Kid/Life Crisis

Episode 62: Abbi Crutchfield (Episode 31)

Katie and Raquel catch up with Abbi Crutchfield to talk about folding t-shirts, positive touch points, adult ADHD, Mary Poppins, and forging new paths. (music: mindyraf.com)

Episode 60: Mindy Raf (Episode 42)

Katie and Raquel catch up with guest Mindy Raf about the societal bullseye, acceptance in community, non-monogamy, holding in farts, and our evolving longitudinal study. (music: mindyraf.com!)

Episode 59: Jen Dziura (Episode 2)

Katie and Raquel catch up with their second-ever Kid/Life Crisis guest, Jen Dziura, about memes, work schedules, boulders in the gas tank, looking at a bird, online preschool, "mom," swear words and feminism. Check out GetBullish.com! (music: mindyraf.com)

Episode 58: Ophira Eisenberg (Episode 19)

On this episode, Raquel and Katie get up to date with comedian, author, and radio/podcast host Ophira Eisenberg about switching identities, acceptable risk, her birth story, the obsolescence of toys, and figuring it all out. (music: mindyraf.com) 

Episode 57: Heather Fink (Episode 43)

Katie and Raquel catch up with comedian and filmmaker Heather Fink, who last spoke with us five years ago (Ep. 43), about moving to (and dating in) Los Angeles, unions, eggs, partnerships, travel and more. (music: mindyraf.com) 

NEW update for listeners

Per a listener request, we'll do a handful of new episodes coming up (we won't even attempt to promise a schedule or number, as we both still have ADHD and there is an Adderall shortage!) following up with past guests. Plus new theme song by Mindy Raf! http://www.mindyraf.com

Update for listeners

Raquel recently joined the writing team at Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, so we're unexpectedly back on hiatus! We'll keep you updated on when we'll record new episodes! Sign up for email updates at kidlifecrisis.com

Episode 56: Laura Norkin

Katie and Raquel sit down with Laura Norkin, writer and editor with a focus on parenting, to discuss being raised under a red pen, Thomas the Tank Engine (and Percy), lying to our children, nipple confusion, and inner voices. (music: www.bensound.com)

Episode 55: Marcella Arguello

Standup comic Marcella Arguello once wanted to be a schoolteacher with six children. While helping raise her nieces and nephews and focusing on comedy, she swore off the idea of kids, but decided recently that it could be great. We talk about experience with kids, falling in and out of love, strict parents, being Latina and child-free (so far), Uma Thurman, and how men are dumb. (music: bensound.com)

Episode 54: Anathea Simpkins

Katie and Raquel chat with Anathea Simpkins about growing up in Miami and on Cape Cod, raising children in New York, divorce, IVF, bleeding gums, and owning a cabin. (music: www.bensound.com)

Episode 53: Babe Parker

Katie and Raquel talk with writer and comedian Babe Parker about mean girls, makeup, birth order, babysitting for Slash, animals and babies, and boundaries. (music: www.bensound.com)

Episode 52: Irene McGee follow-up

Katie and Raquel sit down for their first follow-up episode with Irene McGee, who's come a long way since episode 15, raising her 18-month-old daughter Renie in New York City with her "nusband." (music: www.bensound.com)

Episode 51: Anonymous

We talk with our first anonymous guest about avoiding her mother, being a doula, psychedelics, relationships, gender, and Duran Duran. (music: www.bensound.com)

Episode 50: LaKendra Tookes

This week, Katie and Raquel talk with comic, actress and writer LaKendra Tookes (follow her on Instagram, America!) about SNL, Drake, Scary Spice, insta-vestigations, being Southern, young parents, being a white guy magnet, wanting children, and being part of the village.  (music: www.bensound.com)      

Episode 49: Michelle D

Katie and Raquel chat with Katie's coworker Michelle, in town after recently moving across the country solo to start a family. We discuss support networks, Kandinsky references, donor interviews, Grade AA eggs, pregnancy, and taking the leap. (music: www.bensound.com)

Episode 48: Pushy Muldowney

Katie and Raquel sit down with Katie "Pushy" Muldowney to talk about roller derby, crows’ feet, grad school, freakout babies, Orange is the New Black, #TheDress, and Baron von Dogpants, dog of science. (music: www.bensound.com)

Episode 47: Irene Morales

Katie and Raquel talk with comedian Irene Morales about being from Miami, her prima hermana, growing up with an autistic sibling, therapy, and My Monkey Baby. (music: www.bensound.com)

Episode 46: Sharron Paul

Katie and Raquel welcome Sharron Paul, standup comic, actress and cohost of Katie’s other podcast, to tell us about growing up as part of an extended family (including Team Sameface), emergency nannying, thinking with her uterus, cat fights, bologna, and LendingSnatch.com.   (music: www.bensound.com)

