Podcasts about Toca Boca

What if waiting until you feel ready is the reason you keep missing the opportunity? A lot of people have ideas, ambition, and opinions, but very few are willing to move before they have the perfect plan. Ronnen Harary built Spin Master by doing the thing so many people avoid: making the first small decision, trusting his gut, asking who could help, and moving fast enough to catch the opportunity while everyone else was still thinking about it. He did not start with decades of experience, unlimited resources, or a perfect roadmap. He started with curiosity, speed, persistence, and a willingness to figure it out in real time. This matters because opportunity rarely looks polished when it first shows up. Sometimes it looks like a weird grass toy, a product everyone else passed on, or a preschool show created after two brutal years of company losses. Ronnen's story is a reminder that success is built through motion, not overthinking. The people who win are the ones who create momentum, learn fast, build the right partnerships, and keep going long enough for the next big thing to appear. Ronnen Harary is the co-founder and former CEO of Spin Master, one of the world's largest children's entertainment companies, behind brands including Paw Patrol, Bakugan, Air Hogs, Rubik's Cube, Melissa & Doug, and Toca Boca. He is also the author of No Experience Necessary. In this episode, he breaks down entrepreneurship, instinct, failure, culture, partnerships, decision-making, and why not knowing too much can sometimes be the advantage that gets you moving. What's discussed: (02:11) Why Ronnen wrote No Experience Necessary after building one of the biggest toy companies in the world. (05:48) Why a learning disability does not mean a lack of intelligence. (13:27) How Spin Master started with two college friends, fertilizer sales, and the decision to go into business for themselves. (20:46) How one bold Kmart meeting turned into an order for 48,000 pieces and the possibility of half a million more. (27:02) Why bite-sized decisions, momentum, and asking for help matter more than having the full plan. (30:11) Why speed to market and fast scaling helped Earth Buddies beat the competition. (36:56) How Air Hogs became the product everyone passed on before it took Spin Master from $7 million to $35 million in sales. (48:57) How Paw Patrol was created during Spin Master's lowest point after losses, layoffs, and failed shows. (01:02:43) Why the ability to say sorry, debate well, and remove ego is critical in business partnerships. (01:21:17) How overthinking led him to turn down a $100 million Universal movie deal.   Thank You to Our Sponsors! Magic Mind: Head over to magicmind.com/jen and use code JEN at checkout. Pique: Go to piquelife.com/jenniferrsd to get 20% off for life plus free gifts Momentous: Ready to try supplements that actually do what they claim? Head to livemomentous.com and use code JEN for 35% off your first subscription.  Therasage: Visit therasage.com and use code JEN to get 15% off your order. Your skin Prolon: Prolon is offering listeners 30% off sitewide plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe to their 5-Day Program! Just visit prolonlife.com/JENNIFERCOHEN and use code JENNIFERCOHEN to claim your discount and your bonus gift. Find more from Jen Cohen: Website: jennifercohen.com Instagram: @therealjencohen Books: jennifercohen.com/books Speaking: jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagements   Find more from Ronnen Harary:  Website: ronnenharary.com Book: No Experience Necessary Foundation: Robert Harary Foundation Initiative: The Toy Movement

