Progressive Parenting Project

Hi SweetSmarties! I got to interview Nancy Jo Rettig this month! We bonded so well and had so much to discuss, our recorded conversation lasted two hours! I decided to divide our interview into two parts, and here is the second!I mention this in the epilogue to Part 1, but just to write it here as well: She has 40 years of experience as a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist, and she was a school counselor for 25 years! She also has a degree in Addictions Counseling!In the first part of our interview, which you can listen to in the previous episode, we spoke about about her background, how we initially connected, our recurring segment about our interpretations of the phrase Progressive Parenting, her match-making company, the Bob Newhart Show, Televised Therapy, and her practical, direct, goal-oriented approach. During the final part of last episode, we discuss my sleep issues, and we end with how I feel about my current phase of life, regarding my biological clock, dating, marriage, and if I would like to have children one day (the answer may surprise you, if you haven't already heard part 1!).In this second part of our discussion, we cover the patterns she noticed during her school counselor career, how they've changed over time, potential solutions for our widespread stress and anxiety, and we finish with her one final piece of advice to us, which you'll have to listen to the episode to find out! ;)I loved talking to her so much, and I hope you enjoy both parts of our interview! :) <3

Hi SweetSmarties! I got to interview Nancy Jo Rettig this month! We bonded so well and had so much to discuss, our recorded conversation lasted two hours! I decided to divide our interview into two parts, and here is the first!I mention this in my epilogue, but just to write it here as well: She has 40 years of experience as a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist, and she was a school counselor for 25 years! She also has a degree in Addictions Counseling!In this first part, we speak about her background, how we initially connected, our recurring segment about our interpretations of the phrase Progressive Parenting, her match-making company, the Bob Newhart Show, Televised Therapy, and her practical, direct, goal-oriented approach. During the last part of this episode, we discuss my sleep issues, and we end with how I feel about my current phase of life, regarding my biological clock, dating, marriage, and if I would like to have children one day (the answer may surprise you!).In the next part, we cover the patterns she noticed during her school counselor career, how they've changed over time, potential solutions for our widespread stress and anxiety, and we finish our conversation with her one final piece of advice to us, which you'll have to listen to the episode to find out! ;)I loved talking to her so much, and I hope you'll enjoy listening to both parts of our interview! :) <3

Hey SweetSmarties, I had a lovely conversation with Morgan Abraham on Wednesday, March 25th, three days before my final Pretend & Play performances I mention in this episode. I’m publishing our discussion on Monday, March 30th, and our shows went really well this past Saturday; I’m so proud of my little performers! Anyway, Morgan is my fourth and most likely last Social Worker interview on this podcast. We first connected when I was looking for one to interview in December 2025, and we decided to save her for March 2026, which happens to be National Social Worker month, as well as her birthday on St. Patrick’s Day, 3/17. :)In this episode, we talk about her background, her journey to where she is now, including some major health events, big career shifts, her approach, specialities, offerings, and we even bond over our shared experience of her hometown at the end. <3We also cover my philosophies on how to nurture children, entrepreneurial struggles, the tragedy of our society undervaluing what we do, and I gush about how much I love the kids I work with, and how severely I’ll miss them when our time together ends. As I write this, it ended two days ago, and I’m still processing my reaction, but I hope they’ll enroll in the courses I developed for this spring and summer, and that our relationship will continue in other ways. I may be fortunate enough to care for them in their own environments soon, so I’m looking forward to the possibility of that as well.Morgan is so wonderful: friendly, open, understanding, caring, kind, empathetic, knowledgeable, passionate, and very enjoyable to interact with - a dream guest for me! Our dialogue flowed so easily and naturally, and anyone who gets to work with her is super lucky! I’m excited to discover how her career develops in the future, and I hope you’ll seek her out, if you think you’d be a good fit, because there are many ways she can help improve your life! :DAs you can hear, my voice still isn’t back to normal yet, even though it’s been compromised for over 3 weeks now. :/ It’s definitely improved from the first week, but I really want to fully recover soon. I think I just push myself way too hard, but I don’t have the chance to slow down, so I don’t know how I’ll heal. Very slowly, like I’m experiencing now I guess. Anyway, I love you, and I want to help as well as I can, so stay tuned for everything I’m developing, I hope you benefit from this episode, and I’ll talk to you next time! 💖P.S. Here are a few links to learn more about Morgan and her work!https://www.morganabrahamtherapy.com/https://parenthoodonpurpose.com/https://kidsunfiltered.com/P.P.S. We both studied Latin, and we teach you two new phrases! One more thing: Alyssa's first book is actually called "Tiny Humans, Big Emotions." I often say "Little People" instead, because that's more engrained in my brain I guess. lol

