Refamulating
by Feelings & Co
Latest episode
Thank You, Refamulating 👋
Thank You, Refamulating 👋
About this podcast
Refamulating is a podcast that celebrates different ways to make a family. A generation ago, most Americans were guided by the idea of the nuclear family: a mom, a dad, two kids, and a derpy dog. Many still have a family like this, and that’s great! But the numbers show it doesn't represent the majority of American households. In fact, there is no one-size-fits-all for what a family should look like. We’re collectively reformulating our understanding of what makes a family in today’s world. We call this refamulating, and this show invites us to understand it one story at a time. On each episode of Refamulating, host Julia Winston delivers emotionally honest stories of real people with nuanced experiences that census data could never tell us. Think queer parents, egg and sperm donors, surrogates, blended families, child-free folks, tales of communal living, and much more.
Episodes
The newest 20 of 37 episodes
- Thank You, Refamulating 👋 · 33 minIn the final episode of Refamulating, Julia and Claire open up about their own refamulating journeys, share why they're wrapping the show, and reflect on how special it was to…
- Creating A Village: An Audio Diary of the First Year of Solo Motherhood · 41 minPaula always wanted to be a mom, and she always assumed her path to motherhood would look like getting married in her late twenties and having a baby before 30. When that…
- Parallel Paths: A Surrogacy Story with a Twist · 38 minBrad and Alyssa tried for three years to have a baby. After multiple miscarriages, five failed IVF embryo transfers and a diagnosis of "unexplained infertility", they eventually…
- “Back and Forth”: From Next Door Neighbors to Chosen Family · 41 minWhen Sage bought a small pink house in Boulder, Colorado, she had no idea her next-door neighbor would become something closer to family. Over the last 18 years, Sage and…
- REFAM CHAT: A New Way To Freeze And Donate Your Eggs with Lauren Makler · 42 minYears ago, Lauren Makler was diagnosed and treated for a rare abdominal disease. Doctors told her her ovaries might not survive the surgeries she needed, so when she conceived…
- REFAM CHAT: How We’re Re-examining Wedding Traditions · 35 minJulia and Claire are both getting married this year (cute!) and the wedding planning process has opened up new refamulating questions for them: who do we include in the…
- REFAM CHAT: How To Find Your People (And Community) with Katherine Goldstein · 46 minFor a lot of Americans, it’s getting harder and harder to find community. Fewer people are religious, we move around more and with more things online, we spend less time running…
- REFAM CHAT: It’s Okay To Put Friendship At The Center Of Your Life (with Rhaina Cohen) · 36 minOur culture spends a lot of time talking about the importance of romantic love: finding it, keeping it, and normalizing it as THE most important person in your life. But that…
- REFAM CHAT: Cracking ‘The Mother Code’ with author Ruthie Ackerman · 39 minWhen Ruthie Ackerman was in her late 30s, she realized she wanted to have a baby. But there was a problem- she was married to someone who didn’t. So, she got divorced and began a…
- 20 I Refriendulating: A celebration of platonic soulmates · 50 minTo wrap season 2, we honor and celebrate the unsung heroes of our emotional lives—our closest friends. While we celebrate romantic milestones with parties and gifts, our…
- 19 I Finding Peace with Parents Who Don't Fully Accept You with Jedidiah Jenkins · 51 minShow Notes: Disagreeing with your family is nothing new. But in the last decade, as politics and culture in the U.S. have become increasingly polarized, so have many of our…
- 18 I There’s Nothing Wrong With You! You’re Just Single · 47 min · Season 2 Episode 18Almost half of American adults are single, yet we still treat being unpartnered as a problem to solve. But being single is not better or worse than being in a relationship, it’s…
- 17 I Caregiving & Family Pt 2: The Realities of Caring For Children with Disabilities · 50 min · Season 2 Episode 17Erica spent her childhood living with a disability and needing a lot of care from her mom. As an adult, she’s now the caretaker to two children with disabilities. In this…
- 16 I Caregiving & Family Pt 1: What It's Really Like To Receive Long-Term Care When You Have a Disability · 45 min · Season 2 Episode 16In this episode we meet Kathleen Downes- a 31-year-old woman who lives with her parents and dog in New York. Kathleen has cerebral palsy, which means she needs constant care to…
- 15 I Family Preservation in Foster Care: Building a bridge between two families through radical compassion · 1 h 0 min · Season 2 Episode 15Aaliyah and Jamyla have three moms - their birth mother Nicole, their foster mom (soon to be adopted mom) Chalice, and Chalice's fiancée Rachel. Chalice and the girls met eight…
- REFAM CHAT: Recognizing All Of Our Milestones · 46 min · Season 2Something we’ve realized while working on this project is that the nuclear family has infiltrated so much of our lives. (For example, housing in America is designed for a single…
- 14 I The Single Greatest Choice: Embracing solo motherhood · 59 min · Season 2 Episode 14Katie Bryan grew up in a nuclear family in Texas, and always dreamed her future family would include a doting husband, a beautiful house in the suburbs, and of course, children…
- REFAM CHAT: The name dilemma · 36 min · Season 2A lot of us refamulating have faced a similar challenge: as we choose a new path or carve out a different role in a family, we realize there is no name for us. A step-parent…
- 13 I Don’t Tell Mom: Grieving the “living death” of family estrangement · 59 min · Season 2 Episode 13When Emily was a child, a family member abused her and told her to keep it a secret. She kept that secret until she was 34, but her family didn’t react well once she told the…
- 12 I Reframing The American Dream (Pt 2): Communal Living Makes a Family · 52 min · Season 2 Episode 12Show Notes: What happens when you expand beyond the nuclear family home? In this episode, we meet people who've chosen to share their daily lives with others in unconventional…