You can listen wherever you get your podcasts or check out the fully edited transcript of our interview at the bottom of this post.In this episode of The Peaceful Parenting Podcast, Michaeleen Doucleff and I talk about her new book Dopamine Kids: A Science-Based Plan to Rewire Your Child's Brain and Take You're your Family in the Age of Screens and Ultraprocessed Foods. Michaeleen's position is not that screens and ultra-processed food are “bad.” Rather, Michaeleen explains how they can take the place of things that truly bring us joy and pleasure, leaving us with an empty feeling of "what's next?" and an endless cycle of wanting. We focus on how dopamine has been misunderstood and how it actually works, how magnets like screens and ultraprocessed foods keep us stuck, and small changes you can make to start shifting things in your home.Know someone who might appreciate this episode? Share it with them!And if you love the podcast, FREE ways to help us out:1- Rate and review the podcast in your podcast player app2- “Like” this post by tapping the heart icon ♥️3- Share this with a friend. THANK YOU!We talk about:* 00:00 Introduction to Dopamine Kids and why our understanding of dopamine is outdated* 02:15 Michaeleen's journey from NPR science journalist to parenting author* 05:00 Dopamine isn't pleasure—it's wanting: the neuroscience that changes everything* 07:20 Why kids say they'd rather play with friends than be on screens* 08:00 The difference between dopamine, serotonin, and real satisfaction* 13:30 How apps and ultra-processed foods hijack the brain's reward system* 16:45 Why endless scrolling never feels satisfying* 18:30 “Bottomlessness”—one of the biggest design tricks keeping us hooked* 20:30 Why we want activities for our kids with a clear purpose and a clear endpoint* 22:00 The veggie straw experiment that changed Michaeleen's thinking about food* 26:50 Magnets and cues: how screens become automatic habits* 32:00 Why removing screens isn't enough—you have to replace them* 33:30 Helping kids meet their real need for adventure and autonomy* 36:00 Small, permanent changes vs. temporary screen detoxes* 37:30 Why the car is a great place to start reducing screens* 38:00 Is reducing screens really more work?* 40:15 Why laws and regulations haven't caught up with technology* 43:00 Why this isn't a willpower problem* 46:30 Can kids ever use screens in moderation?* 49:00 Paid video games vs. free games* 51:30 This isn't about screens being “bad”* 53:00 Helping kids gradually learn to use technology well* 54:00 School Chromebooks and why parents have more influence than they realize* 58:00 Advice Michaeleen would give her younger parenting self* 1:00:00 Why kids have to experience offline joy before they'll want it* 1:01:00 Sarah's client who removed the TV—and what happened next* 1:02:30 Final thoughts and where to find MichaeleenResources mentioned in this episode:* Michaeleen's website* Dopamine Kids: A Science-Based Plan to Rewire Your Child's Brain and Take You're your Family in the Age of Screens and Ultraprocessed Foods* How to Stop Fighting About Video Games with Scott Novis * The Peaceful Parenting MembershipConnect with Sarah Rosensweet:* Instagram* Facebook Group* YouTube* Website* Join us on Substack* Newsletter* Book a short consult or coaching session callxx Sarah and CoreyYour peaceful parenting team- click here for a free short consult or a coaching sessionVisit our website for free resources, podcast, coaching, membership and more!>> Please support us!!! Please consider becoming a supporter to help support our free content, including The Peaceful Parenting Podcast, our free parenting support Facebook group, and our weekly parenting emails, “Weekend Reflections” and “Weekend Support” - plus our Flourish With Your Complex Child Summit (coming back in the fall for the 3rd year!) All of this free support for you takes a lot of time and energy from me and my team. If it has been helpful or meaningful for you, your support would help us to continue to provide support for free, for you and for others.In addition to knowing you are supporting our mission to support parents and children, you get the podcast ad free and access to a monthly ‘ask me anything' session.Sarah: Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Peaceful Parenting Podcast.Today's guest is journalist Michaeleen Doucleff. She is the author of the book Hunt, Gather, Parent and now has a new book out called Dopamine Kids: A Science-Based Plan to Rewire Your Child's Brain and Take Back Your Family in the Age of Screens and Ultra-Processed Food.Michaeleen's first book is one of our favorite parenting books, and now we can add this one to the list. She walks us through how screens and ultra-processed food hook us and keep our brains stuck in a hijacked wanting cycle without giving us actual rewards and pleasure.We eventually get around to discussing this, but I want to stress right here at the beginning that Michaeleen isn't saying that screens and ultra-processed food are evil or that they have no place in our lives. Rather, they can take the place of things that truly bring us joy and pleasure, leaving us with an empty feeling of “what's next?” and an endless cycle of wanting.I learned so much from this book. I'd been wanting to make some changes in my own life with my relationship with my phone, and this book helped me understand why it was so hard and what I could do. A hint: as it turns out, we don't understand dopamine correctly at all. Our cultural shorthand about what dopamine is and what role it plays in the motivation and pleasure cycle is totally outdated.If you're interested in making some positive shifts in your child's life, in your family, and in your own life, you're going to love this interview and Michaeleen's book.If you like this episode, please share it with a friend so more parents can learn about peaceful parenting. If you're a fan of the podcast, you can help us out not only by sharing it, but by leaving a review and a five-star rating in your podcast player app. While you're there, don't forget to follow the show so you don't miss an episode.If you'd like to support us even more, you can become a supporter on Substack to help us offset the cost of making the show. We'll put a link in the show notes.Let's meet Michaeleen. I hope you enjoy this conversation and get as much out of her insights as I did.Sarah: Hi, Michaeleen. Welcome back to the podcast.Michaeleen: Thank you so much for having me.Sarah: When we had you on a few years ago to talk about your first parenting book, Hunt, Gather, Parent—we'll link to it in the show notes—it ended up being one of our favorite podcasts out of the 200-some episodes we've done. I'm so excited to have you back to talk about your new book.Michaeleen: Thank you so much. That's so nice. It's an honor to come back.Sarah: I'm so happy to have you. Tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do.Michaeleen: I was—or I still am—a science journalist. I've been one now for about 16 years, and I spent 13 or 14 years as a radio correspondent at NPR. I'm still there covering children's health, global health, neuroscience, and psychology.Before that, I was trained as a chemist. I have a PhD in chemistry.Five years ago, I wrote the parenting book Hunt, Gather, Parent, and I had no idea I'd ever become a parenting expert. That definitely wasn't on my life bingo card.When I had my daughter Rosie almost 11 years ago, I had no clue what I was doing. It just seemed like an impossible task. Then I started studying parenting around the world, and I realized there was an easier way to do things. That's what Hunt, Gather, Parent is about.More recently, about six years ago, I was really trying to fix my own screen problem—my own addiction to my phone. I was so obsessed with it. As I investigated neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral psychology, I started to realize, “Oh gosh, we're really getting a lot of things wrong when it comes to screens and our kids.”That led me to write this next book, Dopamine Kids, to clarify a bunch of myths but also update the advice because it's really old. A lot of the advice out there is based on psychology from 20, 30, even 40 years ago.Sarah: Or even more.Michaeleen: Exactly.Sarah: Exactly. And I'm going to ask you about that. So tell us, what's the central idea behind your new book, Dopamine Kids?Michaeleen: One of the biggest ideas is that we're thinking about screens wrong. We think they're these endless sources of pleasure. We think dopamine is this molecule that brings us pleasure and that the more we have, the happier we are.But that's really old neuroscience.What dopamine actually gives us is the feeling of desire, wanting, and craving. It makes us obsessed.So what screens are doing is cranking that system up. They're increasing motivation, craving, and wanting. But if you look at what happens over time, they actually rob us of pleasure and reduce the amount of pleasure we experience in our lives.So this idea that screens—video games and social media—are treats and rewards for kids is wrong. It's all wrong.What is actually most rewarding and pleasurable for kids are things in the real world because real-world experiences don't just give us desire and wanting. They also give us satisfaction, joy, and long-lasting pleasure.So Dopamine Kids is really a reset of what actually brings our kids pleasure in life. It also provides a toolset to retrain your kids' brains so they naturally want and reach for offline activities and foods that make them feel good—foods that really nourish them and bring satisfaction.It's about rethinking our idea of pleasure. What does pleasure actually look like?I think the media, marketing, and corporations have taught us that pleasure and wanting are basically the same thing—that we want things because they bring us pleasure.But if you actually look at the science and the data, there are so many things out there that drive our wanting while robbing us of pleasure.Social media is a really good example. Kids use it because they want a sense of belonging. They want to feel connected. But over the long run, social media does the opposite. It makes them feel lonelier, and yet they still want it.I see this book as an operating manual for shaping and changing your kids' habits into the ones you want for them as a parent, but also habits that nourish kids and bring joy, happiness, and pleasure to the whole family.We often think limiting screens is about depriving kids of pleasure.It's actually the opposite.It's about reclaiming pleasure.Sarah: I had Lenore Skenazy on the podcast. Do you know her work?Michaeleen: Yeah, we're friends.Sarah: She was on the podcast a few months ago, and she was talking about how, if you ask kids what they want—would they rather be on screens or play with their friends?—by far the number one answer is playing with their friends, not being on screens.Michaeleen: Yeah. I think it's almost double.Sarah: Exactly. And yet I don't think most parents realize that.Michaeleen: Right. I didn't realize that either. I think it's because we confuse begging, screaming, and tantruming for the screen with joy and pleasure.Sarah: Okay, so tell us about that, because what I learned from your book is that everyone thinks dopamine is, “Ah, I just got a hit of dopamine and I feel so good.”Michaeleen: Yeah.Sarah: But it's not dopamine that makes you feel good. It's serotonin and, I think, endorphins that make you feel good.You go into this in much more detail in the book, and I highly recommend it. It was excellent. I have to tell you, I was on an office hours call with my membership before I even knew you had written a new book, and one of my members said, “I'm reading this parenting book called Dopamine Kids, and it's a page-turner.”She said, “I've never had a parenting book that's a page-turner, but you've got to get your hands on this.”Then I looked it up and realized it was your book, and I was so excited to get it and read it.Can you explain the basic idea? I know it's too much detail to go into fully, but what's the difference? What does dopamine actually do, and why isn't it what we think it is?Michaeleen: For a long time—really since the 1950s—neuroscientists thought we do things over and over again because they're pleasurable.Neuroscientists have been obsessed with getting people and animals to press buttons for over a hundred years. Rats, mice, apes, pigeons—they've all been part of these experiments. It's almost like an iPad. Press, press, press, tap.For a long time, researchers could stimulate one region of the brain—the dopamine center—and the animals would go crazy pressing the button all day long. They wouldn't even stop to go to the bathroom. It makes you think of someone playing video games for hours. They're just obsessed with pressing the button.Researchers believed that because this was the dopamine center of the brain, dopamine made you press the button because it felt good and brought you pleasure. They even conducted similar experiments with people, and that very simple explanation stood for a long time.Then, about 30 years ago, a couple of scientists came along and asked, “Wait a second. Is this really true? Do we always act because something is pleasurable?”They designed better experiments, and what they found was astonishing. Dopamine doesn't do that at all.Dopamine makes us want.It makes you want something, and it makes you want to do something over and over again. It's like a “do it again” button in the brain.Do it again.Do it again.Whenever you can, do it again.The way the system is supposed to work is that first you want something, and dopamine motivates you to work for it. Then, when you get what you wanted, the pleasure center starts to light up.Those are different neurotransmitters. That's where endorphins—the body's natural opioids—and serotonin come in.Serotonin allows you to appreciate what you have. It's what lets you say, “Oh, I got what I wanted. I feel really good. Ah... I can stop now. I can take a break.”In many ways, pleasure is the opposite of dopamine because it gives you satisfaction, and satisfaction stops wanting.There are a couple of classic examples. One is sex, which is probably the R-rated version. But another is thirst.Imagine you're running on a hot day. You've run out of water, and after half an hour or an hour, you really want something to drink.That's dopamine. That's your dopamine hit—that strong feeling of desire.Wanting can actually feel good. If I fall in love and I want to be with my partner, the wanting feels good.But wanting can also become frustrating. If you want something for too long and don't get it, that feeling turns into frustration.So you're out running on this hot day thinking, “Oh my gosh, I want water so badly.”That's dopamine.That's not pleasure yet.Then you see a glass of water, or you get one and take a drink, and you think, “Ah, that feels so good.”That's the pleasure system.Sarah: That's where you get the serotonin and the endorphins.Michaeleen: Exactly. And the endocannabinoids too—the body's natural cannabinoids. A whole bunch of things kick in.The wonderful thing about this pleasure response is that it can last a long time. It lingers. It makes you feel optimistic and gives your life a kind of glow because you've gotten what you need to survive.I remember being really upset as a kid, and my mom would come over and hug me. I'd bury my face into her, and it felt so good. It was just this feeling that everything was okay again.That's what these pleasure molecules do.Dopamine is saying, “Everything is not okay. I need this before things can be okay.”They're very different.Sarah: Okay. This is the part I still feel like I'm only beginning to understand.How do the makers of apps and video games—and we've mostly been talking about screens, but you also write a lot about ultra-processed foods—how do they get us stuck in the dopamine cycle?What I took away from your book is that these things are so powerful because they keep us trapped in that cycle of wanting...Sarah: What I understood from your book is that these things are so powerful because they keep us stuck in the dopamine cycle. It's just wanting, wanting, wanting.You said something in the book about how they've figured out a way to hack a weakness in our brain circuitry. Forgive me if that's not the exact wording, but they've essentially hacked a weakness in the brain to keep us stuck in dopamine without ever giving us a real reward.How does that work?Michaeleen: First of all, both the tech industry and the food industry have admitted this for a long time. This isn't something I've come up with. They've openly admitted it. Even the food industry says, “We want to make something you can't stop eating.”Sarah: Right. You read all these interviews with industry insiders, and they're very open about it. Everybody knows they've admitted it. But how does it actually work?Michaeleen: There are a lot of tricks.Let's start with screens because a lot of these techniques actually came from the gambling industry. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, casinos started replacing mechanical slot machines and poker machines with video versions—basically gambling apps on giant touchscreens.They explicitly asked, “What can we do to this game to keep people playing for as long as possible?” Some people would play for 24 or even 48 hours straight. They ran massive A/B tests to figure out exactly how they could tweak the games to send people into this dopamine loop—this wanting loop—where people actually stopped wanting to win because winning took them out of the loop.So it's very empirical. They've simply tested what keeps people there.In the book, I describe it as a kind of recipe parents can use to recognize whether an app is doing this to their child. Psychologists even have a name for this state. It's called dark flow, where you lose track of time and where you are. We've all experienced it while scrolling social media. Twenty or thirty minutes go by and you think, “What just happened?” You're in this loop of wanting because, if you actually experienced pleasure and satisfaction, you would stop. You'd stop wanting.One of the biggest tricks is speed. The faster the cycle runs, the more it traps you. If you think about videos and video games, they've become faster and faster. Even children's iPad games are just question, answer, question, answer, question, answer over and over again. That's driving up dopamine.But where's the satisfaction? What's the reward? Basically, it's just a light on the screen.Another trick is promising something fundamental. The dopamine system evolved to help us fulfill our basic human needs—water, food, social support, adventure, creation. These are things we needed to survive, so kids are naturally highly motivated to pursue them.These apps promise they'll meet those needs. Social media, for example, promises belonging. It says, “Get on here and you'll finally feel connected. You'll finally feel like you belong.” The problem is that it never actually fulfills that promise.If you look at some of the leaked internal documents, you can see the algorithms intentionally withhold what people actually want. One neuroscientist explained it this way: they figure out what you're looking for and why you're on social media, then they give you something that's close to what you want. Maybe on the next click they give you something a little closer. Then a little closer.This does several things. First, you never actually receive the reward because you never get what you really need. Second, you develop this feeling of making progress—as though you're getting closer and closer. “Maybe one more comment. Maybe five more likes. Then I'll finally get it.”What most people don't realize is that we produce the most dopamine not when we get what we want, or even when we think we're about to get it, but when we feel like we're making progress.That's one of the biggest tricks.Video games are a perfect example. Kids always feel like they're making a little more progress. A little more. A little more. By the time they reach the next level, they're already making progress toward another one.There are all these different tricks designed to crank up wanting while dialing down satisfaction and pleasure because satisfaction is what gets you off the game. You think, “Okay, I'm done.”The same thing applies to social media. If social media actually gave me what I was looking for, I'd be finished. I'd think, “I got what I needed. I'm done.”But it never gives it to you.It can't.Sarah: I started feeling kind of gross about how much time I was spending on Instagram and Facebook—really just on my phone in general. I'd think, “Oh, I need a five-minute break,” and immediately pick up my phone.Actually, I did this before I started reading your book, but now I realize it fits perfectly with what you're talking about. I downloaded the New York Times Games app.Now, when I feel like I need a little break, I'll do Wordle or the Mini Crossword or Connections. What's nice is that it's limited. You get one crossword, one mini crossword, one Wordle, and one Connections each day.I'm almost never on Facebook or Instagram anymore because of it. It actually feels like a real reward. I finish the crossword and think, “Oh, I did the Mini in one minute and 38 seconds.”There's an ending to it. It really does feel like I accomplished something, which is very different.Michaeleen: Exactly. And you've actually stumbled onto one of the biggest tricks: bottomlessness.This is huge.TV didn't used to be bottomless.Michaeleen: TV didn't used to be bottomless. You had a handful of channels, and eventually the content ended or it got bad enough that you simply stopped watching.Now everything is endless. There's always another news story, another level in a game, another post, another video. That endlessness is what keeps us trapped in the cycle.You actually did so many things right with the New York Times Games app. You found something that takes a little more effort, but it also has a clear stopping point. You finish it, and then you're done. You created a bottom.That's exactly what I want to do with my own kids. I want to help them find activities that have a clear purpose and a clear ending. When you're done, you're done, and you turn it off.Compare that with scrolling Instagram for 30 minutes. What's the purpose? What are you actually doing? What are you looking for? There's always more content. It never ends, and it's incredibly fast.I think it's Chapter 4 of the book where I talk about figuring out how to use these technologies—if you're going to use them at all—in ways that don't manipulate you into these loops but instead feel genuinely satisfying.People often ask, “How do you know it's a real reward?” Your brain tells you. You feel better afterward than you did before. You feel done. You feel full. You think, “I'm ready to stop.”If, instead, you're thinking, “What's next? One more. One more,” then you're still stuck in the loop.For a lot of people—for a lot of kids, and certainly for me—that loop is frustrating and deeply unsatisfying. It just makes life feel gray and gloomy.Sarah: I noticed something a while ago. One of my favorite activities in the world is reading, and I realized I can't read if my phone is in the same room with me.When I was reading your book, I thought, “This is something I absolutely love doing, but it doesn't create that same dopamine loop.”Reading doesn't do that.I actually have to keep my phone in another room because reading takes more effort than scrolling Instagram.Michaeleen: Exactly. It takes more work, and that's part of why it's more satisfying.We're made to work. Human beings are actually very good at working, and that effort is part of what creates satisfaction. If something is too easy, it's much easier to get trapped in the wanting loop.Sarah: You also say in the book that, evolutionarily, our brains are designed to look for the easy way out.Back when life was hard, that made perfect sense.But now that everything comes to us so easily, it doesn't make sense anymore.Michaeleen: That's exactly right. These products are exploiting that tendency.Food is probably where you can see it most clearly.Our brains evolved to look for the foods with the most calories per bite. Why would you eat something with fewer calories per bite, especially when food was scarce? That's how we evolved.We also evolved to look for calories that our bodies could use quickly. A refined white-flour cracker gives you calories much faster than a carrot does. You'd have to eat carrots for much longer to get the same energy.Our brains are completely designed to choose the cracker.You'd never touch the carrot. It doesn't make evolutionary sense.That's especially true for kids, who are eating much more instinctively. But honestly, I'd argue that adults have the same problem. If the crackers are sitting there beside the carrots, most adults are going to have a hard time choosing the carrot.Sarah: Tell the story about the strawberries and the veggie straws.Michaeleen: This was when I really understood what was happening.Rosie was about eight years old, and we went to the pool with one of her friends. I packed raw edamame and strawberries. The girls were tired and hungry, and they were happily eating them. They were enjoying them.Then I pulled out a bag of veggie straws—which, by the way, aren't really veggies and aren't really straws. They're basically highly processed potato starch.Sarah: I think it's extruded potato starch.Michaeleen: You're right. Extruded potato starch.The starch is chemically extracted from the potato, so there's really nothing potato-like left except the starch. It's heated at a very high temperature, pushed through machinery, then sprayed with fat or basically fried and covered with salt.If you really look at the research, your body treats it almost like sugar. It practically dissolves in your mouth. There's almost no digestion required. It moves into your gut and into your bloodstream incredibly quickly.So even though the package says “veggie” and even though it says “potato,” what you're really getting are extremely fast calories, much like sugar.The moment I put those veggie straws on the table, those two girls ate the entire bag.One after another.You want to talk about dopamine?“Do it again. Do it again. Do it again. Do it again.”They didn't stop until every single veggie straw was gone.And then they completely forgot about the strawberries and the edamame.That was the moment I realized that if any ultra-processed food is available, kids simply won't choose the whole foods.Sarah: You asked Rosie afterward which she actually liked better, and she said, “Oh, the strawberries.”Michaeleen: Exactly. Even though she genuinely likes strawberries better—they taste better—her brain, and all of our brains, are designed to choose the veggie straws because they're such a dense source of fast calories.That realization led me to start doing little experiments. I'd make homemade meals with whole foods, then put one ultra-processed starch on the table—a dinner roll or some corn chips. I'd sit there and watch my husband and Rosie eat all of the ultra-processed food first. Then my husband might eat some of the whole foods, but Rosie wouldn't touch them.It wasn't her fault. It wasn't my fault. This is simply how our brains are designed. It makes perfect sense from an evolutionary perspective, and the food industry is explicitly taking advantage of that. If you look at the calorie density of ultra-processed foods, it's gone up and up over time. What really surprised me, though, is that it isn't just about sugar. Sugar clearly triggers dopamine—”Do it again. Do it again.” But highly refined potato starch, corn starch, and white flour are just as powerful, and in some studies they're actually more addictive than foods with added sugar.I recently read a study describing almost the exact recipe you mentioned: extruded starch that's fried or sprayed with a little fat and loaded with salt. That combination is incredibly addictive. The moment you see it, you want it, and then you eat it. The dopamine hit actually happens before you eat it. It's, “Oh, I see the bag. I want the bag.” That's the dopamine.Then there's almost no satisfaction or pleasure because satisfaction comes from protein and fiber—and, to a lesser extent, fat. Those are the things that make you feel, “Ah, I've had enough. I'm done.” Ultra-processed foods have stripped away almost everything that creates that feeling of satisfaction. That's what pleasure actually is.I really believe we can learn to tell the difference between wanting and genuine pleasure. Just like you did with the New York Times games, you replaced endless scrolling—which kept you wanting more—with something that actually makes you feel good every day.Sarah: Can you talk a little bit about what you call “magnets” and “cues”?I finished your book last week—it really was a page-turner—and I'm already putting some of your ideas into practice. One of the simplest suggestions was to stop carrying your phone around everywhere. I wore a watch to a baseball game the other night because I didn't want to keep taking out my phone just to check the time.Then this morning I went for a walk with my daughter and left my phone at home. When I got back, I made something to eat and did a couple of other things before I suddenly realized, “Oh—I left my phone upstairs for two hours.”Just the act of not taking it with me on the walk and leaving it in another room made it disappear from my mind. It was amazing.Michaeleen: I love that. That's beautiful.I call phones, video games, iPads, and ultra-processed foods magnets because neuroscientists actually use the term motivational magnets, and that's where I borrowed it from. They work through space, and they create what we call cues.Let's use screens instead of veggie straws. Imagine Rosie comes home every day after school and plays Toca Boca World on the iPad.Sarah: My daughter used to play those hairdressing games—and even vacuuming games. I never understood the appeal until I read your book and realized she was basically getting dopamine-mined.Michaeleen: Exactly. If you look at what keeps young children on those apps, it's the repetition. They're doing essentially the same thing over and over again, which is actually very unsatisfying.At first, what keeps Rosie playing are those little dopamine hits—”Do it again. Do it again.” But over time, something fascinating happens: the dopamine hit moves backward in time. Eventually, just seeing the iPad triggers dopamine. Simply seeing it creates desire and makes her really want it. Dopamine doesn't just make us want things—it motivates us to work to get them.So she sees the iPad, and suddenly she wants it. If it's sitting there, good luck getting her interested in anything else because her brain has already triggered that powerful feeling of, “I need this to survive.” She'll be pulled toward it like a magnet. That's where the term comes from. You don't just want it—you physically move toward it. You want to pick it up. You want to hold it. You want to touch it.Even if it's hidden away in a drawer or a closet, if she knows it's there, those magnets work through walls. She'll go looking for it.Sarah: Have you seen that study where students either had their phone on their desk, in their backpack, or in another room? Just having it in the backpack was almost as distracting as having it sitting on the desk.Michaeleen: That's exactly right, because they know it's accessible. Over time, these cues