student teaching, 1989 Dear fellow wonderer, You know, it’s interesting to me, the title of the podcast Sold a Story. Interesting because that’s the aim of a podcast: to sell a story. Good storytelling, I’ve learned as a teacher of writing, is all about the order in which you reveal information, and what information you [...]
Dear fellow wonderer, Back in August, I went to Amoeba Records in Berkeley and bought a copy of Phoebe Bridgers’ new album Lost Weekend on its release day. While Chris and I have been adding to our record collection for years, I haven’t bought a physical album on its release day since I was a [...]
Building my intuition, 1993-style Dear fellow wonderer, My shorthand bio on social media says: That ‘90s mom & former teacher, riffs on old-school childhood agency & intuitive parenthood. Intuitive parenthood, hmm. If you’ve been reading here for a while, you know that the more I research motherhood and look back at my own, the more [...]
Apologies for centering my picks–I needed a horizontal photo! Dear fellow wonderer, I keep hearing about parents wanting to give their kids a ’90s childhood or a ’90s summer and while I love this, it has me thinking: maybe what we really need is a ‘90s motherhood. A chance to be mothers in a space without [...]
the era in question Dear fellow wonderer, A few months back, when I interviewed Minna Dubin about her book Mom Rage, I asked about a line from the book: When I became a mother, I didn’t know there was a grand PR narrative of Motherhood to buy into or resist. Intensive mothering had infiltrated the [...]
poet of my heart Dear fellow wonderer, Since October, I’ve been hosting a monthly reading series for caregivers at a new-ish and lovely community space here in Oakland, Local Economy. The experience has been–pardon the un-poetic hyperbole–magical. Brilliant writers plus caregivers of all ages, a circle that welcomes conversations, and babies in the center, warming [...]
Dear fellow wonderer, Lately I’ve been wondering what today’s parents think of play. We all know play is good for kids, but I suspect it may sometimes seem like one more responsibility, one more thing to fit into busy lives, one more thing to maximize. Something to do with kids, maybe, to make sure they [...]