Millennial Mom Thoughts

Did you miss us?! Get excited because we are back! We kick off Season 3 sharing what we have been up to so far this summer: visits to the zoo, beach, Magic House, and aquarium, eating vacation ice cream, sleeping in hotels, watching fireworks, and having plenty of outdoor play! Helen shares a very exciting big life update a.k.a. a new job! She will be the Clinical Coordinator for the English Educa...

It’s hard to believe, but the 2025-26 school year has come to a close for Helen and Jordan! We start off sharing two examples of how Facebook “works” as more evidence that once you post something, it isn’t totally within your control what happens next. We read a short, beautiful Substack essay written by Shawn Smucker titled, “Please Use AI.” Speaking of Substack, Jordan apparently doesn’t know ho...

We open with a very special guest, a.k.a. Jordan’s son Camden, dropping some animal facts for our listeners. We also introduce a new potential segment we will call “stuff Brian yells in the car while listening to our podcast” that leads to Jordan retelling her marriage proposal story. We give an update to the recent Canvas data breach, and it seems, for now, the stolen data is not being released....

We recorded this episode on Mother’s Day and of course had to talk about what we did to celebrate our special day. After enjoying a delicious Dilly Bar, Helen shares how she enjoyed pancakes after sleeping in, and Jordan had a fun afternoon at the Peoria Riverfront Museum. We then celebrate Helen’s recently published article, “Becoming a Mother Runner,” in Mother’s Day Magazine . Jordan shares abo...

What do ancient Egypt birthday parties, gas leaks, E.R. trips, movie theater date nights, and 30 dozen donuts have in common? Absolutely nothing--but they are all things covered in Episode 40! We got to see each other IRL at Jordan’s son’s ancient Egypt themed 6th birthday party that coincidentally was on the same day as Helen’s husband’s birthday! Helen is heading into finals week and reflects on...

We start off by sharing some recent artistic adventures with our kids. Jordan reminds listeners about the upcoming playing & reading outdoor event on May 9th in Morton. Helen prepares for her final week of class and summer giggles. We then dig in to our main topic: Fairplay’s Be Tech Wise! resource, which shares expert advice on technology for families with children ages 0-5. Fairplay is an or...

Jordan starts off by sharing an exciting community update: she was awarded a grant to place screen-free activity stations in town from the Morton Community Foundation. Jordan is preparing to celebrate National Children’s Book Week and Screen-Free Week on May 9th by organizing a local outdoor event in Morton. Helen is excited for summer after accepting a teaching position at the local community col...

This week we are excited to a share a conversation with an expert in elementary school teaching: Mrs. Deb Gangstad aka Jordan’s first grade teacher at College Wood Elementary. With all of the changes that have happened (and are happening) to education, it is important to share the stories of educators who have been in the field for many years and can share their wisdom, expertise, and insights. Fo...

We spend our episode focused on a recently published article by Natasha Singer in the New York Times , “Chromebook Remorse: Tech Backlash at Schools Extends Beyond Phones.” Before diving in, we recap our recent spring break and Easter travel adventures. And it turns out Helen’s daughter is no fan of the Easter Bunny. The article features a public middle school principal in Kansas, Mrs. Inge Esping...

We first catch up on our latest life happenings, including (but not limited to): an E.R. visit, book clubs, and trying to remember to promote our own various spaces on the internet: Substack, YouTube, and Four Norms. Then we dive into the results of the bellwether social media trial in Los Angeles that just concluded on March 24 and the implications for the future. The jury found that Meta and You...

Helen made a rule that when you have your own podcast and it’s your birthday, you get to celebrate with an episode being asked a variety of questions. And because we are rule-followers (usually…see: Scattergories), we are sharing the second Millennial Mom Thoughts birthday tradition episode. Before we got into Helen’s thoughtful questions, Jordan insisted on a sharing a recent not-so-neighborly po...

This week we share an interview with Jill Anderson, a mom, an educator, the founder of Mindful Tech Lessons, and, to many in her community, “the book lady.” Jill is a veteran K–6 teacher, and when she is not in the classroom with her third graders, she is often leading workshops that help parents and educators navigate the digital world with young people. Jill tells us about her journey through te...

