On Purpose: The Heidi Stevens And Dr. John Duffy Podcast

Take 5 Minutes

Before you listen to this...take five minutes to yourself. No phone. No email. Maybe just a cup of coffee. Then...make sure you listen to this, because we're talking about all kinds of stuff, like the Chicago teacher's strike, why men don't bring their kids to therapy, and how integrating masculine energy into a healthy family dynamic results in a win for everyone. 

Grown Ups Don't Get It

It's true! Our playbook is outdated, and we just don't get it! Nevertheless, this week we're talking about a bunch of things - what John and Heidi have been up to recently, why you don't have to be flawless to be gutsy, some interesting insights into the transgender bathroom debates, whether bullying is still prevalent amongst teenagers, and more!

Leading From A Place Of Empathy

In this week's episode, Heidi and John discuss the tragic story of Channing Smith, who died by suicide after his intimate conversations with another boy was made public. It's extremely important for parents to understand that the teenage mind does not have enough life experience yet to understand resiliency, that life goes on, and that they will indeed recover from instances like this. So what can we parents do to prevent something like this from happening to our own loved ones? We can start by leading from a place of empathy. 

Certain Topics You Can't Ignore With Your Kids Anymore...

On a great note, John's new book, "Parenting The New Teen In The Age Of Anxiety," is finally out! On the other hand, Heidi's column this week was about the shocking new study claiming that the first sexual experience of 3 million women in America was rape. So...this episode meets those two notes somewhere in the middle and gets to the heart of how we can work to address issues like these, and it starts with taking the initiative to talk to your kids much much sooner about topics we'd probably rather not. This episode is a little heavier than our usual conversations, but it's for good reason. We promise to return to our regularly scheduled upbeat demeanor after this one!

How Much Monitoring Is Too Much?

Are parenting apps that monitor our kids' every move robbing them of something very valuable? In this week's episode, we're talking about the pros and cons of being constantly aware of their grades, social media usage, and even if they're speeding or not — and how all of this information is affecting their ability to be in touch with their own feelings and emotionally regulate themselves. 

Protecting Our Kids, Tending To Our Relationships, & Coveting A Neighbor's Style?

On today's episode, we travel a wide range of the emotional spectrum – from Heidi's column about how the suicide of a Naperville teen led to the creation of a new law, to kids these days and their desire to understand what's going on in the world, to evil Juul ads, to travel and how it can affect our relationships. You'll experience some sadness, some anger, some optimism, and some humor. A Balancing Act, if you will. You won't experience John promoting his new book. Which will be out in a few weeks. 

 

 

Celebrating Ourselves In The Age Of Social Media

John has never made a big deal about his birthday, even as a kid. Can you believe that? But Heidi's son just turned 10, and it kind of is a big deal. So which is it? Should birthdays be a big deal, or not? We're hashing out the complexities in a bitter fight to the death. Or maybe it's just a friendly, insightful discussion as usual. You'll never know unless you tune in. Also, John's got a book coming out, too, in case you haven't seen his many many social media posts about it, which he's not anxious about at all. 

On Post-Vacation Blues & Creating Gentler Relationships

We’re both back from vacation, and Heidi’s dealing with a little bit of a post-vaca existential crisis! Nevertheless, we’re talking about how returning from vacations and settling back into our ordinary lives have changed over the last few years in our increasingly harsh, polarized culture. All this leads us in the direction of how harsh our interactions the people close to us can be sometimes, and how we can all benefit from being a little gentler in our interactions.

Aziz Ansari & A New Dialogue

This week we're talking about Aziz Ansari's new Netflix special and what we can learn from the way he addressed his own sexual misconduct allegations from last year. 

The Value Of Sports

The huge win of the USA Women's Soccer team has us reeling this week about the value of sports in our kids' lives these days. We get into why you have to take chances and put it all on the line sometimes, learning how to define wins for yourself even if you aren't a natural-born athlete, and even why some kids are choosing to opt out of sports lately - and why they shouldn't!