The paid family leave situation in America is so bad, mothers are conditioned to think that we’re “lucky” to get ANY time off at all. Erin Grau was a New York Times employee who wasn’t satisfied with “good enough” parental leave. So she fought to make it better for everyone at her company.

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

Anyone else been feeling rage these past months? Host Katherine Goldstein and co-host Angela Garbes lay out a vision for Season 3 of the Double Shift, and make a case for why it’s more important than ever to be putting mothers at the center of the story during this extraordinary time.

Show notes:

Double Shifters, we want to hear from you. Has your career or earnings gone through a big change since the pandemic started? How are you adjusting to that personally or financially? Is it affecting your self esteem or identity? Write us or send us a voice memo about this. Please include your first name, your location, and your story and we may use it for an upcoming episode. You can record a message using the voice memo app on your phone and email it to askthedoubleshift@gmail.com.

Angela discusses the book Minor Feelings: An Asian-American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong.

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

The childcare industry in America is facing a huge crisis right now, and we can’t just blame COVID for its near collapse. We explore the attitudes and policies that led to how things got so bad, talk to Angie Garcia, a childcare provider on the ground, and report on an exciting initiative in Portland, OR, that shows us how local communities can begin to meaningfully address this massive systemic problem. 

Resources:

Read more about the UPNOW Portland campaign

Special thanks to Lydia Kiesling and Sahar Muranovic.

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

“If we survive this, and I think we’re going to survive, it’s not because anyone came to save us. It’s because we helped each other.”

Author Dani McClain is an unpartnered parent to a 4 year-old. She has spent years researching and reporting on networks of support around raising children in community, grounded in the experience of Black mothers. Dani, Katherine and Angela have an honest, probing, and at times hilarious, conversation about what it means to create community and connect through collective activism during an era of isolation and division.

This is an episode about surviving uncertainty, tapping into resilience and finding hope.

Dani is the author of “We Live for The We: The Political Power of Black Motherhood.”

Read Dani’s friend William Winters’ guide to creating pod, co-authored with Jeremy Adam Smith.

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

It’s been a dark year, so Angela and Katherine wanted to end the season with glimmers of hope for a more just future. We invited author and activist Mia Birdsong on the show to blow our (and your) minds wide open with a conversation about deservedness, the American Dream, and how guaranteed income could help us build a more feminist society.  

Read Mia Birdsong’s Book, How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship and Community. 

Listen to her podcast, More Than Enough, made in partnership with The Nation, about guaranteed income.

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

Listeners, we want to hear what you thought of our third season and what you’d like from The Double Shift in 2021. Go to thedoubleshift.com/survey to tell us what you think.

Angelica Lindsey-Ali is the mother of four and a sex educator. She’s also a practicing Muslim who travels around the country with a bag full of rainbow dildos teaching mothers that a sexually awakened woman is a powerful woman.... And the best “self care” of all might just be really mind-blowing sex.

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

Natasha Star is one of the highest-earning sex workers at The Sagebrush Ranch in Lyon County, Nevada. She's also a mom to a five year-old son. In this episode we talk to moms, a madam at The Mustang Ranch and experts to explore the perks and pitfalls of being a working mom when your office is a legal brothel.

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

Changing workplaces to make them substantially better for moms and caregivers is, in fact, possible.

Inspired by our show on paid family leave back in 2019, we hear from some Double Shift listeners who fiercely advocated for -- and got -- better paid family leave at their companies.

We are closer than ever before to getting federally funded paid leave for everyone. This is so important, but it’s just one part of an ongoing movement. Today’s episode offers encouragement, some playbook tactics, some real world examples, and something we all need right now -- hope. 

Subscribe to our newsletter: www.thedoubleshift.com/newsletter, and become a member to support our show. www.thedoubleshift.com/join.

Listen to our episode from 2019, Paid Leave, We Can Do Better.

Subscribe to our newsletter: www.thedoubleshift.com/newsletter, and become a member to support our show. www.thedoubleshift.com/join.

Listen to our episode from 2019, Paid Leave, We Can Do Better.

Information and Resources:

“Where are the Mothers?” Read host Katherine Goldstein’s original reporting about how the women at the New York Times improved their parental leave.

Making the case for parental leave:

• “5 Ways to Explain the Urgent Need for Paid Family Leave.” 
• “The Economic Benefits of Paid Parental Leave.”
• “Wal-Mart and Now Starbucks: Why More Big Companies are Offering Paid Family Leave.”

Read The NYTimes Parenting Section’s Guide to negotiating for parental leave:

• “How to Ask for Parental Leave When You’re an Hourly Worker”
• “How Freelancing Parents Can Create Maternity or Paternity Leave.”
• “How to Ask for Maternity or Paternity Leave When Your Company Has No Policy.”

Additional organizations that support family leave advocacy:

• Paid Leave US is a national advocacy organization aimed at getting national paid family leave by 2022. Check out their FAQ,...
  
  This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thedoubleshift.substack.com/subscribe

The Double Shift is still on hiatus, but while we dream big about Season 3, check out this new show from Planet Money creator, Adam Davidson, who sits down with people who’ve channeled their unique passions and interests into successful businesses. If you miss the Double Shift, consider membership! It starts at $5/mo. Right now, Katherine and producer Rachel McCarthy are talking about life with kids in the Covid era. To get access to this and other exclusive content, go to thedoubleshift.com/join.

It’s never been more important to hear from mothers. The Double Shift is back for a new season challenging the status quo of working motherhood in America, pandemic-style. Creator and Host Katherine Goldstein is joined by a new co-host, author Angela Garbes to talk about childcare, race and protest, money, and even matriarchy with a series of wonderful guests. 

Be sure you are subscribed. First episode out Oct 14th. 

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

In the Before Times, Jenna Mason had been cobbling together enough money as a freelance writer and restaurant server to support herself and her two kids -- she has shared custody with her ex-husband. When the world ground to a halt in her town of Oxford, Mississippi, the life she’d built for her family -- and the confidence she felt in herself -- came apart … not in one big crash, but in a cascading series of crises, one leading to another leading to another.

On the one year anniversary of the pandemic shutdown in the US, Jenna talks about financial precarity, her mental health struggles, navigating unemployment and how she’s found a way to keep going.

This episode is a collaboration with the Economic Hardship Reporting Project and The Guardian. To read a print version of this story, go here.

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

We want to hear from you: we know a lot of moms who are dealing with existing and new mental health issues. So we want to hear from you about what you are experiencing right now. What does it look like when you are not “holding it all together?” How has the pandemic brought on a change in your relationship to medication or self-medication? Or tell us a story about a turning point when you realized you needed to take action to support your mental health....Send us a email or a voice recording using the voice memo app on your phone -- to askthedoubleshift@gmail.com and we may use it in an upcoming show.



For some of you, it may have been a minute since you've heard from me since we stopped producing episodes last year. But I want you to know I'm still working hard on all sorts of issues and stories about challenging the status quo of motherhood and beyond. Also, the Double Shift community is thriving!

Today I'm sharing some highlights from my new report, A Playbook to Transform How America Cares: The Care Movement’s Winning Tactics, Lessons, and Case Studies from the Pandemic Era and Beyond which I think Double Shifters will love.

If you want to dive into the full report, you can read it here or download the PDF and read it on your Kindle if you're into that. And if you don't have time for this 60 page masterpiece, you can read the key findings here.

Be sure to sign up for the written newsletter that's available to all at thedoubleshift.com/newsletter. And if you want to support this work and get audio newsletters like this one weekly, go to thedoubleshift.com/join. It starts at $7 a month and you get all kinds of member perks in addition to the audio newsletters, like weekly discussion threads, monthly virtual and IRL events, and more!

Thank you for listening and I appreciate your support - xo Katherine

Host Katherine Goldstein is joined live on stage at Betabrand in San Francisco by Inflection Point’s Lauren Schiller and Hana Baba from The Stoop podcast. We discuss the mental load, cross cultural pressures on mothers, and of course saying “F*ck it” to mom guilt.

While we are on hiatus, check out a show we think you’ll love. It’s called Home. Made. Today we are sharing the full episode of the series, called  “Is There A Doctor In The Dollhouse?” It’s about Dr. Kwandaa Roberts, who on the surface appeared to “have it all:” a thriving medical practice, a big house in the suburbs, two kids. But she harbored a secret dream to be an interior designer. Her chance to live this dream came about when she renovated a dollhouse that went viral on social media.... but then the pandemic happened, and Kwandaa was forced to make some difficult life decisions.

Host Katherine Goldstein was dedicating her career to covering issues facing working moms when her own personal and work life came messily crashing together. Recorded as an audio diary, Katherine shares a very personal story about family, ambition, and loss.

