Parenting for the Future (Petal Modeste)

• Founder of the Village Well
• Educator
• Certified Positive Parenting Educator
• Education/Degree
• University of California, Davis

• In this episode you will learn:

  • What it means to “decolonize” your parenting 
  • How to leverage the wisdom of your cultural background in your parenting
  • Why it is important to interrupt intergenerational pain to create healthy, thriving families
  • How to apply positive parenting principles to common and not-so-common parenting challenges

   

Alkesh Shah is a Managing Director and Head of Web3, Crypto and Digital Assets Strategy at Bank of America Global Research. He drives thought leadership in the digital asset space and his research covers crypto-assets, including tokens and infrastructure companies, and applications, such as Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs), Decentralized Finance (DeFi), stablecoins and Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDCs).

He joins us today to discuss the digital asset economy and the future of money

" The truth is Congress has so completely failed. They Haven't passed a Privacy law since Mark Zuckerberg was in diapers. It’s pathetic. Shame on them! This has reshaped everybody's lives, and they just sat there, and because of their political partisanship, the fact There's not a federal privacy, law, or Laws regulating social media platforms is a joke.  Absolute abject failure of our political system in the twenty-first century."

• Founder and CEO, Common Sense Media
• Co-Founder, Center for the next generation 
• Education/Degree
• BA, Stanford University
• J.D., Stanford Law School

Alison Stewart is a mom to 12 year old Isaac, who is obsessed with sports. She is the host of the exceptionally insightful and super popular radio show on WNYC, called All of It. She has been a journalist for more than two decades and has reported for, or anchored her own ground-breaking news programs on all the major national news networks. On this episode, she talks about shaping the future through her parenting and her journalism.

She has also authored two books. First Class, The Legacy of Dunbar, America's First Black Public High School, named one of the best books of 2013 by Essence and Mother Jones magazines and Junk, Digging Through America's Love Affair with Stuff. Alison is a Brown University graduate and was awarded a doctor of fine arts degree from Bloomfield College. She has been active in various charities, including, Dress for Success, The Lighthouse and Chess in Schools. 

Michael Gerrard, grandfather to a curious, vivacious granddaughter, is one of the world’s leading environmental lawyers and Climate Change experts. Michael is the Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia Law School, where he teaches courses on environmental and energy law. He is also the faculty director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law which develops legal techniques to fight climate change, trains students and lawyers in the use of these techniques and provides up-to-date resources and thought leadership on key topics in Climate Change law and regulation. To date, Michael has authored or edited 13 books on Climate Change and Environmental Law, including a thought-provoking and inspiring new book called: Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States. He has also traversed the globe – from Malta to Chile to Taiwan to the Marshall Islands to lecture and advise leaders on Climate Change and Environmental Law.

Greg McKeown is a husband and a father to four amazing children. He is the host of the super popular podcast, What's Essential, which helps high-achieving driven productive people become successful at success and make a higher contribution effortlessly. Greg is also the author of The New York Times bestseller, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, which has sold more than a million copies worldwide. And the recently released, Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most.

Greg is among the most popular bloggers for LinkedIn and is a young global leader for the World Economic Forum. His work has been covered by the New York Times, Fast Company, Fortune, Politico and Inc,. He has been interviewed on NPR, NBC, Fox, and the Steve Harvey Show. 

Additional Links:

Enshrined in the very preamble to the United States constitution, in the words Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness is a powerful idea that has come to define the United States. That anyone who lives here, regardless of the station into which they were born, has the right to and can pursue and attain their version of a full free and happy life. That ability to move from the station into which one was born to another is otherwise known as social mobility. And in America a college education has long been deemed the chief vehicle through which that mobility is attained. But does college work? Does it truly provide real opportunity for young people, who want to improve themselves and their prospects? Or is it simply a rigged game designed to protect the elites who have power and exclude everyone else.

On this episode, we explore these questions with Paul Tough. Paul is a father of two sons and a New York Times bestselling author. In his new book, The Years That Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us, he examines the American system of colleges and universities, how it helps and hinders our young people. Paul has been writing and speaking about education, parenting, inequality, and success for a long time. He is the author of three previous books including the best selling, How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character. He has worked as an editor at the New York Times Magazine and Harper's Magazine. He's a contributing writer to This American Life. And his writing has appeared in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, and the Op-Ed pages of the New York Times among others.

Jonathan Rubenstein is father to one daughter and the founder and CEO of Joe Coffee, New York City’s original specialty coffee company and a pioneer of the Third Wave Coffee Movement.   

The award-winning collection of cafes is best known for brewing the highest quality coffee and serving its community of customers with warm, authentic hospitality.  

Jonathan is here to talk about how cup of coffee and a lot of care can make the world a better place

Dr. Marisa Porges is mother to one fantastic son and is the eighth head of the 130-year-old, all-girls Baldwin School, outside of Philadelphia. The school is renowned for academic excellence and for preparing girls to be leaders and change-makers. This puts her in charge of helping to raise 600 girls, ages four to 18. Marisa attended the Baldwin School herself and after graduating from Harvard University, she fulfilled her childhood dream of flying jets for the U.S Navy as one of eight female aviators in an Air Wing of 200. 

Marisa served in the Obama White House as a cybersecurity advisor and was a visiting fellow at Harvard Kennedy School and the Council of Foreign Relations where her research focused on worldwide counter terrorism efforts. 

She joins us on Parenting for the Future to discuss her new book, "What Girls Need: How to Raise Bold, Courageous and Resilient Women”, which was inspired by the young woman at Baldwin. The book explores the old and new challenges girls  face in today's world from sexism, sexual harassment and the gender pay gap, to the need to confidently use their own voice in the workplace and ensure equity in their own homes. 

At an historic 2015 United Nations Summit, all 192 UN Member States adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which sets out a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for all people and for the preservation of our planet. At its heart, are 17 Sustainable Development Goals which, when taken together, aim to: end poverty and hunger, combat inequality, protect human rights and ensure the lasting protection of the planet and its natural resources. No one is more knowledgeable about the scope of the SDGs than world-renowned economist, global leader in sustainable development and Columbia University Professor, Jeffrey Sachs.  Professor Sachs is Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. He is a commissioner of the UN Broadband Commission for Development, and has served as Special Advisor to every UN Secretary General appointed between 2001 and 2018. Professor Sachs has worked closely with most of the world’s development banks and has advised heads of state and governments on economic strategy in over 125 countries. He has authored and edited numerous books, including three New York Times bestsellers and was the co-recipient of the 2015 Blue Planet Prize, the leading global prize for environmental leadership. He was twice named among Time magazine’s 100 most influential world leaders and ranked by The Economist as among the three most influential living economists. Professor Sachs is father of three children and grandfather to four precocious, energetic grand-daughters.

J.R. Martinez is father to a vivacious, beautiful, curious daughter. He is an actor, a New York Times best-selling writer, an ABC's Dancing with the Stars winner, a motivational speaker, an advocate, and a wounded US army veteran. He is the personification of optimism, courage, and resilience. On this episode, J.R.  shares with us what it means to be a resilient parent.

