Parenting is a Joke

Parenting is a Joke

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.

Episodes

Jo Piazza Knows Moms Could Pull Off a Heist

July 28, 2026 • 38 mins
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-o...
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Blended Religions with Holly Rizzuto-Palker

July 21, 2026 • 30 mins
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 nee...
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Holly Rizzuto-Palker Went for Gymboree to Comedy

July 14, 2026 • 50 mins
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 th...
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Lizzie and Wendy Molyneux Trust Weird Kids

July 7, 2026 • 26 mins
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 m...
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Jo Piazza Sees Through the Trad Wife Dream

June 30, 2026 • 44 mins
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 ...
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The Automatic Family with Mike Albo

June 23, 2026 • 42 mins
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 ...
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Mike Albo Deserves to be a Daddy

June 16, 2026 • 45 mins
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 ...
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That’s What The Job Is with Jenny Hagel

June 9, 2026 • 29 mins
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 nuanc...
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Jenny Hagel Gives Great Advice (That I Asked For)

June 2, 2026 • 53 mins
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 ...
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Megan Gailey Adds Another Member to the Team

May 26, 2026 • 40 mins
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 &ldqu...
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Telling Great Stories with Christine Walters

May 19, 2026 • 31 mins
In this episode of Parenting Is a Joke, Ophira Eisenberg talks with Christine Walters—comedian, former TV development executive, and creator of Three Day Champion—about building a creative life that moves between producing, performing, and parenting a now 17-year-old son on the brink of college, while still feeling the daily pull of waiting up for him at night and resisting the urge to track his every move. Walters expl...
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Christine Walters is an Everyday Champion Mom

May 12, 2026 • 46 mins
In this episode of Parenting Is a Joke, Ophira Eisenberg opens with a very real parenting milestone—her 10-year-old son requesting “the talk”, leading to a blunt, anatomy-first explanation that immediately kills the mystique of sex. That mix of parenting improvisation and comic timing carries into her conversation with Christine Walters, a comedian, writer, and former development executive whose career spans shows...
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Taking Care of Mama with Corey Ryan Forrester

May 5, 2026 • 28 mins
On this episode of Parenting Is a Joke, Corey Ryan Forrester talks about recalibrating a 22-year stand-up career around raising his almost three-year-old son, after years of touring 45 weeks a year led to panic attacks, canceled shows, and a long-overdue start in therapy before becoming a parent. He explains how COVID-era podcasting, Substack writing, and an unexpected book deal from HarperCollins created a financial cushion that l...
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Corey Ryan Forrester Solves It All With Build-A-Bear

April 28, 2026 • 41 mins
On this episode of Parenting Is a Joke, Ophira Eisenberg talks with comedian and podcaster Corey Ryan Forrester about raising a three-year-old in Chickamauga, Georgia while maintaining a demanding creative life built on touring, writing, and multiple podcasts. Corey explains how compressing four podcast recordings into a single day is the only way he can fully celebrate his son's birthday—complete with a carefully planned Bui...
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The Parent Trap with Ahri Findling

April 21, 2026 • 35 mins
In this follow-up Parenting Is a Joke episode, Ophira Eisenberg and comedian Ahri Findling zero in on the strange overlap between parenting, comedy, and creative identity, starting with Findling’s Instagram bits that splice mundane parenting tasks—like folding laundry—with explosive movie quotes that suddenly feel accurate once you have kids. Their conversation moves through watching childhood films with a new len...
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Ahri Findling is An Emotional Support Dad

April 14, 2026 • 45 mins
Ophira Eisenberg opens this Parenting Is a Joke episode with a vivid, slightly unhinged comparison between riding Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure at Universal and the physical intensity of having her membranes stripped hours before going into labor, setting the tone for a conversation with comedian Ahri Findling that toggles between bodily reality, parenting anxiety, and the strange logic of creative life. Findling, a dad of a s...
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Laurie Kilmartin Parents From the Green Room

April 7, 2026 • 41 mins
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 Angele...
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Good Mom, Bad Puppy with Ashley Austin Morris

March 31, 2026 • 48 mins
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 com...
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Writing Horoscopes for Tiny Terrors with Johanna Gohmann

March 24, 2026 • 40 mins
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 ag...
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Johanna Gohmann Declares All Toddlers Are Scorpios

March 17, 2026 • 52 mins
On this episode of Parenting Is a Joke, Ophira Eisenberg sits down with humor writer Johanna Gohmann to talk about raising a teenage son while building a comedy writing career that includes pieces in The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, and The Wall Street Journal—and the release of her new parenting book, All Toddlers Are Scorpios (out April 7). Gohmann, a self-described astrology skeptic, explains how she researched zodiac lo...
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