For World Prematurity Day on Thursday 17 November 2022, we have an episode with Catriona Ogilvy, founder of The Smallest Things. The charity is dedicated to creating a better world for premature babies and their families after neonatal care. Catriona shares her own experiences of having two sons born preterm. She also discusses the mission and work of The Smallest Things, including the campaign to extend parental leave and the Employer with Heart scheme. To read more about the charity please lin...
Nov 16, 2022•32 min
This episode is a compilation of voices and stories from speakers and participants at March of the Mummies in Newcastle, Saturday 29 October 2022. #marchofthemummies protests were taking place in London, Newcastle and other UK cities, organised by Pregnant then Screwed: https://pregnantthenscrewed.com/event-march-of-the-mummies/ Laura Broderick, host and producer of Mother of All Solutions, was part of the crowd and took the opportunity to record with union rep Mel Wilson, councillor Erin Parker...
Nov 01, 2022•25 min
In this episode, released on World Mental Health Day 2022, Laura speaks with Clinical Psychologist Dr Emma Svanberg. We speak about burnout and what that means for parents in particular. We cover recognising our feelings, and why we should take time to rest - even in small bursts. We also discuss the need for collective as well as individual healing. It was a fascinating and helpful conversation for me as the host - and I hope for you too. If you enjoyed the interview please do rate, review and ...
Oct 09, 2022•29 min
In this episode Laura speaks with Emma Mitchell, captain of Reading FC Women and member of Scotland’s National Team. We talk about her career as a professional footballer, maternity leave and motherhood. Emma’s daughter Innes is 10 months old and Emma returned to football after 8 months of mat leave. We touch upon mental health, physical recovery from birth and logistics of being a mum and training/playing professional football. It was brilliant to talk with Emma and hear what she had to say abo...
Sep 27, 2022•28 min
This episode of Mother of All Solutions, with content creator Vivi Koroma Kala, is part interview part book chat! Vivi is Head of Content for Amazing If and also the creator of the bookstagram, The Cultured Life, which she set up whilst on maternity leave. We talk about her career choices and changes, and have a conversation about the 3 books Vivi chose for us to read and review together: Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (and Your Children Will be Gl...
Sep 13, 2022•42 min
Frankie Tortora, graphic designer and host of the Doing It For The Kids (DIFTK) community and podcast is on Mother of All Solutions! DIFTK is for "parents who freelance", and was set up by Frankie following her first maternity leave. She co-hosts the DIFTK podcast with fellow parent and freelancer Steve Folland, and they won Gold in the business category of the British Podcast Awards 2021. Laura and Frankie discuss managing maternity leave as a freelancer, navigating school summer holidays, comm...
Aug 25, 2022•27 min
For the MOAS summer 2022 episode Laura interviews Namulanta Kombo, the host of the award-winning Dear Daughter. The podcast is a BBC World Service series and won Gold in the Family category and was named Podcast of the Year in the recent British Podcast Awards. Namulanta is based in Nairobi, Kenya, and started the podcast a year ago after winning an international competition from the BBC World Service. The idea began with her writing letters to her own daughter, and the podcast extended this to ...
Aug 09, 2022•37 min
In this episode Laura speaks with Thomas Pondevie, Co-Director of the theatre company, La Compagnie Babel. Thomas Pondevie and Elise Chatauret have brought their French production of the play Fathers to the Brixton House theatre. The play is a line of enquiry about fatherhood & family, and addresses, 'How can we imagine fatherhood outside of the patriarchy?' It is based on interviews (the practice of documentary theatre) and the end result is a very special show with portraits of fathers pla...
Jul 12, 2022•35 min
In this episode of Mother of All Solutions, Laura shares her short conversations recorded with women at the International Women's Podcast Festival at King's Place, London, on Saturday 18 June 2022. The festival was organised by Content is Queen podcasting agency and I speak with Imriel Morgan CEO of the business. I also chat with Sophie Doyle who is keen to start podcasting, and Karen Arthur who hosts the Menopause Whilst Black podcast. I hope this episode offers some interesting reflections on ...
Jun 20, 2022•30 min
In this episode Laura attempts to summarise the John Lewis Partnership event, Sharing the Juggle, held at the House of Commons on Tuesday 7 June 2022. To get to the real content of the panel discussion, Laura speaks with panellists Elliott Rae, Music Football Fatherhood, and Joeli Brearley of Pregnant then Screwed. They have great reflections...and news! The panel also included MPs Caroline Nokes (Chair of Women & Equalities Committee) and Minister Paul Scully, along with representatives fro...