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

We've headed to Canada to highlight families making their own rules. First up, Sarah MacDonald, who's raising her kids with a queer man she found through a co-parenting "dating" site, and Natasha Bahkt and Lynda Collins, who've never been a couple and are parenting a child with special needs.

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

Ashton Clemmons didn't think the voice of mothers was well represented in North Carolina's state government. So in 2018, she was one of the unprecedented number of women who ran for office. This intimate story gives a real look at what it's like to be a candidate with three little kids.

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

While we’re hard at work on Season 3, check out this great new show, Labor: The social science on work, women, and motherhood. Journalists Elise Hu and Amy Westervelt dive into the research to help us understand how we got here and how we're gonna get out. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: podlink.to/labor If you are missing The Double Shift, become a member! We’re releasing members-only bonus episodes about working mom Covid-life. Go to thedoubleshift.com/join.

Nydia Sanchez runs an overnight, 24-hour child care center in Las Vegas. Many of her clients are single moms who work in casinos, or as waitresses, nurses and dancers. We visit to see how Nydia serves a group of moms that many bosses, politicians, and daycare owners just don’t think about.

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

For over 10 years, Louisa Rachel Solomon has been the frontwoman for the rock band, The Shondes. She hasn't let pregnancy or parenthood slow her down. But she's now staring down a big existential question: How do you continue to have a creative and fulfilling professional life after you have a kid?

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

In Nataly Antar’s Orthrodox Jewish marriage, her husband worked while she cooked, cleaned, and took care of their young children. Nataly assumed her divorce would be just as traditional. She was wrong. In this episode, we explore what it means to be a "good" and fulfilled mother when you have no legal custody over your own children.

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

The Double Shift podcast launched three years ago to share the real stories of motherhood in America, and radically explore the social forces that make being a mom so challenging. 

We’ve brought you stories from inside brothels and a 24-hour childcare center; we’ve confronted capitalism, patriarchy, and the idealized myth of nuclear family; we opened up conversations about mental health and its stigma and amplified the voices of people often left out of conversations about motherhood; and we’ve gone deep on the experiences of moms and caregivers during the pandemic. 

Along the way we’ve reframed the conversation about motherhood and built a community of folks who aren’t only listening, but also supporting each other and taking action to make their communities better. 

While the podcast in this format will be on indefinite hiatus, our work is just getting started. We’ll be investing time and energy into our free weekly newsletter, led by Katherine, about the forces that shape family life in America, filled with reporting and storytelling. Sign up here: thedoubleshift.com/newsletter

We’re also nourishing our robust member community with hangouts, audio newsletters, and more. Please join us and support our ongoing mission! It starts at $5/mo. Go to thedoubleshift.com/join.

THANK YOU with our whole hearts for being part of The Double Shift.  

In case you’d like to go down memory lane, here’s a playlist of some of our favorite episodes over the last 3 years. 

Pre-order Angela’s book, Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change.

Read this week's newsletter: 5 Things I've Learned as a Pandemic Mom and Podcast Business Lady

Maria Ramirez was a straight-A high school senior gunning for the Ivy League when she found out she was pregnant. Her journey to college graduation was filled with huge personal and financial obstacles, until she found a program that viewed motherhood as a role to be supported, not stigmatized.

If you love the Double Shift Podcast, sign up for our newsletter, thedoubleshift.com/newsletter. 

Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

While other news outlets have “moved on'' from talking about how mad and burnt out moms are, we’re just getting started. In part two of this intimate, in-the-moment audio diary series, host Katherine Goldstein shares her story of caring for newborn twins and a four-year-old as the coronavirus shut the world down around her. She’s joined by co-host Angela Garbes to discuss the idea that mothers are the unacknowledged essential workers of the pandemic, what’s changed in the year+ since the audio diaries were recorded, and what hasn’t. Katherine and Angela also reflect how they both see collectively harnessing anger over what has happened in the last 19 months as crucial for finding a path forward.

Newsweek: Pandemic Could Cost Typical American Woman Nearly $600,000 in Lifetime Income

Check out The Nap Ministry on Instagram.

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

COVID vaccinations for five to 11 year olds are here, and for so many parents and caregivers this moment could not have come soon enough. Others are taking a wait-and-see approach, including many moms who are vaccinated themselves but may feel anxiety about the COVID vaccine when it comes to their kids... and they don't necessarily have access to a doctor or health care worker who can help them sort through the information -- and emotion -- overload that dovetails with socially imposed expectations on what it means to be a “good mom.” 

