Babes in Bookland

What happens when you finally stop believing something just because you were told to, and start asking if it's actually true? TikTok creator, singer, and now memoirist Ariel Fitz-Patrick joins me on Babes in Bookland to talk about her new memoir I See for Myself , which takes her viral catchphrase and turns it into a full reckoning with faith, family, and growing up in a strict Pentecostal household. Ariel opens up about being raised by Caribbean immigrant parents in Quebec, the birthday party she wasn't allowed to fully attend, being thrown into a French-language school with zero support at fourteen, and the moment at twelve years old when she realized she didn't actually know God, she just knew of him. This conversation moves through doubt, poverty, spiritual warfare, and what it actually means to build a faith that's yours instead of one you inherited. Please rate and review the show and share this conversation with someone who grew up in the church and is still working out which parts of their faith are actually theirs. "I'm telling you to be intentional about how you trust to help you walk through this difficult, confusing, frustrating, maddening thing we call life." - Ariel Fitz-Patrick Connect with Ariel Fitz-Patrick: @arielfitz.patrick @Ariel.fitz (tik tok) Books Referenced: Imma See for Myself by Ariel Fitz-Patrick Support the show: Buy us a book Buy cute merch on Patreon Subscribe on Apple Subscribe on Substack This episode is produced, recorded, and its content edited by me. Xx, Alex Connect with us and suggest a great memoir! Follow us on instagram! @babesinbooklandpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is your ripple effect? This week I'm joined by bookstagrammer and journalist Ashley Kritzer (@ashleykrtizer on instagram!) to talk about LABOR by Dr. Mary Afsari, a memoir Ashley championed hard-- and once I read it, I understood exactly why. In under 200 pages, Mary tells two intertwined stories: her own path as an OBGYN pushed to the edge by burnout, policy, and the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and her search for the truth about her grandmother's death in Iran. The result is a book that is medically intense without ever being gratuitous, and that manages to be both deeply personal and urgently political. Ashley and I dig into what makes the memoir work: its restraint, its refusal to wander into subplots that don't serve the story, and the dual timeline that lets Mary's family history illuminate her present-day fight for women's healthcare. We talk about the hardest case in the book, a child patient whose story exposes how broken the systems meant to protect her really are. We talk about Mary's decision to build a mobile OBGYN practice out of an RV, entirely self-funded, because the traditional system wasn't serving the women who needed her most. And we talk about the eerie, direct line she draws between the crackdown on women's rights in 1979 Iran and what's happening in America right now. We land, as we always seem to, on the same idea: women taking care of women is one of the most beautiful things. Grab a copy of LABOR by Dr. Mary Fariba Afsari, then come back and listen. Share this conversation with someone who needs the reminder that women taking care of women is still one of the most powerful things in the world. "My belief that we were doing the right thing as the right time is what kept me going." - Dr. Mary Fariba Asfari Connect with Dr. Mary Fariba Asfari: @maryfaribapdx Connect with Ashley Kritzer: @ashleykritzer Ashley Kritzer's Substack Books Referenced: LABOR by Dr. Mary Fariba Asfari Support the show: Buy us a book Buy cute merch on Patreon Subscribe on Apple Subscribe on Substack This episode is produced, recorded, and its content edited by me. Xx, Alex Connect with us and suggest a great memoir! Follow us on instagram! @babesinbooklandpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What happens when the company that promises to change the world asks you to disappear into it? Claire Stapleton spent twelve years at Google, first as the internal voice known as the company's Bard, then as one of the organizers of the 20,000-person walkout that made international headlines. In this episode, we dig into her new memoir, Don't Be Evil , tracing her journey from true believer to whistleblower, and what it actually cost her to tell the truth about a company that built its entire identity on a promise it couldn't keep. Claire opens up about the corporate language that slowly ate her own voice, the manager who pushed her off her team while she was pregnant, and the strange psychological architecture of a workplace designed to feel like a religion. She talks candidly about grief, motherhood, and the brother she lost early