
Essential Labor
Mothering as Social Change
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $19.79
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Angela Garbes
-
By:
-
Angela Garbes
About this listen
From the acclaimed author of Like a Mother comes a reflection on the state of caregiving in America, and an exploration of mothering as a means of social change.
The Covid-19 pandemic shed fresh light on a long-overlooked truth: mothering is among the only essential work humans do. In response to the increasing weight placed on mothers and caregivers—and the lack of a social safety net to support them—writer Angela Garbes found herself pondering a vital question: How, under our current circumstances that leave us lonely, exhausted, and financially strained, might we demand more from American family life?
In Essential Labor, Garbes explores assumptions about care, work, and deservedness, offering a deeply personal and rigorously reported look at what mothering is, and can be. A first-generation Filipino-American, Garbes shares the perspective of her family's complicated relationship to care work, placing mothering in a global context—the invisible economic engine that has been historically demanded of women of color.
Garbes contends that while the labor of raising children is devalued in America, the act of mothering offers the radical potential to create a more equitable society. In Essential Labor, Garbes reframes the physically and mentally draining work of meeting a child's bodily and emotional needs as opportunities to find meaning, to nurture a deeper sense of self, pleasure, and belonging. This is highly skilled labor, work that impacts society at its most foundational level.
Part galvanizing manifesto, part poignant narrative, Essential Labor is a beautifully rendered reflection on care that reminds us of the irrefutable power and beauty of mothering.
©2022 Angela Garbes (P)2022 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
-
Like a Mother
- A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy
- By: Angela Garbes
- Narrated by: Roxana Ortega, Angela Garbes
- Length: 7 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What to listen to after What to Expect.... A badass, feminist, and personal deep-dive into the science and culture of pregnancy and early motherhood that debunks myths and dated assumptions, offering guidance and camaraderie to women navigating one of the biggest and most profound changes in their lives. Like most first-time mothers, Angela Garbes was filled with questions when she became pregnant. What exactly is a placenta? How does a body go into labor? Why is breast best? What are the signs and effects of postpartum depression?
-
-
Microchimerism - interesting at first, then profoundly healing
- By Emily Virgil on 09-10-18
By: Angela Garbes
-
Hunt, Gather, Parent
- What Ancient Cultures Can Teach Us About the Lost Art of Raising Happy, Helpful Little Humans
- By: Michaeleen Doucleff
- Narrated by: Michaeleen Doucleff
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Hunt, Gather, Parent, Doucleff sets out with her three-year-old daughter in tow to learn and practice parenting strategies from families in three of the world’s most venerable communities: Maya families in Mexico, Inuit families above the Arctic Circle, and Hadzabe families in Tanzania. She sees that these cultures don’t have the same problems with children that Western parents do.
-
-
I wish they had a professional narrator
- By Anonymous User on 03-26-21
-
Good Inside
- A Guide to Becoming the Parent You Want to Be
- By: Becky Kennedy
- Narrated by: Becky Kennedy
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over the past several years, Dr. Becky Kennedy—known to her followers as “Dr. Becky”—has been sparking a parenting revolution. Millions of parents, tired of following advice that either doesn’t work or simply doesn’t feel good, have embraced Dr. Becky’s empowering and effective approach, a model that prioritizes connecting with our kids over correcting them. Parents have long been sold a model of childrearing that simply doesn’t work. From reward charts to time outs, many popular parenting approaches are based on shaping behavior, not raising humans.
-
-
Sounds Wonderful, Does Not Work
- By R. Humphrey on 01-08-23
By: Becky Kennedy
-
Fat Talk
- Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture
- By: Virginia Sole-Smith
- Narrated by: Virginia Sole-Smith
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fat Talk argues for a reclaiming of “fat,” which is not synonymous with “unhealthy,” “inactive,” or “lazy.” Talking to researchers and activists, as well as parents and kids across a broad swath of the country, Sole-Smith lays bare how America’s focus on solving the “childhood obesity epidemic” has perpetuated a second crisis of disordered eating and body hatred for kids of all sizes. She exposes our society’s internalized fatphobia and elucidates how and why we need to stop “preventing obesity” and start supporting kids in the bodies they have.
-
-
Essential reading for ALL PARENTS.
- By MaineReader on 05-11-23
-
Screaming on the Inside
- The Unsustainability of American Motherhood
- By: Jessica Grose
- Narrated by: Suehyla El-Attar
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this timely and necessary book, New York Times opinion writer Jessica Grose dismantles two hundred years of unrealistic parenting expectations and empowers today’s mothers to make choices that actually serve themselves, their children, and their communities.
