Your Mama’s Kitchen

Journalist and television news personality Natalie Morales takes us back to her globetrotting childhood as a daughter in a military family. She reminisces on living in Spain during her teenage years and food she ate in her Puerto Rican and Brazilian household. Plus, she teaches us how to make the perfect flan.Natalie Morales co-hosts the Daytime Emmy award winning show, The Talk on CBS. Before this, she served over two decades at NBC News, anchoring the Today show and making appearances on Dateline and the Nightly News. She has a cookbook, Cooking At Home With Natalie Morales which was published in 2018.

Award-winning food writer and journalist Mark Bittman walks us through the evolution of his relationship with all things culinary, beginning with his upbringing on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Bittman describes how he first started using cookbooks, the impact of global politics on his perspective, and how his mother and grandmother influenced his cooking habits.Mark Bittman is a food writer and journalist who has authored thirty books on a variety of topics. His work discusses the pleasures of food, how to prepare it, and its impact on our bodies and on the world at large. Bittman is also known for his many appearances on the Today show and for his New York Times column “The Minimalist,” which ran for 13 years. He is the editor in chief of food publication The Bittman Project.Find the episode transcript here: https://www.audible.com/ymk/episode29

Nationally renowned women’s health advocate Dr. Sharon Malone takes us back to her childhood in Mobile, Alabama where she lived through a monumental moment in civil rights history led by her sister, Vivian Malone. Dr. Malone talks about how she views cooking together with family as an act of love, and what better way to show love than baking a decadent pound cake.Dr. Sharon Malone is an OB/GYN and Certified Menopause Practitioner who has been an active advocate for reproductive rights, women’s health and health education. She authored the book Grown Woman Talk for aging women whose healthcare needs are ignored or just less talked about. She is also the chief medical officer of Alloy Women’s Health.

In this episode, Nicole Avant—daughter of legendary music mogul Clarence Avant—looks back at her bustling childhood kitchen, where prominent Black figures were always stopping by. She’ll tell us about her mother’s snow cookies recipe as well as reflect on the loss of her mother and share tips for consoling someone experiencing deep grief. Nicole Avant is a film producer, author, and former ambassador for the Bahamas. She wrote the critically acclaimed book Think You’ll be Happy: Moving Through Grief with Grit, Grace, and Gratitude. She also produced the documentary The Black Godfather about her father’s illustrious music career.

Award winning, best-selling author Kristin Hannah recounts her outdoorsy childhood living in farmhouses and campsites built by her adventurous dad. We get a glimpse into what inspired Hannah to venture into historical fiction and what her mom managed to cook for her and her siblings with a wood fire stove. Plus we hear how to make her mama’s buttermilk cornbread.Kristin Hannah is an American historical fiction author. She’s written over twenty novels, many of them securing spots in the New York Times Best Seller List including The Four Winds and The Nightingale, which sold over 4.5 million copies. Her novel Firefly Lane was made into a Netflix Original Series in 2021. 

On this episode of Your Mama’s Kitchen, we’re joined by Maria Bamford. She’s a comedian, actor, and now a New York Times bestselling author with her memoir Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult, released in late 2023. Maria talks about her Midwestern upbringing, her journey with obsessive compulsive disorder, and the delicious pot roast she still craves from childhood.Maria Bamford is an American actress and stand-up comedian. She’s the first female comic with two half-hour “Comedy Central Presents” specials, and her critically acclaimed work includes her web series The Maria Bamford Show (featured at MOMA NY), Ask My Mom (recommended by The New Yorker), and her Netflix series Lady Dynamite (2 seasons). Bamford’s Audible Original You are (a Comedy) Special and multiple comedy albums are on all major streaming platforms.

Mark Cuban — entrepreneur, fixture on the reality TV show Shark Tank, and born outsider — joins Michele this week. Mark shares how he acquired a do-what-needs-to-be-done attitude from his Jewish immigrant grandparents when he was a boy in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; how he first tapped his entrepreneurial spirit by selling garbage bags to neighbors. And – ignoring the way things “should” be done – fast-forwarded his education to start achieving the financial success he’s known for today. But Mark never forgot his roots: he values family and hometown friends more than anything he can buy, and he especially loves his mother’s Raisin Noodle Kugel, a recipe he happily shares with us.Mark Cuban is an entrepreneur, investor and TV personality. He is the former principal owner of the Dallas Mavericks. Cuban showed his entrepreneurial spirit early in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he grew up selling goods door to door and eventually graduated from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana State University. His business ventures took off as the founder of MicroSolutions and Broadcast.com, both of which he eventually sold, earning millions. He has invested in dozens of successful businesses across many industries, and, as majority owner of the Dallas Mavericks, won the NBA Championships in 2011. He is active in philanthropy, social and political commentary, and can be seen regularly on reality TV.

Award-winning novelist Tayari Jones speaks on her childhood in Atlanta, Georgia, where she was raised in the midst of the historic civil rights movement, women’s liberation, and the tragic Atlanta child murders. She reflects on the role feminism played in her home life and how she learned to love cooking by cooking things she liked. Plus, she tells us about her delectable red velvet cake. Tayari Jones is a writer and novelist. Her 2018 novel An American Marriage won the Women’s Prize for Fiction, an NAACP Image Award, and was an Oprah’s Book Club selection. She was also a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow for Creative Arts.