J.R.'s catalogue of work includes playing Brot Monroe, an injured combat veteran trying to re enter civilian life on ABC's Emmy award winning television drama, All My Children. He has also written the New York Times best seller, Full of Heart: My Story of Survival, Strength, and Spirit. 

He is one of People Magazine's annual sexiest man alive and is known for his moving, speeches to US troops around the world, or at some of the world's leading companies.

In 1995, a visionary agenda for the Parliament of Women and Girls, called the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, was adopted at the fourth World Conference on Women. The action was adopted by 198 countries, all of whom were committed to taking strategic, bold action to remove the systemic barriers that hold women back from equal participation in all areas of life. 2020 marks 25 years since the Beijing Platform for Action, and yet today not a single country can claim to have achieved gender equality. Goal number 5 of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development is to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Multiple obstacles remain unchanged, however, in law and in culture, and as a result, women remain undervalued, they continue to work more, earn less, have fewer choices, and experience multiple forms of violence at home and in public spaces. Chidiogo Akunyili, is working to fulfill the promises of the Beijing Declaration and goal number five of the UN sustainability goals. And she is doing so with a focus on Africa, a continent so wealthy that for over five centuries, other nations have stooped to the most vile, inhumane, and repungent instruments to plunder its natural resources and human capital to enrich themselves, a continent which, while bearing the psychological and physical scars of such long and thorough exploitation, is stubborn and steadfast in its determination to define itself and wrest back its own power and destiny. A continent which, by 2050, will have birthed one in every four people on the globe.

“The ability to introspect to work through problems. This is one of the reasons we are so successful as a species. The ability to introspect is how we learn from our problems and plan for the future is what allows us in part to build spaceships that literally land SUVs nowadays on other planets like Mars. but, on the other hand, people struggle enormously with introspection to the point that they become overly angry, anxious, and depressed. And so we've got this remarkable tool. but it's really unwieldy. Sometimes it helps us. Sometimes it hurts us." 

• Professor, University of Michigan's Psychology Department and Russ school of Business
• Founder and Director of the Emotion and Self Control Lab, University of Michigan
• Education/Degree:
• Ph.D. Columbia University
• BA University of Pennsylvania

If somebody came by and knocked on the door and said, "Do your parents treat black and brown people as fully equal to everyone else?" What evidence would your children point to in answering either yes or no? - Julie Lythcott Haims

What are you doing to make your world by which I mean your family, community, neighborhood, your city, your America, kinder and safer for black and brown people? Because action is required. Whiteness has been used as a weapon against the rest of us for centuries and we now seem to know enough about it. Historians have studied it. Scientists, social scientists can tell us what's happening in our heads around whiteness. We now have the information. We just have to take a deep breath and say, "You know what? Yep. I'm going to do what Dolly Chugh recommends which is move from being just a believer to being a builder. Build a new reality. Take part in that. - Julie Lythcott Haims

My very, very favorite story in this book is when you were 15 and you're in France on a trip, and you run into this little white girl who was playing in a park and you're walking by and she asks: "Why are you black?" And you respond, "because I am lucky." And to me, this is the essence of not only what I took away from Real American, it is what I think all parents of black children need to teach their children, that they are actually more than lucky. Because despite centuries of, to quote you, "the systemic dismemberment of black agency, the debasement of black men, the rape of black woman, the destruction of the black family, the ringing of energy and life out of our black forebears, despite all of that, these children are here. And what that means is that black people endured. And in that endurance is unparalleled strength, intelligence and a power that we ourselves are just beginning to understand.  So black children have nothing to be ashamed of. They don't have anything to loathe in themselves. They are not the ones with something to be ashamed of. I personally hope that I live to see the day when every black child owns their own power. - Petal Modeste

Stephanie Malia Krauss is mother to two children. She has an extensive background in education, youth development, and social work, and has been a teacher, coach, school leader, and nonprofit executive. Today, she works at the intersection of education, human services, and workforce development with a relentless focus on what young people need to be ready for the world and what the world needs to be ready for them.

She joins us today to continue our conversation discussing her fascinating new book called Making It: What Today's Kids Need for Tomorrow's World. 

Dr. Jill Walsh is a researcher and lecturer at Boston University and the founder of Digital Aged, a consultancy which re-frames the role of technology in the lives of children to promote healthier relationships between them and the adults in their lives. In this episode, we explore our children's relationship with digital technology and social media and how parents can best guide them, protect them, and help them use these tools to elevate their unique voices and connect to the world in a healthy way.

No one is more knowledgeable about the scope of the SDGs than world-renowned economist, global leader in sustainable development and Columbia University Professor, Jeffrey Sachs. Professor Sachs is Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. He is a commissioner of the UN Broadband Commission for Development, and has served as Special Advisor to every UN Secretary General appointed between 2001 and 2018.

She joins us on Parenting for the Future to  discuss her first phonograph, Irma Stern and the Racial Paradox of South African Modern Art: Audacities of Color, and how lessons of Irma Stern's life can help our children become agents of change. 

Pamela Capalad is mother to one son, a certified financial planner, and an accredited financial counselor, who has been in the financial services industry since 2008. She is the founder of Brunch and Budget, a financial planning company with a bold mission, to create a revolutionary shift in the lives and prospects of marginalized communities by teaching them financial literacy and helping them understand and practice building generational wealth.

She joins us today today to help us learn how to raise our children to have a healthy relationship with money, and to inspire all of us to do our part to bring about true economic inclusion. Welcome Pamela to Parenting for the Future. 

Luma Mufleh is mother to two daughters and one son. She is a Syrian/Jordanian entrepreneur, a coach, and a thought leader in refugee and English Language Learner education. The daughter and granddaughter of Syrian refugees, Luma grew up in Amman, Jordan, where she was one of the only Arab students in her class at an American School and one of the only girls who played on her soccer team. As a young adult in a country where being gay was considered a crime, Luma came out to her parents and was disowned. Granted asylum in the US, Luma navigated the broken immigration system to build a life for herself, opening a coffee shop and coaching soccer.

She joins us today to discuss Fugees Family, the first accredited school for refugees in the United States, which she founded in 2006. The school has grown into a nationally acclaimed network of academies bringing educational equity to refugee resettlement communities across America. 

Dr. Lisa Williams is internationally recognized as an academic trailblazer, founder of a multi-million dollar company, and an award winning speaker and author. Dr. Lisa attained unprecedented success by becoming the first female professor to receive a multi-million dollar endowed chair, the first African American professor to earn tenure at Penn State University, and the first African American to receive a doctorate in Logistics from The Ohio State.

