Episode 13: “How Am I??”: Ilana Glazer Takes on Motherhood
Please note: This transcript has been automatically generated.
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
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BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
“I am so hip, even my errors are correct.” I always wondered exactly how Nikki Giovanni found a way to be that in love with herself. Because she was, she was that in love with poetry, with art, with words, with her people, with young people, with Black young people. The celebrated poet passed away at age 81 this week, and I still can’t believe she was just the fifth guest ever that we had here on Undistracted. It was the thrill of a lifetime because I had grown up reading her work, admiring her fervor, appreciating her revolutionary spirit that was always, always full of love. I’d watch interviews that she did with James Baldwin and Muhammad Ali and read the incredible words that she had written, like the poem, Ego Tripping, which I quoted at the very beginning. On Twitter, Dragonfly Jones called Nikki Giovanni, our “cool auntie.” And I think that that is the most apropos term of endearment and respect that we could give her because she saw us generations that were born after her. She saw our value, our worth, so much so that she came to a brand new podcast to talk to a young woman she had never met before and fill me and all of us with so much wisdom, so much clarity, so much tenacity, and so much care.
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
Nikki Giovanni, you will forever, forever be a hero of mine and so many people’s, but most importantly, your life, your words, your work will forever be a revolution. Here’s Nikki Giovanni on Def Poetry Jam reading one of her famous poems, Nikki Rosa.
NIKKI GIOVANNI:
And I really hope no white person ever has cause to write about me because they never understand Black love is Black wealth. And they’ll probably talk about my hard childhood and never understand that. All the while I was quite happy.
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
On today’s show, comedian and producer Ilana Glaser joins me to talk about her upcoming standup special, which gets into a topic that feels personal, but we all know is also political…motherhood.
ILANA GLAZER:
So many things have been perverted for this conservative agenda, but like the beauty that is aligning fully in your identity as a mother is something that I think has been taken away from us. But to reclaim it as my own and to know it in this true and good way feels so good.
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
But first, the news, we’re starting with an item you may not have heard much about, but it is a big deal in a country not far from ours. This week in the Dominican Republic, thanks to a harsh new immigration policy, thousands of Haitian immigrants are being deported in cage-like trucks. Over 71,000 people have already been sent back to Haiti with the goal of removing 10,000 more a week. But these removals as putting humans in cages, uh, may indicate have been reported as abusive. The increase of Haitian citizens within the Dominican Republic is a direct result of mounting crises in Haiti, which shares a border with DR. Violence. That over the weekend, led to the death of 180 people in one of Haiti’s poorest neighborhoods. Yet the Dominican president Luis Abinader is insistent in removing them. Human rights activists say that immigration agents are quite literally just rounding up Black people on the streets, whether they are Haitian or not, which gives these officers carte blanche to racially profile anyone with darker skin.
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
In response to criticism that this immigration policy is both quote racist and xenophobic. The Dominican foreign minister Roberto Álvarez, said quote, all the countries do it and none are accused of that, of those countries. Would you like to guess <laugh>, who is also calling for the deportation of Haitian immigrants? That’s right. Our president-elect Donald Trump, said back in October that if he’s reelected, he would revoke temporary protected status for Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio. So we can’t claim to be any better than they are. This is all connected. But of course, we knew that. Back here in the US a report from March of Dimes, a nonprofit focusing on the health of moms and babies, shows that babies are more likely to be born prematurely in New York than they were over a decade ago. And even though New York is doing better than most states, 9.6% of babies are born prematurely there versus 15% in Mississippi. New York still received a C+ on the site’s birth report card and has drawn attention because of its drop in status. And what stands out sadly, is that the infant mortality rates in the state disproportionately affect Black babies. With Black infants being 2.4 times more likely to die at birth, the poor health outcomes for the child directly correlate with the socioeconomic status and physical health of the birthing person with burrows like the Bronx and counties like Erie receiving worsening scores. Now, y’all know I care about this as a mama who gave birth to a micro preemie. So if this is all depressing, and yes it is, it’s important to note that there are things that have brought preterm birth rates down in the past, reducing unnecessary medical practices, granting insurance coverage for prenatal care and making public nutrition benefits accessible. All of these things help. So let’s get these numbers back down in New York and Mississippi. Let’s go ahead and make it happen.
