The Mother Of It All

Sarah and I will be back in force for Season 4 (!) in September, but for now, here’s a little summer treat for you beautiful paid subscribers! Sarah is on summer break but will be back with the new season, not to worry.

Known to many as ‘the voice of our generation,’ writer, lovely human, and icon of millennial motherhood Meaghan O'Connell joins Miranda for an casual, c…

Sarah and I check in about how summer is treating us so far. We wonder about nostalgia for imagined summers of the past where kids were a certain kind of sweaty, dirty, healthy bored rather than annoying-whining-and-begging-for-screens bored.

Is long, lazy, shapeless summer within reach for parents in 2026? If so, how do we grab it?

Plus: Each of our TO…

The author of The Cut’s Brooding column returns to roll out version 2.0 of “friction-maxxing,” the term that went viral earlier this year and earned her her first Wikipedia page. We talk AI, why she will die on the “turn off location your sharing” hill and the “slurrification” of time to which we are all passively consenting. Plus, the lies we tell ourselves about sleeping arrangements at the AirBnb and new shows, books, and movies!

LINKS:

* Kathryn’s new book, The Story Of Your Life

* In 2026, We Are Friction-Maxxing (The Cut)

* Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother

* Zach Galifinakis’ show, This Is A Gardening Show

* Taskmaster (Sarah’s recommends Series 4)

* Claire Dederer’s Poser

* Adult Braces on audio and the discourse around Adult Braces

* Brawler by Lauren Groff

If you love the work we do, please consider becoming a ✨paid subscriber✨ on substack. Paid subscribers get access to everything behind the paywall, like subscriber-only episodes, book reviews and more. Or, support us by following, sharing or reviewing our show here and everywhere else you listen to podcasts you love. Thank you!

Visit our Bookshop storefront to find all the books we’ve mentioned here and in previous episodes. When you shop there, we get a small affiliate fee (thank you!).

You can follow the podcast on Instagram (@themotherofitall).

As part of a feature series with local bay area radio station KALW, Berkeley-based poet Rachel Richardson joins Sarah and Miranda for a LIVE recording of The Mother Of It All podcast. We talk about the state of the cultural conversation around motherhood in general, whether poetry about motherhood counts as serious poetry, and celebrate our 100th episode.

Did you hear?! We’re recording our 100th episode LIVE in San Francisco on May 8th as part of a series with KALW (91.7 FM). Get tickets your here! We will be joined by Berkeley-based poet Rachel Richardson, and KALW will be airing excerpts from our show all week long leading up to the live event.

In this episode for our lovely paid subscribers (thank you…

A quick announcement: We will be recording our 100th episode LIVE in San Francisco on May 8th at 7pm. Poet Rachel Richardson will join us for a conversation about the legitimacy of motherhood as a serious topic for artists, academics and writers. We have room for 80 people, and we’d love to have you there. Click here to get your ticket!

In this episode, author Julia Cooke joins Sarah and Miranda to discuss her new book, Starry and Restless: Three Women Who Changed Work, Writing, and the World, and how it made us think differently about maternal ambivalence, the woman’s gaze, and the relationship between work, adventure, and motherhood, as well as bring us much-needed images of raising young children in a world that is rapidly descending into fascism.

Links:

* Starry and Restless by Julia Cooke

* Joan Crillo

* China To Me by Emily Hahn

* Rebecca West

* Martha Gellhorn

* Moms Gone Wild (The Cut)

* Nina McLaughlin Hammer Head

* How It Feels To Be Alive by Megan O’Grady

* Queen Mab by Emily McBride

If you love the work we do, please consider becoming a ✨paid subscriber✨ on substack. Paid subscribers get access to everything behind the paywall, like subscriber-only episodes, book reviews and more. Or, support us by following, sharing or reviewing our show here and everywhere else you listen to podcasts you love. Thank you!

Visit our Bookshop storefront to find all the books we’ve mentioned here and in previous episodes. When you shop there, we get a small affiliate fee (thank you!).

You can follow the podcast on Instagram (@themotherofitall).

