When Ashlynn Mitchell’s husband came to her and said he wanted a divorce, her whole life turned upside down. Suddenly her goals, dreams, and hopes for the future changed, and she didn’t know if she could go on alone. Ashlynn shares how reevaluating her life goals, rebuilding trust in herself, and nourishing self-love helped her along on her long journey of reconnecting with herself after divorce.
In the US, women and girls now outperform men and boys at every level of education. Boys are less likely to graduate from high school, enroll in college or finish college. Men are more likely to die by suicide, and they aren't participating in the labor market as much as they used to either. In the last forty years, American society has made concerted efforts to boost opportunities for women and girls. That job is not finished, so when we talk about gender inequality in America, it makes sense that the conversations tend to be about women. But American boys and men are falling behind. Have we accidentally overlooked their struggles? Today on Top of Mind, we're looking at a few of the issues facing modern men and boys, and how to help them. We talk to a program director working with boys of color in Baltimore, an economist who’s studied what it means for boys to be raised in single parent households at a record rate, an academic who’s been following these trends for years, and the founder of a nonprofit with an unusual approach to supporting men in their mental health struggles.
This week on In Good Faith, Steve speaks with Wendy Goldberg in the first half of the episode and Rabbi Joe Charnes in the second half. Both our guests are passionate in interfaith bridge building, and we were excited to hear what they are accomplishing in their communities.
As parents it's not uncommon that we spend so much time focusing on taking care of the kids, putting food on the table, and making sure life doesn't fall apart at the seams that we don't find time to work on our own social circles. So what do we do when the kids are becoming independent and we have a little more free time, but it's been years since we tried making a new friend? In this episode of The Lisa Show's Council of Moms, Lisa talks with Heather Frazier, Melanie Call, and Whitney Call about their experiences and advice.
Turtles have amazing recuperative powers; when an injured turtle is given the right care and time to heal, it can often outlive its human rescuers—and possibly its rescuers' children as well. Acclaimed nature writer Sy Montgomery and illustrator Matt Patterson share the transformative lessons they've learned at the Turtle Rescue Center in Southbridge, Massachusetts. In this episode of Constant Wonder: What can turtles teach us about patience, endurance, time, and even what it means to be human?
In November 2008, Lara Love Hardin was arrested in her suburban home. Her habit of pretending to have a perfect life had led to an opioid addiction, which had imploded her life completely. Now, she’s a bestselling author who has worked with Oprah and the Dalai Lama—and most importantly, she no longer has to pretend. In this episode, Lara shares her story of starting over after drug addiction.
America’s students are struggling. Chronic absenteeism has doubled from pre-pandemic numbers. Districts are implementing grading floors to soften the sting of failure. Grade inflation is widespread. Many students seem to have lost the motivation to learn, and traditional systems of grading and ranking aren’t helping. What’s wrong with the A-F grading system? Should school just do away with grades entirely? What interventions work to get kids back in classrooms more consistently? In this podcast episode, a high school teacher shares how she changed grading in her classroom to better engage her students and an historian explains why grades are a “can’t live with ‘em can’t live without ‘em” conundrum. We also speak with a coach who works with students that struggle with motivation because they lack executive function skills and a leading expert on chronic absenteeism explains why so many kids are missing school these days and what we can do about it.
Our first IGF Book Club of 2024! In this episode, we're reading the Bhagavad Gita, as translated by Laurie Patton. We actually interviewed Laurie on this show in 2020, so if you want to hear her voice, check out episode 77.
In this week's Council of Moms, Lisa is joined by Lavonne Wells, Shari Lyon, and Brittney Phillips to answer a listener-submitted question: What do you do when your teenager doesn't seem to care about school, and you can tell they're heading down a difficult path?
A foundling newborn owl on the brink of death was rescued by a passionate conservationist. After a couple years, she was released to the wild, where's she's lived a healthy life—she's even raised two broods of chicks. But she still calls to and pays regular visits to her rescuer, right in his own back yard. A miracle of hope and connection. Also, in this episode of Constant Wonder, a bonus conversation about tracking the world's largest owl in Siberia.