We celebrate Mother’s Day with a collection of stories from our archives, by and about moms. Stories about care and about courage — about the work of mothering.
The all-encompassing worlds of motherhood and poverty
Stephanie Land’s 2019 book “Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay and a Mother’s Will to Survive” detailed her personal experience struggling with precarious work as a housecleaner while raising a young child.
Eula Biss on ‘The Argonauts’
“On Immunity: An Inoculation” author Eula Biss recommends a memoir in which author Maggie Nelson asks questions that bend conventions about gender, sexuality, motherhood, family and identity itself.
Jacqueline Plumez on Mother Power
Jacqueline Plumez tells Steve Paulson that every caring woman has greater strength than she imagines and gives some examples of “mother power” in action, from MADD to the Mall of America.
Amanda Henry on the Road to Motherhood
The time a person spends carrying their child during a pregnancy is only a brief time compared to the time they’ll spend being a mother, but as Amanda Henry shares in her story, that time goes differently for everyone, shaping who you are and what impact you’ll go on to have on the world around you.
Ayelet Waldman on Trying to Be a Decent Mother
Writer Ayelet Waldman recounts many stories about what she calls “the perils and joys of trying to be a decent mother in a world intent on making you feel like a bad one.”
Original Air Date: May 13, 2023
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