in her career, whose old Gchat messages became some of her most important source material while writing this book. It's a conversation about power, complicity, and what happens when a woman decides she's done playing the good girl. Send this episode to the friend who still can't quite explain why she left her dream job, or the one who's trying to figure out how to keep her voice inside a company that would rather she didn't have one. Connect with Claire Stapleton: @clairewaves Support the show: Buy us a book Buy cute merch on Patreon Subscribe on Apple This episode is produced, recorded, and its content edited by me. Xx, Alex Connect with us and suggest a great memoir! Follow us on instagram! @babesinbooklandpod Books Referenced: Don't Be Evil by Claire Stapleton Complaint! by Sara Ahmed Careless People Empire of AI by Karen Hao The Managed Heart by Arlie Hochschild Work Rules! Laszlo Bock Other Links: Claire's Substack CNN Business — "One year after the Google walkout, key organizers reflect on the risk to their careers" https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/01/tech/google-walkout-one-year-later-risk-takers The Guardian (via Yahoo News) — "Demoted and sidelined: Google walkout organizers say company retaliated" https://news.yahoo.com/culture-retaliation-google-employees-punished-222552257.html Gulf News / AFP — "Google walkout organiser quits, citing retaliation fear" https://gulfnews.com/amp/story/world%2Famericas%2Fgoogle-walkout-organiser-quits-citing-retaliation-fear-1.1559966090539 CNBC — "Former Google activist Claire Stapleton is starting an advice newsletter for frustrated tech workers" https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/28/ex-google-activist-claire-stapleton-starts-advice-newsletter.html Mashable (via Yahoo News) — "Google employees reveal the hidden costs of speaking out" https://news.yahoo.com/google-employees-reveal-hidden-costs-195821971.html Grokipedia — bio/timeline overview (useful for quick-reference dates and the full organizer list, though not a traditional outlet, so worth double-checking against primary sources) https://grokipedia.com/page/claire_stapleton Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What happens when a memoir promises a reckoning but delivers armor instead? In this Babes in Bookland bonus episode, I'm joined by my friend Lizzie to dig into Hayden Panettiere's memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning . Lizzie listened to the audiobook first, and warned me it was painful, so I braced for a gutting, Christina Applegate style read, and came out with a completely different experience of the same book. That gap between the two of us became the real story of this episode. Hayden rose to fame before she was old enough to understand what fame meant, from Remember the Titans to Heroes to two Golden Globe nominated seasons of Nashville, all while quietly carrying the pressure of being Hollywood's It Girl. Her memoir promises postpartum depression, addiction, domestic abuse, and loss, and we both went in rooting for her. What we found instead was a book that kept circling its own most painful moments without ever landing on them, a codependent relationship with her mother that never gets fully named, and a custody decision that's never quite explained. We talk through what worked, why the cover and author photo tell you almost everything you need to know before you even open the book, and why they both think the deeper, more vulnerable version of this memoir is still a few years away. Listen to the full episode to hear us work through it, and let us know: would you recommend this one, or wait for the sequel? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What does it take to finally name the thing that happened to you? Sarah is the author of She Journeys , a memoir about a military marriage that devolved into betrayal, a helicopter crash, and years of numbness before she could even recognize her own trauma for what it was. We talk about leaving an abusive relationship, the therapist who validated her martial rape, rebuilding faith on her own terms, and the solo road trip across the country that became the beginning of an entirely different life. Share this one with the friend who's in the in-between place after a loss, and the friend who needs to hear that starting over is possible, even when it feels impossible. Links: Instagram: she_journeys Book: She Journeys Support the show: Buy us a book Buy cute merch on Patreon Subscribe on Apple This episode is produced, recorded, and its content edited by me. Xx, Alex Connect with us and suggest a great memoir! Follow us on instagram! @babesinbooklandpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What happens when the person hired to keep you safe is