Parents Who Think

What's the problem with being an angry woman? This week I'm joined by actress and writer Julie Graham to explore all things RAGE. Yes, we're tapping into the power of all things anger and more. We cover:

• Fierce Feminism
• Why we aren't "allowed" to show rage or anger
• How this holds us back
• Menopause + Mental Health
• Why being attractive is 100% not our job

Read my book, NOISE: A Manifesto Modernising Modernhood

About my guest, Julie Graham:

Julie Graham is an actress and writer. She's been a firm favourite in UK television for 35 years, with her best-known credits including At Home With The Braithwaites, William And Mary, Shetland, Being Eileen, Benidorm, Bletchley Circle and her most recent project Dun Breedin' - a Youtube comedy-drama created remotely during lockdown.

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Looking for a dose of inspiration? I'm joined by my guest, entrepreneur, and founder of Absolute Collagen Maxine Laceby, to talk all things business + motherhood, menopause, SAHM and the power of stripping back to build up again (and SO much more). Maxine shares her journey from 25 years as a Stay at Home Mother to going to University at 50 and onto award-winning entrepreneurship.

Read my book, NOISE: A Manifesto Modernising Modernhood

About my guest, Maxine Laceby:

Maxine is an award-winning businesswoman, who founded her business from her kitchen table with no formal training and after 25 years as a stay-at-home mother. She discovered the benefits of taking collagen while boiling up bone broth in her kitchen, and realised there was a gap in the market.

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"We need to start looking at what it is to see black people thriving because the floor is not a good enough bar". My guest, Mars Lord, has the mic to say what needs to be said on the topic of Black Maternity. This is a no-holds-barred, clarion call for change to be made. We cover racism in maternity and beyond, what the government needs to do and how we can create positive change too.

Watch The Black Maternity Scandal: Dispatches with Rochelle Humes episode here

Read my book, NOISE: A Manifesto Modernising Modernhood

About my guest, Mars Lord:

Double award winning doula and birth activist Mars Lord has been a birth keeper for well over a decade. After attending the Paramana Doula course with Michel Odent and Lilliana Lammers, a spark was lit within her and the passion that she discovered for birth and supporting parents has fired her soul ever since. She has had the privilege of working with hundreds of families. A birth activist, with a desire to see the 'colouring in of the landscape of birth' and finding out the reasons for the maternal and neonatal morbidity rates amongst the BAME community, Mars created Abuela Doulas a doula preparation course primarily, but not exclusively, for women of colour. Her desire for reproductive justice led to the creation of the 'Reproductive Justice Retreat'. Mars speaks out against cultural safety and reproductive justice and racism in maternity services (and beyond) regularly in the media.

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Making a life that incorporates all of our talents. Today's guest Dr. Pam Spurr, a self-help expert, psychologist, and now painter. We explore what it takes to MAKE a vibrant and fulfilling life in and amongst motherhood (during university studies), big careers and busy family life. Pam shares her experiences as a relationships expert in the media and how she's returned back to one of her first passions; painting.

Read my book, NOISE: A Manifesto Modernising Modernhood

About my guest, Dr. Pam Spurr:

Dr. Pam Spurr is a well-known relationships, well-being, and self-help expert, life coach and media psychologist, as well as an award-winning radio presenter and TV guest/pundit - and now painter. Pam has always promoted powerful messages of empowerment in her media work and in her private practice. From radio show host, relationships columnist and resident behaviour and relationship expert for Big Brother (and more!).

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What are the "rules" of being a woman? Do they include becoming a mother? This week's episode is all about whether motherhood is a calling and what that means for women who don't become mothers. My guest this week is author Glynnis MacNicol. In 2018 her memoir, No One Tells You This, Glynnis explores the question "If the story doesn't end with marriage or a child, what then?" and how that impacted her as she turned 40, single and child-free. We get right into the RULES of womanhood and, most importantly, how women everywhere are striving to subvert them.

Read my book, NOISE: A Manifesto Modernising Modernhood

About my guest, Glynnis MacNicol:

Glynnis MacNicol is a writer and the author of No One Tells You This: A Memoir (S&S, 2018). Her work has appeared in print and online for publications including The New York Times, The Guardian, The Cut, New York Daily News, W, Town & Country, The Globe & Mail, The Daily Beast, GEN, and ELLE, where she was a contributing writer. She lives in New York City.