Jun 10, 2022•26 min
In this special episode, Laura speaks with two fantastic women working to alleviate child poverty in the UK - Kelly Fort, Head of Operations at MammaKind (baby bank) and Sophia Parker, Director of Emerging Futures at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (social change organisation.) We talk about what baby banks are, the families using them and why, unfortunately, as Sophia tells us, "Baby banks are anticipating their busiest year yet." With huge cost of living rises on food and energy bills, insecure...
May 25, 2022•39 min
In this episode Laura interviews journalist Phillippa Guillou, presenter of the Lockdown Babies podcast. We discuss why Phillippa wanted to make the podcast, her own experiences of having a baby in July 2020, and her career now. We also share some clips from Lockdown Babies - the remarkable and heartbreaking stories of the families who had babies in the middle of a global pandemic. I hope you enjoy this conversation focused on pregnancy and parenthood in the pandemic. To contact Phillippa on soc...
May 13, 2022•49 min
In this short special I have selected clips ("MOAS moments") from 6 past episodes to give you a flavour of the series and recent interviews. The moments come from: The Chapter - Lockdown, with writer Kate Burt The Job Sharers, with The Job Share Pair The Playworker, with author Adele Cleaver The Mums of Twins, with author Alison Perry The Dads, with teacher Will Blatherwick The Collective, with Georgie Grant of Onion Collective You will hear chats about maternity leave and lockdown, job sharing,...
Apr 15, 2022•17 min
In this episode Laura talks to Adele Cleaver, playworker and author of the memoir Children Don’t Dissolve in the Rain. Adele is a mom from Birmingham with two girls - a 5 year old and 7 month old. We talk about her professional and personal experiences of play settings, and how her book aims to encourage parents to play and rest more effectively. You can find Adele on social media @adeleplayworker Children Don’t Dissolve in the Rain is available from her website as well as book retailers: https:...
Apr 04, 2022•53 min
In this episode of Mother of All Solutions, host Laura Broderick and guest Kate Burt revisit Joeli Brearley’s book The Motherhood Penalty and discuss the NEW chapter, Lockdown, available in the newly released paperback edition! The original book review episode saw Laura and Kate, along with other members of their book group, discuss Joeli’s book in May 2021. It was a chance to explore our experiences of motherhood and the workplace, and reflect on the founder of Pregnant then Screwed’s book as a...
Mar 07, 2022•37 min
For this Mother of All Solutions episode, host and producer Laura Broderick talks to Rachel Maguire, one half of The Job Share Pair. We discuss what job sharing is, the benefits of working in a pair and Rachel’s work story of maternity leave and returning to job share in HR with Hannah Hall-Turner. They are now running The Job Share Pair consultancy together and you can follow Rachel and Hannah on LinkedIn and Instagram as @thejobsharepair The latter section of the episode is me responding to qu...
Mar 04, 2022•30 min
In this episode Laura interviews Georgie Grant, Co-Director of The Onion Collective CIC based in Watchet, West Somerset. “The Onions” met as a group of mums in the town – some local and some new, but all with a desire to improve the area for their children. Bringing their skills, and friendships, to the table they set about to find out what the residents of Watchet also wanted to see happen to improve where they live. Over years of development and fundraising the result is a fascinating new buil...
Feb 13, 2022•43 min
For this episode, MOAS host Laura Broderick interviews Laura Godfrey-Isaacs, an artist and midwife and co-author of the book Maternal Journal, A creative guide to journalling through pregnancy birth and beyond. We talk about Laura’s experiences of work as an artist and a producer, and later training to be a midwife. We cover lots! The new book and the origins of the Maternal Journal project, birth experiences, creative practice, the pandemic and the March with Midwives (on the the day we recorde...
Dec 05, 2021•46 min
In this episode Laura Broderick interviews Alison Perry, author, podcaster and blogger, about her experiences of maternity leave and her career as a mum of three, including twins. She shares the specifics of parenting twins through pregnancy, parental leave and returning to work. We discuss being employed in a workplace and being self-employed, as well about the huge cost of childcare when you have multiples. We also talk about Alison’s book OMG It’s Twins! published earlier this year. After the...
Oct 16, 2021•40 min
In this episode Laura Broderick discusses the book DAD (Untold Stories of Fatherhood, Love, Mental Health and Masculinity) with Will Blatherwick, history teacher and dad of two. The conversation is structured around our thoughts on the book (with an emphasis on work and parenting) and audio contributions from two other dads who have read the book alongside us. Music in the episode is by Ros Fraser. DAD is curated by Elliott Rae and is a collection of stories from dads in the Music Football Fathe...