-
-
Well done - leaves a little to be desired
- By Chendo on 12-29-22
By: Jessica Grose
-
Rest Is Resistance
- A Manifesto
- By: Tricia Hersey
- Narrated by: Tricia Hersey
- Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What would it be like to live in a well-rested world? Far too many of us have claimed productivity as the cornerstone of success. Brainwashed by capitalism, we subject our bodies and minds to work at an unrealistic, damaging, and machine‑level pace—feeding into the same engine that enslaved millions into brutal labor for its own relentless benefit. In Rest Is Resistance, Tricia Hersey, aka the Nap Bishop, casts an illuminating light on our troubled relationship with rest and how to imagine and dream our way to a future where rest is exalted.
-
-
What an experience
- By makeba jones on 10-26-22
By: Tricia Hersey
-
Like a Mother
- A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy
- By: Angela Garbes
- Narrated by: Roxana Ortega, Angela Garbes
- Length: 7 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What to listen to after What to Expect.... A badass, feminist, and personal deep-dive into the science and culture of pregnancy and early motherhood that debunks myths and dated assumptions, offering guidance and camaraderie to women navigating one of the biggest and most profound changes in their lives. Like most first-time mothers, Angela Garbes was filled with questions when she became pregnant. What exactly is a placenta? How does a body go into labor? Why is breast best? What are the signs and effects of postpartum depression?
-
-
Microchimerism - interesting at first, then profoundly healing
- By Emily Virgil on 09-10-18
By: Angela Garbes
-
Hunt, Gather, Parent
- What Ancient Cultures Can Teach Us About the Lost Art of Raising Happy, Helpful Little Humans
- By: Michaeleen Doucleff
- Narrated by: Michaeleen Doucleff
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Hunt, Gather, Parent, Doucleff sets out with her three-year-old daughter in tow to learn and practice parenting strategies from families in three of the world’s most venerable communities: Maya families in Mexico, Inuit families above the Arctic Circle, and Hadzabe families in Tanzania. She sees that these cultures don’t have the same problems with children that Western parents do.
-
-
I wish they had a professional narrator
- By Anonymous User on 03-26-21
-
Good Inside
- A Guide to Becoming the Parent You Want to Be
- By: Becky Kennedy
- Narrated by: Becky Kennedy
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over the past several years, Dr. Becky Kennedy—known to her followers as “Dr. Becky”—has been sparking a parenting revolution. Millions of parents, tired of following advice that either doesn’t work or simply doesn’t feel good, have embraced Dr. Becky’s empowering and effective approach, a model that prioritizes connecting with our kids over correcting them. Parents have long been sold a model of childrearing that simply doesn’t work. From reward charts to time outs, many popular parenting approaches are based on shaping behavior, not raising humans.
-
-
Sounds Wonderful, Does Not Work
- By R. Humphrey on 01-08-23
By: Becky Kennedy
-
Fat Talk
- Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture
- By: Virginia Sole-Smith
- Narrated by: Virginia Sole-Smith
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fat Talk argues for a reclaiming of “fat,” which is not synonymous with “unhealthy,” “inactive,” or “lazy.” Talking to researchers and activists, as well as parents and kids across a broad swath of the country, Sole-Smith lays bare how America’s focus on solving the “childhood obesity epidemic” has perpetuated a second crisis of disordered eating and body hatred for kids of all sizes. She exposes our society’s internalized fatphobia and elucidates how and why we need to stop “preventing obesity” and start supporting kids in the bodies they have.
-
-
Essential reading for ALL PARENTS.
- By MaineReader on 05-11-23
-
Screaming on the Inside
- The Unsustainability of American Motherhood
- By: Jessica Grose
- Narrated by: Suehyla El-Attar
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this timely and necessary book, New York Times opinion writer Jessica Grose dismantles two hundred years of unrealistic parenting expectations and empowers today’s mothers to make choices that actually serve themselves, their children, and their communities.
-
-
Well done - leaves a little to be desired
- By Chendo on 12-29-22
By: Jessica Grose
-
Rest Is Resistance
- A Manifesto
- By: Tricia Hersey
- Narrated by: Tricia Hersey
- Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What would it be like to live in a well-rested world? Far too many of us have claimed productivity as the cornerstone of success. Brainwashed by capitalism, we subject our bodies and minds to work at an unrealistic, damaging, and machine‑level pace—feeding into the same engine that enslaved millions into brutal labor for its own relentless benefit. In Rest Is Resistance, Tricia Hersey, aka the Nap Bishop, casts an illuminating light on our troubled relationship with rest and how to imagine and dream our way to a future where rest is exalted.
