New Podcast ‘The Double Shift’ Explores What It Means To Be A Working Mom

Weekend All Things Considered — KORVA COLEMAN, HOST:

You don’t have to be a parent to appreciate how difficult it can be to juggle work and child care. It’s an issue that comes up often in conversations about fairness and equality in the workplace and has recently become a hot topic in politics as well, with affordable child care being an important part of some 2020 Democratic candidates’ campaign platforms.

But in all the back and forth over cost, access and regulation, the people experiencing day-to-day difficulties of parenting and being a mom can get lost. The new podcast “The Double Shift” from journalist Katherine Goldstein seeks to bring focus back on the ones on the frontlines of this issue — working moms. Katherine Goldstein joins me from WUNC in Durham, N.C., to talk about her podcast.

Thanks, Katherine, for joining us.

KATHERINE GOLDSTEIN: Thanks so much for having me.

COLEMAN: Katherine, I just have to ask for all the guardians, grandparents, fathers out there. We know that mothers are not the only ones caring for children. What was important to you? Why do you need to focus the podcast that you do on moms in particular?

GOLDSTEIN: So for the last few years, I’ve been researching and reporting on the experience of working motherhood in America. And I really feel like that experience and how it intersects with public policy and earning power and political power and sort of how we think about ourselves hasn’t really been well covered. And the problems that mothers face in America are not personal.

A lot of mothers feel like failures, but really, it’s America that’s failing us. And there’s huge systemic problems with how little mothers are supported. And I think telling people to get up earlier or just try harder isn’t the solution. We need much, much bigger thinking. And that’s why I’m hoping this show with reporting and storytelling is going to inject some brand-new ideas into the conversation.

Listen to the complete interview from Weekend All Things Considered here: https://www.npr.org.