Episode 45: Anita Flores

Anita Flores joins Katie and Raquel this week to talk panic IUDs, the Miracle of Life video, recovering from surgery, the All About Me doll, rude kids, effortless vomiting, and saying I love you. (music: www.bensound.com)

Episode 44: Lauren Vino

Katie and Raquel chat with comedian and dad blogger (really!) Lauren Vino about fighting in public, parents who are still married, her dad's band practice, babysitting, breaking an engagement, platonic parenting, and her type. (music: www.bensound.com)

Episode 43: Heather Fink

Katie and Raquel sit down with comedian and filmmaker Heather Fink to discuss middle-school makeovers, the meaning of family, women on set, and why/why not on having kids. (music: www.bensound.com)

Episode 42: Mindy Raf

Katie and Raquel chat with comedian, author, middle child and Michigander Mindy Raf about hormones, being engaged to a Croatian, handling ambivalence about kids, and nightmares about Mike Pence conversion camp. (music: www.bensound.com)

Episode 41: Leighann Lord

Katie and Raquel welcome first post-election guest Leighann Lord, comic, author, podcaster, host, and daughter-on-call. We talk about role reversal, wanderlust, being raised feminist (by a mom who wasn’t), maternal instinct, Golden Girls roommates, our Hogwarts houses, and glass-half-empty living. (music: www.bensound.com)

Episode 40: The Episode that Sucks

For their first episode back, Katie and Raquel sit down with each other to debrief over the last few months' whirlwind of travel, world political developments, decisions and babies. (And introducing the new "Live Diaper Change" segment, featuring our special guest host, Raquel's second baby!)  (music: www.bensound.com)

Episode 39: Kat Burdick

Raquel and Katie chat with comedian Kat Burdick about Who Wants to be a Millionaire, growing up a military brat, getting kicked out at 17, a better husband than none at all, and having her own grandchild. (music: www.bensound.com)

A quick update for regular listeners!

Hi, listeners! Raquel has just pushed a small human out of her body so our scheduling has been thrown off, but we're planning to get back to business as soon as the new baby can sleep through the night. In the meantime, don't forget to pre-order Raquel's book, titled Welcome to the Club, from your favorite bookseller!

Episode 38: Lauren Maul

Katie and Raquel talk with Lauren Maul, comedian, composer and cat lady, about managing chronic pain, growing up in small-town Nebraska, sharing privilege, and the clean-up song.   (music: www.bensound.com)

Episode 37: Luke Younger

Katie and Raquel talk with Luke Younger (only the second guy to do the podcast, because his struggle is real!) about the first six months, being in commercials, watching the birth of his son, being an older brother, and preparing for having two kids under two. (music: www.bensound.com)

Episode 36: Jennifer Leigh

Katie and Raquel sit down with Katie’s college friend Jennifer Leigh. For years she leaned against having kids because of a demanding job and genetic concerns, but inspired by her best friends’ examples, the pendulum swung the other way; she decided that she wants to be a mom, and froze her eggs— a.k.a. a “call option” on a child. (music: bensound.com)

Episode 35: Jessica Delfino

Katie and Raquel talk with NYC comedian, singer, ukelelist and entrepreneur Jessica Delfino about blind dates, VHS movies, jail, Mary Poppins, Craiglist, nunneries, and points of reference for our lives. (music: www.bensound.com)

Episode 34: Rebecca Vigil

Katie and Raquel sit down with NYC musical improviser Rebecca Vigil to talk about about growing up between two families, winning $100,000, Camp Unwanted, rolling the dice on birth control, and happy childhoods. (music: www.bensound.com)

Episode 33: Emily Flake

Raquel and Katie speak with New Yorker cartoonist and author Emily Flake about the battle for sleep, white lies, Sam Goody, cavities, becoming an aunt at 13, and the wave that waits for all of us. Buy her new book Mama Tried! (music: www.bensound.com)

Episode 32: Meghann Foye

Katie and Raquel sit down with magazine editor and book author Meghann Foye to discuss the online melee around her article in the NY Post, the gig economy, women vs. women, freezing her eggs, and being in the right place to have a family. (music: www.bensound.com)

Episode 31: Abbi Crutchfield

Katie and Raquel sit down with comic and actress Abbi Crutchfield to talk about being married to another comic, Home Alone, healthy living, confidence, conflict avoidance, and Baby Cobra. (music: www.bensound.com)

Episode 30: Tovah Close

Katie and Raquel speak with actor and dialect coach Tovah Close about small-town Oklahoma, the NYC performer hustle, waitressing during  the impending apocalypse, nannying, singleton babies, Raquel’s second kid, and story hour for adults. (music: www.bensound.com)

Episode 29: Caitlin Loughlin

Raquel and Katie chat with Caitlin Loughlin, a former entomologist and schoolteacher, about going through a cancer diagnosis as a teenager, dissecting grasshoppers, Jimmy John's, army ants, day care, and mosquito abatement.  (music: www.bensound.com)

