Mother of All Solutions

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 include wider contributions globally - what do women write about to the younger generation. The series is sometimes funny, sometimes sad, but always warm and interesting. It was an absolute pleasure to speak to Namulanta and find out more about her life, the podcast and her journey to make it. 

Dear Daughter can be found as a podcast on BBC Sounds or as show on the BBC World Service. You can also listen on your favourite podcast app.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w13xtvlp

To reach out to Namulanta you can do so via Twitter and Instagram @namulanta. Her podcast recommendations were:

The Moth https://themoth.org/podcast

The Comb https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w13xtv78

Jesus and Jollof https://jesusandjollof.simplecast.com/

Mother of All Solutions is presented and produced by Laura Broderick, with music by Ros Fraser. The show was nominated in the Family category of the British Podcast Awards 2022.

To connect with Laura on Twitter and Instagram search @SolutionsMother or message via [email protected]

Thank you for listening, and if you enjoyed the conversation please do take a moment to rate/review and tell your friends!

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 played by two male actors on stage. 

I hope you enjoy learning about the play, how it was created and the aim of the production. 

To find out more visit: www.compagniebabel.com 

Mother of All Solutions is hosted and produced by Laura Broderick, with music by Ros Fraser.

The sound clips from Fathers in this episode were created by Maxime Tisserand. 

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 motherhood, maternity leave and work - as well as celebrating the podcasting community. Do reach out if you want to connect and listen some more: 

Content is Queen https://contentisqueen.org/ 

Menopause Whilst Black https://www.thekarenarthur.com/ 

Thank you to the women who recorded with me for this episode, and those I chatted to in the breaks between the festival sessions! 

The podcast is hosted and produced by Laura Broderick, with music by Ros Fraser. 

Find Mother of All Solutions on Instagram and Twitter as @SolutionsMother or email Laura via [email protected] 

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 from John Lewis and Home Start. The event was attended by parents, employers and even a few lovely kids! 

I hope by sharing what happened, and the voices of some of the panellists, we can all feel better equipped to know what businesses and government can do to support families. I hope you enjoy the episode.

Mother of All Solutions is hosted and produced by Laura Broderick, with music by Ros Fraser. Thank you for listening. 

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 and low paid work, more and more families are in poverty and this has a massive impact on children and mums. 

I hope the conversation helps you better understand the situation many households are currently in. Kelly and Sophia also share some ideas on what we can do to help. 

If you think you might benefit from using a baby bank service, or would like to volunteer your time or gift a donation you can find one of the 150+ baby banks in the UK via this map: 

https://littlevillagehq.org/uk-baby-banks/

To read the Joseph Rowntree Foundation reports visit: 

https://www.jrf.org.uk/reports

To connect with the baby banks discussed: 

MammaKind Instagram @mamma_kind (also on Facebook or email [email protected]) 

Little Village Instagram @littlevillagehq

Sophia Parker Twitter @mssophiaparker

This special episode is hosted and produced by Laura Broderick with music by Ros Fraser. 

Thank you for listening and do share, rate, review and keep in touch...Mother of All Solutions @SolutionsMother

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 socials: 

Twitter @philly_guillou

Instagram @lockdown_babies_podcast

https://anchor.fm/lockdown-babies

The Mother of All Solutions podcast is hosted and produced by Laura Broderick, with music by Ros Fraser. Please subscribe for further episodes and connect via @SolutionsMother 

Thank you for listening. 

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, the cost of childcare, celebrations of motherhood and a dad's perspective. 

Thank you to all my guests and listeners! 

And do listen on at the end of the MOAS Moments special - there are some outtakes from my conversation with Kate Burt that we hope you will enjoy! 

If you are new to the Mother of All Solutions I hope this offers an interesting intro to the podcast - do listen back to the full episodes and subscribe for more to come. 

Thank you, 

Laura, Host & Producer @SolutionsMother 

Music by Ros Fraser

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://adeleplayworker.bigcartel.com/product/signed-copy-children-don-t-dissolve-in-the-rain-by-adele-cleaver

Mother of All Solutions is hosted and produced by Laura Broderick with music by Ros Fraser. You can connect with Laura via Twitter or Instagram @SolutionsMother

Show notes: 

In the episode Adele and I talk about:

• Assemble Play @assembleplay
• #hibernationplay
• Big Blue Play @bigblueplay
• Julia Cameron’s books, The Artist’s Way and The Artist’s Way for Parents
• The Parent Journey podcast

If you enjoyed the themes in this episode I would recommend you also listen to the Radical Childcare episode in the MOAS playlist! Thank you for listening. 

Photo of Adele Cleaver and daughter by Vero Leopoldino

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 “call to arms.”

Ten months later, and a new baby for Kate, we sat down to see what Joeli had put to page recently and share our own experiences from the pandemic around her writings. We hope it’s an enjoyable and insightful discussion and we would love to hear what you think and/or your experiences of lockdown life (especially from first time mums or those with insights from other countries.) You can reach out via social media to @SolutionsMother or email [email protected] – we would love to hear from you.

If you haven’t yet read the book, The Motherhood Penalty – How to stop motherhood being the kiss of death for your career, it is available here: The Motherhood Penalty | Book by Joeli Brearley | Official Publisher Page | Simon & Schuster UK (simonandschuster.co.uk)

And to listen to the original book review episode we released it’s called ‘The Book – Pregnant then Screwed’ on the Mother of All Solutions pod platform. You can also listen to other relevant past episodes, including an important discussion on Childcare for WOW Festival March 2021. 

Happy listening and Happy International Women’s Day 2022!

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 questions from Hannah and sharing my experience of job-sharing! I job shared for a year between 2019-20 after my second maternity leave. And my previous job share partner, Ros Fraser, is the composer of the music for Mother of All Solutions.

I really hope you enjoy the episode (sorry about the sound quality in some parts.) It would be great if you could “share” the episode, follow Mother of All Solutions podcast on Twitter and host Laura Broderick on Instagram as @SolutionsMother

Or contact me via [email protected] – I would love to hear from you!