What Were Our Most Loved Podcast Episodes of 2025?
I am so incredibly grateful to each and every guest on this inaugural year of Screen Less Play More podcast. This has been such a fun, challenging, and interesting endeavor. I have learned so much, and appreciate each person who took the time to listen to one (or hopefully more) episode! I hope you learned something and found inspiration in your parenting journey!
~Cynthia Dvorak, Host of “Screen Less Play More”
Here’s the episodes you listened to most this year!
#6 Best Parenting Podcast Episodes of the Year
Screen Time Battles Solved – Emily Cherkin “The Screentime Consultant”
What a thrill it was to speak with Emily Cherkin! She is doing such amazing things to fight against EdTech in the classroom, and keep our kids safe from Big Tech. Her Substack is about “dismantling the EdTech industry to save children, education, and democracy.” It’s a must-read for those who want to see education serve children instead of serving corporate America.
In her conversation with SLPM, Emily warns us that parental controls on phones are not the answer, “because it’s using technology to solve a problem that technology created.” Plus, kids (especially teens) can always get around them. Instead, your relationship with your child is the key. Explain why social media can be dangerous, explain why you are limiting screen time, and make sure that they know how to use technology responsibly.
Emily also asks why we are giving our kids internet connected devices in the first place. She says to Screen Less Play More, “Well, my first question is, ‘why does it have to be an internet connected smartphone?’ Because a flip phone does that just fine. And if it’s really truly a, ‘I just need to call or text to find out where my child is’…. I would back it up even further and ask ‘why do they need a phone in the first place? What skills are we giving them an opportunity to build by delaying access to that to that tool?’ And I would argue there’s actually quite a few skills about self-reliance and advocacy, independence that are extremely important to raising a healthy child and a thriving adult someday.”
Through her role as The Screentime Consultant, Emily advises families on how to use screens in an intentional, safe, and healthy way. She admits, “No parent has ever come to me and said, ‘I wish I gave my kid the access sooner.’ Never, never, not one parent. And I’ve talked to thousands of parents over the years. It’s always, ‘I wish I’d waited’ or ‘I wish I knew then what I know now.’ And I always say it’s worth the fight because when they’re younger, you do have more authority, you do have more ability to set limits and restrict access to some degree. It’s not easy at all, but boy, it is so different when your kid turns 16.”
#5 Best Parenting Podcast Episodes of the Year
The Secret Science Addicting Kids to Screens | Dr. Richard Freed, author of “Better Than Real Life”
It’s not your imagination, kids are addicted to screens. But it’s not their fault! (Or the fault of their parents.)
Dr. Richard Freed, child and adolescent psychologist, explains how Silicon Valley’s secret science of persuasive design is stealing childhood. But he advises us, “parents should not feel, like ‘what have I missed?’ This has purposefully been hidden.”
Dr. Freed tells the Screen Less Play More Podcast, “We need to help families understand that there is a science behind this.” He explains that many of today’s app makers from Facebook and Instagram, took a class at Stanford in the 1990s, now colloquially referred to as “The Facebook Class.” Taught by behavior scientist B.J. Fogg, the class taught students how to create “machines designed to change humans.” Fogg taught students a simple equation, that in order to get the desired behavior from users, you must simultaneously engage three factors: motivation, ability, and triggers. What he tells us is fascinating!
Social media hooks people through the same mechanism as a slot machine. This concept was conceived by psychologist B.F. Skinner in the 1950s. He figured out that if you put a rat into a box and offer it food intermittently when it presses a lever, it will continue to press the lever forever. The food may come after one press, or after 100 presses, so the rat continues to press. Humans will do the exact same thing to achieve a reward on a slot machine, a social media feed, or a video game.
The intermittent nature of the reward is what makes the system work so well. This is why kids are addicted to screens. Dr. Freed tells Screen Less Play More Podcast that sporadic reinforcement is the “key element of motivation. We’re going to put that on a slot machine schedule because the mammalian brain wants order. We need to figure out something and if it’s truly random, we will go at it and go at it and go at it, and people will lose their lives to a slot machine. They’ll lose their house, and their wife, and their life because the human brain can never figure that out. If you just rewarded people every fifth time they pulled a lever, the human brain would walk away from that in about an hour…But if you put it on a truly random reward schedule, people will go at that.”
