- 56 minutes 2 secondsThe Role of Trusted Adults
“Find a trusted adult.” Kids hear this endlessly––you probably do, too, if you’re a frequent listener to this podcast. Why? Because it’s one strategy that’s proven to keep kids safe and healthy. In this episode, we take a deeper dive into trusted adults: who are they? What role can and should they play? How and why should they set boundaries? And how can they support themselves as they support kids? To guide us, we’re joined by Dr. Brooklyn Raney, an educational researcher and practitioner whose entire mission is to help train trusted adults.
Show Notes:
Watch the full episode on Youtube!
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Produced by Peoples Media
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28 April 2026, 7:06 am - 53 minutes 41 secondsCountdown to the Bittersweet Send-Off
It’s simultaneously wonderful and worrying to launch a kid. The most common denominator question is a version of this: Are they going to be ok when they leave us? We hope – and wonder – if we’ve taught them enough to be out in the world. Christina Geist spent her oldest child’s senior year of high school compiling those life lessons in Before You Fly Away. Her musings are as heartfelt as they are practical, whether you have a child who is about to fly the nest, one who flew away long ago, or one so young you can hardly imagine that stage of life.
Show Notes:
Before You Fly Away: Life Lessons from Home
Watch the full episode on Youtube!
Join the LESS AWKWARD MEMBERSHIP HUB
Go to Quince.com/AWKWARD for free shipping on your order and three hundred and sixty-five -day returns.
Download the FREE Playbook for Getting Your Kid to Talk
Order our book This Is So Awkward
Check out all our speaking and curriculum at www.lessawkward.com and our super comfy products at www.myoomla.com
To bring us to your school or community email [email protected]
To submit listener questions email [email protected]
Produced by Peoples Media
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24 April 2026, 7:06 am - 54 minutes 8 secondsCan We Make Our Kids Happy? with Laurie Santos
If you ask parents what they want for their kid, 99% say some version of: I just want them to be happy! But happiness––and how we achieve it––is complex and layered. We turned to the happiness guru, Dr. Laurie Santos, founder of the Happiness Lab and professor of Yale’s famous class “Psychology and the Good Life,” for answers and insights. You’ll be so happy you listened!
Show Notes:
Watch the full episode on Youtube!
Join the LESS AWKWARD MEMBERSHIP HUB
Go to Quince.com/AWKWARD for free shipping on your order and three hundred and sixty-five -day returns.
Download the FREE Playbook for Getting Your Kid to Talk
Order our book This Is So Awkward
Check out all our speaking and curriculum at www.lessawkward.com and our super comfy products at www.myoomla.com
To bring us to your school or community email [email protected]
To submit listener questions email [email protected]
Produced by Peoples Media
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21 April 2026, 7:06 am - 46 minutes 28 secondsWhen Teens Date: Where Parents Fit
Show Notes:
Watch the full episode on Youtube!
Join the LESS AWKWARD MEMBERSHIP HUB
Go to Quince.com/AWKWARD for free shipping on your order and three hundred and sixty-five -day returns.
Download the FREE Playbook for Getting Your Kid to Talk
Order our book This Is So Awkward
Check out all our speaking and curriculum at www.lessawkward.com and our super comfy products at www.myoomla.com
To bring us to your school or community email [email protected]
To submit listener questions email [email protected]
Produced by Peoples Media
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
14 April 2026, 7:05 am - 51 minutes 22 secondsOur Tech Debate with Jonathan Haidt + Catherine Price
The world around kids’ access to technology is changing at lightning speed – from bell-to-bell school phone bans to the re-emergence of the landline to governmental social media limits for those under 16. No one has been more at the center of these shifts than social psychologist Jonathan Haidt. He joins us along with his The Amazing Generation co-author Catherine Price for a lively conversation about different approaches to navigating tech. Spoiler alert: we don’t always agree!
Show Notes:
Watch the full episode on Youtube!
Join the LESS AWKWARD MEMBERSHIP HUB
Go to Quince.com/AWKWARD for free shipping on your order and three hundred and sixty-five -day returns.
Download the FREE Playbook for Getting Your Kid to Talk
Order our book This Is So Awkward
Check out all our speaking and curriculum at www.lessawkward.com and our super comfy products at www.myoomla.com
To bring us to your school or community email [email protected]
To submit listener questions email [email protected]
Produced by Peoples Media
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
7 April 2026, 7:04 am - 1 hour 8 minutesLooksmaxxing, the Manosphere, and our Boys
Two particularly powerful forces affecting boys – looksmaxxing and the manosphere – have gone mainstream. If you care about boys and young men, you must educate yourself in order to talk to them. Looksmaxxing and the manosphere have a fair amount of overlap, which is why a conversation that begins about one often lands at the other. To talk about these topics, you need to know what they are, the vocabulary they have spawned, how they overlap, and the ways in which they have nothing to do with one another. We’ve got you covered!
Show Notes:
Watch the full episode on Youtube!