fighting a system that would rather look the other way? This week's bite-sized episode dives into Lifeguard, A Love Story , the memoir from Janet Fash, one of the first female lifeguard chiefs in New York City history, co-written with Cleo Chang. I read through Janet's decades on Rockaway Beach, from her start as a hazed rookie lifeguard in the debauchery-soaked 1970s to her years-long battle against entrenched union corruption at the top of the Parks Department. It's part coming of age story, part exposé, and I break down where each half succeeds and where the blend gets uneven, plus why that slow first third might test even the most patient reader. I also gets into the harder threads running through the book: the tragedies Janet survives along the way, the sexism and harassment she faces climbing the ranks, and the quietly devastating stakes of what happens when a beach safety system is run for power instead of people. It's a messy, imperfect memoir about what it actually costs to be the one person willing to keep pushing when everyone else has made peace with looking away. Give this one a listen, then let us know if you made it past that first third. Like, review, and share Babes in Bookland with a friend who needs a stubborn woman in their life this summer. Links: Book: Lifeguard: A Love Story Support the show: Buy us a book Buy cute merch on Patreon Subscribe on Apple This episode is produced, recorded, and its content edited by me. Xx, Alex Connect with us and suggest a great memoir! Follow us on instagram! @babesinbooklandpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What happens when the world tells you no, and someone decides to say yes instead? Gaelynn Lea is a folk musician, Broadway composer, and Tiny Desk Contest winner whose memoir It Wasn't Meant to Be Perfect is as funny and warm as she is, even when she's writing about near-death experiences, medical dismissal, and growing up disabled in a world that wasn't built for her. We talk about gatekeepers versus gate openers, the teacher who adapted a violin instead of saying no, sexuality and disability, and the one sentence from a mentor that changed how she thinks about making art at all. Share this one with the friend who's scared to put their creative work out into the world, and the friend who could use a reminder that adapting isn't the same as giving up. Links: Website: violinscratches.com Substack: gaelynnlea.substack.com Instagram/socials: @gaelynnlea Facebook: Galen Lee Creates Book: It Wasn't Meant to Be Perfect Support the show: Buy us a book Buy cute merch on Patreon Subscribe on Apple This episode is produced, recorded, and its content edited by me. Xx, Alex Connect with us and suggest a great memoir! Follow us on instagram! @babesinbooklandpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if the coziest story of your childhood was only cozy because someone decided what to leave out? This week Brett is back for a book club chat on Little House on the Prairie and the real manuscript behind it, Pioneer Girl. We get into how Laura Ingalls Wilder's actual life story got rewritten by her daughter Rose into something sellable for Depression-era kids, what got cut along the way (a dead baby brother, a murdered family friend, an entire year of their lives), and the Osage history the books erase almost entirely, land that was never actually free, a removal that happened right past their door. We also talk about Pa, who gets remembered as the moral center of the whole series and maybe doesn't deserve it, and about Yesteryear, this year's buzziest book club pick, where a trad-wife influencer wakes up living the 1855 life she's been selling on Instagram. This is a conversation about which parts of our history get to be cozy and which parts get quietly left out, and who decides. If it resonates, subscribe, leave a review, and send it to a friend who loved these books as a kid too. Books & Sources Mentioned Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography The full Little House series (Laura Ingalls Wilder) The Rose Years series (Roger Lee MacBride) The Caroline Years series (Maria D. Wilkes & Celia Wilkins)Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann Prairie Fires by Caroline Fraser Frances Kaye, "Little Squatter on the Osage Diminished Reserve," Great Plains Quarterly (2000) Osage Nation historical documentation (referenced re: 1869–70 removal) PBS American Masters piece on Laura Ingalls Wilder Coming Up Next Week! Author chat with Gaelynn Lea on her memoir It Wasn't Meant to Be Perfect — a folk musician, Broadway composer, and disability advocate on embracing every kind of body. Thank you! xx, Alex Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What happens when the "honest mom" finally tells you the