Totally Booked with Zibby Friendship for the Win: Jessica George, Geneen Roth
Apr 29, 2026
Jessica George, novelist behind Maame and Love by the Book, explores platonic bonds and playful narrative forms. Geneen Roth, author and teacher on eating and emotional healing, examines the mother–daughter wound and recovery. They discuss friendship breakups, grief, creative choices, and how one person can shift a lifetime of feeling. Conversation is warm, candid, and focused on connection.
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Mother Beliefs Become Self Treatment
- Early beliefs about your mother shape lifelong self-treatment and worth.
- Geneen Roth realized she internalized her mother's voice, treating herself with the same lack of kindness that began in childhood diets and shame.
Pancakes As Revenge Revealed Childhood Food Shame
- A retreat eating meditation revealed a woman eating pancakes to 'take revenge' on her mother who denied them.
- Geneen Roth recalled sneaking Milky Ways as a child after being denied an ice cream, illustrating long-running food shame.
Wounds Act Like Colored Glasses
- We view the world through wounds like wearing colored glasses that distort reality.
- Geneen Roth uses the yellow glasses metaphor to show how childhood conclusions (by age seven) become automatic filters on relationships and life.
