What Fresh Hell

episodes

July 18, 2025

What to Say to Our Kids When Bad Things Happen

How do we talk to our kids when tragedy strikes—whether close to home or far away? Amy and Margaret explore how to support children through scary news, sad events, and overwhelming emotions through ages and stages.

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July 16, 2025

When One of Our Kids Takes Up All of Our Bandwidth

What happens when one child dominates your parenting bandwidth—whether due to illness, behavior, or giftedness? We unpack the impact on family dynamics and how to recalibrate.

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July 14, 2025

BEST OF: Dumb Things We Thought When We Were Kids

What's the absolutely dumbest thing that you fully believed as a child? We asked our listeners, and share some of their—and our—most deeply held misbeliefs.

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July 11, 2025

Fresh Take: Danielle Bettmann on Positive Discipline

Parenting coach Danielle Bettmann shares how positive discipline can help parents of strong-willed or neurodivergent kids avoid power struggles and find calm, connection, and consistency.

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July 9, 2025

5 Conversations to Have with Your Kids This Summer

Amy and Margaret offer five important topics to discuss with your kids this summer, from online safety to growth mindset. We also provide you with plenty of other episodes we've done on these topics for further listening.

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July 7, 2025

BEST OF: Best Mom Lies Ever

Here are the mom lies that totally worked on our kids– or worked on us *as* kids. Whether it's the ice cream truck's “all gone” jingle, the "just sleeping” goldfish, or the broccoli factory field trip for kids who act up, these are our favorite fibs.

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July 4, 2025

Best of: Dr. Ibram X. Kendi on Raising Antiracists

It can feel scary to discuss racism with our kids. But it’s the best way for us to protect them from its harms– and as Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, author of HOW TO RAISE AN ANTIRACIST, explains, kids can approach this work more easily than we might expect.

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July 2, 2025

BEST OF: Grudges Held, Grudges Kept

We asked our listeners to tell us about their pettiest and most long-held grudges. From spelling-bee unfairness to pumpkin-farm price gouging, we spill the tea on our own petty grudges and share some of your most hilarious answers.

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June 30, 2025

DEEP DIVE: Francesca Royster on "Choosing Family"

Francesca Royster, author of the memoir CHOOSING FAMILY: A Memoir of Queer Motherhood and Black Resistance, explains what it means to build a “chosen family” of friends, and how to parent while yearning for the world that we want, but don’t have yet.

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June 27, 2025

Fresh Take: Ramit Sethi, "Money for Couples"

Ramit Sethi, author of the book MONEY FOR COUPLES, joins Margaret to talk finances in marriages: why we avoid it, how to reframe it, and how to design a rich life together.

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June 25, 2025

Things Most People Think Are Hard (But Aren't)

Sometimes we never learn things because we think they're too hard. But we (and our listeners) are here to say that some of them aren't hard at all!

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June 23, 2025

DEEP DIVE: Ellen Kahn On Supporting Our LGBTQ Kids

Ellen Kahn is an expert on LGBTQ youth and family life. She tells us how parents can create a home environment that affirms and accepts LGBTQ children, and how we can advocate for LGBTQ kids in the larger world, whether they're our own kids or not.

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June 20, 2025

Fresh Take: Dr. Morgan Cutlip on Redistributing the Mental Load

Relationship expert Dr. Morgan Cutlip, author of the new book A BETTER SHARE, offers practical tools for reducing the mental load, improving intimacy, and creating a more equitable home—without the resentment.

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June 18, 2025

Trad Moms and Trad Wives

We explore the core messages of the trad mom trend. Why does this aesthetic captivate us, and why does it drive so many of us crazy?

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June 16, 2025

Fresh Take: Jessica Zucker on Normalizing Miscarriage

Jessica Zucker's new book "Normalize It" is a compassionate exploration of the stories of women's lives, rooted in her own experience with miscarriage and breast cancer, and her work as a psychologist specializing in women's mental health. In this episode she explains how to challenge the stigma an…

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June 12, 2025

Fresh Take: Meagan Francis, THE LAST PARENTING BOOK YOU'LL EVER READ

Parenting writer Meagan Francis joins Amy to discuss her new book, THE LAST PARENTING BOOK YOU'LL EVER READ, and how to embrace life after hands-on motherhood. A must-listen for parents facing empty nests, identity shifts, and new beginnings.

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June 11, 2025

There's a New Study on Moms' Mental Health...and It's Not Great

A new study on maternal mental health reveals "significant declines" in the well-being of mothers. Margaret and Amy discuss the latest data, potential causes, and how to prioritize our own well-being at every stage of motherhood.

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June 9, 2025

DEEP DIVE: Amber Briggle on Supporting Trans Kids

Amber Briggle is an activist, speaker, and proud parent of her transgender son. In this episode, she discusses how to support trans kids in today’s political climate as well as her own journey parenting her son through his transition.

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June 6, 2025

Fresh Take: Melinda Wenner Moyer on "Raising Terrific Kids in Terrify…

How can we prepare our children to navigate the ups and downs of adult life? Melinda Wenner Moyer, author of the new book HELLO CRUEL WORLD, discusses how parents can model cultivating skills for emotional intelligence and resilience to their children.

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June 4, 2025

Creating Systems That Work

How can we keep track of the millions of tasks that kids, work, and a household require without letting important things slip through the cracks? Amy and Margaret discuss practical systems to help families manage their daily routines and scheduling challenges.

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June 2, 2025

DEEP DIVE: Can We Be More Inclusive Parents?

Can we become more inclusive as parents? We discuss how to get more intentionally welcoming in our family lives and communities, how to bring our kids into that conversation, and how inclusivity benefits us just as much as the one we’re welcoming.

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May 30, 2025

Fresh Take: Loryn Brantz on Finding Joy in Parenting Through Poetry

How can we maintain a creative practice as busy parents? Loryn Brantz, author of the new collection of poetry POEMS OF PARENTING, discusses balancing motherhood with her creative pursuits.

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May 28, 2025

Traveling as a Family

As summer travel looms large, what can we do to keep the family chaos to a minimum as we hop in a car or on a plane? Here are some useful family travel tips from Amy, Margaret, and our listeners.

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May 26, 2025

DEEP DIVE: Do We Need to Lower Our Standards?

Is it really our "maternal gatekeeping" and too-high standards that are preventing a more equitable distribution of household tasks? We discuss the minimum standard of care and how that can be determined.

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