Join the LESS AWKWARD MEMBERSHIP HUB
Go to Quince.com/AWKWARD for free shipping on your order and three hundred and sixty-five -day returns.
Download the FREE Playbook for Getting Your Kid to Talk
Order our book This Is So Awkward
Check out all our speaking and curriculum at www.lessawkward.com and our super comfy products at www.myoomla.com
To bring us to your school or community email [email protected]
To submit listener questions email [email protected]
Produced by Peoples Media
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
31 March 2026, 7:05 am - 1 hour 5 minutesGynecology for Kids & Teens: Yes, It’s a Thing!
When people think of gynecology, they usually think of care that happens for older teens and adults, from birth control to pregnancy to menopause. But there’s a whole world of gynecologic conditions that affect young girls and adolescents, too. Dr Nichole A Tyson + Dr. Joseph Sanfilippo, giants in the field of Pediatric Adolescent Gynecology, join us for a wide ranging conversation about painful periods, blood disorders, PCOS, endometriosis, MRKH, and STDs.
Show Notes:
Watch the full episode on Youtube!
Join the LESS AWKWARD MEMBERSHIP HUB
Go to Quince.com/AWKWARD for free shipping on your order and three hundred and sixty-five -day returns.
Download the FREE Playbook for Getting Your Kid to Talk
Order our book This Is So Awkward
Check out all our speaking and curriculum at www.lessawkward.com and our super comfy products at www.myoomla.com
To bring us to your school or community email [email protected]
To submit listener questions email [email protected]
Produced by Peoples Media
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
24 March 2026, 7:02 am - 54 minutes 59 secondsExam Stress: Turning Down the Volume
Exams have always been a stressful part of growing up. But layer on growing college admissions pressure, spiraling teen mental health, and recognition of the wide variety of learning styles, and the volume turns way up. This episode was prompted by a listener's question seeking advice about how to get through exam season from every angle: from the role of AI to the necessity of exams in the first place. We get into it… along with some of our own applicable parenting fails.
Show Notes:
Watch the full episode on Youtube!
Join the LESS AWKWARD MEMBERSHIP HUB
Go to Quince.com/AWKWARD for free shipping on your order and three hundred and sixty-five -day returns.
Download the FREE Playbook for Getting Your Kid to Talk
Order our book This Is So Awkward
Check out all our speaking and curriculum at www.lessawkward.com and our super comfy products at www.myoomla.com
To bring us to your school or community email [email protected]
To submit listener questions email [email protected]
Produced by Peoples Media
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
17 March 2026, 7:05 am - 1 hour 38 secondsThe Hidden Science of Teen Motivation
What makes kids tick? Even when they appear uninterested, defiant, or lazy, there’s usually much more lurking under the surface. To learn how to pull it out of them––and how to connect and communicate, too––we’re joined by Rosalind Wiseman, author of Queen Bees and Wannabes (inspiration for the movie Mean Girls), who has spent her career exploring how to get the best out of tweens and teens.
Show Notes:
Watch the full episode on Youtube!
Join the LESS AWKWARD MEMBERSHIP HUB
Go to Quince.com/AWKWARD for free shipping on your order and three hundred and sixty-five -day returns.
Download the FREE Playbook for Getting Your Kid to Talk
Order our book This Is So Awkward
Check out all our speaking and curriculum at www.lessawkward.com and our super comfy products at www.myoomla.com
To bring us to your school or community email [email protected]
To submit listener questions email [email protected]
Produced by Peoples Media
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
10 March 2026, 7:04 am - 45 minutes 48 secondsHow Kids Get Emotionally Intelligent
Emotional intelligence is often called EQ. Some might say it’s a soft skill, but in fact research shows it’s central to lifelong resilience and wellbeing. Building EQ takes years and years––adults are still working on it too!––but starting young, kids can develop self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and decision making abilities. This episode digs into all the ways to support kids' development of emotional intelligence and why it matters so much.
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3 March 2026, 8:04 am - 56 minutes 10 secondsGetting Real About Sex Ed with Shafia Zaloom
Sexuality education is proven to have positive impacts on kids’ lifelong wellbeing in all areas and yet, people assume it only covers S-E-X. In fact, as health educator Shafia Zaloom discusses on the podcast, this corner of education provides young people with a wide variety of life-critical skills like emotional intelligence, boundary setting, conflict resolution, and so much more. Yes, science-based sexual health is an important part of any good education but so too are the cornerstones of humanity like dignity, love, and respect.
Show Notes:
Getting Real About Sex Ed: What Today’s Students Need
Watch the full episode on Youtube!
Join the LESS AWKWARD MEMBERSHIP HUB
Go to Quince.com/AWKWARD for free shipping on your order and three hundred and sixty-five -day returns.
Download the FREE Playbook for Getting Your Kid to Talk
Order our book This Is So Awkward
Check out all our speaking and curriculum at www.lessawkward.com and our super comfy products at www.myoomla.com
To bring us to your school or community email [email protected]
To submit listener questions email [email protected]
Produced by Peoples Media
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
24 February 2026, 8:06 am - More Episodes? Get the App