parts she's never posted? This week I'm talking with Libby Ward about her memoir, Honest Motherhood . Libby built an audience of over 2 million by naming the mental load, the mother wound, and the impossible pressure to be everything. But the book goes further than any caption ever could: her rural church upbringing and the deconstruction that followed, the chaos of her own childhood and the long, complicated work of rebuilding a relationship on her own terms with her mother, and the exact moment in a minivan when she realized she'd become someone she never wanted to be. We talk about trusting her own voice after a lifetime of trusting everyone else's, why she turned down a book deal with a major agent because it wasn't the book she wanted to write, and why writing this one nearly broke her even though the book tour feels like a vacation by comparison. We also get into the humor running through the whole thing, because Libby is proof that funny people usually have a little trauma to thank for it. This is a conversation about permission. Permission to stop performing wellness, to hold boundaries and actually keep holding them, and to feel proud of your own work without waiting for someone else to say it's okay. If the conversation resonates, subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with any mom ready to break out of survival mode. “Being honest about what I needed didn’t feel brave— it felt unnatural. No, scratch that. Disappointing other people made me want to peel my skin off.” -- Libby Ward Connect with Libby Ward: @libbyward Support the show: On Patreon . Buy us a book Buy cute merch Buy Honest Motherhood This episode is produced, recorded, and its content edited by me. Xx, Alex 00:00 — Intro + episode teaser 01:30 — Welcoming Libby, gushing over the book 04:00 — What she's never shared online: her mom, her childhood 07:30 — Her deconstruction journey and leaving the church mindset 11:00 — Why she started sharing online in the first place 14:30 — Turning down the wrong book deal 18:00 — Finding her voice: editors, coaches, and saying no to a ghostwriter 21:30 — Balancing content creation, motherhood, and ADHD ("rubber ball brain") 25:00 — Writing the book was "the seventh layer of hell" 28:30 — How she wove humor into heavy topics 32:00 — Learning to actually feel proud of herself 35:30 — Becoming a mom she didn't want to be 40:00 — The granola bar moment: her breaking point 43:00 — The "ball of yarn" metaphor for untangling trauma 46:30 — Her mother, going no contact, and why 50:30 — Boundaries, hope, and rebuilding the relationship 54:00 — What society needs to change ("men need to enter the chat") 58:00 — Rapid-fire: favorite word, staying hopeful, weirdly competitive 1:01:30 — Where to find Libby + outro 1:02:30 — Next week preview: Pioneer Girl / Little House / Yesteryear with Brett Connect with us and suggest a great memoir! Follow us on instagram! @babesinbooklandpod xx, Alex Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Thank you for being here! Today, we look back on a few of my favorite clips from the past three seasons! xx, Alex Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How can you reclaim your truth and your power? We’re diving into Horse Barbie, Geena Rocero’s radiant and illuminating memoir that shows her journey from a one-room home in Manila, Philippians, to trans pageants, from the perfume counter at Macy’s to New York fashion sets, and from private, suffocating, fear to a TED Talk that reframed transness as power. Along the way, we discuss her father’s complicated love, her mother’s unwavering belief and reflect on what can spark when the people who matter most tell you there’s nothing wrong with you. Geena’s story and memoir widens from personal to political: pre-colonial history without gendered pronouns, the costs of documentation that doesn’t match your face, and the power of her viral TED Talk to turn shame into strength. We sit with the big questions: Why is femininity seen as a threat? How do entertainment and policy diverge? What changes when a community moves from visibility to rights? By the end, Horse Barbie reads like a manual for courage. It shows how story becomes strategy and how one woman’s voice can help many step out of the shadows. If you care about trans rights, immigration, pageant culture, modeling, or the way love can change a life, this conversation brings nuance, warmth, and a clear takeaway: policy matters, family matters, and stories move hearts faster than arguments ever will. If the conversation resonates, subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who needs a hopeful, human lens on trans life and advocacy. For the extended discussion of this episode (an additional 24 min), subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Patreon . Support the show: Buy us a book Buy cute merch Buy Horse Barbie Other Links: Evan Hurst substack This episode is produced, recorded, and its content edited by me. Special thanks to my dear friend, Jaime! Xx, Alex Connect with us and suggest a great memoir! Follow us on instagram! @babesinbooklandpod Timestamps! 