Your Trusted Parenting Resource
At your fingertips are 160+ free episodes on topics covering your child's learning and development.
- Don't forget to subscribe to receive new episodes as soon as they are released!
- Already a longtime listener?
> Show your support & "buy Jen a cup of coffee"
Thank you for listening, and for being part of our great parenting community!
Latest Episodes & Transcripts
134: Beyond Sex Education with Dr. Nadine Thornhill
“Do you know what happens to your body when you get older?” “Um…you get hairy in some places?” “Yeah…other things happen too. We’ll get you some books.” That was what I learned about sex education when I was seven – I was always grateful that I learned it from my parents (who were pretty terrified to…
Listen to the full episode
What Carys wants you to know about your children’s feelings
After dinner a few days ago, Carys randomly started telling us that if we want to understand some of the things she’s feeling, we should cast our minds back to when we were children and remember how we would have felt about it at the time. The conversation continued as we explored more of her…
Listen to the full episode
133: How the Things We Learned About Sex Impact Our Children
Today we build on episodes that we’ve done in the past on talking with children about the basics of sex (so when you listen to this episode we’re assuming you’ve got the basics covered – things like using anatomically correct names for body parts and taking basic steps to prevent sexual abuse). This is the first…
Listen to the full episode
132: How implicit bias affects my child (Part 2)
Do we really know what implicit bias is, and whether we have it? This is the second episode on our two-part series on implicit bias; the first part was an interview with Dr. Mahzarin Banaji, former Dean of the Department of Psychology at Harvard University, and co-creator of the Implicit Association Test. But the body…
Listen to the full episode
131: Implicit Bias with Dr. Mahzarin Banaji
Explicitly, nobody really believes in gender stereotypes anymore, but when we look at the world, and who’s where and how much money people make, and so on, it still seems to be there. And the answer to that is yeah, because it’s there. It’s just not something we say. It’s more of something we do.…
Listen to the full episode
130: Introduction to mindfulness and meditation with Diana Winston
“When she was younger, she wasn’t that into reading and that was like a huge deal for me. I thought: “I’m such a reader. My daughter doesn’t love to read.” She’s still not a big reader, but it’s not hampering her in any way. She’s blossoming in fifty other ways, but when I get caught…
Listen to the full episode
129: The physical reasons you yell at your kids
Why do we yell at our children – even when we know we shouldn’t? Why isn’t just knowing what to do enough to actually interact with our children in a way that aligns with our values? For many of us, the reason we struggle to actually implement the ideas we know we want to use…
Listen to the full episode
SYPM 011: Untigering with Iris Chen
In this episode we talk with Iris Chen about her new book, Untigering: Peaceful Parenting for the Deconstructing Tiger Parent. Iris admits to being a parent who engaged in “yelling, spanking, and threatening with unreasonable consequences” – but far from becoming a well-behaved, obedient child, her son fought back. The harder she punished, the more…
Listen to the full episode
128: Should I Redshirt My Child?
Parents – worried about their child’s lack of maturity or ability to ‘fit in’ in a classroom environment – often ask me whether they should hold their child back a year before entering kindergarten or first grade. In this episode I review the origins of the redshirting phenomenon (which lie in Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers,…
Listen to the full episode
Dismantling White Supremacy and Patriarchy on MLK Day
In this short ad hoc episode that was originally recorded as a Facebook Live, I discuss ways that my family is working on dismantling both white supremacy and patriarchy (and having a go at capitalism while we’re at it!) this Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday weekend. The best part is that this doesn’t have…
Listen to the full episode
Responding to the U.S. Capitol Siege
In this ad hoc episode, I outline a response to the U.S. Capitol siege. I provide some suggestions for ways to talk with your child about the events, but also ask that you take two more steps: (1) examine your own role in these events, even if you condemn them yourself (as I do); (2)…
Listen to the full episode
127: Doing Self-Directed Education
When parents first hear about interest-led learning (also known as self-directed education), they may wonder: why on earth would we do that? And how would my child learn without anyone teaching them? Many parents start down this path with only an inkling of where it may end up taking them and I think this is…
Listen to the full episode