Motherhood, Fear, and the Twisted Genius of Ashley Audrain
Cat & Nat Unfiltered
Cat & Nat
5 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 18 November 2025
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When Nat discovered her daughter was reading The Push for school, she knew we had to talk to the woman who wrote the book! Ashley Audrain is the powerhouse behind the global sensation The Push and the international bestseller The Whispers. Ashley's debut became a New York Times, Sunday Times, and #1 international bestseller, landed a spot as a Good Morning America Book Club pick, and is now headed for a limited TV series. We explore the themes that hooked readers everywhere, like motherhood, fear, creativity, connection, and all the unsettling bits we don’t usually say out loud. Ashley also takes us behind the scenes of her writing life, her publishing journey, and what it feels like when your novel becomes the book people are talking about. Discover more @ashleyaudrain.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I was feeling so lost, you know, and like that early motherhood, real loss of identity, |
| 0:07.1 | you're giving everything to the experience. |
| 0:10.4 | And then even more so, you know, when you have a kid that has such high health needs. |
| 0:14.7 | And I thought, also the only thing I want to do is right. |
| 0:17.3 | Like this is the only thing I want to do is like get a babysitter for a couple |
| 0:22.9 | hours, go down the street with my laptop to like the cafe down the street and just start writing. |
| 0:29.3 | Drop it like a pack. Drop like a tie. Drub like a pack. Natalie, what do I do? |
| 0:35.5 | I hope it's giddy-gitty. |
| 0:42.9 | Today we are so lucky to have Ashley Audraine on our podcast. |
| 0:47.0 | She, her debut novel was The Push and it was in New York Times. |
| 0:52.7 | It was a New York Times, Sunday Times, international bestseller and Good Morning America Book Club pick. |
| 0:53.6 | Her second novel, The Whispers, is also number one international bestseller. |
| 1:00.6 | And I don't read books and she read yours. |
| 1:04.4 | I asked me, there we go. |
| 1:06.1 | I haven't even read the book. |
| 1:08.5 | But my, I know that's crazy. And that's not because of you. It's because of me. I don't even read the book. But, oh, my, I know that's crazy. And that's not because of you. |
| 1:12.4 | It's because of me. I don't really read books. But my daughter took grade 12 English in, in the summer. |
| 1:21.8 | And they gave a list of books because I think that we're in grade 12 grade 12 English the book that they have to read is |
| 1:28.7 | it's like a big long one and maybe it's like not like a Shakespeare but like it's something like |
| 1:34.9 | that but it has whatever the theme of that book these lists have the same kind of like you know |
| 1:42.4 | comparisons or whatever metaphor, similes. |
| 1:45.4 | I'm just using words that I know that they use in English. |
... |
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