SweetSmarties, I published my 22nd interview on 2/22 with an Olympian on the last day of the Olympics!! I really care about all those synchronicities, so it was important to me to release the episode on this date, and I hope you enjoy how everything aligns so well together too. :)Sarah Straton played beach volleyball for Australia in the Sydney 2000 Olympics, and then went on to have a career in Parenting, which is how we connected. <3She founded a company called Evergrowing, which provides so many resources, like workshops, classes, and support groups, just to name a few! She also speaks at schools, corporations, and coaches volleyball at our local high school! :DI loved our discussion so much, and I really hope it resonates with you as well. ✨ You can learn more about her work here: https://sarahstraton.com/.Bye until next time, my loves! 🫧

Hey SweetSmarties, I'm excited for you to listen to my interview with Rebekah, who founded and directs the nonprofit I work for, Haven Academy of the Arts! I'm currently teaching my second season of Pretend & Play there, which is Social Emotional Learning through Performing Arts! We learn kindness, empathy, theory of mind, emotional intelligence, and many other important aspects of being a wonderful human being, while Acting, Singing, Dancing, and playing in myriad creative, fun, enriching ways! During our conversation, we discuss the value of Arts Education, how beneficial it is to everyone, and how versatile those skills are, as well as the developmental and therapeutic dimensions that I've experienced as an actor and that I'm facilitating with my students now! We also talk about some assets I didn't even realize like how it helps us build resilience, persevere through challenges, and delay gratification, all of which strengthen us as people, and bolster our ability to accomplish a variety of goals!She introduced me to Collaborative and Proactive Solutions, which she learned from Dr. Ross Greene's book The Explosive Child. We also speak about Angela Duckworth's work on Grit and of course Carol Dweck's work on Growth Mindset, which I discuss often, because of how profoundly it impacted me!There's tons of gems in here, and I can't wait for you to hear all the beautiful moments we shared in this episode!A couple things I'd like to explain to you: She asked me to remove one little part where I distinguish between my two classes, without naming anyone, but just stating which day I teach them and how many students are in each one, so I took out a few words between 1 hour and 3 minutes and 1 hour and 4 minutes. I tried to edit out those words as smoothly as possible, but if at one point you feel like there's something missing, that's why. lol The second thing is that a gentle alarm went off for one very brief moment to signify that she needed to leave in 5 minutes, and I couldn't remove it without taking out some words I wanted to leave in, so I just kept it. I don't mind at all, and I hope you don't either. That's also why we had to end so quickly afterwards, because she had to go. 😄 Alrighty, that's all I wanted to share with you, and I hope you love hearing our interaction! I enjoyed having it so much, and I'm super grateful to Rebekah for collaborating with me, and for my whole Haven family I get to work with every week! 🥰Talk to you next time, my Loves! Oh my goodness, also, happy 3rd season! I can't believe I almost forgot to mention this is our season 3 premiere! Woohoo! I'm so proud and elated we made it this far, and I'm ecstatic for where we'll go the rest of this season, and beyond!! ✨P.S. You can visit their website at havenartsacademy.org or explore them on Instagram @havenartsacademy. You can also check out their Facebook page or email [email protected] for more information! I hope you choose to enroll in a program or support them however you can, if they seem like a good fit for your family. If your child is 3-5 years old, they may be in one of my classes, so that would be amazing if we got to work together! 🌟Okie dokie, bye until next episode! 💖

