Info

The New Family Podcast

The New Family Podcast is the show that explores what families really look like today and the issues that matter to us most. Twice a week we interview some of the most compelling people whose stories represent the many forms family can take today. And we chat with top parenting experts with great insights on the challenges of raising kids in these interesting times. This podcast comes from the creators of the popular website, thenewfamily.com, which explores and celebrates modern family life. Our series, the 1,000 Families Project, tells the first-person stories of people with families of every shape and size. In this show we interview some of the most interesting people who contribute to the #1000families series, as well as authors, family therapists, parent educators and other experts with practical advice to share that's relevant to families of every kind.
RSS Feed
The New Family Podcast
2019
December
November
October
September
June
May
April
March
February
January


2018
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2017
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2016
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2015
December
November
October
September


All Episodes
Archives
Now displaying: July, 2017
Jul 31, 2017

My guest for this episode has a remarkable story to tell. You see Natasha Clark became a mom at a young age, and was part of a strict religious community in small town Alberta. Today she’s in a happy same-sex relationship and lives in Victoria, B.C. on the west coast, a transformation in her life that involved a whole lot of soul searching, bravery and bumps along the way. She also runs a small digital creative agency called Risk Creative, and she’s here to share what it took to re-imagine her life so entirely.

Show Notes

Love our work? Please check out our Patreon Campaign!

Become a patron of the show for as little as $1 per month 

Jul 24, 2017

As a mom of two boys, ages 10 and 14, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to today’s topic—how to raise kids with good character. With my elder son now firmly in his teens, I’ve got this sense that my time with him is running out. My guest for this episode, Greg Marcus, who calls himself a recovering workaholic, has quite an interesting personal story to tell about transforming himself into a better person. We delve into how he actually improved his career by cutting his hours to be more available to his family. But the main focus of our chat is the idea of raising a mensch, which is a Yiddish term for a person of outstanding character. Greg is the author of a book called The Spiritual Practice of Good Actions: Finding Balance Through the Soul Traits of Mussar. We talk about how to bring the principles of mindfulness to our kids’ character development, and why it’s important to avoid the trap of focussing too heavily on our kids’ behaviour and not our own.

Show Notes

Love our work? Please check out our Patreon Campaign!

Become a patron of the show for as little as $1 per month 

Jul 17, 2017

I’m very pleased to welcome writer and mom Jackie Burns to the show. Jackie and her husband are raising their kids in a condo, as more and more families are these days. She and I dig into the mythology in our culture that successfully providing for a family means having your own backyard. And we dive into all the benefits of condo living that we don’t hear about as much as we should. With population density in urban areas increasing, along with the cost of real estate, this is an important, pragmatic discussion about building liveable cities as well.

Show Notes

Love our work? Please check out our Patreon Campaign!

Become a patron of the show for as little as $1 per month 

Jul 10, 2017

I’m delighted to welcome Jamie and Erica Lundmark to the show today. Jamie is a hockey player, formerly of the Toronto Maple Leafs now playing in Austria, and his wife Erica own a successful real estate business. They have three kids, and their busy lives have been chronicled in Season Three of Hockey Wives on the W Network. We talk about striking a balance where our kids are active and can enjoy sports — if that’s their jam — but without the pressure that can go along with sports like hockey. Jamie opens up about the kind of pressure he experienced around the game growing up. Both he and Erica have witnessed a whole lot of crazy kid sports culture, and share what they do to make sure their kids are raised to understand that school and family come first. Plus they talk about how they keep Jamie connected when he’s playing hockey in Europe and manage that long-distance parenting relationship. A lot comes down to the village that Erica has built with family, friends and others within the community of professional hockey families.

Show Notes

Love our work? Please check out our Patreon Campaign!

Become a patron of the show for as little as $1 per month 

Jul 3, 2017

Dr. Jennifer Verdolin joins us for this episode of the show. Dr. Verdolin is an evolutionary biologist and the author of a fascinating new book called Raised by Animals: The Surprising New Science of Animal Family Dynamics. She’s an animal behaviour researcher specializing in social and mating behaviour, and a scholar in residence at Duke University. She makes a compelling argument that we’re missing an incredible opportunity to understand ourselves and the parenting experience better by overlooking the biological basis for a lot of human behaviour — our kids’ and our own. Plus Dr. Verdolin provides really interesting examples of parenting from the animal world that are instructive to human parents.

Show Notes

Love our work? Please check out our Patreon Campaign!

Become a patron of the show for as little as $1 per month 

1