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
And finally, I wanna end this new segment on a musical note and talk about Rapper Doechii’s Tiny Desk performance last Friday. TThe self-proclaimed Doechii the Don graced our computer screens with a full band and backup singers all wearing cornrows with beads slick down baby hairs and play a medley from her mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal. As the first female rapper signed a top dog entertainment with alumni like SZA and Kendrick Lamar, Doechii embodies the full spirit of Black womanhood and musicianship. I mean, she legit had a praise break at the end of her song Nissan Altima. This is why I’m forever a stand of her. It’s just, ugh, she’s just biggey Black excellence every single time she appears on our screens. I swear to y’all now, a day before the tiny dust dropped, Doechii had given an electrifying performance on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
This time her braids were connected to her two backup dancers and this self choreographed love letter to the culture, including Gucci skirts, reminiscent of dapper Dan’s early designs, scratches at the turntable, and an homage to the late rapper MF Doom, whose voice both starts and ends the performance. It was very much giving Solange. if you know, you know, and not to quote a meme, but y’all, that’s what makes it hip hop, uh, <laugh>. Anyway, by the way, you’ll be seeing way more of Doechii because earlier this fall, she got three Grammy nominations for best rap album, best New Artist, and finally, best rap performance. Which girl I’m pulling for a sweep, right? Like I want you to have the Grammys that Victoria Monet had the other year, and anybody who’s out there saying that Doechii and Kendrick and other artists like them make Harriet Tubman music or protest music. Y’all don’t sound any different than Drake. When he said, Kendrick sounds like he’s always rapping to try to free the slaves. That’s not an insult. And if you think it is you not like us. And that’s it for the news. We’ll be right back.
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
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BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
Hey y’all, welcome back. Now y’all probably know Ilana Glaser from their time on Broad City. Those Ilana of reaction memes are all over the internet right now, and since the Hit TV show ended, they have started two movies, Babes and False Positive, and their latest standup special Human Magic is coming to Hulu in December. There’s a common through line in all of their recent work, one that I clearly relate to real heavy, that’s motherhood. I wanted to talk to Ilana about how motherhood is shaping both their relationship to work and the work itself. It was our first conversation since the election, so y’all know we started right there.
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
Normally I like to start off by asking people how they’re doing, but the truth is, you know, that you’re like the most popular gift on the planet right now because everybody’s answering the same way <laugh>, just like you did from Broad City, right? Like, how “am” I, so let’s just maybe start with that. How are you?
ILANA GLAZER:
Oh, um, today in particular, I am grieving. I’ve been going through like cycles and, you know, DABDA: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. I’ve been going through and through and through and I’m letting myself feel it. And like, it’s so interesting how we’re taught this whole power structure. It’s all so connected, but how we’re taught through whatever messages, explicitly, unconsciously growing up to deny our feelings. And the more I parent myself and learn to feel my feelings, it feels beautiful. I, I was like holding it in on the subway and I got home and I just let it out and I was like, I feel alive. You know,
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
I’ve been trying to let the grief happen while holding off, adding to the grief, right? With every cabinet appointment and every piece of news that comes out. I’ve been trying to not let it compound, because I know stress is bad for the baby. So I’ve just been cooking like <laugh>, like I roasted a whole chicken last night, which I’ve never done before. It was delicious. A garlic butter chicken.
ILANA GLAZER:
How’d you do it?
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
I made a compound butter and I got the butter under the skin and then on top of the skin and tied up the legs.
ILANA GLAZER:
Yeah, you’ve been cooking in two ways. I’ve <laugh> you’ve been
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
Cooking in…
ILANA GLAZER:
Two ways.
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
<laugh>, I’m baking a few things right now. <laugh>.
ILANA GLAZER:
Yeah.
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
Not just my mac and cheese. A little bundle. A little bundle of joy.
ILANA GLAZER:
That’s right. I really was so moved to see your post and those pictures are so beautiful.
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
Oh, thank you.
ILANA GLAZER:
And you are so beautiful and radiant and for like your partner taking your pictures, it’s just like you feel the love.
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
Yeah. That’s the real secret is to marry the one with the camera <laugh>.
ILANA GLAZER:
Oh my goodness. Is that true? It’s the secret. And I was just thinking about like, you know, like the surprising nature of your pregnancy that you spoke to. Like perhaps this is your miraculous moment to stay small with your scope.
