Spawned Parenting Podcast with Liz of Cool Mom Picks

Whether you're pinned to election coverage right now, or avoiding it completely, we think everyone should listen to this interview with Amber McReynolds, CEO of the bipartisan National Vote at Home Institute. She's got the real facts (as in, not alternative facts) about voting by mail and absentee ballots. You'll learn some of the benefits we hadn't considered, the positive changes that vote-by-ma...

Jordan Shapiro is the author of The New Childhood: Raising Kids to Thrive in a Connected World, and he's about to blow your mind. We discuss the benefits of kids and tech,, embracing family screen time, why fear of technology may be worse than actual technology, how video games got such a bad rap, and so much more -- in fact he's completely reshaped our own attitudes about digital parenting. // Sh...

We're so honored to welcome back The Double Shift podcaster, journalist and working mom expert Katherine Goldstein for an incredible conversation about one of the many troubling aspects of the Covid pandemic: its profound impact on working moms. We discuss the real challenges, who it's hurting most, how to rally for the help we all need, and what the long term impact of Covid could be on an entire...

So let's talk time management. (Ha! Hahahahhaha!) We get it. Lately, it's like we look out the window, see it's getting dark, and think "where the heck did this day go!" But with back to school (-ish) creeping up on us, we're trying to regain at least some sense of normalcy and routine. So we're examining the top 5 time management techniques from experts to help you figure out if one is right for...

There's really only one topic we could think to cover this week: What to do about back-to-school in 2020, during the Covid pandemic . We don't have the right answer for you (and FFS let's not turn this into the next mommy wars) but we do have a terrific list of 14 considerations we've seen parents discussing -- including plenty you might not have thought about at all just yet. Take a deep breath,...

This week, our oldest girls turned 15 and 16 (eep!) and we found some interesting ways to celebrate. So we really wanted to have an honest, helpful discussion about kids' birthday in the age of Covid, including party alternatives, finding joy in small gestures, acknowledging the loss and the FOMO, and above all, remembering that celebrating our kids' milestones should be about love...not Instagram...

Over the last couple of weeks, many schools have been releasing their plans for fall, and not surprisingly, it's all the parents in our social media feed are talking about. We recently featured a post about things to consider if you're thinking about homeschooling this fall by our Editor Kate Etue that was so popular with our readers that we decided to talk about it on Spawned. On this episode, Li...

Even in tough times, we still need to allow ourselves time for play, creativity, and yes, even romance, which is why we're welcoming back author and dad Robert Wilder for a special Meet Cute - Spawned crossover episode. Since he was last on the show back in February when Meet Cute, which produces short form audio rom-coms, had launched, the world has changed drastically. He shares why rom-coms (an...

Prolific author and writer Ada Calhoun is out with her latest book, Why We Can't Sleep: Women's New Midlife Crisis, an absolutely fascinating book for every GenX woman in her 40s and 50s (and thereabouts). She reminds us that everything we're going through right now, we're DEFINITELY not alone! Liz has a terrific talk with to help more of us see why so many of us still feel overwhelmed, dissatisfi...

Why do dads always get all the credit for being fun? Moms are fun too! On this special Father's Day episode of Spawned, we're chatting with dad, magician and Netflix star Justin Willman. Do you love Magic for Humans as much as we do? Then you're going to love this episode! He's got lots of tips and actual magic tricks we can do with our kids. Plus, we close out our show with our Cool Picks of the...

Big news, Spawned listeners: We're so excited to launch the new Out-Tech Your Kids Podcast , designed to help you become a smarter digital parent in just 15 minutes each week. No judgments, no jargon-y lesson about the the history of the CPU processor. Just tech-positive answers to parents' top questions, to help us all raise a generation of responsible digital citizens. Be sure to listen and subs...

We understand that everyone is at different stages when it comes to understanding, internalizing, and speaking out against systemic racism and Black Lives Matter. So we're grateful that Rene Syler, an incredible, experienced broadcast journalist, witty author, prolific public speaker, and Black mom of two lent us her time and her voice this week to discuss racism in America -- not just what it mea...