At the height of her career, Dr. Lisa did the unthinkable when she left the academic life to blaze a new trail as an entrepreneur.  In 2003, she founded the World of Entertainment, Publishing and Inspiration (World of EPI), LLC. EPI is the classic Cinderella story. Dr. Lisa grew the company from negative revenues into a multi-million dollar powerhouse.  EPI is now a leading multi-cultural toy manufacturing and design firm with a global supply chain that crisscrosses the world from the US to China and other worldwide destinations. EPI’s largest customer, Walmart recently awarded Dr. Lisa the Supplier of the Year Award for her visionary leadership. Working in partnership with Walmart, EPI touches the lives of an entire generation of children through its Positively Perfect Doll Line.

While featured in many magazines for her expertise in business, she is also known for her ability to motivate executives, future leaders and audiences of all sizes.In addition to winning numerous teaching awards from major universities such as Penn State, Ohio State and the University of Arkansas, she has been awarded the Outstanding Female Faculty Member of the Year from Penn State University, designated as an “Amazing Woman” by University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) and given the Trailblazer Award by the American Marketing Association PhD. Project.

In this Episode you will learn about:

• How care shapes all our lives
• How suffragists and Black feminists made remarkable gains in care through the Social Housekeepers Movement 
• Our addiction to independence and how it prevents us from prioritizing care
• Our “careselves” vs. our “workselves”
• America’s bootstrap myth and how it hurts our ability to care
• The ramifications of the blind spot toward care 
• How you can join the fight for paid leave and other key facets of a care infrastructure for America

Ted Bunch is a father to six wonderful children. He is the Chief Development Officer of A Call to Men, a global organization with a unique and powerful mission: prevent violence against women, in all its forms, by educating and training men and boys to embrace and promote a new definition of manhood – one that is healthy and respectful and venerates rather than violates women. Before joining A Call to Men, Ted co-created the largest program for domestic violence offenders in America, a program which led to the development best practices for engaging men to end violence against women. He is also the co-author of the LIVERESPECT™ Coaching Healthy & Respectful Manhood Curriculum, designed to prevent violence and bullying in school and sports. He is an adviser to the National Football League, National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball and has developed and implemented model response programs for police and fire departments, and other first responders dealing with domestic violence. Ted is also an international lecturer for the U.S. State Department and was appointed by former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, to Unite, an international network of male leaders working to end violence against women.

In this Episode you will learn:

In this Episode you will learn about:

• Courageous girls and women speaking up about the issues of our time
• How we can help our daughters find and use their voices
• How we can reconnect with our own voices and use them to raise awareness, fight for justice or share hope
• How some of the world’s most popular brands show their commitment to girls and women

Mia Mends is mom to 13-year-old Jacob who is a super athlete, entrepreneurial, and very sweet. She is also mom to 10-year-old Laila who is also entrepreneurial, artistic, and spicy. She is the Chief Administrative Officer of Sodexo North America and a member of the company's North America regional leadership committee. Mia also leads SodexoMAGIC a joint venture between Sodexo and Magic Johnson Enterprises. Last year, she was named one of the most powerful women in corporate America by Black Enterprise. 

On this episode, she talks about changing the world through her parenting and from her position in the C-suite.

In her executive level role at Sodexo, whose annual revenue in the United States and Canada alone exceeds 10.7 billion dollars, Mia is responsible for driving the critical strategic initiatives in support of growth goals.

She has founded her own nonprofit, Seven Sisters to Sisters and serves on the boards of several impactful organizations including Girls Inc. and Catalyst.

She holds a BA from Wellesley College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mia-mends-3ab2222 

https://us.sodexo.com/services/sodexomagic.html 

Melissa Bernstein is mother to six amazing children, wife to her best friend and business partner, Doug, and co-founder of the successful toy company, Melissa & Doug. Melissa, whose mind, heart and hands create joy, has for all her life lived under a heavy cloud of despair. It was not until her 50th year that she discovered that she suffered from existential depression. This discovery saved her life and spurred her to write LifeLines an inspirational journey from profound darkness to radiant light.

Since its inception, Melissa and Doug has focused on creating authentic, innovative, high quality toys at assessable prices, toys which promotes open-ended, creative free play for new generations of children. The company's mission is to ignite imagination and a sense of wonder in children so they can discover themselves, their passions and their purpose in space.

Creating gave meaning and purpose to Melissa's existence and by channeling her pain into tangible forms, she could, for a time extinguish her despair. In LifeLines, she shares her journey and the stunningly beautiful poetry she's written all her life, the words that literally kept her alive.

https://www.lifelines.com  

https://www.melissaanddoug.com 

Michelle Glorieux is mother to one phenomenal son and is the co-founder of the ed-tech startup, TA-DA! TA-DA!'s first products are beautifully bound interactive books which marry paper technology, gorgeous art, and a symphony of original music for an unrivaled magical language learning experience. All children have to do is simply touch the images on the paper and the books come to life with real native speakers from around the globe and ambient sound effects. 

To produce these books, she joins forces with, among others, Grammy Award winning music producer Jesse Lewis, highly trained linguists, talented artists, engineers, students and other teachers from around the world to help children learn languages and the cultures around those languages. 

She joins us on Parenting for the Future to explore the magical world of TA-DA!

Michael V. Kaplen is father to Alexander and Dianna. He is a senior partner at the law firm of De Caro & Kaplen, and professorial lecturer in law at George Washington University Law School, where he teaches traumatic brain injury law. He is an advocate for children, particularly children who sustain traumatic brain injuries, often due to their participation in sports. On this episode, Michael helps us better understand these injuries and how we can protect our children from them.

Michael is the chair person of the New York State Traumatic Brain Injury Services Coordinating Council, which was created to advise and consult with the New York State Department of Health on issues pertaining to traumatic brain injury. He served three terms as president of the Brain Injury Association of New York State. 

He is a frequent lecturer on brain injury. His views and opinions are frequently sought after by major news networks and publications, like the New York Times, The Washington Post, ABC, NBC and CBS News as well as ESPN. 

Laurie Palau is a mom two almost grown-up daughters, host of the super popular weekly podcast, This ORGANIZED Life, and  founder of Simply B Organized, a lifestyle company helping people declutter their lives so they could live simply and more meaningfully.  

Laurie’s advice has been featured in national publications including Real Simple and The New York Times and she speaks frequently on clutter, parenting, and entrepreneurship.    

She is the author of the best-selling book Hot Mess: A Practical Guide to Getting Organized.   This book is the topic of our conversation today.

Sarah Jessica Parker is mom to three wonderful children — James Wilkie, Loretta, and Tabitha. She is wife to Matthew Broderick, an actor, producer, entrepreneur, and an icon. Sarah owns or controls several successful business ventures, including Pretty Matches, her film and television production with HBO. In this conversation, she talks about shaping the future through her parenting, her platform, and by practicing curiosity. 

Sarah made her debut at the tender age of 11 in the revival of The Innocents and Broadway. By 12, she was starring on Annie, also on Broadway, and has never looked back. She has starred in several critically acclaimed movies and TV shows, including Square Pegs, Glee, and Divorce, but she is probably best known for her role as Carrie Bradshaw on the HBO television series Sex and the City.

