PODCAST · kids
Evolutionary Parenting Podcast
by Tracy Cassels
Podcast by Tracy Cassels
Episodes
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Ep. 72: How can research inform birthing and post-partum care?
If you've ever given birth in a hospital, depending on where you live, you may have noticed that hospitals still put babies into a big plastic bins. Reaching your baby is hard, you can't keep a hand on them easily, and if you've had a c-section, it's almost impossible to even pick up your baby.…
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Ep. 71: Dispelling CIO Sleep Training Myths Part V: Does Sleep Training Help Mother's Mental Health?
We've all heard it said - sleep training helps moms, right? Moms are tired and overworked and need those babies to sleep so even if there is some risk associated with it, isn't it for the greater good? This is something we hear all the time, but does the research actually support this? Joining me...
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Ep. 70: Dispelling CIO Sleep Training Myths Part IV: Does Sleep Training Affect Attachment?
One of the most critical things we as parents aim to do for our kids is to help them develop a secure attachment. We want them to feel safe in the world - or as safe as we can make them feel. You might hear people say that sleep training has no effect on attachment. Or that sleep training...
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Ep. 69: Dispelling CIO Sleep Training Myths Part III: How does the context of sleep affect development?
Today is episode three of the special series covering our new book, "Dispelling Cry-It-Out Sleep Training Myths and What To Do Instead", published by Routledge and out in stores now. So we all now understand more about what normal infant sleep is like, but what about the context in which that…
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Ep. 68: Dispelling CIO Sleep Training Myths Part II: What's Normal For Infant Sleep? (Book Series)
Today is episode two of the special series covering our new book, "Dispelling Cry-It-Out Sleep Training Myths and What To Do Instead". When talking about sleep training, we can't get very far without talking about what is it parents can and should expect of their babies. That is, what is normal...
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Ep. 67: Dispelling CIO Sleep Training Myths Part I: Why Should We Care About CIO? (Book Series)
What do you get when you put 7 academic women together who all want see an end to the sleep training era? A book, of course. I am thrilled to announce a mini-series for the Evolutionary Parenting podcast featuring interviews with all authors of the chapters in a new book out called 'Dispelling...
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Ep. 66: Safe Sleep Education: Is Abstinence Only the Only Way?
If you have listened to a lot of my podcasts, you know I like to talk about sleep. It's one of the biggest topics for parents today. And part of why we have to talk about it is because those of us is WEIRD countries - Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic countries - get a very...
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Ep. 65: How can nurture transform your parenting and your child?
When we think about raising our children, we often all have ideas of what is best and what we want to do. Not always are we able to achieve those goals – for better or worse. But the early years, especially 0 to 3, are crucial in our children’s neurological development and knowing what can…
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Ep. 64: How Is Breastfeeding Portrayed in Literature in Different Cultures?
Normalizing breastfeeding is an ongoing battle in some Western cultures. Even when someone starts out breastfeeding, many report not being able to meet their goals or face various obstacles in trying to nurse their children. One part of the equation is how breastfeeding is represented in these...
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Ep. 63: How do we reconcile early intervention for Autism with neurodiversity?
Our understanding and acceptance of Autism has evolved over the years towards a greater awareness of what we call neurodiversity - broadly, the idea that each brain is unique and what used to be considered "disorders" are not at all, but rather reflections of these uniquenesses with their own...
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Ep. 62: What do we really know about Crying It Out?
As we know, sleep is one of the most talked-about topics for new parents. None of them are getting enough, and everyone is worried about it. In Western cultures, parents are often made to feel that the only way to get sleep is to leave their baby to cry to learn to sleep alone, something called...
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Ep. 61: How does parental presence and contact affect children's stress and sleep?
Bedtime. It's one of the biggest struggles parents face. Everyone is tired, we just want our kids to calm and go to sleep. But how does our bedtime affect their sleep? Often we hear that we need our kids to be independent at bedtime, do things on their own, that that will lead to a good sleep.…
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Ep. 60: How can we raise anti-racist children?
Raising good humans is hard. We all worry about if we're doing best and we don't always know how to do it. This is especially true when we start touching on topics we may not have experience with, like racism. Many of us may think that we can just try to raise kids who aren't racist and that will...
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Ep. 59: Does the Sleep Training Research Apply To All?
External validity. It's a topic that many of us don't really talk about. It's the idea that certain research findings only apply to certain groups. In sleep training, most people assume the research is applicable to all families, but is this the case? This is the question that Dr. Levita D'Souza...
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Ep. 58: How can we support LGBTQ+ parents?
When it comes to parenting, there are thousands of books with myriad bits of advice for soon-to-be-parents and those who are already parents and facing some kind of struggle. Sometimes it can feel overwhelming when we think of all the bits of advice out there. One would think we don't need more,...
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Ep. 57: What happens to the couple when they become parents?
Welcome back after our break and I hope you enjoyed the last few weeks and maybe even used that time to check out some of our older episodes that always stay relevant for families! This week, we're back and talking about the transition to parenthood. In the transition to parenthood, many of us...
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Ep. 56: What are the long-term outcomes associated with a state-run pre-K program?
