Episodes

Wednesday Apr 03, 2019
Chanel Brenner Mother of a Story - Navigating Loss
Wednesday Apr 03, 2019
Wednesday Apr 03, 2019
Life is a beautiful thing if you can navigate all the loss. Once your child dies you’re still their mother. In this episode our guest shares the death of her 6 year old son and her journey of navigating that loss.
Chanel Brenner shares how she listened and trusted her inner voice, “You know how to survive the loss of your child. Everyone has their own grief journey.” She reminds us to be respectful of each others grief process. Putting boundaries around grief, helped her marriage survive such loss
Chanel Brenner is the author of Vanilla Milk: a memoir told in poems, (Silver Birch Press, 2014), which was a finalist for the 2016 Independent Book Awards and honorable mention in the 2014 Eric Hoffer awards. Her poems have appeared in New Ohio Review, Poet Lore, Rattle, Muzzle Magazine, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, Spry Literary Journal, Barrow Street, Salamander, Spoon River Poetry Review, Literary Mama, and others. Her poem, “July 28th, 2012” won first prize in The Write Place At the Write Time’s contest, judged by Ellen Bass. In 2018, she was nominated for a Best of the Net.
https://www.amazon.com/Vanilla-Milk-Memoir-Told-Poems/dp/0692267476
http://www.literarymama.com/poetry/archives/2019/03/mother-trucker.html
https://www.facebook.com/chanelbrennerauthor/
Grief Haven is an online community for people traveling the path of grief.
https://griefhaven.org/
If it's not 1 Thing, explores the topic of 'mother' from every angle imaginable andsome 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
I Have Two Times the Love for One Child, by Chanel Brenner
*This poem was first published in Snapdragon, Journal of art and healing in June, 2015

Wednesday Mar 20, 2019
Dan Moore Mother of a Story - His Mom is a Star
Wednesday Mar 20, 2019
Wednesday Mar 20, 2019
The power of letting the ones you love, know what they mean to you is what we are talking about in this episode. Sometimes our children see us as whole humans and not just “Mom”. And that exchange deepens and enriches the relationship.
Dan Moore is a writer based in San Francisco. His work has appeared in many places online. He is also editor of the online magazines P.S. I Love You, The Bold Italic, and Minutes. You can follow him on Twitter @dmowriter and read more of his writing here.
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 Mar 06, 2019
Jennifer Hamm Mother of a Story - Embracing the Space Between Us
Wednesday Mar 06, 2019
Wednesday Mar 06, 2019
We’re telling stories
Jennifer Hamm’s story is about learning to raise the child she was given. Her second son was not like her first. She and her husband needed to figure out how to understand him and how to parent him. Through this process she discovered that his emotional intelligence exceeded his ability to articulate and communicate what he was feeling. She shares how she and her husband had to go to therapy so they could get on the same page to effectively parent this son.
As mothers we tend to pad the corners, we are peacemakers so we find ourselves interpreting our your kids to you husband and your husband to your kids.
Writer Jennifer Hamm is from Beverly Hills and has lived between LA and London since 1994. She began writing over 30 years ago in the worlds of film, tv, blogs, travel and now novels. She is a mother to four boys… and her husband.
www.itsonlyforayear.com is a blog about raising her boys between two countries and all the wonderful chaos that comes with motherhood.
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 on our website

Wednesday Feb 20, 2019
Tess Wheeler Mother of a Story - Mother Courage
Wednesday Feb 20, 2019
Wednesday Feb 20, 2019
We’re telling stories
Tess Wheeler went to school in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, and read English Literature at the University of York. After working as a financial editor in Hong Kong and London, she eventually surrendered to the pull of the beautiful Northumberland coast and returned home. Tess writes short stories and non-fiction articles for Medium and in 2017 she completed the first draft of her children’s novel, Codename Granbag. Two of her stories are included in anthologies called Starting Out and Fire, available on Amazon, and a compilation of her short fiction is due out before the end of 2018. She is currently finishing a second novel, Darkling Ford.
Tess is married with four children, three of whom have grown up and flown the nest. To fill the void left by diminishing ironing and housework, she is forced to spend her spare time writing, reading, beach-walking and wine-drinking.
https://medium.com/@tesswheeler_22562
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

Thursday Feb 07, 2019
Kay Bolden Mother of a Story - A Loose Woman
Thursday Feb 07, 2019
Thursday Feb 07, 2019
"I didn't want you to grow up to be a loose woman," my mother said not long before she died. “But I see I have failed miserably.” This is how Kay Bolden's mother story begins.
Kay Bolden is a writer, speaker and Assistant Editor at PS I Love You, the largest publication on Medium.com focusing on essays, fiction and poetry. Always dreaming of faraway places, Kay finally picked up her backpack at age 55 and hiked out to see the world. Since then, she has solo trekked through Europe, South America and the United States. Her children share her wanderlust, and ran off as soon as it was legal--absolute proof, she says, of effective parenting. She shares her adventures in her new book, The Young and the Rest of Us, available February 13 on Amazon. Kay lives in San Diego with her dog Fergus, where she is writing her second novel and searching for the perfect microbrew. Follow her at:
Medium - https://medium.com/@KayBolden_4729
PS I Love You - https://psiloveyou.xyz/
Twitter - https://www.Twitter.com/KayBolden
Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Kay-Bolden/e/B00J8U4S6U/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
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

