Episode 42 with Lara Bazelon - Ambitious Like a Mother
This mother, writer, professor of law, and director of the Criminal Juvenile Justice and Racial Justice Clinics at the University of San Francisco School of Law chats with TBD about her new book, Ambitious Like a Mother: Why Prioritizing Your Career is Good for Your Kids.
Lara is a writer of fiction and nonfiction who has published op-eds in the New York Times and The Washington Post and is a contributing writer for Slate with her ongoing series on criminal justice and modern family life. She is also the author of Rectify: The Power of Restorative Justice After Wrongful Conviction.
So how the heck does she juggle it all? Lara will share her stories on career setbacks, overcoming the stigma of a divorce, and the power of passion for your work. In her words, it’s a “messy imbalance.”
But, she says, it doesn’t work for two parents to have equally demanding high power careers at the same time. Rather, she advises what she calls a “seesaw” marriage. And most importantly, she says to have these discussions before you decide to have children.
Episode originally aired live on WVOX-AM on July 21, 2022
Lara Bazelon
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Lara’s Books and Other Publications
Ambitious Like A Mother: Why Prioritizing Your Career is Good for Your Kids (2022)
A Good Mother (2021)
Rectify: The Power of Restorative Justice After Wrongful Conviction (2018)
Bazelon, Lara (2022, June 9) Will Employers Finally Listen to What Mothers Need. thecut.com
Lara’s Book Recommendations
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We can Prosper Together, Heather McGhee (2021)
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty, Patrick Radden Keefe (2021)
The Searcher, Tana French (2020)
Lara’s Podcast Recommendations
You’re Wrong About Sarah Marshall and Michael Hobbes
Crime Junkie Ashley Flowers and Brit
The Unspeakable Meghan Daum
Blocked and Reported Katie Herzog and Jesse Singal
Additional Reading
Wright, Jennifer (2022, May 7) Millenial Men Want 1950s Housewives After They Have Kids. nypost.com
McKinsey & Co (2021, September 27) Women in the Workplace 2021. mckinsey.com
Wittenberg-Cox, Aviva (2017, October 24) If You Can’t Find a Spouse Who Supports Your Career, Stay Single. hbr.org
The Second Shift, Arlie Hochschild (2012)
Creating a Life: Professional Women and the Quest for Children, Sylvia Hewlett (2002)
Macbeth, William Shakespeare (1623)