For Sex and the City, Sarah has won two Emmy awards, four Golden Globe awards for best actress in a comedy series, and three Screen Actor Guild awards.

Although Sex and the City wrapped in 2004, Sarah reprised the role of Carrie Bradshaw in 2008 and 2010 for Sex and the City and Sex and the City 2. To our great delight, and just like that, SATC The Next Chapter is currently in the works with HBO Max.

Sarah owns or controls several successful business ventures, including Pretty Matches, her film and television production with HBO; SJP Beauty, her fragrance line; and SJP by Sarah Jessica Parker, her fabulous line of shoes, all produced and handmade in Italy. 

Dr. Jennifer Heisz is a mother to one daughter and an expert in brain health. She is associate professor in the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster University and directs the NeuroFit Lab which focuses on the effects of exercise on brain health. Jennifer received her PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience from McMaster and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Brain Health and Aging at the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest Hospital. Her research examines the effects of physical activity on mental health and cognition in young adults, older adults and individuals with Alzheimer's disease.

She joins us today to discuss her first book, Move The Body, Heal The Mind, which explores her groundbreaking research on how fitness and exercise can combat mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, ADHD, and dementia, as well as improve our focus, creativity and sleep.

Dr. Rakesh Jain is stepfather to one son, a clinical professor at the Department of Psychiatry, Texas Tech University School of Medicine, and also has a private practice in Austin, Texas. Dr. Jain attended medical school at the University of Calcutta, India, and graduate school at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston. He served a three year residency in psychiatry at the Department of Psychiatry, a two year fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry, and completed a post doctoral fellowship in research psychiatry at the University of Texas Mental Science Institute. 

Dr. Jain has been involved in well over 100 research projects studying the effects of medications on short-term and longterm treatment of depression, anxiety, pain, mood overlap disorders, ADHD and psychosis in adult and child populations. He has co-authored six books that range from patient education to cutting edge neuro biological findings in psychiatry and mental health.

He joins us today to talk about ADHD in children, and share his advice for how parents of children with ADHD can ensure their wellbeing and that of their children during this challenging pandemic time.

Studies have shown that 69-90% of us will experience at least one serious traumatic event during our lifetimes. The sudden death of a loved one. A debilitating illness.  A natural disaster. War. What differentiates us?  How we respond;  how resilient we are.  Our guest today has found that extremely resilient people share  the 10 attributes we discuss in this episode.  As we reflect on the  personal and global challenges we have all faced in 2023 and look forward to the new year, understanding how we can not only become more resilient but teach our children to develop resilience, is undoubtedly one of the most important lessons we can learn.  

Stephanie Malia Krauss is mother to two children. She has an extensive background in education, youth development, and social work, and has been a teacher, coach, school leader, and nonprofit executive. Today, she works at the intersection of education, human services, and workforce development with a relentless focus on what young people need to be ready for the world and what the world needs to be ready for them.

She joins us today to discuss her fascinating new book called Making It: What Today's Kids Need for Tomorrow's World. The book goes beyond the question of what young people need to succeed in school, to ask what they need to be ready for life. Making It is the essential reading for anyone who wants to ensure that young people are prepared to thrive and make their unique contribution in the challenging and ever-changing world in which they will come of age. 

"Complex care typically refers to the children at the very tip, who are the sickest and the book is really written to be more, all inclusive, because many children, while they may not be complex, they have chronic health conditions which cause a lot of increased work for their families. "

• Director of Pediatrics at the Atria Institute in New York City
• Education/Degree:
• BA, Harvard University
• MD, Vagelos College of physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University

For over two decades, Dr. Todd Jason Feltman has been working in the New York City public school system and in local independent schools. He has been a classroom teacher, mentor, literacy coach, citywide literacy achievement coach, and assistant principal. Todd has master's degrees in childhood education, literary education, and school supervision and administration. He received his doctorate in urban education from the Graduate Center at the City University of New York.

During Todd's career, he has come to understand exactly why some students succeed and why others fail. And he has written two wonderful interactive handbooks to help all elementary and middle school students succeed. His first handbook is for students and it is called a Student-Friendly Handbook for Navigating Success: You Need to Take Charge of Your Education! The second is for teachers of students in grades two through eight, and is called Mentoring My Elementary-and Middle-School Students to Become Powerful Navigators of Success.

He joins us today to discuss this second handbook.

Kaya Henderson is a force of nature. She has positively impacted the lives of thousands of children. She is the CEO of Reconstruction, a technology company delivering a K-12 supplemental curriculum that situates Black people, culture, and contributions in an authentic identity affirming way, so that students of all backgrounds benefit from a complete understanding of our shared history and society.

Kaya is also the host of the uber popular podcast Pod Save the People. From 2010 to 2016, Kaya served as chancellor of DC Public Schools. Her tenure was marked by consecutive years of enrollment growth, increased graduation rates, improvements in student satisfaction and teacher retention, increases in AP participation and pass rates, and the greatest growth of any urban district on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

She joins us today to talk about Reconstruction, and the impact it is designed to have. 

Jennifer Ann Openshaw is a mother to two amazing daughters, a financial innovator and the founder and CEO of Girls with Impact, the nation’s only live online mini MBA for young women, ages 12 to 18. Jennifer has an extensive background in financial innovation and wealth management, has shared her financial expertise on CNN, Oprah, ABC, NBC, CBS and CNBC and is the author of three books.

She joins us on Parenting for the Future to discuss this life-changing program that equips girls with the entrepreneurship skills, confidence and business knowledge to set them apart and set them up for future success.

With a Gross Domestic Product of over $21 trillion, the United States is one of the richest nations on earth. Yet, to our eternal shame, more that 13 million children in the United States - nearly 1 in every 5 children – live in poverty. Living in poverty means that regardless of their intelligence, aptitudes and talents, 13 million children are unlikely to have a sound education or adequate healthcare.  13 million children, will more than likely be exposed to violence, and the gravitational pull of powerful negative influences, to which many unfortunately will fall prey. 13 million children who will ultimately be unprepared and unable to thrive, to help themselves, their country, and the world. Using a model that focuses intensely on the health, social and educational development of children, including wrap-around programs that improve the family life and community of those children, Harlem Children’s Zone, in the words of President Obama “is an all-encompassing anti-poverty, effort that is literally saving a generation of children in a neighbourhood where they were never supposed to have a chance”. With its roots in Central Harlem going back to the 1970s, Harlem Children’s Zone has saved and continues to save generations of children. It also provides a blue print for what communities can do to reclaim the future for all their children. Anne Williams-Isom, mother to three incredible children and CEO of Harlem Children’s Zone is my guest today. Anne found her calling to improve the lives of vulnerable children and families when she was still a child herself, growing up with a single mother and witnessing firsthand the many challenges confronting kids in struggling communities. That calling was cemented during her time at Columbia Law School, where she began to appreciate the critical role played by communities in finding lasting solutions to social problems. Before she joined Harlem Children’s Zone, Anne served as Deputy Commissioner of the Division of Community and Government Affairs at New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services. When she first joined Harlem Children’s Zone, she did so as its Chief Operating Officer, overseeing all the programs in its cradle-through-college pipeline, leading its 2,000+ staff, and strengthening the organization’s use of data to improve services and outcomes for the over 25,000 children and families it serves. Anne serves on the board of directors of several organizations, including: Child Trends, Columbia Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Design and Central Park Conservancy. She is sought after for her expert guidance on child welfare and community development, by media houses like The New York Times, Barron’s, Crain’s New York, Essence and The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Nadine Fonseca is mother to four children and founder and Chief Executive Officer of Mighty Kind Kids  which publishes the amazing Mighty Kind Magazine. The magazine is a quarterly, anti-biased children's series that celebrates the role of kindness and compassion as the foundation for anti-biased learning and in bringing the human family closer together. Each issue is based on the premise that kindness, empathy, and compassion are teachable skills and readers learn fun facts about the world we share, read stories about kids doing good, and get actionable ideas for service and volunteer work. Mighty Kind has reached almost all 50 US states, as well as Mexico, Canada, Sri Lanka, France, Egypt, England, Ireland, Slovenia, Japan, and Finland.

