Melissa Hogenboom on matrescence and the mum brain

Friends,

Welcome to A Load of BS. This week, I'm talking to Melissa Hogenboom, BBC science journalist and writer of The Motherhood Complex, an exposé of motherhood warts and all. It's a very personal and thoroughly researched discussion examining behaviours related to pregnancy and motherhood and presents the deep and unresolved challenges as far as how society views the different roles parents play in raising children. It exposes the stigma and biases that women still experience, suffer from when pregnant, as carers and as mothers, for example, trying to reintegrate into the workplace and re-establish identity.

I recommend all parents, or parents to be, to read the book. It's made me a better father and so I hope this conversation, part 1 of which you have today, opens your eyes and gives colour to some of the issues at hand. We're talking about motherhood and sacrifice, matrescence, the mum brain, cultural differences in child rearing, expectations of perfection and gender biases.

You can find my own personal account on fatherhood here so I'd love you to read it in accompaniment to this podcast. And of course share with me your own experiences.

Ask Jeff Kreisler anything

Remember that you can put your questions forward for upcoming shows and if I include it I shall credit you in the show.

In 2 weeks, I’m talking to Jeff Kreisler, former comedian and now Global Head of BS at J.P. Morgan Chase. I’m tempted to ask if stand-up comic to banker was the planned career path; but I guess you’ll have other ideas!

Jeff wrote ‘Small Change: Money Mishaps and How to Avoid Them’ alongside Dan Ariely in 2018 about the illogical world of personal finance and how people can better understand why they make bad financial decisions.

Some of these stories will resonate with you, and Jeff is pretty humorous to boot.

If you have a question for Jeff, email me at danielsjross@gmail.com or DM me on Twitter.

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Next time on A Load of BS

Next week with Melissa, we're going to discuss cultural differences, maternal gatekeeping, the value of the lean in movement, the cognitive labour load that women have to carry, technology, depression and how we change behaviours to reduce the impact of gender bias in parenthood. We're covering a lot of ground in a short space of time.

Indeed, we're scratching the surface of many important issues in this conversation and so if you want to get into it in greater detail, go and buy Melissa's book ‘The Motherhood Complex’. And once you've done that, go to Apple or Spotify and leave me a 5 star review. Come on, what's stopping you!

And if you haven’t signed up yet for all my writings on Monday BS and the pod archives, you can do that right here, right now:

Be well and see you next time!

Daniel