Hey SweetSmarties, I’m setting a new record this month and season: publishing 3 interviews with a combined 5 hours of audio during these last few (consecutive) days of the year! I hope you’ve been enjoying my Social Worker series so far, and that you love this Season 2, 2025 finale! There is still one more Social Worker interview to come in March, but this is the end of our December trio. :) This is my 20th interview over all, since I started over a year and a half ago! :D I’m so proud of everything, and have enjoyed these interviews immensely, so I hope you’ve benefited a ton from my work this year! <3Jill has a background in Social Work, and now has a private therapy practice she founded about 9 months ago, this past March! This is such a thrilling time for her burgeoning business, and I’m so happy I get to help her grow it! It was such a pleasure and a privilege to interact with her, and listening to our conversation, you can get a glimpse into what a fantastic therapist she may be to you, if it seems like you’d fit well together. ✨ We talked about her varied background, and how we both contain multitudes, which I love! Internally diverse people are so intriguing and amazing to connect with, so this experience was incredible for me! Not only has she done so much, but she’s a wealth of resources with a tremendous capacity and dedication to help others. I really appreciate how much she cares and how brilliantly equipped she is to improve people’s lives!We spoke about her current practice, and the many fascinating approaches she uses! I loved learning about them, and being sort of an example patient to both help me and show you how marvelous she is at her job (and just as a person)! I hope you decide to embark on this beautiful journey with us, and that you get so much out of our discussion! ❤️‍🔥 Talk to you next time; I wish you a fabulous end of 2025 and an extraordinary beginning of 2026, until season 3 premieres in a matter of weeks! 🫧

I interviewed a young, new social worker named Lydia Johnson, who just graduated from the University of San Diego in May 2025! She's only 22, and has already done so much varied, helpful work! I'm very impressed with her, and I imagine you will be too, after listening to our conversation. We spoke about everything she did throughout her schooling, and in the months since she began her current position as a case manager for Libertana, a home health care company. We also talked about some of my jobs, experiences, and philosophies, and had a wonderful time bonding, learning, and growing together during the nearly four hours we connected this night we met for our discussion! We recorded about an hour and a half of that time, and not only did I enjoy experiencing it, I'm excited for you to hear what we said! We had one major tech issue, which I worked really hard to resolve in post production, and I also mention it within the interview. Her microphone was off for the first 27 minutes of our recorded conversation, so I had to isolate the sound of her voice in the background of my microphone, and amplify it to try to match the volume of my voice as well as I could. You can tell it's a little wonky, but I'm very proud of my effort to solve the problem, and the results I was able to achieve with the tools I have. Anyway, I hope you love it, learn and benefit a ton, and I'll speak to you next time, SweetSmarties! <3 :)

SweetSmarties, I'm so excited for you to listen to my conversation with Lyn, the first social worker I interviewed in my series of four! We're kindred spirits in many ways, and it felt amazing to connect so deeply in profound areas of our lives! I enjoyed and appreciated our discussion immensely; I'm so grateful she reached out to me earlier this month. <3 We talked about her background and career trajectory, our shared gifted child experiences, perfectionism, desire to avoid conflict, and need to control, as well as the reasons for all that, and how it manifests in us. We also spoke about how we navigate challenging interactions, how she parents her children, how we were parented, and the specifics of her current job. Lastly, we discussed Hispanic culture, what it's like to feel different, as well as mixed and in between groups, and how her ideas of gender influenced her upbringing, followed by how she chooses to raise her children in light of what's important to her now. I took some risks this episode by sharing things I was a little hesitant to publish, but I'm hoping that my vulnerability helps those listening, because that's why I'm doing this. :) I have a lot to express to you as I end this season and year, so I'll return soon, my darlings! ✨ Bye until then! 🫧

Hey SweetSmarties, I hope you enjoy listening to my interview with Speech Language Pathologist Jessie Ginsburg! She focuses on connecting with her clients, regulating their nervous systems, and developing their sense of intrinsic motivation. :) She has a private practice called The Pediatric Therapy Playhouse, and an online organization called the NeuroAffirm Therapy Academy. She also wrote a book called Ready, Set, Connect - “a sensory-based approach to accelerate communication in autistic children.” We spoke about her background, her private practice, her therapy academy, and her book, as well as my personal experience with stuttering and its relationship to Acting. We talked about my Language Development studies, and my conference project from that class about using Acting as speech therapy to treat stuttering, which has been effective for many actors, such as Emily Blunt as one of my favorite examples. That led into our discussion of the neuroscience of verbal communication and our autonomic nervous system. All of this is very important to us and makes so much sense when you view these concepts through that paradigm. You can learn more about her and her amazing work at https://www.sensoryslp.com/. Thank you for being here, and I’ll talk to you next time! <3