Katherine has got you covered. She talks with her great friend AND trusted advisor, board certified family physician Dr. Liz Baltaro, about the science on kids and the COVID vaccine, and about the swirling vortex of “vaccine anxiety:” The worry many moms feel when making these weighty decisions about their children’s safety. Dr. Liz fields questions from you, our listeners, and brings calm to the chaos. Even if you are on board with getting your kids the shot, this episode may answer some important, lingering questions you have and will help you better understand those in your life who aren’t quite sold.

Some Helpful Resources:

Pfizer study on vaccines for ages 5-11 measures vaccines ability to neutralize antibody responses

The risk of myocarditis is higher from COVID than from the COVID vaccine --The New England Journal of Medicine

The official CDC guidance on vaccines for kids and teens 

American Academy of Pediatrics FAQs of the COVID Vaccine 

Answers to your Questions About the COVID Vaccine and Kids -- NYTimes

Research cited in this episode was based on information available as of October 2021. Research on the impact of the covid vaccine on children is being updated regularly -- check the CDC web page for children and teens for the most recent information on vaccine safety and effectiveness.

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

Motherhood in America is not a game anyone is set up to win.

For our season finale, we talk to author Angela Garbes about the root of the deep pressures mothers feel in our society.

Resource: Like a Mother: A Feminist Guide to the Science and Culture of Pregnancy, by Angela Garbes. www.angelagarbes.com

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

Here at the Double Shift, we love to dismantle stigma through storytelling. So our guest this episode, Kenya Martin (aka "Abortion Diva"), speaks to our souls. Kenya is a former abortion clinic counselor in Texas, current activist, and a mom, who shed the shame she felt about her own abortions and became "loud and proud" about them to help other people feel less alone. 

As we grapple with Texas’ new abortion restriction law, and the looming Supreme Court decisions that could force more people into parenthood, Kenya talks about how reproductive freedom and economic justice are inherently intertwined, how abortion providers save lives, and her belief that any reason is a good reason to have an abortion.

Angela and Katherine also share their own reproductive health experiences and why they've both become even more pro-abortion since becoming mothers. And, we hear from a listener -- on the cusp of becoming part of the 59% of abortion patients that have already had at least one child -- about how the challenges of parenting in the US are impacting her abortion decision. 

Notes:

Angela recommends the book, Reproductive justice by Loretta Ross and Ricky Salinger.

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

Welcome to The Double Shift, the show about women who are challenging how society sees mothers and how we see ourselves. 

After giving birth to five children, Ted Rau now identifies as a transgender man, and he’s created a life outside the single family model by raising his kids in co-housing. His story presents a fascinating and nuanced take on community, gender and motherhood.

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

If you are looking for a thought-provoking listen that’s NOT about the election (It’s about feminism and porn!) check out this episode of the new podcast, Embodied, from Double Shift editor Anita Rao and WUNC. This show is an invitation to have conversations that most people consider impolite. Anita believes that pushing past our discomfort with talking about taboo topics will ultimately help us build more empathy and understanding for others…and decrease shame about sex, relationships and personal health. 

Today we’re sharing a full episode from the show -- Anita investigates the question about whether as a feminist she could find a way to enjoy porn without shame. 

If you like what you hear, Listen and subscribe to Embodied wherever you get your pods. To find out more, go to www.wunc.org/term/embodied-podcast

Most offices in America are still built by men, for men. Because of this, Tiffany Frye couldn't find any work and childcare arrangement that worked for her. So she built her own. We visit Nido, a workspace in North Carolina that puts the needs of mothers and children first.

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

Host Katherine Goldstein talks candidly about some plot twists as she prepares for big changes in her own family. She also discusses how the themes of the season have influenced her, her maternity leave plans, and the future of The Double Shift.

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

When we think about what's happening to moms in America right now, it can feel like a series of anonymous statistics--not millions of life-altering stories. Angela and Katherine talk to a pregnant flight attendant in Indianapolis, a teacher and congressional candidate in Texas, and a performance venue host in New Orleans on what the last year has been like for them. We hear about what the pandemic has cost them -- in dollars, but also in other intangibles. All three women share how they are doing their best to hang on -- and find a new path forward.

This episode is a collaboration with the Economic Hardship Reporting Project and The Guardian. To read a print version of this story, go here.

