Not Right Now

It's a crossover episode! Quinn had the editor-in-chief of The Week Jr, Andrea Barbalich, on his other show The Most Important Question. It was such a great conversation, and so relevant for parents, we thought we should run it on the Not Right Now fee...

This week, Quinn and Claire are joined by Willa Koerner, a creative strategist, writer, gardener, flower farmer, newsletter author, artist residency co-founder, and mother of a very busy four-year-old. They get into unschooling, invasive species, garde...

This week, Quinn and Claire are joined by journalist and author Fortesa Latifi. She's pregnant, has a toddler at home, and is somehow also promoting a book. Respect. Fortesa has spent years reporting on the world of mom influencers and family vloggers,...

This week, Quinn and Claire get into their March Madness brackets, before discussing how the gambling industrial complex is ruining sports, and what it's like to raise kids in the age of the manosphere. Also discussed: vasectomies, testing our knowledg...

This week, Quinn and Claire are joined by L'Oreal Thompson Payton, a bestselling author, award-winning journalist, yoga teacher, mom to a four-year-old junior bookseller, and the founder of Zora's Place, a Black-owned independent bookstore in Evanston,...

This week, Quinn and Claire are joined by Garrett Bucks, a writer, organizer, recovering white do-gooder, and parent based in Milwaukee. Garrett runs The Barnraisers Project, writes The White Pages newsletter, and is the author of the memoir The Right ...

This week, Quinn and Claire talk about first crushes, school dances, bloody noses, and other horrors of middle school before getting into why youth sports are dying across the US, especially because coaches make no money while dealing with our asshole ...

This week, writer Emily Gould joins Quinn and Claire to discuss her obsession with Heated Rivalry (it's about hockey, primarily), the aging cliff at 44, ruining everything you used to find fun by professionalizing it, and parenting the kid that's exact...

This week, we have Meghan Keane Graham and Mark Graham on the show to chat about their podcast, Back In My Day, where they watch movies from when they were 12 and force their kids (ages 12 and 9) to discuss them. We discuss: movies that don't hold up, ...

This week we're talking about the delicate art of making everything toxic for your children (Whole Foods? Ruined. Florida? The worst. Every public figure? Probably a Nazi.), how to tell kids bad news on their level ("Grandma is cooked"), and whether yo...

This week it's just Quinn and Claire on the pod, crashing out over academic probation (which is actually kind of a relief?), school surveillance that catches kids Googling inappropriate things (it was obviously just a prank, dad), and the theoretical q...

This week we have fiction writer and mom to one amazing 10-year-old, Joy Netanya Thompson, on the pod to discuss why she chose to stick with having just one kid. Joy gets real about postpartum depression, the decision to stop at one when she never imag...

This week, we have registered dietitian and death doula, Deanna Rondero, on the pod to chat about food insecurity, death cafes, and how grief intersects with everything. Also: losing it over mac and cheese, the new food pyramid nobody asked for, and wh...

This week, we have another guest! Dr. Devika Bhushan, a pediatrician, public health leader, former acting Surgeon General in California, and mom, chats with Quinn and Claire about the breastfeeding data nobody tells you about, why sleep protection is l...

This week, we have author and journalist Nefertiti Austin on the show to talk about her new book She's Just Spirited: Parenting a Neurodivergent Child and The Diagnosis that Changes Everything. Nefertiti gets real about raising a daughter with ADHD, wh...

This week, Claire and Quinn chat Halloween logistics, the rear-facing car seat as the ultimate deterrent to having another baby, Claire's solo cabin getaway where doing absolutely nothing is worth every penny, and why it's better to just go to bed angr...

This week: We won a podcast award! And now we're immediately spiraling into existential conversations about where we seek approval, why we need it, and how it's completely different (and weirdly the same) for our kids. We're talking about the Eldest Da...

This week, Claire and Quinn discuss the very normal things like getting back into shape (this time it's happening!), anniversary celebrations that peak at the cheese plate, and whether a C-minus in social studies is actually a problem. Also: fake spide...

After catching up on the weekend's chaos (signing up to be toilet papered, progressive dinner parties, and dads of preteens who've apparently never heard of Snapchat), Quinn and Claire discuss the never-ending battle that is feeding your children, your...

We're back! This week, Claire and Quinn are crashing out over back-to-school chaos (music class that your kid swears they aren't supposed to practice for, curriculum night avoidance, and late start mornings), the cognitive labor of being the "superhuma...

