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Progressive Parenting Project: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Progressive Parenting Project
Hello Lovelies, this is an interview podcast about the healthiest ways to nurture humans, including ourselves and everyone connected to us. I'm really looking forward to learning, growing, and improving together on our beautiful exploratory journey. We'll discuss topics such as Body Image, Gender, Growth Mindset, and Media Literacy, just to name a few. Thank you so much for being here, and I hope you're able to benefit from this endeavor. :)
Latest Episodes
The most recent episodes — sign up to get AI-powered summaries of each one.
- 3 days ago1h 41m
Accepting Uncertainty and Letting Go with Emily Bloom, Professor and Author of I Cannot Control Everything Forever
Hi, SweetSmarties! I got to interview Emily Bloom this month! I met her last month at my college reunion in New York, because she teaches at my alma mater! She started there after I graduated, so I didn’t get to formally study with her as an undergraduate, but I did get to participate in the seminar she taught during my reunion, The Pregnancy Plot: Conceptions and Misconceptions. She introduced us to her book, I Cannot Control Everything Forever, which I subsequently read in its entirety to prepare for our interview. :) The title really resonated with me, because I try very hard to control so much of my life! A big part of our interview deals with accepting uncertainty, and learning to let go when we have no other option, embracing possibility, while also understanding that wondering about the paths we didn’t take is part of being human. It’s really hard to choose among majorly diverging routes, like whether or not to have children, which we discuss heavily in this episode. There are some aspects of our lives that we can never be completely sure we made the right, best choice for ourselves, and even more challengingly for other people, especially those who depend on us. Emily is actually really interested in the idea of uncertainty, and our conversation about how we navigate these significantly influential decisions was so helpful, fascinating, and empathetic, so I hope our discussion benefits you a lot too. 💜We talk about why she wanted to be a parent, which is a really important question I think everyone considering parenthood should contemplate! We cover genetic testing, and go into certain medical challenges her daughter faces, as well as touching upon mine. I was really interested in exchanging the perspectives of someone with dramatic childhood medical experiences and the caregiver of a child in that position, me being the former and her being the latter. We speak about disability in general, and what it was like for her to grow up with a disabled sibling, and in turn be raised in the disability community. One of my favorite topics we touched on throughout our time together is how disability, medical challenges, and just difficult experiences, beginning at a young age, shape us so positively! We really can choose a beautiful, beneficial, true frame for ourselves, while still acknowledging the hardships we encounter, because we genuinely feel grateful for this part of our lives, despite the difficulty involved. These ideas are so complex and multidimensional, they require a certain amount of mental flexibility to comprehend the various, sometimes contradictory, elements. I loved our conversation so much: she’s brilliant, kind, insightful, strong, and has many more gorgeous qualities I’m excited for you to hear! This interview was remote, since we were on opposite coasts when it happened, so not every word is audible unfortunately, and if you need clarification about anything we said, you can always reach out to me. 😇Thanks for listening, and I’ll reconnect with you next time! 🫧
- 4 weeks ago18 min
Mid Season Solo Update: SweetSmarty Shuffle Publication, Reflecting on the Past, and Looking Toward the Future!
Hi SweetSmarties! I finished my card deck, SweetSmarty Shuffle!! I'll let you know when you can officially buy it, and I am so excited to continue each step of this long, complex, effortful, yet ultimately gratifying process!In this rare solo episode, I speak about that, review the interviews I've published so far this season, and let you know what's coming up in the second half!There's a lot of amazing conversations to anticipate, and so much incredible work on the horizon, so I can't wait to finally reveal everything I've had to hide this year! You know keeping secrets is so difficult for me, especially because of how proud I am of all these cards I've made, so please buy this deck, so I can show you at last!Other than all that, I just talk about how I'm thinking about everything, and the different directions in which this project could evolve in the years to come. :)Thank you so much for being here, and I look forward to learning and growing together, like always! 💖P.S. I have a new link for you! In addition to visiting progressiveparentingproject.org, you can also now find all of my work at sweetsmartysociety.com! 🪻🦋
- May 25, 20261h 35m
Building a Strong Foundation with Transitional Kindergarten Teacher Megan Larquier
