On this episode: Carrie James and Emily Weinstein, principal investigators at Harvard’s Project Zero, join to discuss their book, Behind Their Screens: What Teens Are Facing (and Adults Are Missing). They’ve been researching teens and screens for over a decade and not only did they collect insights from 3,500 teens, they worked “side-by-side with teens every step of the way.” They learned that teens still want adults’ help with navigating tech and social media—they just need the conversations and support to be a lot more nuanced.
Join us on Facebook and email us at momanddad@slate.com to ask us new questions, tell us what you thought of today’s show, and give us ideas about what we should talk about in future episodes.
Podcast produced by Kristie Taiwo-Makanjuola and Rosemary Belson.
This week, host June Thomas talks to Annie Duke, an author and former professional poker player whose latest book is Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away. In the interview, Annie explains why she’s trying to rehabilitate the word “quit.” She also uses examples to illustrate why quitting is sometimes the best option and why people often stick to projects and jobs that aren’t working.
After the interview, June and co-host Isaac Butler discuss their own experiences with quitting and saying “no” to things.
In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, Annie talks about balancing individual goals with the goals of your community. She also gives some possible explanations for why there aren’t more women in professional poker.
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Send your questions about creativity and any other feedback to working@slate.com or give us a call at (304) 933-9675.
This month, in the next in our season celebrating The Exuberance of Youth, we talk to American writer Brit Bennett about her unputdownable novel, The Vanishing Half.
The Vanishing Half charts the rollercoaster parallel lives of estranged twin sisters who choose to live in two very different worlds - one black and one white.
Stella and Desiree are identical twins, growing up together in a small, Southern black community. Until, at age sixteen, they run away. Decades later, still separated by many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters' storylines intersect?
Weaving together multiple stories and generations of one family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Bennett has produced both a riveting, emotional family drama and an unforgettable exploration of the American history of passing as White.
Greg Marchildon interviews Benjamin Hoy, author of A Line of Blood and Dirt: Creating the Canada-United States Border across Indigenous Lands (Oxford UP, 2021). Hoy’s book is a history of the infrastructure, policies, and personnel that were put in place over the past three centuries to create a boundary between the United States and British North America and, subsequently, Canada after 1867. Hoy also examines the impact of this boundary on Indigenous peoples who lived on either side of this border, or on both sides simultaneously. A transnational historian and a dual citizen of both Canada and the United States, Benjamin Hoy is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Saskatchewan.
This interview was produced with the support of The Champlain Society. The mission of The Champlain Society is to increase public awareness of, and accessibility to, Canada’s rich store of historical records.
Gregory P. Marchildon is the Ontario Research Chair in Health Policy and System Design with the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto.
Greg Marchildon interviews historian and ethnographer Jennifer Brown on her two most recent books. The first, Ojibwe Stories from the Upper Berens River: A Irving Hallowell and Adam Bigmouth in Conversation (U of Nebraska Press, 2018) concerns the interactions of American anthropologist A. Irving Hallowell with the Berens River band on the east side of Lake Winnipeg. The second book, An Ethnohistorian in Rupert’s Land: Unfinished Conversations (Athabasca UP, 2017), is a compilation of Professor Brown’s most influential articles– essays that have reshaped the historiography of Indigenous-settler relations and the role of women. From 1983 until 2008, Jennifer Brown was a professor as well as Director of the Centre for Rupert’s Land Studies at the University of Winnipeg. Since retirement, she has continued to research and write.
This interview was produced with the support of The Champlain Society. The mission of The Champlain Society is to increase public awareness of, and accessibility to, Canada’s rich store of historical records.
Gregory P. Marchildon is the Ontario Research Chair in Health Policy and System Design with the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto.