She joins us on Parenting for the Future to talk about how Mighty Kind is building a global community of kids who care and serving as an indispensable resource to the parents and adults who mentor and raise them.

Chelsey Goodan

• Founder, The Activist Cartel Mentorship Director of DemocraShe
• Mentor & Tutor To Teen Girls
• Author
• Education/Degree
• NYU -  Tisch School of the Arts

In this Episode you will learn about:

• Now Look!  The newest book by Sydney Lea
• The scourge of addiction in small-town America
• The role of nature in shaping a life
• The  role of friendship and community in saving a life
• Why a Liberal Arts education matters more than ever
• How to help kids embrace poetry
• Three poets all kids (and parents) should read

To learn more about the impacts of climate change, please listen to Parenting for the Future's conversations with climate change experts Michael Gerrard (episode #5) and Jeffery Sachs (episode #13). You can find each within your podcast feed, or through the links below.

https://www.petalmodeste.com/episode-five-michael-gerard/ 

https://www.petalmodeste.com/episode-3-jeffrey-sachs/ 

• Neuropsychiatrist
• Founder of Amen Clinics
• Author of 12 NYT Bestsellers
• Creator of “Scan my Brain”
• Produced 17 national public television shows about the brain 
• Education/Degrees

In this Episode you will learn about:

• Child Sexual Abuse Materials (CSAM) in the digital world
• The incredible harms of CSAM
• How Apple places user privacy above children protection
• The Heat Initiative’s efforts to push Apple to detect, report and remove  CSAM
• How our kids can get exposed to or themselves appear in CSAM
• Sextortion
• Generative AI and CSAM
• Online enticements
• How to talk to your kids about online safety

Sarah Jaffe is mother to one daughter.  She began her career as an attorney for children in the foster care system, advocating for some of the most vulnerable children in our nation, but it was not until she became a mother, that she took real stock of, and became deeply troubled by, the stark differences between the lives of the children she met at work and the lives of the children she met in her parenting life.  She began to question whether her only duty as a parent was to get “the best” for her own child or whether she had an obligation to make decisions that would help create a more equitable society for all children.

Her questions led her to write her first book, Wanting What’s Best: Parenting, Privilege, and Building a Just World.  This book is the topic of this episode.

Dr. Susan Fisher is mother to two daughters, a researcher, and professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences in the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. For decades, she has been at the forefront of research on prenatal development. She has always been struck by the fact that while we parents teach our children about a lot of things, pregnancy is seldom one of those things. So, many of us grow into adulthood not fully understanding this most natural and consequential biological phenomena.

She joins us on Parenting for the Future to help break the pattern of secrecy and guesswork that surround pregnancy and birth, and to share the new trailblazing science and advice for safe births and healthy babies. She also discusses her new book called, Taking Charge of Your Pregnancy. This book is an indispensable guide to the revolutionary advances in the understanding of pregnancy and birth, and it is the topic of our conversation today.

On this final episode of Season 4, we are joined by Whitnee Hawthorne is mom to two phenomenal sons and the founder of the very popular Savvy Working Mom web platform, which is dedicated to helping working mothers thrive in every arena of their lives.

Whitnee is certified in goal setting, project management, strategy performance and life coaching. She is also a professional speaker, a time management and productivity expert and widely known as a self-care guru.

She joins us on Parenting for the Future to share some of her proven strategies for thriving at life and at work, strategies that allow her to live her personal credo, that working mothers don't have to choose between personal and professional success. 

Dr. Albert Lin is father to two wonderful children and an internationally renowned scientist, innovator, technologist, and entrepreneur. He's the director of the Center for Human Frontiers at Qualcomm Institute, University of California, San Diego, and an award-winning National Geographic explorer and host of the fascinating uber popular show, Lost Cities with Albert Lin on National Geographic. 

Albert received his PhD in material science and engineering from University of California, San Diego. He has founded and directed numerous programs, including the UC San Diego National Geographic Engineers for Exploration Program, the Exploration Lab, the Distributed Health Labs, and the international effort known as the Valley of the Khans Project in collaboration with National Geographic.

He joins us on Parenting for the Future to share his advice on how we parents can HELP children cultivate a sense of adventure and wonder and ignite a thirst for discovery and a love of learning.

In this Episode you will learn about:

• How parents survive and thrive after the losing a child
• The power of ritual to sustain loved ones through and after pending death
• The importance of community
• The role of movement in navigating grief
• Tay-Sachs and how to screen for this disease
• The work of E-motion
• The work of Dr. Joanne Cacciatore
• The work of JScreen at Emory University

LaMonica Williams is mother to two children and the Director of Program, Pre K - 2 Division at Teaching Matters, a national professional learning organization dedicated to helping teachers and school leaders develop the skills they need to close the gaps created by a radically unequal education system.

La Monica’s expertise is in elementary literacy and she also manages the work of Teaching Matters to support educators and train them to use data to advance students’ reading and writing abilities.  

She joins us to discuss how Teaching Matters is creating a more equitable education landscape.

"Well, if we break money down to its simplest components, right? And how we handle it, what do we do with our money. We really do 3 things right. We spend it.

we save it, we give it away. And if you think about what actually goes into the decisions around each of those you know. They're all about emotions and behaviors. spending is about modesty and prudence and thrift, or it's about greed and envy. saving is about delayed gratification. Patience. giving is generosity. It's a sense of gratitude.  So

it's easy to think about this as a sort of you know, hard mathematical science, but I prefer to think of it as a social science. Money is about behavior as much as it is about numbers and math."

