Kinda Useful

In this episode, recorded shortly before Nick's daughter turned 1, our hosts save us from a Taco Bell-related tangent, talk about her mobility but especially about her first new words, Baby Einstein and Baby Sign Language. On the way there, the Owlet makes a comeback and Nick shares when it was that his mindset changed about his former anxieties.

In an episode that's all about food, Nick tells us whether he thinks he's raising a picky eater, tells us whether he's raising his daughter as a vegetarian, and shares his thoughts on how to fix the future of all children, while Bruno learns about smash cakes and comes up with an amazing business idea.

In this episode, Nick and his wife talk about how they plan to raise their daughter to deal with her emotions and find answers to questions she might have. Unsurprisingly, we go down a deep rabbit hole about how having a child is really complicated, but still get an impromptu lesson in cell biology from Nick as an unexpected bonus.

It's nature versus nurture time at Kinda Useful! Nick and his wife try to answer the old-age question, but first they talk about their current relationship with their daughter and how that will change in the future. This episode still catches the family thinking back to traveling together but features one of the best analogies for raising a child you'll ever hear.

Nick and Bruno are joined by Nick's wife! And wine! This was supposed to be our "how to travel with a baby" episode, and it is — but in Kinda Useful fashion, we tangent into extroversion vs introversion (and which one they've detected one in their daughter), talk about bad people, and curse. We curse a lot.

Nick talks about his addiction to his daughter’s giggles and his strategies to make that happen. Someday she’ll sit and listen to him read a book, but for now there are other things they do together — like being asked about whether or not she cured cancer today. Warning: this is a very adorable episode.

After a couple of months away from the microphones (taking care of a baby-slash-scheduling stuff is really hard, yo), Nick and Bruno come back just in time to celebrate the first anniversary of the podcast. So they look back at that first episode, back when Nick was still dealing with news he was going to be a father, and compare his state of mind back then to the much more useful role he plays around his now-7-month-old daughter.

Nick talks about his daughter's reactions at three and half months old and ends up reflecting on how we document things, from his own childhood to how often he and his wife (don't) post photos in social media. Bruno can't relate because he posts stuff on social media nearly every day.

Nick is still grappling with the overnight change that is having a nanny looking after his baby and having a hard time getting used to it. Things get a turn for the better when he talks about developments in his daughter's life.