become so deeply wired into our brains that we don't even have to see the object anymore. We just have to know it's there.What's often triggering the habit isn't even the phone itself—it's an emotion. For example, when I'm writing and I get a little frustrated, that feeling becomes the cue: “Go check the news.” That used to be mine. Then it became, “Go check your email.” Now I've stopped checking the news, so mine has become, “Go check the weather.”Sarah: At least that can only last so long unless you're checking the weather around the world.Michaeleen: Exactly. It's much less sticky.But that's the point. If the phone is in the backpack, the brain knows it's available. These magnets work through walls. They work through bags. To really make those cues disappear, you have to do exactly what you did. You leave it at home. Your brain knows, “I can't get it. I'm not walking all the way back home for it,” so it lets go.As parents, we have to make these things completely disappear within a particular context. That's another really important piece of this: magnets and cues work in contexts.Every day after school is a context for Rosie's brain. Every day after school, in our house, she plays Toca Boca World. So when she walks into the living room at four o'clock, her brain already knows what time it is, even without a watch. Human brains are incredibly good at tracking those patterns.That context triggers dopamine. It triggers the desire for Toca Boca World.What we want to do instead is use that same context to trigger a desire for something that actually fills her up. Maybe after school in the living room becomes the cue for making art, riding her bike, or going outside.That's really what Dopamine Kids is about: using dopamine to get your kids excited about the real world and training their brains accordingly.Sarah: Can I back you up a little bit there? Because one thing you say in your book is that it doesn't work to simply take the screens away and say, “Let them be bored. They'll figure it out.”That's really the only other advice I've seen out there: just take the screens away and let kids be bored.But you did a lot of work to create opportunities for dopamine from other things. You didn't just tell Rosie, “No more Toca Boca World.”Can you talk about that? I think a lot of parents try the approach of saying, “Okay, we're just not doing screens anymore.” Then they end up with weeks—or maybe months—of crying and begging: “Can I just play a little?”Michaeleen: I think that approach can sometimes work with very little kids, but even then I don't think it lasts. These things are like weeds. The screens will come back unless you replace them with something else.Behavioral psychology is actually very clear on this. It's much easier to create a new habit than it is to break an old one. It's much easier to replace a behavior than simply remove it.For example, while I was writing Dopamine Kids, I decided I wanted to stop drinking as much. I had gotten into the habit of having a glass of wine every night, and I realized it just wasn't working for me anymore.I didn't simply take it away. I bought non-alcoholic beer. I replaced it with something.Kids are the same way.If you just take away the iPad—especially if they've been using it for a long time—their brain has come to believe it's something they need to survive. That's what these products have tricked the brain into believing. So when you take it away, it genuinely feels awful.But if you give them another activity that's exciting, interesting, and something they genuinely want to do, taking the screen away doesn't feel nearly as difficult. Over time, you can actually help them discover activities that make them feel even better than the iPad does.That's what creates a permanent habit instead of a temporary one.Behavioral psychology is pretty clear that kids are using these things because they're trying to meet a need.Rosie wasn't obsessed with Toca Boca World or cartoons because she wanted screens. She wanted adventure.Adventure is a fundamental human need for kids. You could also call it autonomy, but I like the word adventure because I think it's easier to understand. Kids need to explore, learn, and take little risks. They need that in order to feel good.I think a lot of kids are using screens to try to fill that need.So instead of simply taking screens away and leaving that need unmet, you have to backfill it.I said to Rosie, “Tonight we're not going to watch Netflix. We're going to take a break. Instead, we're going to do something you've been dying to do that I just haven't made time for yet. You're going to ride your bike to the market by yourself.”I would even say to her, “Instead of watching cartoon characters have adventures, you're going to have a real adventure yourself.”That's the difference.You're taking something that was trying—but ultimately failing—to meet a real human need and replacing it with something that actually does.When you do that, it's not nearly as hard.It goes back to what you mentioned earlier about kids saying they'd rather be with their friends than on screens. That same research also found that kids would rather be outside playing than watching screens. So you're giving them the opportunity to do the thing they actually want to do.That's really the process: figure out a replacement activity—or a replacement food—and then gradually begin taking the old thing away.The result is that your child isn't angry at you all the time. Your relationship is better because they have something wonderful replacing what they lost.More importantly, it creates a lasting habit because they're not simply complying with a rule. They're building a hobby, a skill, or a way of living that genuinely brings them pleasure and meets their needs.One of my biggest concerns with a lot of the screen advice that's out there is that it isn't permanent.Real change comes from making small but permanent changes.It's not, “We're doing a 30-day screen detox.”It's, “We don't use screens after dinner anymore,” or, “We don't use screens on Saturdays.”And that's just how our family does things now.That's how you train the brain.If you keep bringing the old habit back, you undo the learning and go right back to where you started.So I always encourage people to think small—but think permanent.Sarah: One suggestion you make is starting with something simple, like, “We don't do screens in the car.”Michaeleen: Yes.Sarah: I think that's such a great place to start. Your book is full of practical little ideas like that, so the whole thing doesn't feel overwhelming.We've been talking about some of the bigger concepts, but the book is incredibly practical.I'm working on a book myself right now, so I know how much work goes into something like this. I just want to say you did a really beautiful job balancing the theory with concrete things families can actually do.I really, really recommend it.Michaeleen: Thank you.The car is a great place to start because it's such a clear context for a child's brain.They get into the car and their brain thinks, “Screen time.”Instead, you can make the car mean, “Reading time,” or “Journaling time,” or even “Bored time.”It's a really useful place to begin because they're already somewhat contained, so it's easier to establish a new routine.Sarah: I love that.The one thing I want to ask about—and I hope you don't take this as criticism—is that some of what you've done takes a lot of time and energy privilege.Michaeleen: Yes. I think it's very similar to what I found with Hunt, Gather, Parent. There is some work up front, but I also think we dramatically underestimate how much work we're already doing when we rely on screens as babysitters or pacifiers.We tend to think that's the easy route, but even in the short term, I don't think it actually is.Sarah: That's a really good point because the fighting itself takes a lot of energy.Michaeleen: Exactly. That's ultimately what made me change and what made me want to write this book. I was just tired of arguing with Rosie about screens. I hated policing her.It's very similar to what I found with Hunt, Gather, Parent. Recently, one parent gave me some feedback that I actually thought was really insightful. She said, “I think you could have been clearer that having daily screen time—or unlimited screen time—is actually a lot of work.”And she's right.The parent is managing it every single day, moment by moment. There's constant fighting, negotiating, and policing.I'll tell you something else. Once we got ultra-processed foods out of our house, the amount of work I do around food dropped to about one-tenth of what it had been before. We actually spend less money because we're eating less.People don't realize that ultra-processed food makes you eat more. That's very well documented. Kids snack constantly when those foods are around. Rosie now eats two or three real meals a day when she's eating whole foods.So I'm actually doing much less work because those foods aren't in the house.I do agree there's some work at the beginning. Teaching Rosie to ride her bike to the market took time. But now she's 10, and she rides her bike everywhere. She bikes to piano lessons. She bikes all over town.That investment keeps paying dividends.Sarah: That's a really fair point.I had just been telling you before we started recording that, over the years, I've noticed more and more parents coming to coaching specifically because of challenges around screen time.The fights about screens, getting kids off screens—it has become such a common struggle.They just need to read your book and get some strategies.Michaeleen: I'm really just trying to encourage people that if they have that gut feeling—that sense of, “This just isn't working for our family”—it's okay to say no.There is a way to do it that doesn't require an enormous amount of ongoing work.Really, what you're doing is setting up the environment so the default becomes these other activities. You're designing things so you're not constantly policing or managing every moment.That's my biggest pushback against the idea that this approach is more work.It took a lot of work for me to figure all of this out and understand how it works—Sarah: And you did that for us.Michaeleen: Exactly.I also think the court system—and society more broadly—is slowly starting to catch up. The regulations around screen content are so far behind the technology.If you think about it, 20 years ago Rosie wouldn't have been able to walk into a movie like Jaws without a parent. There were very clear rules about what children could and couldn't see.Now I can hand her a device that gives her access to some of the most extreme content imaginable.One scientist told me that a child today can see, in about ten minutes, more pornography than our grandparents' generation would have encountered in an entire lifetime.Something is clearly out of balance.Either society has changed dramatically, or our regulations simply haven't kept pace.When you look at child exploitation, trafficking, and abuse online, it's obvious that regulation is behind.Sarah: Big Tech has so much money and so much influence that I think that's part of why the laws have fallen so far behind.Michaeleen: It absolutely is. But I also think there's this persistent myth that kids need these technologies and that they're doing so much good.One of my hopes for this book—and for the work many other researchers are doing—is that people will begin to understand that kids genuinely need help regulating this stuff.They cannot regulate it on their own.Right now, that entire burden falls on parents, and that's a tremendous amount of work.Sarah: We can't regulate it on our own, and we're grown-ups.Michaeleen: Exactly.When I first started researching this book, I interviewed a famous economist at Stanford—someone in his forties who will probably win a Nobel Prize someday. He spent our entire conversation telling me all the systems he had to build so he wouldn't look at the news while he was working.He had blocked it at the router. He'd blocked it on his computer. He'd blocked it in multiple other ways.I remember sitting there thinking, “If he has to do all of that, how is a thirteen-year-old supposed to do her homework?”That's one of the central messages of the book.This isn't about willpower.It's not about teaching kids to resist temptation through self-control.It's about teaching them to build environments where they aren't constantly tempted in the first place.That's exactly what you described earlier when you left your phone at home.You create spaces in your life where the temptation simply isn't there.That's the key to living a happier, healthier life—not relying on willpower, but learning to avoid unnecessary temptation and building habits that don't require you to fight yourself every day.Ironically, that's what ends up making life much easier.Sarah: That was another really interesting thing you talked about in your book—willpower.Michaeleen: One of the really interesting findings about willpower is that people with fewer bad habits don't actually have more willpower. They've simply arranged their lives so they're exposed to fewer temptations.Sarah: That's right. A great place to start might be something like what you did with food. You talked about not eating food on the go.Michaeleen: Exactly. No food on the go.Sarah: Baby steps.Michaeleen: Right. Or parents will tell me things like, “We don't have ultra-processed foods at breakfast.” Breakfast is actually an easy place to start. You have oatmeal. You have eggs. There are lots of simple whole-food options. So you make that one meal your starting point.That's really the idea. Start with something small.I think the same principle applies to parenting. Parenting actually becomes easier when the temptations simply aren't there. You're not constantly managing them.Sarah: When my kids were growing up—and thankfully they mostly missed all of this because my youngest is 19, so there wasn't Netflix and everything else that's available now—we had a simple family rule: no screens Monday through Thursday.Back then it was television, but they just knew that was how our family worked. If they asked, I'd simply say, “Remember, it's Wednesday. We'll watch TV on the weekend.”It was actually very easy.Michaeleen: Exactly. And that's the dopamine system at work.Their brains know what day of the week it is. We're remarkably good at keeping track of time and routines. They knew they were in your house, after school, and that there wasn't going to be TV.It's like a smoker on an airplane. Eventually the smoker's brain learns, “I'm on a plane. I can't smoke.” The craving relaxes because the brain understands the context.The same thing happens with family routines.In Israel, for example, many families observe a digital Sabbath where they unplug for a full 24 hours every week. Parents tell me their kids love it because they know that's the time they play board games, spend time outside, and do other things together.Their brains learn that weekly rhythm.Our brains naturally work this way, so we can use that tendency to make family life calmer and more peaceful.Honestly, one of my favorite outcomes is that when nine o'clock comes around, my daughter is calm and actually wants to go to bed. Whatever effort it took to establish those habits at the beginning has been completely worth it. It's peaceful now, and hopefully those routines will stay with her for years.Ironically, it was much harder for me to stop scrolling before bed than it was for her.Sarah: Do you think there's any place for moderation?For example, could Rosie ever pick up Toca Boca again and play it for a little while? Or is it more a case of, once it's gone, it's gone?Michaeleen: That's a really good question.I think there are a couple of ways to think about it.The first is simply asking whether a particular technology is worth it. Does Toca Boca actually give us something valuable enough that it's worth the possibility of bringing back arguments and struggles? Or is there something else that gives us the same benefit without those downsides?One of the goals of the book is to help parents start asking that question about technology in general: Is this actually worth it?The second question is whether your child can handle it.I use YouTube for work. I'll watch scientists explaining research, informational videos, or sometimes I'll listen to music. I also know all the tricks YouTube is playing on me, so I can use it pretty intentionally.But Rosie at ten years old?No way.YouTube is far too sophisticated for her to use purposefully.Maybe when she's sixteen, seventeen, or eighteen. Maybe fifteen. I don't know.But I'm not going to intentionally introduce it.If it becomes necessary because of school or something else, then we'll try it and see how she handles it. If she can use it well, maybe we'll continue. If she can't, then we won't.I think a lot of this is really about figuring out what your own child can handle.We don't give children alcohol or tobacco because they can't handle them. We don't give them pornography for the same reason.These technologies have entered our lives so quickly that we're all trying to answer entirely new questions.One of the most important things parents can watch is what happens afterward.How does your child behave? What's their mood like? Is it immediately, “One more. One more. One more”?If that's what's happening, then they're probably not ready for it.Sarah: Right. It's not restorative.This reminds me of a guest I had on the podcast a year or two ago. He was a former video game developer, and the episode was called How to Stop Fighting With Your Kid About Video Games.Sarah: This reminds me of something another guest said on the podcast, and I think it fits perfectly with what you're talking about.He was a former video game developer, and he said something I've never forgotten. He said, “If you're going to let your kids play video games, don't let them play anything that's free.”He said there are lots of amazing games that you actually buy because they're designed with a real story arc, real challenges, and an ending. As I was reading your book, I kept thinking about that because those paid games are designed to give you an actual reward at the end. You complete levels, you build skills, and then you finish.He wasn't talking about buying things inside free games. He meant games that you purchase outright. I remember my husband used to play The Legend of Zelda. It was a game you started and eventually finished.Michaeleen: I love that. There's so much I love about it because the business model is completely different.With free games, the longer you stay on them, the more money the company makes through advertising and in-game purchases. Their entire goal is to keep you there for as long as possible. They're holding the child inside that loop.But with purchased games, they actually want you to finish because then they hope you'll buy another game. It's almost like movies used to be. They wanted you to enjoy the experience, reach the end, and then come back for the next one.You're exactly right—they're designed to end.I think that's really beautiful advice because it highlights how much the business model shapes the experience.Sarah: That's what he said. In the free games, the commodity is your child's attention.Michaeleen: Exactly.Whereas with a purchased game, you're paying for an experience that has a beginning and an end.We've actually done something similar with movies and television. We got rid of all of our subscriptions, and honestly, we've saved a lot of money. Now, if we want to watch a movie, we buy it.We're much more intentional. We stop and ask ourselves, “Do we really want to watch this? Is it worth it?”Then, when the movie ends, we're done.I think that simple change does so much to keep you out of the wanting cycle we talked about earlier. Paying for something slows the whole process down. It makes you think about your choice, and the design itself is completely different. It's designed to leave you feeling satisfied—to let you say, “I finished it.”Sarah: It's an experience. It's an adventure. There's a reward.Michaeleen: Exactly. I love that idea. I wish I'd put it in the book. It's really good. Honestly, I didn't even realize there were that many games designed that way.Sarah: I'll send you his contact if you ever want to talk with him.I could honestly talk to you about this all day.I'm just trying to think if there's anything else I really wanted to ask, but I do want to highlight something for anyone who's still listening.This isn't a moral argument about screens or ultra-processed foods being “bad.” You make that very clear throughout the book.It's really about bringing more joy and fun back into your life because getting trapped in this cycle of wanting without ever feeling rewarded is making all of us kind of miserable.Michaeleen: That's exactly right.The first thing I hope parents take away is that this isn't their fault.This has happened incredibly quickly, and most of us don't even understand what we're up against. These products are intentionally designed by multibillion-dollar companies to capture and hold our children's attention. That's what we're competing with, and for a long time we simply haven't had the right tools.The second thing is that this isn't about taking everything away. That's a fantasy. It's not going to work.It's about figuring out what actually brings joy to you and your family, keeping those things, and letting go of the things that don't.We've also moved beyond the old idea that kids will somehow fall behind or be left out if they don't have all these technologies. There's so much evidence now showing that giving kids a phone or social media doesn't suddenly make them feel accepted or like they belong.In fact, it often does the opposite.So we can let go of that fear.Instead, we can ask, “What actually works for our family?” Then we can build the skills to get there and help our kids gradually adopt these technologies in healthy ways because they're going to be part of their lives.Almost everyone will eventually have a phone. Most kids will eventually use some form of social media, whether that's YouTube, Instagram, or whatever comes next.The question isn't whether they'll ever use it.The question is: When are they ready?And how do we help them use it in a way that still allows them to be productive?For me, that's one of the essential parenting skills of the twenty-first century: helping kids set up their environments—their computers, their workspaces, their routines—so they aren't constantly fighting temptation.Sarah: You also talk specifically about having kids work where a parent can see them because I think that's becoming a huge challenge now that so many students are issued Chromebooks at school.Sarah: You also mention having kids work where a parent can see them, because I think that's becoming a huge challenge now that so many students are issued Chromebooks at school.Everyone I've talked to—and maybe there are exceptions out there—says you can't put parental controls on school-issued devices. Kids need YouTube to watch something for school, and suddenly you've opened the door to all kinds of temptation.Every parent I know whose child has a school-issued Chromebook struggles with it.Michaeleen: Yes, and I think this is an area that's really in flux.From what I'm learning, parents are starting to push back—not only on schools issuing Chromebooks in the first place, but also on not being allowed to set them up in ways that remove things like YouTube. I think parents actually have more power than I realized.Some schools will work with families if parents speak up. You can go to the teacher or the principal and say, “This is what I want for my child's Chromebook. I don't want them to have access to YouTube,” or, “I want these restrictions in place.”Parents have more rights than I think most of us realize.I've talked with parents who are trying to get Chromebooks out of kindergarten through Grade 2 altogether. Others are asking for more limited internet access or different settings during school hours. There's really a whole spectrum of possibilities.I honestly think this is going to be one of the defining parenting issues of the next decade—the school-issued Chromebook, the school-issued iPad.For me, it just makes those screen-free gaps in the day even more important. If your child has spent the day doing schoolwork on a device, then after dinner becomes even more valuable as a screen-free time.You need a break. I need a break. We all need a break.Creating what I call sanctuaries becomes increasingly important as more of school moves onto screens. Kids need opportunities to move their bodies, relax their brains, and experience activities that are genuinely restorative.I also think there are resources available for parents who want more control over that digital space. It does take work, but as parents we sometimes hand over more authority to schools than we actually have to. We have more rights than we often realize.In fact, a lot of this is being challenged legally. There are lawsuits against school districts because some software has been given to children in ways that violate privacy protections and collect data improperly.So I think this whole area is changing, and I'm hopeful we'll eventually reach a place where, even if students are working on computers, they'll have better protections against unnecessary distractions.That's exactly how I work. I turn on an app blocker so I can't wander around the internet while I'm working. Otherwise, I'd be distracted constantly.I have a colleague who says she can't work for more than a couple of minutes before she finds herself checking something online.Sarah: I struggle with that too.It's getting easier the more I practice, but the pull—that feeling of wanting—is incredibly strong.Michaeleen: It really is. It's become a habit, and eventually you're barely even thinking about it.I remember when I first installed an app blocker. It felt so uncomfortable. I kept thinking, “But I want to check this. I want to check that.”Then it faded.It actually faded pretty quickly.Sarah: Thank you so much—not just for being here, but for writing this book. It's really remarkable.Even though I'm past the most active stage of parenting, I keep noticing the ideas from the book working their way into my own life.I have to tell you, the last couple of nights I've made brown rice instead of white rice because of something I read in the book. I love white rice, but I know I need more fiber. Honestly, once you start eating brown rice regularly, you hardly notice the difference.You've gotten me wearing a watch, eating brown rice, and leaving my phone at home when I take the dog for a walk.Michaeleen: I love that.It lets your brain relax because you're not constantly multitasking anymore.I have my watch on too. Rosie and I actually wear the same watch. To me, it's become a little symbol of this more digitally minimalist way of thinking.I was doing exactly the same thing—checking my phone every time I wanted to know the time. Eventually I thought, “Why am I using this little computer just to tell the time?”Sarah: Exactly.Well, thank you so much.Michaeleen: Thank you.Sarah: Before I let you go, I have one question that I ask every guest. It'll be interesting because I can compare your answer to what you said the last time you were on.If you could go back in time to your younger parent self, what advice would you give yourself?Michaeleen: Which age?Sarah: Any age. Go back to brand-new-mom Michaeleen. What would you tell yourself?Michaeleen: I'll give you two answers.For the baby stage, I would tell myself, “Michaeleen, just carry her all the time. Put her in the carrier and carry her. Don't worry so much about putting her down.”She was so happy whenever I carried her, and that's how so many cultures do it. The baby is simply on someone's back or on their front while life goes on. I really wish I'd done more of that because I think it would have made both of our lives much easier.For the older years, I'd tell myself to stop worrying so much that taking away the screens was going to be hard.I built it up in my mind as this enormous thing. I thought, “It's going to be so difficult to take away Netflix at night. It's going to be so difficult to take away Toca Boca.”But it wasn't.It really wasn't.Our lives became so much easier afterward, and I wish I'd been able to see that ahead of time.Sarah: Well, how could you have known?What you were seeing was the outward expression of all that wanting—the crying, the begging, the desperation. It would be so easy to mistake that for, “I'm denying my child something that brings them enormous pleasure.”I think that's an important distinction for parents.Just because your child is crying and screaming that they want something doesn't actually mean that it's bringing them pleasure or that it's good for them.Michaeleen: Exactly.Someone said something to me that I think made it into the book. A child can desperately want to spend another hour playing a video game while actually getting very little pleasure—or no pleasure—from it.That's really where the trick is.That's the hijacking.I also think Lenore's work is right. Kids really do want the offline world.They just have to experience it first.I didn't fully appreciate this before, but you can't really want something until you've experienced the joy of it yourself. Maybe you can see someone else enjoying it, but to actually build that dopamine pathway, you have to get out there and feel it yourself.You have to think, “Oh, this is wonderful. I love this.”Then your brain starts wanting more of that.Sarah: I was thinking about one family I work with. They have five kids, they run their own business, and they're incredibly busy.Their five-year-old son was having constant meltdowns and aggression, so I suggested they start tracking what happened right before those moments.When they came back, they realized that about 90 percent of the incidents were connected to screens. He was trying to get one of his parents' phones. He was trying to grab the remote from his sisters. He wanted the TV turned on or wanted it to stay on.This was actually before I read your book, so I probably could have given them even better advice afterward.But I suggested they experiment with going screen-free for a while and see whether it changed the aggression.The next time I talked to them, the dad told me that, out of pure frustration, he'd picked up the television and put it out in the garage. He basically announced, “No more TV for the rest of the summer.”The following week, the mom started texting me pictures.“Here's the girls sleeping in a fort they built on the trampoline.”“Here's our five-year-old playing with his trucks.”Picture after picture.She said, “I think this is going to be the best summer ever without TV.”Michaeleen: I love that story.I really do.And it's easier.It's easier.All he did was move the TV into the garage.That's amazing.That's exactly the advice I'd give myself.Just do it. Trust your instincts. Do it.Sarah: Do it.Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate you coming back on the podcast.As always, it's been such a pleasure talking with you, and you've written another wonderful book to add to the parenting canon.Michaeleen: Thank you so much for having me. It was truly a pleasure to come back.Sarah: Thanks so much.We'll put links to everything we talked about in the show notes, along with your website. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sarahrosensweet.substack.com/subscribe

