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Culture Study Podcast

All the Ways We Surveil Motherhood

Culture Study Podcast

Culture Study Podcast

Arts, Society & Culture

4.5789 Ratings

🗓️ 30 July 2025

⏱️ 62 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When I first heard about Hannah Zeavin’s new book, Mother Media: Hot and Cool Parenting in the Twentieth Century, I knew it Culture Study material. Historicizing the intersection between tech and motherhood (and how surveillance affects mothers and changes parenting norms which leads to more surveillance)… that’s some Culture Study shit. I’m thrilled that Hannah Zeavin — whose work so compellingly crosses the lines of media history and history of psychology — agreed to come on the pod (and that she was such a dynamic and engaging co-host).If you’re skeeved out by breastfeeding discourse, if you’ve ever been a childcare provider (for your own children or others’) and resent the threat of cameras, if you feel so deeply ambivalent about the nanny cam… this episode will take you to places that make all of this surveillance “make sense” (which is very different from making it feel better). I can’t wait for your thoughts on this one.Thanks to the sponsors of today’s episode!Get great sleep on a new Birch mattress. Go to BirchLiving.com/Culture for 27% off sitewideGet $35 off your first box of wild-caught, sustainable seafood—delivered right to your door. Go to: https://www.wildalaskan.com/CULTURE.Show Notes:I hope it’s clear that I’m obsessed with Mother Media. It’s pretty academic but if that’s not intimidating (for whatever reason) I strongly recommend it (and you can buy it here).Learn more about Hannah Zeavin and her work hereYou can read Ray Bradbury’s The Veldt in its entirety here (originally published in the Saturday Evening Post, wild!)The International Nanny Association’s official guidance about nanny camsSome of my favorite books by the great family scholar Stephanie CoontzCiting some research about Dr. Spock’s infant sleeping advice and SIDSDorothy Roberts’ work on how the child welfare system destroys black familiesMy favorite rebuttal of Jonathan Haidt’s Anxious GenerationIf you’re not familiar with Emily Oster’s ParentData (and a sharp piece on the optimization of parenting/Oster’s style of parenting advice)Viviana A. Zelizer’s classic, Pricing the Priceless ChildRichard Beck’s book on the satanic/moral panic of the ‘80sMadeline Lane-McKinley’s work on child liberationWe’re currently looking for your questions for future episodes about:Gwyneth Paltrow (with the author of the new juicy bio)Birding Culture!Male Grievance Culture and Its Connection to Climate Change Denial (this is a real thing, ask us questions!)Hoarding Culture / How to Navigate Hoarders in Your LifeRunning a Small Business — and How to Make It Sustainable & Survivable (with Jen Hewett!)Food Trends (like, what are you seeing on the menu in all the restaurants? Why are people pushing this particular ingredient or prep in their recipes???)Baseball Culture (with Ali Liebegott and Melody as additional co-host!!!)Anything you need advice or want musings on for the AAA segment. You can ask about anything, it’s literally the name of the segment!As always, you can submit them (and ideas for future eps) hereFor this week’s discussion: how have you seen surveillance of motherhood (and its ramifications) in your own life? (You don’t have to be a mother yourself to answer this, OBVIOUSLY)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey, this is Anne with another update on the episodes that we need your questions for.

0:04.7

We've gotten some really interesting ones in about why men are less likely to believe in climate change,

0:09.8

with some of your own stories included, but we need more. Keep those coming. We're also working on

0:15.3

a deep dive about Gwyneth Paltrow with the author of her new biography, and we're still taking

0:20.3

your questions on birding

0:21.7

culture, that one's going to be so cute and good, hoarding, and food trends of all kinds.

0:27.3

As always, you can submit those and questions you have for asking anything at culturesteadipod.

0:32.6

com.

0:34.1

Okay, thanks and enjoy today's show.

0:41.7

So the book opens with this 1950 short story,

0:47.1

sci-fi by Ray Bradbury, and it's called The Children the World Made, or more commonly taught as the veldt. And it begins with a pair of parents, their names are Lydia and George,

0:52.2

who are really excited because they've just bought

0:54.6

something called a happy life home. This is basically an epic smart home. It has taken over every

1:00.9

maternal and housewifery function. And of course, Lydia is both ecstatic and completely depressed

1:08.3

because this was her entire life. They also, which is so depressing,

1:12.8

not to editorialize. Of course, they also have two children, which is the norm. They're twins.

1:18.1

Their names are Wendy and Peter. We can hear the sort of Peter Pan thing there. And they have

1:24.4

their own reality playroom, which sounds really cool.

1:28.2

Basically, they fantasize, they imagine things.

1:31.0

This is the height of Freud mania, so it's definitely psychoanalytic.

1:34.5

And then it's like a 3D VR room.

1:37.3

So they start to fantasize the Sahara.

...

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