• “Your Money” Columnist, The New York Times
• Education/Degree
• BA, American Studies, Amherst College

The Metropolitan Opera (the Met) is the largest performing arts institution in the United States. Each season, the Met stages more than 200 opera performances in New York with over 800,000 people in attendance.   Millions more experience the Met through its 90-year-old radio broadcast series, its new media partnerships and state-of-the-art technology, including Metropolitan Opera Radio on SiriusXM Satellite Radio, Met Opera on Demand and  free live audio streaming of performances on its website during the opera season.

Yet for all of its acclaim and reputation for being innovative and forward thinking, true inclusion has not been part of the Met’s story.  

Enter Marcia Sells, the first Chief Diversity Officer for the Metropolitan Opera and a phenomenal mom to her daughter and step-son.

Marcia joined the Met Opera after serving as Associate Dean and Dean of Students at Harvard Law School. Her storied career includes positions in academia, the private sector and public service. She is here to talk today about her work to make opera inclusive and ready to thrive in an increasingly diverse  world

Hitendra is a father to a brilliant teenage daughter who is already positively impacting her world. He is a Professor of Practice at Columbia Business School where he teaches the business school’s most popular MBA leadership class on Personal Leadership & Success, along with classes Driving Strategic Impact and Leading from the Inside Out. Hitendra is also the founder of the Mentora Institute (formerly the Institute of Personal Leadership) which is at the forefront of the new science of Personal Leadership. By integrating the latest findings about human nature from neuroscience, psychology, genetics, sociology, psychotherapy and behavioral economics with the lessons learned from the lives of great leaders in human history, the Institute teaches leaders how to achieve ever-growing Outer Impact through ever-deepening Inner Mastery. Hitendra’s widely acclaimed research and teaching on leadership have been covered by Wall Street Journal, Psychology Today, Inc. Magazine, The Financial Times, Forbes, Fortune, the BBC World Service and others.  As his former student, I can personally attest to the life-changing nature of his work.

Bill Brady is father to five children and the co-founder and CEO of Troomi Wireless, a cellular network, specifically designed for kids to give them a safe introduction to apps and the internet. In partnership with Samsung, Troomi has released two smartphones for kids, the Samsung Galaxy A12 and Samsung Galaxy A32, both come preloaded with Troomi's kids smart operating system. The system has built-in parental controls and empowers parents with kids ages seven and up to choose the websites their kids can access, set limits on activities like gaming and restrict access to inappropriate and dangerous content like pornography and apps which attract bullies and predators.

Bill joins us today to talk about his work to keep our kids safe on their smartphones and to help them engage with technology in healthy, productive ways. 

Dr. Melita Stancil

• Founder/Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Melita Psychological Services
• Guest lecturer, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center and York college. 
• Former clinical psychologist, Child Mind Institute 
• Former Lead Clinician, Ellen Horne
• Education/Degrees
• MA and Ph.D In Clinical Community Psychology from the University of South Carolina

In this Episode you will learn about:

• How parents can raising confident, curious, human-centered people
• The life-shaping power of books and conversations
• Civic journalism
• Keys to rebuilding trust in the press and key institutions 
• Why hope is a muscle and how we can make it strong

Stephanie Dua is mother to three kind and brilliant daughters. She is an education entrepreneur and the co-founder and president of HOMER, the only early learning program proven to increase reading scores with just 15 minutes a day.

Stephanie launched HOMER after struggling to find tools to help her own daughter learn to read despite being surrounded by some of the leading minds in education. HOMER raised $50 million from the biggest names in education and entertainment, including Sesame Workshop, LEGO Ventures and Gymboree Music and Play.  

Before HOMER, Stephanie served as CEO for the New York City Education Department's Fund for Public Schools, a senior advisor to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. She's a graduate of UCLA and the Harvard Kennedy School.  

She joins us today to share her journey to launching HOMER and her love of bringing learning to others.

Roni Nocon and Amy Sage each have two children and are co-founders of ParentingEQ, a new subscription service for parents of children ages four to 11, designed to help parents nurture emotional intelligence in their children by creating a culture of emotional wellbeing in their homes. 

Over the course of their careers as school counselors, they observed a decrease in children's overall wellbeing and an increase in depression, anxiety, self-harm, and negative self-worth. They found that a child's emotional health is greatly impacted by something over which schools have little influence, the family environment.

They join us today to discuss ParentingEQ's mission to bridge this gap through parent-led social-emotional activities, which focuses on the emotional intelligence skills children need to lead happy and successful lives. 

Dr. Lisa Damour is a proud mother of two engaging girls and Yale educated psychotherapist who writes the monthly adolescent's column for the New York Times. She serves as a regular contributor to CBS news, maintains a private psychotherapy practice, is a senior advisor to the Schubert Center for Child Studies at Case Western University, and the executive director of Laurel's School Center for Research on Girls. She is also the author of two New York times best-selling books, Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood and Under Pressure: Confronting the Epidemic of Stress and Anxiety in Girls. Not surprisingly, she is affectionately sometimes called the teen whisperer.

Angela Duckworth is a mother to two spirited daughters, and the author of the New York Times bestselling book, "Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance". She is a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, a MacArthur Fellow, and the CEO of The Character Lab, an organization whose mission is to advance the science and practice of character development. 

On October 24, 2023 a bipartisan coalition of 32 US. Attorneys Generals filed a Federal lawsuit against Meta alleging that the company knowingly designed and deployed harmful features at Instagram, Facebook, and its other social media platforms to induce young children and teenagers into addictive and compulsive social media use contributing significantly to a youth mental health crisis. The suit also alleges that Meta has repeatedly misled the public about the substantial dangers of its platform's use.  But in 2021 before these lawsuits, an anonymous employee of Facebook filed a series of complaints with the US. Federal government, claiming that Facebook had been misleading the public and investors about the impact of its services on the mental health of children and young adults. That employee later revealed herself to be Frances Hogan, and she is our guest today.

As we enter the holiday season where our kids are likely to spend more time than usual on screens, this conversation is more important than ever. 

Christopher Willard is father to two wonderful children. He is a clinical psychologist and consultant who teaches at Harvard Medical School. He has been a mindfulness meditation practitioner for over two decades and specializes in integrating mindfulness into education and psychotherapy. He is a thought leader who has authored more than 11 books including the bestsellers, Child’s Mind (2010), Growing Up Mindful (2016) and Raising Resilience (2017). He has presented at TEDx conferences and several news organizations including CNN and ABC. His thoughts have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Parents Magazine, among many other publications. Christopher's therapeutic games and card sets for children and adults are available in more than ten languages and he has traversed the globe, from Australia to Bhutan to Uruguay and just about every country in between, to speak and teach on Mindfulness. He currently serves on the board of directors at the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy and is the president of the Mindfulness in Education Network. 

Neuroscientist Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett is mother to one daughter. She is among the top 1% most cited scientists in the world for her revolutionary research in the fields of psychology and neuroscience. She is the author of the newly released book called, Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain. She is a University Distinguished Professor at Northeastern University with appointments at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Barrett was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Neuroscience in 2019, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as the Royal Society of Canada. 

