Alanna and Milano wrap up Season 2—and the school year—with some straight talk about sleepaway camp: Is your child right for sleepaway? How do you know if a certain camp will be a good fit? Can parents trust that their kids will be kept safe? How do counselors handle homesickness, bullying, and other challenges? And what if camp interferes with travel sports schedules?

Doug Knight, Director of Camp Tecumseh in New Hampshire, breaks it all down for us. He shares his observations of what happens within (and between) kids when they leave screens, plumbing, electricity, and families behind: self-awareness, self-reliance, collaboration, conflict resolution, and resilience. In other words, GROWTH. 

A former lacrosse legend in his own right and father of three boy athletes, Doug also lends a unique perspective on the ongoing battle between sleepaway camps and youth sports training camps—and how sleepaway, in his opinion, is a much bigger bang for everyone’s buck. 

In This Episode:

👉 How to determine whether the sleepaway experience is right for your child 

👉 Questions and concerns unpacked: homesickness, picky eating, and camper safety 

👉 Cost-benefit analysis of sleepaway camp vs. sports training camps 

👉 What it means to “make good boys better”

Follow us: @barenakedmoms

Learn more about Doug and Camp Tecumseh

What’s the difference between your middle-schooler making a dance video and posting it on TikTok? And is an hour of video games the same as an hour-long movie or an hour on Instagram? How does a five-minute work break scrolling Instagram always turn into an hour?

In this week’s episode, Alanna and Milano sit down with social media whistleblower, Max Stossel, who explains why smartphones and social media are so powerful and dangerous for kids. He gives us compelling intel about all the strategy that goes into designing these social media apps—because, a decade ago, he used to be one of the people designing them! (Spoiler alert: We might think we’re using the apps and smartphone, but really they’re using us). 

As Max helps us to understand, addiction to smartphones and social media is as real as any other addition. He shares great tips for undoing the addiction in ourselves and our kids—and seeing every engagement with our phone and social media as a trade. 

In This Episode:

👉 Understanding the trade-offs with smartphones and social media. 

👉 Learning how and why social media apps are designed.

👉 Why kids below certain ages aren’t ready to handle smartphones and social media.

👉 An arsenal of tips for fighting tough battles with smartphones and social media.

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Follow us: @barenakedmoms

Follow Max: Social Awakening and Center for Humane Technology

Ever wonder about the winding roads that lead us to where we are, especially to the wild, beautiful, and often chaotic journey of motherhood? This week, we're peeling back another layer, but this time, it’s from one of our very own. Milano steps into the guest seat on a different podcast, and we knew we had to share this special conversation with you, our Bare Naked Moms community.

In this borrowed episode from "The Pawcast" (Princeton Alumni Weekly), Milano opens up about her remarkable path to and through Princeton University. She gets real with host Liz Daugherty about what it was truly like navigating an Ivy League world with a profoundly unique background: a childhood marked by her mother's mental illness and intermittent homelessness, and being taken in by a true village of good samaritans.  It’s a story of resilience, the kindness of strangers (and campus security!), the devotion of family (like her aunt and uncle) and how these formative experiences shaped the mom and podcaster she is today.

In This Episode:

👉 Milano’s account of her "wild journey" to Princeton against great odds.

👉 A candid view of student life, unlike her peers.

👉 A story of compassion by Princeton campus security during a vulnerable time.

👉 The unexpected chapters after Princeton that led to Bare Naked Moms.

👉 Embracing our past, even if unconventional, can positively impact the present.

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Check out the Princeton Alumni Weekly Podcast

Follow us: @barenakedmoms

Not everyone affected by it is a mother, but all mothers are affected by it: Menopause. What’s more bare and naked than pulling back the curtain on this inevitable, charged event that’s both personal and universal—and usually takes hold of moms right when their children are undergoing their own huge hormonal shifts (a.k.a Puberty)? After all, if Mama’s not happy, nobody’s happy! 

In this week’s episode, Alanna and Milano sit down with endocrinologist and mom of four Dr. Gillian Goddard. Also the author of “Hot Flash” from ParentData and the upcoming book The Hormone Loop, Gillian breaks it all down for us: what’s happening, when it’s happening, who we should turn to for guidance, and what we can do to soften the landing. Together, we form a menopause framework and plan, so it doesn’t disrupt our own wellness, or the balance of our family ecosystems.

In This Episode:

👉 Defining and redefining menopause: the big picture and the smaller pictures. 

👉 Clarifying confusion and misinformation from social media soundbites. 

👉 A plan of attack: symptoms to look for and how to treat them.

👉 Assembling the right health team for this chapter of motherhood.

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Follow us: @barenakedmoms

Follow Gillian: @gillianmgoddard

Read: Gillian’s articles

Conventional wisdom tells us to keep our politics and religion to ourselves. But Ainsley Earhardt, Co-host of Fox and Friends, bestselling author, and single mother to nine-year-old Hayden, couldn’t be more bare and naked—and public—about both. In this week’s episode, Ainsley walks us through her journey with God and how faith has helped her in work, love, life, and parenting. She also opens up about the pros and cons of her transparency and some of the consequences that it has had in her life as a mom.

In This Episode:

👉 The power of faith, judgment, and curiosity.  

