Can you help me give a sh*t?

Can you help me give a sh*t?

By Rebecca R Block, Elizabeth Daly, Jessica KoehlerScienceSocial SciencesEducationParentingKids & Family
Download on the App Store

Can you help me give a sh*t? episodes

  • How do you approach difficult conversations with pre-teens and teens?

    In today's episode, Becca interviews Heather Criswell, serial entrepreneur, mom, and experienced educator about how to have more meaningful conversations -- and how to handle the difficult conversations that sometimes arise, especially for the parents and educators of pre-teens and teens. Heather discusses the importance of regulating yourself before you try to have a conversation, how to do that, and how to identify and put out the energy that help kids and adults have the kinds of conversations you are looking to have.


    You can find out more about Heather at heathercriswell.com, where you can also find her books, conversation games, and other resources.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    50 min
  • How can we help support meaningful choices in and around school?
    In today's episode, Becca, Jess, and Liz delve into the C (meaningful choices) of the ABCDs of motivation to explore what those look like in middle and high school, why they can feel risky to parents, and why they're essential to preparing young people to be effective in college and general adulting. Becca and Liz share some personal stories of times they've struggled with this and what criteria they use to distinguish between choices parents need to restrict and ones they don't need to be so controlled about.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    28 min
  • What can you do about procrastination?

    Procrastinators, unite! Eventually. Once we get that one thing done...oh, then that other thing. Wait, are there any interesting new reels to watch? Chances are, if you're reading this, you, or someone you know, sometimes find procrastination hard to avoid. So in today's episode, Becca, Grace, Jess, and Liz talk about procrastination -- how we all can relate, why Grace thinks it's inevitable for students (herself included) to struggle with it, and the various strategies that have helped each of us and the students we work with to navigate out of procrastination.


    Included in this discussion: how to use techniques like time-boxing, the Pomodoro technique, and the Eisenhower matrix. We also talk about the difference between incubation and procrastination and when it might be time to go beyond DIY strategies and get help from a professional. And we share several laughs along the way.


    Have a question we didn't cover? Submit it at canyouhelpmegivea.com for discussion in a future episode!

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    33 min
  • What do college students wish they'd known in high school?
    To celebrate the launch of the book this week, we revisit a favorite topic with a fresh perspective: another interviewee from the book joins Grace and Becca to discuss his insights now, two years later, on what he wishes he'd known or done in high school now that he's in college. Ira gets into the value of extra-curriculars and internships (or co-ops, depending on the term you like best!) in both high school and college, not for the sake of the future but to make your learning experiences memorable and meaningful in the moment. Grace and Ira talk about what they wish was required in high school that usually isn't (I think you'll be surprised by what they say), and Becca goes on a mini-rant. This may be a great one to listen to with the high school or college students in your life, so they can hear directly form their peers about what they wish they'd known. Check it out, and remember to subscribe, rate, review, and get the darn book already!

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    28 min
  • How can parents and educators support LGBTQ+ youth?

    On today's show, Becca dives into a lively conversation with Dr. Lulu, aka The Momatrician, about how parents and educators who care about LGBTQ+ youth can best support them. Listen to learn about how Dr. Lulu learned from her own mistakes as the parent of a trans child, why it's important to understand the difference between gender identity, gender expression, and genitalia, and even why we should scrub the phrase "committed suicide" from our lexicon. While the language in this episode is clean, this may not be the right episode to listen to with kids by your side since Dr. Lulu does allude to the painful and avoidable deaths of Nex Benedict and Matthew Shepard. However, overall this episode is filled with hope, laughter, and some great tips; it will lift you up and help you see why it's much simpler to be a good ally to queer youth than you might think.


    Check out Dr Lulu's podcast, Moms4TransKids, visit her website at dr-lulu.com, and follow her on instagram @themomatrician.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    45 min
  • How do you find your people?
    This episode jumps into a question raised by a young person looking for ideas on finding their people, especially in college. Grace, Becca, and Jess discuss why that first year of college can be an especially tricky time to find a real sense of belonging, why it's worthwhile, and some strategies Grace stumbled into in her subsequent years of college that helped her find friends she really connected with. Though this episode focuses on that first year of college, the feelings and ideas relate to high school (we talk about one of the stories shared by an interviewee in the book that gets into the high school experience of thinking you'd found your people only to discover you hadn't) and the workplace as well. Hope you enjoy it, and feel free to be the next one to submit a different kind of question for us to think through in a future episode on our website, canyouhelpmegivea.com

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    26 min
  • How can adults help support positive peer relationships?

    As kids approach and enter adolescence, it becomes more challenging for educators and parents to know what they can do to support young people in engaging in kind and supportive ways with each other. In this episode, we share stories from inside and outside the school building about the difficult experiences young people have experienced in not belonging and how adults can support belonging without accidentally taking away your kid's autonomy.


    Also, as a quick note, this is one of the first episodes we ever recorded, though we're posting it later in our season, so please forgive our noob podcaster vibe in this one!

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    30 min
  • How can I stop being my kids' frontal lobe?
    In today's episode, we answer a question from a parent who realized they might accidentally be preventing their kid's executive functioning from developing more fully because they were operating as their child's frontal lobe without even realizing it. Our in-house EF expert, Liz Daly, chimes in with some pro tips on how to scaffold toward goal-setting, planning, and execution skills; Becca talks about "moving the magnets" (it'll make sense as both a literal and metaphorical strategy once you listen!), and Grace chimes in with how she has lately been reflecting on how much of her goal-setting and pursuit has been her idea vs things she just unconsciously carried forward from her parents' dreams. If you've ever felt like your middle- or high-school student is just never going to figure out how to plan anything and wondered whether you might accidentally be contributing to that, this one is for you!

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    37 min
  • How can adults support authentic student voice?
    On today's episode, we answer a question submitted by a listener about student voice: what is it really, and how can adults support it? To help us dig into this topic, we invited Connor Flick, current undergrad student and longstanding member of the Kentucky Student Voice Team, to share examples and stories of what tokenized vs authentic student voice look like, what is possible to accomplish with real student voice, and practical steps on how to get there. This episode is a bit longer than most, but it's worth it--Connor saves some of his best tips for the end.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    39 min
  • Why does multitasking slow down learning?
    In today's episode, Liz gives us the skinny on what multitasking is (and isn't--hint, it's not when you're doing dishes and also listening to music) and why it can both feel so tempting and is so destructive to our ability to learn efficiently. Becca, Jess, and Liz all share stories from their own experience plus those of students and parents they know, as well as helpful and simple tips on how to switch to getting more mono-tasking in your life so you can get on to the good stuff faster.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    32 min

About Can you help me give a sh*t?

From the publisher's feed

A podcast for and by parents, educators, and anyone who cares about young people from their pre-teens to their early twenties. This podcast explores questions raised by parents and educators as they…