MILK Podcast: Lost and Found, Episode 3 Episode 11: Mothers Before, Mom Rages and New Stages with Edan Lepucki

Novelist Edan Lepucki joins Mallory in the MILK Studio. Edan is the bestselling author of California and Woman No. 17, and the creator of the popular Mothers Before Instagram account. @MothersBefore was timed to the release of her latest book, which explored the themes of art, motherhood, and identity.

Edan asked women and non-binary people of all ages to submit a favorite photograph of their mother before she became a mother and write a description of what the images invoke. @MothersBefore was and remains hugely popular, and now Mothers Before is a book. In it, Edan gathers more than sixty original essays and favorite photographs to explore the question: Who was your mother before she became a mother?

The daughters in this remarkable collection are writers and poets, artists and teachers, and the images and stories they share reveal the lives of women in ways that are vulnerable and true, sometimes funny, sometimes sad, and always moving.

Contributors include Jennifer Egan, Angela Garbes, Alison Roman, and Jia Tolentino, among others. Mothers Before is a thoughtful and intimate celebration of motherhood and female identity. Edan is also the cohost of the podcast Mom Rage, which is candid and terrific. She lives in Los Angeles with her family. Follow her at edanlepucki dot com and @edanlepucki.

Episode 34: Parkway Cabana Club, Hanging Backstage with The Boss, and Selling Houses with Real Estate Pro Rosyln Neiman

Rosyln (Roz) Neiman joins Mallory in the MILK Studio. Rosyln is a real estate sales professional with 31 years of experience with The Howard Hanna Agency in Pittsburgh. Roz was voted best realtor in Pennsylvania and one of the top realtors in the United States by The Wall Street Journal.

Born in the ‘burgh, Roz has been married to her high school sweetheart, Sandy Neiman, for 51 years. They have three grown children and three grandchildren. Roz hung with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band throughout the 1980’s and 90’s, when Sandy managed sax player Clarence “The Big Man” Clemmons, while building her own career and raising her family. On this Mother’s Day edition of MILK, Mallory talks to Roz about Mallory’s mom, Judi Kasdan, and how Roz saw their lifelong friendship. They laugh and remember the good moments at Parkway Cabana Club, and the sad ones too.

Check out Roz at HowardHanna.com

Episode 19 Ghosts, Sex, Cancer and Revenge with Author Stephanie Gangi

Author Stephanie Gangi joins Mallory in the MILK studio to talk about her compulsively readable literary ghost story, “The Next.”

Photo: Elena Seibert for Stephanie Gangi

Gangi's first novel, written at age 60, is a sexy, satisfying, whirlwind tale of a lover scorned, and of mothers, daughters, sisters, cancer, death, social media ... all with a killer soundtrack. Stephanie is fierce, funny, beautifully present, and her writing is thrilling and deep. 

Episode 12: Lifelong Activism, Thinking Antrhopologically, and Actual Facetime with Dr. Alison Hall

Dr. Alison Hall received her Ph.D. in Anthropology, worked as a lecturer teaching and had a career as a Museum Director at The Arkansas Museum of Science and History, The Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum and Planetarium, and The Children’s Museum of Arkansas. 

Upon retirement from museum work, Dr. Hall taught at the University of Central Arkansas, and won two university research grants. In 2015 she retired from teaching in order to help her daughter pursue a demanding career in medicine, and now divides her time between Brooklyn (where she cares for three grandsons aged 4, 7, and 10 years old) and Arkansas.

She has served on boards of Women’s Action for New Directions, Heifer International, Arkansas Sustainability Network, and the Arkansas chapter of the A.C.L.U. She is still actively engaged in what has become a lifelong pursuit of political and community activism. Between all that, she is finishing up her book about Italian collective farming that she began researching in the 1970s. Amazing.

Episode 11: Helping Moms, Mom is Helping, and Trolling DJT with Juliana Sanchez Gebb

Dr. Juliana Sanchez Gebb is in the MILK studio talking to Mallory on International Women's Day. Juliana is an attending high-risk obstetrician in the Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and a mother to three boys.

She has a notable commute from New York for her intense job, and manages childcare with help from her own mother, Alison Hall. Juliana has found a creative way to further her career and cultivate her specific medical interests, while relying on her mom and husband for support. She doesn't make it look easy, because its not! She’s lovely and calm, but also enjoys trolling the current POTUS on Twitter.