This is the first mini episode of Talking About Kids for summer 2024. In it, I share some little-known facts about kids in the U.S., and I present the theme for the remaining summer episodes: namely positive facts about kids to help us through the stress and fear-mongering that are all too present today. Links to some of the research I cite are are at talkingaboutkids.com. Full-length Talking About Kids episodes return in the Fall.

Divorce is hard on kids. My guest this episode is the attorney Charles Jamieson. Charles has spent over 40 years using his skills and considerable experience to help families around the country mitigate the damage divorce proceedings can cause. His insights are as practical as they are valuable, and I am grateful that he found the time to share them here. More information about Charles and his practice is at talkingaboutkids.com.

Nationwide, school libraries – often refuges for students who are being othered by their classmates – are being weaponized. In this final Pride Month installment of 2024, I asked several of the Grand Marshals of the 2024 NYC Pride March to react to the growing movement to deny students access to books with queer and trans voices.

In this episode you will hear:

- Robin Drake, Afrolatino trans male, advocate, and professional with the Hetrick-Martin Institute

- Eshe Ukweli, writer, content creator, and digital strategist

- DaShawn Usher, Senior Director of Communities of Color and Media at GLAAD and Founder and Executive Director of Mobilizing Our Brothers Initiative (MOBI)

- Baddie Brooks, multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and champion for queer and transgender communities

- Miss Major, author, pioneering activist, and community organizer for transgender rights; and

- Michelle Visage, singer, producer, and permanent judge on RuPaul's Drag Race

More information about these activists, including links to their organizations, is at talkingaboutkids.com.

For the second year in a row, Talking About Kids was granted media access to all of NYC Pride’s events, including the 2024 NYC Pride March. At the press conference for the march, each of the Grand Marshals described their platforms and the changes they hoped their profiles would affect. I found it interesting that most of them used their time to address issues that impact all children and families, like this nation’s lack of affordable housing. In this episode you will hear:

- DaShawn Usher, Senior Director of Communities of Color and Media at GLAAD and Founder and Executive Director of Mobilizing Our Brothers Initiative (MOBI);

- Eshe Ukweli, writer, content creator, and digital strategist;

- Raquel Willis, transgender rights activist, the former national organizer for the Transgender Law Center, the former executive editor of Out magazine;

- Baddie Brooks, multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and champion for queer and transgender communities;

- Robin Drake, Afrolatino trans male, advocate, and professional with the Hetrick-Martin Institute;

- Miss Major, author, pioneering activist, and community organizer for transgender rights; and

- Michelle Visage, singer, producer, and permanent judge on RuPaul's Drag Race.

More information about these activists, including links to their organizations, is at talkingaboutkids.com.

It goes without saying that would-be parents who are supported have healthier babies. For this fourth Pride Month installment of Talking About Kids, I want to address the perinatal care that queer individuals receive because it can be stressful and dehumanizing in ways that have negative short-term and long-term consequences for them and their children. My guest to discuss this issue is Bianca Sprague. Bianca is a passionate advocate for perinatal care for marginalized communities, an author, an educator, and the founder of bebo mia, a training and mentorship organization that promotes “anti-racist, anti-oppressive, trauma-informed and intersectional” approaches to reproductive health. Bianca and her team assembled some materials just for Talking About Kids listeners. Those can be found at bebomia.com/aboutkids and at talkingaboutkids.com. In addition, Talking About Kids listeners receive 15% off of bebo mia resources when they use the code TAK15 at bebomia.com.

During Pride Month, Talking About Kids is devoted to LGBTQ+ issues. This third installment is about the rights of LGBTQ+ youth. My guest is Gaelle Esposito, a Partner with the lobbying, government relations, communications, and legislative advocacy firm Creosote Partners. Gaelle and I discuss the current state of the rights of LGBTQ+ youth and what you can do to help ensure their access to health and mental health care and education. More information is at talkingaboutkids.com.

During Pride Month, Talking About Kids is devoted to LGBTQ+ issues. This second installment is about supporting Two Spirit and LGBTQ+ youth. My guest is Jerico Cummings. Jerico is a 2SLGBTQ+ Training & Community Engagement Specialist for the Paths (Re)Membered Project at the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board. The mission of the Paths (Re)Membered Project is to protect the health and wellbeing of 2SLGBTQ+ Indigenous people. Jerico will discuss the Two Spirit tradition, what all of us can learn from it, and how the needs of 2SLGBTQ+ Indigenous youth might differ from those of non-Indigenous youth. This episode was intentionally produced to support the formation and coordination of adolescent-centered care and services, so you also will hear from Vinny Chulani of the Arizona Alliance for Adolescent Health. It was recorded live using a webinar platform to encourage questions from alliance members and other listeners. More information is at talkingaboutkids.com.

In honor of Pride Month, Talking About Kids is devoting its June episodes to LGBT+ issues. This first installment is about how understanding history can help LGBT+ youth, and my guest is the “Hip Historian,” Marshall Shore. Marshall is known throughout the southwestern United States and beyond for excavating videos, news stories, and other lost artifacts from the distant and not-so-distant past and using them to make history come alive in engaging events. Along the way, Marshall has helped right some past wrongs that were done to LGBT+ Americans and brought attention to both their contributions and hardships they faced. In doing so, Marshall has comforted and inspired LGBT+ youth. He has advice for how you can do the same. More information about Marshall and how to bring him to your community is talkingaboutkids.com.