Last summer I interviewed my friend Susan Randall, a private investigator. Susan trained me as an investigator, and we’ve spent whole days driving around the state of Vermont, working on cases and talking. We never run out of things to talk about. So I figured it was time to do another show with her. In this conversation, we talked about the criminal justice system more generally than before, and we ended up talking a lot about parenting…single parenting in particular. Come drive around with us.
If you haven’t heard the other interview with Susan, you might want start there. It’s called VT Private Eye.
Here is a picture of Susan and my boy Henry and her girl Lena, a zillion years ago.
Great discussion: Many good points. You should be heard!
I could work as an attorney-law guardian in NYState at $20/hour only because I was well supported by my husband.
People who must support a family just can’t do this kind of work.
I so admire single moms!
Thank you. You have some very interesting friends.
Erica !!
Again, a wonderful show.
I remember the two of you beginning this journey together all those years ago.
I remember the newly graduated two of you recording my grandson’s arrival at the Fletcher Allen Hospital..who is arriving this morning for his college orientation.
And… here are the two fully developed interviewers extraordinaire
making Vermont’s History available for us to hear unfolding.
Thank you for your service, thank you for your friendship
and BRAVO to all the single moms who have worked so hard for a more just society
which works better for all our beautiful children. Denny Morton.
Fantastic interview!! I love the passion Susan has, and her authenticity. Life is such a crap shoot, and she is so real about being an advocate, a single parent, and a person. This is real life. Great job Erica, as always 🙂
Really great episode! I could relate to this story being raised by a working single mom. I agree that Susan is a great role model for girls that are, like she mentioned in the conversation, not the hotdog stand type.
I just finished listening to this podcast and was brought nearly to tears by Susan’s comments about her choice of professions and how it affects her life as a single mom. When she described her life, how “there will probably always be a few dirty dishes in the sink,” how she has to rewash loads of laundry because they’ve gotten moldy and how she wakes up with a to-do list and only gets through a third of it? That description is SO spot-on and so very much my life as a single mom! It was like you’d been here to visit! But when you’d said you “made peace with it”? Mind. Blown.
I am a high school special education teacher who works with a very broken and troubled demographic–drug-addicted families, abuse, etc.–and spend my days giving so much to my profession that my experience of its affects on my home life is very much the same. I also over share to drive home to my kids that not everyone leads this privileged, blessed life.
We made choices to do this work with our lives and I need to work more on making peace with all that entails, including those dirty dishes. Thank you for saying something so simple but so powerful!
Love the podcast in general and this episode in particular.
I loved hearing about Susan’s life and her perspective. She is a great storyteller! Like the above commenter, I also so admire her ability to let go of the small things in life like the dishes in the sink in favour or doing her best at her job or being a Mom. That’s so encouraging to hear, and so different from the constant media narrative of “doing it all”. Great episode Erica!
I really enjoyed listening to this and the VT PI episode because I feel like I got to listen to a fellow working woman who is articulate and genuine. I found the conversation insightful and very real.
Thank you so much for your podcast. This is one of my favorite podcasts and especially this episode. I am a Marriage and Family Therapist in California and I work with an indigent population. I related to some much of what Susan shared – the split screen between my personal life and my work life -dealing with many intense issues and some of them life threatening. I think Susan’s job is more intense than mine, but I could certainly relate. Again thanks so much for your amazing podcasts that I greatly enjoy listening to.
Just listened to both of the podcast’s with Susan. So moving and important. I want everyone I love to hear the interviews. Such an important perspective. Lawmakers from both sides should listen, for God’s sake. Thank you, thank you.
A remarkable half hour that opened my mind up about what Susan calls the “others”. I admit to thinking of the others as less than deserving of any empathy or what I have thought of as the ‘dirtball” factor without understanding the impact on those around them. Susan, your description of getting home to a cold house and dirty dishes in the sink after working your tail off for $30/hr. made me think of how overpaid I was as a management consultant trying to get people to work together effectively and treat each other with respect while getting home from the road to a warm house and some one to listen.
Erica, your interviewing skills are superb – you don’t interrupt and you let your guests take you where they want to go rather than where you want to go. I wish the talking heads on cable could hear the way you do it. Thanks.