-
-
What an experience
- By makeba jones on 10-26-22
By: Tricia Hersey
-
Fight Like Hell
- The Untold History of American Labor
- By: Kim Kelly
- Narrated by: Em Grosland
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Freed Black women organizing for protection in the Reconstruction-era South. Jewish immigrant garment workers braving deadly conditions for a sliver of independence. Asian American fieldworkers rejecting government-sanctioned indentured servitude across the Pacific. Incarcerated workers advocating for basic human rights and fair wages. The queer Black labor leader who helped orchestrate America’s civil rights movement. These are only some of the heroes who propelled American labor’s relentless push for fairness and equal protection under the law.
-
-
Aspirational and inspirational
- By Shawna Roberts on 02-12-25
By: Kim Kelly
-
How We Show Up
- Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community
- By: Mia Birdsong
- Narrated by: Mia Birdsong
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After almost every presentation activist and writer Mia Birdsong gives to executives, think tanks, and policy makers, one of those leaders quietly confesses how much they long for the profound community she describes. They have family, friends, and colleagues, yet they still feel like they're standing alone. They're "winning" at the American Dream, but they're lonely, disconnected, and unsatisfied.
-
-
I wanted to like this book
- By N. Sebastian on 09-17-21
By: Mia Birdsong
-
I'll Show Myself Out
- Essays on Midlife and Motherhood
- By: Jessi Klein
- Narrated by: Jessi Klein
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An instant New York Times bestseller, I'll Show Myself Out is the eagerly anticipated second essay collection from Jessi Klein, author of the acclaimed debut You’ll Grow Out of It.
-
-
Complete sanctimommy navel gaze
- By NJVJ on 05-05-22
By: Jessi Klein
-
Touched Out
- Motherhood, Misogyny, Consent, and Control
- By: Amanda Montei
- Narrated by: Jenna Rose Stein
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Amanda Montei became a parent, she struggled with the physicality of caring for children, but even more with the growing lack of autonomy she felt in her personal and professional life. The conditions of modern American parenthood—the lack of paid leave and affordable childcare, the isolation and alienation, the distribution of labor in her home, and the implicit demands of marriage—were not what she had expected. After #MeToo, however, she began to see a connection between how women were feeling in motherhood and the larger culture of assault in which she had grown up.
-
-
Just what I I need
- By CPStar on 10-24-23
By: Amanda Montei
-
All About Love
- New Visions
- By: bell hooks
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 6 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“The word ‘love’ is most often defined as a noun, yet we would all love better if we used it as a verb,” writes bell hooks as she comes out fighting and on fire in All About Love. Here, at her most provocative and intensely personal, renowned scholar, cultural critic and feminist bell hooks offers a proactive new ethic for a society bereft with lovelessness--not the lack of romance, but the lack of care, compassion, and unity. People are divided, she declares, by society’s failure to provide a model for learning to love.
-
-
A vocabulary about love
- By Jess on 04-13-24
By: bell hooks
-
Thick
- And Other Essays
- By: Tressie McMillan Cottom
- Narrated by: Tressie McMillan Cottom
- Length: 4 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Smart, humorous, and strikingly original essays by one of “America’s most bracing thinkers on race, gender, and capitalism of our time.” (Rebecca Traister) In these eight piercing explorations on beauty, media, money, and more, Tressie McMillan Cottom - award-winning professor and acclaimed author of Lower Ed - embraces her venerated role as a purveyor of wit, wisdom, and Black Twitter snark about all that is right and much that is wrong with this thing we call society.
-
-
A different perspective
- By ANNE on 08-13-19
-
Mom Rage
- The Everyday Crisis of Modern Motherhood
- By: Minna Dubin
- Narrated by: Minna Dubin
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mothers aren’t supposed to be angry. Still, Minna Dubin was an angry mom: exhausted by the grueling, thankless work of full-time parenting and feeling her career slip away, she would find herself screaming at her child or exploding at her husband. When Dubin pushed past her shame and talked with other mothers about how she was feeling, she realized that she was far from alone. Mom Rage is Dubin’s groundbreaking work of reportage about an unspoken crisis of anger sweeping the country—and the world.
-
-
It is must read for any “mom”!