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

After all that talk about other people's finances, Angela and Katherine open up about their own -- and what's uncomfortable for them to admit about being mothers, creatives... and business ladies. They discuss some unvarnished truths about the podcasting industry and running The Double Shift as a business, and also share about the complexities of being a mission-driven enterprise during a time of massive economic uncertainty.

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

Want to be a part of our membership community but can't afford it right now? email us askthedoubleshift@gmail.com and will hook you up as people donate.

Want to gift a Double Shift Membership? Go tothedoubleshift.com/gifts.

Things may get better this year, but that doesn't erase what we've all gone through. In this episode we explore, how do we grieve during this time when so many have lost loved ones, and even more have experienced personal, professional, and emotional loss? And for mothers, is allowing ourselves to feel our feelings an act of political liberation? We talk to indigenous activist Andrea Landry on how to unwind some of our most backward ideas about motherhood that are rooted in colonialism and how we begin to heal, personally and collectively, from the traumas of the last year.  

If you’d like to follow Andrea Landry and learn more about her work, go to Instagram @indigenousmotherhood or Twitter,  @andrealandry1.

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

Right now, all many mothers can think about is just wanting a break from the unrelenting domestic work that last year has heaped on us. In this special Mother’s Day episode, Katherine and Angela explore some fascinating, little-known history that has led our society to expect that mothers’ care work should be a largely uncompensated “labor of love.” We’ll also explore some forgotten moments in the 20th century with journalist and author Sarah Jaffe that gives vital context to how today’s society came to vastly undervalued caregiving.

Then, taking inspiration from Black activists like Johnnie Tillmon and Angela Davis, Katherine and Angela lay out why we are at a pivotal moment for meaningful change and share some hopeful visions for a world where mothers’ invisible labor is collectivized, seen and valued. 

Resources:

Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone by Sarah Jaffe

Women, Race & Class by Angela Davis 

The Invisible Labor Calculator, created by Amy Westervelt, author of “Forget ‘Having It All’: How America Messed Up Motherhood--and How to Fix It”

If you love the Double Shift Podcast, sign up for our newsletter, thedoubleshift.com/newsletter. 

Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

The mental health impact, especially on mothers, in the last year has been enormous. But the realities are something that's rarely talked about openly, and still carries a stigma. Hosts Katherine and Angela share their own personal stories of mental health diagnoses and experiences with antidepressants during the pandemic.

Resources:

If you are needing mental health support, please check out the following organizations:

Postpartum Progress 

Postpartum Support International Hotline: 1-800-944-4773 (1-Spanish, 2- English)

Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (In English and Spanish)

Motherhood Understood, which includes Mother’s Manual for Postpartum Mental Health, Cheat sheet to Medications, Cheat sheet to Partners, and other resources.

SAMHSA’s (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) National Helpline is 1-800-662-HELP (4357). They also have a treatment locator. 

National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 800-273-8255

Also check out: 

Listen to Under The Influence with Jo Piazza, an 8 episode deep dive into the “momfluencer” industrial complex, wherever you get your pods. 

----

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Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

In Part 1 of this series, hosts Katherine Goldstein and Angela Garbes shared their own mental health challenges over the past year. They definitely aren’t the only ones who have struggled -- and in this episode we hear directly from some listeners who’ve sent us voice memos about how they are also not OK. We share some of the most pressing issues we are hearing about with Dr. Amber Thornton, a clinical psychologist and a motherhood wellness consultant. We discuss moms’ needs coming last, challenges in accessing care, additional obstacles for women of color in getting mental health support, some realities around self medicating, and more. 

You can find out more about Dr Amber at Balanced Working Mama, and her podcast The Balanced Working Mama Podcast.

https://www.balancedworkingmama.com/ & https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-balanced-working-mama-podcast/id1520168735

If you love the Double Shift Podcast, sign up for our newsletter, thedoubleshift.com/newsletter. 

Resources:

If you are needing mental health support, please check out the following organizations:

Postpartum Progress https://postpartumprogress.com/

Postpartum Support International Hotline: 1-800-944-4773 (1-Spanish, 2- English)

Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (In English and Spanish) https://med.stanford.edu/content/dam/sm/ppc/documents/DBP/EDPS_text_added.pdf

Motherhood Understood, https://www.motherhood-understood.com/resources which includes Mother’s Manual for Postpartum Mental Health, Cheat sheet to Medications, Cheat sheet to Partners, and other resources.

