Episodes

Wednesday Aug 07, 2019
Encore Episode - Anonymous Mother of a Story - Barnacles
Wednesday Aug 07, 2019
Wednesday Aug 07, 2019
We're telling stories.
Today’s guest is a best selling novelist and an all around wonderful writer. She wrote a beautiful piece for this podcast and then called us with a special request-- that we keep her identity anonymous.
Who doesn't speak to their mother?
What do you do when you have a toxic relationship with your mom? When the mother you want, is not the mother you have? When you are looking for courage or permission to put your well-being first, to live in your truth? What do you do when you don't want to hurt your mom, but continuing the relationship you two have set up is making you miserable? What lesson will you teach your kids if you disconnect? Or on the flip side, what will you teach them if you don't?
Self-love is not a bad word.
Life lessons are all around us. And one big lesson to be learned from today’s show is, ‘the way a mother handles her divorce can make or break her relationship with her children going forward’.
Every nugget of wisdom that can save us time along our journey of self awareness, in our effort to evolve into a higher self, is of value. And this episode is chocked full of those nuggets.
If it's not 1 Thing, explores the topic of 'mother' from every angle imaginable and some you have not thought of. Each week, hosts Katie Mitchell and Lupe Padilla Mitchell share a new story and have great conversations with the writers, many of whom are in fact not writers by trade. We have excerpts from best selling novels, memoirs, poetry award winners and songwriters, to stay at home moms, insurance brokers, teachers, actors, college students and beyond. Some famous. Some not at all. But they all have incredible tales to tell.
Find out more about us at:
www.ifitsnot1thingitsyourmother.com
on Facebook and Instagram @ifitsnot1thingitsyourmother

Wednesday May 29, 2019
Shari Walker Quan Mother of a Story - Heart Mom/Bio Mom
Wednesday May 29, 2019
Wednesday May 29, 2019
Being a mother is an attitude, not Biology. That is our tagline and that's what this entire episode is about.
SHARI WALKER is a former foster youth who entered the foster care system at age fourteen. She talks about different mothering she received from her birth mom (Bio Mom) and "the first person who wasn't being paid to be with her" (her Heart Mom) after she aged out of the foster care system.
Shari graduated from California State University Northridge, where she majored in African American Studies with an emphasis on Social Science. She is in currently obtaining her Master of Social Work at the USC and continues to write and produce theater and poetry that brings awareness surrounding the transitional experiences after leaving foster care. Shari is currently a part of an ensemble theater performance directed by Kathleen Rubin called "It's Just My Life" where she was able to write "Heart Mom, Bio Mom" during the creative writing workshops. Her one-woman show production to bring awarenesses about youth transitioning out of care entitled Sugar-Free: Foster Care Cognitive Dissonance was selected to receive one of the 2019 Hollywood Fringe Festival scholarships.
Shari Walker is a renowned keynote speaker and spoken word artist within LA County and currently sits on the Leadership Corp for both The National Foster Youth Institute (NFYI) Homeless Action Committee, steered by board member and U.S. Representative Karen Bass, and the Alumni Empowerment Council, steered by members The United Friends of The Children.
Shari hopes to combine her personal experience and current academia to create social change by spreading awareness through the creative arts for disconnected and transition age foster youth who are exiting care.
If it's not 1 Thing, explores the topic of 'mother' from every angle imaginable and some you have not thought of. Each week, hosts Katie Mitchell and Lupe Padilla Mitchell share a new story and have great conversations with the writers, many of whom are in fact not writers by trade. We have excerpts from best selling novels, memoirs, poetry award winners, songwriters, stay at home moms, insurance brokers, teachers, actors, college students and beyond. Some famous. Some not at all. But they all have incredible tales to tell. Story is in our DNA. It's how we make sense of the world around us. We have so much to teach each other. We welcome you to rate and review us.
Follow us on social media or on our website

Wednesday Mar 27, 2019
Parker Lulu Sacavitch Mother of a Story - A Different Teenage Mother Story
Wednesday Mar 27, 2019
Wednesday Mar 27, 2019
A take on motherhood from a girl who is just entering womanhood. What happens when you are a teen, terrified to leave the nest and go to college? You create your comfort zone, your college family.
Parker Sacavitch is a college freshman at Emerson College in Boston. She's currently studying screenwriting, but she's tried writing everything from angsty poetry to horoscopes and everything in between. Her goal is to one day work in the world of children's animated television.
You can follow Parker on Instagram is @babyimtheshed and she hosts a radio show on WECB Saturdays from 8-9 eastern time where she reviews movies
If it's not 1 Thing, explores the topic of 'mother' from every angle imaginable and some you have not thought of. Each week, hosts Katie Mitchell and Lupe Padilla Mitchell share a new story and have great conversations with the writers, many of whom are in fact not writers by trade. We have excerpts from best selling novels, memoirs, poetry award winners, songwriters, stay at home moms, insurance brokers, teachers, actors, college students and beyond. Some famous. Some not at all. But they all have incredible tales to tell. Story is in our DNA. It's how we make sense of the world around us. We have so much to teach each other. We welcome you to rate and review us.
Follow us on social media or on our website

