There was a time when my name was thought to be difficult to pronounce and so in our kitchen my mom was cooking and I came and I asked her

I was like mommy can you call me Zoe and she stopped like the world stopped and

just turned and looked at me and she was like, why?

And I said, because they say it's too hard to say

Ozamaka and without skipping a beat she was just like I think I want to say Chikovsky and

Dustoyevsky and Michelangelo and they can learn to say wasamaka and went right back to cooking.

That was the beginning end of that conversation.

And at the time I was like,

I was a dostoyevsky. Welcome to your mama's kitchen, the podcast that explores how we're shaped as adults by

the kitchens we grew up in as kids. I'm Michelle Norris. Today my guest is

Uzzell Aduba, the actress who's played a variety of roles in such a compelling

way that you're absolutely convinced that she's actually the

appropriately named inmate Crazy Eyes and Orange is the New Black or the groundbreaking

politician Shirley Chism in Mrs America, the cranky and intrepid investigator and painkillers or the psychologist who could

use a few therapy sessions herself in a series called Intreatment.

A three-time Emmy Award winner, Uso is one of only two actors to win an Emmy in both the comedy and drama

categories for the same role. I'm a big fan of her work and so I was eager to find out what

the real Uso Aduba was like and it turns out she's funny and sharp and she's a great story teller.

Her own life story begins in Medfield, Massachusetts as the child of Nigerian immigrants.

She grew up in a loud and loving household, five kids, various pets, parents who worked long hours and aunts and uncles who were always dropping by.

In all that bustle, the kitchen was the command center, but also a sacred space for the family

to hold on to the flavors and rhythms of Africa and for the

...