In this episode, I go through my own story, and give the background that is the genesis of this project. My husband’s arrest wrecked me, and I spent way too long trying to turn that story into a book-length nonfiction project, which never got off the ground.I realized, finally, that the story of my trauma was only the genesis of a larger project, and not an independent project in and of itself. I wanted to find a crossroads between creative nonfiction and journalism. I wanted to gather first-person narratives of motherhood, but more than that, I wanted to give my guests the same experience that I had when I worked as a columnist for my local newspaper.Not only was I given a voice, in my column, to tell my story – to have someone bear witness to my experience – but I was given the gift of feedback. I had people tell me that they woke up every Saturday excited to read my story that week. I had one woman tell me that she mended a yearlong broken relationship with her daughter, and that sh