Episode 28: Adira Amram

Katie and Raquel talk with NYC musical comedian/singer Adira Amram about Dutch Sesame Street, home births, growing up on a farm, downloading babies, karaoke, spray-on hair, and a killer quiche recipe. (music: www.bensound.com)

Episode 27: Blair Koenig

Blair Koenig, author and curator of the hilarious STFU, Parents blog, talks with Katie and Raquel about growing up in Atlanta, marrying her college pot dealer, living the Brooklyn hipster struggle, giving her mom a trophy baby, and feeling like trying for a baby is "throwing herself into a tornado," even though she's always wanted kids. (music: www.bensound.com)

Episode 26: Michelle Thaller

This week, Katie and Raquel get to talk with Dr. Michelle Thaller, a NASA astrophysicist and all-around coolest person we have ever met. We talk about growing up learning dairy science, space camp, the human race as a superorganism, equality in parenting, what we can’t not do in our lives, and accepting ourselves. (music: www.bensound.com)

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Episode 25: Sadie Dingfelder

Katie and Raquel travel to DC to sit down with Sadie Dingfelder, reporter and writer for The Washington Post. We discuss earnest six-year-olds, going from zero to grandma, giving birth to kittens, face blindness, rebellion, and kids' birthday parties. (Music: www.bensound.com)

Episode 24: Margaret Champagne

Katie and Raquel talk with actor and comic Maggie Champagne, who in the past week attended both a fertility doctor appointment and a baby shower, about planning to get pregnant at 40. We discuss escaping her small southern hometown, making it in New York, changing priorities, our deathbeds, and maternal (and paternal) instinct. (music: www.bensound.com)  

Episode 23: Tharanga Goonetilleke

Raquel and Katie talk with Tharanga Goonetilleke, a soprano opera singer and TED Fellow who’s expecting her second baby. Tharanga grew up in Sri Lanka before coming to the U.S. to pursue her musical education. We hear about her first day of school on September 11, and discuss being a brown person in the opera house, real talk about labor & delivery, being pregnant and caring for a toddler while physically incapacitated and only allowed Tylenol, and living your life as you like. (music: www....

Episode 22: Bailie & Debbie Slevin

Katie and Raquel sit down with a mother and daughter, Debbie and Bailie Slevin, to discuss Debbie’s new book, UnPregnant Pause: Where Are the Babies? We talk about bad marriages, grandpugs, Sheryl Sandberg, choice moms, passing on dating, unfair biology, asshole doctors, and validating— and celebrating— new generations’ choices. (music: www.bensound.com)

Episode 21: Vicky Kuperman

Katie and Raquel sit down with NYC comic Vicky Kuperman, a newlywed whose GYN, upon learning she was engaged, changed her tune to “you’d make a great mom!” We talk baby pushers, happy marriages, the monotony of pickup and dropoff, advice for women in their twenties, attachment parents, Vicky’s #‎flawless hair and skin, and things that are *not* our favorite. (music: www.bensound.com) 

Episode 20: Katherine Williams

Katie and Raquel talk with NYC comic Katherine Williams, who’s trying for a baby with her comedian husband (of whom we are big fans). Katherine tells us about growing up a shy tomboy, suddenly losing her mom at 14, and her recent miscarriage; we discuss raising a daughter, staying in the comedy mix, Murphy Brown, and the voice in Raquel’s head. (music: www.bensound.com)

Episode 19: Ophira Eisenberg

This week, Raquel and Katie chat with comedian, author, and host of NPR’s Ask Me Another, Ophira Eisenberg, who's imminently expecting her first child. We talk being forced to prioritize, primary caretaking, the Finnish birth box, women’s place in society, a destructive idiot vs. a manipulative bitch, uber births, champagne and oysters in the delivery room, and Saw. (music:www.bensound.com)

Episode 18: Jason Jude Hill

Raquel and Katie talk with their first male guest: Jason Jude Hill, who founded a film company, GrumpyFILMS, with his husband and business partner. We talk aspiring to be DINKs, coming out (both as gay, and as child-free), caring for a bag of flour, and maintaining friendships with your friends who have kids— and building friendships with kids themselves. (music: www.bensound.com)

Episode 17: Elizabeth Yuko

Raquel and Katie speak with reproductive bioethicist Elizabeth Yuko, Ph.D., who talks about living and studying in Ireland, female Viagra, artificial wombs, different types of motherhood, crowdfunding, Richard Simmons, bridesmaids, and baby showers. (music: www.bensound.com)

Episode 16: Miranda Forster

This week, Katie and Raquel talk with Miranda Forster, who’s going through the process of starting a family with her poker player wife. We talk babysitting (of course), George Michael, the sperm search, the Real Housewives, and loving your dogs less. (Music: www.bensound.com)