Talking To Teens: Expert Tips for Parenting Teenagers

Cynthia Clumeck Muchnick and Jenn Curtis, authors of The Parent Compass , share their wealth of knowledge on the college admissions process and parenting in the late teens. Full show notes Let’s be honest–the pressure of the college application process is enough to drive anyone crazy. Both you and your kids might find yourselves losing sleep and shedding tears over the endless rampage of SAT score...

Dr. Charlan Nemeth, author of In Defense of Troublemakers , shares her decades of research on underdogs and dissenters with Andy. Turns out troublemakers have hidden superpowers that can make them top-notch critical thinkers and persuaders! Full show notes With so much fake news flying around on social media and the internet becoming more and more politically polarizing each day, it’s easy to be w...

Ellen Hendriksen, author of How to Be Yourself , clues us in on what might be triggering your teen’s anxiety and perfectionism--and what you can do to help them overcome those and feel comfortable being themselves! Full show notes The high school social atmosphere is pretty terrifying. You might remember the feeling of your heart beating against your chest as you asked a table full of kids if you...

Dr. Michele Borba, author of Thrivers and Unselfie , offers up research-based ways to help teens thrive. We’ll delve into some of the seven key traits parents can teach their teen to set them up for success. Full show notes We would do anything for our kids to be successful. That’s why we sign them up for SAT prep classes, make sure they practice piano every day and watch their report cards like h...

Dr. Ilyasah Shabazz, author of The Awakening of Malcolm X , joins us for a talk on race, history, and the power of learning. Teaching our teens to live justly starts with a strong family foundation. Full show notes Unless you and your teen live under a rock, your child has probably been exposed to a lot of discourse about racism this past year. Sparked by the killing of George Floyd, the world eru...

Cara Natterson, author of Decoding Boys , shares her insights into raising boys--from silent phases, to gaming, to late bloomers, to pornography use, as a pediatrician Cara has seen it all! Full show notes We think we know how puberty works. Kids grow hair everywhere, wake up 2 feet taller than the night before, and suddenly start wanting to go on dates to the mall without any supervision! But the...

Michelle Mitchell, author of A Girl’s Guide to Puberty and A Guy’s Guide to Puberty , shares her top tips preparing young people for puberty. Rather than cringing at the awkwardness, Michelle suggests we can embrace body changes as the beautiful part of life they are! Full show notes Puberty is a pretty intense experience for both teens and parents! Kids are going through a million different chang...

Kevin Roose, author of Futureproof , speaks with us about what AI and automation means for the future of humans--and how to speak with teens to prepare them to remain relevant in the information age. Full show notes Our kids are heading into a new era–one full of self driving cars, automated grocery shopping and endless social media. They’re growing up surrounded by technology, and these gizmos an...

Karl Pillemer, author of Fault Lines: Fractured Families and How to Mend Them explains how seemingly small disagreements can grow to jeopardize relationships, and what parents of teens should know about patching up arguments and preventing permanent damage. Full Show Notes We have arguments with our teens about little things everyday–what to have for dinner, whether they can take the car out, what...

Ned Johnson, author of Conquering the SAT and The Self-Driven Child , joins the show a second time to share his top tips for beating any standardized test--and they are all things under a teen’s control! Full show notes There’s no singular experience in teenage life quite like the SAT. Unlike the grueling four year academic curriculum, it occurs for only 180 minutes–and determines whether or not a...

Julie Lythcott-Haims, author of Your Turn and How to Raise an Adult , brings to the show her vast knowledge of the psychology of emerging adults. How can we help our teens and 20somethings turn out well? Full show notes When kids leave the nest, it can be terrifying to see them go. As a parent, you may feel that your whole life has led up to this moment, and you might worry that you haven’t done e...

Jonah Berger, PhD, bestselling author of The Catalyst and Contagious , shows us the most effective way to be catalysts for change. The first step is to uncover what barriers stop teens from changing right now. Full show notes It’s not easy to talk teens into anything. Simply getting them to clean their room or finish their stats homework is a nightmare! It seems that as soon as you ask them to do...

