A Motherful World with Alexis Pauline Gumbs

A Motherful World with Alexis Pauline Gumbs

Author: How to Survive the End of the World August 2, 2024 Duration: 29:10

You know we love Alexis Pauline Gumbs here at HTS, so we're so excited to present her episode from a show we recently discovered. It's called Mother is a Question.

MIAQ is an invitation into the depths of mothers’ hearts, minds and stories. Join best friends Julia Metzger-Traber and Tasha Haverty as they crack open definitions of motherhood and listen for the unspeakable through playful, intimate conversations with mothers from all walks of life. Mother is a Question is a portal into the kaleidoscopically different and yet universal experiences of what it means to mother.

Not another chat show sharing practical advice from the daily frontlines of mothering, but a space to live in the questions, and enlist the existential and poetic wisdom of those who mother. What would the world be if we took mothers’ questions and their wisdom seriously?

Tasha and Julia, both mothers of babies and small children– sleepless and overwhelmed, renewed and disjointed, transformed and confused – are seeking wisdom from all directions. But rather than expecting any final answers, each question opens up many more. The hosts’ own friendship dynamic–with their sometimes contrasting fascinations and struggles in motherhood–guides each episode, fed by a flow of listeners’ reflections and stories shared on the show’s “heartline,” a voicemail box, exploring that episode’s central question.

On this episode they ask...

What if humans could evolve into our most nurturing and creative selves?  What if society were organized around care instead of extraction and destruction?  What if we followed the leadership of those who mother?  Well, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, self-proclaimed Black Feminist Love Evangelist, thinks we have to.  It's urgent.  And she calls this possibility Motherful.  This episode, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, a poet and one of Julia's philosopher heroes, will be our guide to A Motherful World. 


Sisters Autumn Brown and adrienne maree brown host How to Survive the End of the World, a podcast rooted in their shared lives as writers, activists, and facilitators shaped by multiracial diasporic lineages. This isn't a theoretical discussion about distant catastrophes; it's a direct, grounded conversation about the endings we are all already living through-the collapse of systems, the death of old ways, and the personal transformations that feel like worlds dissolving. Each episode delves into the tangible, often messy practices a community needs to navigate these ruptures. You'll hear them explore how we grieve, how we organize, how we imagine futures, and how we find wholeness even as things fall apart. The dialogue is intimate and urgent, moving from the kitchen table to the front lines of social change, always asking what it means to survive with integrity and connection. This podcast operates from the belief that learning to face endings together is the first, most necessary step toward building something new. For more from Autumn and adrienne, find them at endoftheworldshow.org.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

How to Survive the End of the World
Podcast Episodes
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Duration: 1:10:57
The sisters are ecstatic to welcome Nnenna and Pierce Freelon to the show.Nnenna is a GRAMMY nominated jazz singer, storyteller and grief sojourner. Her latest album is Beneath the Skin. Her new book is Beneath the Skin…
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Duration: 20:08
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FRACTAL #5: The Beauty and Precision of Project Management [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 26:30
The sisters nerd out on project (and self!) management, spreadsheets, procrastination, saving your work and ensuring you have adequate support for the art you're making.---⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TRANSCRIPT⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠---⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠…
FRACTAL #4: The Womb of Weird [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 22:17
Another year, another fractal! Autumn and adrienne revel in the majesty their respective weirdness in the artistic process and how improvisation and structure co-mingle. ---⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TRANSCRIPT⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠---⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠…
CORRECTED: Freedom Practice in an Unfree World [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:12:23
Some of you may have gotten the wrong audio when we posted this episode on 11/21/25. SORRY!Today we're thrilled to feature the recent interview featuring Autumn from ⁠Next Economy Now⁠ with Ryan Honeyman. In this episode…