Sociologist Nina Bandelj, author of the new book Overinvested: The Emotional Economy of Modern Parenting, joins us for a wonderful, perspective-altering converstation about how and why modern parenthood feels the way it feels. She unpacks for us how raising kids has become a project, how kids became ‘human capital,’ and what it means that parenthood is privatized, economized, and (a new word for us!) “emotionalized.” Turns out, “just wanting your kids to be happy” is a goal that’s perhaps not as laid-back as it seems.

Plus, tons of culture recs, including the new Robyn album, Sexistential, and Sarah’s recently upgraded nail game.

Links:

* Pricing the Priceless Child by Viviana A. Selizer

* Thinking Like an Economist by Elizabeth Popp Berman

* Lenore Skenazy

If you love the work we do, please consider becoming a ✨paid subscriber✨ on substack. Paid subscribers get access to everything behind the paywall, like subscriber-only episodes, book reviews and more. Or, support us by following, sharing or reviewing our show here and everywhere else you listen to podcasts you love. Thank you!

Visit our Bookshop storefront to find all the books we’ve mentioned here and in previous episodes. When you shop there, we get a small affiliate fee (thank you!).

You can follow the podcast on Instagram (@themotherofitall).

Paid subscribers, this one’s for you! We explore the question of whether or not we do too many things from many angles. If you find yourself responding to PTA emails at 3 in the morning, does that mean you’re 100% for sure doing too many things? What if it doesn’t!? Should we consider switching to AI friendships in order to save time?

Also:

* Longing for …

Kaitlyn Teer joins us again! This time, she’s here to talk about her new book, Little Apocalypses; Essays on Motherhood, Climate Change, and Hope at the End of the World.

The book is kaleidoscopic and specific all at once, and we both loved it, even though it’s full of heavy stuff about climate grief and how much we’ve already lost. In this episode, there are so many moments of discovery, including a long chat about the powerful, fantastic phrases that Teer built the book of essays around. As a teaser, here are some of the ideas we explore:

* Muscular hope

* Maternal ecodistress

* Green third shift

* Maternal time

* Ecological compassion

* Apocalyptic mindfulness

And much more in this inspiring conversation about care, climate, activism and how we can show up for our children as we face a changed planet, together.

Links:

* Sarah on Jodeci’s Feenin’

* Your Local Epidemiologist

* Maternal Ecodistress

* Pre-order Kaitlyn’s book, Little Apocalypses

* Sunaura Taylor’s Disabled Ecologies

* Parents Guide to Climate Revolution

If you love the work we do, please consider becoming a ✨paid subscriber✨ on substack. Paid subscribers get access to everything behind the paywall, like subscriber-only episodes, book reviews and more. Or, support us by following, sharing or reviewing our show here and everywhere else you listen to podcasts you love. Thank you!

Visit our Bookshop storefront to find all the books we’ve mentioned here and in previous episodes. When you shop there, we get a small affiliate fee (thank you!).

You can follow the podcast on Instagram (@themotherofitall).

We welcome Amil for her THIRD Mother of it All appearance, where she gives a moving eulogy for the career ambition that has died out for her as she’s gotten older and had more kids. We also talk shitty teenaged jobs, perimenopausal sex drive, what we think our kids are learning about money and work, and the new Muppets Show.

Links:

* Life After Ambition by Amil Niazi

* Want to Change Careers? Three People Share Their Success Stories (via Big Salad)

* Find a perimenopause-aware practitioner via The Menopause Society

* Mark Rober Crunch Labs box

* The new Muppet Show (Disney)

If you love the work we do, please consider becoming a ✨paid subscriber✨ on substack. Paid subscribers get access to everything behind the paywall, like subscriber-only episodes, book reviews and more. Or, support us by following, sharing or reviewing our show here and everywhere else you listen to podcasts you love. Thank you!

Visit our Bookshop storefront to find all the books we’ve mentioned here and in previous episodes. When you shop there, we get a small affiliate fee (thank you!).

You can follow the podcast on Instagram (@themotherofitall).