This Is So Awkward

What do schools cover - and what don’t they - in the famous Sex Ed curriculum? Turns out, there are lots of guidelines, but little consistency from school to school. We’re taking a deep dive into what kids are *supposed* to be learning, why they might not get that education, and the holes that parents/trusted adults need to fill at home.    Show Notes: Overview of National Sexuality Education Stan...

Rachel Simmons, New York Times bestselling author of The Curse of the Good Girl, Odd Girl Out, and Enough As She Is, applies her years of research and work with adolescents to offer guideposts for empathetically raising kids. This conversation explores practical ways to support our tweens and teens with authenticity.   Show Notes: Odd Girl Out The Curse of the Good Girl  Enough As She Is: How to H...

As bodies grow, new smells emerge from head to toe, hair sprouts in dark, moist places, and both sweat and fluid begin to flow. To solve for odors, rashes and infections, there is a free remedy: AIR. This episode is all about how we can help our kids use air to keep their bodies healthy.   Visit OOMLA to shop thoughtfully designed (OOM)Bras!   Produced by Dear Media Learn more about your ad choice...

Meditation and self-reflection are practices everyone - including kids - can use to manage life’s stresses. In this unique episode, in addition to describing how breathing exercises and meditation impact the brain, Mallika leads us through a few very short ones. Listen… relax… and carry these tools into your daily life.   Show Notes: Just Be Series by Mallika Chopra   Produced by Dear Media Learn...

A humongous part of raising tweens and teens is messing up. We all make rules but then change our minds; give incorrect information; or simply lose our cool for no good reason. Here’s a dirty little secret: we can always take a do-over. This episode is about the anatomy of a do-over using painfully ridiculous examples from our own lives.   Visit OOMLA to shop thoughtfully designed (OOM)Bras!   Pro...

Most parents say they just want their kids to be happy. What if happiness comes when we find our “Unicorn Space” – a place at the intersection of purpose and meaning? In our conversation with Eve Rodsky, author of Unicorn Space and New York Times bestseller Fair Play, we explore how our expectations of our adolescents, our communication styles and willingness to share our own vulnerabilities can h...

Everything you ever wanted to know about period products and were afraid to ask, from the old standby pads and tampons to brand new disruptors like menstrual cups and period underwear. This entertaining and informative tutorial walks through the many ways menstruators can catch their flow.   Visit OOMLA to shop thoughtfully designed (OOM)Bras!   Produced by Dear Media Learn more about your ad choi...

Our episode with Henry + Zoe Winkler is a father/daughter master class on how grandparents play loving, supportive and epicenter-of-fun roles in their grandchildren’s lives. If we’re lucky, children have grandparents who can act as an extra set of trusted adults, helping them navigate the twists and turns of childhood. But every parent knows that when it comes to grandparents, the rules tend to ge...

In this episode we tackle the complex challenges in trying to achieve body positivity in puberty with Zoe Bisbing, psychotherapist and co-founder of The Full Bloom Project, a body positive parenting resource. Zoe offers a thoughtful approach to all of the fraught topics around weight and body image during adolescence, as well as guidelines - and tremendous wisdom - for creating a body positive hom...

For any parent wondering how to talk to younger kids about their bodies, Kelly Fradin (AKA) @adviceigivemyfriends is an amazing resource. Conversations about changing bodies really should start before bodies morph - Kelly walks through what to say when and how. Plus, in this episode you’ll get a peek into the talks pediatricians have with tweens and teens when they kick parents out of the exam roo...

We sit down with the original author of The Cara and Keeping of You, Valorie Schaefer, who describes in technicolor how the first volume of The Care and Keeping of You came to be and her personal journey writing a cult classic book about puberty.   Show Notes: The Care and Keeping of You  The Care and Keeping of You 2 Dynamo Puberty Workshops & Visit OOMLA to shop thoughtfully designed (OOM)Bras!...

One of the most common questions - and worries - about puberty: zits. Why do we get them? Where? When? And what can be done? Get everything you need to know about acne, backne, buttne, and more…   Show Notes: Dynamo Puberty Workshops & Visit OOMLA to shop thoughtfully designed (OOM)Bras!   Produced by Dear Media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Does eating oily food give you acne? Is breakfast the most important meal? Do we really need to drink eight glasses of water a day? Dr. Nina Shapiro, pediatric otolaryngologist, joins us to bust some adolescent myths and discuss her new book Ultimate Kids' Guide to Being Super Healthy, a terrific guide for helping kids understand the science behind why adults make the rules they do.   Show Notes:...

