Ground Control Parenting with Carol Sutton Lewis

Carol welcomes noted scholar Dr. Karida L. Brown and award-winning artist Charly Palmer to the podcast to give us a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at their creation of The New Brownies’ Book: A Love Letter to Black Families. This book is their contemporary reimagining of W.E.B. Du Bois’ art and literary magazine, which he created for children in 1920 to share Black history and celebrate their...

Carol welcomes Crystal back to the podcast to talk about “Game Up”, the app she and her son Cole Anthony created to help parents navigate the world of youth basketball. Crystal shares how her experiences raising three basketball-playing children (including Cole, now a rising star in the NBA) led her to create this app to offer valuable resources for parents seeking the best training opportunities...

How did your favorite teacher impact your life? Award winning journalist Deborah Roberts returns to the podcast to talk with Carol about the transformative power of great teachers, the topic of Deborah's latest book, “Lessons Learned and Cherished: The Teacher Who Changed My Life”, a collection of essays from Deborah and some of her well-known friends and colleagues. In this episode Deborah and Ca...

In the Season 5 premiere, Carol sits down with acclaimed director and producer Lee Daniels for a candid conversation about his remarkable parenting journey. We hear how Lee overcame childhood abuse from his father and was able to redefine fatherhood in a transformative way when he adopted his brother’s infant twins. Lee shares his insights, triumphs and the lessons learned from his unexpected but...

Welcome to Season 5 of Ground Control Parenting with Carol Sutton Lewis!! Starting January 10th, Carol will bring you a new season of weekly stories, tips and advice from fascinating folks to help you raise curious and confident Black children. Join us!!

And that’s a wrap for Season 4—and what a season it has been! This season was packed with helpful ideas, thoughtful reflections, and trustworthy advice across all stages of child development, helping parents to fully realize their potential for parenting with effectiveness and joy.  In this episode Carol talks about some of the  memorable moments of the season and shares clips from some of the ama...

Carol hones in on the critically important parent-teacher relationship this week. She talks with expert educator and Co-CEO of Excellence Community Schools, Dr. Charlene Reid, about how teachers have fared over the past few years of educational tumult, and what teachers want parents to know to help children recover from the pandemic slide. They discuss the importance of having educators who repres...

Carol brings back this archived episode of her conversation with Deval Patrick, the former Massachusetts Governor and 2020 Presidential candidate. He and Carol discuss how his journey—growing up in the South Side of Chicago and making his way to the corridors of power—influenced his parenting methods and goals for his family. Deval shares his efforts to raise resilient and socially conscious child...

Carol sits down with author and historian Rita Roberts to talk about the importance of preserving African-American history and passing it on to future generations. Rita shares insights from her latest book, "I Can't Wait to Call You My Wife: African-American Letters of Love and Family in the Civil War Era", which tells the stories of Black men and women through letters written in the mid-1800’s. S...

Carol talks with Dr. Yasmin Hurd, Director of the Mount Sinai Addiction Institute, about the complex landscape of drug use today. With marijuana available recreationally or medically in most states and new synthetic drugs regularly hitting the market, parents need to know when and how to discuss drugs and drug use with their children.  Dr. Hurd shares her insights on two drugs currently making hea...

How can we help our children develop a moral compass to guide them through life? In this insightful episode from the archives, minister, professor,  and former President of Morehouse College Dr. Robert M. Franklin, Jr. explains the importance of helping children think about faith and morality and offers a framework for starting these discussions at an early age. Dr. Franklin shares his own persona...

Carol continues the conversation with mother-son duo Angelique and Sage about parenting Black LGBTQ youth with love and support. They discuss the difference between gender and sexuality, and why this distinction is so important to make and understand. They also talk about the use of non-gendered pronouns, the need for grace when it comes to unlearning gender-specific language, and the need to work...

Carol dives into parenting LGBTQ children with producer and radio show host Angelique Francis and her son Sage. Angelique talks with Carol about her journey to support her LGBTQ children, including Sage, who came out in his teens. Angelique explains how she focused on her love for her children and released her original expectations of them. Her son Sage recalls his coming out story and reveals the...

