We recommend: A mother's day list of podcasts
Editor’s note: We typically do not mark Mother’s Day–just as we don’t do much for Women’s Day. Because every day should be etc etc. But this year, the splainer team decided the occasion was an excellent excuse to explore the many ways to be a mom—or not.
One Bad Mother: Hosted by Biz and Theresa, this podcast explores all the discourses that make a mother ‘good’ or ‘bad’ in the eyes of the all-judging society—and covers all topics around motherhood and parenting. The tone of the podcast is casual, with the hosts and women they bring on explore their own personal stories while giggling away. We recommend checking out their episodes on birth stories as well as pop culture moms who made motherhood look so easy.
Maybe Someday: This podcast series is about decision-making when it comes to having a child a not—and especially challenging the culture that makes motherhood seem mandatory. The host Sarah Dobson explores the personal and the political, as she decides to not have kids. This episode called ‘Childfree by choice’ is excellent as it explores a couple’s arrival at this difficult decision of not including children in their marriage—and how it changed other relationships in their life.
On The Hard Days: This one might hit home for parents—especially moms—raising neurodivergent or ‘out-of-the-box’ kids. Host Megan Champion explores her personal stories but also seeks to bring connection and support to mothers raising neurodiverse children—regardless of whether they have an official diagnosis. This one episode is especially powerful as Champion tries to understand the early years with her son, analysing his behaviours to figure out if she was doing something wrong as a mother.
Adoption Wise: In this podcast, hosts Melissa Corkum, who is an adoptee and adoptive mom. Lisa Qualls, a birth mom and adoptive mom. Together, they bridge the gap between adoption and parenting. They have insightful and helpful conversations in the form of workshops with experts or taking up questions from the community to navigate the joys, guilt and grief associated with the adoption journey. For example, this episode on the mistakes Melissa and Lisa made when introducing foster/adopted children into their family. Or this one that talks about the success in adoptive parenting.
Ok Mom Podcast: Two Pakistani friends—Hina & Uruje—speak about motherhood, life and everything in between in this podcast. The best part about this podcast is that it has almost no filter and no topic is too taboo to be touched upon. For instance, they speak about the difference in parenting styles between generations, and sometimes how grandparenting is also a complicated role to fulfil.
Mothering with Veena Hari: This podcast is focused on Indian stories of motherhood facilitated through difficult conversations, unasked questions with some unexpected answered moderated by Veena Hari—a mental health professional, a feminist mother and founder of Bhavati Foundation, a not for profit that works on reproductive mental health. We especially thought this episode on what it is like for a gender non-binary person to be a parent was deep and introspective.
The Longest Shortest Time: Created by one of the contributors of NYT’s award-winning ‘This American Life’ podcast, this one is focussed on bringing diverse voices under the umbrella of parenthood. We think this episode from a single trans dad is a must listen.
Bonus: The podcast Our Mothers Ourselves, is also from a NYT reporter Katie Hafner who once a week interviews people who chronicle their moms and even their grandmothers!
