17 - Dad Roundtable - What should we do about school in a pandemic?

Explicit content warning

07/29/20 • 61 min

I've been meaning to bring on a group of dads I respect for a roundtable discussion for quite some time. The dads in our neighborhood have been weighing what to do about school in the fall (All week in-person? Hybrid? Virtual?) so we thought a fun, honest and respectful discussion on the topic could be helpful to other parents. All 4 of us come at this question from different perspectives and (spoiler alert!) we don't answer the question of "what's the best choice for education during a plague?" but...we took a swing at it.

I hope all of you are doing OK (physically and mentally). If you ever want to talk (not for the podcast, just about what you're going through) please hit me up at [email protected]. I'd love to catch up and hear what's on your mind. It's good to get this stuff out guys and I'd love to talk with you about it.

Previous Episode

16 - Julie Metzger - Great Conversations about puberty, empathy and modeling strong relationships

I'm honored to be joined on this episode by Julie Metzger, founder of Great Conversations (https://www.greatconversations.com/ & https://www.facebook.com/GreatConversations). Her organization helps both parents and kids understand what puberty will look like and face it head on armed with information and a sense of humor. She's been doing these talks for over 30 years around Seattle and the Bay Area and was kind enough to give me some time to pick her brain. What I expected to be a talk about the physical aspects of puberty turned into something far richer: a discussion about emotions, empathy, modeling strong and loving relationships and how you sometimes just have to shut up and let your kid talk. I won't spoil any more of this but I will say that I personally learned far more in this episode than I could have ever anticipated and I guarantee you'll learn something too.

Next Episode

18 - Caitlin Pontrella - Parkour: much more than backflips and jumping off high stuff

Today we dig into Parkour. I started training nearly 7 years ago with Parkour Visions, an organization here in Seattle. Since then PKV (as we abbreviate their name) has shifted from running a gym to focusing on bringing parkour to new communities, particularly undeserved schools in the Seattle area. I'm joined today by their outgoing Executive Director, Caitlin Pontrella. Caitlin talks about how she defines parkour, how it differs from other athletic pursuits and the current state of organized kids' sports in America and how parkour stands apart. We spend a lot of time talking about privilege and how it relates to movement/athletics as well as we're both on our own journeys learning about that topic.

This is a good intro discussion if you're looking to learn more about parkour. Here are some other resources and items we talked about during our chat:

Parkour Visions' online classes and YouTube channel.

Breaking the Jump by Julie Angel - a book about parkour's founding and history.

A study by the Aspen Institute called "State of Play", looking at the current state of childrens' organized sports.