Should Have Listened to My Mother Podcast

Grace is first generation Italian Australian. Her parents immigrated from Southern Italy to Australia when they were  young. Rosa and Alfredo, Grace's parents, met many years later in Australia and started their family of four girls.  Rosa was one of nine children and she was  fifteen when landing in Australia. Alfredo lost both his parents at five years old and had a rough childhood.  He was a vi...

Hannah refers to her mother as a saint and her hero.  As a child, my guest, remembers her mother's great sense of humor, dancing and listening to music, learning about bug and butterflies and the significance of faith. Rebecca, Hannah's mother endured much pain and sorrow as a young girl fleeing the Nazi's in Europe. At 17, Rebecca, on her own, immigrated to America with her younger brother.  The...

Nadia Turner was the #8 finalist on the 4th season of American Idol (2005) and Zareh, also know as Za, was only four years old. In the spring of 2022  Zareh, then  21,  auditioned for AI and surprised her mother when she took her to the audition.  Zareh   performed “Bust Out Your Windows” by Jazmine Sullivan, which impressed the judges. It was such a pleasure to have a conversation with both mothe...

Trevor Alexander is a UI/UX tech designer and the kind of son that just wants to share inspirational stories of his mother. He's not looking for personal gain, but solely out of respect and admiration for his mom, Constance or better known as Connie, Trevor wants her story told.   The second son of four children, two boys and two girls, Trevor,  so he says was  "accident prone" as a child which ki...

At a young age, Gordon started out his career working with sound, lighting and special effects in theatre and completing his B.A. in radio, television and film. Gordon Firemark certainly had enough credentials for a very successful career. Yet apparently it wasn't enough, or maybe, he eventually came around and listened to his mother:) He got a law degree and is  most generous with his time and ex...

Eunice was a confident hard working woman, that loved God, her country and her family. She was proud of her accomplishments and rightfully so.   Chef Dennis is a successful classically trained chef, now retired and a very popular travel and food blogger. He prefers to cook for others rather than cook a meal for himself. His grandmother taught him a lot about food and cooking and she passed down "t...

Life sometimes has a funny way of turning out. Sometimes a dire situation presents itself and the outcome is much better than we could have ever imagined. In this particular case, it took a mother to show her true love, courage and support and possibly willingly risk jail time to prove  to her son that she loved him with her whole heart.   While convalescing at home, Chisom finally was courageous...

  Marcie Coronado has travelled quite a bit, yet always comes back to Medanales, New Mexico. It's high arid dessert and a farming community where the main source of water is the Rio Chama. Between a lack of water and adverse weather conditions, it was often a struggle. Her father's side of the family is part hispanic, by way of Mexico and her mother's side of the family is native to New Mexico.  ...

 Should Have Listened To My Mother Podcast (SHLTMM) is now available on YouTube @:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoUWxgQECqrMqI1ylVH9Dpw   It wasn't until two years ago that my guest, Scott Gazzoli, now 32, learned the truth about why his father suddenly disappeared back in 1995.   When Scott was 5-6 yrs old, his dad suddenly vanished, leaving his mother, Caroline, to raise Scott and his young...

Deborah, Sophee's mother, "is in her own world and she's happy there and I come in and out of that world and that's ok," continues Payne who's never felt that she's had to live near  to her parents.  Payne is comfortable saying, "I care for them deeply, I just feel that closeness to them is not a priority."  A Florida native, now living in Vancouver, CA,  Sophee is happily ensconced in her full ti...

SHLTMM CAN NOW BE HEARD ON YOUTUBE: YOUTUBE CHANNEL LINK:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoUWxgQECqrMqI1ylVH9Dpw As I mention in the introduction of my show, Gramps Jeffrey, I believe is the first grandfather I've interviewed on SHLTMM, so that's pretty great. I was so happy to hear how engaged he is with his grandchildren. Gramps' mother's name was Faye  and she really left quite an impression...

Thanks for checking out my podcast. Now, SHLTMM is also available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoUWxgQECqrMqI1ylVH9Dpw Not a happy person as an adult, "I was a pathological procrastinator" says Segal. After years of therapy, she came to understand that she wanted to be happy.  She didn't want to stay in that place any longer and wanted to move forward. There are many things that Lo...

