The mental health impact, especially on mothers, in the last year has been enormous. But the realities are something that's rarely talked about openly, and still carries a stigma. Hosts Katherine and Angela share their own personal stories of mental health diagnoses and experiences with antidepressants during the pandemic.

Resources:

If you are needing mental health support, please check out the following organizations:

Postpartum Progress 

Postpartum Support International Hotline: 1-800-944-4773 (1-Spanish, 2- English)

Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (In English and Spanish)

Motherhood Understood, which includes Mother’s Manual for Postpartum Mental Health, Cheat sheet to Medications, Cheat sheet to Partners, and other resources.

SAMHSA’s (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) National Helpline is 1-800-662-HELP (4357). They also have a treatment locator. 

National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 800-273-8255

Also check out: 

Listen to Under The Influence with Jo Piazza, an 8 episode deep dive into the “momfluencer” industrial complex, wherever you get your pods. 

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Right now, all many mothers can think about is just wanting a break from the unrelenting domestic work that last year has heaped on us. In this special Mother’s Day episode, Katherine and Angela explore some fascinating, little-known history that has led our society to expect that mothers’ care work should be a largely uncompensated “labor of love.” We’ll also explore some forgotten moments in the 20th century with journalist and author Sarah Jaffe that gives vital context to how today’s society came to vastly undervalued caregiving.

Then, taking inspiration from Black activists like Johnnie Tillmon and Angela Davis, Katherine and Angela lay out why we are at a pivotal moment for meaningful change and share some hopeful visions for a world where mothers’ invisible labor is collectivized, seen and valued. 

Resources:

Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone by Sarah Jaffe

Women, Race & Class by Angela Davis 

The Invisible Labor Calculator, created by Amy Westervelt, author of “Forget ‘Having It All’: How America Messed Up Motherhood--and How to Fix It”

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

Things may get better this year, but that doesn't erase what we've all gone through. In this episode we explore, how do we grieve during this time when so many have lost loved ones, and even more have experienced personal, professional, and emotional loss? And for mothers, is allowing ourselves to feel our feelings an act of political liberation? We talk to indigenous activist Andrea Landry on how to unwind some of our most backward ideas about motherhood that are rooted in colonialism and how we begin to heal, personally and collectively, from the traumas of the last year.  

If you’d like to follow Andrea Landry and learn more about her work, go to Instagram @indigenousmotherhood or Twitter,  @andrealandry1.

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

After all that talk about other people's finances, Angela and Katherine open up about their own -- and what's uncomfortable for them to admit about being mothers, creatives... and business ladies. They discuss some unvarnished truths about the podcasting industry and running The Double Shift as a business, and also share about the complexities of being a mission-driven enterprise during a time of massive economic uncertainty.

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

Want to be a part of our membership community but can't afford it right now? email us [email protected] and will hook you up as people donate.

Want to gift a Double Shift Membership? Go tothedoubleshift.com/gifts.

When we think about what's happening to moms in America right now, it can feel like a series of anonymous statistics--not millions of life-altering stories. Angela and Katherine talk to a pregnant flight attendant in Indianapolis, a teacher and congressional candidate in Texas, and a performance venue host in New Orleans on what the last year has been like for them. We hear about what the pandemic has cost them -- in dollars, but also in other intangibles. All three women share how they are doing their best to hang on -- and find a new path forward.

This episode is a collaboration with the Economic Hardship Reporting Project and The Guardian. To read a print version of this story, go here.

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

In the Before Times, Jenna Mason had been cobbling together enough money as a freelance writer and restaurant server to support herself and her two kids -- she has shared custody with her ex-husband. When the world ground to a halt in her town of Oxford, Mississippi, the life she’d built for her family -- and the confidence she felt in herself -- came apart … not in one big crash, but in a cascading series of crises, one leading to another leading to another.

On the one year anniversary of the pandemic shutdown in the US, Jenna talks about financial precarity, her mental health struggles, navigating unemployment and how she’s found a way to keep going.

This episode is a collaboration with the Economic Hardship Reporting Project and The Guardian. To read a print version of this story, go here.

If you love the Double Shift Podcast, sign up for our newsletter, thedoubleshift.com/newsletter. 

Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

We want to hear from you: we know a lot of moms who are dealing with existing and new mental health issues. So we want to hear from you about what you are experiencing right now. What does it look like when you are not “holding it all together?” How has the pandemic brought on a change in your relationship to medication or self-medication? Or tell us a story about a turning point when you realized you needed to take action to support your mental health....Send us a email or a voice recording using the voice memo app on your phone -- to [email protected] and we may use it in an upcoming show.



It’s been a dark year, so Angela and Katherine wanted to end the season with glimmers of hope for a more just future. We invited author and activist Mia Birdsong on the show to blow our (and your) minds wide open with a conversation about deservedness, the American Dream, and how guaranteed income could help us build a more feminist society.  

Read Mia Birdsong’s Book, How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship and Community. 

Listen to her podcast, More Than Enough, made in partnership with The Nation, about guaranteed income.

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

Listeners, we want to hear what you thought of our third season and what you’d like from The Double Shift in 2021. Go to thedoubleshift.com/survey to tell us what you think.

“If we survive this, and I think we’re going to survive, it’s not because anyone came to save us. It’s because we helped each other.”

Author Dani McClain is an unpartnered parent to a 4 year-old. She has spent years researching and reporting on networks of support around raising children in community, grounded in the experience of Black mothers. Dani, Katherine and Angela have an honest, probing, and at times hilarious, conversation about what it means to create community and connect through collective activism during an era of isolation and division.

This is an episode about surviving uncertainty, tapping into resilience and finding hope.

Dani is the author of “We Live for The We: The Political Power of Black Motherhood.”

Read Dani’s friend William Winters’ guide to creating pod, co-authored with Jeremy Adam Smith.

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

If you are looking for a thought-provoking listen that’s NOT about the election (It’s about feminism and porn!) check out this episode of the new podcast, Embodied, from Double Shift editor Anita Rao and WUNC. This show is an invitation to have conversations that most people consider impolite. Anita believes that pushing past our discomfort with talking about taboo topics will ultimately help us build more empathy and understanding for others…and decrease shame about sex, relationships and personal health. 

Today we’re sharing a full episode from the show -- Anita investigates the question about whether as a feminist she could find a way to enjoy porn without shame. 

If you like what you hear, Listen and subscribe to Embodied wherever you get your pods. To find out more, go to www.wunc.org/term/embodied-podcast

The childcare industry in America is facing a huge crisis right now, and we can’t just blame COVID for its near collapse. We explore the attitudes and policies that led to how things got so bad, talk to Angie Garcia, a childcare provider on the ground, and report on an exciting initiative in Portland, OR, that shows us how local communities can begin to meaningfully address this massive systemic problem. 

Read more about the UPNOW Portland campaign

Special thanks to Lydia Kiesling and Sahar Muranovic.

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.