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
Yeah, it has to be. I mean, you, to your point, I had been really open both in the, the post I made sharing that I’m pregnant, um, which I didn’t get to do last time. And also this piece I wrote for The Cut that it is a really challenging time to be pregnant. And that’s never how anybody wants to think about bringing new life into the world. And yet I I expected this to be a very joyful, buoyant time. And that is <laugh> celebrating history, right? Looking forward to seeing what good governing could look like, right? Us moving further toward our collective liberatory goals, right? Step by step with somebody in office who was invested in those things. And so to be birthing a child, a Black child, into a world that is going very quickly in the other direction is challenging. So yeah, like my, my moment of revolution right now is like being inward, focusing on these children, making sure that heart and home are strong and secure and surrounded by the village that has been holding us up this entire time, right? But we’re all gonna need each other even more. I’m curious to know from your perspective though, what it means to be a parent right now and ask you frankly, like how the hell you’re doing it?
ILANA GLAZER:
You know, I feel so grateful to be my child’s mother and she’s like my moral compass and my boundaries. I, I was like on Instagram last night and I realized like I can’t do Instagram at night. Like it has changed so violently, so quickly. Um, not just violent, but the chaos, you know, is like an assault. I use my role as a mother and as parent to calibrate my health to make sure I’m healthy enough, well enough to step forward. Putting art out there that is progressive and, and centers basic human rights. You know, my kid is three and it’s like I’m just out of that phase where you’re like weighed down by a tiny little vulnerable being. So I also know that I have more capacity in this moment than I’ve had in the past three years to fight in a particular way in the near future.
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
Yeah. I mean, speaking of that art which you’ve been creating so thoughtfully and brilliantly, a lot of your work as you’ve shared, has really focused on motherhood, right? And the, the world through that lens. False Positive was your horror movie <laugh> about pregnancy. Babes, which I just watched, which is fantastic. Explores really the evolving friendship, right? Between two people with motherhood is that main theme and how it shifts everything even when you don’t want it to. And then your new comedy, special Human Magic. You get super personal about parenthood. Did you see the conversation around parenting missing something in the broader kind of cultural zeitgeist? Like why choose to go this deep on this particular theme?
ILANA GLAZER:
I think it’s like, uh, the role of a true artist to keep evolving personally and then sharing that evolution publicly and creatively and continuing to shed yourself so that you’re not giving a limb that you need right now. You know? So like I keep trying to like work and work so that I can just keep giving pieces away that I no longer need. And the conversation around parenthood, I mean, even men’s stories are limited and I think of like Home Improvement and like The Sopranos. You know what I mean? Like from comedy to like murder. These are the dad stories I know. Not like reflective and tender either. I I, I don’t find that the system we’re in is particularly liberatory to those, it’s supposedly benefiting anyway, you know what I mean? I don’t see the multifaceted motherhood told very often. And when it is told well, and in a true way, we cling to it. So I find this area to be parched. We’re kind of tricked into thinking. We’ve heard it, we’ve heard it, but it’s like we haven’t heard it from the person’s perspective, who is creating the life in their body, choosing it, you know, we have the choice as the break into act one in Babes because it really, you know, should be a choice.
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
Do you feel like there’s new stuff that came up for you as you explored motherhood and parenthood through all these different angles? I mean, you’ve really kind of expanded the space of storytelling on this a horror lens, a comedy lens, film, standup. What new has come up for you in the process of doing that?
ILANA GLAZER:
Okay. The process of standup was so crazy in Human Magic. Like my, the, the sort of story I’m showing about my experience parenting is like, I mean, it’s so fun and funny and like, I love, like, not having to tell like a story arc, but rather like slices of a pizza pie that make up a whole pie. And you’re like, oh, that’s what it feels like. You feel that absurdity of how mothers don’t really often get to tell their layered experience. Parenting. We’re either like annoying and or we’re the virgin or the whore paradigm. That’s not a spectrum, it’s just a binary thing. So I think, um, I’m so excited about people watching human magic and taking in the joy of motherhood. But then of course, like the funny annoying shit that you have to deal with that’s just like, oh, are we really doing this? You know?
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
I think your point is so important because in order to tell these stories, we have to allow ourselves to get personal. When the stories have been impersonal, that’s when we get those binary choices, those false choices and those stories that don’t at all feel real. Is that part of why you chose to talk about your own reality as a parent in person versus kind of creating a fictional one with this, with this upcoming special?
ILANA GLAZER:
I really think it’s damaging to see mediocre stuff that is not true and false and trying to fill a container. ‘Cause your mind gets tricked as an audience member. You’re like, I think this is real ha ha ha. And it’s kind of like you’re like held hostage.
