Dr. William Stixrud / Ned Johnson

Why Our Kids Are Going To Be Okay, And So Will We (Despite AI)

Length: 54:58

Dr. William Stixrud is a clinical neuropsychologist and a faculty member at Children’s National and the George Washington University School of Medicine. He lectures widely on the adolescent brain, motivation, and the effects of stress, sleep deprivation, and technology overload on the brain.

Ned Johnson is the founder of PrepMatters, a tutoring service in Washington, DC. He is a sought after speaker and teen coach for study skills, parent-teen dynamics, and anxiety management and his work has been featured on NPR, the U.S. News and World Report, Time, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal.

Together Bill and Ned co-wrote 3 books, The Self-Driven Child, What Do You Say, and The Seven Principles for Raising a Self-Driven Child.

Summary:
Dr. William Stixrud and Ned Johnson share the concern that many parents have right now: that AI is allowing your kid to offload the hard, messy work of thinking, feeling, and connecting instead of building those muscles themselves. Through personal and professional stories, including Ned’s own daughter’s school refusal and his son’s brain tumor, you’ll see what it actually looks like to be a non-anxious presence when your kid is struggling. You’ll walk away with concrete tools, how to ask questions instead of lecturing, how to set AI boundaries together with your kid, and why “the bickering is the point” when it comes to real childhood play and friction. If you’ve ever wondered how to hold onto connection and confidence in your kid while AI reshapes everything around them, this conversation is heartwarming, reassuring, and moving.
Links:

Website and Podcast

Justin Reich

AI & Education: We Don’t Know What We’re Doing Yet

Length: 44:57

Justin Reich is a learning scientist interested in learning at scale, practice-based teacher education, and the future of learning in a networked world. He is an Assistant Professor in the Comparative Media Studies/Writing department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the director of the MIT Teaching Systems Lab, which designs, implements, and researches the future of teacher learning. He is also the host of the TeachLab Podcast. His writings have appeared in Science, The Atlantic, Educational Researcher, the Washington Post, the Christian Science Monitor, and other publications.

Summary:
Justin Reich brings a historical lens to share how technology has been rolled out in education over the years, often with mediocre results. He believes that most recommendations about “AI literacy” are essentially guesswork because we don’t really know what AI is yet. He shares real stories from interviewing 120 students and teachers, including kids who cheat with AI and secretly wish they’d been caught. There is a wide variation in how schools are responding, where teachers, parents, and kids are often left to figure things out on their own without guidance or professional development. Even though no one has the answers yet, curiosity, clear boundaries, and treating this as a shared experiment can help families navigate the uncertainty together.

Links:

The Homework Machine Podcast

Dr. Michael Milham

Adolescent Mental Health and AI: The Dangers and The Hope

Length: 43:50

Michael P. Milham, MD, PhD, an internationally recognized neuroscience researcher, is the Chief Science Officer and the founding director of the Center for Integrative Developmental Neuroscience (IDN) at the Child Mind Institute. He is also a practicing child and adolescent psychiatrist. He earned his PhD in Cognitive/Clinical Neuroscience and Psychophysiology at the University of Illinois. Dr. Milham’s research interests include investigating how functional and structural connectivity in the brain may underlie differing forms of mental illness, and seeking to chart the course of brain development in healthy and affected children.

Summary:
Dr. Michael Milham brings a researcher’s mindset to this series. AI research has some challenges; there’s no clean baseline, no control group, every AI response is different, and AI is being introduced into our daily lives at scale and without consent. He shares cutting-edge findings from the Child Mind Institute about what stops kids from reporting unwanted online interactions and what things make some kids more vulnerable to them. Michael also shares a helpful AI tool that the Institute has developed: a journaling app that can catch mental health risk in real time. Michael reminds parents to stay engaged, curious, connected, and willing to say no if needed.