We reflect on our last episode with Emily Cherkin, and Jordan shares her not-so-conspiracy theory about why there was low engagement on the posts we shared on social media. Helen details her new video essay adventure: GenAI on GenAI. Listeners can find this on her Substack,  Resonances . Helen aims to answer the question: What does it mean to be a teacher in a world with generative AI? Naturally,...

We are thrilled to share our conversation with Emily Cherkin, a.k.a. The Screentime Consultant. Emily shares her journey from being a middle school educator to now a fierce advocate for families and schools to be more tech-intentional. Emily started to notice a shift in education when, as a teacher, she was expected to use an online portal to communicate with students more than having in-person di...

We reflect on the important conversation we had on our last episode with Mike McLeod and the positive feedback we’ve received from listeners so far. We look forward to having Mike join us again on a future episode! Helen shares how she is trying out a new routine via her Substack to help cultivate a space for educators to connect with one another. Jordan realizes during the conversation that her s...

We are so excited to share our conversation with our very first Millennial dad guest: Mike McLeod! Mike is a professional speaker, ADHD and executive function expert, and the founder and CEO of GrowNOW ADHD who recently released his first book, The Executive Function Playbook . We start the episode reflecting on Helen’s daughter’s first birthday party and how adorably fabulous it was! Then we kick...

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, we are talking all about the sometimes successful, oftentimes completely terrifying world of online dating. But first, Jordan discusses her latest local news interview experience talking about OFF February as well as speaking at a school board meeting for the first time. Jordan then shares about PhoneFreeSchoolsReport.org, which tracks which states have put legisl...

We cover some heavy, but necessary, topics in this episode in order to answer the question: What does advocacy look like? Helen opens the episode by reading a statement made by Alex Pretti’s parents. We then debrief on our conversation with Becca Bramwell, including Helen’s realization that they, in fact, knew each other at EIU. Helen shares about her trip to Milwaukee for the Writing Innovation S...

We are excited to add another perspective and voice to episode 26 with Becca Bramwell, current Principal of Prairie Grove Middle School in Prairie Grove, Arkansas. Becca and Jordan met in 2017 during new staff orientation at East Peoria Community High School and have been friends ever since. Becca shares her journey through education from a high school math teacher, to technology integration speci...

We (attempt to) discuss the purpose and history of education. Jordan starts off the episode giving some book club updates and a recap of the latest Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing held about kids and screens. Helen and Jordan discuss the funny differences in their approach to “doing things.” Jordan often dives in immediately, and Helen takes more time to think it thr...

Jordan shares about her local TV news interview experience and how the segment disappointingly did not end up airing. ( At the time of this episode release, the segment has aired. ) Our conversation about a new global initiative called OFF February leads to the mutual agreement that Jordan writes emails that are far too long. Jordan shares about her first book club meeting reading Jean Twenge’s 10...

We are so excited to be back for SEASON TWO of Millennial Mom Thoughts! Our holiday breaks were filled with travel, thoughtful gifts from our husbands, goal setting, and even a podcast retreat held at the former home of the Awesome Blossom aka Chili’s. And in case you haven’t been to Chili’s in a while, spoiler alert: they no longer have any fried onion appetizers. But don’t fret-- Helen can attes...

We kick off the final episode of Season 1 by discussing the recent social media restriction that Australia enacted for kids under the age of 16. We draw parallels from the social media age restriction to how the U.S. has driving, drinking, and voting ages. Prompted by a a school drop-off line conversation Jordan had with a mom listener, we then reflect on the range of topics we have discussed over...

Helen couldn’t hear out of one ear and Jordan lost her voice, so ‘tis the season to talk about gifts (while doing our best to hold back coughs)! We start off by reflecting on the meaningful discussion that happened after the latest community film screening of Can’t Look Away. Jordan then shared a concerning discovery in her segment called: Social media is terrible and here is the evidence . After...

For our TWENTIETH episode we are excited to be bringing on our very first guest, Kaitlan Finn! Sadly poor Helen was absent for this one thanks to a bummer winter illness. Kaitlan is a former Speech-Language Pathologist who lives in Palatine, IL, and has taken on the role of Illinois team lead for the Distraction Free Schools Project. The Distraction Free Schools Project is an initiative jointly le...