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
Yeah.
ILANA GLAZER:
You know, by this, by this system of just like being force fed mediocre stuff. So for me, the the the highest quality, oh my God, did you hear my Jewish pronunciation? I said, highest <laugh>, my highest. Like what?
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
<laugh> I love it.
ILANA GLAZER:
Actually right now, my highest quality art I can deliver is the truest to me. You know? And, um, I’m really into therapy and do a lot of therapy to separate that personal from professional. It is curated, it is, um, edited and practiced and rehearsed and polished, but it’s definitely personal to me. ‘Cause if it weren’t, it couldn’t be as good. I can keep my in check and my family, but like, what I can’t control is what my audience is receiving. But what I try to control is, I really want to make this hour like a beautifully wrapped present that they’re like so excited to open. And like with Broad City, you know, people thought that Abbi Jacobson and I were these characters. And when I would meet people in person, I would see how it’s like, not necessarily damaging, but like they would certainly be disappointed that we weren’t them. And not even just like a personal thing. I, I just think it’s, um, as I get older, I think it’s like really important that the audience like knows that they’re getting, um, a good piece of art that they feel dignified and respected and thought of that they know and, and not even know, but like feel that they’ve been considered so carefully with so much love when they receive it.
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
I think that’s really clear in your work because as I entered motherhood almost three years ago, I had to a realize how much I had ingested by through rather, uh, a media narrative about what good motherhood looks like and who is capable of that and how much money you have to make and you know, what profession you have to have in order to do that and how you have to keep a home and all these kinds of things. And unlearning that and then remaking motherhood in the image of what is necessary for my child and for me and our family. Like that’s a tall task and it means something when people say, I’m going to enter this space of not just talking about parenthood and my art, but being a parent while making this art with a lot of intention. How has being a mom changed and shaped your approach? Has it made you more intentional?
ILANA GLAZER:
You know, it’s so funny ’cause like so many, I have so many values that could be misconstrued as tradwife values or something, but I’m like
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
<laugh>
ILANA GLAZER:
I really stepped like fully into my identity. Things like clicked in and locked in for me when I became a mom. Not to say that I <laugh> I didn’t have a purpose…
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
Right? But you’re not over here preaching conservative values when you’re doing that.
ILANA GLAZER:
Right, right. But like, I guess, you know, like in, so, so many things have been perverted for this conservative agenda, but like the beauty that is aligning fully in your identity as a mother is something that I think has been taken away from us and perverted over here. But to reclaim it as my own and to know it in this true and good way feels so good and so motivating to me. I toured Ilana Glazer live for a year and we hit, uh, 48 cities, did 52 shows, but over the course of a year, because I only wanted to be away from my family two nights a week and on the third week I would take off, I’ve never before had the power to take a beat and really locate the feelings in my body where feelings are felt to what feels right and then say, I’m gonna do it this way.
ILANA GLAZER:
And I called my agent and he’s like, you know, this really experienced standup agent for, you know, decades and has worked with the biggest like road dogs and whatever. And I was like almost kind of embarrassed to be like, I, I wanna do Thursdays and Fridays ’cause I wanna be home with my family on the weekends and the third week I wanna take off. And he was like “okay, great.” And I was like, oh, <laugh>. Oh, like I thought he was gonna judge me. I came assuming it was a small way of thinking or something, or that if it’s not all the money you can get as soon as possible, it would be frowned upon or he wouldn’t be as incentivized. Absolutely not true. That’s another thing that becoming a mother, how that’s affected my work, understanding that I can only control my own boundaries. And that is the best example for others. Not by telling someone how they should do it or what they should feel or “don’t feel that.” Actually just tending to yourself and your needs fully is the best example.
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
I love that. ’cause I feel very similarly in that I did not get really good with boundaries until I became a mother and I felt so free and then I was like, everybody should feel like this whether you were a parent or not. Right? <laugh> like, I wish I had felt like this 10 years ago. I wish that I felt the permission to make the things that I really want to invest my time in a priority. Right. And 10 years ago, that wouldn’t have been a child, but it was still a thing deserving of being prioritized. Right. Are you hoping that people take some of that permission from human magic? What are, what are you really hoping they walk away with?
ILANA GLAZER:
What I’m hoping they take away is just a funny fuckin’ hour of standup. You know, that’s, that’s really it.
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
Especially right now. Child <laugh>,
ILANA GLAZER:
Oh my Lord, oh my lord. Yeah. We need it.