Links:

Family Resource Center

Mirror Journal app

The Bias Built Into the AI Machine and Being the Parent Your Child Comes To First

Length: 38:54

Dr. Mercedes Samudio is a licensed clinical social worker, parent coach, speaker, and bestselling author who helps parents and children communicate with each other, manage emotional trauma, navigate social media and technology together, and develop healthy parent-child relationships. Mercedes started the EndParentShaming movement and coined the term Shame-Proof Parenting, using both to raise awareness about ending parent shame.

Summary:
Dr. Mercedes Samudio brings something few other AI conversations touch on: what happens when a child’s emotional needs go unnoticed by the adults around them. She walks through why kids turn to AI in the first place, what’s lost when a chatbot can’t grasp the full context of a child’s life, and offers a genuinely useful practice to encourage your child to come to you first. She also speaks directly to a risk most AI conversations miss entirely: how AI’s built-in biases can actually harm Black and Brown kids navigating racism and identity. It’s a conversation that will leave you with real tools, not just more worry.

Links

Website

Tween Emotions Guide

What an Internet Safety Expert Says About Keeping Kids SAFE Online

Length: 44.56

After being groomed online as a child, Fareedah Shaheed made it her mission to help parents protect their children from online predators and threats. Today, she’s a Forbes 30 Under 30 Internet Safety Expert known for her signature SAFE Method, which makes digital safety easy and accessible in the age of AI. Her work has been featured by NBC, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, NASDAQ, and Yahoo!, and she has partnered with organizations including NASA, Meta, FedEx, H&M, Verizon, and Mozilla to educate and empower parents, caregivers, and communities.

Summary:
Internet safety expert Fareedah Shaheed, who survived online grooming as a child herself, shares a deeply personal look at how AI has amplified threats that might even be created by classmates rather than strangers. Her SAFE method and age-by-age framework give parents concrete, practical scripts for building trust without becoming the “perfect parent” that unintentionally shuts kids out. The emotional heart of the conversation, the story of how her own mother’s raw, imperfect apology brought her back from the edge of running away, makes this a must-watch for any parent.

Links:

Website

Instagram

LinkedIn

Leah Plunkett

Sharenthood: Why We Should Think before We Talk about Our Kids Online

Length: 41:19

Leah Plunkett is a leading expert on digital law and digital life in our K-12 schools, our homes, and our civic organizations that serve kids and teens. She wrote SHARENTHOOD: Why We Should Think Before We Talk About Our Kids Online. Leah brings compassion, clarity, sound legal judgment, and a sense of humor to unpacking the many complex questions about youth and the digital world that educators, parents, and other decision-makers are confronting. She went to Harvard College and Harvard Law School and is on the faculty at Harvard Law School.

Summary:
Leah Plunkett walks us through the many ways your child’s private data is being collected and possibly compromised, even if you’re just signing them up for something using an app. She offers concrete, practical scripts for talking to young kids about AI chatbots using the same “don’t talk to strangers” approach that you probably already use. She shares a step-by-step playbook for talking to your child’s school about what AI tools they’re actually using in the classroom (or even the back office). This conversation is a rare mix of legal expertise and genuinely usable, everyday advice about how to take kids’ privacy seriously.

Links:

Website

LinkedIn

Katie Greer

How an Internet Safety Expert Talks to Her Kids About AI

Length: 34:16

Katie Greer is a keynote speaker on internet safety. She has worked in the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office and for the Massachusetts State Police as an Intelligence Analyst. Katie has been featured in USA Today, TIME Magazine, Good Housekeeping, Parents Magazine, CNN, and more. She has helped shape the minds and policies of hundreds of thousands of students, parents, and people across North America at schools, universities, government agencies, and global corporations

Summary:
Even though Katie Greer has been working in the field of internet safety for years, she’s also a mom of two teenagers who is learning alongside them. Katie shared the conversation she had with her own kids about AI chatbots in the car just days before this interview, and doesn’t shy away from naming one of her biggest concerns: AI companions designed to feel like real friends or partners. What sets this conversation apart is her core message: you don’t have to master this technology to guide your kids through it; you just have to show up, stay curious, and dig in with them. It’s honest, it’s doable, and it will leave you feeling capable instead of overwhelmed.

Links:

Website