Hi, I'm Zivie Owens, and you're listening to the Webby-nominated podcast, Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.

Please also check out my other podcast, kids do have time to read books.

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don't have time to read books and at kids do have time to read. So please follow me.

And if at any time you have suggestions, my email is Zibi at Zivvyowens.com. Thanks for listening.

Thanks so much to my latest sponsor, the Mermaid Pillow Company, Mermaidpillow.com.

They make these amazing pillows with sequins on the back and positive messages on the front,

and they now even make custom pillows and blankets.

It's an amazing company, and if you enter the code Zibby, Z-I-B-B-Y, you will get 10% off, which is super cool. So please check them out, MermaidPillowco.com. I'm excited to be here today with Amanda Stern. Amanda is the author of A Little Panic Dispatches from An Inxious Life, a memoir about her undiagnosed childhood panic disorder that takes place in New York City in the Eaton Pots era. She's also written the long haul and 11 children's books written under pseudonyms. She's the founder of the Happy Ending Music and Reading series, which was a multidisciplinary literary event series that took place at Joe's Pub and Symphony Space in New York. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, New York Times Magazine, and the New York Times Book Review, among many other publications.

She also writes the Little Panic blog on her website. Amanda currently lives in Brooklyn with her dog busy.

Welcome, Amanda. Thanks for coming on. Moms Don't have time to read books. Thanks for having me.

So can you please tell listeners what Little Panic is about,

although it really kind of tells it from the subtitle,

Dispatches from An Anxious Life,

but that's only a small piece of the puzzle.

So tell us... what Little Panic is about, although it really kind of tells it from the subtitle, Dispatches

from An Anxious Life, but that's only a small piece of the puzzle. So tell us about the book.

Sure. So Little Panic is a memoir about growing up with an undiagnosed panic disorder

and Greenwich Village in the 70s around the time that Aiton Pates went missing.

And it's about how not knowing what was wrong with me shaped the course of my entire life

and the ways in which the adults in my life tried to go about figuring out what was going on

with me and in their attempts to figure that out inadvertently, can I curse on here? Go for it. Fuck me up. Yeah, there you go. And I love how you did it because you started the narrative when you were very, very young and went all through the school age years. But then at the same time, you had a more present day day and I kept waiting for them to meet up.

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