Anyone who knows me knows that I love a good Podcast. I love popping in one of my headphones while doing dishes or on the radio driving somewhere, and I can learn something or be entertained for a bit. They’re completely addictive when you find good ones, and I find myself turning them on whenever I have a few minutes to myself. My husband makes fun of me because I will even turn them on while brushing my teeth. You take what you can get as a mom, am I right? Given my absolute love for podcasts, I thought it would be fun to do a round-up of some of the best podcasts on parenting, motherhood, and kids that are absolutely worth giving a listen. Some of these are recurring podcasts, some a singular episode and others are a short series. Either way they all contain valuable information on parenting, will make you feel heard as a parent or will have you in stitches laughing by the end of it.
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Top 10 Best Parenting Podcasts
Freakonomics Episode 376 – The Data-Driven Guide to Sane Parenting
On this episode of Freakonomics, economist Emily Oster examines a plethora of controversial parenting topics to unveil what the data really says. I’m sure it’s no surprise to you as a parent that there are EVERY topic on parenting seems to illicit a controversy, be it breastfeeding, sleep training, or screen time.
Emily OSTER: No one’s in the middle. People are yelling. The first person is like, “Well, I did that, and my kid’s amazing.” And then someone will be like, “Well, actually, if you do that, there’s a very good chance your baby will die, and only someone who hates their baby would do that.”
Emily Oster
In this episode, Emily backs up and examines the data that we have around some very popular parenting topics. Another fun fact about me, I’m a mathematician by training and work as a data scientist for my day job. So any time that I can leverage data to guide my decision making I am all for it. It doesn’t make sense to base our decisions off of anecdotes when many areas of parenting we do have true data and scientific studies to help inform our choices.
In this podcast episode Emily dives into what is known about breastfeeding, discusses what is wrong with conventional parenting wisdom, the ever popular topic of how babies should sleep, and of course vaccinations. It’s a really interesting parenting podcast which if nothing else will leave you with a lot to chew on.
The Motherly Podcast – Psychologist Angela Duckworth on the art of teaching perseverance to your kids
In this Podcast episode by Motherly, Psychologist Angela Duckworth (the “Grit” queen) speaks to the importance of letting your kids struggle. Angela is a mother to 2 daughters herself, a bestselling author and the founder and CEO of Character Lab, a nonprofit whose mission is to advance scientific insights that help children thrive. In this podcast episode Angela discusses what grit is, and how parents can work to instill that gritty passion and perseverance in their kids. They touch on the importance of modeling desired behaviors, of letting kids struggle and how she approaches this with her own children.
NPR Life Kit: Parenting – Difficult Conversations
With kids, you will inevitably face a number of difficult conversations when raising them. Topics like death, race, scary topics on the news, divorce and so much more. The Difficult Conversations are a set of podcasts episodes from the NPR Life Kit Parenting series brought to you by Sesame Street Workshop develipers and experts designed to help you with addressing these sensitive topics with your kids in an appropriate way. The Episode Be Honest And Concrete: Tips For Talking To Kids About Death is one that I wish I had listened to when I was figuring out what to say to my two children when my mother passed away. This is an excellent parenting podcast series, definitely worth checking out so that you are prepared when those difficult conversations arise.
Mom and Dad are Fighting – Slate’s Parenting Podcast
This parenting podcast includes a slew of hosts: Jamilah Lemieux, Dan Kois, and Elizabeth Newcamp who roundtable on a number of parenting topics each week, and are often joined by guests as well. They answer write in questions and touch on hot topics of interest. Each week they also share parenting triumphs and fails to kick off the show. They offer a lot of really great advice, and I like that you get to hear different perspectives from the group instead of just one person’s opinion. Definitely a solid parenting podcast worth checking out!
The Mom Hour
Sarah and Meagan (who have 8 children between them) share parenting tips, personal stories and encouragement weekly on their podcast The Mom Hour. They are incredibly down to earth hosts, who don’t pretend to be.perfect, but are just real parents, wanting to share valuable information with other parents. The Mom Hour is an hour of fun, laughs and conversation all centered around parenting and motherhood. The show launched in 2015, so there are tons of episodes to listen to. If you are looking for a place to start, I’d recommend checking out The Life-Changing Magic of Opting Out, which touches on identifying tasks and obligations that you just won’t do as a mom that really aren’t meaningful or impactful. It can be easy as a Mom to be pressured into trying to do everything, which just isn’t realistic. Finding ways to opt-out can have a big impact on making your day to day life as a mom much easier.
AT Parenting Survival Podcast
The AT Parenting Survival Podcast is hosted by Natasha Daniels, a child therapist who specializes in child anxiety and OCD. This parenting podcast offers great insights into parenting topics related to anxiety and OCD covering topics such as fears, self-esteem, and grief. One really great episode published last year was “How not to pass our fears onto our kids”. In this episode, Natasha discusses how to appropriately deal with the fears around life during a global pandemic, how to avoid projecting your own anxieties onto your children, and also how to prevent holding back your children due to your own anxieties. I think all of us have anxiety from time to time as parents, and I thought the discussion around ensuring that you aren’t projecting your own anxiety onto your child was really important to think about.
UnRuffled with Janet Lansbury
Janet Lansbury hosts the UnRuffled Podcast which tackles tons of various parenting topics with a respectful parenting approach. Janet is a well-respected author who hosts special guests and also regularly addresses write-in questions. She offers practical advice that is easy to follow and very specific for numerous common parenting scenarios – covering topics such as children saying no to everything, water safety, secure attachment, and dealing with children’s emotions. I find Janet’s tone and voice are incredibly soothing I have to say. Her overall approach focuses on accepting and acknowledging all feelings, but also establishes the need for firm parental limits. Honestly her book, No Bad Kids – Toddler Discipline Without Shame is also worth checking out if you enjoy the podcast.
The Double Shift
The Double Shift is hosted by Katherine Goldstein and Angela Garbes and is a crtically acclaimed storytelling podcast that takes on the current state of motherhood focusing on working moms. It shines a light on the “double shift” that working moms in America take on – one with their day job and the other at home. The Double Shift takes the status quo head-on and nudges moms to stop feeling guilty and to start getting focused on driving action about the unacceptable state of motherhood in America. The stories featured on this podcast are quite compelling, and it’s both comforting, and at times disconcerting, to the hear the struggles of others mothers.
The Longest Shortest Time
The Longest Shortest Time is a parenting podcast about all of the surprises and absurdities of being a parent. Hillary Frank is the creator and producer of the show (and she hosted it for 7 years). She started it after a particularly rough childbirth and recovery that got her interested in exploring these topics further. The Longest Shortest Time honestly covers anything and everything to do with raising little humans – babies, childbirth, feeding, Dads, and everyone’s favorite topic: sleep! This podcast actually ended in 2019, but definitely worth perusing the archives.
Dads: The Podcast
Given the name, this one is obviously a podcast geared towards being a Dad. The Dads podcast is put on by Team Coco and hosted by Rory Scovel and Ruthie Wyatt. Each week they are joined by special celebrity guests to discuss all topics on fatherhood and parenting. These discussions are usually hilarious and enjoyable whether you are a parent or not. I’d recommend starting with the first episode Conan is a Dad, which unsurprisingly features Conan O’Brien. There haven’t been any new episodes of this released since December, but I do think it’s worth checking out the series.
Thanks for stoping by! Do you have a favorite parenting podcast that I left out? If so, I’d love to hear about it from you. Leave me a comment down below so that I can check out your recommendations.
If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to check out my post on how motherhood changes you.