Wednesday Mar 13, 2019
Tanya Davis Mother of a Story - Patterns Repeating... or not
Wednesday Mar 13, 2019
Wednesday Mar 13, 2019
We’re telling stories
We talk about the sadnesses that can be passed on to our children. Or sadness of our mother's that we sometimes take on as our own. How do we ease a burden and not take it on ourselves? Eternal questions.
Tanya Davis is a writer, performer, and musician currently based in Montréal, Québec. She has released 4 albums and 2 books of poetry, including an illustrated version of the widely popular video poem on YouTube, How to be Alone (made in collaboration with Andrea Dorfman). She is past Poet Laureate of Halifax, Nova Scotia where she was also Artist in Residence at Dalhousie University's Faculty of Medicine. She is currently at work on a new collection of poems.
If it's not 1 Thing, explores the topic of 'mother' from every angle imaginable and some you have not thought of. Each week, hosts Lupe Padilla Mitchell and Katie Mitchell share a new story and have great conversations with the writers, many of whom are in fact not writers by trade. We have excerpts from best selling novels, memoirs, poetry award winners, songwriters, stay at home moms, insurance brokers, teachers, actors, college students and beyond. Some famous. Some not at all. But they all have incredible tales to tell. Story is in our DNA. It's how we make sense of the world around us. We have so much to teach each other. We welcome you to rate and review us.
Follow us on social media or our website www.ifitsnot1thingitsyourmother.com

Wednesday Jan 23, 2019
Jon Wise Mother of a Story - A Mother Obscured - a different kind of ghost story
Wednesday Jan 23, 2019
Wednesday Jan 23, 2019
"To begin with, this is not a story about my mother. She and I were not to enter the picture for a number of years. It’s another mother's story- of a ghost, a shadowy presence that moved along the distant edges of my childhood, whose memory was in the custody of others reluctant to part with it or even let it see the light of day." -Jon Wise
Jon Wise lives in Metairie, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans, with his wife Gail and their Australian terrier Owen. He has called the Crescent City home for most of his life and is grateful that he could; though he retains an affinity for the northwest part of the state and the stories it contains. A lawyer by trade, Jon has often turned to writing as both a creative outlet and a way of coming to terms with the world and his brief place in it. He has published poetry and short stories in literary reviews in Louisiana and Arkansas.
If it's not 1 Thing, explores the topic of 'mother' from every angle imaginable and some you have not thought of. Each week, hosts Katie Mitchell and Lupe Padilla Mitchell share a new story and have great conversations with the writers, many of whom are in fact not writers by trade. We have excerpts from best selling novels, memoirs, poetry award winners, songwriters, stay at home moms, insurance brokers, teachers, actors, college students and beyond. Some famous. Some not at all. But they all have incredible tales to tell. Story is in our DNA. It's how we make sense of the world around us. We have so much to teach each other. We welcome you to rate and review us.
Follow us on social media or on our website
www.ifitsnot1thingitsyourmother.com

Thursday Jan 10, 2019
Kelly Grace Thomas Mother of a Story - How The Body Is Passed Down.
Thursday Jan 10, 2019
Thursday Jan 10, 2019
We're telling stories.
Kelly Grace Thomas, is our guest today. We are discussing body image, how it is passed down through the generations, and what we're teaching our kids about it, especially in our silent moments. We also explore when it is that parts of us begin to die. All because of the 2 poems that Kelly Grace reads for us today.
Kelly Grace Thomas is the winner of the 2017 Neil Postman Award for Metaphor from Rattle, a finalist for the Rita Dove Poetry Award, a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee and Best of the Next nominee. BOAT/BURNED, her first full-length collection, is forthcoming from YesYes Books. Kelly’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in: The Los Angeles Review, DIAGRAM, Tinderbox, Nashville Review, Sixth Finch, Muzzle, PANK and more. . Kelly currently works to bring poetry to underserved youth as the Manager of Education and Pedagogy for Get Lit-Words Ignite. She is also the co-author of Words Ignite: Explore, Write and Perform, Classic and Spoken Word Poetry (Literary Riot). She lives in the Bay Area with her husband. For more please visit www.kellygracethomas.com
If it's not 1 Thing, explores the topic of mother from every angle imaginable and some you have not thought of. Each week, we share a new story and have great conversations with the writers, many of whom are in fact not writers by trade. We have excerpts from best selling novels, memoirs, poetry award winners, songwriters, stay at home moms, insurance brokers, teachers, actors, college students and beyond. Some famous. Some not at all. But they all have incredible tales to tell. Story is in our DNA. It's how we make sense of the world around us. We have so much to teach each other. We welcome you to rate and review us.
www.ifitsnot1thingitsyourmother.com

