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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.
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Now displaying: 2017
Jun 5, 2017

Anyone who has ever dreamed of quitting a day job to pursue work they’re passionate about will want to tune in for this episode. I speak with Chevy Stevens, a mom and author of several wildly successful thriller novels featuring strong female protagonists. Chevy quit her real-estate job and sold her home to finance her writing. Her debut novel, Still Missing, then went on to become a New York Times bestseller. Her books have garnered glowing reviews and received praise from the likes of Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn. Chevy now supports her family with her writing and her husband is a stay-at-home dad. She talks about what it takes to find the mental space and quiet to write when you work from home your kid wants to hang out with you 24/7. Plus, Chevy opens up about how some difficult aspects of her own upbringing helped her to write authentically about domestic violence in her latest novel, Never Let You Go.

Show Notes

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May 29, 2017

We’re joined for this episode by writers Melissa DePino and Elizabeth LaBan. Melissa and Elizabeth have a lovely story to tell that’s so in keeping with the theme of this website and podcast and its mission to celebrate the many ways that family can form. For years Elizabeth and Melissa were next door neighbors who truly became family to one another, sharing the parenting experience from when their children were small, a shared family that continues today. In fact, they’ve co-authored a novel inspired by their story called Pretty Little World. They tell us about how their organic extended family has come to be, and what we can all learn from their story about being open to a connection in creating our own chosen families. 

Show Notes

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May 22, 2017

I’m very pleased to be joined by my friend Jody Robbins, a travel writer based in Calgary, Alberta. Jody is the author of a new book called 25 Places in Canada Every Family Should Visit. Today Jody and I are going to talk about what it takes to have a family vacation that’s actually enjoyable for everyone in the family, and not just a heck of a lot of work for the parents. 

Show Notes

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May 15, 2017

I’m joined on the show today by a woman with a remarkable story. Elizabeth Rains, a mother of two and acclaimed Canadian journalist, was overcome with confusion when she was diagnosed with Hepatitis C. She was immediately confronted with the fact that Hepatitis C is still often-stigmatized as well as perceived as a death sentence, even though it is now 90 per cent curable. Elizabeth has written a new book about her own journey and the history of the disease, called Demon in my Blood: My Fight with Hep C — And a Miracle Cure.

Show Notes

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May 8, 2017

With Mother’s Day just around the corner at the time this episode goes live, we’ve got a special edition of the podcast reflecting on experience of mothering in 2017. I’m joined by my friend and colleague, Beth-Anne Jones, who also writes about parenting and other lifestyle topics on Plenty the Magazine, the lifestyle site she runs with two other moms. 

Show Notes

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May 1, 2017

Photographer Kate T. Parker joins us on the show today. Kate is the author of a gorgeous and compelling new photo book called Strong is The New Pretty: A Celebration of Girls Being Themselves. Kate is the mother of two loud, messy, adventurous girls, and in 2015 her Strong is the New Pretty photo series went viral, having clearly struck a chord both for the beautiful, raw images and the positive messages behind them. She’s here to share what inspires her to help change the conversation about what girls are supposed to be and how they’re supposed to look.

Show Notes

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Apr 24, 2017

What if everything we’ve assumed about our relationship to emotions and where they come from was wrong? We’re joined by psychologist and neuroscientist Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett for this episode, author of a new book called How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain. Dr. Barrett is a distinguished professor of psychology at Northeastern University with appointments at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. She’s here to talk to us about what her research means for parents and for raising emotionally intelligent children.

Show Notes

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Apr 17, 2017

In this episode we look at how boys learn differently from girls and explore whether schools are doing a good job of catering to boys’ learning styles. We’re joined by Dr. Shimi Kang, a Harvard-trained psychiatrist and best-selling author of The Dolphin Parent: A Guide to Raising Healthy, Happy and Self-Motivated Kids. She is also founder of a 21st century life skills centre called DolphinPod, and a mom of two boys and one girl. Globally we still have a very troubling disparity in access to education between girls and boys that disadvantages girls considerably. But in North America we have a situation where boys are not performing as well as girls in school, and in fact young women are out-graduating young men from university by a considerable margin. Dr. Kang talks to us about the neurological differences in how boys and girls learn, how those impact what goes on in the classroom, and what parents of boys can do to support their learning at home.

