Hi Reader, Last month my extended family spent two weeks in Sicily celebrating my dad's 75th birthday. The food, the views, the weather — all incredible. But the real gift was something simpler: two uninterrupted weeks together. We spent hours driving between towns in a packed van, with all the cousins (ages 3–12) piled in with us. A handful of podcasts (Magical Storybook, Story Shed, Circle Round, But Why?) held all five rapt at once. It got me wondering: does listening "count" the same as...
11 days ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, Growing up, the TV was on a lot at my house. Good Morning America hummed along every morning while my mom got us out the door. When my dad came home from work, the evening news turned on. I never thought twice about it because this was the case at most of my friends' houses too. At that time, the TV was one of the primary ways (alongside newspapers) that adults stayed connected to the world. My house now is almost the complete opposite. The TV is only on when someone is actively...
17 days ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, Summer is in full swing here. Pool days, grilled everything, and later bedtimes. I’m relishing all of it. Growing up in Florida, summer afternoons meant movies. Thunderstorms and brutal heat drove us to the local AMC almost every week for the latest blockbuster. Settling into a cold theater with my friends is one of my favorite childhood memories. That nostalgia hit hard this past weekend when we took my girls to see Toy Story 5. It was my 3-year old's first movie in a theater....
24 days ago • 3 min read
Hi Reader, Earlier this month at their developer's conference, Apple finally handed parents the controls we've been requesting for years. This fall, with iOS 27, you'll be able to approve every website your kid visits, every new contact they add, and exactly which apps live on their phone from day one. It's a real update. And there's a real catch. Here's what's new: When you set up a phone for your kid, you now choose exactly which apps they start with, instead of handing over a fully-loaded...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, A few months ago, my almost 4-year-old discovered she could ask Siri to play music on our home speaker. Within minutes, she'd figured out the most powerful hack available to a toddler: just be louder and more persistent than the adults. It is June. Bing Crosby played six times. But once I changed the settings and stopped laughing, something hit me: my toddler is already interacting with AI. And yours probably is too. They're not waiting until high school to encounter this stuff....
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, My sister and I went to a fancy spa in Palo Alto last weekend. So relaxing I literally fell asleep during my pedicure. In the lounge, I noticed something: nearly everyone around us was reading. And every single one of them was reading on paper. No Kindles, no iPads. There's an open secret in Silicon Valley: the people building the tech often don't use it themselves — or let their kids use it. It stuck with me. Because the research backs it up. Studies consistently show that kids...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, I have a confession. About six months ago, I started taking creatine supplements. And when I really think about why — it wasn’t because my doctor recommended it. It wasn’t because I sought out the research. It’s because I kept seeing it on Instagram. Over and over. From people who looked healthy and confident and like they knew something I didn’t. Eventually I did go read the actual studies (old habits die hard). But here’s what got me: the content got there first. It planted the...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read