Children in America face economic, emotional and educational challenges that only worsened during the pandemic. They are the poorest age group in the country. America has the highest rate of children living in single parent households anywhere in the world. U.S. teens are in the midst of a mental health crisis marked by depression, anxiety and suicide. And the COVID-19 pandemic caused big learning gaps. How can we help more kids thrive in America? In this podcast episode, we’ll hear how a school in Iowa is training teenagers to be first responders for peers in emotional crisis. An MIT researcher urges us to focus less on what kids lost during the pandemic and lean into lessons that can make schools even better than before pandemic. Then, a leading researcher on child well-being explains why we need to give absent fathers more attention. We want all children in America to thrive and we know kids are amazingly resilient. How can we do better by them?

Podcast Guests:

Jen Schnormeier, Instructional coach at Gilbert High School, lead trainer for Teen Mental Health First Aid

Justin Reich, professor of digital media at MIT, Director of the Teaching Systems Lab, host of the Teach Lab podcast, author of “Failure to Disrupt.”

Ronald Mincy, professor of Social Policy and Social Work Practice, Columbia University, co-founder of the Future Families and Child Wellbeing Study

**This episode is part of Season 3 on Top of Mind: Finding Fairness. From health and immigration to prisons and pot, how can we get more peace and prosperity for all?