 |
The Mother Of It AllA podcast where we go deep into the culture of modern motherhood, from Sarah Wheeler Miranda Rake. Author: Sarah and Miranda
We are Miranda Rake and Sarah Wheeler, two friends, mothers and professional writers on the parenting beat. The Mother Of It All is a podcast where we dive deep into the culture of modern motherhood. Expect warmth, humor and over-considered takes on hot topics, fresh takes on old ones, expert guests and good times. motherofitall.substack.com Language: en Genres: Kids & Family, Parenting, Relationships, Society & Culture Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
Listen Now...
Jessica Grose On What MAHA Momfluencers Get Right, What They Get SUPER Wrong & Where We Go From Here
Monday, 28 April, 2025
MAHA (or “Make America Healthy Again”) motherhood is a bit of a mindf*uck. What, one asks oneself, unites “crunchy” hippie-leaning momfluencers (like Rudy Jude & her wannabes) of the world with someone as spray-tanned Marjorie Taylor Green? One looks like a sentient carcinogen, and one looks like she's never even heard of food dye! So how do we understand their alliance under the umbrella of Making American Healthy Again? For many of us, there are some points of connection with these MAHA moms, which where this conversation gets juicy and frankly a little disconcerting. As Sara Petersen wrote, most moms probably would agree with the MAHA moms in that we prefer that our kids’ treats came without red dye #6, a food dye associated with behavioral side effects. But, unlike a MAHA mom, we’re proud to be up-to-date on our Covid boosters instead of guzzling raw milk and curing our own cancer with red light therapy (or something, tbh we couldn’t bear to go too deep into that one). At the same time that motherhood taps us into our need to give and receive care, the conditions of modern millennial motherhood seem to have stoked a fear-driven and anxiety-ridden individualism. It’s a confusing time, and it’s getting more baffling by the minute. If MAHA mothers care so much about banning food additives like red dye, why have they aligned themselves with an administration that has effectively gutted the FDA? How did we get to a place where expertise is up for grabs and there is so much mistrust in our public health systems? Can we recover? OG motherhood writer and New York Times opinion columnist Jessica Grose joins us to talk through all this and more. LINKS:* Jessica Grose, The Kind of Moms Who Fall for ‘Make America Healthy Again’ (New York Times, Oct 2024)* Screaming on the Inside by Jessica Grose* Sara Petersen: “MAHA Moms Are Wrong About Wellness”* Necessary Losses by Judith Viorst* Ariana Hendrix * Katie Beck On Child-Friendly City Design* Eloise Rickman on Children’s Rights* Sprawl Is A Parenting Problem by Erin Sagan* Noah Wylie being hot again on The Pitt* John Early bitIf you love the work we do on Mother Of It All, please consider becoming a paid subscriber, which you can do at motherofitall.substack.com. Paid subscribers get access to everything behind the paywall, like subscriber-only episodes, book reviews and more. If you subscribe at the founding member level, we’ll send you one of our awesome tote bags. If you can’t become a paid subscriber, that’s OK! It’s always free and helpful to follow, share, rate and review 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 (yay, thank you!).* Visit motherofitall.com to send us ideas for a future episode or learn more about the show.* Follow the podcast on Instagram (@themotherofitall) or Bluesky (@motherofitallpod.bsky.social) This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherofitall.substack.com/subscribe