God fortsättning! Speljuntan följer upp hemvändarsäsongen med att blicka mot just hemmet och den svenska spelindustrin. Sverige har historiskt varit framstående inom just spelutveckling, från mobilmastodonter som Candy Crush Saga till GOTY-vinnare som It Takes Two - men hur har de senaste åren sett ut? Generalerna nystar i vad som definierar ett spelunder och vem som vinner på det. Vi tar även tempen på svedala-spelbranschens dagsform för att se om vårt lilla land har musklerna att hålla fortsatt jämna steg med resten av världen. Spel som nämns i avsnittet: Backpacker, Mulle Meck, Pettson & Findus, Greveholm, Year Walk, Generation Zero, Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden, Rallisport Challenge, Wolfenstein, Indiana Jones, Krater, Svea Rike, Candy Crush, Battlefield, Minecraft, Payday, Just Cause, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Soma, SteamWorld, Hotline Miami, Goat Simulator, Unravel, Little Nightmares, Sayonara Wild Hearts, It Takes Two, Valheim, Helldivers 2, Core Keeper, Content Warning, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Raft, V Rising, Satisfactory, R.E.P.O, Arc Raiders, RV There Yet?, Peak, Fellowship, Jump Space, Split Fiction, Candy Crush, Battle for Polytopia, Toca Boca, GeoGuessr, The Division, Star Wars Battlefront, Clustertruck, Twinkleby, Solbrand, Ontos, Witchspire

