Molly Jong-Fast on 'How to Lose Your Mother'

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 23 June 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“As much as I love my mother, I’ve often found myself regarding her with feelings that are somewhat closer to the opposite of love,” writes political analyst Molly Jong-Fast. The mother of which she writes is feminist icon Erica Jong, whose 1973 debut novel “Fear of Flying,” jetted Jong to a level of fame that she spent the rest of her life grasping on to. In 2023, her mother’s declining health and diagnosis for dementia forced Jong-Fast to reconcile her feelings about her mother: Was Jong a good mother? Probably not. Was Jong-Fast a good daughter? She herself is not sure. We talk to Jong-Fast about her book, “How To Lose Your Mother: A Daughter’s Memoir.” Guests: Molly Jong-Fast, author, "How to Lose Your Mother: A Daughter's Memoir"; host of the podcast "Fast Politics"; special correspondent, Vanity Fair Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:43.3	From KQBD in San Francisco, this is Forum.
1:06.0	I'm Mina Kim.
1:07.0	2020 was a terrible year for Molly Jong-Fast, the political commentator who appears regularly on MSNBC and hosts the podcast Fast Politics.
1:16.8	Her husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and she had to put her mother, the feminist writer Erica Jong, diagnosed with dementia, into assisted living.
1:26.5	In her memoir, How to Lose Your Mother,
1:28.6	Zhang Fast reflects on her complicated
1:30.5	and at times chaotic relationship with her mom
1:32.7	who struggled with the fleeting nature of fame
1:35.4	and with alcohol addiction.
1:37.3	We'll also get Zhang Fast's take
1:39.0	on this weekend's major political developments.
1:41.7	Join us.
1:57.3	Welcome to Forum. I'm Mina Kim. You may know Molly Jong-Fast for her political analysis and sharp critiques of the president in his administration on MSNBC or in her Vanity Fair columns or her podcast, Fast Politics.
2:05.7	But Zhang Fast's new book is not about politics. It's about her mother, Erica Jong, the writer famous for her 1973 novel Fear of Flying, which was hailed as a groundbreaking feminist work.
2:18.4	That fame meant Zhang Fast struggled to get the love and attention she longed for from her
	...

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