NEW YORK CITY – Award-winning parenting podcast “The Longest Shortest Time” has launched a timely new series that addresses workplace discrimination against working moms and takes a look at some creative solutions to the problem.
“It’s A Real Mother: A Series About Workplace Discrimination” – a four-episode series released as part of “The Longest Shortest Time” podcast – explores how discrimination happens, why it affects parents and non-parents alike and what can be done to help solve it. The podcast also launched a social media campaign – using the hashtag #itsarealmother – to invite listeners to share their own stories and to raise awareness about the issue.
“In our reporting, our staff found that mothers are disadvantaged in the workplace: they are paid less, valued less and perceived as less competent than fathers and employees without kids,” said Hillary Frank, host and creator of “The Longest Shortest Time.” “We wanted to know why and what could be done to change it.”
While 70 percent of women with children under the age of 18 participate in the workforce, discriminatory issues, including the wage gap and the lack of mandated paid maternity leave, persist. “It’s a Real Mother” dives deep into how this workplace discrimination affects mothers at all levels of employment, whether they’re running state governments, staffing nursing homes or working in millions of other jobs.
Here’s a brief look at the four episodes in the series, which will be released as regular episodes of “The Longest Shortest Time”:
“It’s A Real Mother, Part 1: Governor Mom” releases today – Former Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift, the first American governor to give birth while in office, offers her perspective on being discriminated against by the American people. Plus, listeners talk about their surprising experiences with discrimination.
“It’s A Real Mother, Part 2: Ideal Worker” releases Nov. 8 – Brigid Schulte, author of “Overwhelmed” and director of the Better Life Lab at New America, will share her view that the American workplace is not set up to accommodate working moms. In fact, she says, it’s not set up to accommodate anyone. In this episode, Schulte walks listeners through the cultural forces at work behind discrimination and why changing American office culture should matter to everyone.
“It’s A Real Mother, Part 3: The Cliff” releases Nov. 15 – Join the podcast team as they travel to a company that’s flipping the American workplace upside down by inviting screaming, pooping infants into the office. And Frank shares a little bit about her start as a working mom.
“It’s A Real Mother, Part 4” releases Nov. 29 – This episode profiles a low-wage working mom, who opens up about the problems she faces in the workplace and helps us to see that discrimination against moms isn’t just a mommy problem – it’s an everyone problem. One solution: involve dads.
The show teamed up with design firm Pentagram to bring light to the issues faced by working moms through a video and social media campaign. To join the conversation, follow #itsarealmother and connect with “The Longest Shortest Time” on Twitter and Facebook.
With more than 100,000 listeners each week, “The Longest Shortest Time” is an engaging podcast about the surprises and absurdities of raising other humans – and being raised by them. Known as a parenting show for everyone, the podcast examines topics ranging from birth stories to parents’ relationships with grown children to adults’ decisions on whether to have children.
Listen to the series by subscribing to “The Longest Shortest Time” on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast listening platform. Learn more at itsarealmother.com.
About Midroll Media
Midroll Media is a leading podcast content company, advertising network and distribution platform that is changing the face of digital audio. It is the parent company of the Earwolf network and its top-ranked comedy podcasts; popular podcast listening platform and content network Stitcher and its premium subscription service; and the Midroll advertising network, representing over 300 of the world’s largest podcasts. With offices in Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco, Midroll was founded in 2010 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of The E.W. Scripps Company (NYSE: SSP).
Media contact:
*Kari Wethington, The E.W. Scripps Company, 513-977-3763, [email protected]