For this 250th episode of the podcast we’re taking a look at the state of modern fatherhood. First we’re talking to stand-up comedian, writer and political activist Charlie Demers. He’s one of dozens of notable Canadians who, through interviews, have contributed to a great new book of essays called 40 Fathers: Men Talk About Parenting. The book was written by family counsellor and writer Tessa Lloyd, who joins us in the second part of this episode to talk about what compelled her to gather the p...
Dec 02, 2019•1 hr 2 min
Today we welcome Vanessa Vakharia back to the show. Vanessa is the founder of a unique tutoring facility called The Math Guru here in Toronto. She’s a teacher with a Bachelor of Commerce, a Masters in Mathematics Education and the author of a great math workbook for kids called Math Hacks: Cool Tips + Less Stress = Better Marks . She’s been on before to discuss topics like encouraging girls to pursue STEM careers, but this time she’s here to talk “Math Therapy,” her new podcast where she works t...
Nov 25, 2019•22 min
For this episode we speak to child psychologist Dr. Vanessa LaPointe. Vanessa is the author of two books, including her latest Parenting Right From the Start: Laying a Healthy Foundation in the Baby and Toddler Years. But this episode is not about the baby and toddler years. It’s about the investigation into ourselves that Dr. LaPointe argues is so necessary in order to parent the way we want to. She explains how we can work through issues from the past that inevitably have an effect on how we r...
Nov 18, 2019•35 min
With this episode we’re continuing our exploration into the lives of families affected by incarceration. I’m joined by Andrea Page, the founder of FitMom, one of the first providers of pre- and post-natal fitness classes in the Greater Toronto Area, and an outspoken advocate on issues like postpartum depression and mental health in general. Andrea’s eldest child has struggled for years with his mental health and unfortunately found himself on the wrong side of the law, and is currently serving a...
Nov 11, 2019•41 min
This week begins our foray into the lives of families affected by incarceration. It’s not an easy subject, but it’s one that affects many Canadian families and an even more in the United States, where one in 28 children has a parent who is incarcerated. My first guest on this topic is Rachel Mascarenas Ford. Rachel lives in North Carolina with her son, daughter and husband, Mark, who returned in April 2018 from five years in a minimum-security federal prison known as a camp. She shares about how...
Nov 04, 2019•36 min
We’re joined this week by Dr. Marika Lindholm, a sociologist and advocate for the diverse group of women raising kids solo. She’s the co-editor of a new anthology about solo moms. It’s called We Got This: Solo Mom Stories of Grit, Heart and Humor . She and I talk a little bit about her own journey to single motherhood, how it led her to found a social platform called Empowering Solo Moms Everywhere (ESME), and what it’ll take to make the path a little easier for moms raising kids on their own to...
Oct 28, 2019•27 min
This week we welcome Jeffrey Marsh to the show. Jeffrey is one of the world's foremost commentators on non-binary identity and activism. They rose to prominence with inspirational viral videos, first shared on Vine and now on Twitter and Instagram. Jeffrey is both the first non-binary activist and spokesperson to appear on national television in the U.S., and also the author of a book called How to Be You . CBS once called them “the internet’s most beloved anti-bully.” They’ve also got a wonderf...
Oct 21, 2019•32 min
We’re back to exploring family in its many with this episode, where we’re joined by Emily McGranachan, who tells us about growing up with two moms. Emily’s professional life has also been shaped by her upbringing. She’s director of family engagement for the Family Equality Council, the national organization in the U.S. dedicated to the equality of LGBTQ people and their families, as well as those who wish to form families. And she’s the host of the Council’s great podcast, Outspoken Voices. Show...
Oct 14, 2019•44 min
We’re continuing our exploration of what it’ll take to make parenting more sustainable, this week with a focus on how critical it is to cultivate community and share our stories. I’m delighted to welcome Kerrie Lee Brown back to the show. Kerrie first came on the podcast way back on episode 108, when she shared the story of how it took having a heart attack to get her to slow down. That was also the subject of her book, My Heart, My Self: A heartfelt guide for women who do too much . Kerrie has ...
Oct 07, 2019•34 min
Start asking around groups of parents, perhaps especially moms, and increasingly it seems we’re hanging on by a thread. With competing demands of work and family, we’re often hovering on the edge of burnout, if not totally fried all ready. Today I chat with Natalie Ruskin, a journalist-turned-professional-coach who has a business called The MoMentum helping high-achieving moms, many of whom find themselves in periods of struggle while trying to keep up. Natalie joins me for a deep dive into burn...