This session featured hosts Juney Dijkstra and Kyrene Kim interviewing guest Wendy Young.The Production Professionals Interview Series features exemplary production professionals in a series of focused knowledge sharing conversations on a broad range of topics, from tackling tough conversations with your team, to preferred tools, methods and software and how to maximise professional and personal growth.Wendy's classical art background and her passion for art, movies, point & click adventures plus CD-rom games landed her in the early days of the game industry. A love for creative exploration, process of game making, team dynamics & dedication to fostering cross discipline collaboration fueled her transition into production & leadership roles, in which she's been working with top teams & multi platform titles at renowned studios such as EA DICE, Toca Boca, Paradox Interactive and Starbreeze.Please share with peers that could benefit from these insights & experiences!Organised with the amazing support of our GPC Moderator and Guest Host Kyrene Kim and our Supporters for this session, Nooka, Emilie and Angelo ♡We would love feedback: Reach out to us on Discord!ABOUT THE GAME PRODUCTION COMMUNITY“Level up together with our inclusive, growth minded community as we share game production knowledge & experiences, advocate team health & happiness and lead the way to diverse, high quality, sustainable game development.”

Expertos en ciberseguridad reportaron un aumento del 38% en los ciberataques que suplantan marcas populares entre niños y familias como Disney, LEGO, Toca Boca y MrBeast.

