Early Risers

Minnesota Public Radio•www.mpr.org

George Floyd’s death was a tragedy and a wake up call — expanding a global conversation about race and racism. And young children have been watching it all. So how do we help them make sense of this? Early Risers is a podcast from Little Moments Count and MPR with frank facts, engaging stories and real how-tos for anyone who cares about raising children with a clear-eyed understanding of cultural differences, race and implicit bias. Hosted by Dianne Haulcy of The Family Partnership.

Last refreshed: July 24th, 2025 at 1:39 PM ⓘ

Follow this podcast in the Metacast mobile app to refresh it and see new episodes.

Follow on

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

RSS

Podcasts are better in Metacast mobile app

Don't just listen to podcasts. Learn from them with transcripts, summaries, and chapters for every episode. Skim, search, and bookmark insights. Learn more

Episodes

The Power of Place: Visiting George Floyd Square with Young Children

George Floyd Square in Minneapolis has become a creative memorial and gathering space for healing. It also tells a much bigger story about racism, policing, and the struggle for racial justice in this country and around the world. All of this can be complicated and confusing for a young child. So how can we help children make sense of this? In this episode, Early Risers host Dianne Haulcy visits George Floyd Square with early childhood education expert Sheila Williams Ridge . Together they unpac...

Jun 01, 2022•31 min

Bias and the Developing Brain

The human brain is hardwired to recognize patterns—that’s how we figure out the world, and why humans have been able to adapt and survive over millennia. But the brain’s ability to quickly form cognitive associations can also lead to racial biases, even in very young children. On the season two finale of Early Risers, host Dianne Haulcy speaks with University of Minnesota cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Damien Fair about how we can train our brains to recognize bias and why the first thousand days ...

Jan 19, 2022•34 min

Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan—A Live Recording

On this special episode of Early Risers, host Dianne Haulcy sits down with Minnesota’s 50th Lieutenant Governor, Peggy Flanagan , for an in-person, intimate and wide-ranging conversation. They discuss how she’s been living through the challenges of this moment, including how her experience as an Indigenous woman, state official and parent have shaped how she thinks about issues of racial equity. This conversation was recorded for the 6th Little Moments Count annual meeting held November, 2021. R...

Dec 29, 2021•24 min

Making immigrant and refugee stories visible: a conversation with children’s book author Bao Phi

Bao Phi ’s family came to Minnesota in the 1970s as refugees from Vietnam. He experienced both racism and feeling invisible growing up in Minneapolis. Once he became a parent, he wanted things to be different for his child, which inspired him to start writing stories that weren’t available to him when he was younger. In this episode of Early Risers, host Dianne Haulcy explores how Phi’s award-winning children’s books can be wonderful tools for opening conversations with young children about the ...

Dec 15, 2021•35 min

What’s Happening in the Classroom? Early Childhood Educators and Implicit Bias

About a quarter of all children in the United States younger than five years old attend some kind of formalized childcare. Early childhood programs can be a great way for children to start learning about the world, including how to build relationships with other children and adults. But part of this learning also involves absorbing the implicit biases in their environment, including unconscious assumptions about race. However, Sheila Williams Ridge , co-director of the University of Minnesota’s ...

Dec 01, 2021•37 min

Rethinking Thanksgiving: How to speak to young children about historical and racialized trauma

The Thanksgiving “pilgrim and Indian” stories that many of us were taught as children perpetuate harmful stereotypes and whitewash a painful history of violence and colonization that continues to impact Indigenous communities today. How can we have a more honest conversation with our children about this history? On this episode of Early Risers, host Dianne Haulcy speaks with early childhood educator and Dakota language activist Vanessa Goodthunder. She is the director of C̣aƞṡayapi Waḳaƞyeża ...

Nov 17, 2021•33 min

Race Matters: A Conversation about Transracial Adoption and Multiracial Families

Being able to talk about race is an important life skill for all parents, but especially for parents raising multiracial families. When a family adopts a child of a different race, questions about race and racism cannot be avoided. On this episode of Early Risers, host Dianne Haulcy speaks with transracial adoption expert Beth Hall , co-author of “Inside Transracial Adoption” and executive director of Pact, An Adoption Alliance in Oakland, California. Hall also has personal experience with trans...