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It's time to get real about the impacts of the pandemic on motherhood. It's not just homeschooling that's taken a toll on us all, it's as if motherhood has gone under a microscope and there's no returning to normal. My guest Katherine Goldstein, host of the Double Shift Podcast, and I explore:

• Why it's time to choose anger over guilt
• Who has to step up to intensive parenting
• Making motherhood political
• Why this isn't our problem
• Whether women are leaving the workforce or are we forced out?

Read my book, NOISE: A Manifesto Modernising Modernhood

About my guest, Katherine Goldstein:

Katherine Goldstein is the creator and host of The Double Shift Podcast a reported show the challenges the status quo of motherhood in America. An award-winning journalist, speaker, and media entrepreneur, Katherine is extensively quoted as an expert in issues facing working mothers in the NYTimes, Washington Post, The Atlantic, and on WNYC and NPR.

A Harvard Nieman Fellow, '17, She runs Double Shift Productions as an independent journalism company out of Durham, N.C., where she lives with her husband, five-year-old, and twin babies.

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Finding what helps us come back to mental wellness, in and amongst motherhood. For episode #130, I'm joined by writer and author Jessica Friedmann. In this no-holds-barred conversation we explore the mental health and political impact of motherhood and Jessica's journey with PPD and maternal mental illness.

Read my book, NOISE: A Manifesto Modernising Modernhood

About my guest, Jessica Friedmann:

Jessica Friedmann is a writer and editor based in Braidwood, New South Wales. Her writing has appeared in Australian and international publications such as The Guardian, the Australian Financial Review, and The Globe and Mail, as well as literary journals such as The Rumpus and LitHub, and she has worked as an editor and publications manager at independent publications Going Down Swinging, Dumbo Feather, and the Australian Poetry Journal.

Her first book, Things That Helped (Scribe, 2017), is a memoir in essays, which charts her experience with severe postnatal depression and anxiety. The book looks at the social, cultural, and political implications of motherhood, and asks how small rituals can help nurture us back to health.

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Having the space to DREAM and think big. My guest this week is entrepreneur Justice Williams MBE. We explore Justice's journey from prison to MBE, raising black sons, the importance of role models in dreaming and her work inspiring young people to dream, which led to her MBE award.

Get my book, NOISE: A Manifesto Modernising Modernhood

About my guest, Justice Williams:

Justice Williams is a multi-award-winning entrepreneur, business coach and trainer, who supports women to start and scale their business. With a career spanning more than a decade, in 2004 she began as a volunteer in the non-profit sector and has gone on to work with over 3000 individuals. Justice was awarded an MBE at the age of 28 for Services to Young People in Birmingham.

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Unpacking creativity and individuality in amongst the BOND of mothering. My guest today is published poet, sound artist, and creative alchemist, Elana Bell. This soulful + down-to-earth episode explores:

• The world of mother-daughter bonds
• Making space for creativity within motherhood
• Rhythms of life as a mother and the deep interiors of women's lives
• Depression and PPD

Elana shares on the experience of supporting her mother's depression and how that helped their relationship and seeing the individuality of her mother and herself. One of my fave parts of this episode is when Elana tells the story of how her mother encouraged her to be the fullest expression of herself.

Get my book, NOISE: A Manifesto Modernising Modernhood

About my guest, Elana Bell:

Elana Bell is a published poet, sound artist, and creative alchemist. Her passion is connecting people to their creative life force energy for healing, transformation, and artistic expression. Elana is the author of Mother Country, a book of poems about motherhood, fertility, and mental illness. Her debut collection of poetry, Eyes, Stones received the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets, and brings her complex heritage as the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors to consider the difficult question of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Elana teaches poetry to first-year acting students at the Juilliard School and sings with the Resistance Revival Chorus, a group of womxn activists and musicians committed to bringing joy and song to the resistance movement

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Getting real about motherhood with sitcom writer, author, and mother...ish, Liz Astrof. In this rip-roaring episode, Liz and I talk selfishness, being a Stay at Work Mother, therapy, and whether Liz regrets having kids (she doesn't). If you're in the mood for snark and realness about the highs and lows of motherhood, this is the ep for you!

Get my book, NOISE: A Manifesto Modernising Modernhood

About my guest, Liz Astrof:

Liz Astrof is the author of DON'T WAIT UP: CONFESSIONS OF A STAY-AT-WORK MOM. An award-winning executive producer and successful sitcom writer, Liz is currently casting her sitcom pilot for Fox Network. She has worked on many shows, including The King of Queens, Raising Hope, 2 Broke Girls, Whitney, and Becker. Liz lives in California with her husband, two children, two dogs and some turtles.

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