great Ego Death of 2023. Strap in yall.

Vanessa Leveille: Website | IG

ABOUT MOTHERING NEW WORLDS

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Today’s guest is J.S. Park, a hospital chaplain, published author, and online educator. For nearly eleven years he has been an interfaith chaplain at a 1000+ bed hospital that is designated a Level 1 Trauma Center. His role includes grief support, attending every death, trauma, and Code Blue, and end-of-life care. 

We get into the connections between grief, rage, imperialism, and liberation. Joon explains how the American empire is invested in keeping us from grieving, because grief the birthplace of refusal, rebellion, and ultimately liberation.

JS PARK: Website | IG | PREORDER WE ARE MADE OF US ON SALE 10.20.2026

ABOUT MOTHERING NEW WORLDS

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Rocky Rivera and I chat about matriarchy, raising kids as feminists in this particular (horrifying) era of the internet, polycrisis, and misogyny, and all the ways she has mothered new worlds for herself, her lineages, and our communities.

Rocky Rivera is an emcee and writer from San Francisco. Her music is a journey into the spirit of resistance, blending social justice, feminism and West Coast-style hip hop into thought-provoking anthems with timeless appeal.

Rocky Rivera: Website | IG | Patreon | Podcast "Xennial Dilemmas" | Snakeskin: Essays by Rocky Rivera

ABOUT MOTHERING NEW WORLDS

• New episodes every other Friday on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Youtube.
• FOLLOW ON IG
• SUBSCRIBE ON SUBSTACK for extra monthly episode

In this episode, I share personal reflections on how my relationship with activism has changed since moving to Houston and becoming a parent (tldr: i am tired and freeways are ruining my life). I also talk to Cesar Espinosa of FIEL about organizing the Houston immigrant community in the wake of the tragic ICE murder of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo.

Organizations supporting immigrants in Houston, TX: FIEL HOUSTON | LULAC | WOORI JUNTOS

GoFundMe: In Loving Memory of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52 Years Old

Episode cover photo: AP Photo/Mark Felix

*ABOUT MOTHERING NEW WORLDS*

• New episodes every other Friday on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Youtube.
• FOLLOW ON IG
• SUBSCRIBE ON SUBSTACK for extra monthly episode

To hear more, visit motheringnewworlds.substack.com 

In today’s episode, I interview Denia Perez, an immigration attorney by training, longtime activist in the immigrant rights movement, and a writer with the nonprofit Documented (where she recently interviewed Zohran Mamdani!). Beyond all of that, Denia is also a witch, a clown, the town jester of my heart, the madrina to my child, and my best friend. Denia also writes the hilarious and tender substack “how to survive your flop era” where she chronicles her own unlearning of capitalism, perfectionism, and tending to your inner child/weirdo.

ABOUT MOTHERING NEW WORLDS*

• New episodes every other Friday on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Youtube.
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TW: pregnancy termination, termination for medical reasons, infant loss, medical trauma

Ayako Gallagher (she/they) Japanese-Irish settler living on the stolen traditional territories of the hunquemenium language group First Nations. She is a grief practitioner, activist, speaker, potter, and bereaved mother of one in the stars and two earthside kids. Her work stands at the intersections of grief, collective liberation, and parenting, inviting people to realize and honour that their lived experiences and grief can be catalysts for personal and collective change.

Follow Ayako on IG

**ABOUT MOTHERING NEW WORLDS***

• New episodes every other Friday on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Youtube.
• FOLLOW ON IG
• SUBSCRIBE ON SUBSTACK for extra monthly episode

In this episode, Brea Baker and I talk about everything from how parenting has radicalized us, to the responsibility that comes with raising boys, to Black land ownership and growing your own food, to building community and finding third spaces when you're no longer part of the church. WE COVER IT ALL!!!

Brea’s website | Brea’s book | Brea on IG

*Note: the title of this episode is a spin off of the book Let This Radicalize You by Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba, which I recommend to everyone.

***ABOUT MOTHERING NEW WORLDS***

• New episodes every Friday on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Youtube.
• FOLLOW ON IG
• SUBSCRIBE ON SUBSTACK for extra monthly episode

In this episode, we ask WAIT WHY DID WE HAVE KIDS and other forbidden questions that would make trad wives shit themselves. Just kidding, but we do talk about the existential dread of child-rearing through climate crises, parenting post-Oct 2023, maternal mental health, birth trauma (tw), and chosen family.

Leah's website: https://www.leahkim.org/

Leah's book "MOM, UNFILTERED" https://www.leahkim.org/mom-unfiltered

***ABOUT MOTHERING NEW WORLDS***

• New episodes every Friday on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Youtube.
• Follow on IG: instagram.com/motheringnewworlds
• Subscribe for an extra monthly episode on substack: motheringnewworlds.substack.com/

In this episode, Karina Garcia shares about mothering, organizing with the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), running for vice president while pregnant, and how she first witnessed working class solidarity with her grandmother. A special conversation full of revolutionary optimism.

https://votesocialist2024.com/about-the-candidates

***ABOUT MOTHERING NEW WORLDS***

• New episodes every Friday on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Youtube.
• Follow on IG: instagram.com/motheringnewworlds
• Subscribe for an extra monthly episode on substack: motheringnewworlds.substack.com/

In this episode, Sierra Sankofa and I talk about revolutionary homeschooling, birth work and Black maternal health, and life-saving mutual aid. In many ways, this episode is a love letter to Black birth workers, to the U.S. South, and to the long legacies of Black mothers surviving, organizing, resisting, and creating new worlds in the region. 

• Follow Sierra: https://www.instagram.com/sankofamama
• Sierra’s website: https://www.sankofamama.com/
• #WeGotUs mutual aid: https://www.sankofamama.com/wegotus
• Shades of Blue: https://www.shadesofblueproject.org/
• West Street Recovery: https://www.weststreetrecovery.org/ 

***ABOUT MOTHERING NEW WORLDS***

• New episodes every Friday on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Youtube.
• Follow on IG: instagram.com/motheringnewworlds
• Subscribe for an extra monthly episode on substack: motheringnewworlds.substack.com/