2026-09-14
48 分钟This is How to Be a Better Human.
I'm your host, Chris Duffy.
Today's guest is Emerson Whitney, the author of the new book, Oh Mother.
And before we dive in, I want to just give you a quick heads up that today's
episode is going to discuss suicide.
So if that is not a topic for you right now, totally understand.
We will see you back here next week.
Now, O Mother is a very personal book.
It is a book about Emerson's complicated relationship with his mother,
about moving back home to an island in Maine to be closer to her, and how that decision
does not go at all how Emerson had planned, ultimately ending in tragedy.
But as specific as Emerson's story is, the themes in this book are incredibly universal.
This is a book that asks questions like, what do we owe our family members?
What about if our relationships are really, really, really hard?
How do we handle the difficult things that we inherit from our families, both biologically and emotionally?
It also asks questions like, what makes a life livable?
And can we accept it if someone decides that their life is not livable?
To me, these are the kinds of questions that get at the heart of what it means to be human.
These are questions that everyone ends up wrestling with at some point in their lives,
but we often wrestle with them all on our own.