After a bit of a pause, we return with a conversation that reflects the heart of this podcast: what it means to create, care, and hold many parts of a life at once. Today, Kaitlin is joined by poet and longtime listener Meg Leonard, whose new book Larkspur Queen (Broadstone Books, 2025) explores identity, care, and the shifting creative self. Together, they dive into the nonlinear reality of making art while mothering, working, and navigating chronic illness, and what it means to value process over product in every season of life.
Meg shares how her friendship with Kaitlin began through this very podcast, reflects on the search for authentic creative community, and reads two poems from her new collection. They also discuss the months of “unproductive” writing that ultimately became essential to Meg’s poetic process.
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21.Redefining the Creative Process: Poet Meg Leonard on Parenting and Productivity
01:03:28
20.An Evening of Conversation & Reading on Love, Labor, and Fury with Minna Dubin
01:02:02
19.To Every Season: Highlights from Conversations on Birth and Creativity
00:24:59
18.Debunking the Good Mother Myth: Author Nancy Reddy on Old Science and New Models for Modern Caregiving
00:48:30
17.The Postpartum Production Birth Story: A Conversation with Our Producer Erin Greenhouse
00:40:40
17. bonusBirth Stories with Sara Nolan: Kaitlin’s Second Birth
00:53:03
16.Reclaiming Birth, Motherhood, and the Left: A Conversation with Sarah Menkedick
00:43:08
15.A Cold Rage: Debunking Motherhood and Childbirth with Lucy Jones’s Matrescence
00:53:09
15. bonusBirth Stories with Sara Nolan: Kaitlin's Third Birth
00:49:54
bonusBirth Stories with Sara Nolan: Kaitlin’s First Birth
01:02:31
14.#artbirth: Actor and Singer Athena Reich Makes Birth a Stunning Performance
00:52:26
13.Invisible Labor: Rachel Somerstein on the Hidden Systems Shaping Childbirth in America
00:49:13
bonusMarginalia #3: From the Frontlines of a School Closure Protest: Unexpected Lessons and Activism in Public Education
00:23:00
12.Centering Ritual and Visualization in Birth and Art: A Conversation with Anna Hennessey
00:53:40
11.Rupture and Reimagining in Poetry and Life: How Adrie Rose's Writing Roots Us in Experience, Loss, and our Lived Worlds
00:45:49
10.The Art of Movement: Ori Lenkinski’s Exploration of Dance, Birth, and Universal Human Connection
01:04:07
9.An Unexpected Birth Story: How Artist Alexandra Carter Met the Monstrous Feminine on Her Home Bath Mat
00:53:54
8.An Intimate In-Person Conversation with Poet Eleanor Stanford on Midwifery, the Maternal Body, and Menopause in the Poetic Form
00:46:58
7.Breaking Ballet Barriers: Ingrid Silva’s Journey from Rio to Harlem to Motherhood
00:46:41
6.Choose This Now: A Live Reading by Nicole Haroutunian on Motherhood, Artistic Practice, and Publishing
00:44:30
5.Room Swept Home: Remica Bingham-Risher Holds Communal and Ancestral Narratives in a Universe of Poetry
00:45:48
4.From Set to Home: Actress Lauren Lapkus Finds Humor in the Balance of Caregiving and a Career on Screen
00:41:34
3.Poetry and Parenthood: How Amy Bornman Mines Domestic Practice for Creative Power
00:34:22
2.Art and Advocacy: Ashley January’s Response to the Black Maternal Health Crisis
00:50:54
1.The Explosive Female Body: Artist Alexandra Carter’s Muse in Birth and Beyond
00:58:18
bonusMarginalia #2: How Not To Scratch the Soil
00:13:07
15.S2E15 - A Moment in Time: Looking Back on Season Two’s Highlights, Lessons, and Reasons for Hope in Caregiving and Creativity
00:26:07
14.S2E14 - The Poetics of Parenting: Poet and Educator Ben Berman's Take on Writing While Parenting
00:41:20
