News Releases

Oct 7, 2021
PEOPLE Announces Me Becoming Mom, A New Weekly Podcast Where Celebrity Moms Open Up About Their Extraordinary Roads To Motherhood
Guests Include: Hoda Kotb, Kandi Burruss, Jillian Michaels, Alyssa Milano, Padma Lakshmi, Tamron Hall, Shawn Johnson East, Emily Skye, and more
Hosted by Zoë Ruderman, Head of Digital, PEOPLE
Launches Thursday, October 14, Wherever You Listen to Podcasts

NEW YORK, Oct. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Meredith Corporation's PEOPLE, the No. 1 brand in the United States celebrating entertainment and popular culture, today announced the launch of Me Becoming Mom, a 12-episode weekly podcast hosted by Zoë Ruderman, Head of Digital, PEOPLE, where celebrity moms open up to her about their extraordinary roads to motherhood. Guests include Hoda Kotb, Alyssa Milano, Padma Lakshmi, Tamron Hall, and more. Me Becoming Mom is the third podcast launched in 2021 hosted by editors of the iconic PEOPLE brand. In February, PEOPLE introduced the daily PEOPLE Every Day podcast with host Janine Rubenstein, and in June, the weekly PEOPLE in the '90s podcast premiered with co-hosts Jason Sheeler and Andrea Lavinthal

Each episode of Me Becoming Mom features an in-depth interview with a famous woman who discusses her path to motherhood

Each episode of Me Becoming Mom features an in-depth interview with a famous woman who discusses her journey to motherhood with Ruderman – a new mom to 16-month-old baby boy Rio with numerous stories of her own to share. PEOPLE's print and digital audience reaches close to 23 million moms – nearly one in two in the U.S. (source: MRI Summer 2021). Episode 1 of Me Becoming Mom premieres Thursday, October 14 with Ruderman's first guest, Today show anchor Hoda Kotb, and is available wherever you listen to podcasts. Listen to the trailer here and subscribe.

"The adoption process can be long, and it can be difficult, but look, people go through labor -- it's long and it's difficult," Kotb tells Ruderman in the premiere episode. "When that baby is placed in your arms…there are very few things that are life-changing. I didn't know that everything good was going to happen after 50 for me; I had no clue."

Ruderman explores the many roads to motherhood during the interviews, not only with the celebrity guests, but also with experts in the field. Topics include IVF, adoption, surrogacy, single parenthood, same-sex couples, home births, pregnancy loss, unexpected and surprising birth stories, and more. No subject is off limits in these emotional, sometimes heartbreaking, but always heartwarming interviews. Video of each long-form interview will also be available on PeopleTV.com and on the PeopleTV app.

"One of my goals with Me Becoming Mom is to have conversations around fertility, pregnancy, and birth that don't happen frequently enough," says Ruderman. "By sitting down with well-known women and learning about their varied journeys to motherhood, I am hoping to destigmatize these topics and help listeners realize they are not alone."

"Me Becoming Mom, the third podcast we have launched this year at PEOPLE, is a unique space for real conversations between women about their paths to motherhood," says David Flumenbaum, Head of PEOPLE Digital Studio. "This show will deliver extraordinary stories to PEOPLE's audience from women they love."

Me Becoming Mom is available wherever you listen to podcasts
Weekly: 12 episodes; each approximately 30-40 minutes
Executive Producers: David Flumenbaum, Lauren Mikler, Zoë Ruderman
Production Partner: Pod People
Listen to TRAILER

About PEOPLE
Meredith Corporation's PEOPLE revolutionized personality journalism when it launched as a weekly in 1974 with a mission to celebrate extraordinary people doing ordinary things and ordinary people doing extraordinary thingsUbiquitous and still at the center of pop culture more than 47 years later, the PEOPLE brand is accessible across all media and platforms (print, digital, video, OTT, mobile, social) bringing more than 100 million consumers a unique mix of breaking entertainment news, exclusive photos, video, unparalleled access to the red carpet, celebrities, and in-depth reporting on the most compelling newsmakers of our time. An essential component of PEOPLE's editorial vision remains human interest stories, which touch and often mirror the lives of our passionate audience. ComScore ranks the PEOPLE/Entertainment Weekly Digital Network No. 1 in the entertainment news category. PeopleTV, the advertiser-supported OTT streaming service from PEOPLE and Entertainment Weekly that launched in 2016, features original series and specials focusing on celebrity, red carpet, pop culture, lifestyle, and human-interest stories. PEOPLE (the TV Show!), a daily syndicated entertainment program, launched in Sept. 2020, PEOPLE Every Day, a daily podcast produced in associated with iHeartMedia, launched in Feb. 2021, and PEOPLE in the '90s, a weekly podcast about the golden era of pop culture, launched in June 2021. PEOPLE is an award-winning 24/7 news organization headquartered in NYC with reporters worldwide. For more information visit PEOPLE.com and follow @people on Twitter and Instagram, @peoplemag on Facebook, and the PEOPLE channel on YouTube and on Snapchat's Discover.

SOURCE PEOPLE

For further information: Julie.Farin@peoplemag.com or Marnie.Perez@peoplemag.com