325: My Mom, Marie Spodek: All in the Family

I thought about recording with parents for a while. Environmental action is personal and people keep asking me what motivates me.

Well, now you'll get almost 50 years more background.

Another issue with family and changing habits, lots of people talk and ask about challenges of changing others or selves within close relationships. This episode will give you my background, environmental and otherwise, how it affects our relationship, her views, and some dirty laundry.

Both my mom and I think or hope you'll enjoy toward the end, where we talk past each other. We think you'll find it funny, though frustrating for us.

For context and what precipitated doing this episode now: COVID-19 has led me to live in her and her husband's (my stepfather) house outside New York City. We haven't lived in such close proximity since the 80s. Understandings in some areas have increased but decreased in others.

You'll hear at the end that she asks for feedback. I hope you'll give her and me feedback.

For my part, I enjoyed the conversation and in a whole mother-son relationship. It's not the worst thing, but I feel misunderstood about my motivations, as you'll hear. I wonder how many people see me as someone actually depriving himself trying to make a point, not realizing I'm just sacrificing.

• My blog post about my mom running her first marathon: Redefining Possibility
• My telling that story for an audience

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