A Cup of Tea on the Commode: Loving Second Childhood

In this episode of Skin & Soul: Beyond the Pale, I sit with Mark Steven Porro — actor, designer, accidental entrepreneur, and the son who walked straight into the chaos, comedy, and heartbreak of caring for his mother in her final years.
Mark’s award-winning memoir, A Cup of Tea on the Commode, captures the wild contradictions of eldercare:
how a parent becomes a child again,
how dignity hangs by a thread,
how humor saves you when nothing else can,
and how love gets louder as memory fades.
We talk about the small rebellions, the forgotten names, the guilt, the tenderness, the absurdity, the devotion, and the surprising joy that arrives when you’re forced to show up in ways you never imagined you could.
This is a conversation about the human comedy of decline — and the unexpected beauty in loving someone through their second childhood.