Free Daily Podcast Summary
The Middle School Mary Poppins Podcast: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Suzanne M. Swain, EDS LMSW
The Middle School Mary Poppins Podcast™ Parenting a middle schooler doesn’t come with a manual—but this podcast comes pretty close. The Middle School Mary Poppins Podcast™ helps parents, educators, counselors, and caregivers better understand tweens and young teens during one of the most important—and misunderstood—stages of childhood. Hosted by Suzanne M. Swain, EdS LMSW —educator, therapist, former multi award-winning middle school teacher, school librarian, administrator, professor, and educational sociologist—each episode blends brain science, practical parenting strategies, emotional regulation, executive functioning support, and a little ridiculous joy to help families thrive. Suz has done it all - all by design to create this show for you! Topics include anxiety, ADHD, autism, executive functioning, emotional regulation, friendships, bullying, motivation, screen time, school success, neurodiversity, family communication, and adolescent development. Downloaded more than 800,000 times in 130 countries, with 6,700+ five-star Spotify ratings and multiple #1 Apple Podcasts rankings in Kids & Family and Parenting, the podcast has become a trusted top 1% resource for families and educators around the world. Whether you’re raising a middle schooler, teaching one, counseling families, or simply trying to better understand the adolescent brain, you’ll find practical strategies, encouragement, and a little ridiculous joy along the way. Stop. Regulate. Listen.
Latest Episodes
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- 5 days ago27 min
S4 EP2: Living in a Material World - Spotlight People, Scapegoats, & Staying Clever
What happens when someone seems to value your talent, creativity, or helpfulness more than they value you?In “Living in a Material World: Spotlight People, Scapegoats, and Staying Clever,” I explore something I desperately needed an adult to explain when I was young: other people do not necessarily think the way you do. That does not mean everyone is bad, and it certainly does not mean kids should become frightened or suspicious. It means we can keep our good hearts while learning to notice patterns, set boundaries, and choose carefully who receives access to our time, trust, and ideas.We talk about “spotlight people,” the surprising strengths often found in the person who becomes the scapegoat, and why being useful to someone is not the same as being valued by them. For neurodivergent kids—and every helper, fixer, creative engine, and brave truth-teller—this episode offers permission to remain kind without measuring self-worth by how much you can do for everyone else.This week’s kid question takes us to India and gives Lieutenant Steve an opportunity to demonstrate his most important superpower. We also explore why animals can feel especially safe to neurodivergent young people, why support is a verb, and why my granny loved to say, “In Dog We Trust.”This is a hopeful flashlight conversation—not a warning siren. There is also Madonna, Dolly Parton, a Disney-villain detour, and a dog guarding the bedroom from invaders who never arrive.Recommended for middle schoolers ages 10–15 and the parents, educators, counselors, and caregivers who love them.Visit https://msmarypoppins.com for more about the podcast and upcoming downloadable materials that will help families, teachers, and young people carry these ideas into real life.Stay clever, little foxes. 🦊💜☂️🍪
- 2 weeks ago53 min
S4 EP1: True Colors: Potentiality & 8 Hidden Superpowers for a Brand-New School Year 🌈💎
TRUE COLORS: 8 Hidden Superpowers for a Brand-New School Year 🌈💎Season 4 is here! 🎉 And we’re starting with a radical idea: what if some of the things we’re quickest to label as “problems” in middle schoolers are actually unfinished strengths?In this episode, Suzanne explores potentiality—the difference between what something is right now and what it still has the capacity to become.Because an argumentative kid might be developing the persistence of an advocate. A hyper-observant kid may be building extraordinary social intelligence. An overexplainer might someday become a powerful communicator. And the kid who feels everything may not need less empathy—they may need help learning how to use that empathy without carrying everybody else’s emotions.Through middle school sociology, developmental science, classroom stories, a nearly indestructible Asheville