For ages, policy makers have been pushing earlier education for children. In many previous studies, these have been found to be very helpful for families that are disadvantaged, but yet the research on them has been short-lived since states of taken on the role of overseeing these programs. Of...
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Ep. 55: What do we know about a child's sensitivity to their environment?
Orchid or dandelion? Highly sensitive or relatively robust? These are some of the ways that we have conceptualized the concept of how sensitive a child is to the environment in which they are raised. Through a combination of nature and nurture, some of our kids are just that much more sensitive....
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Ep. 54: How can we assess the effects of prenatal stress on child outcomes?
I'll be honest that I don't know of a single pregnancy that didn't involve some level of stress. I think the entire act of carrying a baby and everything that goes along with it is stressful in its own right. But sometimes there are stressors that are even greater. Sometimes it's chronic stress...
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Ep. 53: Can maternal separation explain postpartum depression?
Postpartum depression is associated with a host of negative outcomes for mothers and babies alike, yet we still have very little understanding of the etiology behind it and what may exacerbate or mitigate it. Research on postpartum depression is difficult, however, because we can't randomly…
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Ep. 52: How does media use affect our kids and what can we do about it?
One of the more difficult topics for many families these days has to do with media use. We are a tech-heavy society and that extends downwards to our kids. It's not uncommon to go out and see parents handing over screens to their kids to get through a dinner, a car ride, a boring appointment, and...
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Ep. 51: What is 'Uspavani' and how can it help us support our children's sleep?
When you think about your child's sleep, what are the words that often come to mind? I know in Western cultures, we often hear "independence", "self-soothing", "needy", "manipulative" and so on. The way in which we speak about something has a profound impact on how we conceptualize and approach…
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Ep. 50: What are the experiences and beliefs of fathers who identify as attachment parents?
In the realm of parenting - especially attachment parenting - the focus has been on mothers. In fact, if you go to any attachment parenting group - online or not - you are far more likely to come across a group of moms talking about their beliefs, experiences, struggles, and so forth. But it's…
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Ep. 49: What do we know about sleep and SIDS?
As we kick off Season 2 of the podcast, we're going to dive into the research on an area that often brings fear to new parents - rightfully - that of SIDS or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Most people will be aware of best sleep practices promoted by professionals - put your baby to sleep on their...
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Ep. 48: Fathering Series: From Mountain Gorillas to Humans, What Matters in Fathering?
I would first like to welcome you to the final episode of this season. I am thankful to all of you who listen and give me hope that there are still those people out there who respect and love science as much as I do and who find the work of researchers who rarely get to be in the spotlight as...
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Ep. 47: Fathering Series: What does systemic racism look like when researching families of colour?
When we look at research, especially in the realm of development, we tend to focus on things like resilience, struggles families face, and so on. This is particularly true when we look at the research on parenting in families of colour - the focus starts with what's wrong and how we can fix it.…
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Ep. 46: Fathering Series: What Makes Good Fathers? (Part 2)
This week we continue our conversation with Dr. Lee Gettler, discussing his research which has advanced our knowledge on fathering across cultures and from different lenses. Here is for all the fathers out there. Dr. Lee Gettler: https://anthropology.nd.edu/people/faculty/lee-gettler/ Relevant...
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Ep. 45: Fathering Series Part 1: What Makes Good Fathers?
Let's be honest - when we talk about parenting, we're often talking about mothering. Most of the research on raising kids is based on mothers. Mothers in WEIRD cultures (and by weird, I mean the acronym - Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich, and Democratic countries). But of course, humans are in…
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Ep. 44: What have been the effects of COVID on Parents' Mental Well-Being?
We are almost two years into a global pandemic and many families have struggled to find a new normal. Some people seem to have found a new normal that exceeds life pre-pandemic, but many face ongoing difficulties. Parents are in a unique position because they are not only facing this pandemic…
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Ep. 43: How does our stress response develop in response to early childhood adversity?
Stress is a hot topic today with many people worrying about the degree of stress they face daily. We know stress in our adult lives is a problem, but I often hear people speak about stress as if it's only an adult problem. Sadly children can face many stressors - some of them quite large - early…
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Ep. 42: How can families navigate and overcome a NICU experience?
One of the more terrifying events for any parent is seeing their child born and rushed off to the NICU. Though we might talk about how it's so much better compared to losing our children - and there's no doubt that's the case - the typical experience for families in the NICU isn't one that we…
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Ep. 41: How do marginalized parents experience parenting in Western cultures?
Too often we look at parenting practices and our judgment of them in absolute terms. I know I myself have been guilty of this. Sometimes it's warranted, but sometimes the judgments and the repercussions become a way that we disenfranchise and marginalize already marginalized groups in our…
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Ep. 40: Can co-sleeping help prevent SIDS? Part 2
Welcome back to Week 2 with Dr. James McKenna as we continue our conversation into SIDS, colic, breathing, and how our closeness to our babies can protect them. Please see below for the summary from Part 1: I want to mention some things that parents of young babies have to think about. They often...