How do you talk to your kids about complicated things when you didn’t grow up in a home that did? Our guest this week is Mary Pat Draddy, LMSW and Dynamo Director of Workshops, with her journey as someone who didn’t grow up talking about puberty and now makes her profession as someone who does. Mary Pat shares how she filled her information gap as an adult and how she’s chosen to raise her own kid...

We want to raise our kids to be good people, but easier said than done, right? Science journalist Melinda Wenner Moyer and author of “How to Raise Kids Who Aren’t Assholes” joins us on this episode to tackle big topics like lying, sexism and consent.    Show Notes: Dynamo Girl Puberty Workshops & Visit OOMLA to shop thoughtfully designed (OOM)Bras!   Produced by Dear Media Learn more about your ad...

There’s a timeline for puberty - when it starts and how fast it proceeds - which means that there’s also “early” and “late.” Layered on top is the relativity of puberty: when everyone else is going through it (or not), the person who’s not (or is!) feels out of sync. This episode explores the science behind the timing of puberty and how adults - both parents and doctors - might approach a late blo...

Over the past two decades, puberty has crept up earlier and earlier, redefining what it means to be “early” or “late.” But why? Is it the food we’re eating? The water we’re drinking? The cosmetics we use? The medications we take? Is it caused by stress? Or screens? If we just had a culprit, we could fix this. Pediatric endocrinologist Dr. Louise Greenspan, author of the lauded book The New Puberty...

For so many adults, addressing kids’ hygiene -- keeping their bodies clean, smells at bay, zits minimal, and all the rest -- feels really tricky. We never want to shame kids, but we all want them to learn how to take care of themselves. So what topics need covering? And what’s the best way to say what we think they need to hear? This week’s episode is all about hygiene…or lack thereof.   Show Note...

How we talk to our kids about complex topics like puberty and sex depends both on our kids’ personalities are ours, too. There is no one-size-fits-all on how to have these tricky conversations. In this episode, Vanessa and Cara break down the cast of characters in both the kid roles and the adult roles, offering up guidance for having these talks in our families while making room for the different...

Wendy Mogel, clinical psychologist and New York Times bestselling author, discusses raising kids through adolescence, a time of the “greatest anguish and the greatest ecstasy.” With humor and honesty, Wendy advises us to be “emotional archaeologists” with the kids we love and learning to “keep quiet, keep captivated and keep respectful” when navigating this tricky time as caregivers. Produced by D...

Andrew Goldberg, co-creator of Big Mouth, the hit Netflix animated series about puberty, and world famous early bloomer, joins us in conversation about what it felt like to be the first of his friends to hit puberty. Andrew shares his experiences from those fraught years, what was talked about and what wasn’t, and he discusses how he and his wife are choosing to raise their own children based on w...

There isn’t ONE time to start puberty or end puberty and someone has to go first. In this episode, Cara explains the science behind early puberty and we explore the social and emotional impact of being an early bloomer. Plus you get to learn what an orchidometer is! This is a great episode to listen to with your kids.   Shownotes: Dynamo Girl  Guy Stuff by Dr. Cara Natterson Care and Keeping of Yo...

Dr. Hina Talib, adolescent medicine specialist and host of the popular @teenhealthdoc on Instagram, joins us for a deep dive on periods. We discuss menstruation as a vital sign, what’s considered normal for teen menstruation and what’s not, when to worry and when to seek advice from medical providers. We’ll cover everything from mittelschmerz (WHAT?!!!) to endometriosis, so tune in for accessible...

Erections and nocturnal emissions – AKA boners and wet dreams – are big pieces of puberty that often go unmentioned unless they’re punchlines in a joke. Which is a big conversational miss, because these topics can cause unnecessary confusion, shame, worry, or awkwardness. In this episode, we break down the science behind boners and wet dreams (and yes, we use the language that kids use) and then b...

Dr. Lisa Damour, New York Times bestselling author, columnist and co-host of the Ask Lisa Podcast, joins us for a back-to-school episode on lessons learned from the previous two school years under Covid. This episode explores the adaptability, emotional honesty and family rituals we developed and how we can use them in constructive ways to create new models for parenting as we move forward.   Show...