The Hidden History of Motherhood Nobody Taught You (And Why That Was Deliberate) with Elinor Cleghorn
The Resetter Podcast with Dr. Mindy
Dr. Mindy Pelz
4.7 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 6 May 2026
⏱️ 73 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
If you’ve ever felt like you were failing at something you were supposed to be naturally good at – this conversation will set you free.
Elinor Cleghorn is a feminist historian and the author of A Woman’s Work: Reclaiming the Radical History of Mothering, and in this deeply personal, wide-ranging conversation with Dr. Mindy, she unpacks one of the most important questions of our time: why has motherhood been so diminished, misunderstood, and so weaponized against the very women who do it?
From the myth of the perfect maternal instinct to the constructed guilt that has silenced women for centuries, from the empty nest to the role of fatherhood in healing the masculine wound, this conversation goes everywhere. It's equal parts history lesson, permission slip, and love letter to every woman who has ever given everything to raising a family and wondered whether she was doing it right.
Spoiler: you were.
A Woman's Work by Elinor Cleghorn is available in bookshops and online now. Find Elinor on Instagram at @elinorcleghorn.
For more resources related to today’s episode, visit the podcast episode page: https://www.drmindypelz.com/ep338
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before we get into today's episode, I need to tell you about something I literally have never done before. |
| 0:07.1 | So I do a lot of events. I speak on a lot of stages and I absolutely love it. |
| 0:11.8 | It's actually one of my favorite things to do because I love interacting with the audience |
| 0:16.3 | and seeing the ahas in people's face when they fall in love with their bodies again. |
| 0:21.5 | But there is something fundamentally different about an event that I'm doing this June. |
| 0:27.8 | And I want you to hear it directly from me. |
| 0:30.5 | It's my event. |
| 0:31.5 | There's the first thing. |
| 0:32.4 | I've created it. |
| 0:33.6 | And it's called the Live Like a Girl Retreat. |
| 0:36.4 | And I'm not going to be on stage behind a podium, delivering a keynote, and then disappearing. |
| 0:42.0 | I want to get to know you. |
| 0:43.2 | I want to hear what your concerns are. |
| 0:45.5 | I want to be there to help you. |
| 0:46.9 | So I'm going to be sitting with you at dinner by the fire in the breakout rooms for a full |
| 0:53.7 | three days. It is June 11th through June 13th, |
| 0:58.5 | and it is at 1440 Multiversity in Santa Cruz, California, in these beautiful redwoods. And I'm going to be |
| 1:06.4 | present with you in a way I simply cannot be anywhere else. It is a small group of people. We are going to |
| 1:13.8 | have real conversations. We are going to have real connection. I will be doing a book signing, |
| 1:19.3 | pictures if that's your thing, and we will be connecting and making sure that you are moving |
| 1:25.9 | in the right direction with your health. |
| 1:29.0 | So you can go to Dr. Mindy Pels.com backslash events and there are rooms available. |
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