Toca Boca World - Non giocare a questa versione spaventosa, una creepypasta inventata da Amico Diverte. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode we meet Ellie (age 7) and Vivian (age 8). They would have been happy to talk about Taylor Swift for the entire podcast, but talking about music led to conversations about Alexa and Siri, and then to the difference between Roblox and Minecraft. Plus, Floor is Lava, Gabby's Dollhouse, Cocomelon Lane, Toca Boca, My Little Pony and more. Enjoy!

Major toy companies like Spin Master, Mattel, and Hasbro have all been expanding their influence beyond traditional toys for many years. Spin Master, in particualr, is known for launching popular entertainment properties like PAW Patrol and Bakugan, which have seamlessly transitioned into digital formats in the form of TV series, movies, and video games. Spin Master has also been unafraid to acquire properties when it sees a strategic opportunity, such as its 2016 acquisition of Toca Boca, the children's mobile app developer. Today, host David Taylor sits down with Yves Saada, the Head of Strategic Partnerships at Spin Master, to better understand its place at the intersection of toys, video games, and entertainment more broadly. We cover Spin Master's success in mobile games, as well as Roblox, and how that fits into Spin Master's broader strategy as a toy company. We'd also like to thank Lightspeed Venture Partners for making this episode possible! With its dedicated gaming practice, "Lightspeed Gaming," the firm is investing from over $7B in early- and growth-stage capital — the by far largest fund focused on gaming and interactive technology. If you're interested in learning more, go to https://gaming.lsvp.com/.If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

As so many app developers and publishers would agree, growing an audience for an app is a challenge. Nothing is static - you find a new marketing channel that works and for a while and you feel like you can finally breath again freely but then it becomes crowded with your competitors or the app industry wide change happens like Apple's introduction of ATT framework and… - back to the drawing board. But today Luisa will tell you a story of what it takes to scale a subscription app for kids and if you feel like it should be even more challenging, you are right - it is. Today's Topics Include: Luisa Zuleta's background What Sago Mini and Toca Boca games are about Limitations in app marketing Luisa faced even before SKAD introduction Building relationships with partners to go through tough times Rethinking app audiences Reworking the marketing channel Defining LTV for an app What Luisa managed to achieve as the result Takeways What Luisa would like to change about mobile ad tech the most Android or iOS? Leaving her smartphone at home, what features would Luisa miss most? What features she would like to see added to his smartphone? Links and Resources: Luisa Zuleta on LinkedIn Sago Mini website Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry Quotes from Luisa Zuleta: "So when you're advertising and producing kids apps, you are you have to face two sets of regulations COPA for the US and GDPR for Europe. Those regulations affect not only marketing, but also the app development, publishing, what kind of data you can collect inside the apps, and also monetization strategies. " "So it's not like any traditional gaming app where you look at your user base and you know that the user that's most engaged is the one who did level one to three in the first 20 minutes, or bought this pack or that. It's not applicable. Sometimes you could have a parent of a four year old having a strict screen time of two times a week." Host Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012 A message from App Promotion Summit Tickets are available on all of our 2024 summits https://apppromotionsummit.com/ London – 25 Apr 2024 NYC – 27 Jun 2024 San Francisco – 26 Sep 2024 Berlin – 5 Dec 2024

Paulina Modlitba, en av Sveriges främsta thought-leaders inom teknik, innovation och AI. Hon har en forskningsbakgrund från KTH och MIT där hon studerat och forskat bl a kring robot-människa-interaktion och maskininlärning och är nu en flitigt anlitad föreläsare och moderator. Sedan ett antal år driver hon sin egen konsultverksamhet men har tidigare arbetat i roller inom digital affärsutveckling på företag som Bonnier R&D, Stardoll och Toca Boca. Paulina brinner också för att göra techbranschen mer inkluderande och sitter i dag i UN Women Sveriges styrelse där hon fortsätter att driva dessa frågor.Det här är kortversionen av originalintervjun där vi får höra Paulinas tankar om AI, ledarskap och framtiden och hur vi ska förhålla oss till det.Tack för att du lyssnar och följer Karriärpodden , Women for Leaders och SigneProgramledare: Eva Ekedahl, Kontakt eva@womenforleaders.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Paulina Modlitba, en av Sveriges främsta thought-leaders inom teknik, innovation och AI. Hon har en forskningsbakgrund från KTH och MIT där hon studerat och forskat bl a kring robot-människa-interaktion och maskininlärning och är nu en flitigt anlitad föreläsare och moderator. Sedan ett antal år driver hon sin egen konsultverksamhet men har tidigare arbetat i roller inom digital affärsutveckling på företag som Bonnier R&D, Stardoll och Toca Boca. Paulina brinner också för att göra techbranschen mer inkluderande och sitter i dag i UN Women Sveriges styrelse där hon fortsätter att driva dessa frågor.Det här är ett samtal där vi får lära känna Paulina och hennes bakgrund som präglas av stor nyfikenhet, lärande men vi får också höra om varför hon bitvis känt sig lite vingklippt. Det här är framförallt ett avsnitt med fokus på AI och hur vi ska förhålla oss till det. Paulina har nämligen förmågan att förklara och göra det mytomspunna mer förståeligt! Tack för att du lyssnar och följer Karriärpodden , Women for Leaders och SigneProgramledare: Eva Ekedahl, Kontakt eva@womenforleaders.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's my first podcast episode to launch on Substack!  Scroll to the bottom to hear more episodes— all are available for free. Herizon Music is funded by subscribers like yourself. If you like what you hear and see, pls upgrade to a paid subscription. Thank you for joining our band of dreamers, rule breakers, and rockstars! — Thea

"We are small but mighty!" In this special interview episode, Marc and Stanford are joined by multi-hyphenate Caroline Foley! Caroline has worked in practically every animation medium from stop motion, to hand-drawn, to computer generated, and more. From her time as a Story Editor for TOCA BOCA, to Development deals with Cartoon Network and Amazon, Animation and character design for RICK AND MORTY, Story artist and animator for BOJACK HORSEMAN, and creating TOASTY TALES. Also discussed: Caroline's time at CalArts, influences in animation growing up⁠, plus much, much more... ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Visit our website for the full lineup of our news and trailer discussion links.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (recorded on: Friday, August 4th, 2023) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Support Animation Fascination! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon Merch⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Find the show on social media at: Twitter - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@AnimatedPodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@AnimationFascination⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow us individually on social media at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ / ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - @MarcVibbert ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ / ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - @StanfordClark Check out our other podcasts: Stanford - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Movies: Past and Present⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Marc - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Holdo Maneuver (A Short-form Star Wars Podcast) --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/animationfascination/message