This week, Claire and Quinn tackle the brutal summer heat while diving into the complexities of maintaining a relationship with your co-parent. Finding couple time when everyone just wants to retreat to their separate corners is an eternal struggle, es...

This week Claire and Quinn welcome Sarah Wheeler, creator of the Mom Spreading blog, host of The Mother Of It All podcast, educational psychologist, and self-described 90s R&B enthusiast. Sarah brings her expertise in ADHD and neurodiversity to help pa...

This week, Quinn returns from an epic family trip to Alaska with stories of whales, glaciers, and kids who packed two socks for a week-long adventure. But as always, the conversation happens when they get home: dealing with post-vacation lows, kids who...

This week, Quinn and Claire are diving into the ever-evolving world of childcare, from the brutal economics of quality care to the desperate measures parents take just to keep working. They explore how childcare standards change from first kid (extensi...

This week, Claire and Quinn welcome screenwriter and director Chris Winterbauer (Moonshot, What Went Wrong podcast) to chat about movies! They cover what they let their kids watch, what they force them to watch, and which movies scarred them for life. ...

This week, Claire and Quinn ask: How do you raise charitable, empathetic kids when you can barely manage getting them to put their dishes in the sink? Topics include when your anti-gun household meets the school rummage sale Nerf gun haul, teaching emp...

This week Claire and Quinn welcome their first guest, Lindsey Stanberry, founder of The Purse and former editor at Fortune. Together they explore how to teach kids about money in 2025 -- from birthday party gift overload to teaching financial literacy ...

Parenting and sleep deprivation. From military-precise sleep training schedules to the anxiety spiral of a child who won't sleep, they share their brutally honest experiences with getting children (and themselves) to bed. Featuring tales of nine (yes, ...

This week, we talk about the humbling experience of parenthood and how reality shatters expectations. We cover: The gap between pre-parenting fantasies (museum trips and Christmas traditions) versus post-kid realities (barbecue chip crumbs in the car) ...

In our first bonus Q&A episode, Quinn and Claire tackle listener questions with their signature blend of honesty, humor, and zero judgment. Topics covered: Making parent friends: Is it a real connection or just shared misery? What makes friendship work...

This week, Quinn and Claire dive into traveling with kids. They share personal stories about family trips from their own childhoods and with their children now, covering everything from dealing with jetlag to bathroom emergencies at 30,000 feet. Also d...

This week, Claire and Quinn dig into the minefield of youth sports: understimulated kids who are getting on everyone's nerves vs. overscheduled families who have no time to breathe, the horrors of early-season kid-pitch baseball, the importance (or not...

This week, Claire and Quinn lament on the endless influx of STUFF that children seem to magically manifest in your home. From mysterious bouncy balls to apple juice containers full of sand to fantasies of cleansing fires, they explore the anxiety and d...

This week, Claire and Quinn unpack the often messy, often thankless job of solo parenting while your partner is away. We cover why you should never, EVER call your partner with "options" while the kids are listening, the cursed timing of arriving home ...

This week, Claire and Quinn take a break (mostly) from their existential dread to talk about the awkward, hilarious world of music and parenting. From deciding if Freak Like Me is appropriate for the carpool to facepalming when your kid asks if Beyoncé...

This week, Claire and Quinn dive into the messy reality of all the different ways we cope with parenting, while everything else is happening. From that stomach-dropping moment when your kid asks you "Did you get a call from school?" to balancing mental...

This week, Claire and Quinn explore the impossible question many parents are facing more frequently: how do you explain disasters, displacement, and uncertainty to your kids? From the Los Angeles wildfires to home insurance nightmares to tornado drills...

This week Claire and Quinn dive into how the show got its name - the eternal parental struggle of "Not Right Now" - from TikTok bans and VPN-savvy kids to fighting for five minutes alone in the bathroom. Plus: the special horror of watching your kids f...

In our debut episode, Claire (Evil Witches) and Quinn (Important, Not Important) dive into the chaotic reality of raising tiny humans in these wild times. From behavioral reflection forms and schoolyard diplomacy to the eternal question of "how many wa...

Not Right Now is a new podcast for parents navigating the impossible task of raising kids while *gestures wildly at everything*. Join Quinn Emmett (Important, Not Important) and Claire Zulkey (Evil Witches) for honest conversations about parenting in a...