Sep 30, 2019•33 min
We kick off the fall with one of several episodes coming up that explores what it will take to make modern-day parenthood more sustainable and less overwhelming. We’ll be looking at the social and economic factors that make caring for a family feel like such a herculean effort. Caitlyn Collins says the work-life conflict experienced by parents — especially moms — should be considered a national crisis. An assistant professor at Washington University, Dr. Collins has done some groundbreaking rese...
Sep 23, 2019•32 min
I’m joined for this episode by Tammy Sharrow, a long-time neonatal nurse and associate professor of nursing at Mount Royal University in Calgary. Along with her co-author Karen Lasby, she’s written a new book on life with a premature baby. It’s called Preemie Care: A Guide to Navigating the First year with Your Premature Baby . Tammy joins me to discuss the landscape of premature birth in Canada and some of what parents need to know about caring for a newborn infant and raising them up from ther...
Jun 24, 2019•25 min
It’s an absolute thrill for me to welcome celebrated, four-time Canadian Olympian Silken Laumann to the show. Many of you will remember Silken’s remarkable story as one of Canada’s most beloved and accomplished Olympic rowers. In 1992 she was warming up for the World Cup Regatta in Germany when another boat collided with hers at full speed. Her lower right leg received devastating injuries to bone and muscle and she was told she’d never compete at the Olympics again. But 10 weeks later she won a...
Jun 17, 2019•22 min
The departure for college or university represents a huge shift in our relationship with our nearly adult children. But, wow, can seem that they still have a lot of independence to achieve before they’ll be ready to make do without us. How do we achieve a sweet spot between supporting teens as they enter their post-secondary years, without helicoptering the heck out of them? Psychologist and best-selling parenting author Sara Dimerman marries her personal experience with two university-age daugh...
Jun 10, 2019•34 min
I’m joined for this episode by a mother and her adult son. Elaine and Jake Uskoski are here to share their experience with Jake’s video game addiction. They’ve started to share their story to help other families learn to identify where enthusiasm for digital play crosses into unhealthy territory and what it takes to come out of it when video games have taken over a young person’s life. Elaine has also written about this candidly in her book, Seeing Through the Cracks . Show Notes Love our work? ...
Jun 03, 2019•38 min
It’s my delight to be able to bring you a remarkable and important story today. I’m joined by author Stephanie Land, who has become known for her unflinching writing on poverty and motherhood. Stephanie writes about her years seeking out an existence for herself and her daughter through her work as a housekeeper. She writes about her struggle to make ends meet, her reluctance use of food stamps and the bigotry she encountered for needing to access social services. But she also chronicles her eff...
May 27, 2019•34 min
For this episode, we welcome Leisse Wilcox back on the show. Leisse is a writer, coach, speaker and mom of three. She writes a very inspiring blog about personal growth, self-love and more at leissewilcox.ca and uplifts so many others through her community on Instagram. Leisse last joined us to talk about how divorce can be a springboard for personal growth. Since then she’s had some pretty major stuff going on, which she seems to have handled with a whole lot of grace and strength, but also wit...
May 20, 2019•33 min
Cooking for a group, sending lunch to school, is a different business these days. Something like 40 per cent of children are affected by life-threatening food allergens, and as my guest for today’s episode has found, many people don’t grow out of them. However, Amanda Orlando hasn’t let her food allergens stop her from making food a treasured part of her life. She’s just released her second cookbook, Everyone’s Welcome: The Art of Living and Eating Allergen-Free . While preparing lunch together ...
May 14, 2019•44 min
There are times when the dynamics between our kids and their friends are sort of baffling. When things are going smoothly, everything is great. But when there’s friendship drama and hurt feelings, when friendships break down or there’s routine exclusion, it’s so hard to try to navigate these things. It’s also hard to know when we should intervene and when we should just leave things alone. To discuss these tricky issues I’m joined this episode by child development and parenting expert Caron Irwi...
May 06, 2019•26 min
Parents do a lot of hand wringing about the amount of time our kids spend on devices. And there are some good reasons for that. Naturally we want to make sure our kids aren’t leading sedentary lives and that they’re not just playing Fortnite or Minecraft, but getting a reasonably healthy amount of time outdoors. On top of this we have a tendency to worry that all these video games are turning our kids into antisocial automatons who won’t be able to interact well in the quote-unquote real world. ...
