Positive Parenting | Mr. Dad

David Bianchi, author of Blue Chip Kids. Topic: What every child and parent should know about money, investing, and the stock market. Issues: What is money? different ways of paying for things; the difference between stock markets and stock exchanges; stock options; funds; analyzing companies; borrowing money; net worth; taxes, and much more.

Richard Rende, coauthor of Raising Can-Do Kids. Topic: Giving children the tools to thrive in a fast-changing world. Issues: The importance of allowing time for unstructured, pretend play; getting children involved in chores on a regular basis; letting kids be samplers instead of specialists; reframing failure; emphasizing learning over grades; and much more.

Tom Clynes, author of The Boy Who Played with Fusion. Topic: Extreme science, extreme parenting, and how to make a star Issues: The amazing story of Taylor Wilson, an American teenager who became the youngest personever to build a working nuclear fusion reactor; the equally amazing choices Taylor’s parents made to fully support his intellectual passions; the social challenges of being off-the-charts brilliant.

Justin Sonnenburg, co-authhor of The Good Gut. Topic: Taking control of your weight, your mood, and your long-term health Issues: The relationship between our bodies and the trillions of organisms that live in our gut; the ways those organisms (called “microbiota”) determine whether we’re sick or healthy, fit or obese, sunny or moody; why our microbiota is facing a “mass extinction event.”

Alissa Hamilton, author of Got Milked? Topic: The great dairy deception and why you’ll thrive without milk. Issues: The major players in promoting milk in the U.S.; how milk makes us sick and increase the risk of bone fractures; the need to balance calcium–which we get a lot of–and Vitamin D and magnesium (which we’re not getting enough of).

Heather Flett, coauthor of The Rookie Mom’s Handbook. Topic: Motherhood, fatherhood, the changing landscape of parenthood. Issues: How motherhood has changed over the last 10 years; the mom blogging community; resources for new moms; the importance of letting the dad do things his way; the role of social media in creating communities of moms.

Martha Ertman, author of Love’s Promises. Topic: How formal and informal contracts shape all kinds of families. Issues: The difference between a “deal” (I cook dinner and you wash the dishes) and an enforceable contract; Type A families (heterosexual couple raising a biologically related child) vs. Type B families (pretty much every other kind of family imaginable); how contracts shape and sustain families as opposed to simply being cold and calculating.

Robert Sears, coauthor of The Allergy Book. Topic: Solving your child’s allergies, asthma, food sensitivities, and related problems. Issues: Allergy testing; nasal allergies and the asthma connection; wheat and gluten sensitivity; the importance of probiotics in a healthy immune system; preventing allergies before they happen.

Laura Markham, author of Peaceful Parents, Happy Siblings. Topic: How to stop the fighting and raise friends for life. Issues: The most common mistake parents make with siblings; why you shouldn’t force your kids to share; how and why to schedule meltdowns; ways to foster sibling bonding; when to intervene in a sibling fight; should you force your kids to apologize to each other after a fight?

Josh Levs, author of All In. Topic: How our work-first culture fails dads, families, and businesses. Issues: The parental leave battle; the struggle between work and family; Dumping the “doofus dad” stereotype; challenges of being a military dad; dads’ changing priorities; the overall importance of fathers in children’s life.

Scott Sampson, author of How to Raise a Wild Child. Topic: The art and science of falling in love with Nature. Issues: What is nature and why do we need it? discovering nearby nature; mentoring young children; how to instill a love of nature even if you don’t love it that much yourself; balancing technology and nature; rethinking nature and childhood.

Jodee Blanco, editor of Bullied Kids Speak Out. Topic: How bullied kids survive–and how you can too. Issues: Different types of bullying, the problem with “zero tolerance” programs; how children should respond to bullies; the role of parents and teachers in stopping bullying; survival strategies for victims; how bullies can apologize.

Jo Boaler, author of What’s Math Got to Do with It? Topic: How teachers and parents can transform mathematics learning and inspire success. Issues: Why the US is falling behind other industrialized countries in math; new research on the brain and mathematics that is revolutionizing scientists’ understanding of learning and potential; why the math people need is not the same math that’s learned in most classrooms.

Frances Jensen, author of The Teenage Brain. Topic: A Neuroscientist’s survival guide to raising adolescents and young adults. Issues: How the teenage brain is under construction; the vulnerabilities and strengths of the teenage brain; the importance of sleep and the circadian rhythms; the damage done to the teen brain by risk taking, smoking, alcohol, and drugs,

Peter Bregman, author of Four Seconds. Topic: All the time you need to stop counter-productive habits and get the results you want. Issues: Why setting goals can harm your performance; how to use strategic disengagement to recover focus and willpower; why listening—not arguing—is the best strategy for changing someone’s mind; how taking responsibility for someone else’s failure can help you succeed.