#4 Best Parenting Podcast Episodes of the Year
The Problem With EdTech | Common Myths Debunked | Amy Tyson of EverySchool.org
Guest Amy Tyson explains, “The developers of these educational games are the same great minds that are creating recreational video games. They are experts at the compulsion loop. They are experts at keeping you hooked.” Amy Tyson of EverySchool.org tells us everything you need to know about EdTech. She debunks many of the common myths surrounding Educational Technology (not to be confused with technology education.) These include:
MYTHS:
EdTech is making kids smarter.
The delivery method doesn’t matter.
EdTech is necessary to teach 21st century skills.
Kids need fun and engaging devices to learn.
Amy explains why all of the above are indeed myths, and what we as parents and teachers can do to change the system.
#3 Best Parenting Podcast Episodes of the Year
Talking To Kids About Porn is WAY Easier Than You Think – Chris McKenna of Protect Young Eyes
Guest Chris McKenna explains, “We have decided to put the world’s most brilliant software engineers in kids’ pockets, and we’ve expected them to exert a level of self-control that you and I never had as children. It’s not their fault.”
Chris McKenna of Protect Young Eyes has some incredibly insightful tips for parents. He says that having a “porn talk” with our kids can be as quick and easy as a ten-second mention on the car ride to school, or a fifiteen-second sentence before bedtime. Early and often is the key. They don’t need to applaud, they don’t even need to respond, you just need to say SOMETHING to make kids aware that there is inappropriate content out there, and you are a safe person to tell when they see it.
It’s time to talk to your kids about porn, and Chris tells you the easy way to do it! Chris talks to us about online pornography, social media, AI in schools, EdTech, and so much more! One of our best episodes ever!
#2 Best Parenting Podcast Episodes of the Year
Help! My Kids Are Addicted to Screens! | Executive Function Expert Michael McLeod on ADHD, Tech Use, and Better Parenting Strategies
Are your kids addicted to screens—or does it feel like it? In this episode of Screen Less Play More, executive function specialist Michael McLeod (Grow Now ADHD) explains why screen addiction in kids, digital overload, and excessive screen time are becoming some of the biggest challenges modern parents face.
Michael shares: “I’ve never worked with a single family who reduced screens and regretted it. Every one saw a new child—better sleep, better behavior, better social skills, and better success at school.”
If you’re dealing with iPad addiction, video game addiction, ADHD and screen time struggles, or daily meltdowns when it’s time to turn devices off, you’ll learn practical, research-informed strategies to finally get control of technology in your home. Michael explains why executive function skills—not IQ or grades—predict lifelong success, and how too much exposure to screens weakens attention, emotional regulation, independence, and motivation. You’ll hear how these skills develop through screen-free activities, real conversations, and relationship-based play.
#1 Best Parenting Podcast Episodes of the Year
Kids Are In A Digital Crisis- And What To Do About It! With Kat Zilka of Dis/Connect
And our number one, most listened to podcast of 2025 was…. Kat Zilka!! Kat was a high school teacher who realized that her students were in a real mental health crisis. She asked her students to write an essay about their relationship to their phones, and was shocked to read their confessions. “Honestly, if you were to read the essays and insert another substance, like alcohol or drugs into, in place of the phone or in place of social media, it would have been addicts crying for help.”
One of her students admitted that he had downloaded and deleted TikTok 30 times in 40 days and couldn’t stop using it. One student confessed, “the best time of my life was camp, not because they took my phone- but because they took everybody’s phones.”
Kat formed Dis/Connect to help teens cultivate a more healthy relationship with tech and social media. Our Screen Less Play More podcast interview has some fascinating insights.
More Great Episodes from Screen Less Play More podcast!
Listen to every episode on Apple, Spotify, YouTube and many other platforms.
Screen Less Play More is the go-to parenting podcast for families who want to raise confident, curious, healthy kids in a digital world. If you’re worried about technology, cell phones, screen time battles, video games, social media pressure, or how tech impacts your child’s mental health, behavior, and attention, you’re in the right place. Each episode features experts who help parents create healthy tech habits, set realistic phone boundaries, and build a calmer home with fewer screens and more connection. We also dive deep into the power of play—free play, risky play, outdoor play, imaginative play, and reading—to help kids develop resilience, creativity, and independence. Whether you’re raising toddlers, kids, tweens, or teens, this podcast gives you practical tools, research-backed strategies, and hope for raising children who thrive both online and offline.
So take a listen, screen a little less, and play a little more!
More information and advice for parents on phones, social media, tech, and the power of play!