geode, Holes, a few cognitive distortions, and Lieutenant Steve’s absolutely unforgivable excavation of a practically brand-new queen-sized memory foam mattress 🐶😂, we uncover eight hidden superpowers:🧠 Discernment and knowing which battles matter👀 Reading the social world👂 Deep listening🗣️ Communication, argument & advocacy🧰 Resourcefulness: being competent, capable & connected❤️ Empathy with healthy boundaries⚖️ The justice detector🌱 Knowing who you are without abandoning yourself to fit in This is not about pretending trauma is a gift or telling kids that everything happens for a reason. Trauma is not the superpower.It’s about asking a much more useful question:Now what?What can we build with what’s already here? What skill might be hiding underneath a difficult behavior? What happens when adults stop confusing unfinished with incapable?As a new school year begins, last year’s evidence does not get to write this year’s conclusion. Your middle schooler is still becoming—and there are entire parts of them they haven’t even met yet.💎 Stop looking for bruised apples. Start looking for geodes.And next week: Spotlight People—big egos, emotional gravity, manipulation, boundaries, and what happens when everybody else starts organizing themselves around one person’s spotlight.Stop. Regulate. Listen.And stay clever, little foxes. 🦊suzanneswain@gmail.commsmarypoppins.comhttps://www.facebook.com/share/1HxRVp9juV/?mibextid=wwXIfrhttps://youtube.com/@middleschoolmarypoppinspodcast?si=lHbYdjE5OxnYxV_mTopics: middle school • tweens • teens • parenting • back to school • adolescent development • emotional regulation • neurodivergence • empathy • anxiety • resilience • social intelligence • self-esteem • boundaries • advocacy • executive functioning • parenting teens • parenting tweens • teachers • educators
- Aug 18, 202641 min
S3 EP16: SEL Summer Camp Week 6 - The Last Campfire: Saving Big Hearts a Seat | Skills Wrap Up
🏕️ In the final episode of our SEL Summer Camp series, we bring together everything we’ve explored about the middle school years: the developing adolescent brain, screens and environment, emotions, anxiety, anger, resilience, identity, and belonging.This episode is about understanding the whole middle schooler.😳 Behavior does not happen in isolation. It happens inside a developing brain, a body, a family, a peer group, a school, a culture, and a community. When we stop asking only, “How do I stop this behavior?” and start asking, “What is happening with this kid?” we begin to see children differently.Along the way, I take you back to Camp Sycamore Hills and some of the people and stories that shaped the way I think about kids and community: the mysterious one-eared rabbit, Rich and his Great Pyrenees, the Art Barn, Tractor Girl, the legendary kitchen manager who called me “Astor,” and the Shero Award that still reminds me to look out for the underdog.We also talk about the power of music and memory, including why hearing Des’ree’s “You Gotta Be” still takes me straight back to that campfire and reminds me of the kind of person I want to be.If you are raising, teaching, counseling, coaching, or simply trying to understand a tween or young teen, this episode is a reminder that middle schoolers are not finished products. They are growing people who need room to practice, make mistakes, recover, and know they still belong.Because healthy communities do more than manage behavior.They help build people.🍪A huge thank-you to Jessica Ragnio & founder Dr. Jason Kahn for spending so much of SEL Summer Camp with us! 💰Use code MARYPOPPINS for 15% off Mightier. Learn emotional regulation through video games. Suzanne does not make any profit from Mightier. Just collabbing! 😁And remember:🏕️There is always room for the underdog around our fire.We’ve been saving you a seat.Next episode: We’re exploring the surprising strengths and “secret superpowers” that can sometimes develop from growing up in a difficult or emotionally complex childhood—and how those survival adaptations can become powerful tools with insight and healing. After that, “Spotlight People” & Ego! 🍿#MiddleSchoolMaryPoppins #MiddleSchoolParenting #ParentingTweens #SocialEmotionalLearning #EmotionalRegulation #MiddleSchool #AdolescentBrain #TweenParenting #Resilience #Belonging #ChildDevelopment #BehaviorIsCommunication #ConnectionBeforeCorrection #MentalHealth #ParentEducationThis is the website at www.msmarypoppins.com or email Suzanne:Suzanne swain@gmail.com for inquiries, listener questions, and just to say hello!
