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What is your perspective on motherhood?
How does it change depending on where in the world you are?
What would new mothers in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America have in common vs what would be unique to them?
These are some of the talking points in Abigail Leonard's latest book, "Four Mothers" which highlights 4 different women's first year of motherhood.
On the heels of both Mother & Father's Day, it's a great opportunity to discuss what a parent-child relationship looks like from day one.
Enjoy!
Abigail Leonard is an award-winning international reporter and news producer, previously based in Tokyo, where she was a frequent contributor to NPR, Time Magazine, and New York Times video. Her stories have also appeared in The Washington Post, Newsweek, and Vox. Before moving to Japan, she wrote and produced long-form news documentaries as a staff producer for PBS, ABC and Al Jazeera America. Stories she reported have earned a National Headliner Award, an Award for Excellence in Health Care Journalism Award, an Overseas Press Club Award and a James Beard Foundation Media Award Nomination. She was a 2011 East-West Center Japan Fellow and 2010 UN Foundation Journalism Fellow. She served as First Vice President of the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan, a 2000-member national press organization, and also chaired its scholarship program.
In the tradition of Lisa Taddeo’s Three Women and Robert Kolker’s Hidden Valley Road, Abigail Leonard’s immersive, page-turning narrative follows four women from around the world as they embark on the transformative first year of motherhood.
Tsukasa in Japan grapples with memories of a difficult childhood as she tries to chart a new, healthier path for her own daughter while balancing onerous cultural expectations. Chelsea in Kenya endures a devastating loss just before she gives birth and finds that without the traditional support of previous generations, motherhood can be grueling – but it can also provide emotional healing. Anna in Finland navigates a complicated relationship with her child’s father, but the country’s robust family policies allow her to still pursue the kind of parenthood that she envisioned. Sarah in the US leaves the religious community that raised her in order to create a less traditional family of her own, only to find she’s largely confronting motherhood alone.
Utterly moving and propulsively readable from page one, Leonard interweaves these stories with a critically researched exploration of how parental support programs evolved in each country—and why some provide more help than others. As nations around the world debate programs like paid leave, universal daycare, reproductive healthcare, and family tax incentives, Four Mothers offers a uniquely intimate, moving portrait of what those policies mean for parents on the ground—and considers what modern families really want.
Make sure to check out the Dtalkspodcast.com website!
Thanks to Empire Toys for this episode of the podcast!
AND Thanks to Self Unbound for this episode of the podcast:
Are you ready for the next YA book series to completely obsess over!? That's what's in store for you when you pick up Lauren Magaziner's latest book, The Incorruptibles!
Lauren stopped by the show this week to share her background as an author, working on this (among many other) projects, and some of her favorite memories writing this book.
Check it out!
Lauren is the internationally bestselling author of the Case Closed series, The Mythics series, the upcoming series The Incorruptibles (June 10, 2025), and three other stand-alone books for middle grade readers. Her books are available in 12 languages, have been Junior Library Guild selections, have been on the Indie Next List, been an Amazon bestseller, earned starred reviews, been on state lists, and have been optioned for a TV movie with Nickelodeon. She has also contributed short stories to Storyworks magazine and a middle grade mystery anthology called Super Puzzletastic Mysteries.
Lauren grew up in New Hope, Pennsylvania. After receiving a B.A. in Creative Writing and Philosophy at Hamilton College, Lauren Magaziner worked on two delightful Scholastic magazines, where many of her coworkers didn’t believe her last name was real. She currently lives in Philadelphia, where she writes full time.
Fiora Barrowling lives in a world where sorcerers rule over humans. After surviving an encounter with The Radiance—the very worst of the sorcerers—she’s whisked away to the incredible Incorruptibles (“Inc”) Academy, a school for resistance fighters in training.
But most of the other students think Fiora hasn’t earned her place there, and when things start to go wrong and it seems the sorcerers have a spy in the academy, all eyes are on Fiora. With all odds stacked against her, can Fiora prove that she belongs?
Make sure to check out the Dtalkspodcast.com website!
Thanks to Empire Toys for this episode of the podcast!
AND Thanks to Self Unbound for this episode of the podcast: