Episodes
Jordana and Shannon talk with Lisa Heffernan, one of the creators of the wildly successful website Grown and Flown. They tackle the challenges of how to raise independent children and then discuss what happens when those children leave home. Lots of travel and sex? Or maybe depression? Results may vary! Grown doesn’t have to mean flown, as the ladies discuss with Gram. And Shannon shares getting into a verbal skirmish with behavior police in a movie theater.
Published 10/22/19
This week, the tables are turned as Jordana and Shannon interview the interviewer. Juju Chang is ABC’s anchor for Nightline, mom to three boys and a Korean-born woman who came to Judaism later in life. She talks about helping her mother clean hotel rooms as a young immigrant, to becoming a powerful news correspondent. She also talks about her transition into Judaism. Shannon chats with Jordana about smart “older brother” dogs and Gram talks about her “limited,” experience growing up with a dog.
Published 10/15/19
Jordana talks with Sarah Hurwitz who was a speechwriter for both Barack and Michelle Obama and the sparks of meaning Sarah found from her search into Judaism that she details in her new book. Jordana also talks to Shannon about how weighing a baby on a scale is a lot like weighing a turkey, and calls Gram to find out how to make Yom Kippur have any resonance for little kids. Also, there’s talk about scooping bagels.
Published 10/08/19
Jordana and Shannon sit down with Mira Jacob, most recently the author of the graphic memoir “Good Talk: A Memoir In Conversations,” to talk about living as a woman of color married to a Jewish man and raising an Indian-Jewish son in 2019 America. Also, she talks about what it’s like to navigate life with Trump-supporting in-laws. 
Published 10/01/19
Jordana is hosting solo this week, and she’s given a run for her money by her two guests! Sharon Feldstein is mom to actors Beanie Feldstein and Jonah Hill, and Patsy Noah is mom to Maroon 5’s Adam Levine. Noah and Feldstein have redirected their vicarious celebrity spotlight to their initiative Your Mom Cares. Stay tuned to learn about Beanie Feldstein’s “Funny Girl”-themed birthday party!
Published 09/24/19
In this week’s episode, Jordana and Shannon sit down with Leslie Shapiro, a suburban Jewish mom of three whose life took a dramatic turn when she went from being a social drinker to becoming an alcoholic. The three talk about Leslie’s struggle with alcohol, its effects on her life and relationships, and her route to becoming a recovering alcoholic with three years plus of sobriety under her belt. Lest you think the episode is all serious, Shannon shares why she loves goat yoga (yes, that’s...
Published 09/17/19
Zibby Owens, host of the terrific podcast, Moms Don’t Have Time To Read Books, talks with Jordana about her love for reading. They also talk about second chances at love and parenting. Jordana talks to co-host Shannon Sarna by phone to catch up after the birth of Shannon’s beautiful baby (mazel tov!). And Gram takes a few seconds to talk about her own experience as a mother of a newborn having a bris. Got a story to share? Email us at [email protected]. We’re waiting to hear from you.
Published 09/10/19
The summer is over, and Call Your Mother is back with a new season. Jordana and Shannon talk with Jason Rosenthal on the phone from his office in Chicago. Jason’s wife Amy, wrote a viral Modern Love piece in The New York Times entitled “You May Want To Marry My Husband,” which was published only days before Amy died of ovarian cancer. Jason talks about grief and loss, his new life in the wake of his wife and parenting the couple’s three children. Got a story to share? Email us...
Published 09/03/19
Jordana and Shannon are on summer break, so we are going back to the beginning and resharing our first-ever episode. Celebrity chef Einat Admony, whose restaurants include Balaboosta and Taim, dishes (see what we did there?) about morning orgasms, likens kids to farts (“You just like your own”), and opines about guilt.Got a story to share? Email us at [email protected]. We’re waiting to hear from you. Or leave us a voicemail at 908-248-4273.
Published 08/27/19
Jordana and Shannon are on summer break, so we've gone into the archives and we're resharing this powerful episode. Jen Simon invited herself to peoples’ houses for a single reason: to raid their cabinets for opioids. A middle-class suburban Jewish mom, she didn’t fit the addict stereotype and kept her dependency a secret from friends and family. Jen talks candidly with the Call Your Mother team about coming clean and getting clean.
Published 08/20/19
Jordana and Shannon are on break, and we’re re-upping this interview with best-selling author Jennifer Weiner. Jennifer talks about Mrs. Everything, her epic novel that’s been a summer hit. Taking on history, loss, feminism, and more, it's the product of the author’s frustrations with life as an American woman. Jordana and Shannon talk with Jennifer about divorce, writing, and her mother, Fran, who always refused to answer specific questions about her sex life.
Published 08/13/19
Feminist filmmaker Shaina Feinberg talks with Jordana and Shannon this week about the blurred line between truth and fiction in her films. The three women discuss representation in movies, dealing with grief through humor, and the intersection between parenting and ambition. And then Jordana reveals her sort-of date with Quentin Tarantino.
Published 07/30/19
Get ready for things to get a bit weird. On this week’s episode, Shannon and Jordana talk with one of Israel’s most famous authors, Etgar Keret. Etgar, whose new collection, Fly Already, will be published in the U.S. in September, is best known for his short absurdist short stories. Then Shannon and Jordana call Gram who lectures on the dangers of letting kids drink alcohol.
