Nurturing Minds

Meryl Alper–associate professor of Communication Studies at Northeastern University–joins us to talk about what autism is, what we know and don’t know about its causes, and how to support autistic kids and their families without relying on fear or false certainty.   Listen to learn about: What autism is, and why it’s not one thing Why genetics drive most of the story, what environmental factors we...

Michael Yarbrough — associate professor of Law & Society at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center — joins Vance and Rachel to talk about what it means to be intentionally childfree, how we think about family and kinship too narrowly, and why so many of our care relationships don't have names — or policies to support them. Listen to learn about: Why "chi...

Rita Gehrenbeck-Shim — a teacher at Boston Day and Evening Academy, part of Boston Public Schools — joins Vance and Rachel to talk (on her own behalf, not as a BPS or BDEA representative) about what phone bans actually look like from inside a classroom.  Listen to learn about: What changed at school after a consistent phone policy replaced a patchwork of individual teacher reinforcement The questi...

Nancy Deutsch and Bethany Teachman — co-directors of the Thriving Youth in a Digital Environment Initiative (TYDE) at the University of Virginia — join Vance and Rachel to talk about what the research actually says about social media and teen mental health, and what it doesn't say, which turns out to be a lot.  Listen to learn about: Why headlines about social media and teen mental health often di...

P Kyle Stanford —Professor in the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science at the University of California-Irvine —joins Vance and Rachel to discuss his co-author study of people’s estimations of the dangers that unattended children face. Listen to learn about: Moralized judgments How norms about parental supervision of children may be shaped by gender and racial biases Whether it is possible...

Samantha L. Tornello—Associate professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Penn State and parent of 2—joins Vance and Rachel to discuss their research on how LGBTQ couples divide housework and childcare. Listen to learn about: Simone de Beauvoir and Dorothy Gale from Kansas agreed that housework is torture How families divide up gendered work at home differently depending on the parents’...

Tiffany Holland and Maria Rosales—a lesbian couple who are moms of two—joins Vance and Rachel to discuss their journey to parenthood. This is the second and final episode of a two-episode series.   Listen to learn about: How people become parents without penile-vaginal intercourse Legal, social, and financial barriers to lesbian parenthood Why it’s more complicated than “just adopt!” Joy, communit...

Tiffany Holland and Maria Rosales—a lesbian couple who are moms of two—joins Vance and Rachel to discuss their journey to parenthood. This is the first episode of a two-episode series. Listen to learn about: Becoming a parent without penile-vaginal intercourse Legal, social, and financial barriers to lesbian parenthood Why it’s more complicated than “just adopt!” Joy, community, and social support...

Dr Amy Reed-Sandoval — writer, philosophy professor, and founder of two different Philosophy for Children initiatives — joins Rachel and Vance to discuss how adults can encourage young children’s philosophical curiosity, and why adults would want to do that. Listen to learn about: • What it means to say that children are “natural philosophers” • Why encouraging children to raise questions can enri...

Special guest expert Selena Wolf-Berkley helps us understand racism as a social determinant of health during pregnancy and childbirth, and how we can make institutional changes to better support pregnant people and their families.   Listen to learn about: How the biopsychosocial model explains pregnancy and postpartum experiences Why maternal mortality disparities can't be explained by income or e...

Welcome to Nurturing Minds, a lively discussion co-hosted by a philosopher (Dr. Vance Ricks) and a social scientist (Dr. Rachel Riskind) about how scholarly research can shed calm light on charged topics. Unlike parenting advice podcasts, this podcast will draw on research from many disciplines and open up possibilities for how the world could be.   Nurturing Minds is for anyone who wants to feel...

In the pilot episode of Nurturing Minds, co-hosts Rachel and Vance briefly introduce themselves and discuss parenthood and childhood as topics of philosophical interest and importance. Listen to learn about: • Modern-day philosophical views of what makes someone a parent • An argument for anti-natalism (the view that it’s bad to be born or to cause someone else to be born) • Why parents and childr...