Monday Dec 10, 2018
Anonymous Mother of a Story - Her Mother Can Never Know
Monday Dec 10, 2018
Monday Dec 10, 2018
We're telling stories.
Today’s guest is a best selling novelist and an all around wonderful writer. She wrote a beautiful piece for this podcast and then called us with a special request-- that we keep her identity anonymous.
Who doesn't speak to their mother?
What do you do when you have a toxic relationship with your mom? When the mother you want, is not the mother you have? When you are looking for courage or permission to put your well-being first, to live in your truth? What do you do when you don't want to hurt your mom, but continuing the relationship you two have set up is making you miserable? What lesson will you teach your kids if you disconnect? Or on the flip side, what will you teach them if you don't?
Self-love is not a bad word.
Life lessons are all around us. And one big lesson to be learned from today’s show is, ‘the way a mother handles her divorce can make or break her relationship with her children going forward’.
Every nugget of wisdom that can save us time along our journey of self awareness, in our effort to evolve into a higher self, is of value. And this episode is chocked full of those nuggets.
If it's not 1 Thing, explores the topic of 'mother' from every angle imaginable and some you have not thought of. Each week, hosts Katie Mitchell and Lupe Padilla Mitchell share a new story and have great conversations with the writers, many of whom are in fact not writers by trade. We have excerpts from best selling novels, memoirs, poetry award winners and songwriters, to stay at home moms, insurance brokers, teachers, actors, college students and beyond. Some famous. Some not at all. But they all have incredible tales to tell.
Find out more about us at:
www.ifitsnot1thingitsyourmother.com
on Facebook and Instagram @ifitsnot1thingitsyourmother or on twitter @IfNot1Thing

Tuesday Dec 04, 2018
Cea Sunrise Person Mother of a Story - North of Normal
Tuesday Dec 04, 2018
Tuesday Dec 04, 2018
We're telling stories.
As a toddler, this writer's mother had her tending the fire, fetching water, and learning to skin bears, in contribution to their wilderness off-the-grid lifestyle.
Cea Sunrise Person is the author of two bestselling memoirs, North of Normal and Nearly Normal. They chronicle her counterculture childhood in the wilderness of Canada and then dramatic move into an international modeling career at 13. She has made many appearances to speak about her unique life, including a TEDx talk.
She reads an excerpt from her first book and we have a great conversation with Cea about her unusual early years, her very young mother, and the wisdom and forgiveness that comes from empathy.
Learn more about her here www.ceasunriseperson.com
If it's not 1 Thing, explores the topic of 'mother' from every angle imaginable and some you have not thought of. Each week, hosts Katie Mitchell and Lupe Padilla Mitchell share a new story and have great conversations with the writers, many of whom are in fact not writers by trade. We have excerpts from best selling novels, memoirs, poetry award winners and songwriters, to stay at home moms, insurance brokers, teachers, actors, college students and beyond. Some famous. Some not at all. But they all have incredible tales to tell.
Find out more about us at facebook.com/ifitsnot1thingitsyourmother and on Insta @ifitsnot1thingitsyourmother and twitter @IfNot1Thing

Saturday Dec 01, 2018
Dan Bucatinsky Mother of a Story - Wake Up and Smell the Fingers
Saturday Dec 01, 2018
Saturday Dec 01, 2018
We're telling stories.
A father discovering the mother within. We discussed the mothering nature that a baby can bring.
Dan Bucatinsky reads WAKE UP AND THE SMELL THE FINGERS from his spectacular memoir "Does This Baby Make Me Look Straight?"
Dan Bucatinsky is an actor, writer, producer and author. You recognize him from a million things like Second Act, The Post and Under the Tuscan Sun, but Dan probably best known for his role as James Novak in Scandal. We know you will enjoy Dan as much as we did. Listen as he reads from his hilarious book and then our conversation about parenting and facing all the uncertainties we all face.
If it's not 1 Thing, explores the topic of 'mother' from every angle imaginable and some you haven't thought of. Each show, hosts Katie Mitchell and Lupe Padilla Mitchell share a new story and have great conversations with the writers, many of whom are in fact not writers by trade. Some are famous. Some not at all. But every one of them have incredible tales to tell. Find more about us at Insta @ifitsnot1thingitsyourmother and facebook.com/ifitsnot1thingitsyourmother and twitter @IfNot1Thing

Wednesday Nov 21, 2018
Ep 00 Trailer - If it's Not One Thing, It's your Mother
Wednesday Nov 21, 2018
Wednesday Nov 21, 2018
We're telling stories. If it's not 1 Thing, explores the topic of 'mother' from every angle imaginable and some you have not thought of. Each week, hosts Katie Mitchell and Lupe Padilla Mitchell share a new story and have great conversations with the writers, many of whom are in fact not writers by trade. We have excerpts from best selling novels, memoirs, poetry award winners and songwriters, to stay at home moms, insurance brokers, teachers, actors, college students and beyond. Some famous. Some not at all. But they all have incredible tales to tell. Find more about us at Insta @ifitsnot1thingitsyourmother and facebook.com/ifitsnot1thingitsyourmother and twitter @katie_mitchll