SweetSmarties! I had an amazing conversation with Transitional Kindergarten teacher Megan Larquier this month! I've considered doing her job, have already done a version of it, and am currently earning a certificate to do it to a greater extent, if I choose to pursue that path in the future, so we were very well-matched for this discussion! She's incredibly knowledgable, and I was fascinated to learn what she has to share!She has a Master's degree from Cal State Fullerton, and the Literacy component taught her all this Linguistics information that I studied too, in a different context, so hearing about that was such a joy to me, and definitely one of my favorite parts of our talk!I also adored speaking about Social Emotional Learning of course, and it was so fun to nerd out about Human Development Theory as well!I love her approach, and the children she teaches are so lucky to be in her class!We agree on the significance of her role, and what a profound influence and responsibility she has to help these kids build a healthy foundation and literally learn how to be people!I can't overstate how important and valuable that is, so to know how well she's doing it is such a treasure! What a gift to the world! Anyway, I think I've gushed enough, so you'll need to listen to the episode to find out any more. lol I hope you feel even a fraction of the genuine intrigue, delight, and poignancy I felt during our interaction. <3 (:
- Apr 25, 202655 min
Practical Therapeutic Approaches with Nancy Jo Rettig, Part 2
Hi SweetSmarties! I got to interview Nancy Jo Rettig this month! We bonded so well and had so much to discuss, our recorded conversation lasted two hours! I decided to divide our interview into two parts, and here is the second!I mention this in the epilogue to Part 1, but just to write it here as well: She has 40 years of experience as a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist, and she was a school counselor for 25 years! She also has a degree in Addictions Counseling!In the first part of our interview, which you can listen to in the previous episode, we spoke about about her background, how we initially connected, our recurring segment about our interpretations of the phrase Progressive Parenting, her match-making company, the Bob Newhart Show, Televised Therapy, and her practical, direct, goal-oriented approach. During the final part of last episode, we discuss my sleep issues, and we end with how I feel about my current phase of life, regarding my biological clock, dating, marriage, and if I would like to have children one day (the answer may surprise you, if you haven't already heard part 1!).In this second part of our discussion, we cover the patterns she noticed during her school counselor career, how they've changed over time, potential solutions for our widespread stress and anxiety, and we finish with her one final piece of advice to us, which you'll have to listen to the episode to find out! ;)I loved talking to her so much, and I hope you enjoy both parts of our interview! :) <3
- Apr 25, 20261h 8m
Practical Therapeutic Approaches with Nancy Jo Rettig, Part 1
Hi SweetSmarties! I got to interview Nancy Jo Rettig this month! We bonded so well and had so much to discuss, our recorded conversation lasted two hours! I decided to divide our interview into two parts, and here is the first!I mention this in my epilogue, but just to write it here as well: She has 40 years of experience as a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist, and she was a school counselor for 25 years! She also has a degree in Addictions Counseling!In this first part, we speak about her background, how we initially connected, our recurring segment about our interpretations of the phrase Progressive Parenting, her match-making company, the Bob Newhart Show, Televised Therapy, and her practical, direct, goal-oriented approach. During the last part of this episode, we discuss my sleep issues, and we end with how I feel about my current phase of life, regarding my biological clock, dating, marriage, and if I would like to have children one day (the answer may surprise you!).In the next part, we cover the patterns she noticed during her school counselor career, how they've changed over time, potential solutions for our widespread stress and anxiety, and we finish our conversation with her one final piece of advice to us, which you'll have to listen to the episode to find out! ;)I loved talking to her so much, and I hope you'll enjoy listening to both parts of our interview! :) <3
- Mar 30, 20261h 8m
Exploring Needs Underlying Behavior in Pursuit of Relational Safety with Morgan Abraham
Hey SweetSmarties, I had a lovely conversation with Morgan Abraham on Wednesday, March 25th, three days before my final Pretend & Play performances I mention in this episode. I’m publishing our discussion on Monday, March 30th, and our shows went really well this past Saturday; I’m so proud of my little performers! Anyway, Morgan is my fourth and most likely last Social Worker interview on this podcast. We first connected when I was looking for one to interview in December 2025, and we decided to save her for March 2026, which happens to be National Social Worker month, as well as her birthday on St. Patrick’s Day, 3/17. :)In this episode, we talk about her background, her journey to where she is now, including some major health events, big career shifts, her approach, specialities, offerings, and we even bond over our shared experience of her hometown at the end. <3We also cover my philosophies on how to nurture children, entrepreneurial struggles, the tragedy of our society undervaluing what we do, and I gush about how much I love the kids I work with, and how severely I’ll miss them when our time together ends. As I write this, it ended two days ago, and I’m still processing my reaction, but I hope they’ll enroll in the courses I developed for this spring and summer, and that our relationship will continue in other ways. I may be fortunate enough to care for them in their own environments soon, so I’m looking forward to the possibility of that as well.Morgan is so wonderful: friendly, open, understanding, caring, kind, empathetic, knowledgeable, passionate, and very enjoyable to interact with - a dream guest for me! Our dialogue flowed so easily and naturally, and anyone who gets to work with her is super lucky! I’m excited to discover how her career develops in the future, and I hope you’ll seek her out, if you think you’d be a good fit, because there are many ways she can help improve your life! :DAs you can hear, my voice still isn’t back to normal yet, even though it’s been compromised for over 3 weeks now. :/ It’s definitely improved from the first week, but I really want to fully recover soon. I think I just push myself way too hard, but I don’t have the chance to slow down, so I don’t know how I’ll heal. Very slowly, like I’m experiencing now I guess. Anyway, I love you, and I want to help as well as I can, so stay tuned for everything I’m developing, I hope you benefit from this episode, and I’ll talk to you next time! 💖P.S. Here are a few links to learn more about Morgan and her work!https://www.morganabrahamtherapy.com/https://parenthoodonpurpose.com/https://kidsunfiltered.com/P.P.S. We both studied Latin, and we teach you two new phrases! One more thing: Alyssa's first book is actually called "Tiny Humans, Big Emotions." I often say "Little People" instead, because that's more engrained in my brain I guess. lol
- Feb 23, 20261h 18m
Stabilizing our Self-Worth with Olympian Sarah Straton
SweetSmarties, I published my 22nd interview on 2/22 with an Olympian on the last day of the Olympics!! I really care about all those synchronicities, so it was important to me to release the episode on this date, and I hope you enjoy how everything aligns so well together too. :)Sarah Straton played beach volleyball for Australia in the Sydney 2000 Olympics, and then went on to have a career in Parenting, which is how we connected. <3She founded a company called Evergrowing, which provides so many resources, like workshops, classes, and support groups, just to name a few! She also speaks at schools, corporations, and coaches volleyball at our local high school! :DI loved our discussion so much, and I really hope it resonates with you as well. ✨ You can learn more about her work here: https://sarahstraton.com/.Bye until next time, my loves! 🫧
- Jan 27, 20261h 17m
The Paradox of Pretending with Haven Academy of the Arts Founder, Rebekah Kellaway
Hey SweetSmarties, I'm excited for you to listen to my interview with Rebekah, who founded and directs the nonprofit I work for, Haven Academy of the Arts! I'm currently teaching my second season of Pretend & Play there, which is Social Emotional Learning through Performing Arts! We learn kindness, empathy, theory of mind, emotional intelligence, and many other important aspects of being a wonderful human being, while Acting, Singing, Dancing, and playing in myriad creative, fun, enriching ways! During our conversation, we discuss the value of Arts Education, how beneficial it is to everyone, and how versatile those skills are, as well as the developmental and therapeutic dimensions that I've experienced as an actor and that I'm facilitating with my students now! We also talk about some assets I didn't even realize like how it helps us build resilience, persevere through challenges, and delay gratification, all of which strengthen us as people, and bolster our ability to accomplish a variety of goals!She introduced me to Collaborative and Proactive Solutions, which she learned from Dr. Ross Greene's book The Explosive Child. We also speak about Angela Duckworth's work on Grit and of course Carol Dweck's work on Growth Mindset, which I discuss often, because of how profoundly it impacted me!There's tons of gems in here, and I can't wait for you to hear all the beautiful moments we shared in this episode!A couple things I'd like to explain to you: She asked me to remove one little part where I distinguish between my two classes, without naming anyone, but just stating which day I teach them and how many students are in each one, so I took out a few words between 1 hour and 3 minutes and 1 hour and 4 minutes. I tried to edit out those words as smoothly as possible, but if at one point you feel like there's something missing, that's why. lol The second thing is that a gentle alarm went off for one very brief moment to signify that she needed to leave in 5 minutes, and I couldn't remove it without taking out some words I wanted to leave in, so I just kept it. I don't mind at all, and I hope you don't either. That's also why we had to end so quickly afterwards, because she had to go. 😄 Alrighty, that's all I wanted to share with you, and I hope you love hearing our interaction! I enjoyed having it so much, and I'm super grateful to Rebekah for collaborating with me, and for my whole Haven family I get to work with every week! 🥰Talk to you next time, my Loves! Oh my goodness, also, happy 3rd season! I can't believe I almost forgot to mention this is our season 3 premiere! Woohoo! I'm so proud and elated we made it this far, and I'm ecstatic for where we'll go the rest of this season, and beyond!! ✨P.S. You can visit their website at havenartsacademy.org or explore them on Instagram @havenartsacademy. You can also check out their Facebook page or email info@havenartsacademy.org for more information! I hope you choose to enroll in a program or support them however you can, if they seem like a good fit for your family. If your child is 3-5 years old, they may be in one of my classes, so that would be amazing if we got to work together! 🌟Okie dokie, bye until next episode! 💖
About Progressive Parenting Project
Hello Lovelies, this is an interview podcast about the healthiest ways to nurture humans, including ourselves and everyone connected to us. I'm really looking forward to learning, growing, and improving together on our beautiful exploratory journey. We'll discuss topics such as Body Image, Gender, Growth Mindset, and Media Literacy, just to name a few. Thank you so much for being here, and I hope you're able to benefit from this endeavor. :)
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