New Books Network - Episode Summary

Episode Title: Amanda Parrish Morgan, "Stroller" (Bloomsbury, 2022)
Host: Frances Sachs
Guest: Amanda Parrish Morgan
Date: November 30, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode features author Amanda Parrish Morgan discussing her book, Stroller, part of Bloomsbury's Object Lessons series. Morgan and host Frances Sachs delve into the cultural, philosophical, and personal meanings behind the stroller, exploring how an everyday object can unlock complex conversations about motherhood, societal expectations, consumerism, and creativity. The conversation is reflective, thought-provoking, and at times confessional, as Morgan examines parenthood through the lens of symbolism, status, and social critique.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Genesis of the Book and its Place in Parenting Literature

• Motivation: Morgan was inspired to write about parenting from a perspective neither wholly sentimental nor dryly academic, filling a gap she perceived in existing motherhood literature.
• Object Lessons Series: Drawn by the premise of the series—using a familiar object to probe broader societal questions—Morgan initially pitched a running stroller but was encouraged to expand her focus to "strollers" more broadly.
  (04:27)

“I had been wanting to write... about parenting that came at the topic from a perspective that wasn't totally sentimental and also wasn't totally just purely research based.” — Amanda Parrish Morgan (02:10)

2. Stroller as a Multifaceted Metaphor

• Pushing Independence vs. Keeping Close: The act of pushing a stroller is seen both as distancing (pushing away) and as close nurturing.
• Motherhood and Strength: The running stroller served as a tangible metaphor—motherhood made her stronger, yet also slower, encapsulating new challenges and growth.
• Signifier of Status and Belonging: The choice and condition of a stroller act as public signals of class, community, and lifestyle, paralleling other status symbols.

“A stroller is literally pushing a child out into the world in front of you while also keeping them close.” — Amanda Parrish Morgan (04:55)

Timestamps: (04:27–10:02)

3. Parenting Styles, Social Media, and the Attentive Parenting Spectrum

• Shift from Taste to Attentiveness: Parenting has become about where you fall on an attentiveness spectrum rather than mere tastes or affiliations.
• Social Media’s Influence: Platforms like Instagram and Facebook intensify the urge to signal what kind of parent one is—balancing not-too-serious and not-too-lax.
• Vulnerability of Maternal Love: The judgment (or perception thereof) about parenting choices is not just about taste but about being a good parent.

“...the type of parent you are isn't just about parenting. It's also about everything from your own class and taste, but then back to parenting again. It's also about how much you love your children, which is such a thing, a vulnerable thing to feel judged about.” — Amanda Parrish Morgan (10:58)

Timestamps: (10:02–13:53)

4. American Individualism & Systemic Gaps

• Parenthood as Plight vs. Communal Experience: The conversation unpacks how, in the U.S., much of motherhood is constructed as an individual struggle rather than a shared responsibility.
• Stroller as a Fix for Systemic Failures: The running stroller is an "American thing"—a product developed as a workaround for cultural shortcomings (e.g., limited childcare).
• Ambivalence Toward Mom Groups: Morgan reflects on her reluctance toward communal parenting groups yet acknowledges their role in providing support where systemic assistance is lacking.

“It's such an American thing to create a product to deal with a systemic shortcoming.” — Amanda Parrish Morgan, citing Dr. Abby Bales (13:53)

Timestamps: (13:53–21:43)

5. Motherhood, Production, and Consumerism

• Mothers as Producers: The book explores the dual perception of mothers as laborers—reflecting broader societal discomforts and legislative consequences, especially in the wake of Roe v. Wade's overturning.
• Commodification of Children: Parenting is linked to consumption—from strollers to school choice—where children risk being viewed as projects or products.

“I started thinking a lot about... what it means to view women as both as a producer, as a laborer, like an unskilled laborer in the most literal sense, where, you know, labor with the baby being born, and then that... Does that make the child a commodity?” — Amanda Parrish Morgan (21:43)

Timestamps: (21:43–24:59)

6. Victorian Influences and Persistent Metaphors

• Pram in Victorian Art: References to Mary Cassatt's paintings and the evolution of advertising to mothers; contrasts between historical domesticity and modern marketing.
• The Runaway Pram Trope: Discussion of the recurring image of the runaway or haunted pram—symbolizing the constant danger and duality between innocence and threat in motherhood.

