The Parenting Reboot with Deepa

A father wants to spend time with his 2-year-old. But he can’t. Not because he does not have the time or is distracted — but because the content on his phone is so dopamine-rich that his own child, by comparison, just feels… dull. This is one of the most raw conversations I’ve had on this podcast. And it is not about banning screens. Or putting a screen time timer. It’s a far more uncomfortable re...

Lauren Hamilton calls herself an accidental entrepreneur. And honestly, that might be the most relatable thing a founder has ever said to me. She didn’t set out to disrupt UAE’s transportation industry. She set out to get herself and her newborn home safely. The ride options available — gig-economy drivers on commission-only contracts, taxis without proper car seats, unfamiliar vehicles with incon...

What would happen if you sat your child down for 15 minutes with no screen, no instructions, and no stimulation? According to Nidhi Bennur, co-founder and director of outreach of the Youth Cosmo (TYCO) in Pune, most children today wouldn’t know what to do with themselves. Not because they’re lazy or broken — but because an entire generation has grown up never having to find ways to spend time. Tha...

Ever wondered what technology and AI would look like if it were built by a mom? One designed not around engagement metrics, algorithms or ad revenue — but around the actual complications and nuances of family life. The 11pm mental checklist. The 14 school apps. The invisible labour that never makes it onto a CV, but runs the entire household. Avni Patel Thompson , a mom and 3x founder, has spent a...

What happens when the internet becomes your child’s first teacher about sexuality? In this episode of Parenting Reboot, I sit down with Ramya Anand, co-lead at TARSHI, an organization that has spent nearly three decades reshaping how India approaches sexuality education, gender and reproductive health. Her message is simple, but not easy: if parents don’t talk about sexuality, the internet will. A...

What if the antidote to your child’s screen meltdown wasn’t another app — but a body-first moment of connection you could share together? That’s the beating heart of Hoopla Fun UAE , the gamified family wellness app founded by Jacqueline Perrottet — a mum of two who struggled with anxiety herself and set out to build something she genuinely needed at home. The result is an app that doesn’t chase e...

Motherhood can be a beautiful yet overwhelming journey — especially in today’s hyper-connected world. Most of us are quietly grappling with the same tension: we love technology, we depend on it, and we’re also watching it slowly reshape our children’s childhoods in ways we didn’t sign up for. On the latest episode of the Parenting Reboot, I sit down with Danielle Mussafi — a Brooklyn-based early c...

I’ve been away for a bit, but I’m back — and this conversation with Megs Shah, co-founder of the Parasol Cooperative , felt like exactly the right episode to return with. Megs is building technology the way it should have been built from the start: with human safety and agency at the center, not revenue. Under Parasol, Shah built Ruth , an AI tool for survivors of exploitation and abuse. They don’...

If someone handed you a book on how to raise grounded, emotionally strong, clear-thinking kids in a world run by algorithms, wouldn’t life be easy? I just finished reading Uninfluenceable and got a chance to sit down with the author of this book — Alanna Gallo . She is a former public school teacher, mom of four, and education consultant. Alanna and I get into the messy, confusing reality of raisi...

Meet Sandhya Viswan, an engineer turn educator, homeschooling mum of two and now a consultant in the education sector in one of the largest cities in India. On the Parenting Reboot’s latest episode, Viswan and I unpack one of the biggest modern parenting dilemmas: What does “the right education” even mean anymore? She brings a refreshing, deeply practical lens to a world where schools market thems...

Education in India is evolving, but not always evenly. In this week’s episode of Parenting Reboot , I speak with Neha Gujar — a Teach For India program partner who’s been on the frontlines of education reform for over a decade. Neha’s journey is as fascinating as it is purposeful: from a defense background to transforming classrooms and communities across India. She has seen how education can shif...

We weren’t born with devices — and yet, they now shape every part of our day. Research shows that kids as young as 11 own smartphones , and two-year-olds make up a significant YouTube viewing audience . But the real problem isn’t the screen — it’s the system behind it. This week on Parenting Reboot , I sat down with Riz Vazir , founder of Scroll By Choice , a Seattle-based initiative helping famil...