- Jul 21, 20261h 10m
S3 EP7: SEL Summer Camp Week 5: Anger Volcanoes: A Deep Dive Into Reactivity, Meltdowns, & Rage in Tweens
What if anger isn’t the real emotion? In this special Deep Dive episode, Suzanne is joined once again by therapist Jessica Ragnio, MSW, LICSW, for one of the most important conversations of the Summer Camp series. Together, they explore what is really happening beneath explosive behavior and why anger is so often protecting something much more vulnerable. Using Hawaiian volcanoes, ocean currents, and stories from Suzanne’s years in the middle school classroom, this episode unpacks the science...
- Jul 8, 202629 min
S2 EP 31 - SEL Summer Camp Week 4: Garden of Weedy Thoughts: Helping Middle Schoolers Bust Cognitive Distortions & Calm Anxiety
🌱 Garden of Weedy Thoughts: Helping Middle Schoolers Bust Cognitive Distortions & Calm Anxiety Why does your middle schooler suddenly believe everyone is judging them? Why can one awkward interaction at school turn into “Nobody likes me!”? And why do worries seem to grow so quickly during adolescence? Welcome to the strange garden of the middle school brain. In this week’s episode of Middle School Mary Poppins, Suzanne M. Swain, EdS, LMSW, is joined by Jessica Ragnio, MSW, LICSW, Clinical...
- Jun 24, 202635 min
S2 EP 30 - SEL Summer Camp Week 3: Oceans of Emotion: Why Middle Schoolers Feel Everything All at Once
Why does your middle schooler seem happy, anxious, excited, embarrassed, frustrated, and overwhelmed—all before dinner? In Week 3 of our Family Games Summer Camp series, Suzanne M. Swain, EdS, LMSW, is joined by Jessica Ragnio, MSW, LICSW, Clinical Director at Mightier, to explore the fascinating world of adolescent emotions. Together, they discuss why emotions become more intense during the middle school years, how identity development, independence, social awareness, and puberty shape emoti...
- Jun 16, 202627 min
S2 EP 29 - SEL Summer Camp Week 2: Are Screens Evil or Not? Chocolate Cake, Dopamine & the Middle School Brain
💜☂️ Are Screens Evil or Not? Chocolate Cake, Dopamine & the Middle School Brain | SEL Summer Camp Week 2 Why do kids seem glued to their phones? Why do texts, group chats, likes, and social media feel so important during middle school? And are screens really harming kids—or is the answer more complicated than that? In Week 2 of our SEL Summer Camp collaboration with Mightier, Suzanne Swain, EdS, LMSW sits down with developmental scientist Jason Kahn, PhD, co-founder of Mightier, to explor...
- Jun 9, 202628 min
S2 EP 28 - Your Kid Is Not a Little Adult
Middle school can feel like whiplash: your kid wants independence, craves belonging, and melts down over something that seems tiny to an adult brain. We slow that chaos down and explain what is actually happening inside adolescent brain development, using one clear metaphor: a sports car with a powerful engine, a hypersensitive alarm system, and a driver who is still in training. We walk through the three key brain “passengers” that shape behavior and emotions in early adolescence. First, th...
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About The Middle School Mary Poppins Podcast
The Middle School Mary Poppins Podcast™ Parenting a middle schooler doesn’t come with a manual—but this podcast comes pretty close. The Middle School Mary Poppins Podcast™ helps parents, educators, counselors, and caregivers better understand tweens and young teens during one of the most important—and misunderstood—stages of childhood. Hosted by Suzanne M. Swain, EdS LMSW —educator, therapist, former multi award-winning middle school teacher, school librarian, administrator, professor, and educational sociologist—each episode blends brain science, practical parenting strategies, emotional regulation, executive functioning support, and a little ridiculous joy to help families thrive. Suz has done it all - all by design to create this show for you! Topics include anxiety, ADHD, autism, executive functioning, emotional regulation, friendships, bullying, motivation, screen time, school success, neurodiversity, family communication, and adolescent development. Downloaded more than 800,000 times in 130 countries, with 6,700+ five-star Spotify ratings and multiple #1 Apple Podcasts rankings in Kids & Family and Parenting, the podcast has become a trusted top 1% resource for families and educators around the world. Whether you’re raising a middle schooler, teaching one, counseling families, or simply trying to better understand the adolescent brain, you’ll find practical strategies, encouragement, and a little ridiculous joy along the way. Stop. Regulate. Listen.
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