Hello and welcome. This is the Parents You Think debate show. I'm Danusha, Danusha Melina Duban and this is an episode to let you know two things. First I'll introduce myself in case we've not met before and second I'll run through how the Parents You Think debate show works.
Now for those of you who already know me but want to know how PWT debates run, skip forward a bit. If we're new to one another, here's a snapshot of me and Stats. I've advised on strategy and leadership in 142 boardrooms over two decades across five continents. Spent more than six years pregnant, birthing 11 children, 10 living.
Consulted to more Fortune Global 500 companies than the Times Elon Musk shed tears over a rocket launch. I've expressed milk in 17 company lose and rest rooms. Written two books in the last three years on parent identity. Changed 42,707 nappies.
Recorded over 404 podcast episodes over the past five years. Lost 9,315 nights of sleep. I'm still counting these. One zero business awards but supported nine others to clinch theirs.
Tried every childcare solution known to humankind and still find it impossible. Mental five founders to secure more than 57 million pounds of series A funding. Battled with teens at least 2,688 times and received and given hundreds of thousands of cuddles just too precious to put a price on. If you want to know more, come over to read my wonky day job bio on DanishaMelinaDubbon.com or find me on LinkedIn to connect if that's your thing.
For my night job, it's all over on the PWT substack. But Parents You Think substack into your search engine and they'll just come up. Parents You Think is the next expansive brand chapter of what was called the School for Mothers podcast and I hosted that for five years. Because PWT is a new format, I'll explain what you can expect.
Now like any debate, there are standard segments to make sure everyone has their say in a set framework. What my three guests say in these segments is up to them. But I want them to get equal chance to put forward their views. I'll always have three guests.
Whatever topic we're debating, I guarantee they don't hold identical opinions unless they switch how they think during the debate. Each debate topic is cut across three episodes. Episode one starts out with an intro to the topic, followed by Dishing the Dirt, in which I do what it says on the tin before my guests arrive. I share what I think about the debate topic.
In debate one, for instance, you'll hear my thoughts on the okayness or not of having a favorite child and my experiences with this. If you hadn't listened to the School for Mothers podcast, the legacy show PWT has grown from, you might not know that I mum to ten brilliant souls. Six sons, four daughters. Are they all my favorites?
Check out my dirt being dished on that one. Still, in episode one, we move on to my guests, three parents from across the world. First, they share their life story with you. It's not me reading a bio.
It's them and their own words describing a snapshot of what they want you to know about them and their lives. After you've heard who debate guests are, we go to the same sixth segment. Now this is six words that sum up their opinion on the debate topic. Once you've got an idea of where they're coming from, it's the P that fits me segment.
The P's guests choose from are predictable, progressive and polarising. When we get to this segment, I'll tell you more. All you need to know for now is this part is like a decoration, a stake in the ground, which is why we close out episode one here. In EPTU, the same three parents who sent return to share more.
The bulk of this episode centres around a segment called Get Up on Your High Horse. This is the core debate, answering is it okay to have a favourite child or whatever debate we're having? Miss episode one and you won't get who's who and the context of their opinions. It also mists what my thoughts are on the debate.
Having heard are three parents thoughts on what they believe and why? In episode three, we get into a segment called If This, Then That. Which is based on the idea that if we let this happen, then that will happen. Opinions are, how can I say, not necessarily about the subject itself, it's often about our projected assumptions about what might happen in the future if we allow something to happen or be done.
This segment is about why this matters and what the impact of this is on us, on our children and maybe on society. Before concluding each debate, there's a segment that zones in on the one habit guests have because of their opinions. I'm looking forward to hearing all these diverse habits. Now when I say conclude debates, that's not because there's ever winners or losers in PWT, by the way.
Finally, I'm scheming about PWT Live episodes which I hope to put together over on the parents who think a sub-stack. Now this will be a chance for you to get involved and have your say on debates. Come join our sub-stack community where I'll share news on this and more. You've already heard a little about me.
It's enough to say that in my day job, people tell me their stories. That's corporate and deeply personal ones and I keep them secret. Being a corporate holder is essential in our consulting company. In my night job, PWT, it's the opposite.
I learn about and share people's stories and the opinions that come from these. At the other day, someone said to me, D'Nusha, I never used to worry about saying something that would be taken the wrong way. But now people are so careful and self-conscious. We've got to a stage, generally, where thoughtful, nuanced ideas get shut down.
Hosting PWT is a test for me as I showcase wishes with opinions that wrangle and probably even offend me. I'm not always going to be able to stay unhooked and untriggered when people share things I'm offended by. The upstart in me, for instance, can't be predicted but it's there. I mean, I'm sure it is.
The right chess. I'm right, person lives in all of us somewhere and can leap out from hidden places. We thought we've sorted or didn't know lurks. It's our attachment to how we think things should be.
Now you're going to hear opinions similar to your own, perhaps. And about my 10 kids, you'll hear from people whose opinions you find frustrating, confounding and even obnoxious, including me. As I promise to show up as the flawed, disagreeable person I can be, whether you chime with or disagree with my opinions. Parents, you think, is a place for scrappy-edged, imperfect humans and are contrasting and contradictory views on hot topics, together in a diverse community.
You won't agree with everything you hear. And that's exactly the point. Now, last thing. If you're uncertain about what you think, you found home.
Expect debates where I'll share my uncertainty and even indifference. We don't have to be sure of what we think. Big thanks for listening to this explainer episode of Parents You Think. If you'd like to react in some way to something you heard, I encourage you to join the Parents You Think sub-stack community.
Thanks to for being such a great, early supporter of this debate show. Tune in again for more valuable conversation from PWT. Take care.