On Purpose: The Heidi Stevens And Dr. John Duffy Podcast

Before you listen to this...take five minutes to yourself. No phone. No email. Maybe just a cup of coffee. Then...make sure you listen to this, because we're talking about all kinds of stuff, like the Chicago teacher's strike, why men don't bring their kids to therapy, and how integrating masculine energy into a healthy family dynamic results in a win for everyone. 

It's true! Our playbook is outdated, and we just don't get it! Nevertheless, this week we're talking about a bunch of things - what John and Heidi have been up to recently, why you don't have to be flawless to be gutsy, some interesting insights into the transgender bathroom debates, whether bullying is still prevalent amongst teenagers, and more!

In this week's episode, Heidi and John discuss the tragic story of Channing Smith, who died by suicide after his intimate conversations with another boy was made public. It's extremely important for parents to understand that the teenage mind does not have enough life experience yet to understand resiliency, that life goes on, and that they will indeed recover from instances like this. So what can we parents do to prevent something like this from happening to our own loved ones? We can start by leading from a place of empathy. 

On a great note, John's new book, "Parenting The New Teen In The Age Of Anxiety," is finally out! On the other hand, Heidi's column this week was about the shocking new study claiming that the first sexual experience of 3 million women in America was rape. So...this episode meets those two notes somewhere in the middle and gets to the heart of how we can work to address issues like these, and it starts with taking the initiative to talk to your kids much much sooner about topics we'd probably rather not. This episode is a little heavier than our usual conversations, but it's for good reason. We promise to return to our regularly scheduled upbeat demeanor after this one!

Are parenting apps that monitor our kids' every move robbing them of something very valuable? In this week's episode, we're talking about the pros and cons of being constantly aware of their grades, social media usage, and even if they're speeding or not — and how all of this information is affecting their ability to be in touch with their own feelings and emotionally regulate themselves. 

On today's episode, we travel a wide range of the emotional spectrum – from Heidi's column about how the suicide of a Naperville teen led to the creation of a new law, to kids these days and their desire to understand what's going on in the world, to evil Juul ads, to travel and how it can affect our relationships. You'll experience some sadness, some anger, some optimism, and some humor. A Balancing Act, if you will. You won't experience John promoting his new book. Which will be out in a few weeks.     

John has never made a big deal about his birthday, even as a kid. Can you believe that? But Heidi's son just turned 10, and it kind of is a big deal. So which is it? Should birthdays be a big deal, or not? We're hashing out the complexities in a bitter fight to the death. Or maybe it's just a friendly, insightful discussion as usual. You'll never know unless you tune in. Also, John's got a book coming out, too, in case you haven't seen his many many social media posts about it, which he's not anxious about at all. 

We’re both back from vacation, and Heidi’s dealing with a little bit of a post-vaca existential crisis! Nevertheless, we’re talking about how returning from vacations and settling back into our ordinary lives have changed over the last few years in our increasingly harsh, polarized culture. All this leads us in the direction of how harsh our interactions the people close to us can be sometimes, and how we can all benefit from being a little gentler in our interactions.

This week we're talking about Aziz Ansari's new Netflix special and what we can learn from the way he addressed his own sexual misconduct allegations from last year. 

The huge win of the USA Women's Soccer team has us reeling this week about the value of sports in our kids' lives these days. We get into why you have to take chances and put it all on the line sometimes, learning how to define wins for yourself even if you aren't a natural-born athlete, and even why some kids are choosing to opt out of sports lately - and why they shouldn't!

This week, we're talking about the Parkland shooting survivor who recently had his Harvard offer rescinded after it was discovered that he had made some racist comments, whether such an offense is ever redeemable, and how this ties into race. 

We took a week off, but now we're back! John's officially an empty nester, and the proud new owner of a drill. Heidi's stepson graduated from high school. Lots of stuff going on! Anyway, all of this somehow led to a conversation about the roles we tend to play in our relationships, as well as the unique stresses today's kids deal with in their daily lives that were absent from previous generations. 

This week John & Heidi are talking about takeaways from the new Gillette ad, why group therapy is awesome, and how parents can approach transitioning into an empty nest. 

We didn't see the Game of Thrones finale, but we did see Mayor Pete's brilliant bullying advice to a teenage girl at a recent rally, which sparked a conversation about how the ways in which we frame our adversity can shape us into either a better version of ourselves or a worse one. 

This week we're breaking down Alyssa Milano's controversial sex strike and some of its implications. Also, a book Heidi recently reviewed prompted us to discuss just how all-consuming should parenting be. Plus, Heidi won an award!

In this episode, we touch briefly on the recent school shooting in Colorado before shifting into the much more pleasant topic of the sentimental value of our cars and the meaningful roles they wind up playing in our lives.

In this episode of On Purpose, Heidi recounts her experience attending a stop on Abby Wambach's recent book tour at a church in Naperville that took some surprising turns, and led to an interesting conversation. 

An annual Daddy/Daughter dance, in addition to a Mom/Son sports night at Heidi's kids' school has sparked an interesting debate that has a surprisingly complex answer. 

In this episode, we touch on our recent conversation about the decline of male friendships, the Joe Biden controversy, leggings, and more!

Monica Lewinsky's recent appearance on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver has us talking about what her infamous scandal might look like in today's world of constant news coverage, social media updates, etc.