Hey SweetSmarties, I hope you enjoy listening to my interview with Ashley, a Child Life Specialist, which is a job that I value really highly! You'll understand why when you hear our conversation about it, and I've even heavily considered doing this career myself! Happy Halloween, if you're listening to this on release day! This year, 2025, I'm Ms. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus! I have to go enjoy the rest of this holiday now, so I'll talk to you next time! Oh, P.S., if the volume seems inconsistent, it's because my normalizing tool wasn't working, so I had to manually amplify all the previously quiet parts, which was so difficult, and took forever! I did my best like always, so I hope it doesn't diminish your experience too much. Alrighty, now I'm officially signing off for at least a little while! lol TTYL 💓

Hi SweetSmarties, this month I got to interview my local children's librarian! I've loved libraries and wanted to interview a librarian, specifically one focused on children's literacy, for a long time! Fun fact about me: I currently have 8 active library cards just for different districts around Southern California. 🤓We talk about his background and path to this work, what he loves about his job, why he chose this, what it means to him, his approach to nurturing the wonderful children in our community as well as his own at home, and his perspective on other profound topics I'm excited for you to hear! I of course shared my own experiences and philosophies, including referencing a few past episodes, which was nice for me to be able to do. This is my 15th interview, and I'm hoping to do 30, so if I fulfill that plan, I'm halfway there now! 🎉 I hope you enjoy listening to us learn, share, and bond with each other! We'd had brief interactions since I first published this project, but this was our first long, deep conversation. I had a fantastic time, and I hope you benefit a lot from our discussion! 📚I look forward to connecting further as we continue this journey together. 💖Genuinely,T.J. Campbell

Hi SweetSmarties! Here's the second part of my interview with Dr. Judy Y. Chu! As you'll hear in the prologue I recorded for you, last episode we talked about my connection to her work, her background and path to it, her study observations regarding the gender socialization of a group of young boys from pre-Kindergarten to Kindergarten and then briefly in 1st and 3rd grade, and how human qualities are restrictively and inaccurately gendered, wishing they wouldn't be at all, and instead seen as available and potentially applicable to everyone, depending on what each individual discovers is true for them. :)In this episode, we discuss practical ways to free yourself of these restrictions, or at least reduce the pressure you may feel to conform to societal norms, and then we talk about some of my Sarah Lawrence education, including one of my favorite conference projects I ever did. 🤓I hope you enjoy listening to our conversation, and that you find the experience beneficial as always. 😇Thank you so much for being here, and I look forward to speaking to you next time! 💖

Hi SweetSmarties, I'm so excited to share my interview with Dr. Judy Y. Chu! Her work is really important to me, and her book, When Boys Become Boys: Development, Relationships, & Masculinity is my favorite of all the literary sources I've read in my Progressive Parenting Project research. She was also in one of my favorite documentaries, The Mask You Live in, by the Representation Project. I rewatched it recently, 10 years after I first saw it, and I still found it very impactful, so I recommend you read Judy's book and watch that documentary, if you're interested in Gender Socialization, particularly how it begins in children and how certain aspects of it can be restrictive. Our interview lasted over 2 hours, so I divided it into 2 parts, and recorded a little epilogue for you explaining that at the end of this episode. You'll probably notice Judy's and my audio sound really different, and that's because not only did we conduct our conversation remotely, but unfortunately her microphone on her wired ear phones rubbed against her hair and clothes the whole time, so I did my best to remove those rustling sounds. As a result, her voice sounds kind of far away, or like I recorded a phone call on speaker or something. I tried my best to normalize the volume, and align our voices, after editing our audio tracks separately, so I'm sorry if it doesn't sound ideal, but trust me, this is a lot better than it sounded originally. lolAnyway, in this first part I speak about how significantly her work impacted me, she speaks about her background and path to this field, we talk about our interpretations of Progressive Parenting, her 2 year study from her book, specifically the changes she noticed in the young boys she interviewed in terms of their masculinity development between the ages of 4 and 5 (as well as briefly at 6 and 8), and how we believe many aspects of our humanity should not be gendered, like personality traits, behaviors, emotions, interests, activities, etc. In the next part, we discuss how to navigate the world as it is, while still striving for improvement, my conference work from my Sociology of Education class, touching on the ideas of Pluralistic Ignorance and the Dyadic Power Thesis, and we end by expressing our appreciation for each other, and how much we enjoyed our interaction. :)Lastly, my epilogue sounds the way it does, because I'm a little sick right now (8/20/25 when I recorded it and when I'm publishing this episode), so that explains the contrast between the way I am in the interview on 8/11/25. I hope you enjoy listening to this part of our discussion, and the next part I'll release on 8/28! Thank you! Talk to you then! :DP.S. I remembered during the interview that the linguistic dichotomy I was referring to is Prescriptivism vs Descriptivism, and thought about mentioning it, but didn’t want to interrupt our flow, so I decided to just include it here. 😄

