Fresh Take: Sophie Lucido Johnson, KIN

What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood | Parenting Tips From Funny Moms

What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood

Kids & Family, Comedy, Parenting

4.8 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 12 December 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, we sit down with writer, illustrator, and community-builder Sophie Lucido Johnson, author of KIN: THE FUTURE OF FAMILY, to explore how adults can create deeper, more fulfilling friendship networks. Sophie shares why modern culture pushes us toward hyper-independence, how to break out of the loneliness cycle, and the simple daily practices that strengthen connection. They discuss the difference between friendships and partnerships, why we need multiple kinds of support people, and how to nurture relationships with curiosity, generosity, and reciprocity. Sophie also talks about community care, asking for help, borrowing instead of buying, and the small acts that make neighborhoods feel like actual communities. Whether you’re feeling isolated, overwhelmed, or simply craving richer relationships, this episode offers warm, practical, and often funny reminders that we don’t have to do life alone — and that we’re all better off when we rely on each other. Here's where you can find Sophie: @sophielucidojohnson on IG and FB https://www.sophielucidojohnson.com/ Buy KIN: https://bookshop.org/a/12099/9781668060650 What Fresh Hell is co-hosted by Margaret Ables and Amy Wilson. We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: ⁠https://www.whatfreshhellpodcast.com/p/promo-codes/⁠ Get 50% Off Monarch Money, the all-in-one financial tool at ⁠www.monarchmoney.com/FRESH Ready to raise money-smart kids? Start now with your first month FREE at acornsearly.com/FRESH! mom friends, funny moms, parenting advice, parenting experts, parenting tips, mothers, families, parenting skills, parenting strategies, parenting styles, busy moms, self-help for moms, manage kid’s behavior, teenager, tween, child development, family activities, family fun, parent child relationship, decluttering, kid-friendly, invisible workload, default parent, Sophie Lucido Johnson, Sophie Lucido Johnson interview, Kin book Sophie Johnson, adult friendships, how to make friends as an adult, building community as a parent, interdependence vs independence, community care, reducing loneliness, parenting podcast interview, What Fresh Hell podcast, Amy Wilson and Margaret Ables, creating support networks, nurturing friendships, reciprocity in relationships, borrowing instead of buying, neighborhood connection, emotional support systems Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:32.6	hello everyone and welcome to fresh take from what fresh hell laughing in the face of mother
0:36.8	this is margaret and this is amy today we're talking to sophy lucido johnson to fresh take from what fresh hell laughing in the face of Mother. This is Margaret.
0:37.9	And this is Amy.
0:38.7	Today we're talking to Sophie Lucido Johnson.
0:41.8	She is a Chicago-based author and artist who publishes cartoons in The New Yorker and writes
0:47.6	the best-selling substack newsletter, You Are Doing a Good Enough Job.
0:52.7	Today we'll be talking about Sophie's latest book, Kin, The Future of Family.
0:57.8	Welcome, Sophie. Thanks for having me. So happy to be here. So let's start with the title. What is
1:04.2	kin? I wanted to find some language for the type of relationship that is more than a friendship, but, you know,
1:15.0	isn't your blood family or your spouse. So we talk a lot about family. And often there are
1:22.4	people in your family who you choose, who are, you're not married to or who are outside the classic definition of family. So
1:29.7	I'm proposing kin. It has a lot of etymological, interesting background, but I like this word. It's
1:38.2	tidy and neat and it sort of can describe these really close, close friendships that this book is sort of about
1:44.9	nurturing and building those relationships. It seems to me that's true, very true in certain
1:49.7	cultures that, like, I'm thinking of like aunties and, and certain cultures that you have
1:56.0	many aunts because you have many mothers or you have many maternal figures in your life and that there are words or I have, my kids have friends who are Chilean and they call them their primos, which is like your cousin, but it's more than your cousin. It's your, there's words for these, it seems to me, in non-American cultures that think about this stuff as being very fluid and open.
	...

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