Björn Jeffery är grundare av Toca Boca som har blivit världens största inom kategorin barnappar med flera hundra miljoner nedladdningar. Bara förra året gjorde appbolaget runt 700 miljoner kronor i vinst. Björn gästar mig för att prata om att gå från idé till färdig produkt. Från appens födelse till att flytta till Silicon Valley. Från åtta år i San Francisco till att sälja bolaget till Spin Master och flytten tillbaka till Sverige. Vi pratar också om Silicon Valley-kultur, visioner, svamp- och blodtörstande techentreprenörer, Steve Jobs, iPadens hemliga historia och att sparka den sjunde medarbetaren på magkänsla. Hade riktigt kul med inspirerande och härliga techproffset Björn i loungen!  OBS! Det här är inte hela avsnittet. Vill du få tillgång till hela avsnittet, före alla andra och helt reklamfritt, behöver du bli betalande prenumerant på Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/taimaz ❤️ Tack för ditt stöd! ❤️ Du kan också ge stöd på Swish: 0761 401 401 Mer info på https://www.loungepodden.se Följ Taimaz Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taimazghaffari/ Linkedin: https://se.linkedin.com/in/taimaz-ghaffari-22789b21 Youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLKiCeQSPOfRmhXA_1m9M2A

In this episode, Björn Jeffery – serial entrepreneur (including Toca Boca), board member, technology columnist, and advisor – joins Naavik co-founder Aaron Bush to discuss:#1 Lessons learned and effective strategies on how to serve the kids market#2 His experiences from founding, scaling, and selling Toca Boca#3 What he's thinking about today including “AI vs art,” breaking common conventions, and advice for successful boardsTo learn more, make sure to follow Björn on Twitter. You can also view Toca Boca's website here.As always, if you like the episode, you can help others find us by leaving a rating or review!Go premium with Naavik Pro to access an ever-growing library of deep exclusive research including free-to-play and blockchain game deconstructions, and market analysis. Check out the link to request a demo, and use the promo code METACAST to save 10% on your first payment. TLDListen?: Episode summaryWatch the episode: YouTube channelJoin the discussion: Naavik DiscordFree newsletter: Naavik DigestGo premium: Naavik ProFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

In this episode, meet freelance recruiter Sofia Broberger, currently helping out at game development studio Toca Boca.Sofia will talk about when to use sourcing and why LinkedIn isn't enough and in many cases the completely wrong community for sourcing candidates. And also let you know what to do instead by giving her best tips and tricks.Join the conversation on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/candidate-experience-talks

In this week's podcast (Nov 29-Dec 5, 2021): Apple has announced the “iPhone App of the Year” award to “Toca Life World”, from Toca Boca, & the “iPad App of the Year” to “LumaFusion”, from LumaTouch. In other headlines: Reddit announces interactive features. Also, don't miss our startups section. Please note: our podcast listeners can now leave audio messages for us at this link: https://memo.fm/whatsnewonthenet --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/whatsnewonthenet/message

Dags för oss att sammanfatta veckans spelnyheter och diskutera spelkultur i Veckans Spelkult. Veckans hedersgäst är ingen annan än Petter Karlsson från Toca Boca. Vi diskuterar Battlefield 2042, Fortnite, Shattle, Suffragets, Project Entropia, retrospel, FCK Cancer, Kinaskorståg mot dataspelande, fortsättningen av Activision-skandalen, bakgrunden till Games Workshops senaste utspel mot nazism, inkludering i spelkulturen och mycket mer. Inte minst berättar Petter om Toca Bocas arbete med spel för barn och om hans egen roll i spelutvecklingen. Se länkar från inslagen under rubriken Källor här under. Medverkande är Daniel Roos, Frank Isaksson, Johanna Embla Taller, Karl Bergström och Petter Karlsson. Tider 0:00 Startar inom kort 4:35 Intro 4:53 Presentation 7:26 Veckans Spel 23:33 Veckans Nyheter 48:52 Veckans Gäst Källor Toca Boca https://tocaboca.com/ Shattle pre alpha gameplay https://spelkult.se/kalsongmannen-gar-los-i-shattles-pre-alpha-gameplay/ 1993 Space Machine https://spelkult.se/1993-space-machine-hur-obesvarad-karlek-forpassat-ett-spel-i-malpase-sedan-1993/ Star Citizen når 400 miljoner dollar https://robertsspaceindustries.com/funding-goals Kinesiska Fortnite släcks ned https://www.svt.se/kultur/efter-spelrestriktionerna-nu-slacks-kinesiska-fortnite-ner SVT om Beast https://www.svt.se/kultur/deras-bradspelside-blev-en-succe-samlade-in-5-8-miljoner Surfrage https://www.athenaspel.se/suffrage/ FCK CANCER https://www.fckcancer.io/ Alla Minecraft-nyheter https://spelkult.se/har-ar-alla-nyheter-i-nasta-ars-minecraft/ Activision CEO Bobby Kotick kände till sexförbrytelserna i flera år https://www.wsj.com/articles/activision-videogames-bobby-kotick-sexual-misconduct-allegations-11637075680 BLM röker ut normaliserade rasister ur spelkulturen https://spelkult.se/blacklivesmatter-roker-ut-normaliserade-rasister-ur-spelkulturen/ Warhammer vs Nazister https://wilbur.ghost.io/warhammer-nazis/ World of Boardgames ställer in Fryxgames medverkan https://www.facebook.com/groups/796396590377671/permalink/5198108050206481/ Se oss live Vi sänder live kl 19 på söndagar då ni kan ställa frågor och skriva kommentarer i direktsändning via Facebook, Youtube och Twitch.

In this episode, Tonje talks to Swedish entrepreneur, former COO, and CEO of kids app company Toca Boca and the CEO of Leap Caroline Ingeborn about the love of the unknown, risk-taking, the importance of play, her goal to create a social context amongst people and the creation of meaningful connections and conversations. Founder and CEO of Leap. Swedish entrepreneur Caroline moved to San Francisco back in 2013 when she joined the kid's app company Toca Boca (25mn Monthly Active Users). After 8 years as COO and later CEO, she flipped her focus to a different demographic with the launch of Leap, a social learning platform for people over 55. Driven by Caroline's passion to unite people via meaningful experiences, Leap hosts small-scale conversations and classes, designed to connect and inspire users.

Today, I'm having a GAS with Kalle Hellzen, the Chief Creative Officer at 180 Amsterdam; one of Europe's most renowned creative shops.   Kalle joined 180 after an eight-year European hiatus. He served as executive creative director at R/GA and helped build the company from scratch to over 75 employees in just two years. Previously he established the creative arm of ACNE in the US as partner, creative director and director. He also held executive creative and innovation positions at award-winning game development studio Toca Boca and Goodby Silverstein & Partners. Throughout his career, Hellzen's work for has garnered a swath of international accolades including Cannes Lions, Art Director's Club, SXSW, the One Show, Clio Awards, Epica, New York Festivals and many more. -- Having a GAS™ is the podcast that talks to the great and the good of the creative industries, and in particular finds out what makes great music for film, for TV, for advertising; for dancing to, for cooking to, f*cking to, and more... -- GAS™ Music is a music production agency in Manchester, UK. We compose and produce original music, create awe inspiring sound design and have a fully integrated audio post-production studio. We also have a great record collection, and welcome any additions, recommendations or criticisms. -- http://www.gasismusic.co.uk​​​ -- © GAS™ Music 2021

As always, we literally touch the tip of the iceberg of this wonderful conversation, and so much more deep diving to come. Today, discussing the notion of "Childism" and how this also links in to Respectful Parenting and treating our children like whole beings. Carl Frisell from Toca Boca describes Childism as: "the radical notion that kids need to be respected as human beings. It states that despite differences in size, experience and power, adults and children are inherently of equal worth, and that kids' perspectives and experiences should thus be considered on the same merits as those of adults. Childism could also be defined as the advocacy of the rights of children." Shownotes (I remembered woohoo!): Sara.Happiness.Is.Here https://www.instagram.com/sara_happiness.is.here/ Janet Lansbury https://www.janetlansbury.com Amethyst Joy https://www.instagram.com/thehealedmother/ Terminology: Childism Attachment Parenting Gentle Parenting Responsive Parenting

SPECIAL GUEST: Bruce Poon Tip Entrepreneur, leader, and philanthropist Bruce Poon Tip, is the founder of G Adventures, an award-winning small group adventure travel company and pioneer of community tourism. ... We host 200,000 travelers per year, offer more than 750 tours, and travel to 100 countries — across all seven continents.       Bruce Poon Tip talks about his book https://unlearn.travel/   Destination pics of the week:   Gary – Alberta, Canada — Wood Buffalo Jen – The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology https://tyrrellmuseum.com/  Bruce– Japan - outside of big cities. How to get lost in rural Japan. Fishing villages in coastal Japan.    Travel tips of the week:   Gary – 1.1.1.1 https://1.1.1.1/   Jen – Toca Boca apps for kids of all ages  https://tocaboca.com/  Bruce– Vago compression bags https://vago.global/    Find our guest and hosts online: Gary: Everything-everywhere.com  Jen: @jenleo, @bitcuriousmom, Bitcuriousmom.com  Bruce: https://www.instagram.com/brucepoontip 

Hi! Welcome to Toca Eva's poscast!

▶️Episode 25 ➗Guest : @jelena_haeschke is an an Illustrator working at Toca Boca studio from sweden. ✳️In this episode we discussed thoroughly about the general trends in illustration and graphic design and much more!! For full version of the podcast you can visit any podcast platform and search "kouryer podcast" 00:15 -give a little introduction on how you got into visual arts and design? 01:05 -were you originally studying art and design or you were pursuing another career path? 02:55 -what is your main branch of design that you're focusing on? and tell us about your experience from the start till now on it? 04:20 -how does your design process usually go anytime you want to start working on a design project? 05:30 -general art chat 09:00 -who are your favorite artists and designers? (that have inspired you the most) 14:25 -what do you think about this statement "you have to be good at drawing to be good at illustration"? 16:25 -what is the main subject of your artworks and what made them interesting to you? 18:45 -what technologies and softwares do you mostly use for your works? 20:05 -any advice and tips for a good portfolio and resume for artists? 23:50 -what are you working on right now that you can tell us? What project is it? 24:30 -what area beside that you're working on your interest to explore and learn? 27:40 -with all that being said and done to conclude all we disccussed give us a roadmap for someone who is zero in visual arts and wants to get to the place you are in terms of skillset. (where to start, best tools and softwares, preffered books or courses,...) For contact: @jelena_haeschke on instagram #jelena_haeschke #jelenahaeschke #ramtindeghat #kouryer #kouryerpodcast #kouryerkulture #digitalillustration #graphicdesign #photoshop #podcast #digitalart #artpodcast #2dart #conceptart #رامتین_دقت #پادکست #پادکست_فارسی #کوریر #پادکست_کوریر

En esta oportunidad, Fedor Salvidia nos recomendó algunas apps de contenido offline que los padres puedan utilizar con sus hijos, aprovechar el tiempo estos días en casa y sobretodo optimizar el uso del internet. Entre estos están los juegos, existen dos grandes compañías que brindan este tipo de servicio: Toca Boca y Sago.