Hi everyone, I'm excited to introduce you to my friend Natsumi Koizumi, who will be at my event, Super Summer Sunday, on 7/27/25, if you'd like to meet her in person! She was a preschool and prekindergarten teacher for nearly 6 years, until the school closed, and she decided to create her own organization called Sumi Zumi Adventures! She offers nature-based sessions outdoors, including exploring plants and one of her favorite groups of animals, insects! She also reads books and does relevant activities with children at their homes. Her business is ever-evolving, as is mine, so I'm looking forward to discovering how we grow, and supporting each other along the way. Please check out her instagram account @sumizumiadventures or email her at [email protected], if you'd like to collaborate. Thanks for listening, I hope some of what we said resonated with you, and that you just enjoyed hearing our conversation. Talk to you next time, SweetSmarties! :) 💖

Hi SweetSmarties! I was so excited to interview Oona Hanson this month! I have been aware of her work for many years, so getting to talk to her directly was a dream come true! We both have a lot of theoretical knowledge about Body Image and developing a healthy relationship to food, eating, digestion, etc., and while I really appreciate that, I wanted to focus on practical applications during this conversation. We discuss concrete steps we can actually take in our daily lives to improve this, as well as warning signs to help identify more severe issues, such as a variety of disordered behavior. I also asked her for some confidence advice, and she shared the gems of validating our feelings and expressing compassion towards ourselves. If you're interested in athletics, there's some special content in this episode for you that's pretty rare for this show, because it's not a topic I often choose to feature. :) I hope you find our talk helpful, and enjoy listening to us. Until next time my lovelies! <3 P.S. This was a remote interview with some tech challenges, so I recorded a brief addendum explaining all that, and did my best to edit out all our misalignments to improve your listening experience. 🪻

Hi everyone, I got to interview Jennifer Maslar Teer from Beach Cities Literacy, and I’m so excited for you to learn about all her helpful services! She’s a reading interventionist, special education teacher, an executive functioning coach, accountability partner, IEP (Individualized Education Program) advocate, and so much more! We spoke about her background, her path to this beautiful, important, fulfilling work, and then dove a little deeper into the details of how she helps people in a variety of ways. We also discussed how overextended people tend to be these days, and some of the consequences of that, as well as psychological struggles of people under immense pressure to excel, such as the connection among perfectionism, procrastination, self-sabotage, shame, ego, and other complexly inter-related factors. There are so many gems here, so I hope you enjoy listening to this episode, and our conversation benefits you on multiple levels. If you’d like to collaborate with Jennifer, you can visit her website https://beachcitiesliteracy.com. Thanks for sharing our compassionate curiosity, openness to growth, and supporting this project I pour my soul into; talk to you next time, SweetSmarties! 📖💖🐚

Hi everybody, I had the best time talking to Natalie Croswell, Fit4Mom Torrance franchise owner, the second person to approach me for an interview! Can you believe it?! Two now! We're leveling up! :D We spoke about the value of developing genuine bonds from a place of empathy and understanding, building a beautifully supportive community of connected caregivers, as I mentioned in my title. :)We also discussed healthy, practical ways to nurture ourselves, and increase our capacity to care for others, while specifying that we don't always have to frame our existence through a caregiving lens. We're multifaceted people who play many roles in our lives, and we need resources to fulfill all of them, so it's most important that we find ways to replenish what we spend, no matter how we choose to use them. <3 From our conversation, it seems like Fit4Mom helps tend to many of those aspects, from physical fitness to mental and social heath, and beyond!We touched on so much more, learned and grew from each other, and shared some fun giggles, which I particularly enjoyed. 😄I’m excited for the positive impact this episode will have, which Fit4Mom calls the ripple! That concept of our interconnectedness really exemplifies how this company cares for so many dimensions of our wellbeing! 💖Although I haven’t experienced it directly, from Natalie’s account, the focus on relationships, vulnerable authenticity, realistic skill development, and general holistic approach all sounds very commendable! 🪽I look forward to discovering how far our ripple will expand! 💓Fit4Mom calls May the “Month of Mama,” and is doing many things to celebrate that! You can attend a whole week of classes for free that month, using the link to this trial: https://torrance.fit4mom.com/month-of-mamaIf you’re a local independent business (in the South Bay of Los Angeles County), you can also apply to participate in their event on Monday, May 12th, 10am-12pm at Charles H. Wilson Park in Torrance, California with this link: https://mom-torrance.paperform.co/Lastly, you can visit the Torrance location’s website torrance.fit4mom.com or their Instagram page @fit4momtorrance.Woo, what great timing for this episode publication! I hope you love listening to it, and that it helps you in some way! 🥰Talk to you next time! 😇Love,T.J. 🪻

