Alexis

Starborn Parenting Podcast

Education EN ↓ 3 episodes

Rick Kubina, PhD, and Madeline Jürgensen, PhD, have spent their careers studying behavior. Rick has three children of his own and now two grandchildren. Madeline has two young children. In other words, they live the research at home and teach it for a living. Each week on the Starborn Parenting Podcast, they take decades of behavior research blended with their own personal experience and turn it into tools parents can use that same night. Expect honest stories from their own parenting and grandparenting, including some that ended in frustration and tears, plus straight answers about what drive...

Author

Alexis

Episodes

The Damage Punishment Leaves Behind 07.07.2026 36:32

Nearly 400 million kids worldwide (3 out of 4) experience violent discipline at home. This week, Rick and Madeline take on the "blowtorch" of parenting: punishment. They dig into the global data, what pain-induced aggression does to a kid's brain, and why punishing tends to escalate over time without ever teaching kids what to do instead. Plus the difference between penalty and puni...

Every Tantrum Has a Trigger 07.07.2026 33:25

When your kid melts down in aisle 6, something specific set it off, usually in the moment before the behavior. Maybe you said no, or the cart rolled past the toys. And some days, a skipped nap or a rushed morning primes your kid to blow at the smallest thing. In this episode Rick and Madeline break down the pattern behind every meltdown: what happens before, during, and after, so you can spot the...

The Parenting Mistake Almost Everyone Makes 02.07.2026 34:18

Most parents think rewards are pretty simple. Give the kid a treat, and they do the thing. There's a reason it works some days and totally backfires on others. Rick and Madeline get into what really motivates your kid, why the same reward can work for one child and do nothing for another, and how a reward is different from a bribe. By the end you'll have a lot more clarity on why your ki...