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PODCAST

Parenting is a Joke

Ophira Eisenberg

You know when you talk to your friends about your childhood and end it by saying, "But look at us, we"re fine!" Here"s my question: Are we fine? Because we"re sitting here doused in CBD oil under a weighted blanket recording a podcast called Parenting is a Joke. Each week, host and standup Ophira Eisenberg talks to a different comedian about their career and their kids. Conversations tackle the tooth fairy, eating sticks, summer camp anxiety, the hidden horrors of childbirth, and the obvious horrors

comedy comedy interviews

All Episodes

36:28

Jena Friedman Knows Grief is a Real Motherf*ker

Parenting is a Joke ·

2026/10/06

Jena Friedman returns to Parenting Is a Joke with a now four-year-old, a new solo show called Motherf*cker, and a lot to say about what happens when motherhood, grief, politics, and a creative career start occupying the same space. She and host Ophira Eisenberg talk about the strange economics of being a working comedian—including Jena’s son looking at her $40 stand-up paycheck and asking, essentially, “That’s all you make?”—as well as the practical reality of getting to Edinburgh for 17

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29:06

Giving Up Control with Marc Kaye

Parenting is a Joke ·

2026/09/29

In this snack-sized follow-up with host Ophira Eisenberg, comedian and author Marc Kaye digs into the split between fitting in and belonging that gives his essay collection its spine, admitting he's spent a lifetime chasing the former while quietly resenting how much it costs him, a distinction he says reframed the whole book once he stopped blaming other people for his own discomfort. The conversation turns most vivid around "Chance of Showers," the essay Mark almost cut from the manuscript because

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50:04

Marc Kaye’s Kids are 1 in 8 Million

Parenting is a Joke ·

2026/09/22

Comedian and debut essayist Marc Kaye joins host Ophira Eisenberg mid-vacation, sweat-soaked from a Yellowstone-to-Badlands road trip, to talk about the strange math of raising kids you can't actually engineer — a fitting theme from a guy with a mechanical engineering-turned-raver son and a musical-theater daughter now working inside the Bureau of Prisons at Fort Dix. Mark, who spent a year teaching biology in Camden through Teach for America, walks through the genetics lesson that quietly reordered

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33:56

Sona Movesesian is the World’s Best Mom

Parenting is a Joke ·

2026/09/15

In this episode of Parenting Is a Joke, Ophira Eisenberg talks with Sona Movsesian, author of The World’s Worst Mom and The World’s Worst Assistant and co-host of Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, about the strange overlap between parenting, creative work, anxiety, and the relentless business of keeping two five-year-old boys alive. Sona explains why she and her husband gave their twins the reassuringly ordinary names Charles and Michael—despite her Armenian family background and the guilt she still

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36:42

Sona Movsesian: Two Moms, One Computer Connection

Parenting is a Joke ·

2026/09/08

In the Season 5 premiere of Parenting Is a Joke, Ophira Eisenberg talks with Sona Movsesian—co-host of Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, former longtime Conan O’Brien assistant, and author of The World’s Worst Mom—about becoming a mother without ever having pictured herself as one, and about building a creative career around the unpredictable logistics of raising children. Their conversation begins with a fitting technological disaster: the two women spend 45 minutes switching laptops, sign-ins,

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43:34

Adam Cayton-Holland Is On the Big Screen

Parenting is a Joke ·

2026/09/01

Host Ophira Eisenberg brings back this favorite episode with Adam Cayton-Holland in celebration of his new film See You When I See You recently featured at the Sundance Film Festival, the Nantucket Film Festival, and more. They talk about the peculiar math of building a creative life around two young children, five-year-old Malcolm and a two-year-old, and how becoming a parent turned the ambitious comedian who once imagined “conquering the world” into someone who now negotiates club weekends down to

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28:29

A Bit of Magic with Carlos Greaves

Parenting is a Joke ·

2026/08/25

Carlos Greaves returns to the podcast for a closer look at the surprisingly authoritarian role of parenting, beginning with his 18-month-old daughter’s new favorite activity: climbing things that are clearly designed for five-year-olds and launching herself toward a seven-foot drop. With essentially no childcare experience before becoming a dad—he had never even changed a diaper until the nurse handed him his daughter in the hospital—Greaves describes figuring out parenting through research,

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48:05

Carlos Greaves Is The Satirical Dad

Parenting is a Joke ·

2026/08/18

Carlos Greaves joins Ophira Eisenberg to talk about the strange math of building a creative career while raising an 18-month-old daughter, especially when your “job” is a shifting collection of satire writing, freelance work, teaching, and comedy. Greaves describes leaving electrical engineering after a film class convinced him he had chosen the wrong life, spending 12 years writing before opportunities at McSweeney’s, The New Yorker, and elsewhere made comedy feel possible, and then discovering

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30:47

Dating Like A Man With Sabrina Bendory

Parenting is a Joke ·

2026/08/11

Sabrina Bendory returns to talk about the origin story of her very first book, 10 Things Every Woman Needs to Know About Men — a title that started with her getting ghosted, then accidentally called back by the same guy who meant to dial his new hookup, and being sat down that same night by her male roommate and his friend for a blunt, point-by-point translation of everything men actually mean when they say things like "I've never liked a girl this much." She and Ophira dig into how that same

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49:09

Sabrina Bendory Names the Mother Wound

Parenting is a Joke ·

2026/08/04

Author and Coach Sabrina Bendory brings her work as a relationship coach and author of The Feminine Code into the everyday reality of raising four young children, connecting the emotional patterns that shape adult relationships to the way parents respond to their kids in real time. She and Ophira Eisenberg talks openly about the bittersweet end of a decade spent pregnant, breastfeeding, and raising babies while remembering the postpartum anxiety that followed her youngest son's birth, when COVID,

