Did anyone record The Today Show this morning, 2/27?

Here's a new test of the Mojo Mom Network: I am seeking a copy of this morning's episode of The Today Show. I can't find a way to get a transcript or tape from NBC. There is some sort of video clip online but it requires using Microsoft software I don't have.

A friend told me they featured a segment about Stranger Danger for Adults. Two reporters posed as water maintenance workers and talked their way into a woman's home. What intrigued me most is that the woman felt nervous about letting them in but did it anyway! So often we minimize our intuition and don't act on it. We've seen the experiment where adults successfully lure children away by asking for help with finding a "lost puppy." Adults are vulnerable to these tricks too. I would love to get a chance to see this segment to use as research for upcoming work on child safety.

If you somehow caught this show on tape or TiVo, please email me at amy@mojomom.com.

Thanks!

Mojo Mom on the Mothers Movement Online

Mojo Mom has made it onto the Mothers Movement Online as part of their "Mamas in Blogland feature." Check out my new article, Finding My Voice....and Broadcasting it to the World about the power of podcasting to revitalize the feminist movement.

You can hear my recent interview with Mothers Movement Online founder Judith Stadtman Tucker on the February 10 episode of the Mojo Mom Podcast, available from Liberated Syndication and the iTunes Podcast Directory.

For more on motherhood and blogging, see Miriam Peskowitz's recent comments about blogging at Playground Revolution and also check out the article Miriam recommends, Marrit Ingman's piece Mom and Pop Culture at AustinMama.com.

We are all connected and I love it. I could happily read and follow links all day if I didn't have a million other things to get done--as well as my girl on school holiday to look after!

The Olympics are just annoying me

What has changed--the Olympics themselves, society at large, or just my perception? I used to really look forward to the Olympic games, but this time around they feel incredibly annoying, indulgent, and inconsequential. I have lost my patience for endless preliminary heats and broadcast delay tactics that stretch an event out over hours. If an event is taped, why can't they show in its entirety in 30 minutes rather than cutting it up into a million segments that are doled out like rare delicacies? Do they think we care that much about what they are providing? Memo to NBC: I am not even going to devote 3 hours of TiVO recording space to an event like this, much less 3 hours of actual viewing attention.

In this age of anxiety and war, the Games no longer feel like a fun diversion and inspirational example. More like an incredibly indulgent, manufactured media event. Spending years to become the best half-pipe skier or the world's fastest luge slider by 0.05 seconds seems like the biggest waste of time. I know this is pure personal opinion, and probably the first sign that I am becoming a cranky old woman, but it's how I feel.

I sensed a bit of desperation to be relevant last night in Bob Costas' and Jimmy Robert's passive-agressive "tribute" to Michelle Kwan. After praising her 9 U. S. champion titles and 5 World titles they just had to plant the invevitable seed that in the future she would be known as "One of the greatest skater of all time, but...." somehow a failure that the gold medal eluded her.

Of course this is what the Olympic commentators have to say. I have an alternate way to look at this: Michelle Kwan is the greatest skater of all time and her career just shows how irrelevant the Olympics have become. Tara Lipinsky and Sarah Hughes were talented skaters who had great couple of weeks. Their Olympic golds were flashes in the pan and we never heard from them again. Michelle Kwan endured for over a dozen years and evolved as an athlete and an artist. I hope that she holds her head high with grace and pride to discover her next act. Talk about a tranformational Mojo turning point: any 25-year old who has reached the pinnacle of her field but now must move on will face incredible challenges and opportunites in using her gifts and talents in a meaningful way. Missing out on her final chance to win gold is a disappointment, but the rest of her life stretches out ahead of her, and that's what she needs to focus on now.

Goodbye to Betty Friedan

Can I just say how disappointed I am that right now on CNN.com the death of "Grandpa Munster" and the breakup of Sheryl Crow and Lance Armstrong are lead stories on the home page, but Betty Friedan's death is not? She died yesterday and yet this pioneer's passing wasn't counted as a headline even 24 hours later. Depressing.

Over at The Christian Science Monitor I learned that it was futurist Alvin Toffler who said that Friedan's 1964 best-seller The Feminine Mystique "pulled the trigger on history" as her work sparked a new women's movement.