She is the author of two books, How Emotions are Made, the Secret Life of the Brain. On this episode, she discusses her fascinating, newly released book called, Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain. 

https://lisafeldmanbarrett.com/books/seven-and-a-half-lessons-about-the-brain/ 

'When I work with the athletes and talk about toolboxes, I think helping them build tool belts that give them the arsenal. So when? Not if but when the headwind blows. Oh, I got this! I have agency over my destiny. I get to decide what's next for me, (remove Petal's sound) Yes, I'm gonna need help along the way and support, of course, but I'm not gonna let any setback, not making the team or that coach not liking me, determine my future. "

• Peak Performance Coach
• Motivational Speaker
• Co-host: “Raising Athletes” Podcast
• Education/Degree:
• BA, College of William and Mary

Michelle Triant is a mom to two energetic and curious daughters, a Presbytera, a writer, an editor and a book publicist. She is a member of the Greek Orthodox faith and is dedicated to promoting health, wellness, and connection in Orthodox Christian families. She recently released Love at Lent, a beautiful colorful box of activity cards designed to be drawn at random each day of lent to encourage mindfulness, humility, kindness for the whole family.

This year lent runs from February 17th to April 3rd. And although it is an important period of renewal and awareness for Christian families, parents sometimes are challenged to find positive, meaningful ways to help their children understand and be inspired by some of the key tenants of lent like love, generosity, forgiveness and empathy. So Love at Lent is right on time. To learn more, visit:

https://www.loveatlent.com 

“Some of issues parents expected to confront when their child was in their early twenties. have been pushed later. 

I think it's safe to say that many parents expected to still be providing some financial assistance to their child when their child was in their early twenties. Don't think that many parents expected to be doing it when their child was 30, and I think that from the young person's point of view they probably expect to be getting some help from their parents while they were still in college and right out of college, but I'm sure that they didn't expect that to be having to go to their mother and father and ask for financial help on the over 30 or 32, and that is going on today. And so I think the shifting timetable of the transition to adulthood has really made this an important topic and parents are perplexed”

• Distinguished University Professor and 

Laura H. Carnell Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, Temple University

• Education/Degree:
• AB in Psychology,  Vassar College
• Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies Cornell University

Lisa L. Lewis is mother to two children and a freelance journalist who covers the intersection of parenting, public health, and education. She has written for The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Atlantic, TIME, the Los Angeles Times, Slate, and Your Teen, among others. 

Her new book, The Sleep-Deprived Teen: Why Our Teenagers Are So Tired, and How Parents and Schools Can Help Them Thrive is an outgrowth of her previous work on  teens and sleep, including her role in helping get California’s landmark legislation on healthy school start times passed. 

This book is the topic of our conversation today.  

Vernã Myers is a mother to one phenomenal son. She is a cultural change catalyst, influencer, and thought leader who is known for her captivating insights and ability to help people bridge differences and connect more meaningfully. She is a Harvard trained lawyer and founded the Vernã Myers company, which for over two decades, has helped organizations eradicate barriers based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and other differences. She is also the Vice President of Inclusion Strategy at Netflix where she helps devise and implement strategies that integrate cultural diversity, inclusion, and equity into all aspects of Netflix's operations worldwide. Her inspiring TED Talk, How to Overcome Our Biases: Walk Boldly Toward Them, offers ways any person can become an active participant in countering bias in themselves and in others to create a better world.

Benny Nachman is father to two sons. He is the founder, president, and CEO of Jassby, a popular money app and virtual debit card for kids and teens that allows them to earn, save, donate, spend, and learn to manage their own finances. On this episode he shares his thoughts on why it is so important for all of us to raise financially literate children.

Although Benny trained as an attorney and practiced corporate law for some time, he is a serial entrepreneur at heart. In addition to Jassby, and earlier ventures, he also founded and is the chairman of the board of Credorax, a global e-commerce payment cards acquirer and processor which is licensed in over 34 countries and allows merchants to process billions of dollars in online and mobile payments. 

https://jassby.com 

Chris Balme

• Founding Principal at founding principal at Hakuba International School, Japan 
• Co. Founder and Former Head of The Millennium School
• Founder and Director of Argonaut
• Ashoka fellowship recipient
• Author
• Education/Degree:
• B.A., University of Pennsylvania
• B.S., Wharton School of Management.

Rebecca Chandler Leege is a mother and the Chief Impact Officer at Worldreader, a US based global technology non-profit that expands vulnerable children's access to books.  Worldreader was born out of the belief that inexpensive technology and local content could help millions of children learn to read and ultimately create a better future for themselves. Since 2010, the company and its partners have distributed over 58 million digital books in 52 languages, to children and young adults in 100 countries.

Rebecca has more than 20 years of leadership experience and a proven track record of growing innovative organizations through creative collaborations, cross-sector partnerships, and strategic vision.  She is here today to discuss the work of Worldreader and the positive impact it is having on the lives of millions of children. 

Jennifer Grant is mother to four children and an author. She has written six books for adults and several books for children including the picture book, Maybe God is Like That Too, Maybe I Can Love My Neighbor Too, and also A Little Blue Bottle.

Jennifer has written for several publications, including Woman's Day, Chicago Parent, and Patheos. For more than a decade, she wrote features for Sun-Times Media newspapers and was also a health and family columnist for the Chicago Tribune. She has a BA from Wheaton College and an MA in English and creative writing from Southern Methodist University.

She joins us today to talk about her latest book for children, Once Upon a Time Not So Long Ago, which is a picture book about the COVID pandemic. 

Dr. Mona Delahooke is mother to three adult children, and grandmother to one grand-daughter. She is a licensed clinical psychologist with more than thirty years of experience and serves as senior faculty member of the Profectum Foundation, an organization dedicated to supporting families of neurodiverse children, adolescents and adults. 

Her latest book, Brain-Body Parenting builds on the lessons of Beyond Behaviors and offers a radical new approach to parenting based on her clinical experiences as well as the most recent research in neuroscience and child psychology.  This book  is the topic of our conversation today.  

Elisse Battle has been a special educator for 18 years, working to empower students and ensure they feel seen, find their own voices, and thrive in and out of school. She's also dedicated to the work of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and supports students of color, particularly women students of color as they navigate structural barriers. 

She joins us on Parenting for the Future to talk about the importance of supporting students, their schools, and their parents if we want to create a brighter future for all of our children. 

Elisse also serves as an upper school learning specialist at the Trinity School in New York, a college preparatory co-educational independent school renowned for providing a world-class education to its students through rigorous academics, outstanding programs in athletics, the arts, peer leadership, and global travel. Elisse also serves as an upper school equity and inclusion coordinator, sits on the school's anti-racism task force, and is the teacher advisor for the Black affairs and girls of color clubs. 

Melissa Fensterstock is mother to two wonderful children and a seasoned biotech, medtech and consumer product executive. She is the co-founder and CEO of Landsdowne Labs. The company's first product is ChildLok, a technology designed to deactivate button batteries following accidental ingestion. Button batteries are the small, round batteries found in mostly portable electronics coming in all of our homes like remote controls, thermometers, games and toys, watches, cameras, and musical greeting cards. Button batteries are tiny, they're shiny, and they are so appealing to children that over 35,000 children accidentally ingest them every year. 