SAMHSA’s (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) National Helpline is 1-800-662-HELP (4357). They also have a treatment locator. https://findtreatment.samhsa.gov/

National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 800-273-8255

Membership:

Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

A year and a half ago, Shana Thomas was a mom of three who earned a good salary. She’d worked her way up at a company she loved and was telling younger women they could "have it all.” The pandemic changed everything. She's now one of the 4.5 million women who has left employment behind since the start of 2020, and is now an in-home services caregiver for her youngest daughter who’s a wheelchair user, and an unpaid virtual teaching assistant for her older two kids. But nearly a year after leaving her career, she’s finding her footing and increasing moments of peace with her path.

This is a story about sacrifice and unexpected hope. 

Check out The Center for American Progress’ Calculator https://interactives.americanprogress.org/childcarecosts/ for the long term costs of leaving the paid workforce due to childcare needs.

This is part three of our series on the true cost of the pandemic for moms, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/24/covid-toll-working-mothers a partnership between us, The Guardian, and The Economic Hardship Reporting Project.

Need a COVID-19 Vaccine? Go to vaccines.gov. 

Also check out: Slate’s The Waves, wherever you get your podcasts. https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/07/the-waves.html

If you love the Double Shift Podcast, sign up for our newsletter, thedoubleshift.com/newsletter. 

Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

Katherine and Angela have built their careers thinking about motherhood, career and identity. Today, we hear from the Double Shifters who have influenced them most — their own mothers.  

Angela interviews Kay Goldstein about her trailblazing careers (plural!) as a second wave feminist, how she looks back at her life as a mom in the workforce now, and the lessons she shared with Katherine about not leaving anything on the table. Josie Garbes tells Katherine about her experiences as an immigrant who found her calling as a hospice nurse, the complexities of caring for the dying at work while raising three kids at home, and her new interest in activism during this time of targeted violence toward Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Turns out, the influence between mother and daughter is truly a two-way street.

Need a COVID-19 Vaccine? Go to vaccines.gov.  https://www.vaccines.gov/

If you love the Double Shift Podcast, sign up for our newsletter, thedoubleshift.com/newsletter. 

Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

Every mother has been touched by the pandemic and every mother has a story that deserves to be heard...including our own host, Katherine Goldstein.

In this two-part series, Katherine shares her story of caring for newborn twins and a four-year-old as the coronavirus shut the world down around her. Through intimate, in-the-moment audio diaries, she strips away the tropes around self-sacrificing pandemic motherhood and lays bare the frustration, fear, uncertainty, and anger (so much anger) over how mothers, children, and caregivers have been abandoned in this crucial moment -- and have actually always been left to fend for themselves.

A year and half later, we all know where this story is headed....but we don’t yet know how it ends. 

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If you love the Double Shift Podcast, sign up for our newsletter, thedoubleshift.com/newsletter. 

Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

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Listen to Battle Tactics for your Sexist Workplace wherever you get your podcasts. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/battle-tactics-for-your-sexist-workplace/id1391206534

If you loved Ep. 10 on family leave, check out this episode of Inflection Point with Lauren Schiller, a show about how women rise up. She’s joined by Katie Bethell, founder of Paid Leave for the US. Katherine’s coming to the Bay area! Get tix to F*ck Mom Guilt Live! Oakland Aug 14th https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fck-mom-guilt-world-tour-with-the-double-shift-in-oakland-tickets-65054768564, SF Aug 15th https://www.eventbrite.com/e/betabrand-podcast-theatre-fck-mom-guilt-tickets-64385208893?aff=erelexpm

It’s been a minute since you’ve heard from us, but Katherine is excited to share news about the next chapter of The Double Shift, a newsletter and community that’s a social change laboratory for moms. The Double Shift has always been more than a podcast, and we're embracing our membership community as a place for building connections around political, social and workplace change, transforming families and building a more just future for everyone. We believe in:

Solidarity — not advice

Bold ideas — not life hacks

Curiosity — not judgment

Thoughtful research and analysis — not uninformed flame throwing

Membership starts at $7/mo, and members get:

• An audio version of the newsletter to listen to on your favorite player
• The ability to comment on public posts and members-only private threads
• Access to members-only hangouts on Zoom (and in person!)

This is the start of the list. More benefits coming, based on member feedback.

Read the full announcement post here!