13.S2E13: Mom Rage is a Weathervane—Minna Dubin on Maternal Anger and Structural Inequalities in American Society
00:49:58
12.S2E12 - The Body as Genre: Amanda Montei's Touched Out Touches on Motherhood, Misogyny, Consent, Control, and More
00:43:11
11.S2E11 - The Transformative Power of Poetry and Parenting: How Eugenia Leigh's Creative Process Rewrites the Page Itself
00:50:28
10.S2E10 - Centering the Bodily Experience in Creative Practice: A Conversation with Writer and Teacher Molly Caro May
00:52:14
9.S2E9 - Alloparenting in the Modern Era: Re-envisioning Parenting and Human Community with Dr Darcia Narvaez
00:51:04
8.S2E8 - Where Working Motherhood and Maternal Activism Intersect: A Conversation with Raena Boston
00:47:21
7.S2E7 - Honoring the Body and Practice of Pregnancy: Birth and Postpartum with Chiropractor and Childbirth Educator Dr Elliot Berlin
00:44:33
6.S2EP6 - Activism At Home: How Kimberly Seals Allers is Making Equitable Maternal Care Accessible to All
00:46:17
5.S2EP5 - Where Evolutionary Parenting Meets Modern Practice: A Conversation On Postpartum, Parenting Culture, And Creative Pursuits With Tracy Cassels
00:58:22
4.S2EP4 - The Power of the Pause Talking to Dr Pooja Lakshmin About Real Self-Care, Boundaries, Postpartum, Creativity and the Patriarchy
00:41:11
3.S2EP3 - Parenting and Writing: Practicalities and Possibilities with KJ Dell'Antonia
00:49:16
2.S2EP2 - Motherhood As Muse: Jazmina Barrera’s Linea Nigra Pushes Against Patriarchal Narrative Forms
00:44:10
1.S2E1 - Writing the Writer-Mother: Lessons from Biography and Life in Julie Phillips's work
00:58:04
19. trailerSeason 2 Preview: Embodying the Creative Caregiver, a Season of Hope and Doing the Work
00:19:50
18. bonus[Bonus] One Moment in Time: A Special Dedication to Annabelle Kim
00:16:52
17.Artist Mothers Under Capitalism: Constraint, Creativity, Perseverance, and Promise
00:36:00
16.Marginalia #1: How We Hear the World as New Mothers
00:05:20
15.Do We Forget the Babysitter?: An Artist Residency in Motherhood, Collectively
00:26:28
14.Out of the Shadows: Emily Midorikawa on the Condition of Women’s Voices in Victorian Times
00:43:01
13.“The Good Mother”: Namrata Poddar on the Emotional Labor of the Caregiver-Artist Bind
00:49:54
12.Fractured Time: Writing and Reading Poetry During Motherhood with Nancy Reddy and Emily Pérez
00:50:13
11.Another Happy Day: Exploring Postpartum and Filmmaking with Nora Fiffer
00:45:57
10.Erika Lee Sears is Capturing This Cultural Moment Through her Oil Paintings
00:39:35
9.Balancing Parenthood and Writing Roles: MM De Voe Builds Communities to Help Caregivers Stay Creative After Having Kids
00:41:42
8.Sara Petersen’s Writing Holds a Mirror to Momfluencer Culture and American Motherhood
00:43:06
7.At Home and in Concert: A Mother’s Relationship With Time, Musical Work Spaces, and Shifting Identities with Heather Powell
00:41:01
6.Finding Flow: Dani Rowe Talks About Dance, Choreography, and Motherhood
00:37:30
5.Lived Experiences Shape Fiction with Vanessa Hua
00:31:35
4.Work In Progress: A New Model of Being a Mother and an Artist with K. Lorraine Graham
00:42:35
3. bonusPart II - Seeing Yourself in Your Child: Katherine Duclos has Learned More About Herself and her Art Through Raising a Neurodivergent Son
00:40:53
3.Part 1 - Making Space for Art: How Katherine Duclos Transforms Everyday Objects of Motherhood into Artistic Practice
00:44:16
2.Postpartum as a Catalyst: Becoming a Mother Cracked Open Jackie Leonard’s Creative Possibilities
00:49:49
1.Redefining Motherhood’s Worth Through Art with Memoirist Sarah Chaves
00:39:40
trailerIntroducing the Postpartum Production Podcast with Kaitlin Solimine