Liz speaks with the incredible activist, mom, and now author Meena Harris about her wonderful new children's book, "Kamala and Maya's Big Idea" based on a true story from the childhoods of her mom, Maya Harris, and her Aunt Kamala. We talk about representation and diversity in children's literature, the importance of reading about strong female characters (especially for boys!), how to to kids abo...

Both Liz and I found ourselves thinking about what we want to keep and what we to ditch when this pandemic ends. Whether it's taking more time to eat dinner with our families or taking more time for ourselves, there are so many experiences we've had with our families that we definitely want to keep up once things settle down (whenever that might be). And there are ones, like daily Starbucks trips...

We loved this fun, helpful conversation about HAPPINESS with KJ Dell’Antonia, author of How to Be a Happier Parent and the upcoming novel The Chicken Sisters. We’re discussing how happiness does -- and doesn’t -- look different these days, where we’re lowering expectations,, surviving vs thriving, finding silver linings and little spots of joy, and above all, reminding ourselves that NO it’s not s...

Do your kids know how to do laundry? Do your teens know how to leave a tip? It's amazing how many life skills tend to fall through the cracks when it comes to raising our kids. That's why we're so excited to chat with Catherine Newman, whose new book How to Be a Person: 65 Hugely Useful, Super-Important Skills to Learn before You’re Grown Up will help your kids, teens, even young adults tackle imp...

Parenting through a pandemic is no easy feat. Parenting middle schoolers seems extra challenging. But thanks to the insights of Judith Warner, author of several best selling books and the new And Then They Stopped Talking to Me: Making Sense of Middle School, we've got a much better handle on understanding what they're going through, and how to help them. And even if you don't have middle schooler...

There has been no shortage of body and weight-related memes and posts going around since the pandemic hit, so we decided to chat with body positivity expert and author Virgie Tovar about how we navigate this difficult time. She discusses why many of us are feeling particularly drawn to issues around our weight right now, and shares helpful advice on how to talk to our kids about these things. Plus...

If these days, your dream social life would include time with a few friends for some real talk, real laughs, some needed venting, and a random reference to clown sex, this will be the 30-minute highlight of your week. Hey, it was the highlight of ours! And that's kind of the way things go when you're chatting with the very thoughtful, very funny, and very real Tova Leigh, best-selling author of F*...

Real parenting talk: Emotions are up and down in the age of Covid, times are stressful, and we definitely are not trying to "win" quarantine with 800 millions Instagrammable family moments each day. (Oy.) What we are doing though is finding the small joys, and hopefully making a few special memories in spite of *all this*. This episode, Kristen and Liz are sharing some of our favorite things we're...

You've got the groceries. And now you've got to do something with them. And if your house is like ours, there's a whole lot of eating going on. Thanks to our guest Stacie Billis, food editor and author of the new cookbook Winner Winner Chicken Dinner, we've got awesome tips, tricks, and advice for everything from what to do with leftovers to should we be worrying about our picky eaters, and a whol...

This week is a fun, Coronavirus-free episode about the joys of binge watching -- there's scientific reasons to give yourself permission to watch shows right now, and whether you are watching alone or with the family, we've got suggestions for what to watch...and what to skip. We also ask the question on everyone's mind right now: should you watch Tiger King? (Kristen has a good tip if you're on th...

We know that the shelter-in-place orders and social distancing due to the Coronavirus pandemic has been difficult for all of us in one way or another, teens, in particular, are taking an extremely hard hit. We're seeing with our own teens, and we've been hearing from our listeners and readers who are experiencing the same. And if you're like, you're feeling helpless dealing with their feelings of...

In light of the Coronavirus outbreak and the hour-by-hour changes and disruptions it's creating in our lives, we immediately called pediatrician and adolescent expert Dr. Kenneth Ginsburg, one of all-time favorite Spawned Parenting Podcast guests , to help us out as parents. We hope you'll listen to this important conversation between Liz and Dr. Ginsburg. We discuss how Coronavirus/Covid-19 is im...

We're talking all things pets (well, mostly dogs, but still PETS!) for the first time ever on Spawned with our special guest, dog trainer and author Victoria Schade . She uses her expertise to answer common questions about adding a pet to your family, plus talks about her new novel (that of course, features rescue dogs!), Who Rescued Who , which will be out on 3/24. As a 3-dog owner, I found her a...