
Dani McClain is an author and journalist, who’s new book We Live for the We: The Political Power of Black Motherhood is an examination of parenting, community, and social justice. Today we discuss advocating for one’s self as a privilege, how non-parents can aid in the work of parenting, and about what books we would and wouldn’t teaching in school.
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Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes and on Bookshop.org and Amazon.
Books
- We Live for the We by Dani McClain
- Revolutionary Mothering edited by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, China Martens, Mai’a Williams
- Patricia Hill Collins
- Audre Lorde
- Thick by Tressie McMillan Cottom
- The Joy Luck Club y Amy Tan
- Columbine by Dave Cullen
- Prozac Nation
- Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
- Stiff by Mary Roach
- The Mothers by Britt Bennett
- Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
- Buddha by Karen Armstrong
- Paradise by Toni Morrison
- Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés
- Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt
- Lord of the Flies by William Golding
- A Separate Piece by John Knowles

- Enders Game by Orson Scott Card
- Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
- An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
- The Light of the World by Elizabeth Alexander
- I Like to Watch by Emily Nussbaum
- Motherhood So White by Nefertiti Austin
- Breathe: A Letter to My Sons by Imani Perry
- Everything Inside by Edwidge Danticat
- The Chicana Motherwork Anthology by Cecilia Caballero,Yvette Martínez-Vu, Judith Pérez-Torres, Michelle Téllez, and Christine Vega
- Waiting in the Wings by Cherrie Moraga
- Some Assembly Required by Anne LaMott
- Bird by Bird by Anne LaMott
- Something Like Beautiful by asha bandele
- Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- James Baldwin
- Another Country by James Baldwin
- Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
- Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin
- Heavy by Kiese Laymon
- Ibram X. Kendi
- Rebecca Traister
- How We Fight for our Lives by Saeed Jones
- Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
- Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
- Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
- Beloved by Toni Morrison
- Sula by Toni Morrison
- Tar Baby by Toni Morrison
- The Bluest Eye
- A Bound Woman is a Dangerous Thing by DaMaris B. Hill
- The Awakening by Kate Chopin
- Just Kids by Patti Smith
- The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley
- Ava Gardner by Lee Server
- Wrapped in Rainbows by Valerie Boyd
- Baby Love by Rebecca Walker
- Robin D. G. Kelley
- Hammer and Hoe by Robin D. G. Kelley
Everything Else
- The Nation
- Type Media Center
- “Serena Williams on Motherhood, Marriage, and Making Her Comeback” (Rob Haskell, Vogue)
- “I Was Pregnant and in Crisis. All the Doctors and Nurses Saw Was an Incompetent Black Woman” (Tressie McMillan Cottom, Time)
- Monica Simpson (SisterSong)
- National Advocates for Pregnant Women
- “What It’s Like to Be Black and Pregnant When You Know How Dangerous That Can Be” (Dani McClain, The Nation)
- “Why America’s Black Mothers and Babies Are in a Life-or-Death Crisis” (Linda Villarosa, The New York Times)
- “Lost Mothers: Maternal Mortality In The U.S.” (NPR Series)
- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
- Miami Herald
- Aya De Leon
- Kimya Moyo
- Death, Sex & Money (WYNC Studios)
- “Tayari Jones on Frills and Freedom” (Death, Sex & Money, WNYC Studios)
- “Tayari Jones & Carrie Mae Weems: What’s It Like Up There?” (Death, Sex & Money, WNYC Studios)
- The New York Times
- The Daily (The New York Times)
- “Can Elizabeth Warren Win It All?” (Sheelah Kolhatkar, The New Yorker)
- The New Yorker
- Hilton Als
- Emily Nussbaum
- Vincent Cunningham
- Joseph-Beth Booksellers (Cincinnati, OH)
- Shake it Records (Cincinnati, OH)
- Kathy Y. Wilson
- “Ep. 6 Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin — The Stacks Book Club (Chris Maddox)” (The Stacks)
- “Damon Young & Kiese Laymon: The “Good Dude” Closet” (Death, Sex & Money, WNYC Studios)
- “The Short Stacks 12: Damon Young//What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker” (The Stacks)
- “Ep. 34 The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison — The Stacks Book Club (Renée Hicks)” (The Stacks)
- “Ep. 60 Beloved by Toni Morrison — The Stacks Book Club (DaMaris B. Hill)” (The Stacks)
- “Michelle Obama’s Favorite Book Of 2015 Is ‘The Light Of The World'” (Kristian Wilson, Bustle)
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