Wednesday Jan 30, 2019
Tori Time Mother of a Story - Gypsy Grandma
Wednesday Jan 30, 2019
Wednesday Jan 30, 2019
We’re telling stories
Our writer this week shares her gypsy grandma with us and how she embraces the bits of free spirit she's inherited from her.
Tori Time is a writer, director, actress, and poet living in Los Angeles. After
graduating from The University of Southern California where she received
her Bachelor of Fine Arts in acting, Tori worked for renowned film director,
Sam Taylor-Johnson. Tori studies writing in Jack Grapes Method Writing
classes and is a member of the Los Angeles Poets and Writers Collective.
Tori wrote, directed, and stars in Girl on the Side, a short film which was
made with an all-female crew (release TBD) and is in the process of
adapting it into a feature film. Tori was a finalist for the Sundance New
Voices Lab in 2017 and can be seen on Season 2 of the Mick on Fox.
Tori’s latest poetry can be found in the October 2018 edition of On The
Bus. Tori is a writing mentor at WriteGirls to promote creativity and self-
expression to spotlight the power of a girl and her pen.
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

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

Sunday Jan 06, 2019
Elya Braden Mother of a Story - How To Be A Bad Mother
Sunday Jan 06, 2019
Sunday Jan 06, 2019
A writing teacher told her that everyone is an expert at something. That is how this story came to be. She says you can't give what you didn't receive.
Elya Braden, former corporate lawyer and entrepreneur, is now a widely-published poet and collage artist. Her writing and art are expressions of her healing/spiritual journey that she shares to connect with others and open their hearts. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and her cat. You can find her on the web at www.elyabraden.com.
Through the S.H.E. Fund (http://www.shecollegefund.org/), Elya is now sponsoring one of the girls of the Tasaru Rescue Center - a refuge in Kenya for Masai girls escaping FGM and childhood marriage.
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.
www.ifitsnot1thingitsyourmother.com

Wednesday Jan 02, 2019
Bellina Logan Mother of a Story - Confessions of a Mulatto Love Child
Wednesday Jan 02, 2019
Wednesday Jan 02, 2019
Imagine if you got to have one more conversation with someone you love after they died. This writer keeps her free spirited mother alive through her funny touching writing and performance.
Our guest today is Bellina Logan. We are sharing excerpts from her magnificent one-woman show, Confessions of a Mulatto Love Child, which she has been performing in LA and NY for the past year and a half. (Sequel to her Conversations to a Mulatto Love Child.
Bellina Logan is a 25 year veteran stage and screen actress. In New York City, Bellina has appeared at the Public Theatre, Playwright’s Horizon and The NY Philharmonic. In television, you know her from recurring roles in Sons Of Anarchy, Enlightened, ER, Midnight Texas, and currently on American Vandal. She is a returning original cast member of Twin Peaks and can be seen this season on Better Things and Big Little Lies.
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.
Find out more about us at www.ifitsnot1thingitsyourmother.com
On instagram @ifitsnot1thingitsyourmother
Twitter @ifNot1Thing

Saturday Dec 29, 2018
Alexis Rhone Fancher Mother of a Story - Cruel Choices
Saturday Dec 29, 2018
Saturday Dec 29, 2018
We're telling stories.
Raw honest unapologetic episode about life after the death of this writer's son. She holds nothing back.
Alexis Rhone Fancher is an award winning poet and photographer. She has been published in Best American Poetry 2016, Rattle, Hobart, Verse Daily, Plume, Tinderbox, Cleaver, and elsewhere. Her books include: How I Lost My Virginity to Michael Cohen…, State of Grace: The Joshua Elegies, Enter Here, and Junkie Wife.
Next up? The Dead Kid Poems, the follow up to State of Grace, which will be published in early 2019.
Alexis’s photographs are published worldwide, including the covers of Witness, Heyday, and Pit-head Chapel, and a spread in River Styx. Since 2013, she has been nominated 22 times for the Pushcart Prize. Alexis is poetry editor of Cultural Weekly.
The poems in this episode are:
Cruel Choices -winner of the Pangolin Prize, nominated for The Pushcart Prize (pub in ASKEW, and in Amarylis, UK)
Keeping Things Cold (pub in Diode)
Snow Globe (pub in The MacGuffin)
You can find Alexis Rhone Fancher here -
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alexis.fancher
Website: www.alexisrhonefancher.com
Links to her books:
How I lost my Virginity to Michael Cohen and Other Heart Stab 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 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.
Find out more about us at www.ifitsnot1thingitsyourmother.com

Monday Dec 17, 2018
Eric Mann Mother of a Story - Corporal Punishment
Monday Dec 17, 2018
Monday Dec 17, 2018
We're telling stories.
Spare the rod, spoil the child. A funny story about discipline and respect and his mother's unique brand of justice
Eric Mann is an author, actor, musician and non-profit executive director. He currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada, with his wife of 38 years, Susan.
He is the author of the highly-popular book The Delmont Street Gang, which is described as "The Wonder Years" on steroids. A collection of short stories about a group of boys growing up in small-town Manchester, Connecticut, during the 60s and 70s, when "getting into trouble" meant skipping school or throwing snowballs at cars. These stories are true. The names have been changed to protect the morons. Hilariously funny and touching.”
Link to Book:
He is currently in the final stages of the sequel, titled Beyond Delmont Street, which will be released in Spring, 2019.
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.
Find more about us at:
Insta @ifitsnot1thingitsyourmother
facebook.com/ifitsnot1thingitsyourmother
twitter @IfItsNot1Thing...Podcast