- By Amazon Customer on 09-27-23
By: Minna Dubin
-
Let This Radicalize You
- Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care
- By: Kelly Hayes, Mariame Kaba
- Narrated by: Diana Blue
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What fuels and sustains activism and organizing when it feels like our worlds are collapsing? Let This Radicalize You is a practical and imaginative resource for activists and organizers building power in an era of destabilization and catastrophe. Longtime organizers and movement educators Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes examine some of the political lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic and consider what this confluence of power can teach us about a future that will require mass acts of care, rescue, and defense, in the face of both state violence and environmental disaster.
-
-
together, we fight back
- By Anonymous User on 05-10-24
By: Kelly Hayes, and others
-
Expecting Better
- Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong - and What You Really Need to Know
- By: Emily Oster
- Narrated by: Emily Oster, Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When award-winning economist Emily Oster was a mom-to-be herself, she evaluated the data behind the accepted rules of pregnancy, and discovered that most are often misguided and some are just flat-out wrong. Debunking myths and explaining everything from the real effects of caffeine to the surprising dangers of gardening, Expecting Better is the book for every pregnant woman who wants to enjoy a healthy and relaxed pregnancy—and the occasional glass of wine.
-
-
look up FASD before drinking while pregnant!
- By Soelle Bloom on 03-05-22
By: Emily Oster
-
How to Raise an Antiracist
- By: Ibram X. Kendi
- Narrated by: Ibram X. Kendi
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The tragedies and reckonings around racism that are rocking the country have created a specific crisis for parents, educators, and other caregivers: How do we talk to our children about racism? How do we teach children to be antiracist? How are kids at different ages experiencing race? How are racist structures impacting children? How can we inspire our children to avoid our mistakes, to be better, to make the world better? These are the questions Ibram X. Kendi found himself avoiding as he anticipated the birth of his first child.
-
-
Exceptional
- By Sierra on 09-20-22
By: Ibram X. Kendi
-
Mom Genes
- Inside the New Science of Our Ancient Maternal Instinct
- By: Abigail Tucker
- Narrated by: Samantha Desz
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone knows how babies are made, but scientists are only just beginning to understand the making of a mother. Mom Genes reveals the hard science behind our tenderest maternal impulses, tackling questions such as why mothers are destined to mimic their own moms (or not), how maternal aggression makes females the world’s most formidable creatures, and how a crisis like the Covid-19 pandemic can make or break a mom.
-
-
I wish I had this before my child
- By Erin and Michael on 03-03-22
By: Abigail Tucker
-
Momfluenced
- Inside the Maddening, Picture-Perfect World of Mommy Influencer Culture
- By: Sara Petersen
- Narrated by: Megan Tusing
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On Instagram, the private work of mothering has been turned into a public performance that’s generating billions of dollars, and the message is simple: that we’re all just a couple of clicks away from a better, more beautiful experience of motherhood. Momfluenced examines the performance of motherhood—producers of it and consumers of it—through the multilayered phenomenon of the mommy influencer.
-
-
No One Hates Women More Than Women
- By Mercedes on 09-18-24
By: Sara Petersen
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Like a Mother
- A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy
- By: Angela Garbes
- Narrated by: Roxana Ortega, Angela Garbes
- Length: 7 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What to listen to after What to Expect.... A badass, feminist, and personal deep-dive into the science and culture of pregnancy and early motherhood that debunks myths and dated assumptions, offering guidance and camaraderie to women navigating one of the biggest and most profound changes in their lives. Like most first-time mothers, Angela Garbes was filled with questions when she became pregnant. What exactly is a placenta? How does a body go into labor? Why is breast best? What are the signs and effects of postpartum depression?
-
-
Microchimerism - interesting at first, then profoundly healing
- By Emily Virgil on 09-10-18
By: Angela Garbes
-
The Good Mother Myth
- Unlearning Our Bad Ideas About How to Be a Good Mom
- By: Nancy Reddy
- Narrated by: Sara Sheckells
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Nancy Reddy had her first child, she found herself suddenly confronted with the ideal of a perfect mother—a woman who was constantly available, endlessly patient, and immediately invested in her child to the exclusion of all else. Reddy had been raised by a single working mother, considered herself a feminist, and was well on her way to a PhD. Why did doing motherhood "right" feel so wrong? For answers, Reddy turned to the mid-20th century social scientists and psychologists whose work still forms the basis of so much of what we believe about parenting.
