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In this Think It Through episode, Drs. Derek and Laura Cabrera of Cornell University tackle a listener’s real-life parenting dilemma: a 10-year-old boy terrified of monsters lurking in his house. What begins as a bedtime fear unfolds into a profound lesson on mental models, evidence, and how we teach kids to tell what’s real from what’s imagined.

Through the lens of systems thinking, the Cabreras show how fears—childhood or adult—emerge from the mental models we create about the world, and how those beliefs drive our emotions and behaviors. They share practical tools parents can use to help kids test their thinking against reality, build evidence-based confidence, and ultimately develop the lifelong skill of thinking clearly under fear.

What starts as a monster problem becomes a masterclass in how to raise resilient, reality-loving thinkers in an age of misinformation and AI.