I interviewed Tiffany Spadola of South Bay Parent Coaching, and we discussed so many amazingly fascinating, helpful topics! We talked about being highly sensitive people, as well as spirited and strong-willed. We spoke about Neurodivergence, Theory of Mind, the Excitability of Giftedness, non-stop active minds that struggle to sleep, the immense benefits of pretend play, and so much more! She’s also a certified potty trainer, so she mentioned that a little, especially emphasizing how different every child is, and intending to remove the shame and blame she’s noticed parents and children often receive during that sometimes challenging process. I loved our conversation, learned a ton, and found it hugely beneficial to connect with someone who understands and empathizes with a lot of my experiences. I hope it helps you too, and at the very least, that you enjoy listening! :)Here’s her website: https://southbayparentcoaching.comYou can also join her Instagram & Facebook communities:@southbayparentcoachinghttps://www.facebook.com/southbayparentcoaching

I interviewed Leanne Sargeant from the Wonder Workshops earlier this month, and we had such a fabulous adventure together! We both marvel at the beauty around us, and we experienced a fantastic example of that perspective while searching for a place to record! We first went to a library near and dear to our hearts, planning to use one of the study rooms, but when they were unexpectedly occupied, we roamed around looking for an alternative location. Early on in the process, we noticed this gorgeous bird called a Scarlet Flycatcher! We paused our quest, to admire and appreciate this stunning creature for a moment, which was a fantastic shared experience that exemplified how we prefer to live, and what we intended to discuss in this episode! After traveling all the way to a different city, we eventually settled on an outdoor spot, so this recording has more background noise than usual. I tried to edit it out as well as I could, and I hope it doesn’t distract you too much. Anyway, we loved talking about our aligned perspectives, and had a blast bonding as people throughout this whole endeavor, so I hope you learn tons, connect with us, and find our conversation as enriching as we did. Thank you so much SweetSmarties, and I’ll talk to you next time! 🦋🪻☀️🌈🐚🍄❄️🪼🐞🐌You can visit Leanne’s website https://thewonderworkshops.com or follow her on Instagram @thewonderworkshops

Hello kind curious cuties! I’m thrilled to begin a new season with you! Welcome to the first episode of season 2! I got to interview Bryana Kappadakunnel this month, the first person to ever come to me, which was a huge deal for this project! She has an organization called Conscious Mommy in which she helps people parent themselves, which in turn helps them parent their children. 😇 She’s a licensed therapist, and wrote a book that comes out on January 28th called Parent Yourself First!  We both have acting backgrounds, went to college in New York (she to NYU and I to Sarah Lawrence), worked in preschools, and have directly experienced the therapeutic power of performing arts. I was fascinated to speak with someone I connect with in so many ways, who is incredibly knowledgeable, capable, compassionate, and accomplished! I loved learning together and bonding as always, which I’m elated to include you in now too! 💞✨ One funny behind the scenes tidbit is that we were both coughing throughout the interview, which I edited out, but at one point, my voice sounds a little wonky, almost as if I’m going to cry as I talk about perfectionism and gifted child syndrome. As emotional as these topics can be, I wasn’t in that state during our conversation. lol What I wish I could’ve left in was us supporting each other through the experience, because that was honestly so sweet: such beautiful empathy and solidarity between us in those moments. 🥹 I was bummed we didn’t have time to discuss all my questions, so just to let you know, the ones we had to skip were about how her performing artist self manifests in her parenting and her work, and the relationship between Acting and Therapy. I was going to share my perspective on all that too, so hopefully I’ll have another opportunity in the future. 🎭🎬🎤 You can explore more of her work at consciousmommy.com and you can pre-order her book here: https://www.consciousmommy.com/book. She’s even going on tour! On January 29th, 6:30pm, she’ll be at “{pages} a bookstore” in Los Angeles and on January 30th, 7pm, she’ll be at “A Great Good Place for Books” in Oakland! I hope you’ll be able to meet her if you’re in California like us, and that you enjoy listening to our talk! 🥰💫🫧🪻🦋 Until next time SweetSmarties! Love your founder, T.J. 🦄❄️🐚💎🍓👑

