The Big Listen ended production in May 2018. While this site is no longer updated, all the content remains available for archive purposes.
A mother’s work is never done. And beauty never takes a holiday.
Hey, pals!
It’s Mother’s Day weekend in the U.S. and we’re celebrating all types of strong ladies out there: moms, grandmas, aunties and female role models of all stripes. One of those women is Jin Tuley. She’s the mother of Alex Laughlin, host of Other: Mixed Race In America from The Washington Post.
Jin came to the U.S. from Seoul, South Korea, in 1989. She was a young Army bride and had to adapt to American culture quickly. Since she emigrated, Jin has lived all over the U.S. — Hawaii, Kansas and North Carolina to name a few states. But she never lost her sense of Koreanness. Now, she’s helping her daughter Alex discover her own Korean roots.
In this week’s episode, we talk with the pair about multiracialism, Korean food and trying to learn the mother tongue of your mother.
We also asked other podcast producers and hosts to send in their stories about mom. It turns out moms are a huge inspiration for podcasting! Very special shoutout to the following folks for sending us their stories:
Rebecca Garza-Bortman and Dr. Elizabeth Skibinski-Bortman of Advice From Mom, Bhan Gatkuoth of Daughter, Scott Gurian of Far From Home, Rigoberto Hernandez of Distillations, Ellen Horne of Ponzi Supernova, independent producer Deirdre Kennedy, independent producer Kristina Loring, Lindsay Patterson of Tumble, Anita Rao and Sandra Davidson of She & Her and David Ruiz of Death Knell.
Tell Me More Shows To Check Out!
- Not By Accident — Sophie Harper is a single parent by choice. By her late 30s, she hadn’t met the woman of her dreams yet, which is darn near impossible to do when you’re a shy lesbian living in rural Denmark. But she really wanted a baby, so she went it alone and documented her journey in this poignant and intimate podcast.
- Tie My Tubes — Some women have always wanted to be a mother. Others know they never want a child. Brie Ripley falls in the latter camp. Since her teenage years, Ripley was sure she never wanted to conceive a child. She decided to become sterilized, or more colloquially, get her tubes tied. But she found it wasn’t that easy. This documentary series drops in June.
- Very attractive listener recommendations: Hidden Almanac, I Was There, Too and Beautiful Stories From Anonymous People
- Bonus pick: It’s Fresh Air’s 30th anniversary, so we thought we would share this episode of The Longest Shortest Time featuring our national treasure talking about motherhood — “Terry Gross On Not Having Kids.”
Call Me!
Do you have a podcast recommendation you’d like to share with us? We want to hear it! Give us a jingle on the Pod Line at 202-885-POD1 and leave a message. Then we’ll put you on the radio and holy cow, won’t that be fun?!
Thanks for reading, pals! ‘Til next time…keep listening, America.
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