She joins us on Parenting for the Future to discuss the button battery crisis and what she, through her work at Landsdowne Labs, is trying to do about it.

"A third of the young people who come to us feel like it's unclear to them how to affect change. And so our goal has to be start small, start with the things that are accessible that you can actually do today, whether that's educating yourself or taking a first volunteer action. And then that portal can be a way to level up engagement so that you get to do more and more over time.”

• CEO of Do.Something.org, one of the world’s largest organizations exclusively for young people who are committed to positive social change
• Education/Degree:
• BS in Legal Studies, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 
• J. D., Fordham Law School.

• DoSomething.org

Stephanie Haynes is a mother, a veteran educator, and an education coach and consultant. Her expertise is in providing custom consulting and coaching to high school students and their parents, with an emphasis on post-high school pathway development, goal setting and time management. Stephanie's goal is to motivate her clients to create a compelling vision for their future, and develop actionable steps to build it into a reality.

She joins us today to discuss her thought-provoking new book, College is Not Mandatory: A Parent's Guide to Navigating all the Options Available to Our Kids After High School. 

Maria Russo is a mother to three curious and engaging children. She is the children's book editor of the New York Times Book Review, so it is no surprise that she has long loved the written word. She earned her PhD in English and comparative literature from Columbia University where she has also taught. And before joining the New York Times, she served as a Writer and Editor for the Los Angeles Times, the New York Observer and salon.com. Maria is the co-author of, How to Raise a Reader, which provides masterful guidance to parents, teachers, and others with children in their lives on how to cultivate a lifelong love of books within them. This book is the subject of our episode.  

Sophie Brickman is mother to two children, she's also a writer, reporter, and editor. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, the New York Times, as well as the Wall Street Journal. She wrote a monthly column for Elle, interviewing influential women, including Nancy Pelosi and Joyce Carol Oates about their paths to success and is currently a columnist at The Guardian. Sophie graduated with honors from Harvard College, studying social theory and philosophy.

She joins us today to discuss her first book, Baby, Unplugged: One Mother's Search for Balance, Reason, and Sanity in the Digital Age. It is about the intersection of parenting and technology. 

"When we talk about caring for other people, we are also talking about caring for the common good, and we're talking about caring across difference. Relatively speaking, it's not hard for people to care for someone else. Almost everybody cares for somebody else. the higher bar for a lot of people is caring for people who are different from them in race or class, or culture, or political orientation, or religious orientation"

• Senior lecturer at Harvard's Graduate School of Education and the Harvard Kennedy School of government.
• Faculty director of Harvard's Making Caring Common Project
• Education/Degree:
• Ed.D., Harvard University

Chris Tomkins is uncle to five children, a TEDx speaker, spiritual life coach, and LGBTQ inner advocate. Chris has been staunched LGBTQ+ advocate for over 15 years working organizations like the gay and lesbian Alliance against defamation or GLAAD.

What began as a letter, he wrote to his family to address a conversation that was not taking place, became an article, a TEDx talk, and is now a new book called Raising LGBTQ Allies. A Parent's Guide to Changing the Messages from the Playground. It is the first parenting book to focus on the prevention of homophobia, transphobia, and bullying, before they even begin.

He joins us today to shed light on on the deeper multifaceted layers of homophobia and his book that encourages families to have open and authentic conversations in a practical, timely, and inclusive way. 

Gretchen Carlson is mother to two children, a journalist, author, Ted Talk alum, and a fierce, fearless internationally recognized advocate for women's rights. She started her journalism career as a political reporter in Richmond, Virginia and worked her way up through local newsrooms in Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Dallas before moving to national news in 2000 as co-host and corespondent for CBS's The Saturday Early Show. In 2005, Gretchen joined Fox News, where she co-hosted the number one cable morning news show, Fox and Friends, for more than seven years.

Gretchen's catalog of interviews included every US president, vice president, and presidential candidate, as well as hundreds of leaders in business entertainment and politics. Yet, it was her groundbreaking 2016 sexual harassment lawsuit against Roger Ailes, Chairman of Fox News, alleging she had been fired from her show for refusing his sexual advances that made Gretchen the face of workplace harassment, inaugurated her work to support survivors and hold predators accountable that led her to being named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World.

Gretchen is also the author of two books, the New York Times bestseller, Be Fierce: Stop Harassment and Take Your Power Back and Getting Real. She recently co-founded the nonprofit Lift Our Voices to end the silencing of harassment victims through forced arbitration and nondisclosure agreements.

She joins us on Parenting for the Future to discuss her experiences and her work, and how we parents can create a future world where our children do not live in fear of sexual predators and sexual harassment.

New York Times bestselling author, Susan Verde is mom to three teenagers, two cats a dog and a tarantula. She is also a yogi and a mindful human who teaches yoga and mindfulness to kids of all ages.

Susan has written more than twenty picture books for children, in which she captures and celebrates the unique experience of being a child. Her books are used around the world to support mindfulness, yoga and  social-emotional learning programs in schools and libraries. 

Today,  Susan is here to talk about her latest book and her first book for adults: Say one Kind Thing: Lessons in Acceptance, Love, and Letting Go. 

Philippe Cousteau Jr. and his wife, Ashlan Gorse-Cousteau, are parents to one wonderful daughter and are expecting a second. Phillipe is the grandson of renowned French explorer, conservationist inventor, and oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, and is himself an environmentalist. Ashlan is a journalist and the couple work closely on a number of projects to bring attention to the beauty and wonder of our world and the importance of preserving it for our children and the generations to come after them.

Much of their work is done through EarthEcho International, a nonprofit organization founded by Phillip and his sister on the belief that young people have the power to change our planet. It is dedicated to supporting youth around the world who are taking action to protect natural resources in their local communities and solve environmental problems. EarthEcho International has programs in over 140 countries. 

https://www.earthecho.org 

https://www.earthecho.org/youth 

In this episode we continue our conversation with Dr. Jill Walsh. In this conversation, we turn to COVID-19 and explore the roles technology and digital media play and will continue to play in our lives. We examine how we as parents can maintain our sanity and the wellbeing of our children and our families in this challenging screen-filled time, as well as the role we can play in addressing the serious structural inequities that the pandemic highlighted.

Our complex relationship with digital technology and social media has only been exacerbated with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic earlier this year. Technology became our savior, allowing schools to teach, allowing parents to work, and allowing all of us kids and adults to maintain social and familial ties.

Dr. Jill Walsh is a researcher and lecturer at Boston University and an advocate for children. She is the founder of Digital Aged, a consultancy which re-frames the role of technology in the lives of children to promote healthier relationships between them and the adults in their lives. Jill has a BA from Harvard University. a master's in public policy from Brown University and a PhD sociology from Boston University.