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
We definitely need the laughs. We need the laughs. I mean, and you, I think you know better than most how much we need the laughs because you have been intentional about using your platform both as an artist and an activist. You started Generator Collective as a response to Donald Trump during the 2016 election. The people who are about to be in charge are explicitly anti-care. They’re anti-parent, they’re anti-child no matter what they say. How do we change that?
ILANA GLAZER:
I think it’s so many levels of messaging. You know, people say storytelling and that’s true. But it’s like when it comes to the actual mechanics of getting, of communicating information, it’s about messaging. When the election happened, I held it at arms distance for a couple days and then we got to the weekend and I kind of unraveled my sense of myself and where I thought I was because I, I didn’t think we were gonna be here, you know? And even who I thought I was, I mean just I, it all like loosened. And then kind of by the time Monday came around I realized like, I’m just gonna root deeper in my own life. I’m gonna keep doing the things that I’m doing, work on my next hour, develop TV shows and write the next movie and keep community organizing because that actually keeps my life together.
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
Do you think that parenthood will continue to be a big theme in your work? Do you see it going more political? Is there something else top of mind?
ILANA GLAZER:
You know, I wanted to actually answer this before about like political, like everything is political. Every action in every realm. Private, interpersonal, personal, public, professional, it’s all political. But I think in 2016, my and my co-founder of Generator Collective Glennis Meagher and I really understood that white people get to not know about this political nature if they don’t want to because of the seemingly ubiquitous nature of whiteness. It’s not ubiquitous, it’s designed to seem that way. But I’m seeing over the past eight years white people understanding this and reflecting more, at least in my community. And then you realize, of course it’s political because every action you take could be either progressive or regressive. And what’s weird is it’s not like, it’s not the binary, it’s not progressive or regressive, meaning conservative in the way that the billionaire backed media portrays it. It’s actually just that the transcendent of identity, politics, human characteristics, simply acknowledging those, recognizing them, theming yourself and in others that is progressive because the system is so dehumanizing.
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
Here’s my question. And I find myself asking <laugh>, asking white people this question as of late, because it feels cyclical to me that the self-discovery happens at the moments of, you know, awareness suddenly bloom. Right? It usually takes some kind of unspeakable tragedy for it to happen. I.E. all of us watching George Floyd be murdered on camera while he’s calling out for his mother. And the number of white women I heard say to me it was something about when he called out for his mother that shifted something in me, right? And then they go out and they buy the books and they join the book clubs and they join the organizations and they do the things and then something happens when it comes time to make decisions of consequence. And I say that broadly because I’m not just talking about voting, but I am talking about voting. But in, in those moments of decision of consequence, something seems to keep happening where the presumption of benefit from the status quo erases all of the learning <laugh>, all of the racial awakening journey that just occurred. What is it going to take for that to stop being the default?
ILANA GLAZER:
Well there’s this story of immunity that white people have been sold for so long and you know, you see white people who don’t have much access sold this story and hoping that they too can become Kings under Trump or whatever. But it’s that middle swath that, you know, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to so much that is gonna have to be moved. And I’m not, I’m not sure what it takes to keep, it’s like exercise, you know what I mean? To keep reminding yourself that you are absolutely vulnerable, your sons and daughters are absolutely vulnerable to what is coming.
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
Do you feel like you’ve ever been able to successfully help move somebody to understanding, I mean when The Cut story went up on Instagram, the comments were like, the comments just proved every point I made in this piece. But one of the comments that was the wildest to me was asking about my pregnancy. ‘Cause I framed this conversation around being afraid to be pregnant, going into Trump 2.0 and this person is like “what does being pregnant have to do with the election results?” And I was like, are we living on the same planet? Like we are not even initiating this conversation from the same starting point, right. If, if these are things I have to explain so that that can make those conversations really challenging. But do you feel like you’ve ever had an experience when you found some moment, some nugget, some practice that helped, you visibly saw somebody move from point A to point B because of your engagement?
ILANA GLAZER:
My movement has been more at the public and professional level of creating this great content with Generator, inviting people and and white people and white women, inviting them to think about themselves within the system and progressing it. And even with simply art, you know, that is not in the political realm with Broad City and babes inviting white female audiences to join a intersectional feminism. The celebration of it. From the role of white women. I do need more practice on the interpersonal level. This next four years, my responsibility and my exercise is going to be the personal conversations. I just met with my agent actually the other night and she’s like, do you remember re with, there’s been an election Tracy Flick?