Your paying membership allows this to be one of the very-few non-corporate spaces left on the mom-internet. 

To sign up for our revamped newsletter full of reporting about the forces that shape family life in America and challenging the status quo of motherhood, go to thedoubleshift.com/newsletter.

To see all the member benefits, join the community or upgrade your membership go to thedoubleshift.com/join.

If you’d like a donated membership email, askthedoubleshift@gmail.com.

Our next virtual hangout is July 20th at 3pm EST. It’s titled Workplace Revolution w/Erin Grau, who’s the co-founder and COO of Charter Works. To listen to Erin on the Double Shift, listen to "Paid Leave, We Can Do Better," and the followup episode we made about Double Shifters who were galvanized to advocate for better family policies by listening to Erin's story. To celebrate our relaunch, this event is open to all. RSVP here. 

For six months last year, tens of millions of families could count on consistent, predictable support from their government to help defray the steep financial cost of raising a child in this country. 

We hear from moms about how these monthly Child Tax Credit checks helped them support their families, move forward in their careers, make change in their communities, and reduce the psychological trauma of trying to raise a family while living in a constant state of precarity.… and about what life is like now that the payments have ended. 

Oh, and one guest’s CTC-supported success story has THE most dysfunctional American twist … take a listen. 

Our Thanks to The Better Life Lab at New America for their support with this episode.

If you haven’t signed up for our newsletter, PLEASE sign up here:

https://www.thedoubleshift.com/newsletter. This is the best way for us to stay in touch with you about the future plans we have cooking.

If The Double Shift podcast has meant something to you personally or had an impact on your life, we’d love to hear about it. You can send us an email or a voice memo recorded on your phone to askthedoubleshift@gmail.com, and we may use it in our upcoming episode.

Author Amy Westervelt and host Katherine Goldstein discuss how we can recapture the revolutionary spirit of Mother’s Day and why it’s time for us to put a dollar amount on all the invisible labor moms do to keep society and families running.

The Invisible Labor Calculator, created by Amy Westervelt, author of “Forget ‘Having It All’: How America Messed Up Motherhood--and How to Fix It”

Want to gift a Double Shift Membership to a special mom in your life for Mother’s Day? Go to thedoubleshift.com/gifts.

If you love the Double Shift Podcast, sign up for our newsletter, thedoubleshift.com/newsletter. 

Consider joining The Double Shift member community, which is a social change laboratory for moms. Learn more here at thedoubleshift.com/join.

Our "Mamas of the Brothels" episode took a lot to pull off. We tell some of the wild, behind-the-scenes stories about how this story about sex worker moms almost fell apart. Executive Producer Sarah Ventre shares how she pulled the story together by "brothel hopping" in a Tony Soprano car.

In Season 1 we dove into work and careers, but no one’s work life is going to change if our home lives are stuck in the past. This season we’re bringing you six episodes of boundary-breaking conversations that present bold new ideas for our lives.

Welcome to the audio version of The Double Shift newsletter, read by yours truly, Katherine Goldstein.

Today’s edition is about my big financial decision to switch newsletter platforms, and what it means to “start over.”

I’m ready (with my face scrunched and my fingers crossed) to take the risk of asking my existing members to stick with me by taking a few extra steps to sign up again with their credit cards on Substack. I believe what I do is valuable. I want it to reach more people. I want to earn more money for it. 

If you are new to The Double Shift newsletter, some recent posts you may enjoy are my two-part series: The “Every Family for Themselves” Fight for Summer Camp & How to Make Summer Better for Everyone. Or check out Millennial Dads and The Caregiving Praise Conundrum, Your Working Conditions as A Parent Are Unacceptable, or How to Make Friends as An Adult.

If you want more audio newsletters and want to be a part of our community, subscribe now and become a member of the Double Shift. If you have questions or need help with your podcast feed or membership, reach out to us at askthedoubleshift@gmail.com. You can get a one month free trial of The Double Shift newsletter on Substack by going to thedoubleshift.substack.com/listeners or click the button below.

In this week’s audio newsletter is an essay about Sophia Chitlik, who is running for NC state senate here in Durham, North Carolina. What excites me the most about Sophia is that she’s promoting a platform we need candidates from across the country to try out. She’s running on care.

You can connect with Sophia and read more about her campaign at her website, https://sophiafornc.com.

If you love audio newsletters and what to try out our membership program, go to thedoubleshift.substack.com/listeners for a free 30-day trial.