Apr 29, 2019•29 min
This is the second of a two-part series Money Matters, which takes a look at some of the financial implications of raising kids today. In this episode I’ve again got two very insightful guests. You may have caught my guest Shannon Lee Simmons’ on CBC’s Metro Morning, the Marilyn Dennis Show or seen her column in the Toronto Star. Shannon is a certified financial planner and founder of The New School of Finance, as well as the author of two best-selling books, Worry-Free Money and Living Debt-Fre...
Apr 22, 2019•55 min
This is the first of a two-part series that explores how money matters affect families. I’ve got two amazing guests for this episode. The first is celebrated parenting author Ann Douglas. She has written 30 books, including her latest, Happy Parents, Happy Kids . Ann and I dive deep into one of the important issues she raises in this book — the implications of financial anxiety for parents. We talk about just how much has changed with the cost of living, precarious work and more, and what those ...
Apr 15, 2019•37 min
Long before we learn to speak, we communicate through laughter and tears. That’s because these non-verbal expressions come factory-installed. They’re instinctive, social and key to bonding us with one another, from our earliest days and through our whole adult lives. In this collaboration with documentary filmmakers Mike Downie and David Wells, we take a look at some of the fascinating science between why we laugh and cry. As Mike puts it, laughter and crying are an incredible expression of our ...
Apr 08, 2019•25 min
At least here at home, we see girls picking up academic awards on assembly days at schools and we know that for years, women have been out-graduating men from university. Yet, conversely, there’s still a wide wage gap and under representation of women in executive and other leadership roles. It turns out that something critical happens to the confidence of girls and women as they pass through their teens and into early adulthood. My guest for this episode is Caroline Riseboro, president and CEO ...
Apr 01, 2019•22 min
This episode we’re joined by esteemed parenting writer Teresa Pitman. Teresa has been writing about raising kids for more than 30 years, and she’s the co-author of several books, including Dr. Jack Newman’s Guide to Breastfeeding and Sweet Sleep . As a La Leche League leader she has helped countless new parents with nursing their babies and is such an important advocate for and resource on breastfeeding and many other aspects of baby care. But today we’re going to talk about how the early days o...
Mar 25, 2019•29 min
Most of us know that our kids could be more self-sufficient and helpful around the house than they are today. We look back on our own childhoods and see that we developed life skills much earlier than our own kids, but for various reasons — including our tendency to pack our schedules with activities that are focussed on the kids, we haven’t made this a priority with our own children. So how do we go about raising our kids in a way that both nurtures them and helps them develop abilities to care...
Mar 18, 2019•25 min
I’ve talked a lot on this show about positive co-parenting, but sadly, there are still a lot of acrimonious divorces where positive co-parenting is just not possible. My guest for this episode, family lawyer, Marlene Kazman, is here to speak to us about what can happen in some of the most destructive cases where parental alienation is a factor. As a member of the family law team at Garfin ZIdenberg LLP, Marlene handles a full spectrum of family law matters including divorce proceedings and negot...
Mar 11, 2019•24 min
You’ve heard this before — obesity rates among children and youth have nearly tripled over the past three decades. We know kids today are, on average, more sedentary then we were, and there are a lot of reasons for that. But what do you do if your child is one among the countless kids who aren’t active enough and who perhaps don’t have a healthy body weight or the best eating habits? How do you address that with them without being body shaming at all? We want to take care of our kids’ health, bu...
Mar 04, 2019•21 min
We’ve heard a lot about toxic masculinity in the last year or so. But are we doing enough to provide men and boys with newer, more evolved, more positive and accepting ideas about what it means to be a man? My guest on this episode has a lot to say about this subject. John Kim, also known as “The Angry Therapist,” has helped thousands of men find more happiness in their relationships and more purpose in their lives. A pioneer in the online life coaching world, John has said that too often boys a...
Feb 25, 2019•20 min
Today I am so delighted to have friend and colleague Ann Douglas back on the show. Ann is Canada’s most trusted and prolific parenting writer, though her work is known in many other countries as well. She’s the author of the bestselling Mother of All series of parenting books. My dog-eared copies of her books The Mother of All Pregnancy Books and The Mother of All Baby Books got me through my early days of parenting, as they did — and continue to — for so many other parents. Ann’s work is inform...
Feb 18, 2019•33 min
