Before You Email the Principal: Let's Talk Health Class

We’ve covered boys and we’ve covered sex, but we’ve never covered male sexual health… until now. To understand more about what they’re doing and why, we’re joined by adolescent medicine physician Dr. David Bell. This episode covers a lot of ground: sexual development, porn, mental health, and the intersection of culture + technology. And as always, there’s lots of advice about how to talk about it.

What you think you know about marijuana doesn’t entirely translate to today’s weed. Yes, they’ve got the same active ingredient — cannabis — but the dose is now far higher, making it essentially a new drug. Enter Linda Richter, a leading expert from the Partnership to End Addiction, to explain how the pot of generations past has changed. She breaks down the wide range of cannabis-containing products, how they’re used, their risks, and the extremely confusing legal landscape across the US. Most importantly, she guides us about how to talk about it with young people… a conversation that’s much more serious than it used to be.

Kids have ranked other kids according to attractiveness, popularity, and sexual appeal for decades. But today’s tech platforms –– from social media to group chats to AI –– can amplify this old-school cruelty. Ranking lists reach many more people, with implications that can be extremely hard for kids to escape. This episode is dedicated to the hidden culture behind these lists: why they fuel humiliation and exclusion, how emerging AI tools fan their flames, what parents should watch for, and what schools and communities can do when an inevitable list emerges.

The story of the “Cornell 7” gang rape has sent shockwaves across the country. As details emerge, a parade of issues have follow, from disturbing legal loopholes to the impact of media on young people’s behavior to the responsibilities of bystanders. We are joined by Dr. Debby Herbenick, professor and researcher on young people’s sexual behavior, to discuss a way forward. The Cornell case is not singular –– how do we guide young people to ultimately prevent assaults from happening in the first place?

Our childhoods may be long ago, but they don’t always stay in the past. The hurts and patterns we experienced can shape relationships with adults and our kids, especially during the complicated adolescent years. In this episode, psychoanalyst and author Dr. Galit Atlas explores the conscious and unconscious ways childhood wounds can influence our parenting and pathways for understanding our past without letting it dictate our future.