Denne udgave af Skærmtid er en Påske-special, så i dagens program diskuterer vi ikke et emne. I stedet kommer tre eksperter med gode anbefalinger til, hvordan vi kan bruge skærmen - eller holde pause fra skærmen - i Påskeferien. God fornøjelse og god ferie! Apps anbefalet af Mors Apps v/Rikke Pal Apps fra Toca Boca og Dr. Panda til de små My Playhouse - det digitale “dukkehus” Monument Valley - hjerneudfordring i en 3D-verden Dragonbox Math - Matematikspil med læring under radaren QuickMath - Matematik på forskellige niveauer Moji klockis - lær at læse tid og forstå et ur Film og tv-serier anbefalet af Mariella Harpelunde, programchef på børnefilmfestivalen, Buster: “Saga på eventyr” (Viasat) “Hunden Ib” (DR) “Historien om den kæmpestore pære” (DR) “Clara og bjørnenes hemmelighed” (Filmstriben) “Detective Pikachu” (Netflix) “The breadwinner” (Netflix) “Antboy” (YouSee) Bøger anbefalet af Annette Øster, afdelingsleder, Roskilde Bibliotek “Det meget, meget farlige monster” af Rebecca Bach Lauritsen “Den mest vidunderlige ting” af Ashley Spires “Boris og den store storm” af Ryan Higgins “Seje Sally ingenør” af Andrea Beaty “Ottos ikke noget historier” af Lars Daneskov “Den rustne verden” af Adam Q “Hollys hav” af Lone Elmsted Bild

En esta oportunidad, Fedor Salvidia nos recomendó algunas apps de contenido offline que los padres puedan utilizar con sus hijos, aprovechar el tiempo estos días en casa y sobretodo optimizar el uso del internet. Entre estos están los juegos, existen dos grandes compañías que brindan este tipo de servicio: Toca Boca y Sago. Asimismo, ambas aplicaciones ofrecen varios juegos sumamente divertidos, amenos, no necesitan internet y son sumamente gratuitas.

Margaret talked about a few games Subnautica My time at Portia She used the following toys in her research Toca Boca tea party Osmo Code-a-pillar Maggi's research interests https://www.sldo.ac.uk/ https://dart.ed.ac.uk/research/autism-tech-play/ She's on @_mlaurie

This podcast looks at how children and young people use technology and what that means when they also have ADHD. While there are many helpful apps for children and families, sometimes choices can be overwhelming when deciding how best to use technology at home. Randy Kulman, PhD, is the founder and president of LearningWorks for Kids, an educational technology company that specializes in using video games to teach executive-functioning and academic skills. For the past 30 years, Dr. Kulman has also been the clinical director and president of South County Child and Family Consultants, a private practice that specializes in the assessment of children with learning disorders and attention difficulties. Additionally, Dr. Kulman is the author of numerous essays and book chapters on the use of digital technologies for improving executive-functioning skills in children. His current research projects include the development of a parent and teacher scale for assessing executive-functioning skills in children and a large survey study examining how children with ADHD and Autism use popular video games and apps. He is an adviser and occasional writer for Commonsensemedia.org, and Toca Boca. He is the author of two books; Train Your Brain for Success: A Teenager’s Guide to Executive Functions and Playing Smarter in a Digital World.

This podcast looks at how children and young people use technology and what that means when they also have ADHD. While there are many helpful apps for children and families, sometimes choices can be overwhelming when deciding how best to use technology at home. Randy Kulman, PhD, is the founder and president of LearningWorks for Kids, an educational technology company that specializes in using video games to teach executive-functioning and academic skills. For the past 30 years, Dr. Kulman has also been the clinical director and president of South County Child and Family Consultants, a private practice that specializes in the assessment of children with learning disorders and attention difficulties. Additionally, Dr. Kulman is the author of numerous essays and book chapters on the use of digital technologies for improving executive-functioning skills in children. His current research projects include the development of a parent and teacher scale for assessing executive-functioning skills in children and a large survey study examining how children with ADHD and Autism use popular video games and apps. He is an adviser and occasional writer for Commonsensemedia.org, and Toca Boca. He is the author of two books; Train Your Brain for Success: A Teenager's Guide to Executive Functions and Playing Smarter in a Digital World.

Bjorn Jeffery, Co-Founder and former CEO of industry-defining kids developer Toca Boca, sits with SuperAwesome’s CEO Dylan Collins to discuss his journey from incubation in Bonnier to acquisition by Spin Master

This week is all about treachery, traitors and multiplayer backstabbing. Graham tells the story of his traitorous actions in sci-fi strategy game Neptune’s Pride. Brendan enjoys the double-crossing of Eve Online. And Nate remembers the turncoat star fighters of Star Wars: Tie Fighter. Links: Have you played… Star Wars: TIE Fighter? https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/10/30/have-you-played-star-wars-tie-fighter/ The Neptune’s Pride chronicles: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/01/02/neptunes-pride-the-complete-epic/ Subterfuge is the same sort of thing but not on PC boooo: http://subterfuge-game.com/ EVE Online is a game of constant betrayal: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/09/29/how-eve-online-theft-ended-in-death-threats/ Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas characters modded into Resident Evil 2: https://youtu.be/Rnd7kB8gkTg?t=12 Nate’s Imperator: Rome review: Toca Boca looks like a full-colour migraine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DdfXVzhTDU Mario is a traitor: https://twitter.com/gamesbymanuel/status/1121348831994679296

Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear.   I’m Fred Fishkin.      He created the Toca Boca apps that have entertained kids for years, but these days Bjorn Jefferey is focused on helping parents deal with all of the pressures they face daily.     He is CEO of Enjo…an app initially available...

Gästföreläsare: Petter Karlsson, Play Designer på Toca Boca @petterkarlsson på Twitter och Instagram, samt petterkarlsson.se för mera blandad läsning. Intervjuare: Jim-Andrew Schillings Ljudtekniker: Daphne Thörn

Lex took his kids to see Sing. Liam is learning to play Nintendo Land (which Lex mistakenly calls "Nintendo Party" in the episode). Liam gave Lex this plate which is awesome and he loves and is not copyright-violating. Moltz made Cioppino for Christmas day dinner and it was really good. Our thanks also to Toca Boca, makers of Toca TV. Toca TV is hand-curated videos for kids with no ads. Everything from Minecraft let's play to silly songs. Download it today from the App Store and enter code TTCA to get your first month free. Follow us: @ttcashow. Lex Friedman can be found @lexfri, John Moltz can be found @Moltz and Jon Armstrong is @blurb.

BEHOLD, THE MENORASAURUS! Our thanks also to Toca Boca, makers of Toca TV. Toca TV is hand-curated videos for kids with no ads. Everything from Minecraft let's play to silly songs. Download it today from the App Store and enter code TTCA to get your first month free. Our thanks as well to Sleep Number, the best sleep of your life. Set your sleep number from 0 to 100 to adjust how firm or soft you want your sleep experience. Find a Sleep Number store near you at SleepNumber.com and tell them Lex from Turning This Car Around sent you (really). Follow us: @ttcashow. Lex Friedman can be found @lexfri, John Moltz can be found @Moltz and Jon Armstrong is @blurb.

John Wick is a violent but fun movie and definitely not for the kids. Super Mario Run is out! The name of Neven Mrgan's upcoming game that Moltz couldn't remember in the show is Stagehand. Moltz and son still like the new Plants vs Zombies card game. Lex's daughter still refers to Moltz's Minecraft book as well as some other, lesser Minecraft books. Bitmoji is a god damn horror show if you ask me. Please refer to the list of films that most frequently use the word "fuck". Our thanks also to Toca Boca, makers of Toca TV. Toca TV is hand-curated videos for kids with no ads. Everything from Minecraft let's play to silly songs. Download it today from the App Store and enter code TTCA to get your first month free. Our thanks to Omaha Steaks. Go to OmahaSteaks.com and type "TURNING" in the search bar, add the Family Gift Pack to your cart and get a whole mess o' meat for just $49.99, a 77% savings! Great meat at a great price. Follow us: @ttcashow. Lex Friedman can be found @lexfri, John Moltz can be found @Moltz and Jon Armstrong is @blurb.

In this episode we talk about kids and fake news. Snopes is a good place to start. Our thanks to Enclosed, gorgeous and enticing panties for women. Visit Enclosed.com/car and get $25 off any of their subscription plans. Our thanks also to Toca Boca, makers of Toca TV. Toca TV is hand-curated videos for kids with no ads. Everything from Minecraft let's play to silly songs. Download it today from the App Store and enter code TTCA to get your first month free. Our thanks as well to Sleep Number, the best sleep of your life. Set your sleep number from 0 to 100 to adjust how firm or soft you want your sleep experience. Find a Sleep Number store near you at SleepNumber.com and tell them Lex from Turning This Car Around sent you (really). Follow us: @ttcashow. Lex Friedman can be found @lexfri, John Moltz can be found @Moltz and Jon Armstrong is @blurb.

Moltz talks a bit about his new MacBook Pro. Lex has a pretty sweet PAC-MAN clock. Lex likes NES Remix. Jon made some neat videos of the Parrot Mini Drone. Lex's son is getting some cool LEGO physics toys. Moltz's family is getting an Xbox One Minecraft edition. Avalon is a good movie. Our thanks to Enclosed, gorgeous and enticing panties for women. Visit Enclosed.com/car and get $25 off any of their subscription plans. Our thanks to Toca Boca, makers of Toca TV. Toca TV is hand-curated videos for kids with no ads. