Nurture vs Nurture with Wendy Mogel: Figure out all those pesky parenting problems

The Premise (from Apple Podcasts):

Nurture vs Nurture is a new podcast brought to you by the producers of Armchair Expert. Dr. Wendy Mogel, social-clinical psychologist and author, specializes in the protection and promotion of self-reliance, resilience, accountability and exuberance in children and she is our fearless leader in this new endeavor. Each week, Dr. Wendy sits down with a different set of parents for a therapy session. She brings her forty years of experience working with families to these intimate and wonderfully voyeuristic conversations. This podcast allows the listener to go on another family's journey and to receive practical advice along the way. Wendy proves that, perhaps counterintuitively, there is nothing more universal than our specificity. In each episode, Wendy also introduces us to a foreign word that is untranslatable into English in order to enhance our minds and vocabularies on parenthood, family and communication with those we love the most.

Series or standalone:

Standalone

Begin listening to:

Any episode

Format:

Discussion/advice

Host(s):

Dr. Wendy Mogel

Sound/production quality:

Very good

Rating/age suitability:

Adult (probably OK for kids to hear, but they would be bored to death)

Approximate length of episodes:

70 minutes

Curricular ties:

n/a

Similar recommended pods:

How Did We Get Here?; Where Should We Begin?; Spawned; Dear Therapist

Podcast Librarian’s Review:

Parenting is hard...or so I hear. There are so many decisions to make around how to raise children, and since everyone comes into parenting with their own experiences and opinions, so it’s no wonder that there’s enough material to make a show that revolves entirely around parents who struggle with how to best raise their children. Fortunately, psychologist Dr. Wendy Mogel is here to help. In each episode, she speaks to parents about a few of the issues that are causing dissonance in their roles as parents. So far, there are 3 episodes; 2 feature a pair of parents, and 1 features a solo parent. This seems like a good sign for future episodes--the show doesn’t assume that all kids live in two-parent homes. While some of the other therapy podcasts this month have featured some heavier issues and felt very much like a therapy session, this podcast tends to take a much lighter tone and feel more like Dr. Wendy is commiserating as a friend. She narrows in on the smallest details, which is a really interesting quirk--like in one Episode 1, the parents talk about how every night, their daughter leaves a note for the dad to come in for her bed routine. Dr. Wendy stops them to ask if the letters are big or if she drew a picture on it, like a skull in crossbones. It’s such a small thing to zero in on, but it makes a ton of sense that she does. After the session, the parents walk away feeling more confident and ready to make a positive change. At the end of each episode, once the parents have left, Wendy throws in a fun linguistic element where she talks about a word in a different language that is untranslatable in English. Admittedly, it feels a little out of place with the rest of the episode, but I find it interesting, and if you don’t, you can always skip that few minutes. Overall, this is a fun listen--a nice mix of lighthearted therapy-ish discussion and practical advice that any parents can relate to.