When Dana and Luke first started dating at the office they kept their relationship a secret. Most of their colleagues didn’t know they were a couple until they got engaged. They didn’t want any undue pressure or outside judgment. That’s because Dana is a proud Black, Ghanaian woman from central Florida and Luke is a white man from Kansas. Dana’s wondering how she can preserve her identity while they absorb each others’ family traditions. On this episode of How To!, guest host Hélène Biandudi Hofer brings on Karyn Langhorne Folan, author of Don't Bring Home a White Boy: And Other Notions that Keep Black Women From Dating Out. All three discuss the struggles and joys in their respective interracial marriages.
If you want to learn more about Dana’s work, check out AfroLA.
Do you have a question without an answer? Send us a note at howto@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show.
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On this episode: Elizabeth and Jamilah are joined by KC Davis. KC is author of the book How To Keep House While Drowning, host of the podcast Struggle Care, and is well known for her TikTok content. KC shares how to divorce yourself from any shame and pressure you feel about the state of your house. She breaks down the differences between tidy, organized, and clean. Finally, she explains how to make chores not just equal but equitable.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on Mom and Dad are Fighting. Sign up now at slate.com/momanddadplus to help support our work.
Join us on Facebook and email us at momanddad@slate.com to ask us new questions, tell us what you thought of today’s show, and give us ideas about what we should talk about in future episodes.
Podcast produced by Rosemary Belson and Kristie Taiwo-Makanjuola.
President Abraham Lincoln ordered the largest mass execution of Indigenous people in American history, following the 1862 uprising of hungry Dakota in Minnesota and suspiciously speedy trials. He also issued the largest commutation of executions in American history for the same act. But there is much more to the story of Lincoln’s interactions and involvement, personal and political, with Native Americans, as Michael S. Green shows. Lincoln and Native Americans (Southern Illinois UP, 2021) explains how Lincoln thought about Native Americans, interacted with them, and was affected by them.
Although ignorant of Native customs, Lincoln revealed none of the hatred or single-minded opposition to Native culture that animated other leaders and some of his own political and military officials. Lincoln did far too little to ease the problems afflicting Indigenous people at the time, but he also expressed more sympathy for their situation than most other politicians of the day. Still, he was not what those who wanted legitimate improvements in the lives of Native Americans would have liked him to be.
College application season is approaching fast—too fast—for 16-yr old Maya and her mother, Melissa. The problem? Maya has no idea where to go or what to study. It doesn’t help that there are thousands of schools to choose from, and little transparency about their true cost. On this episode of How To!, we bring on Ron Lieber, New York Times money columnist and author of The Price You Pay for College. He shows Maya how to narrow down the list of potential colleges by asking insightful questions of the schools and, ultimately, yourself. Then he talks to Melissa about how to pay for it without harming the rest of the family’s finances.
Ron’s questions for parents:
What do you remember your parent or parents saying to you the first time they talked about what college would cost and what, if anything, they would pay?
Or if there was silence around the topic of paying for college, what did it speak?
How much was your parent or your parents willing to pay for your education? How did you feel about that?
If your parents paid your way, is it possible that you should not feel obligated to do the same, given how much the world has changed?
And if your parents paid nothing, have you asked yourself whether 15 years of extreme thrift starting now (or going deep into debt 15 years from now to pay for your child’s first-choice college) may not erase whatever pain lingers from that period long ago -- or may create new conflict with your spouse and kids?
How much might you be willing to borrow -- or delay repayment of your own student loans?
How long are you willing to delay retirement to meet this goal?
Do you have a question without an answer? Send us a note at howto@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show. Subscribe for free on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Podcast production by Derek John, Rosemary Belson, and Kevin Bendis.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on How To!. Sign up now at slate.com/howtoplus to help support our work.
John Dickerson talks with author Ada Calhoun about her new memoir, Also a Poet: Frank O’Hara, My Father, and Me. What started as Calhoun’s attempt to finish the biography of Frank O’Hara that her father started, turned into a gripping story of Calhoun’s relationship with her father. Calhoun and Dickerson talk about not pulling punches when it comes to how nice family members are, why you can’t pre-plan a happy ending, and what her father thought of the book.
Tweet us your questions @SlateGabfest or email us at gabfest@slate.com. (Messages could be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)