“I started thinking about how... the idea of a baby or anything like a pram being this archetype of innocent purity and then to smash that up against threats of violence is such a Victorian trope, too. And I think we still see that a lot now.” — Amanda Parrish Morgan (25:28)

Timestamps: (24:59–31:05)

7. Technology, Hyper-attentiveness, and Maternal Labor

• Self-Driving Strollers: Morgan critiques new tech as intensifying, not reducing, maternal labor, reinforcing the expectation of total presence for every child.
• Multiplying the Mother: Technology is less about support, more about enabling mothers to meet impossible standards.

“It's not really about making less labor for the mom or the caregiver... It's about the expectation that not even for a minute is one child not attended to.” — Amanda Parrish Morgan (31:05)

Timestamps: (31:05–33:43)

8. Fear-Based Consumption and the Burden of Safety

• Pervasive Anxiety: The group discusses how consumer choices become proxies for deeper anxieties around safety, responsibility, and unpredictability in parenting.
• Hypervigilance as Duty: The myth persists that diligent, anxious caregiving can ward off all risk—a reflection of both control’s limits and the shifting of responsibility onto mothers.

“...talking about the danger or safety of various products was really just a way to sort of offload anxiety for things that we really can't control at all.” — Amanda Parrish Morgan (34:29)

Timestamps: (33:43–40:31)

9. Gender, Creativity, and the "Pram in the Hall"

• Cyril Connolly’s "Pram in the Hall": The episode explores the cliché that motherhood kills creativity, which Morgan refutes personally and philosophically, arguing motherhood can inspire as much as it constrains.
• Practically Enabling Creativity: Stroller walks and pockets of time with children provided new rhythms, ideas, and opportunities, rather than extinguishing them.

“I, I found in a really literal sense that my stroller was a vehicle for creativity because it let me take those sort of long, meandering walks, but also more metaphorically that just the phase of life of, you know, strollering was a boon to creativity.” — Amanda Parrish Morgan (42:47)

Timestamps: (42:35–47:27)

10. Future Work

• Care & Education: Morgan is currently working on a project—or possibly two—on the idea of care in the classroom, touching on burnout among teachers, youth mental health crises, and the implications of outcome-based education.

Timestamps: (47:27–48:56)

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• “I use my strollers quite a bit. But I felt like, well, I do actually want to push my children out into the world in front of me. Not in an unkind or unloving way, but I want them to see the world around them. And eventually they need to live in the world without me.” — Amanda Parrish Morgan (04:55)

• “My stroller was always really dirty... it sort of felt like an important way to say, like, I have other things in my life besides appearances that matter to me.” — Amanda Parrish Morgan (07:34)

• “It's such an American thing to create a product to deal with a systemic shortcoming.” — Dr. Abby Bales, cited by Amanda Parrish Morgan (13:53)

• “There's no more somber enemy to great art than the pram in the hall.” — Cyril Connolly, discussed by Amanda Parrish Morgan (42:47)

• “Technology in the home is not about reducing labor for mothers, but raising the expectations.” — Amanda Parrish Morgan (31:05)

• “It's often the mother whose role is to come, like, run interference at the school when there's a problem... I think one of them is this idea that it's the mother's job to shepherd the child unharmed.” — Amanda Parrish Morgan (40:31)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 02:10 – 04:27: Genesis of Stroller and inspiration for the Object Lessons approach
• 04:27 – 10:02: The multifaceted stroller metaphor; status, independence, motherhood
• 10:02 – 13:53: Attentive parenting, social media, and signaling
• 13:53 – 21:43: Individual vs. communal parenting in America; systemic gaps and products as solutions
• 21:43 – 24:59: Mothers as producers, commodification and consumerism
• 24:59 – 31:05: Victorian influence, runaway pram trope, innocence vs. danger
• 31:05 – 33:43: AI strollers, labor intensification, maternal expectations
• 33:43 – 40:31: Fear-based parenting and the illusion of safety through consumption
• 42:35 – 47:27: Stroller as threat (or source) of creativity: responding to Connolly's "pram in the hall"
• 47:27 – 48:56: Morgan's upcoming projects on care and education

Episode Tone and Style

The conversation is intimate, self-aware, and intellectually curious, blending personal anecdotes, cultural history, and keen social commentary. Both guest and host navigate the symbolic and tangible realities of motherhood without sentimentality nor cynicism, offering a nuanced, real-world perspective on the everyday objects that shape identity and society.