00:21: Intro Buy Geena Rocero's Memoir Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What questions should you be asking the people you love while you still can? That's the thread running through this conversation with Dorothy Roberts, whose memoir The Mixed Marriage Project started with a stack of boxes. After her parents passed, Dorothy opened them and found nearly 500 interviews her white father had conducted with interracial couples in Chicago, beginning in 1937, almost two decades before he married her Black mother. Inside were wild parties, a nudist camp, a turn-of-the-century club for mixed couples, and a file labeled number 224 that turned out to be about her. We talk about the interviews her father never published and the book contracts he kept walking away from, why she hid her father's whiteness from her Black classmates at Yale, and the painful stereotypes that surfaced even inside a club devoted to interracial marriage. We get into the big question at the heart of the memoir too: whether love, the everyday intimate kind, can actually dismantle racism. Spoiler, it's complicated. Dorothy Roberts is a scholar, professor, and author of five books on race, gender, and the systems that devalue Black women and mothers. The Mixed Marriage Project is her first memoir, built from the nearly 500 interviews her father left behind. If this conversation moved you, share it with a friend and leave a review and rating. Purchase The Mixed Marriage Project Support the show: On Patreon Buy us a book Buy cute merch Subscribe to the Babes in Bookland Substack Connect with us and suggest a great memoir! Follow us on instagram! @babesinbooklandpod Thank you for listening! Xx, Alex Timestamps! 00:01 — Intro: The Mixed Marriage Project 02:22 — Finding the form: memoir as history and social analysis 04:09 — What was the Great Migration 05:55 — Interracial marriage laws, North vs. South 08:00 — The interracial couples' club and its blind spot on Black women 10:56 — Race, racism, and why the questions never get asked 12:19 — Choosing which couples made the book 14:00 — The Albertis: a lifelong family friendship hidden in the interviews 15:22 — Researcher, daughter, or both 16:53 — The twist: her father started this before he met her mother 19:51 — Her father's anti-racism, and the brother who disowned him 23:19 — The India trip that shaped everything 25:06 — Questions she'll never get to ask her parents 26:24 — Writing alongside her sisters, Helen and Evelyn 28:00 — The Bachelor chapter: the nudist camp, the wild party, the sister who wanted it cut 31:40 — A loving memoir, not an attack 33:22 — Her own "bachelorette" stories 34:21 — What her kids might find in her own papers one day 35:37 — Being recorded, being remembered — the podcast as legacy 38:36 — Her father's thesis: can interracial marriage end racism 41:29 — How her views shifted while writing 47:30 — Her father's first interview, 1937, and the racial caste system 49:17 — The book he never finished 51:28 — File 224: discovering she was one of his research subjects 55:59 — Hiding her father's whiteness at Yale 59:04 — Ashamed isn't quite the word 61:06 — Racial identity is made up — and hers is hers 63:06 — Favorite word, staying hopeful, Marvin Gaye Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What would it mean to build women's sports around women's bodies? This week, my friend Becca returns to discuss Lauren Fleshman's memoir "Good for a Girl". What starts as a running memoir quickly reveals itself as something far bigger: an investigation into the science of female puberty and athletics, the eating disorder epidemic inside women's collegiate and professional sports, and one woman's relentless fight to change a sport she loves from the inside out. We discuss Lauren's unconventional path to running, the ways puberty has been treated as "the one injury a girl can't come back from," the NCAA's staggering lack of policy around eating disorders in women's athletics, Lauren's famous Nike "Objectify Me" campaign, and the ways female athletes are still being failed by the systems built to protect them. This episode is for every woman who was ever told she was good — for a girl. The runners, the former athletes, the moms of daughters in sports, and anyone who has ever felt their body was working against them instead of for them. If this conversation resonated with you, the best thing you can do is share it with a friend who needs to hear it, and rate and review the show wherever you listen. It makes a huge difference! Purchase "Good for a Girl" Other Links: https://www.milesplit.com/articles/211759/dear-younger-me-lauren-fleshman (Lauren's letter to her younger self) Follow Becca's bookstagram: @bookedwithbecca and her new running account: @run.with.becca Support the show: On Patreon Buy us a book Buy cute merch Subscribe to the Babes in Bookland Substack Connect with us and suggest a great memoir! Follow us on instagram! @babesinbooklandpod Thank you for listening! Xx, Alex Timestamps! 