If you love the Double Shift, I think you’ll also love: 

Therapy Takeaway: Dr. Pooja Lakshmin MD(who’s also the author of the wonderful book, Real Self Care) has a newsletter that tackles fascinating systemic issues moms in particular face but brings her unique perspective as a reproductive physiatrist to offer concrete and insightful solutions. I loved her recent post, How to Make Hanging Out Happen, which gives helpful framing on how and why we feel like we never have time for unstructured connection with people. She also offers great ideas for creating more “hangout space” in your life. 

Platonic Love Letter: I recently discovered the work of Aliza Sir Sir and Aja Frost and their wonderful newsletter devoted to friendship. I’m particularly taken with their 8-week Training Program for Friendship, which they describe as a “running club meets support group for friendship.” with prompts, action items, and robust discussions in the comment threads. Based on conversations I’ve had with Double Shifters over the years, building meaningful friendships is top-of-mind for many of you, so definitely check out and subscribe to Platonic Love Letter. 

After all of the intensity of being a business lady and switching platforms in the last few weeks, I thought I’d change gears with this occasional beloved series on a wide range of things that make my life better. None of these are a substitute or solution for a robust social safety net or a society that values care, but they are still fun. Nothing in this list is sponsored, and not all require purchases to experience.

If you love audio newsletters and what to try out our membership program, go to thedoubleshift.substack.com/listeners for a free 30-day trial.

Recommended Links:

* Zuri Kenya Dresses

* The DoubleTree Inn and Suites

* Ukiyo Teacup

* The Substack App

* Locopops

If you love the Double Shift, I think you’ll also love: 

* Matriarchy Report: Journalists Allison Lichter and Lane Anderson have a great weekly newsletter focusing on solutions to issues around care work and family life. Their formats include personal essays, Q&As with authors and experts of all kinds, as well as original reporting. I was honored that they recently featured my work at New America under the awesome titles 8 Great Gifts for Caregivers and Every Time Motherhood Radicalizes Someone, an Angel Gets Its Wings. Check out their great work and give ‘em a Subscribe.

Making it Work: If you liked this edition of The Double Shift newsletter, you’ll love the thoughtful recommendations from Youngna Park ’s great newsletter. Her taste is impeccable (or just very similar to mine) and well-researched, especially in the books department for both kids and adults. Also, I love that she makes great recommendations without being overly consumerist, which feels like a fine line sometimes. I think you’ll love it as much as I do.

I am very angry right now. In my community, I’m witnessing a fixable systemic childcare problem be cemented squarely on the shoulders of individual families, rather than those with power and resources collectively addressing a real need.

My beleaguered public school district is waving the white flag of surrender to its working parents over our afterschool program. In this week’s audio newsletter, I’ll make a case for why we have to resist the dismantling of safety nets.

This is the last free audio newsletter for everyone. If you’re a paid member, you still have access. If you’ve loved these audio newsletters and want to try out our membership program, go to thedoubleshift.substack.com/listeners for a free 30-day trial.

Now I want to change gears from fire breathing to recommend a few Substacks to you:

I love the Substack from Lindsey Stanberry called The Purse. She gets personal with the people she interviews and it’s so illuminating. My favorite one of her series is Home Economics where people share al the nitty gritty details about what they spend money on in a month. Also has a Division of Labor series about household responsibilities among couples I think Double Shifters will love.

Also, definitely check out I’m Walking Here by Liz Gumbinner. She’s one of the original tastemakers in the mom space looong before momfluencers were a thing, and her newsletter is a great mix of common sense advice, analysis of current events, observations on parenting and parenting culture, pithy media commentary, unabashed feminism, GenX nostalgia, oddly persistent optimism, gift guides and recommendations.

Members-only Hangout THIS FRIDAY! 

I can’t wait for our Members-only hangout on March 15th at 3pm EST! I’m thrilled that two long-time Double Shift members will join me in conversation about how creativity and caregiving intersect, overlap, conflict, and interplay. This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot as my “day job” requires "creativity.” But writing doesn’t always feel “creative” for me when it’s part of my “work.” I will be joined by musician Jaspar Lepak and visual artist Ilyse Iris Magy. Whether you are also a professional creative, someone who explores creativity through hobbies, someone who’s shelved creativity because of your caregiving duties, or someone who thinks they don’t have a creative bone in your body, this will be an enriching discussion for us all!