How did the first Black female CEO of a Fortune 500 company manage to balance her skyrocketing career and her growing family? In this refreshingly candid and thought-provoking episode from the archives, Ursula Burns, former CEO of Xerox Corporation, tells Carol why this is the wrong question for young parents to ask, and explains how and why work-life balance issues should be reframed and analyzed...

For years Michelle Miller has been keeping you in the know as a national correspondent for CBS News and as a co-host of CBS Saturday Morning, and now you’ll get to hear from her about her own fascinating life story. Michelle returns to the podcast to talk with Carol about what she learned from the village that helped raise her after she was abandoned by her mother at birth, and how she came to wri...

Author Kala Allen Omeiza joins Carol to talk about neurodiversity advocacy and her journey to being diagnosed with autism at 24. Kala shares with Carol how race and disability intersect in her life as a Black autistic woman, and how she poured her life experiences into her young adult novel, "Afrotistic".   Kala felt out of place and socially uncomfortable as a young Black girl growing up in predo...

Harriette Cole joins Carol to talk about the positive and affirming ways that Black parents can share their morals and values with their children. Harriette, the former lifestyle editor and fashion director at Essence Magazine, is also an author, a nationally syndicated advice columnist, a multimedia producer, and host of the radio show DreamLeapers and podcast DreamLeapers Inspiration. Harriette...

In celebration of Black History Month, Carol brings back her captivating conversation with the former CEO of the pharmaceutical giant Merck, Kenneth Frazier, in which he shares his powerful story of being raised by his fiercely determined single dad.  Ken’s dad Otis Frazier, a widower raising three children on his own, firmly believed in the power of tough love. He looked beyond the limits of bein...

She’s a world famous prima ballerina and the first African American principal dancer with the American Ballet Theater. Misty Copeland has a long history of overcoming obstacles, breaking barriers, and inspiring her many fans. Now, in her first full-length public conversation about parenting since the birth of her son Jackson, Misty joins Carol to talk about her life as a new mom: how it’s been, ho...

Carol joins forces with poet and author Amena Brown, host of the podcast HER with Amena Brown, to talk about their journeys as Black women in the world of podcasting. In this poignant, revealing, hilarious joint interview, they talk about the power of being raised by Black moms, how to parent artistic kids, the perils of performing, the importance of “play aunties” and the need for self-destructin...

Black children in America are in a reading crisis, and it’s getting worse.  In a 2022 national reading assessment, only 33% of all U.S. 4th and 8th graders scored at a competent reading level, and for Black students, that competency score dropped to 17%. These scores are lower than the last national reading assessment in 2019.   In the face of this crisis, how do we ensure our children can beat th...

Carol’s focus on college admissions continues with a favorite from the archives: her convo with Eric Furda and Jacques Steinberg, authors of The College Conversation. Eric, the former Dean of Admissions at the University of Pennsylvania, and Jacques Steinberg, an award-winning education journalist, share their expert advice on how your teen should be applying to college from start to finish, and h...

College admissions experts Timothy Fields and Shereem Herndon-Brown join Carol to discuss what Black families need to know about helping their teens succeed during the college application process. Timothy, a senior admissions officer at Emory University, and Shereem, a former high school college counselor who now runs a college counseling consulting firm, are authors of The Black Family's Guide to...

College Board CEO and Ground Control Parenting fav David Coleman returns to the podcast to talk about learning from failure, the illusion of what it takes to be successful, and the toxic side of striving for perfection. David is a thoughtful, intriguing guest who seamlessly wraps life lessons around his expert insider knowledge of how high school kids  can turn their struggles into triumphs. He sh...

As 2022 comes to a close, Carol recaps this year’s Ground Control Parenting podcast journey. She looks back on standout topics covered this past season and highlights some of this year’s most interesting and resource-filled conversations. Happy New Year from Ground Control Parenting! Follow us at @GroundControlParenting and on www.groundcontrolparenting.com    See omnystudio.com/listener for priva...