Parenting & Family
What this era of parenting is building, and what it is quietly taking away.
Just Check the Camera, Dad - Surveillance, the Friction Doctrine, and the Trust We Trade Away
Part two of the childhood surveillance series. A knocked-over tower, a request to check the footage, and the case that trust is load-bearing.
Solo essay by Ryan VetJoseph Ferris (Boopsy): Gen X, the Barbell Generation, and Embracing the Suck
Boopsy makes Gen X funny, then makes it land: the feral latchkey childhood, parenting from trauma, and the barbell squeeze of caring for aging parents and grown kids at once.
With Joseph FerrisDid You Get the Photo of the Goat? Childhood Surveillance, Gen Alpha, and What We Trade for a Live Feed
The essay that opened Ryan Vet's five-part childhood surveillance series — a painted goat, a question from the back seat, and how a generation came to expect being watched.
Solo essay by Ryan VetTV Made Dads Fools While Real Dads Got Better: Fatherhood, Respect, and the Generational Pendulum
The hardest men America ever produced wrote television's warmest fathers. Then the TV dad became the punchline, right as real dads got better.
Solo essay by Ryan VetTim Estes: AI and the Internet Kids Deserve
Most talk about kids and tech is about keeping them off it. Tim Estes makes the case for building technology safe enough that a child can actually use it.
With Tim EstesNicki Petrossi: Scrolling 2 Death, AI Companion Bots, and the Fight to Keep Kids Safe Online
The former social media exec now fighting Big Tech, and why keeping your kid off these platforms is an act of love, not deprivation.
With Nicki PetrossiLenore Skenazy: Free Range Kids and Why Overprotection Is the Real Danger
The subway ride that made her America's Worst Mom, and why the data was always on her side.
With Lenore SkenazyThe Mothers Who Kept the Window Open: What We Lost When We Took Away the Village
A high school Peter Pan, a mother on a windowsill for 50 years, and the village we traded away. Ryan Vet on why we made mothering easier and lonelier at once.
Solo essay by Ryan VetMichaeleen Doucleff: Hunt, Gather, Parent, Dopamine Kids, and What Modern Parenting Gets Wrong
Lessons from cultures that raise capable kids, and why the dopamine story you have heard is wrong.
With Michaeleen DoucleffWe've Never Been More Alone - Why the Most Connected Generation Is the Loneliest in History
The Surgeon General compared loneliness to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Ryan Vet on why the most connected generation in history is also the loneliest.
Solo essay by Ryan VetThe Future of Parenting: The Impact of AI on Raising Gen Beta (kids born in 2026 and beyond)
Parents are pulling kids off screens and sending them outside, while watching them from inside an app. Ryan Vet on the parenting paradox Gen Beta inherits.
Solo essay by Ryan VetFrom Chandler Bing to Gen Z: The Thanksgiving Rebellion Reshaping the American Family
Chandler Bing hated Thanksgiving because of a divorce. Thirty-one years later, Ryan Vet finds the fracture has moved from the marriage to the whole family.
Solo essay by Ryan VetRead the thinking behind every episode.
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