The Feminine Mystique was the first feminist book I ever read (after a steady diet of my Mom's back issues of Ms. Magazine). It frightens me a bit that after 40 years of the women's movement, I still find her work and perspective to be incredibly relevant? Here's a quote as posted on CNN.com "A woman has got to be able to say, and not feel guilty, `Who am I, and what do I want out of life?' She mustn't feel selfish and neurotic if she wants goals of her own, outside of husband and children," Friedan said.

Friedan is one of my heroes in part because she grew up in Peoria, IL and went to the same high school as my grandmother, about 4 years behind. From our family stories, I know what a stifling environment that was for housewives and it must have taken a great deal of courage to break the china mold of domesticity.

Mojo Mom...paging author Sarah Napthali

In the age of Google it's usually pretty easy to find a way to get in contact with other parenting writers. One author I haven't been able to reach easily is Australian writer Sarah Napthali, author of Buddhism for Mothers: A Calm Approach to Caring for Yourself and Your Children. I have't written a full review yet because I haven't finished the whole book, but I love what I've read so far. I connect with her writing on an elemental mojo level. Australian women have written some of the most interesting books on motherhood, many of which are not available here, unfortunately.

When my family was in Sydney in November, I wished I'd had more time to scour the bookstore (and the phone book, for that matter. I should have looked up Sarah Napthali while I was there!). I picked up Susan Maushart's new book What Women Want Next and Anne Manne's book Motherhood: How Should We Care for Our Children? Both are thoroughly highlighted and dog-eared after I got a hold of them. These are the books that aren't in print yet in the U. S. but I can highly recommend Susan Maushart's earlier work, The Mask of Motherhood, which gave me a solid sociological underpinning when I started writing Mojo Mom.

So Sarah, Anne, and Susan, if you'd like to be on The Mojo Mom Podcast get in touch with me (amy@mojomom.com) and we'll set something up. I'll spring for the international phone call! We Mojo Moms in the U. S. would love to hear from you.

Upcoming on The Mojo Mom Podcast

Big things in are store this month in the land of Mojo Mom. I've been arranging the spring schedule of the Mojo Mom Podcast, and if you haven't gotten into podcasts yet, I'm hoping you'll take the time to learn about this new technology.

You don't need to an iPod to enjoy podcasts. The fact that you are reading this blog posting means that you probably have all the technology you need to listen to a podcast, which you can think of as a radio show that is broadcast over the internet instead of the airwaves. I've found that having my own customized audio programming to take with me as I drive, walk the dog, or do household chores really enhances my quality of life. There are thousands of programs available for download at iTunes (for free), from Audible.com (for a fee), and from individual websites. To access a podcast, you can either

1.) listen to a podcast while sitting at your computer

2.) download it using iTunes or a similar program and burn a CD to take with you, or

3.) download the show onto an MP3 player such as an iPod.

If you have any teenagers in your life, they can almost certainly help you with this. You might offer your babysitter a tip to show you how to do it if you don't live with any teens. I hope to expand MojoMom.com with a podcast FAQ later this winter.

February's guests on The Mojo Mom Podcast

In January The Mojo Mom Podcast featured guests including Mommy Guilt authors Aviva Pflock and Devra Renner, and professional organizer "Neat Freak" Peri Kersh.

Coming up in February we'll have talks with authors Stacy Debroff, The Mom Book Goes to School ; Miriam Peskowitz, The Truth Behind the Mommy Wars ; and Judith Stadtman Tucker, founder of The Mothers Movement Online. Other special guests are in the works along with scintillating and honest conversation with my intrepid co-host and partner-in-crime, Sheryl Grant.

You can listen to the Mojo Mom Podcast through www.MojoMom.libsyn.com, or download the show free from the iTunes Podcast Directory and other podcast aggregator sites.

Mojo Mom may be coming to your town

I am planning speaking engagements for the spring. I am planning events in cities across the country including San Francisco, Denver and Boulder, Chicago, Atlanta, Baltimore, Washington DC, and Boston (as well as a trip to Tokyo in the end of June!). If you'd like to recommend an independent bookstore to visit, or invite me to speak to a Mothers & More chapter or other group of Moms, please send me an email at amy@mojomom.com I am looking to speak to groups of at least 25 people, ideally in settings that are open to the public. Mothers and More Chapters have invited me and advertised the talks widely to attract new members, for instance.

Thanks for your continued support!