Published 07/23/19
Bat Sheva Marcus has been called "The Orthodox Sex Guru" by The New York Times, but she’s so much more — sure, she’s an Orthodox Jew, but she is also empowering women by giving them the information they need on how to best enjoy sex, in all its various forms. Bat Sheva talks to Jordana and Shannon about vibrators, orgasms, and pleasure in relationships — and how to handle rabbis’ involvement in one’s sex life. This episode is a real pleasure for everyone.
Published 07/16/19
Jan Kaminsky is a nurse, a professor, a mother of three and an advocate for equality. With her wife, she runs Rainbow Health Consulting, which helps to educate health providers on how to best care for LGBTQ patients. Jan talks to Shannon and Jordana about how to be more inclusive Since Jordana’s mother has the sheer chutzpah to be away on vacation, Jan steps into the breach, giving Shannon advice on how to handle coed sleepovers at age 7 as well as e-mail invitations sent only to moms, not dads.
Published 07/09/19
Jordana and Shannon sit down with social media influencer Ilana Wiles, the mom behind Mommy Shorts and one of the ruling parents of Instagram. The three talk about deciding what to post to social media about their kids and how someone takes a "mommy blog" and transforms it into a lucrative career. Shannon ponders her 2-year-old’s recent breast fixation and “Gram” takes on how new mothers can best handle societal expectations around breastfeeding.
Published 07/02/19
We talk to writer Lori Gottlieb, who pens The Atlantic's "Ask a Therapist" column about what it's like to be a therapist in therapy. Shannon and Jordana talk about their adventures (and misadventures) with therapy. But that's not all: The bane of modern parenting — SLIME — and places you don’t want your child to put it is discussed, and since Jordana's mom is on vacation, the team places a call to Shannon's adorable 94-year-old grandmother.
Published 06/25/19
Bryce Gruber, a Manhattan mother of five, social media influencer, and founder of The Luxury Spot, comes to chat with Shannon and Jordana. The trio covers everything from Bryce’s appearance on Millionaire Matchmaker, to her marriage to an Israeli she met in shul, to the birth story of her fifth child which almost (literally) killed her.
Published 06/18/19
In light of increased restrictions on abortion around the United States, this episode focuses on stories of women who were already mothers when they made the choice to have an abortion. Jordana and Shannon sit down with Shannon Berkowsky, who was a mother of two when her third pregnancy developed problems and she had a second-trimester abortion. Voicemails from listeners tell stories of the various reasons behind their choices to have an abortion.
Published 06/11/19
Jordana and Shannon chat with Esther Wojcicki, whose daughters include Susan (the CEO of YouTube), Anne (the CEO of 23andMe), and Janet (a Fulbright-winning professor of pediatrics and epidemiology). Esther talks about growing up in an Orthodox household and how it made her strive to raise successful girls. “Gram” lets Shannon know how to figure out when to let kids stay home from school, and Jordana tells about becoming an inadvertent accomplice to (goldfish) murder.
Published 06/04/19
Jordana and Shannon sit down with Mira Jacob, the author of the graphic memoir 'Good Talk: A Memoir In Conversations,' to talk about living as a woman of color married to a Jewish man, and raising an Indian-Jewish son in 2019 America. Also, she talks about what it’s like to navigate life with Trump-supporting in-laws. “Gram” chimes in with her thoughts about abortion, and Shannon shares what she really thinks about what her husband puts on a bagel.
Published 05/28/19
Jordana and Shannon talk with Jamie Stelter, New York One’s traffic and transit reporter, about Jamie’s six miscarriages, her struggle to get and remain pregnant, and how she has been outspoken about her fertility struggles on social media and beyond. This episode covers the whole circle of life, from the struggle to become pregnant to...well, we’ll let Shannon surprise you. And Jordana’s mom chats about what to do when you get bad advice.
Published 05/21/19
Writer Carla Steckman talks to Jordana and Shannon about losing her not-yet 2-year-old daughter, Talia, to Tay-Sachs Disease, “extreme parenting,” and what we can learn from our own children. Jordana and Shannon catch up after the podcast’s hiatus, about pregnancy (Shannon’s) and escape (Jordana’s).
Published 05/14/19
To celebrate Passover, the dynamic duo at Call Your Mother talk with the dynamic duo behind Kveller's very own haggadah. Gabrielle Birkner and Elissa Strauss worked hard to make a haggadah that keeps kids and their parents jazzed and curious about the seder. Then, Marnie Fienberg discusses 2 For Seder, a program she launched to combat anti-Semitism and to honor her late mother-in-law, who was killed in Pittsburgh's Tree of Life shooting.
Published 04/16/19
Jill Kargman spares nobody and nothing in her books Momzillas and Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut, and in her late, beloved TV show Odd Mom Out. In real life, too, the actress, comedian, and writer finds very little that's sacred. In a hilarious and wild conversation, Kargman talks about life in DORITO (hint: it's a neighborhood in Manhattan), being shunned at her daughter's ballet class, the problem with traveling by private jet, and how she responded to anti-Semitism at her son's private school.
Published 04/09/19