One of our all-time favorite guests, Dr. Ken Ginsburg, is back to chat about his newest book, Congrats—You're Having a Teen! and debunk some of the most common myths about parenting teenagers. Dr. Ginsburg's insights and work have changed the way we parent our kids, so let's just say if there's an episode of Spawned to listen to, it's this one.

Thanks to our sponsor, Camp Tuku, a wonderful camp for kids located in the beautiful Catskills Mountains. You can learn more about them on their website!

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Author Michelle Icard chats about her book "14 Talks By Age 14," sharing how parents can approach the difficult conversations we know we need to have with our kids. Find Michelle's helpful book, wherever you buy your books. Follow us on social media: Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. And for show notes, visit CoolMomPicks.com.

About our sponsor, Camp Tuku: If you have a child age 6-14, Camp Tuku is where “nature meets joyful minds.” This exceptionally beautiful sleepaway camp rests in 1,000 acres of pristine wilderness in the Catskill Mountains of New York, surrounded by stunning lakes, breathtaking waterfalls, and miles of hiking trails. Learn more on their website!

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We all want to raise kind, generous, caring, empathetic kids -- who turn into great adults. So we turned to the perfect guide: Parenting author, science columnist and researcher Melinda Wenner Moyer. She shares so much science-backed data and turns it into parenting strategies, we can all put to use in our own families immediately. We think you'll love this episode! - Liz + Kristen

Graciously brought to you by Camp Tuku, a stunning sleep away camp for kids 6-14 in the Catskill Mountains of NY. It's a place where "nature meets joyful minds," combining all the fabulous traditional summer camp activities with mindfulness practices to engage the heart, body and mind.

Special Offer: Spawned listeners get a $50 discount on registration with code cmp23uutk. Expires 3/31/2023

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Prioritizing and organizing your life, your family schedule, and especially your time is something a lot of moms (like, uh me!) can use help with. Take a listen for some terrific tips from Sarah Hart-Unger, host of Best Laid Plans podcast and co-host of Best of Both Worlds. She shares her genius "nested goals" approach, offers advice for list-making, talks organization vs prioritization, gender imbalances in time management -- and even finding peace in the chaos. This is the interview I needed! Maybe you need it too right now. - Liz

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As a mixed-race Chinese American, I've struggled to feel a sense of belonging. I grew up feeling more accepted by the German (white) side of my family. Then, as I got older, I learned more about the Chinese side of my family and felt a connection to the experiences of Asian Americans. Just recently, especially as I was editing my book, A Thousand Miles to Graceland, I've found myself somewhere in the middle; not necessarily feeling Chinese, and yet, also not White, either. Thankfully, I'm not alone, and more and more mixed-race Americans are sharing stories to help highlight what it's like.

That's exactly what author Lauren Kung Jessen does in her debut novel, Lunar Love, a sweet enemies-to-lovers rom-com that celebrates the deep-rooted family legacies that shape us and how these traditions evolve into our own. Lauren, like me, is a mixed-race Chinese American, and also, like me, has written a book featuring mixed-race Chinese Americans (and Chinese Americans).

On this episode, we chat about how we identify, and the challenges we've faced in finding the right language to do so, as well as how we experience whiteness, and why these stories (like our novels) are so important for people like us (and well, everyone). And stay tuned for a couple of surprises that I think you'll really love.

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With the invention of smartphones (and tablets), keeping track of our digital memories (think photos, videos, scans), has become more difficult than we might have expected. In this episode, David Vaskevitch, CEO of Mylio Photos, shares the challenges that he experienced with digital memory preservation, and how families can make it a whole lot easier.

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We've talked to so many incredible guests in 2022 -- film directors, authors, journalists, political pundits, activists. So we thought we'd share some of our favorite quotes and thoughtful advice in this fun look back at what we've learned over the past year here. If there's one you want to hear more about, you're already on your podcast app! Just click through to the Spawned library, scroll down, and take a listen!

Thanks so much for joining Kristen and me this year - as with parenting, we're all in this together and we couldn't do it without you. - Liz

Thanks to our sponsor Mylio Photos for offering our listeners 20% off when you subscribe. It's the easiest way to curate, organize, and safely preserve all your photos from all your different devices. Hurry, it's a great deal!

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Engineer: John Bowen | Producer: Elissa Makarowitz

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Moms are so busy trying to make fun for everyone over the holidays, sometimes we forget that we're supposed to be having fun too! How do we do that without adding "have more fun" to our to-do lists? Margaret Ables, co-host of the fabulous What Fresh Hell parenting podcast is joining me to offer smart tips, sweet stories, a lot of laughter, and a lot of compassion for moms Going Through It right now. - Liz

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We've discussed the sex talk on Spawned a few times, however, if your school district is like mine (and many across the country), they are making sex education an optional, home-taught module. That means, we need to be more invested than ever in ensuring our kids are getting comprehensive sex education. That's what Andrea Brand's new book, “Stop Sweating & Start Talking," can help with, and a lot more.

*Note, while this episode is marked explicit, it is due to the topics, which are for parents only, not due to questionable language.

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Just when I thought I was pretty aware of what I needed to know about teens and sleep, I got my hands on Lisa L. Lewis's book The Sleep-Deprived Teen: Why Our Teenagers Are So Tired, And How Parents And Schools Can Help Them Thrive and I realized there was so much I didn't know. That was all solidified during this episode.

Whether you have teens or not, Lisa's research for this book uncovered why sleep is so important for teens (hint: their brains are growing!), why they're not getting enough sleep, and what we can do to ensure that they are getting it, and it is so important for parents to hear. We also talk about: sleep debt, how long teens should be sleeping, why teens want to stay up later (it's biological!), why early school start times are so bad, how we can help to better manage their schedules (school classes included) to help them get more sleep, and a whole lot more.

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