-
-
Wish I had found this with my first
- By JM on 02-05-25
By: Nancy Reddy
-
Women & Power
- A Manifesto
- By: Mary Beard
- Narrated by: Mary Beard
- Length: 1 hr and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At long last, Mary Beard addresses in one brave book the misogynists and trolls who mercilessly attack and demean women the world over, including, very often, Mary herself. In Women & Power, she traces the origins of this misogyny to its ancient roots, examining the pitfalls of gender and the ways that history has mistreated strong women since time immemorial.
-
-
Short and fabulous
- By André C. on 03-13-20
By: Mary Beard
-
The Feminist Killjoy Handbook
- The Radical Potential of Getting in the Way
- By: Sara Ahmed
- Narrated by: Sara Ahmed
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Do you refuse to laugh at offensive jokes? Have you ever been accused of ruining dinner by pointing out your companion’s sexist comment? Are you often told to stop being so “woke”? If so, you might be a feminist killjoy—and this handbook is for you. In this book, feminist theorist Sara Ahmed shows how killing joy can be a radical world-making project. Presenting sharp analysis of literature, film, and influential feminist works, and drawing on her own experiences as a queer feminist scholar-activist of color, Ahmed reveals the invaluable lessons of the feminist killjoy.
-
-
Killing joy for a better tomorrow
- By marceleen mosher on 03-22-24
By: Sara Ahmed
-
Pixel Flesh
- How Toxic Beauty Culture Harms Women
- By: Ellen Atlanta
- Narrated by: Ellen Atlanta
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We live in a new age of beauty. With advancements in cosmetic surgery, walk-in treatments, augmented reality face filters, photo editing apps, and exposure to more images than ever, we have the ability to craft the image we want everyone to see. We pinch, pull, squeeze, tweeze, smooth and slice ourselves beyond recognition. But is our beauty culture truly empowering? Are we really in control? In Pixel Flesh, Ellen Atlanta holds a mirror up to our modern beauty ideal, as well as the pressure to present a perfect image, to live in an age of constant comparison and curated feeds.
-
-
Interesting insight
- By Anonymous User on 11-26-24
By: Ellen Atlanta
-
Becoming Ella Fitzgerald
- The Jazz Singer Who Transformed American Song
- By: Judith Tick
- Narrated by: Carmen Jewel Jones
- Length: 19 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996) possessed one of the twentieth century's most astonishing voices. Historian Judith Tick offers a sublime portrait of this ambitious risk-taker whose exceptional musical spontaneity made her a transformational artist. Becoming Ella Fitzgerald clears up long-enduring mysteries. Archival research and in-depth family interviews shed new light on the singer's difficult childhood, the tragic death of her mother, and the year she spent in a girls' reformatory school—where she sang in its renowned choir and dreamed of being a dancer.
-
-
Thorough history. but I couldn't finish it. I'll have to get the book.
- By CapitalHeel on 01-14-24
By: Judith Tick
-
Like a Mother
- A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy
- By: Angela Garbes
- Narrated by: Roxana Ortega, Angela Garbes
- Length: 7 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What to listen to after What to Expect.... A badass, feminist, and personal deep-dive into the science and culture of pregnancy and early motherhood that debunks myths and dated assumptions, offering guidance and camaraderie to women navigating one of the biggest and most profound changes in their lives. Like most first-time mothers, Angela Garbes was filled with questions when she became pregnant. What exactly is a placenta? How does a body go into labor? Why is breast best? What are the signs and effects of postpartum depression?
-
-
Microchimerism - interesting at first, then profoundly healing
- By Emily Virgil on 09-10-18
By: Angela Garbes
-
The Good Mother Myth
- Unlearning Our Bad Ideas About How to Be a Good Mom
- By: Nancy Reddy
- Narrated by: Sara Sheckells
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Nancy Reddy had her first child, she found herself suddenly confronted with the ideal of a perfect mother—a woman who was constantly available, endlessly patient, and immediately invested in her child to the exclusion of all else. Reddy had been raised by a single working mother, considered herself a feminist, and was well on her way to a PhD. Why did doing motherhood "right" feel so wrong? For answers, Reddy turned to the mid-20th century social scientists and psychologists whose work still forms the basis of so much of what we believe about parenting.
-
-
Wish I had found this with my first
- By JM on 02-05-25
By: Nancy Reddy
-
Women & Power
- A Manifesto
- By: Mary Beard
- Narrated by: Mary Beard
- Length: 1 hr and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At long last, Mary Beard addresses in one brave book the misogynists and trolls who mercilessly attack and demean women the world over, including, very often, Mary herself. In Women & Power, she traces the origins of this misogyny to its ancient roots, examining the pitfalls of gender and the ways that history has mistreated strong women since time immemorial.
