Lots of Flowers
Radiotopia Presents: We're Doing the Wiz
Radiotopia
4.3 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 20 July 2022
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Happy 76th Birthday, Ma! In this episode, we celebrate her birthday with lunch at her favorite restaurant, where we talk about life, death, and how gratitude for each day doesn’t always mean we should skip the special ones, like birthdays — no matter how badly I want to skip my own. Every time.
My Mother Made Me is a production of Radiotopia Presents, and is written and narrated by Jason Reynolds, with his mother, Isabell Reynolds. The series is produced by Mark Pagán and edited by Julie Shapiro, with production support from Yooree Losordo. Julie Shapiro and Audrey Mardavich are Executive Producers for Radiotopia Presents. Cover art by Jason Griffin. Theme song by Christian Reynolds. Mixing, sound design and additional original music is by Ian Coss.
Radiotopia Presents debuts limited-run, artist-owned series, from new and original voices. Learn more and access transcripts at radiotopiapresents.fm and discover more shows from across the Radiotopia network at radiotopia.fm.
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to Radiotopia Presents from PRX's Radiotopia. |
| 0:07.0 | I got this thing about birthdays. |
| 0:10.0 | Actually, I think everyone's got a thing about birthdays. |
| 0:14.0 | I mean, how could you not? |
| 0:17.0 | It's the day that marks the beginning of your existence, the anniversary of your consciousness, |
| 0:22.1 | the first time you actually change the world just by being born. |
| 0:27.0 | That being said, everyone's relationship with their birthday is different. |
| 0:31.6 | And over the course of a lifetime, how a person feels about birthdays can change, from |
| 0:36.1 | tolerating celebrations imparted upon us by parents |
| 0:39.8 | to cultivating an array of questions that arise as we age. Questions like, are birthdays actually |
| 0:47.6 | important? Should we celebrate them? What about half birthdays? Are they really a thing? How long do we celebrate and how do we choose to do so? Should I throw a party? Should someone else throw me a party? Please don't try to surprise me, but I do love a surprise party. Will there be cake, layer or sheet, homemade or storeball? Candles? Even after COVID, you really want me spitting all over the cake? |
| 1:16.6 | Well, I mean, it is my cake because it is my day. |
| 1:19.6 | But you might want something. |
| 1:22.6 | A corner piece, a piece from the middle. |
| 1:25.6 | Also, am I really supposed to make a wish? And what exactly |
| 1:30.0 | do I wish for to see another birthday and have to make all these decisions again? |
| 1:38.1 | And as birthdays do, mine will roll around in a few months in December. Maybe I'll get out of here and go on a trip, somewhere warm. |
| 1:48.0 | Maybe an island. |
| 1:50.1 | Scratch that. |
| 1:51.3 | Maybe I'll go to Paris, or maybe I'll treat myself to something I've always wanted, |
| 1:56.4 | or to something I've needed but I've never gotten around to. |
| 2:00.0 | A new pair of shoes or new floors in my house. |
... |
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