Hi SweetSmarties! Here's the second part of the finale, featuring my subsequent three interviews with Joslyn, Charlotte, & Skyler! Joslyn is my neighbor whose children I take care of, Charlotte is a Psychology professor at Rutgers and published author of research I studied before I launched this project, and Skyler works at the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation, which we're both connected to, because she has Ulcerative Colitis and I have Crohn's Disease (both of us since childhood). This reflection and review episode discusses episodes 8 through 10 of this first season. I hope you enjoy listening to what I chose to mention, and that you loved our whole season! I'm so grateful you're here, and look forward to growing and learning together even more next season! :D 💓✨

Hello Lovelies, in this episode, I speak about my solo introduction, and first three interviews with my cousin Genevieve, her husband Mark, my neighbor Lauren, and the founder of Children's Place Montessori School, Jennifer, and her son Craig. These are the first seven episodes, because I divided the second interview into two parts and the third into three. I hope you enjoy listening to my commentary, and going down memory lane with me. I'm releasing the second part later this month, covering my following three interviews, spanning across episodes eight through ten. I hope you loved the whole season, and I'm so looking forward to continuing with a second one in the new year! :D

Hello SweetSmarties! I'm thrilled to present my conversation with Skyler to you! I was so looking forward to speaking with her, because we were both diagnosed with a similar chronic illness in childhood, and I knew I would love bonding over it!  We have inflammatory bowel disease, she Ulcerative Colitis and I Crohn's; her symptoms began at 16 years old and mine at only 8! We talked about our health journeys and so many more fascinating, touching topics, connecting beautifully and entertainingly throughout our wonderful interaction.  She's delightful, bright, helpful, and super inspiring! I can't even fully tell you how much I enjoyed our discussion, and I really hope you'll get tons out of it too! :D  She has an ileostomy bag she affectionately calls "Ostie," which we get to learn about in this episode, and it was so remarkable to receive a glimpse into her life. I was very curious how it affects her, and about other aspects of her experience navigating these challenges, and just being the phenom that she is. :) We’re both honestly grateful for how all of this has shaped us into the marvelous people we are, and we’re happy to share our positive perspective to help others as well as we can. 💗 I hope you enjoy learning and growing with us as always! ✨ If you'd like to explore any further information or IBD resources, you can visit the organization she currently works for and I've volunteered with: the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America. (Our chapter is Los Angeles and Orange County, so feel free to find your own local community!) https://www.crohnscolitisfoundation.org/

Hello, my cherished Triple P community! This episode is super special for so many reasons! I got to interview someone whose research I've studied for years, which was such a privilege! We talked about her speciality: Body Image (+ Relationship to Food & Eating), as well as our other staple topics - Gender, Growth Mindset, & Media Literacy. We bonded over unexpected parallels, like her daughter and I not only having the same birthday, but both being born very prematurely, which significantly affected how we were parented, and in turn, how we grew up. There are so many gems I'm excited for you to discover in this episode, and I'm thrilled to have had the opportunity to speak with an academic superstar who's positively influenced my work for a long time. 🌟💗https://markey.camden.rutgers.eduhttps://www.thebodyimagebook.com

Hello Sweet Loves! I interviewed my neighbor Joslyn, and we spoke about her work as a professional researcher (wow, so cool, interesting, & impressive! to me at least lol), interspersed with her own personal experiences raising two wonderful children whom I have the privilege of knowing (and caring for) as well! Our conversation fascinated me, and of course there's some humor and heartfelt moments mixed in too! We talked about our usual four topics (Body Image, Gender, Growth Mindset, & Media Literacy), along with her military background, and a bunch of other compelling information to which I hope you'll enjoy listening. I'm so grateful that you're here, and would love to connect and help improve the world together. :) 🤍