-
-
Short and fabulous
- By André C. on 03-13-20
By: Mary Beard
-
The Feminist Killjoy Handbook
- The Radical Potential of Getting in the Way
- By: Sara Ahmed
- Narrated by: Sara Ahmed
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Do you refuse to laugh at offensive jokes? Have you ever been accused of ruining dinner by pointing out your companion’s sexist comment? Are you often told to stop being so “woke”? If so, you might be a feminist killjoy—and this handbook is for you. In this book, feminist theorist Sara Ahmed shows how killing joy can be a radical world-making project. Presenting sharp analysis of literature, film, and influential feminist works, and drawing on her own experiences as a queer feminist scholar-activist of color, Ahmed reveals the invaluable lessons of the feminist killjoy.
-
-
Killing joy for a better tomorrow
- By marceleen mosher on 03-22-24
By: Sara Ahmed
-
Pixel Flesh
- How Toxic Beauty Culture Harms Women
- By: Ellen Atlanta
- Narrated by: Ellen Atlanta
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We live in a new age of beauty. With advancements in cosmetic surgery, walk-in treatments, augmented reality face filters, photo editing apps, and exposure to more images than ever, we have the ability to craft the image we want everyone to see. We pinch, pull, squeeze, tweeze, smooth and slice ourselves beyond recognition. But is our beauty culture truly empowering? Are we really in control? In Pixel Flesh, Ellen Atlanta holds a mirror up to our modern beauty ideal, as well as the pressure to present a perfect image, to live in an age of constant comparison and curated feeds.
-
-
Interesting insight
- By Anonymous User on 11-26-24
By: Ellen Atlanta
-
Becoming Ella Fitzgerald
- The Jazz Singer Who Transformed American Song
- By: Judith Tick
- Narrated by: Carmen Jewel Jones
- Length: 19 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996) possessed one of the twentieth century's most astonishing voices. Historian Judith Tick offers a sublime portrait of this ambitious risk-taker whose exceptional musical spontaneity made her a transformational artist. Becoming Ella Fitzgerald clears up long-enduring mysteries. Archival research and in-depth family interviews shed new light on the singer's difficult childhood, the tragic death of her mother, and the year she spent in a girls' reformatory school—where she sang in its renowned choir and dreamed of being a dancer.
-
-
Thorough history. but I couldn't finish it. I'll have to get the book.
- By CapitalHeel on 01-14-24
By: Judith Tick
What listeners say about Essential Labor
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- BoraSport
- 02-04-23
A fantastic affirmation of the humanity of parenting and community
Vulnerability and joy can be seen in the mirror Angela brings to any reader. This shows how we are all caregivers and should give pause to anyone who feels this work is for those who are lesser than.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michelle W
- 09-21-22
Definitely listening again
loved hearing the author read this, personal stories felt more nuanced. loved the references to other books and poets and even more, the sense of richness, responsibility and rebelling in being a mother in this pandemic altered point in time.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lauryl A. Smith
- 01-30-23
Essential Reading
I read this as a mother and as a nurse, but as someone who came to both motherhood and nursing somewhat later in life, it strikes me as absolutely essential reading for anyone who provides care, including care for themselves. In other words, for everyone. I’m a ravenous reader, but this, more than any other book, from bell hooks to Brené Brown to Thomas Merton, is the book I most wish I could have presented to my 20-, or even 30-, year old self.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- tarita-san
- 01-16-25
A resonant, insightful, and refreshing take on mothering
A deeply thoughtful and insightful meditation on motherhood that feels authentic and uncensored. Garbes’ writing is resonant and boundary-pushing at the same time. The way she shares about her inner and public life is relatable and inclusive even if your interests, perspectives, or experiences differ greatly from hers.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sydney Fry
- 03-15-23
Educational and powerful
As a soon to be first time mom, this was a very eye opening and informative book about the complexity of raising a child in modern america.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- yurani
- 09-25-23
If you looking for a biography this book is for you
The sample of the book and the actual book are not the same. The sample might be the only interesting subject you would hear. Very disappointing.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lulu Masclans
- 07-17-22
I am a very woke lib, I want my kids to be woke libs
Basically restating modern woke lib talking points and then laying a framework on how you live out those values with kids. Be prepared to have “capitalism”, “misogyny”, “patriarchy” and “neoliberalism” thrown around as the cause for everything. I wish she would have talked about parenting through a crisis, because I feel like that’s when it gets hard…meh…I already listen to NPR and watch John Oliver and didn’t get anything new out of this
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!