Raising to Rise

Welcome to Raising To Rise –– the show about the parents, educators and mentors of kids who made it to the top of their game. Every week, we'll identify patterns and pieces of advice that will hopefully serve you on the journey of raising your own kids. 

⁠In Season 1 of this must-listen-to podcast, host Guy Michlin speaks with the mother of swimming legend Michael Phelps, gets parenting advice from the father of the world’s youngest Nobel Prize winner, activist Malala Yousafzai and he lets Esther Wojcicki break down what it took to inspire three amazing daughters: one the CEO of YouTube, another the founder of DNA company 23andMe, and the third a groundbreaking doctor of anthropology and epidemiology. 

In this special final episode of season 1 of “Raising to Rise”, we are honored to feature Ziauddin Yousafzai, a Pakistani activist for female education and the father of Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Prize laureate. Malala is known for human rights advocacy, especially the education of women and children and she almost lost her life fighting for this cause. 

In this inspiring and emotional episode, we discuss how mentorship, life circumstances, personal values and education shape our kids’ life. 

Ziauddin, like many of my other guests, is also a teacher and an educator by profession -- seems like education (at home but not only) can change the world!

Anne Collier is a world expert with regards to digital safety for children. Anne is a writer and a youth advocate that has been chronicling the public discussion about youth and digital media since 1997. In addition, she is the founder and the executive director of the The Net Safety Collaborative (TNSC), a non profit organization that, among other initiatives, created the social media helpline for U.S. schools

This was a very timely conversation conducted while the world is under lockdown and our kids’ screen time is skyrocketing. I wanted an expert advice on screen time: is it good or bad and how can we as parents help our kids navigate their newly found internet freedom, without being too controlling. 

Daniel Keating is a professor of psychology, psychiatry and pediatric at the university of Michigan. In his recent book, "Born Anxious", Daniel discusses the impact parents' stress might have on their child's development.

Through the example of stress dysregulation, we discussed how our nurture can impact our kids' nature, we talked about the attachment theory, the importance of responsiveness, physical contact and much more.

Deborah Phelps is the mother of Hilary, Whitney and Michael Phelps, one of the most decorated athletes of all time. Debbie, is also the author of “A Mother For all Seasons”, a book I believe is a must read for all parents.

In this conversation Debbie talked very openly about the joys and challenges of raising 3 children as a single mom, while also building her own very successful career. Like some of my previous guests, Debbie is also an educator by profession and by heart and in this conversation she shared many of her principles (“Golden nuggets of information”) for raising kids whether her own or the one in her classroom. We talked about teachable moments, the role of the community in raising kids and much more.

Dr. Meg Jay is a clinical psychologist, an Associate Professor at Virginia University and a nonfiction writer. Meg's work has appeared in numerous media outlets including the New York Times, Wall Street BBC and NPR. Her TED talk — “Why 30 Is Not the New 20” — has been viewed more than 10 million times.

This was a fascinating conversation in which we discussed her latest book 'Supernormal', overcoming childhood adversity, helping kids build resilience and other really useful and easy to implement, parenting tools you can add to your toolbox.

Jess Gallagher is the first Australian Paralympian to win a medal in both the summer and the winter games and the first Australian woman to ever win a medal in the winter Paralympic games.

This was an emotional conversation with Jess's mom, Doreen, about a single mother’s journey, coming out of adversity and giving her kids opportunities she never had. We discussed role modeling, sacrifice and what, in my opinion, might be the holy grail of parenting - balancing support and demand.

Read ore about Jess: https://www.jessgallagher.com.au/

Deirdre Wolownick is the mother of Alex, “No Big Deal”, Honnold, a professional adventure rock climber whose audacious free-solo ascents of America’s biggest cliffs have made him one of the most recognized and followed climbers in the world. Deirdre is also the author of “The Sharp End of Life: A Mother's Story“.

Read more about Alex: http://www.alexhonnold.com/about#bio

William Damon is a Professor of Education at Stanford University, Director of the Stanford Center on Adolescence, one of the world's leading researchers on the development of purpose and the author of 'The Path to Purpose'.

In this episode, we will explore what is purpose, why is it so important for our kids to find their purpose and what can we do as parents to help them on their path to purpose. 

Esther Wojcicki and her husband Stan raised 3 extremely successful daughters: Susan their oldest was employee #14 at Google and today she is the CEO of YouTube, Janet is a successful pediatrician at USCF and Ann, the youngest, is the founder and CEO of 23andMe, one of the hottest billion dollar unicorns of the Silicon valley. 

Read more about Esther and her book: https://raisesuccessfulpeople.com/