00:00 — Intro: Lauren Fleshman's Good for a Girl 01:02 — Why did Becca pick this book? 03:33 — The book's dedication and opening lines 03:57 — How did Becca's running journey begin? 05:15 — How do you stay safe on solo runs? 07:05 — What would you tell your younger self? 08:09 — "You can do anything, Lauren" — her dad's voice in her head 09:58 — How do we hold space for people who shaped us for better and worse? 11:35 — "Dad was a wild tide, but mom was our shore" 12:08 — How do parents give equal love and attention in a big family? 13:44 — Beating the boys, and not questioning it 17:03 — Why do we still say "good for a girl"? 17:51 — Middle school dominance, then puberty hits 19:00 — Do we tie our identity to winning? 19:50 — Becca's Lauren Fleshman sighting on a race course 20:25 — Why are girls quitting sports by 14–17? 22:37 — Why does puberty help boys and hurt girls athletically? 23:32 — The clash between athletic function and the male gaze 25:39 — Finding her running form and making the team 27:20 — When did you first realize the boys were pulling ahead? 29:30 — How did Title IX change the culture of effort? 33:04 — "Puberty is the injury you can't come back from" — what did the captain mean? 34:20 — Why are eating disorders so prevalent in the running world? 35:53 — Why does the NCAA still have no policy on eating disorders? 39:06 — Stanford, Jesse, and asking the hard question up front 40:07 — "What made great women possible?" 41:19 — Body image and the college uniform 42:41 — Equity vs. equality — why "same" isn't fair? 43:16 — Why do female athletes peak in their late 20s and 30s, not their teens? 45:08 — Going pro on a $60K Nike salary 46:04 — Coming heartbreakingly close to the Olympics 47:01 — What happened when she emailed Nike's CEO? 47:46 — The "Objectify Her" campaign — reclaiming the gaze 49:19 — How do you let anger fuel advocacy instead of consuming it? 49:56 — Why did she start her blog? 50:49 — The granola bar company 51:04 — Why did Nike treat her pregnancy like an injury? 51:33 — What real change would actually look like for young female athletes? 52:20 — Final thoughts: what are we taking from this book? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What would change if women stopped being silent about the hardest parts of their lives? This week, I sit down with psychologist, author, and advocate Dr. Jessica Zucker, the woman behind the viral #IHadAMiscarriage movement, to discuss her memoir I Had a Miscarriage and her newest book Normalize It: Upending the Silence, Stigma, and Shame That Shape Women's Lives . TW: Infant loss, pregnancy loss Jessica shares the story behind her 16-week miscarriage, how it deepened her already decade-long clinical work in women's reproductive and maternal mental health, and why she felt compelled to bring that conversation into the public sphere. We also dig into why so many women default to self-blame after pregnancy loss, how our culture has taught us to minimize our grief, and why avoiding painful emotions can be far more destructive than actually feeling them. Plus these big questions: Can pleasure and grief coexist? What does it mean to truly honor a loss? And why do the people who most deserve joy so often feel the least entitled to it? Come for the conversation about pregnancy loss and women's shame. Stay for the moment Alex and Jessica unpack why grief avoidance, not grief itself, is what really derails us, and the simple, no-excuse practice Jessica recommends for anyone who doesn't have time to fall apart. Warm, honest, and full of gentle permission slips, this conversation is for anyone who has ever shrunk their pain to make others more comfortable — which is probably all of us. Purchase Jessica's Books: Normalize It! I had a Miscarriage Find Jessica! Dr. Jessica Zucker's website: drjessicazucker.com Her Instagram: @IHadAMiscarriage Support the show: On Patreon Buy us a book Buy cute merch Subscribe to the Babes in Bookland Substack Connect with us and suggest a great memoir! Follow us on instagram! @babesinbooklandpod Thank you for listening! Xx, Alex Timestamps! Timestamps! 