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Parenting is a Joke

Parenting is a Joke

By: Ophira Eisenberg
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 You know when you talk to your friends about your childhood and end it by saying, "But look at us, we're fine!" Here's my question: Are we fine? Because we're sitting here doused in CBD oil under a weighted blanket recording a podcast called Parenting is a Joke. Each week, host and standup Ophira Eisenberg talks to a different comedian about their career and their kids. Conversations tackle the tooth fairy, eating sticks, summer camp anxiety, the hidden horrors of childbirth, and the obvious horrors of our own childhoods. We celebrate the absurdity of shuffling a career with raising a kid, and highlight less traditional parenthood journeys, all while relishing in the fact that no one knows what they're doing, but we're all trying! Sometimes even our best. New episodes every Tuesday. New Season October 1st.2024 © Any use of this intellectual property for text and data mining or computational analysis including as training material for artificial intelligence systems is strictly prohibited without express written consent Parenting & Families Relationships
Episodes
  • Yes Day with Tweens: A Sticker Chart Success Story with Katy Strange

    Yes Day with Tweens: A Sticker Chart Success Story with Katy Strange
    Dec 2 2025
    In this Snack episode, Ophira catches up with author and storyteller Katy Strange, who talks about the very specific chaos of raising two tweens while publishing her debut novel The Manly Man of God. Katy explains how her book’s bold, saint-like cover—complete with a mysteriously floating eggplant—has sparked confusion among some readers, including a man at her book launch who sincerely asked if the story involved a farmers’ market subplot. She and Ophira dig into the megachurch culture that inspired the book, including the time a stranger on a Vancouver bus tried to flirt with Katy only to pivot into trying to convert her, not realizing she understood church history well enough to corner him with questions about communal living. Katy also shares how writing the novel began during nap-time marathons, how a women’s business incubator with drop-in childcare became her creative lifeline, and how her family’s “Yes Day” tradition has evolved from toddlers eating crackers on the couch to tweens burning through budgets on Shake Shack, fancy haircuts, and sneaker hunts. And at the end, Katy describes how her 13-year-old now treats Warhammer figurines as a non-negotiable expense, as well as expensive haircuts from the mall salon that is covered in ring lights. 📍December Shows are in Boulder, CO, Westchester, NY, and good ol’ New York, NY Follow Katy Strange: https://www.instagram.com/realstrangekaty/ See Ophira LIVE: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/events/ SUBSCRIBE so you never miss O thing: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/sign-up Follow PIAJ: https://www.instagram.com/parentingisajoke/ https://parentingisajoke.substack.com/ Follow Ophira: https://www.instagram.com/ophirae/ https://www.facebook.com/OphiraEisenberg/ https://www.tiktok.com/@ophiranyc Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    27 mins
  • Katy Strange is Raising and Existentialist

    Katy Strange is Raising and Existentialist
    Nov 25 2025
    In this episode, Ophira talks with author and storyteller Katy (Katharine) Strange about the tangled realities of raising tweens while untangling a past shaped by evangelical culture. Katy shares how moving 17 times as a kid primed her for reading a room—and for assuming friendships were optional until she realized she wasn’t relocating again. She talks about letting her 13-year-old navigate Seattle’s public transit with “mixed results,” including surprise solo detours through the city, and about trying to teach her kids religion only to have her son declare he’s an existentialist who’d rather stay home and play Halo. Katy also opens up about stepping away from the church, wrestling with belief through therapy, and finding her way back to spiritual curiosity while writing her debut novel Manly Man of God, which pulls from her upbringing in Christian fundamentalism—with zero Cologne-drenched megachurch teenagers harmed in the process. And in the final moments, Ophira asks Katy about her son’s readiness for confirmation, prompting Katy to admit that he took one look at her lesson plan and said, “I don’t believe in any of this—I’m an atheist,” before returning to his video game. 📍November Shows are in Philadelphia, PA, Boston, MA, Westchester, NY, Guadalajara, Mexico! Follow Katy Strange: https://www.instagram.com/realstrangekaty/ See Ophira LIVE: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/events/ SUBSCRIBE so you never miss O thing: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/sign-up Follow PIAJ: https://www.instagram.com/parentingisajoke/ https://parentingisajoke.substack.com/ Follow Ophira: https://www.instagram.com/ophirae/ https://www.facebook.com/OphiraEisenberg/ https://www.tiktok.com/@ophiranyc Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    51 mins
  • Turning Perimenopause Into a Professional Pivot with Kerri Maher

    Turning Perimenopause Into a Professional Pivot with Kerri Maher
    Nov 20 2025
    In this snack-sized conversation, Ophira Eisenberg talks with author and newly certified parenting coach Kerri Smith-Maher about how years of teaching writing, her daughter’s struggles, her own sobriety journey, and a crash course in perimenopause all pushed her toward parent coaching. Kerri explains how a psychologist friend steered her away from graduate school and toward certification at the Jai Institute, where she dove into nervous system science, attachment theory, and the iceberg model of behavior. She shares why Dr. Becky Kennedy’s Good Inside is her go-to recommendation, how a family DBT course helped them decode behavior “under the surface,” and why the real breakthrough in her house came when she learned to regulate herself instead of rushing to fix her daughter’s reactions. Kerri also describes how Tara Brach’s Radical Acceptance finally taught her to “pause” by practicing it during calm moments—helped along by an iPhone alarm labeled “pause” three times a day. The episode ends with Kerri revealing that her best creative work happens only after caffeine, dog-walking, and a strict morning writing window, a habit she built during her daughter’s three-morning-a-week nursery school era. 📍November Shows are in Philadelphia, PA, Boston, MA, Westchester, NY, Guadalajara, Mexico! Follow Kerri Maheri: https://www.instagram.com/kerrimaherwriter/ To learn more about her coaching: https://www.instagram.com/thewellresourcedparent/ See Ophira LIVE: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/events/ SUBSCRIBE so you never miss O thing: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/sign-up Follow PIAJ: https://www.instagram.com/parentingisajoke/ https://parentingisajoke.substack.com/ Follow Ophira: https://www.instagram.com/ophirae/ https://www.facebook.com/OphiraEisenberg/ https://www.tiktok.com/@ophiranyc Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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    31 mins
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