Parenting is a Joke cover art

Parenting is a Joke

Parenting is a Joke

By: Ophira Eisenberg
Listen for free

About this listen

 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 of our own childhoods. We celebrate the absurdity of shuffling a career with raising a kid, and highlight less traditional parenthood journeys, all while relishing in the fact that no one knows what they're doing, but we're all trying! Sometimes even our best. New episodes every Tuesday. New Season October 1st.2024 © Any use of this intellectual property for text and data mining or computational analysis including as training material for artificial intelligence systems is strictly prohibited without express written consent Parenting & Families Relationships
Episodes
  • Laurie Kilmartin Parents From the Green Room

    Laurie Kilmartin Parents From the Green Room
    Apr 7 2026
    This episode of Parenting Is a Joke revisits Ophira Eisenberg’s conversation with comedian Laurie Kilmartin who recently wrote for the Academy Awards. They talk about the realities of parenting a teenage son, sustaining a comedy career, and processing grief in real time. Kilmartin talks about raising her 16-year-old largely on her own while maintaining a relentless stand-up schedule—flying red-eyes from Los Angeles to New York to stack multiple sets in a single night—and how that work ethic shaped both her career and her parenting, from bringing her infant son into casino green rooms to relying on a hotel babysitting service while she performed. She explains her decision to keep her son’s identity private despite building material around him, even as he creates his own anime-inspired webcomic universe, and reflects on how growing up with a comedian parent gives him a creative “second base” advantage. The conversation moves between sharp bits—like ranking comedy clubs based on their food because her son only cares about burgers and pretzel bites—and heavier territory, including Kilmartin’s choice to live-tweet jokes during both her father’s hospice care and her mother’s COVID hospitalization, describing the surreal isolation of saying goodbye through iPads and gloves and how writing in real time helped her process events that didn’t feel real. Along the way, she shares her long-game parenting philosophy (minimal interference, maximum observation), her lack of initial desire to become a mother, and her very specific future plan to leave the U.S. and spend a year doing open mics across Europe once her son graduates, using a hard-won Luxembourg passport. The episode lands on the strange, funny, and practical intersections of comedy, caregiving, and creative survival, ending with Kilmartin half-jokingly pitching an expat comedy club chain while asking to be booked anywhere in Europe. Follow Laurie Kilmartin: https://www.instagram.com/anylaurie16 See Ophira LIVE: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/events/ SUBSCRIBE so you never miss O thing: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/sign-up Follow PIAJ: https://www.instagram.com/parentingisajoke/ https://parentingisajoke.substack.com/ Follow Ophira: https://www.instagram.com/ophirae/ https://www.facebook.com/OphiraEisenberg/ https://www.tiktok.com/@ophiranyc Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
    Show More Show Less
    41 mins
  • Good Mom, Bad Puppy with Ashley Austin Morris

    Good Mom, Bad Puppy with Ashley Austin Morris
    Mar 31 2026
    In this episode of Parenting Is a Joke, Ophira Eisenberg revisits a favorite conversation with actor and comedian Ashley Austin Morris recorded while Morris was four months pregnant and still adjusting to the surreal reality of becoming a parent after never planning to be one. The two comics swap very specific pregnancy experiences from the perspective of performers who work nights, including the strange logistics of building a comedy career while anticipating sleep deprivation and childcare. Morris talks openly about miscarriages, including the emotional whiplash of feeling relief after one pregnancy ended because severe hormonal changes had left her sobbing on the floor and convinced she couldn’t care for the baby. She explains how an unexpected catalyst—a chaotic rescue puppy whose needs sparked a new instinct to nurture—suddenly rewired her thinking about motherhood. The conversation also gets into the uncomfortable realities of pregnancy culture: genetic testing debates with an OB-GYN, the anxiety-producing medical environment of New York prenatal care, body changes that hit faster than expected, and the strange intimacy of discussing weight and cravings with strangers. Morris reflects on recovering from a long struggle with an eating disorder, including a surprising pandemic-era scholarship that allowed her to spend 80 days in a treatment program and ultimately find a different path to recovery. Throughout the conversation, the two comedians bring their storytelling instincts to the everyday details of pregnancy life—from Morris eating jars of pasta sauce with a spoon to Eisenberg’s prenatal yoga class where everyone shared their cravings. 📍March Shows are in Bozeman and Helena, Montana, New York Follow Ashley Austin Morris: https://www.instagram.com/ashaustinmorris/ Buy her new book All Toddlers are Scorpios here: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/all-toddlers-are-scorpios-johanna-gohmann/1147952953 See Ophira LIVE: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/events/ SUBSCRIBE so you never miss O thing: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/sign-up Follow PIAJ: https://www.instagram.com/parentingisajoke/ https://parentingisajoke.substack.com/ Follow Ophira: https://www.instagram.com/ophirae/ https://www.facebook.com/OphiraEisenberg/ https://www.tiktok.com/@ophiranyc Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
    Show More Show Less
    48 mins
  • Writing Horoscopes for Tiny Terrors with Johanna Gohmann

    Writing Horoscopes for Tiny Terrors with Johanna Gohmann
    Mar 24 2026
    On this episode of Parenting Is a Joke, Ophira Eisenberg talks with author and humor writer Johanna Gohmann about her new book, All Toddlers Are Scorpios, an astrological guide that reframes toddler behavior—revenge plotting, emotional volatility, public nudity-adjacent costume choices—as pure Scorpio energy. Johanna shares how the idea struck while she was standing in the humor section at Barnes & Noble when her agent called with the concept, and how illustrator Emily Flake helped bring the tiny terrors to life. The conversation moves from toddlers wearing oven mitts on errands to rediscovered photos of her son teething on a copy of Screw Everyone, and the time he mistook a vibrator for a “soldering iron,” thanks to his dad’s gadget-building hobby. They trade stories about explaining menstruation on vacation (including an “orange pumpkin” misunderstanding in a Greek airport bathroom) and giving “the talk” to boys who immediately regret asking for it. Johanna also reflects on the creative life of writing comedy from a Brooklyn apartment before the 3:30 school-bus reset, researching astrology with a stack of books that initially included only Sex Astrology, and parenting a 13-year-old who loves Rocky training montages while being raised to name and feel his emotions. The episode captures the constant recalibration of raising boys in a culture obsessed with masculinity, managing YouTube boundaries, and finding humor in the raw, unregulated intensity of early childhood. 📍March Shows are in Bozeman and Helena, Montana, New York Follow Johanna Gohmann: https://www.instagram.com/johannagohmann Buy her new book All Toddlers are Scorpios here: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/all-toddlers-are-scorpios-johanna-gohmann/1147952953 See Ophira LIVE: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/events/ SUBSCRIBE so you never miss O thing: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/sign-up Follow PIAJ: https://www.instagram.com/parentingisajoke/ https://parentingisajoke.substack.com/ Follow Ophira: https://www.instagram.com/ophirae/ https://www.facebook.com/OphiraEisenberg/ https://www.tiktok.com/@ophiranyc Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
    Show More Show Less
    41 mins
No reviews yet