Show Notes

This episode is sponsored by Coosha, the FREE modern calendar app for today's busy modern families, available now on the App store and on Google Play!

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Apr 10, 2017

Where can you find the world’s happiest kids? The Netherlands, it turns out! My guest Rina Mae Acosta is a co-author, along with Michele Hutchison, of a fascinating new book called The Happiest Kids in the World: How Dutch Parents Help Their Kids (and Themselves) by Doing Less. Their book explores why in 2013, a UNICEF report rated Dutch children the happiest in the world. While neither Rina Mae or Michele grew up in The Netherlands, both are raising their kids there and observing some significant differences in how parenting is approached compared to their home countries, the U.S. and the U.K. 

Show Notes

This episode is sponsored by Coosha, the FREE modern calendar app for today's busy modern families, available now on the App store and on Google Play!

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Apr 3, 2017

I am really delighted to welcome to the show Natasha Bakht and Lynda Collins, two lawyers and friends co-parenting seven-year-old Elaan, who has complex disabilities and care needs. Elaan is Natasha’s biological child, but late last year the two won a legal victory to have both of them recognized as co-parents on their little boy’s birth certificate.

Show Notes

This episode is sponsored by Coosha, the FREE modern calendar app for today's busy modern families, available now on the App store and coming soon to Google Play!

Download Coosha for FREE with just one tap now!

Love our work? Please check out our Patreon Campaign!

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Mar 27, 2017

I’m joined on this episode by Sarah Keast, who wrote a very powerful 1,000 Families post for The New Family recently in which she shared her experience as a newly-widowed mom of two small children. Sarah and I dive into a very important aspect of her story. You see, Sarah lost her husband, Kevin, very suddenly to accidental overdose related to his addiction and his struggles with mental health. As our country grapples with its opioid crisis, it’s more critical than ever for us to understand the grip of addiction and it’s total disregard for age, gender, ethnicity or income bracket. Accidental overdose, no matter the class of drugs—legal or illegal—is something that can happen to anyone. Sarah’s strength in the face of devastating loss is remarkable. Case in point: She has somehow got it together to launch a blog called “Adventures in Widowed Parenting.”

Show Notes

This episode is sponsored by Coosha, the FREE modern calendar app for today's busy modern families, available now on the App store and coming soon to Google Play!

Download Coosha for FREE with just one tap now!

Love our work? Please check out our Patreon Campaign!

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

Mar 20, 2017

Dr. Hal Movius is an applied psychologist, a father of two and the author of a new book called Resolve: Negotiating Life’s Conflicts with Greater Confidence. He’s an expert in conflict and negotiation, and on this episode he talks to us about why we should commit—not to eliminating all conflict in our households—but to fighting well. So whether you’d like to handle conflicts better with your child, a parent, your partner or a former partner, Dr. Movius has got some great tangible advice.

Show Notes

This episode is sponsored by Coosha, the FREE modern calendar app for today's busy modern families, available now on the App store and coming soon to Google Play!

Download Coosha for FREE with just one tap now!

Love our work? Please check out our Patreon Campaign!

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

Mar 13, 2017

Calvin Witcher joins us on this episode of the show. He’s a life coach, speaker and author of Parenting With Pieces: Parenting As A Catalyst For Personal Growth. He and his husband, Jeremy, have adopted four children—all biological siblings—and he joins us to share a little bit about how their family came to be, and what the adoption experience has been like for them.

Show Notes

This episode is sponsored by Coosha, the FREE modern calendar app for today's busy modern families, available now on the App store and coming soon to Google Play!

Download Coosha for FREE with just one tap now!

Love our work? Please check out our Patreon Campaign!

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Mar 6, 2017

We’re joined on this episode of the show by two entrepreneurial women, Bianca Sprague and Natasha Marchand. They’re the co-founders of bébo mia, a training organization for birth and parenting professionals. Bianca and Natasha were nominees for Ernst & Young 2016 Entrepreneur Of The Year, and remarkably managed to go from broke to earning six figures in their first year of business. We’re going to hear a little bit about that, but we’re also going to have a frank talk about the kind of career that is so often positioned to moms as the best way to make money while being present for children, and that’s multi-level marketing.

Show Notes

This episode is sponsored by Coosha, the FREE modern calendar app for today's busy modern families, available now on the App store and coming soon to Google Play!

Download Coosha for FREE with just one tap now!

Love our work? Please check out our Patreon Campaign!

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

Mar 5, 2017

I decided to team up with my colleague, Amela Unsworth of COOSHA, for this special bonus episode of the podcast all about time management for families. We share our top five time-management tips, and tell you all about a fun Twitter party we’re hosting Thursday, March 9th at 8 p.m. Ea, 5 p.m. Pacific! We’re going to be talking about all aspects of family organization, and giving away some great prizes, too, including an iPad mini!

Show Notes

This episode is sponsored by Coosha, the FREE modern calendar app for today's busy modern families, available now on the App store and coming soon to Google Play!

Download Coosha for FREE with just one tap now!

Follow the hashtag #COOSHAcalendar to join the Twitter party!

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Feb 27, 2017

Ever been out of town and thought, ‘Let’s just see what houses go for around here?’ That’s what happened when digital influencer Paula Coop McCrory, of Pinterest fame, was on a camping trip with her family. The result? Pulling up stakes and moving to the country! Paula is on the show to share what the transition has been like and shares her advice for other families contemplating a big lifestyle change.

Show Notes

This episode is sponsored by Coosha, the FREE modern calendar app for today's busy modern families, available now on the App store and coming soon to Google Play!

Download Coosha for FREE with just one tap now!

Love our work? Please check out our Patreon Campaign!

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

Feb 20, 2017

This is one of our most inspiring episodes yet. We’re joined on the show today by dad and adventurer Robert Buren. Although he became paraplegic after an accident a little more than eight years ago, he and his wife decided that they were not going to let the fact that Robert would now be confined to a wheelchair keep them from having everything that they wanted out of life—as individuals and as a family. They’ve met increasingly ambitious endurance sports goals in the years since, and in fact, Robert just became Canada’s first paraplegic to race at, and earn second place, at the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii. The strength both he and his wife have demonstrated for their two girls is remarkable, and serves as an important lesson in the power of resilience. Don’t miss their moving personal story and the message behind Robert’s blog and philosophy, Rock the Chair.

Show Notes

This episode is sponsored by Coosha, the FREE modern calendar app for today's busy modern families, available now on the App store and coming soon to Google Play!

Download Coosha for FREE with just one tap now!

Love our work? Please check out our Patreon Campaign!

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Feb 13, 2017

This episode is an interesting one! We’re joined by two guests to talk about raising kids with a naturist lifestyle. You may be more familiar with the term “nudist” but the preferred language for this way of life is naturism. Mom of two Andrea Alves recently wrote a very popular guest post for The New Family’s 1,000 Families Project about her adventures as a relatively new naturist. We're also joined by Stéphane Deschenes, who—along with his wife—owns the Bare Oaks Family Naturist Park in East Gwillimbury, Ontario, where Andrea took her first forays into social nudity. Stephane’s two boys, now ages 17 and 20, were brought up as naturists since birth. We tackle the tremendous misconceptions around social nudity, the root of our hang-ups about our bodies, and the compelling reasons for giving our kids some different messages about covering up.

Show Notes

This episode is sponsored by Coosha, the FREE modern calendar app for today's busy modern families, available now on the App store and coming soon to Google Play!

Download Coosha for FREE with just one tap now!

Love our work? Please check out our Patreon Campaign!

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

Feb 12, 2017

I decided to bring back this special bonus episode from last year—recorded with my friend, life coach Sharon Stokes—because Valentine’s Day is coming up again. Sometimes our relationship to this holiday is a little complicated, particularly if things aren’t exactly ideal in your personal life. Maybe you’re going through a divorce or separation. Maybe you’re a single parent by choice who embarked on this journey alone but nevertheless, sometimes feel the absence of a romantic relationship. Perhaps you’re with someone but you’re so snowed under with childcare that there hasn’t been much time for romantic connection and you’re not exactly feeling spectacular about your relationship. Maybe you’re proudly single and enjoying dating casually but find yourself changing the radio station when those ads urging people to pop the question this Valentine’s Day come on. Sharon and I  chat about some strategies on how to deal. We talk about how to reframe Valentine’s Day by celebrating it in in ways that aren’t restricted to a romantic partnership, and maybe even by using it as a launching pad for a period of good self-care and new adventure.

