Today’s guest is Joanna Ho, the best-selling author whose children’s books cover topics such as familial roots, oppression and justice, and the importance of representation—especially for fellow Asian Americans. After years of rejection, her first book, Eyes That Kiss In The Corners, became an instant New York Times Best-Seller in 2021. She’s gone on to publish 9 other books for children and young adults, including her most recent release, We Who Produce Pearls: An Anthem For Asian America.

Written in her signature lyrical style, the book covers the rich, nuanced, and incredibly diverse history of Asians in America and includes a very detailed section in the back that urges children and adults to go deeper with guiding questions and additional research.

In today’s conversation, we talk to Joanna about finding strength in becoming a single mom, embracing the beauty in her Asian American identity, the power of representation in kid-lit, the devastation of book bans sweeping across the country, and her ultimate goal of sparking revolutions—both big and small.

Follow Joanna at @joannahowrites

Please follow, rate, and leave us a review!

For more stories about motherhood and so much more, visit mothermag.com and follow @mothermag on Instagram.

For more on Joanna’s inspiring career + life story, check out these great interviews:

Kidlit Happy Hour (podcast)
KQED (YouTube)
Scholastic (YouTube)
Publisher’s Weekly (website)
MOTHER (website)
The Horn Book Inc. (website)
We Need Diverse Books (website)

The MOTHER Podcast is produced by Em Roberts and Ali Alquiza.

Today’s guest is Kate Baer, the beloved poet whose work explores motherhood, marriage, misogyny, the sacredness of female friendships—and so much more.

Kate’s very first book, What Kind of Woman, was released during the turbulence of 2020—mere days after the 2020 presidential election. It was the first time she was ever paid to write and it became a #1 New York Times best-seller.

A year later, she released another best-seller: I Hope This Finds You Well, a stunning collection of erasure poems in which she uses the often offensive commentary she’s received on social media to create her work. The latest book of the Pennysalvania-native is 2022’s And Yet, which continues her streak of crafting the most beautiful truth bombs.

In today’s conversation, we talk to Kate about raising 4 children, her next book, the pressure that comes with all those accolades, the glory of being an unsupervised latchkey kid in the 90s, and how the unplanned pregnancy of her 4th child changed the course of her life and career.

Follow Kate on social at @katejbaer

Today’s episode is brought to you by a couple mom-owned brands we love—Zenni & Ritual. See a list of their exclusive offerings for our listeners, below.

-Shop Zenni.com for sunglasses and prescription glasses for your entire family—at 1/10th of optician prices

-Visit Ritual.com/mothermag for 25% off your first month of Ritual.

Please follow, rate, and leave us a review!

For more stories about motherhood and so much more, visit mothermag.com and follow @mothermag on Instagram.

For more on Kate’s inspiring career + life story, check out these great interviews:

MOTHER (website)
Darien Library (YouTube)
Everything Happens (podcast)
Under The Influencer (podcast)
Midtown Scholar Bookstore (YouTube)
New York Times (website)
Forever 35 (podcast)

The MOTHER Podcast is produced by Em Roberts and Ali Alquiza.

Today’s guest is Latham Thomas, the superstar doula and founder of Mama Glow—a global maternal health + education platform serving birthing people along the childbearing continuum.

Inspired by the transcendent birth of her own son 21 years ago, Latham went on to become a doula herself—including to stars like Alicia Keys, Anne Hathaway, and Ashley Graham—and to create a doula training program that’s educated hundreds of birth workers and touched thousands of lives.

She’s also an author, visiting professor at Brown, and the co-founder of the Mama Glow Foundation, a non-profit committed to advancing reproductive justice + birth equity through education, advocacy, and the arts.

In this episode, Latham discusses her upbringing, attachment parenting, the importance of teaching kids body literacy, and how she’s embracing her current “open nest” period.

Be on the lookout for a Part Two of our conversation with Latham, in which she shares her incredible birth story that ultimately inspired her career path, as well as passes along 5 tried-and-true tips for How To Help A New Mom.

Follow Latham on social at @glowmaven and @mamaglow

Today’s episode is brought to you by three mom-owned brands we love—Minted, Ritual, and Zenni. See a list of their exclusive offerings for our listeners, below.

~Check out Minted.com and use code MOTHER15 for 15% off your order through December 31, 2024.

~Visit Ritual.com/mothermag for 25% off your first month of Ritual.

~Shop Zenni.com for sunglasses and prescription glasses at 1/10th of optician prices.

Please follow, rate, and leave us a review!

For more stories about motherhood and so much more, visit mothermag.com and follow @mothermag on Instagram.

For more on Latham’s inspiring career + life story, check out these great interviews:

The Best Thing (podcast)
Professional Troublemaker (podcast)
The Journey (YouTube)
The Soft Space (MOTHER)
Good Life Project (podcast)
The Motherkind Podcast (podcast)
For The Love Of You (podcast)

The MOTHER Podcast is produced by Em Roberts and Ali Alquiza.