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
Mm-hmm
ILANA GLAZER:
My agent’s like very much like Tracy Flick. She’s like a good girl and she does her homework and all this stuff and we’re aligned politically and it’s kind of, it’s a big reason why we started working together.
ILANA GLAZER:
And she was telling me about being on this flight and talking to this guy, this Jewish guy, this white Jewish guy from Florida who was a Trumper and she talked to him for the entire flight. She didn’t want to, but she talked to him for the entire three hours pushing and pushing and pushing. And by the end <laugh>, they became friends on Instagram. And I said to her, this is, this is like a, a service that I have yet to build the muscle for and I thank you for it. This is the opposite of wearing a blue bracelet to signal that you are a white woman who voted for Kamala Harris. This is like the work that we need to be doing now.
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
Hmm. I think it’s critically important, especially because some of us <laugh>, some of us do it even when we don’t want to have to do it. And it is, it can be a terribly unsafe choice. I’ll just say it like that.
ILANA GLAZER:
<laugh>. Yeah, it is, it’s unsafe. And um, yeah, that is where white women’s, uh, privilege of bodily safety is, is most effective. That one-on-one.
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
Mm-hmm. So before I let you go, I’m gonna switch gears entirely ’cause I wanna end this on some joy. Give me the funniest moment you have had from the last three years as a mom.
ILANA GLAZER:
Okay. One of the sweetest, funniest things that, that my daughter used to do, and she still does a bit, but when she was younger and unaware of people around was so funny. We live in Brooklyn and we live on the third floor. And whenever I would leave for work, she would call out the window, “Bye mama. Bye mama!” It was so loud. And people are walking by and I’m like,
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
Mm-hmm. That’s me. Mm-hmm. I’m, I’m Mama <laugh>.
ILANA GLAZER:
Yes. Filling up the block as though it’s like, as though the block is our private space. And it was very sweet.
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
But that’s beautiful though because that means that she feels safe in the world that you all have created together with her. And so it does not matter who’s passing by on the street. It doesn’t matter what the weather is, it doesn’t matter what’s going on. She’s gotta say Bye mama.
ILANA GLAZER:
So sweet. I love that. So sweet.
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
I love that. Alana, thank you so much for spending time with us and most importantly thank you for all that you do for not only bringing us joy, but most certainly for provoking us in a lot of the right ways. We appreciate it.
ILANA GLAZER:
Thank you, Brittany. You are such an important and special thought leader to me. I learn so much from you and I am so grateful to be like one of your students is truly how I consider myself. I mean it.
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
Thank you. I needed that. ’cause I’m about to go make this mac and cheese <laugh>
ILANA GLAZER:
<laugh>. It’s be great.
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
And I’m trying not to cry. Salty tears into the cheese. Yeah. Thank you. I really appreciate that. Whether you are a parent by birth or not, whether you have helped raise entire neighborhoods, generations, or your nieces, nephews, or friends’, kids, you have somebody looking at you, make sure you fill ’em up with revolutionary love that doesn’t quit on them and show them that they are perfectly capable of changing the world.
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
That’s it for today, but never for tomorrow. Undistracted is a production of the media and our friends at Wonder Media Network. Our producers are Vanessa Handy, Brittany Martinez, and Alyia Yates. Our editors are Grace Lynch and Maddie Foley. Thanks also to Natalia Ramirez and Sara Culley. Our executive producers at The Meteor are Cindi Leive and myself. And our executive producer at Wonder Media Network is Jenny Kaplan. You can follow me on all social media @mspackyetti on all social media. And our team @TheMeteor. Subscribe to Undistracted and don’t forget y’all, rate and review us y’all on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or all the places your find your favorite podcasts. Thanks for listening and thanks for doing. I’m Brittany Packnett Cunningham. Let’s go get free.
BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM:
That is our show. Thanks again to our sponsor. Happiest Baby. Their baby and toddler Sleep solutions are the best out there. By boosting the sleep of your baby, SNOO helps the entire family get more rest. And by ensuring baby stays safely on their back all night. SNOO gives parents invaluable peace of mind. Happiest Baby also offers the Sleepea Swaddle. The New York Times rated number one bestselling swaddle. You know them babies like to be swaddled and <laugh>. They also brought us the award-winning white noise machines like SNOObie and SNOObear, making them a one stop shop for better sleep. To learn more, head to happiest baby.com. And that’s a wrap.