Aileen Weintraub: Bedrest Becomes You

Holly Rizzuto Palker and Brianna Avenia-Tapper chat with Aileen Weitraub, author of Knocked Down: A High Risk Memoir, about the sacrifice of motherhood, interfaith marriage, and the gifts of grief. Grieving the loss of her father while on bedrest has Aileen poking at the notion of how the boy becomes a man when he loses a father. But what about the girl? What does she become?

Aileen Weintraub is an award-winning author, journalist, and editor whose latest book is Knocked Down: A High-Risk Memoir, about a Brooklyn girl who moves to the country, gets married, and finds herself living in a rickety farmhouse, knocked up, and faced with the prospect of five months of bed rest. What ensues is a laugh-out-loud, emotionally charged story of one woman’s unexpected path to authenticity. The Erma Bombeck Workshop named Aileen Humor Writer of the Month for Knocked Down and Publishers Weekly says, “…there’s beauty on every page.”

Aileen is also the author of the middle-grade social justice book WE GOT GAME! 35 Female Athletes Who Changed the World, which was honored as A Mighty Girl’s Best Book of the Year. Her best-selling Never Too Young: 50 Unstoppable Kids Who Made a Difference won a Parents’ Choice Award. She has been invited to write about women’s health and wellness for multiple anthologies including PLAY IT FORWARD and SO HEAVY A WEIGHT both forthcoming in Spring 2025.

Her essays and articles have appeared in The Washington Post, HuffPost, NBC, AARP, Glamour, and other publications. Her essay “This Is What No One Tells Women About What Happens to Your Body in Your 40s,” in HuffPost garnered over 2 million hits and was discussed on The View.

Inspired by the athletes in WE GOT GAME! Aileen has taken up boxing. She pronounces her name with a long A, like the first letter of the alphabet.

Author Website: https://www.aileenweintraub.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aileenweintraub/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AileenWeintraub.Author/

X: https://x.com/AileenWeintraub

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