Show Notes

This episode is sponsored by Coosha, the FREE modern calendar app for today's busy modern families, available now on the App store and coming soon to Google Play!

Download Coosha for FREE with just one tap now!

Love our work? Please check out our Patreon Campaign!

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

Feb 6, 2017

Tom Collin joins us on the show today. Formerly the CEO of the Malaysia operation of GEMS Education, Tom left his job so his wife could pursue a great opportunity at MIT. He’s here to tell us about what this transition has been like, and what it means to him to have more time with the kids.

Show Notes

This episode is sponsored by Coosha, the FREE modern calendar app for today's busy modern families, available now on the App store and coming soon to Google Play!

Download Coosha for FREE with just one tap now!

Love our work? Please check out our Patreon Campaign!

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

 

Jan 30, 2017

How can data play a role in our parenting? Tyler Lund, our guest on this episode, has some interesting insights and experiences to share. Tyler is a manager of software development, a blogger and the father of infant sons. He’s here to tell us about how he used his background with data to apply A/B testing and machine learning to his newborn twins, and to reflect on how parents might make use of data in the future.

Show Notes

This episode is sponsored by Coosha, the FREE modern calendar app for today's busy modern families.

Download Coosha for FREE now!

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Jan 23, 2017

When we become parents, it takes many of us by surprise just how much our kids push our buttons. Yes, we’d take a bullet for them 10 times over, but we also want to throttle them sometimes. That’s why I’m so pleased to be joined on the show today by Dr. Vanessa LaPointe, a registered psychologist, mother of two and the author of Discipline Without Damage: How To Get Kids To Behave Without Messing Them Up. Dr. LaPointe talks to us about how we can keep it together in those tough moments, and gives us tools for managing through our kids’ various ages and stages.

This episode is sponsored by Coosha, the FREE modern calendar app for today's busy modern families.

Visit Coosha's website!

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Jan 16, 2017

Our guest on this episode is Maya Thiagarajan, author of a fascinating new book called Beyond the Tiger Mom: East-West Parenting for the Global Age. In it she tackles some interesting—and not always terribly comfortable—questions, such as, “Why do Asian kids do so well in math and science? What is the difference between an Asian upbringing and a Western one?” She’s here to talk about the different ways Western and Asian parents think about childhood, family and education—and what we can learn from each other.

Show Notes

This episode is sponsored by Coosha, the FREE modern calendar app for today's busy modern families.

Visit Coosha's website!

Become a Patron for as little as $1 per month 

Jan 9, 2017

My guest Jill Sockwell and her friend Suzanne Riss have co-authored a brand new book called The Optimist’s Guide to Divorce: How to Get Through Your Breakup and Create A New Life You Love. As followers of this podcast know, I’m a big proponent of learning to thrive—not just survive—after a divorce. I live in an unusual arrangement next door to the father of my children and also run a large free support group on Facebook called Positive Co-Parenting After Divorce. But just as important as learning to get along for the sake of the kids, it’s critical to turn a life-changing event like separation and divorce into an opportunity for growth and to live your best life. That’s the message in Jill and Suzanne’s great new book. In this episode Jill shares her thoughts on why separation and divorce can bring about the opportunity to introduce positive changes in your life.

Show Notes

This episode is sponsored by Coosha, the FREE modern calendar app for today's busy modern families.

Visit Coosha's website!

Become a Patron for as little as $1 per month 

Jan 2, 2017

At this time of year we’re thinking about resolutions and what we want the year ahead to look like. For many of us, getting organized is at the top—or close to the top—of the list. That’s why I’m so pleased to have my friend Clare Kumar on the show for a chat. Clare is a Toronto-based professional organizer and productivity consultant, as well as a mom of two. Too often we put a lot of pressure on us around organization, holding ourselves to some crazy high standard involving perfectly organized closets. That’s why I love Clare’s big picture, pragmatic approach to organization. Clare is here to chat about some realistic, sustainable ways to have a more organized, low-stress family life in 2017.

Show Notes

This episode is sponsored by Coosha, the FREE modern calendar app for today's busy modern families.

Visit Coosha's website!

Become a Patron for as little as $1 per month 

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