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Parenting is a Joke

Parenting is a Joke

By: Ophira Eisenberg
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About this listen

 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
  • Phuc Tran Trades Punk Rock for Parenting Teen Daughters

    Phuc Tran Trades Punk Rock for Parenting Teen Daughters
    Jan 20 2026
    Ophira Eisenberg sits down with author, tattoo artist, and Maine-based dad Phuc Tran for a wide-ranging, grounded conversation that moves from frantic school drop-offs and topping off windshield wiper fluid before a storm to the deeper anxieties of becoming a parent after trauma, bullying, and immigration. Tran talks candidly about growing up as a Vietnamese refugee in small-town America, finding safety in classrooms when home wasn’t safe, and how punk rock, tattoos, and books became both armor and language. The two bond over raising kids while making creative work that pays unevenly, advocating half-jokingly for plumbing and electrical careers, and embracing Maine’s culture of the multi-hyphenate as a survival skill rather than a branding exercise He also reflects on fearing he’d be a bad father, how therapy reframed imperfection as necessary, and why parenting teenage daughters now feels like his area of expertise after decades teaching middle and high school. They also get into luck versus merit in publishing, how his memoir Sigh, Gone led—almost accidentally—to a bestselling children’s book series about big feelings, and why emotional batteries, not discipline charts, determine household peace. The episode circles back to physical objects as emotional anchors, landing on Tran’s red rotary phone—kept for Maine power outages and the unmatched satisfaction of slamming down a receiver when a conversation is truly over. 📍January Shows are in Las Vegas, NV, Beacon, NY and New York, NY Follow Phuc Tran: https://www.instagram.com/phucskywalker/ 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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    44 mins
  • Building a House Everyone Comes To With Carole Montgomery

    Building a House Everyone Comes To With Carole Montgomery
    Jan 13 2026
    Carole Montgomery and Ophira Eisenberg zoom out from early parenting to talk about what happens after the kid grows up, moves out, and then… moves back in. Carole describes her son’s room as a frozen time capsule—albums, toys, and CDs untouched—while explaining how his first attempt at college lasted six months before the classic millennial boomerang returned him home, a pattern she sums up as “they leave, they come back; I moved—he found me.” She reflects on the anxiety that followed him into adulthood, her belief that anxiety is practically the baseline setting now, and the emotional whiplash of touring for weeks before constant phone contact existed, including the moment her six-year-old calmly told her she was “solid” and could go back on the road. The conversation weaves through parenting philosophies shaped by Vegas cul-de-sacs and open-door houses, her resistance to overscheduled childhoods, the reality that almost no kids actually go pro despite intense sports pressure, and the great trophy purge that left only signed baseballs and, somehow, her husband’s awards. Carole also digs into the creation of Funny Women of a Certain Age, venting about theaters that expect comics to sell tickets, sweep floors, and manage social media while still questioning whether women-led comedy events can sell, all before landing on the oddly satisfying moment she told a woman in her mid-30s she was simply too young for the show. 📍January Shows are in Las Vegas, NV, Beacon, NY and New York, NY Follow Carole Montgomery: https://www.instagram.com/carolemontgomerycomic/ 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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    38 mins
  • Jennifer Wai Connects Reiki, Fortnite, and Staying Close to Your Kid

    Jennifer Wai Connects Reiki, Fortnite, and Staying Close to Your Kid
    Jan 6 2026
    In this New Year’s episode of Parenting Is a Joke, Ophira Eisenberg talks with mystic, Reiki practitioner, and parent Jennifer Wai about raising kids while trusting intuition in a culture obsessed with rules, experts, and productivity. Jennifer explains what it actually means to be a mystic—describing herself as a human antenna fine-tuning static—and traces that sensitivity back to a childhood marked by literal thinking, bullying, and parents who didn’t quite know what to do with a kid who felt everything. They compare notes on parenting highly perceptive children, including how Jennifer’s early ability to anticipate her kids’ needs sometimes backfired by discouraging them from speaking up, and how her own children have been “socialized out” of mystical thinking, even as they casually tolerate card pulls and energy talk. The conversation moves easily from Reiki as “gentle jumper cables” for the nervous system to the emotional labor of rejecting people-pleasing while doing psychic readings, before landing on practical parenting ideas for the year ahead—like offering kids a “third option” instead of a hard no, or sitting through Fortnite matches just to stay connected. The episode closes on Jennifer’s big theme of grace—grace around self-care that looks like binge-watching, grace around messiness, and grace delivered with a laugh as Ophira admits she’s now calling “grace” her personal Pantone color. 📍January Shows are in Las Vegas, NV, Beacon, NY and New York, NY Follow Jennifer Wai: https://www.instagram.com/thejenniferwai/ 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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    43 mins
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