Hey everybody, welcome to the third and final part of our amazing discussion! In this segment, we talk about Masculinity and Media Literacy as the title suggests, along with some surprises thrown in towards the end. :D Last episode, we spoke about Craig's transition from Montessori to different schooling types, and in the first part, we cover his and Jennifer's backgrounds, Montessori basics, and Craig's experience as a student of it. :) I hope you enjoy listening to our whole conversation, and have fun laughing, learning, and growing with us! 💖 Love, T.J. 🪻🦋

Hello all you beautiful souls; thank you so much for being here! Welcome to Part 2 of our incredible discussion! :D In this episode, we talk about Craig's transition to different types of schooling, diverse interests, Growth Mindset, and Body Image, connected to Jennifer's bellydancing. :) Last episode in Part 1, we spoke about their backgrounds, Montessori basics, and his experience as a student of it. Next episode in our third and final part, we'll cover Masculinity, Media Literacy, and some fun closing surprises! Happy listening, learning, and growing! 🪻🦋🌈 Love, T.J. 💖

Hi, everybody! I had an amazing conversation with a Montessori school founder named Jennifer and her son Craig that I'm super duper excited to share with you! 
I divided our discussion into 3 parts, and this first part covers their backgrounds, our interpretations of Progressive Parenting, the basics of the Montessori Method, and Craig's experience as a student of it. 
In the next part, we'll talk about his transition to other educational styles, his family's diverse interests, Growth Mindset, and how his mom's bellydancing influenced her Body Image.
In the last part, we mainly delve into his unconventional Masculinity, and the concept of Media Literacy as Critical Thinking, along with a bit of advice and a few surprises to shake things up! 
I loved this experience so much, so I hope you enjoy listening to it, and find it beneficial! :DLove, T.J.
P.S. Jennifer's school (that Craig attended) is called The Children's Place, and it's located in Torrance, CA, if you're interested in looking further into it, or supporting them in any way. ♥️
https://www.childrensplaceschool.com

Welcome to the second part of "Loving Lifelong Learning with Lauren"! Like I mentioned before, we cover Gifted Child Syndrome, Fixed & Growth Mindsets, having a healthy relationship to food and a compassionate Body Image, Media Literacy, and being an Only Child in this section of our interaction. :D During the first part, last episode, we start by talking about how Lauren, her husband Balazs, their daughter Abby, and I all know each other. Then, we flow right into their family's backgrounds, including their educations, careers, love story, and journey to parenthood. Next, we cover our interpretations of Progressive Parenting, their parenting influences, and we conclude with a remarkably rich Gender discussion. I cherish our entire conversation, so I hope you enjoy listening to it even a fraction as much as I loved having it. :)

My conversation with my neighbor Lauren was so incredible, it lasted twice as long as we expected! I divided our compelling discussion into two parts; in this first one, we talk about her and her husband's backgrounds, relationship, journey to parenthood, interpretations of progressive parenting, parenting influences, and multifaceted Gender perspectives. In the second part of our interaction, featured in the next episode, we speak about gifted child syndrome, fixed vs growth mindset, developing a healthy relationship with food and your body, media literacy, and being an only child. I encourage you to listen to our full discussion, spanning across both episodes, to benefit the most from our amazing experience together. I hope it positively impacts you, like it has me. :)

Hi Sweethearties, I'm so excited for you to learn from the Rogers family in our very first interview! We recorded this even before my introductory episode, so this truly is our brave, beautiful beginning! In this conversation, we discuss intuitive eating, gender stereotypes, growth mindset, gifted child syndrome, and the shifting dynamics of an expanding family, among other interesting topics. We recorded this on May 5th, 2024, and their new baby boy was born 5 and a half weeks later on June 12th! I'm so grateful they were able to do this before their lives became even more chaotic, and I hope you find our interaction as intriguing and entertaining as I do. You'll hear the title in this episode, as well as the full version, which is my favorite quote from our discussion: "Kids are just little adults, and adults are just big kids." I wholeheartedly believe we're the same in so many ways, and I hope that idea resonates with you as well. Alrighty, I wish you an enjoyable listening journey! :D

Hello, my lovely listeners! Here's an introduction to the podcast, a little bit about my background, education, and research, relevant to the project, and a broad overview of what you may be able to expect in the coming episodes. I'm so excited for us to learn and grow together, and I sincerely hope you benefit from my work! :D