I recently discovered a new podcast and I immediately fell in love with it. It is not like my other newsy podcasts, The Daily and Post Reports, telling the day’s depressing news in an entertaining, interviewee fashion. No. It is not even like the thematic storytelling podcasts, This American Life and Ear Hustle that I savor and hold till my long run each Sunday. And it is certainly not like all the various teaching podcasts I listen to reminding me of things I once learned and forgot, or never even considered. No, it is a podcast by a writer, with words strung together, a cadence that takes your breath away and paints an image, a  feeling that lodges deep in your heart. Yes, I am talking about the podcast by Jason Reynolds, called My Mother Made Me. 

 

You probably know Jason Reynolds from his middle grade Track Series with the books of Ghost, Patina, Sunny and Lu. Those kids, those books are so good. Or maybe you know his older kid books, All American Boys or Long Way Down. I heard him on another podcast once talk about how he writes books for 10 and 16 year olds because those were the years most challenging for him. I discovered Jason Reynold’s during lockdown, when he hosted Instagram live sessions called Brain Yoga talking and playing games with kids. His reverence for his readers, the kids who logged on was unmistakable. The feelings were mutual. So looked up his books and read them one by one. I’ve told everyone I care about, about his books. But his podcast, Wow!

 

I suppose what I love most is, he is a writer, a writer who loves words and knows how to string them together in such a way that your heart stops, or slows, flips or does something. You take note. Most podcasts I listen to at  as speed of 1.25 to get through and move on. But this one, I want to listen to it at regular speed, slowly, savoring each part, it is that good. But I also love that it is about him and his mother. Their mutual adoration is also indisputable. But not in a corny, or mama’s boy kind of way. They are friends too, confiding in one another. I am a mother of a young adult, and to think that I can have this kind of relationship with my child would be everything to me. 

 

The only downside, really the only one, is that there are only four episodes. That is it. So savor them.