The details of the 2022 Ukraine/Russia conflict change minute by minute and hour by hour.  What's difficult for  my guest and her 80 year old mother,  Mariyka, to understand is how shocking this event is. Here we are in the 21st century, and Ukraine is under attack.  Certainly not plausible, but clearly possible. What makes this all the more difficult is the fact that Anya and her mom have many re...

Julie Jargon is the first 'Family & Technology' Columnist for the Wall Street Journal. Congratulations again Julie. She is also a Gen X mom.  Generation X is  the generation after the 'baby boomers'-mid 1960's to early 1980's, and her findings may not be too surprising. As a parent, I've often told my boys to get off their phones and/or computer for many reasons.  The worst being social media and...

When Breeze got teased at school because he didn't look Italian enough, his mother would say, "Next time tell them you're 'FBI'-Full Blooded Italian!   Maryann or mom as Breeze  referred to her, used humor regularly to handle all kinds of situations, including difficult coworkers and clients where she was an executive secretary for 40 years. When Maryann was younger, she wanted to be Carol Burnett...

My guest, Dr. Joseph Garcia, was speaking to me from  the Pacific Northwest. As he said, "I'm 15 miles south of Canada and 6 miles in from the water (Pacific Ocean)." Emma was born and raised in Alabama. She moved up North to Milwaukee and started her family in her 40's.  Joseph is so proud of all his mom's accomplishments and is overwhelmed at times by the number of lives she touched.  One of the...

 As a young child, Sarah, native to Western Australia, didn't understand the voices and visions inside her head. She didn't understand how she knew things that a 4 year couldn't possibly know. It wasn't until she was older that she came to understand  that she had psychic/intuitive abilities. "As a child, I was emotionally and verbally abused by my mother and brother," continues Strong. My mom was...

 To say that Claire Sinclair is  generous with her time, is an understatement.  She's been a teacher for decades.   And currently she's  teaching kindergarten in the same classroom at the same elementary school she attended.     What's interesting about how our conversation began is that both Claire and her mother  attended Columbia High School in Maplewood, NJ and both women married their high sc...

My initial thought was to find information about  William Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden.  I was curious as to the role she played or didn't play in her son's life.  That search led me to Shakespearian expert and Columbia University English Professor, James Shapiro.  His initial responses was, "your podcast will last about 30 seconds because we don't know much about her."  That said, he mentione...

Letting go of the busyness, was a gift Jennifer gave to herself.  Her grandmother was always keeping busy as was her mom, but Jennifer wasn't happy just doing things that she didn't really want to  do. My guest wanted to satisfy her interests of both the right and left sides of her brain.  Becoming an engineer seemed like a logical career choice because her father was an engineer.  Twenty years la...

My guest grew up in Chicopee, MA, a mill town, textiles/paper, with hard working moms and dads just trying to provide for their families. The  large immigrant community was trying to develop new skills while developing new ties with their new neighbors.  Ken's father's family was from Quebec, Canada and his mom's family immigrated from Scotland.  There's quite a bit to this story that Ken shared w...

As a licensed Marriage and  Family Counselor, author and public speaker, Roya Dedeaux hears lots of 'mom' stories. The one she's most proud of is the story of her own mother, Pam. Pam and her siblings as well as her mother, Roya's grandmother, were all educators.  Education and learning was always a topic of concern whenever they got together.   So when Roya's mom said she wanted to 'unschool' Roy...

Shortly before Jean Walters' mother died, she told her daughter " I never  understood you, but I really do respect you."  That meant a lot to Jean as the two had often butted heads over the years. The challenges with her mother early on in life influenced her career and that she is thankful for. Jean's latest book,  "The Journey From Anxiety To Peace-Practical Steps to Handle Fear, Embrace Struggl...

By the time Gail Mitchell was a young teenager, she was already taking drawing classes at a level way beyond her years.  She pursued art through college and today she's still creating beautiful pieces which have many layers and beg you to ask questions.  She's most grateful to both her parents for their loving relationship which was proof of their commitment to each other and the family. Ellen Mit...

As a teen, Sam neglected to really connect with his mother. Unfortunately, Eleanor  passed away at a very young. In time, as a journalist, Sam realized  he had the skills to research his mom's past and get to know her from the beginning. In "Who She Was, My Search For My Mother's Life," you'll find the story of a beautiful young woman who had so many hopes and dreams and life, WWII, the Holocaust...