Parenting often feels like a tug-of-war. For the first time on the Parenting Reboot, I brought a parent and a psychologist / child tech expert together to talk about screen time, tech use in households and the challenge to balance it all out, especially without guilt and shame. Jenna Wawrzyniec is a mom of three is on a mission to simplify complex research and build a stronger parent community. Dr...

You don’t need technology to raise children. All they need is human attention. These are the words of Madhura Gogte Pusalkar — a Montessori educator, music teacher, and child-development expert from Mumbai. This week on the Parenting Reboot, we talk about the relevance of Montessori education in preparing children for a future influenced by artificial intelligence. She emphasizes the importance of...

Do you need to quit your job to make your kids go screen free? Probably not. We discuss this on The Parenting Reboot , as I sit down with Dr. Madhumitha Ezhil — a digital detox expert, consultant and parent who has helped countless families rethink their relationship with screens. Dr. Madhumitha knows the other side of the screen all too well. Her 300-page thesis was dedicated to studying how to k...

Did you wish some social media apps never existed? Do you spend 3-5 hours every day doomscrolling on one of those very apps? This week on the Parenting Reboot , I chat with Nick Rotola—dad of three, youth pastor turned serial tech entrepreneur, and founder of UP (scrollhappy.com) —to ask a bold question: Can we have a healthy relationship with social media? Nick’s social media platform is designed...

Why are AI teachers needed today? Can we build empathy into AI code? What role does equity play in training AI models? We explore all of this and more in the latest episode of the Parenting Reboot where I chat with Dr. Pauldy Otermans, the co-founder of the Otermans Institute that built the world’s first AI teacher and is democratizing education across Asia, Africa and the rest of the world. As a...

“I found motherhood harder than ChatGPT,” says Aaksha Meghawat in her calm, collected voice. In this episode of the Parenting Reboot (TPR) , I sit down with Aaksha — a mom, AI/ML expert, and now a Y Combinator–backed AI startup founder from California — to explore two journeys that rarely get discussed together: * Postpartum life — the emotional, physical, and economic costs we don’t talk about en...

From the explosion of live-streaming careers to creating healthy screen-time rules, Jing Shen and I unpack how to raise mindful, creative kids in a hyperconnected world. He is a tech nerd and a dad to a 6-year-old girl, who runs the biggest live streaming platform of Asia. We also explore the challenges and opportunities presented by technology while parenting and the importance of authenticity in...

As a new mom, I stumbled upon Kamakshi’s substack “ Things Parents Google ” when I was up at 2 a.m. one night, four months postpartum, hoping to feel seen / heard through social media. Despite the overload of information available online on how to raise children, not much is available on how to navigate the online world safely. Especially for new moms who are vulnerable to every information, post,...

When you hear "AI teacher," do you imagine a robot standing at a whiteboard or an app teaching your middle-schooler algebra? Either way, it's not science fiction anymore. This week on The Parenting Reboot , I sat down with Dev Aditya , co-founder of the Otermans Institute , who helped build the world’s first AI teacher. Why an AI Teacher? The global report on teachers reveals an urgent need for 44...

Are you a new mom / parent? Were you sucked into doomscrolling or left feeling insufficient after trying to find answers to why your baby won’t sleep / feed / hit those milestones? This episode is a heartfelt conversation, from one mother to another. We talk about postpartum in its rawest forms and the influence of social media in day-to-day parenting. New episodes out every Wednesday. Follow the...

"Parenting requires humility and a willingness to learn.” That was one of the key takeaways of my conversation with Anmol Mohan, an ML expert and director at a big tech company based out of Singapore. Between “We are not equipped to be parents, really” and “Ethics don't exist; it's all about wisdom”, there is so much we unpack in episode 2 of the Parenting Reboot . For instance, we explore the int...

Welcome to the Parenting Reboot—where we deep dive into all things parenting, technology and raising kind resilient lil humans for a tech-centric future. In episode 1, I chat with Mohana and Joel, parents navigating the complexities of raising a child with a third member of their household—their smartphone. They discuss the challenges of parenting in the digital age, the importance of preparation,...