Dr. Michael Gurian, author of Saving Our Sons , The Stone Boys , and 20+ books, joins us for a riveting discussion on the hidden ways in which our institutions and communication hurts boys. Not all is lost: there are plenty of ways we can help boys grow into emotionally resilient and thriving men! Full show notes In today’s culture, it may seem like the conversation around emotional wellbeing has...

Lydia Fenet, author of The Most Powerful Woman in the Room is You , talks about the top skills young people need to become confident, successful adults who can command any room they walk into--or at least, how they can shine in their own strength. One key? Practice failing...a lot! Full show notes Teenagers are inclined to worry about everything—the phones they have, the clothes they wear, the cli...

Dr. Anita Collins, music educator and author of The Music Advantage , explains the surprising and long-lasting positive effects of music on the teen brain. Your teen doesn’t have to be a prodigy to benefit from picking up an instrument! Full show notes If you feel like your child isn’t living up to their full potential because they get distracted too easily or lose focus of their own goals, just i...

Lisa Cron, author of the new book Story or Die , shows us how to use and create powerful stories that can drive teens to change their bad behavior without you even asking. Full show notes Often as parents we think telling our teen the facts about texting and driving or vaping will show them that they need to change their behavior. The danger is so clear! When we are in the same room or car as our...

Dr. Joshua Coleman, author of Rules of Estrangement and When Parents Hurt , offers insight on how to repair fractured relationships. Plus, why parental estrangement is becoming increasingly common and what we can do to prevent it in the first place. Full show notes After all the blood, sweat, and tears of raising a kid, any parent would want a good relationship with a son or daughter that’s reache...

Michelle Icard, author of the new book Fourteen Talks by Age Fourteen , joins us to chat about the most important discussions to have with young people these days. We’ll also cover how to make them go smoothly and what parents can do to minimize awkwardness (and arguments) in the process! Full show notes Say you’ve got a touchy topic you want to approach your teen about–maybe you found a vape in t...

Roy F. Baumeister, PhD, bestselling author of Willpower and The Power of Bad , helps us understand our tendency to focus on the negatives and why it’s not all bad. Not winning “the best parent” awards? Turns out that’s not what matters for a successful teen. Full show notes When teens find out their friends are hanging out without them, or they didn’t get a part in the school play, they suddenly a...

Rebecca Reid, journalist and author of Rude , sheds light on the surprising positives to rudeness and how we could all get a bit more rude without offending anyone! Full show notes It’s easy to get caught up worrying about your kid behaving rudely when you’re not around. You might be picturing them going to the neighbor's house and asking for food they weren’t offered, forgetting to say please and...

Ron Lieber, author of The Price You Pay For College and NYT Your Money columnist, clues us in on what marketing tricks your teen’s favorite colleges might be using and how to get the best deal. Full show notes With prices skyrocketing and competition for admission growing more intense every year, applying to college can be a major source of stress for both parents and teens! It’s enormously diffic...

R. Doug Fields, author of Why We Snap and Electric Brain , shares insight from the field of neuroscience on why as evolved as we are, parents and teens still snap at each other. Plus, what new research in the field of brain waves could mean for our kids in the future. Full show notes You’ve been asking your teenager to unload the dishwasher for days, only to be brushed off everytime. One day, you...

Gregory Koufacos, author of The Primal Method , joins us for a discussion on why simply talking to boys doesn’t work--and how parents can instead activate a strong bond with their teens to set them up for a thriving healthy adult life. Full show notes When kids are misbehaving or getting on your last nerve, it can be difficult not to sound like a broken record. Repeated cries of “come home on time...

Nir Eyal, author of Indistractable and Hooked and former lecturer at Stanford University, offers new insight into why teens get so “addicted” to technology. Nir suggests the problem might not be as insurmountable as we thought and has a method for how to become indistractable. Full show notes It’s so frustrating when kids seem infinitely more invested in their Fortnite match than the stack of home...

Marc Fienberg, author of Dad's Great Advice for Teens , helps us kick off the new year with some fresh advice for teens--and the best way to deliver it! Full show notes There are so many things in life that teens, no matter their high school education, are not prepared for. Rarely are there standard courses on how to monitor our own technology use, balance friendships and relationships, and effect...