00:00 Welcome and intro to Dr. Jessica Zucker 01:48 The origins of I Had a Miscarriage and Jessica's background in reproductive mental health 03:08 Jessica's own sixteen-week miscarriage while home alone 04:06 Why shame and self-blame follow pregnancy loss 05:28 Miscarriage as a normative outcome, not a curable one 07:14 Alex opens up about her own miscarriage 09:04 Building composite patient stories across both books 11:44 The #IHadAMiscarriage hashtag going viral 14:19 Letting grief wash over you instead of running from it 15:33 Grief avoidance, numbing, and what actually ruins us 16:09 How being the specialist made her own grief harder to navigate 18:57 Two weeks after the book came out: a breast cancer diagnosis 20:43 Small daily check-ins for people without access to therapy 25:01 Grief doesn't shrink, your life just gets bigger 26:08 Naming Olive and the grief rituals she witnessed in Tokyo 30:14 Can pleasure and grief coexist? Joy as resistance 31:35 The backstory of Normalize It and how it came together during cancer 35:20 Why women carry so much shame 38:04 Can shame ever be a useful tool? 39:35 Talking to her son and daughter about bodies, periods, and sex 44:11 The bravery of a text that just says "thinking of you" 45:52 Mirror or manifesto? 46:38 Body image after breast cancer 48:29 How Jessica stays hopeful 49:02 Where to find Jessica and her books Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Brett is back for a bonus episode and we are getting into "Famesick", Lena Dunham's new memoir about illness, ambition, Hollywood, and whether any of it was worth it. Brett isn't just any reader here — she worked closely with Lena during the Girls era at United Talent Agency, which means this conversation comes with some serious behind-the-scenes context that you are not going to get anywhere else. We break down what the book actually delivers versus what it promises: the health journey, the name dropping, the rise-to-fame years, the rehab chapters, the wildest dedication page we have ever read, and the moment with Barbara Walters that has been making the rounds for good reason. We also get into what the memoir conspicuously leaves out — her friendship with Taylor Swift, the wording of the November 17th statement — and why those omissions say just as much as what she chose to include. The big question we keep coming back to: is "Famesick" a genuine reckoning, or is it a very calculated, self-serving reframe of a career and a public image? If you loved Girls, hated Girls, or have ever had a complicated relationship with a woman who is clearly brilliant... but also kind of a lot — this episode is for you. Thank you so much for supporting the show! Xx, Alex Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Belle Burden's divorce memoir, Strangers , is the book everyone's talking about! She's a Harvard-educated lawyer, a Vanderbilt heiress, a hedge fund husband, and a life that unraveled with a single voicemail. But why are we so obsessed with this woman's problems? On this Bite-Sized Babes, I break down the instant #1 NYT bestseller with some hot takes: the transformation the book promises vs. what it actually delivers, the anger that never quite shows up on the page, and the uncomfortable question of whose pain we choose to center in literary culture. Plus, a fascinating comparison to Jen Hatmaker's Awake , the memoir telling nearly the same story with a completely different energy. Come for the book review, stay for the bigger conversation about women, wealth, divorce, and who gets to fall apart in public. Buy Belle Burden's "Strangers" Connect with us and suggest a great memoir! Follow us on instagram! @babesinbooklandpod Xx, Alex Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Can nice girls win? You know her as one of the most iconic players in Survivor history, but Parvati Shallow's memoir, Nice Girls Don't Win, reveals the story behind the strategy. My friend, Diliana, joins me as we dive deep into Parvati's remarkable journey from growing up in a cult-like commune called The Ranch, to winning Survivor twice, to finally doing the hardest thing of all: healing. We explore the four Fs — fight, flight, freeze, and fawn — and how Parvati spent most of her life cycling through them without realizing it. We talk about the performance of being "the good girl," what it costs women to be likable, and why the villain edit she carried for years says so much more about our culture than it does about her. And along the way, we get personal about growing up in survival mode, about not wanting to be a burden, about the belief systems we inherit from the people who raised us, and the long, non-linear work of unlearning them. This one is for anyone who has ever shrunk themselves to be loved, wondered why they can't just get over it, or needed a reminder that the mess and the