Nov 03, 2021•36 min

The Danger of Being ‘Color Silent’: Talking about Race with Young Children

Young children are like sponges, absorbing information about the world around them. Children have already started to internalize racialized messages about their value and self-worth by the time they are three to four years old. Psychologist Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum , an expert in racial identity development and the author of “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? and Other Conversations About Race” calls this “the smog we’re all breathing.” In our Season 2 premiere of Ear...

Oct 20, 2021•37 min

Teaching Anti-Racism; A Live Recording

This special episode sounds a little different than our normal one-on-one conversations. This is an edited recording of the Early Risers event we hosted on June 17th called Teaching Anti-Racism. There is an incredible panel of experts on early childhood, racial identity and racism including Dr. Rose Marie Allen, Dianne Haulcy and Dr. Brigitte Vittrup. It’s a riveting conversation about common barriers to talking about race and racism with young children and what to say to get these conversations...

Jun 25, 2021•51 min

Connecting Children to Indigenous Cultures

In schools and old children’s books, Native people are often talked about in terms of history. But Brook Lafloe has been creating toys and teaching tools to connect all children to contemporary Native culture in an authentic and respectful way. In this conversation with podcast host Dianne Haulcy, Brook shares the traditional Anishinaabe teachings she learned about race and respect. And she shares how caregivers from all cultural backgrounds can adopt this approach to race and help their childre...

May 26, 2021•25 min

Where Does Racism Come From? Best Selling Author and Therapist Resmaa Menakem Breaks It Down for Caregivers

This week we’re asking a pretty fundamental question that parents might get from their kids: where does racism come from? In this deep and lively conversation host Dianne Haulcy speaks with Resmaa Menakem - therapist, coach and best selling author of My Grandmother’s Hands. He breaks down how racism is connected to generational trauma and he describes practices that can heal the trauma and strengthen anti-racist thinking and action. Episode Resources: https://www.resmaa.com/movement https://www....

May 19, 2021•32 min

When it comes to race, there is no such thing as "colorblind" - at home or in school

For years, many adults have believed young children are too young to understand race and racism. Some have felt we need to teach our children to be “colorblind” thinking if you don’t talk about race, kids won’t be racist. But thoughts on this topic are changing and people are talking about race and racism with very young children. In this episode, host Dianne Haulcy talks with Dr. Debra Sullivan about why we talk with very young children about race and racism and how. Dr. Sullivan also talks abo...

May 12, 2021•24 min

Healing the hurt; helping children work through racialized conflict

It sometimes happens that our loving and joyful young children say something terrible. They can hurt other children’s feelings. And sometimes these hurtful comments are racist. It causes confusion and emotional pain and, long term, it can cause real trauma. How do we help young children work through these experiences? How do we help the child who has been hurt, the child who did the hurting and the bystanders who are impacted? Resources: Learning for Justice : https://www.learningforjustice.org ...

May 05, 2021•31 min

We Are the Same and We Are Different; How to Talk about Diversity with White Kids in White Communities

Minnesota’s population is 80% white. Many communities across the state have few if any Black or Native people or people of color. So how can we teach children to celebrate diversity and talk about race, racism and bias when all their neighbors are white? Early childhood education expert Louise Derman-Sparks shares her rationale and creative tools for teaching white children about race, racism and diversity. Resources “What if All the Kids are White” Paper by Louise Derman-Sparks https://www.teac...

Apr 28, 2021•29 min

Bad Things Happen: Helping Young Children Process Racism and Violence.

We’re coming to you from Minneapolis, Minnesota where our communities are struggling to process yet another killing of an African American man at the hands of a white police officer. In this conversation, we are focused on our children. How do we prepare them for these events? How do we answer their questions? And how can we build up our BIPOC children so they are stronger than the racism they face? It’s a job for all of us.

Apr 21, 2021•28 min

Early Risers Trailer

This is a quick preview of our new podcast launching the week of April 19th: Early Risers, waking up to racial equity in early childhood hosted by Dianne Haulcy of Think Small.

Apr 02, 2021•2 min

← Prev

For the best experience, listen in Metacast app for iOS or Android