Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
The title children bestow to their mothers -- whether it's mom, mommy, or mama -- is probably the last thing on the list of parental worries.
But as writer Elissa Strauss prepared to enter motherhood herself, she began to delve into parenting, and noticed a trend among some mom bloggers: They chose to be called "mama."
For these mamas, it's more than a title -- it's a movement.
"I think moms today want to think that they can both be their old selves and their new selves at once, and I think mama was a way to combine that," she said.
Strauss explores this idea in her article, The Rise of Mama. She joined host Alex Cohen, along with Los Angeles-area mothers Brandi Jordan and Vanessa Mata-Reyes, to discuss the meaning of mama, and the cultural forces behind it.