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Ep. 39: Can co-sleeping help prevent SIDS? Part 1
I want to mention some things that parents of young babies have to think about. They often think about: * Where their baby sleeps * Why their baby cries (or cries so much) * Worry about SIDS * How much their baby sleeps * Their baby's brain development * How to feed their baby (and how to get...
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Ep. 38: What kind of parenting helps children develop emotion regulation?
We all want our kids to be able to regulate themselves, don't we? It feels like one of the main goals of parenting is how we are able to help get our kids to the stage where they can handle big emotions, frustrations, and the minor struggles on their own. Like most things that are developmental…
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Ep. 37: Can Babywearing Help with Mother-Infant Relationships?
Babywearing is still somewhat fringe in our society, despite being exactly how babies have been kept close to parents for most of human history. I mean, it's not like we had strollers back in the stone age. When people utilize babywearing today, most do so for convenience. After all, if you've...
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Ep. 36: What are the effects of birth trauma on the birthing parent and child?
When you think back to your birth, do you recall it fondly? The way they say you're supposed to feel about this momentous moment? Or do you try to block it out? Cry about it? Feel like it was an event you don't even want to remember? For too many families, birth isn't a peaceful event or even a...
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Ep. 35: How can we help (or be helped) with perinatal mental health struggles?
When we get pregnant and are expecting our first child, most people don't see this as a time to worry that their mental health is going to go downhill. We're supposed to be happy or even thrilled about this new stage in our lives. But for many families, pregnancy is the beginning of what can be...
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Ep. 34: How can we balance our infant's biological sleep with a parent's need for sleep?
If you've listened here before you will know that the research doesn't support the idea that extinction sleep training methods, like crying it out or controlled crying, actually improve our infant's sleep (or children's for that matter). Despite parents reporting improvements, when we look at...
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Ep. 33: How does Montessori differ from modern-traditional education?
When we think about education, most of us think about our experience with what we might call modern-traditional schooling: classes by grade, a teacher at the front, testing, memorization, getting to know a new teacher each year, and maybe some more good like good friendships or more bad, like...
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Ep. 32: What is the Evolved Nest and how can it help us thrive?
"It's just the way it is!" "Progress is always good" These are the sentiments that many people feel about the way our society and culture is structured. Because it's how we've grown up and what we've experienced, we believe this is the way it is. We view change as progress and think that anything...
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Ep. 31: What are the myths we're told about nursing beyond infancy?
When you thought about nursing, did you think about how long it would go? Did you think, "I will absolutely be done by one because that's old enough"? Then find yourself with a 2-year-old attached to the boob and worry that they're too old? Or perhaps you were okay with that from the start, but...
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Ep. 30: How do we navigate our parenting decisions within our cultural framework?
From the moment a family is expecting their first child, decisions are made about how that relationship is going to work, decisions that don't always match reality. The addition of a new person to the family - and a rather helpless one at that - changes everything. Here we have a baby who needs…
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Ep. 29: What is the relationship between feeding and sleep in infancy?
"You must breastfeed!" says the medical professional. "Don't you dare sleep with your baby!" says the same medical professional. The tension between how we feed our babies and how we sleep with them is a real problem for many new families. As primates, we are expected to stay close to our young,...
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Ep. 28: Why should breastfeeding grief and trauma matter?
Although not every parent chooses to, many report wanting to breastfeed or chestfeed their child. Our Western society likes to promote this with slogans and ideas that "breast is best", but most of that isn't backed up with the type of support that parents need to make this a reality. From...
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Ep. 27: What about the forgotten tweens?
When we first become parents there are tons of books and advice for us to follow in the baby years and even the toddler years. As our kids age, however, it seems that all the parenting experts start to fade away. They don't dare touch the older children until perhaps the teenage years. Yet our...
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Ep. 26: Why is male infant circumcision a human rights issue? (Part 2)
Welcome back to part two of my talk with Brian Earp. If you haven't listened yet to last week's episode, I strongly suggest you do because some of what we talk about this week directly follows that conversation. Moving on from the discussion of health risks versus benefits of male infant...
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Ep. 25: Why is male infant circumcision a human rights issue? (Part 1)
In North America - the United States in particular - males are regularly circumcised at birth. Over the years, various arguments have been made leading up to a shift in the American Academy of Pediatrics suggesting that the benefits of male infant circumcision outweigh the risks. In this episode…
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Bonus Episode: Covid-19 Infection, Vaccination, and Breast Milk
This is a special episode of the podcast because it's focused on something highly relevant to us today. At this moment, we're faced with a global pandemic that we are trying to overcome. Over the past few months, vaccinations have become a crucial step in this process, but there are still…
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Ep. 24: What is the role of intergenerational early life experience on life outcomes?
A common view today is that when we are born, we are somehow born on even footing when it comes to the effects of how we are raised and what this means for us developmentally. We believe this despite the emergence of epigenetic theories that tell us otherwise, but the problem becomes how to...
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Evolutionary Parenting Podcast have?
Evolutionary Parenting Podcast currently has 73 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
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Podcast by Tracy Cassels
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Evolutionary Parenting Podcast has 73 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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Who hosts Evolutionary Parenting Podcast?
Evolutionary Parenting Podcast is created and hosted by Tracy Cassels.
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