👉 The danger of certainty.

👉 Fitting faith into modern family life. 

👉 Are all faiths created equal?

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Follow us: @barenakedmoms

Follow Ainsley: @foxandfriends and foxandfriends.com

Read: Ainsley’s books

What if you and your children found yourselves in the middle of a disaster that was captivating the nation? How would you overcome your own despair to support your kids if their home–and their entire community–burned to the ground? Mom-of-two Emily Debevoise faced those questions when she and her husband lost their home in the Palisades Fire this past January. 

In this week’s episode, Alanna and Milano talk with an everyday mom in the midst of rebuilding her family’s lives after evacuating their beloved neighborhood with nothing but a few garbage bags full of stuff. She shares how she’s finding ways (both big and small) to be there for her 14-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son and how she sees them processing their trauma differently. Emily also opens up about the acts of kindness that are helping them to move forward and what we should all know should we ever face a similar crisis–or have a loved one in crisis.

In This Episode:

👉 How siblings may process crisis differently 

👉 Small acts that make all the difference to kids in crisis

👉 What to grab for the kids if you have a few minutes to evacuate your home 

👉 How to reach out if a family you know is in crisis  

Follow us: @barenakedmoms

Bare Naked Moms co-host Milano Buckley had a wild and woolly childhood as the daughter of a mother who suffered from severe mental illness. She only survived thanks to a motley crew of amazing characters who stepped up and took her in–from a family who lived around the corner to her third grade teacher–but her own father was never around. 

In this bonus episode, Alanna and Milano try to unravel the mystery of who Milano’s father is. As she and her mentally-ill mom struggled to find their way through the world, where was Milano’s dad, what steps did she take to find him, and how has she come much closer to solving the mystery once and for all? 

In This Episode:

👉 What Milano’s mom told her about her dad

👉 Her efforts to reach out to him over the years

👉 What she now knows thanks to 23andMe

👉 Her next step towards solving the mystery 

Follow us: @barenakedmoms

Do you ever worry that your kids have it too good to be resilient? Do you try to protect them from hard stuff because you want them to be happy? Do you wonder how some kids who experience trauma end up being just fine, while others with placid, uneventful childhoods are hot messes? As parents, it’s so hard to know when to protect our kids from pain or anxiety and when to let them experience it.

In this week’s episode, Alanna and Milano have a fascinating discussion with childhood development expert Dr. Tovah Klein about the importance of not shielding our kids from their mistakes, our mistakes, or the unsavory feelings and events of everyday life. Dr. Klein shares what she’s observed in her 30 years as Director of the Barnard College Center for Toddler Development and what she outlines in her recently published bestseller, Raising Resilience: How to Help Our Children Thrive in Times of Uncertainty: that the key ingredient of success in a child (and human) is resilience—knowing that we can feel and do and see hard things and ultimately be OK.  

In This Episode:

👉 How to protect kids without paralyzing them 

👉 The importance of giving children the freedom to fall 

👉 Parents as containers and anchors

👉 How to talk to our kids about scary things

👉 Why “potential” and perfection are nice ideas that totally backfire

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Buy Tovah Klein’s book here

Follow Tovah: @tovahklein

Follow us: @barenakedmoms

What does the bestselling author-illustrator of The Circus Ship, Learning to Ski with Mr. Magee, Randy Riley’s Really Big Hit and If I Built a House know about childhood and parenting? A lot, it turns out! For one, that kids should not be talked down to—in literature or in life—because they’re so much smarter than we give them credit for. And that kids make great writing collaborators because their brains and imaginations are far less cluttered than ours. 

In this week’s episode, kid lit powerhouse Chris Van Dusen shares wisdom from his own childhood and parenting his two sons—as well as the humbling realization that there was something important he was falling short of as a storyteller: representing and including people of all cultures and backgrounds. 

In This Episode:

👉 Nurturing boredom and curiosity in kids

👉 Creating stories that appeal to all ages and minds 

👉 Children’s ability to handle darkness

👉 The costs and benefits of DEI in stories

👉 Reinventing yourself at any age or professional chapter

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Learn more about Chris: https://www.chrisvandusen.com

Buy Chris’s books here

Follow Chris: @chrisvandusenbooks

Follow us: @barenakedmoms

Milano and Alanna welcome NBC News anchor and correspondent Vicky Nguyen to talk about her recently published memoir Boat Baby. The New York Times bestseller chronicles her family’s escape from communist Vietnam to America, the rollercoaster ride of growing up with immigrant parents, and her experiences as a mother of three daughters. How is Vicky following her parents’ lead as a mom, and what is she handling differently? For one, she’s an only child who decided to have three kids. Her parents’ hard work and love of travel are qualities that she admires and emulates. The open communication that she enjoys with her own daughters, though, is not something she experienced growing up.

In This Episode:

👉 The difference between “woman with children” and “mother”

👉 An immigrant family’s survival and commitment to the American Dream

👉 Different generations and cultures living together under one roof 

👉 Grandparents as caretakers for their grandchildren

👉 It takes a village: a working mother’s ecosystem

Buy Boat Baby here

Follow Vicky: @vickynguyentv

Follow us: @barenakedmoms