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38:52

Jo Piazza Knows Moms Could Pull Off a Heist

Parenting is a Joke ·

2026/07/28

Author, podcaster, influencer! Jo Piazza returns to Parenting Is a Joke in the middle of a whirlwind tour for The Parisian Heist, discovering that the greatest luxury of author life isn't glamorous hotels but eating alone at Cracker Barrel, ordering room-service ice cream in a robe, and having nobody ask for a snack or an iPad charger. As Ophira Eisenberg and Jo compare life with a 10-year-old versus a nine-, six-, and three-year-old, they swap stories about a preschooler refusing to wear clothes to

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30:39

Blended Religions with Holly Rizzuto-Palker

Parenting is a Joke ·

2026/07/21

In this Parenting Is a Joke Snack, Holly Rizzuto-Palker and Ophira Eisenberg trade deeply personal stories about building an interfaith family without reducing either tradition to a compromise. Holly reflects on growing up Italian Catholic, marrying a New York Jewish lawyer who initially assumed she was Jewish, and how surviving September 11 fundamentally changed the way she thought about faith, convincing her that her children needed a single spiritual foundation rather than two parallel

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50:46

Holly Rizzuto-Palker Went for Gymboree to Comedy

Parenting is a Joke ·

2026/07/14

Holly Rizzuto Palker joins host Ophira Eisenberg for a conversation about building a creative career while raising three kids, and why modern parenting can feel like an unpaid administrative job with impossible software. From comparing overflowing inboxes, Schoology confusion, and the endless stream of school newsletters to reminiscing about Holly’s childhood helping her mother run Brooklyn Gymboree locations, they connect the invisible labor of parenting with the work of performing, writing, and

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26:02

Lizzie and Wendy Molyneux Trust Weird Kids

Parenting is a Joke ·

2026/07/07

Lizzie and Wendy Molyneux, the sister writing team behind Bob's Burgers and The Great North, join Ophira to compare growing up in a large family with raising seven kids of their own while balancing television writing, showrunning, and creative work. They swap stories about "feral" childhoods that somehow still included dinner together, debate what actually counts as being a strict parent, and explain why weekday iPad bans, family meals without devices, and simply convincing kids to shower can feel

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44:12

Jo Piazza Sees Through the Trad Wife Dream

Parenting is a Joke ·

2026/06/30

Best -selling author and podcaster Jo Piazza joins Ophira Eisenberg for a sharp, funny conversation about raising three kids while writing bestselling thrillers, hosting a hit podcast, and investigating the increasingly bizarre world of mom influencers. Piazza explains how her novel Everyone Is Lying to You grew out of years spent reporting on influencer culture, from attending lavish creator conferences to briefly attempting life as a momfluencer herself—an experiment that lasted about two weeks

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42:27

The Automatic Family with Mike Albo

Parenting is a Joke ·

2026/06/23

In this second conversation between our host Ophira Eisenberg and writer, performer, and donor dad comedian and writer Mike Albo, the focus shifts from how his unconventional family was created to how it has evolved over the last twelve years. Albo reflects on the surprising way a child instantly turned a collection of unrelated adults into a family unit, from annual birthday parties elaborate enough to feel like “a luncheon for the Obamas” to finding himself genuinely invested in catching up with

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45:58

Mike Albo Deserves to be a Daddy

Parenting is a Joke ·

2026/06/16

Writer, comedian, actor Mike Albo joins host Ophira Eisenberg on Parenting is a Joke for a conversation about becoming a sperm donor for two close friends and finding himself in a version of parenthood he never expected. Albo traces the decision back to a deeper question—whether, as a gay man who came of age during the AIDS crisis, he believed he deserved the kind of full family life that once felt out of reach. What follows is both thoughtful and absurd: months of fertility clinic visits in Murray

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29:44

That’s What The Job Is with Jenny Hagel

Parenting is a Joke ·

2026/06/09

Jenny Hagel returns to Parenting Is a Joke to talk about the strange moral gray zones of raising decent kids while also living in the real world, from teaching a 12-year-old when swearing is funny versus when it turns aggressive, to bribing a five-year-old with 23 M&Ms to say “gracias” in Puerto Rico. Jenny explains how growing up in a strict etiquette-focused household shaped the way she now parents with more nuance, including why she refused to tell her son “we don’t use bad words” when there are

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53:02

Jenny Hagel Gives Great Advice (That I Asked For)

Parenting is a Joke ·

2026/06/02

Jenny Hagel joins Ophira Eisenberg to talk about parenting through big feelings, awkward questions, creative careers, and the strange emotional math of raising boys while working in comedy. Jenny shares how her now-12-year-old son transformed from a tiny Brooklyn tornado she once carried out of donut shops “like a sack of potatoes” into a “fun, chill roommate,” and explains how one preschool meltdown led to the line “my mad is too big for my body,” which completely changed the way she thought about

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40:10

Megan Gailey Adds Another Member to the Team

Parenting is a Joke ·

2026/05/26

When comedian and writer Megan Gailey joins Parenting Is a Joke, she and Ophira compare notes on raising kids while working as touring stand-ups, including the strange reality that dad comics are always available for podcasts while moms are constantly juggling childcare. Megan talks about performing stand-up deep into her pregnancy and loving the instant tension her giant belly created onstage, especially when she opened with “I’m eight months sober.” She shares stories about returning to comedy

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