Aug 29, 2021•1 hr
The Book: Pregnant then Screwed In this Mother of All Solutions episode Laura and friends from her book group share notes on the book Pregnant then Screwed: The Truth About the Motherhood Penalty and How To Fix It by Joeli Brearley. With guest Kate Burt, Laura talks about this book (published March 2021) and how as author Joeli Brearley states, “This book is a call to arms for women.” With audio contributions from other members of book club we share sections of the book and our own experiences o...
Jun 02, 2021•54 min
For this episode Laura interviews Midlands based Creative Producer Amy Martin to discuss Radical Childcare and her workshop for the Women of the World (WOW) UK Festival 2021. Amy introduces lots of interesting models of childcare, ideas around childhood and individuals/organisation working on this – below you will find the links discussed in the interview. Following the conversation there are also some audio notes from participants in the workshop – we hope you enjoy learning more and the episod...
Mar 12, 2021•56 min
For the third and final episode of the MOAS mini-series, Laura interviews Sahm Harris-Thomas, a school nurse in London and mum to two ‘wondergirls’. Sahm began training as a nurse aged 26 and navigated her two maternity leaves around her studies and nursing roles. She also completed her postgraduate diploma during the pandemic. She talks about her career shifts, and importantly her role as a key worker in the community during this crisis. We also find out how Sahm and her partner, also a key wor...
Feb 01, 2021•57 min
For the second episode of the mini-series, Laura interviews Dr Susanna Graham. Before pursuing an academic career Susanna qualified as a medical doctor. She has three children. In July 2020 Susanna resigned from her role as Research Associate – she explains the point to get this decision and how the pandemic and homeschooling/childcare was a key factor. She also talks about her plans for the future as she retrains to be a counsellor, and how studying this subject has helped her process her resig...
Jan 24, 2021•31 min
Recorded in December 2020, before lockdown 3.0 and school closures, Laura interviewed her friend Antonia Faust who moved from her role as an Associate Director in Bristol to set up a nut farm in Devon following furlough. Antonia talks about how her company’s work in events and immersive environments in retail settings stopped, and her partner’s building sites closed as a result of the pandemic. They had already been thinking of establishing an organic nut farm so took the plunge after first lock...
Jan 16, 2021•51 min
This special episode, The Compilation, marks the end of the first year of Mother of All Solutions... MOAS launched in Brixton in August 2019 and for this episode we invited 4 mums who attended the event to introduce themselves 'one year on' and select a favourite episode to play a clip from. We also asked them to say something about what support/actions they would like to see for working parents. The Shared Parental Leave, The Stay at Home Mum, The Polymath and The Childminder are showcased in t...
Sep 04, 2020•40 min
In this episode Laura talks with Harriet Williams, a self-employed consultant working to better represent and influence policy for young parents. Harriet was a young parent herself, finishing her A-levels whilst pregnant and completing a crimonology degree with a young baby. She has been employed in various professional roles in the fields of youth and community support, working in both full and part-time positions. A year ago she turned her speaking and research 'side' work into a business. We ...
Aug 01, 2020•1 hr 10 min
In this episode we hear from three mums living outside the UK - Lucy in America, Caro in Sweden and Christine in Brazil. They each contribute audio notes about their work and parenting experiences during lockdown. They don't know each other, but they all work in the architecture industry and also share thoughts on how we might live and work post lockdown. Lucy is from Yorkshire and has been working from home in LA whilst her partner manages childcare between their apartment and local parks. Caro...
Jun 28, 2020•39 min
In this episode Laura interviews Jemima Hartshorn - mum of two, campaigner, lawyer, freelancer and founder of Mums for Lungs. Jemima founded the campaigning group, with other volunteer parents, 3 years ago when she was on her first maternity leave - in order to campaign for clean air for everyone, especially babies and children. We discuss how the campaign came together, what they are working on now, what School Streets is about, and how the team are organising during lockdown. We also chat abou...
Jun 02, 2020•40 min
During lockdown, Laura talks to Emma Sheppard about her career and the Maternity Teacher Paternity Teacher Project. Emma is an English lead practitioner teacher in a secondary school in London. This remote recording includes a discussion about professional development during maternity / paternity leave - the desire for it and choices around it. Emma shares thoughts on the gender pay gap and motherhood penalty, as well as visible role modelling and why she started the MTPT Project. During the int...
May 10, 2020•51 min
