I’m delighted to announce some big news: My forthcoming book and Kveller have come together to create something special—and today is the birthday of our shiny new podcast!
Meet our bundle of joy, NURTURE THE WOWCAST. It’s a riff on my book, “Nurture the Wow: Finding Spirituality in the Frustration, Boredom, Tears, Poop, Desperation, Wonder, and Radical Amazement of Parenting,” which will be out in just a couple of weeks. Each short (5-7 min) episode offers a little bite of wisdom and inspiration for those of us in the trenches of raising kids.
The core questions of the book—and now the podcast—emerged not long after my first child was born, when I began to find that the spiritual practice that had long sustained me as a person and as a rabbi didn’t speak directly to the haze of fatigue, laundry, diapers, and tantrums (my son’s and mine both) I was experiencing. Indirectly, sure—but I was grappling with intense feelings and new questions about selfhood, embodiment, power, and powerlessness that I didn’t see articulated clearly by my tradition. And more than that, my understanding of divinity, prayer, and infinite love were being thrown in a blender—and came out very different on the other side.
The book is centered around three main questions: What does the treasure trove of Jewish wisdom have to offer parents in the thick of their kids’ young years? What do parents have to teach the tradition, so much of which was authored by rabbis who were, let’s face it, not particularly engaged in the labor of childcare? And, most importantly: How is parenting a spiritual practice in its own right?
So the podcast is the extended dance remix. You find them all below–here’s what you can expect:
In the first episode, I look at the ways in which we so often forget to really see our kids—in their wholeness and fullness, as more than just minor characters in the play starring us. It turns out one of the 20th century’s great philosophers has a suggestion about how to do just that.
The second episode talks about how quickly this whole “raising kids” thing can go sometimes—and how sometimes it feels like, well, it’s dragging on forever. There’s a traditional story that offers a little perspective, and can help us better savor the sweet moments and be a little less fazed by the, um, less sweet ones.
The third episode is about how to offer our kids hope when we’re feeling despair. Because, let’s face it, life out there in the big world is really hard sometimes—and yet, nonetheless, we need to show up for our kids, to protect them from shame and terror insofar as we can.
Give a listen to the first three today. We’ll be dropping a couple more episodes over the next two weeks, so please subscribe and stay tuned. And hey, please share these podcasts with other folks if you’re into them:
Nurture the Wow: Finding Spirituality in the Frustration, Boredom, Tears, Poop, Desperation, Wonder, and Radical Amazement of Parenting comes out April 19th. Preorder now! And thanks for listening.
Read More:
I Feel Anxious About Wanting a Second Child Because of This
After My Miscarriage, This Is How the Mikveh Helped Me Heal
This Is What Going to Therapy Made Me Realize