healing are both part of the win. Purchase Nice Girls Don't Win by Parvati Shallow Other books mentioned: Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving by Pete Walker The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk Existential Kink by Carolyn Elliott Thank you for supporting the show! Xx, Alex Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One good choice can re-route an entire life, but only if you trust yourself enough to make it. I sit down with memoirist Cassidy Gard to talk about the real story behind her healing memoir, "Cosmic Goodness: Surrendering the Shadows to Live in the Light." We also get delightfully specific about book cover decisions, permissions, and why the right quote can set the emotional tone for a chapter. From there, we go deeper into the heart of her message: “cosmic goodness,” a grounded kind of spirituality she defines as "courage meeting clarity." Whether you love the woo or you hate it, the point is still practical and universal-- Your life changes when your daily decisions match the life you say you want. Cassidy shares the exercises that helped her shift her inner world, including conscious sobriety, writing-based practices for anger, and a commitment to alignment that keeps her open to the right conversations and opportunities. We also talk about the hard truths that shaped her. Growing up poor with an alcoholic father, shame that settles into the nervous system, imposter syndrome, and the surprising moments that made her feel seen. Motherhood brings another layer, including postpartum anxiety, postpartum rage, and the long road to forgiving yourself after a terrifying accident. The conversation ends with a nuanced take on separating art from artist and how we can outgrow what once carried us. If you care about memoir, intuition, healing, spiritual growth, postpartum mental health, and rebuilding a life with intention, press play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway. Purchase "Cosmic Goodness" Xx, Alex Connect with us and suggest a great memoir! Follow us on instagram! @babesinbooklandpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A glossy, star-studded book launch. A memoir that rockets past 100,000 copies. Then a wave of silence from major reviewers, an investigative report, and a scientific debate that refuses to stay theoretical. We’re talking about Amy Griffin’s The Tell and the chaos that followed its triumphant debut, where celebrity endorsement meets the most contested questions in trauma psychology. My friend, Colette, joins the show as a licensed marriage and family therapist to share her thoughts on it all! Subscribe for the full conversation, share this with a friend who loves book-world drama with real stakes, and leave a review with your take: where do you draw the line between personal healing and public truth? Purchase the episode individually here Subscribe on Apple Podcasts for all bonus content Xx, Alex Connect with us and suggest a great memoir! Follow us on instagram! @babesinbooklandpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is it possible to see joy in life's hardest moments? I sit down with memoirist Alexandra to talk about her memoir, Seeing Joy: A Story of Life, Death, and What Comes Next. We dig into how Alexandra’s story began as a caregiving blog in 2006, written first for friends and family and then embraced by strangers who recognized their own fear and tenderness in her honesty. She shares what it took to transform that real-time writing into a publishable memoir, including years of rejection from traditional publishing and the creative breakthroughs that came from adding family letters and her mother’s own unpublished manuscript. If you’ve ever wondered how memoir gets made, this is the unglamorous, deeply human version. Then we go to the heart of it: hospice care at home, the emotional calculus of choosing home over a nursing facility, and the unexpected moments of grace that arrive alongside the mess. Alexandra describes her mother’s vivid “visitors” near the end of life and what hospice workers call “visioning,” plus how that shifted her mother from fearing death as “the end” to finding a kind of peace. If you’re searching for a clearer way to talk about dying with dignity and still make room for joy, this one stays with you. If this conversation helps, subscribe, share it with a friend who’s caring for someone, and leave a review so more listeners can find the show. What part of end-of-life caregiving do you wish people were more honest about? Purchase Alexandra Grabbe's "Seeing Joy" Purchase Alexandra's father's memoir "Émigré" Xx, Alex Connect with us and suggest a great memoir! Follow us on instagram! @babesinbooklandpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.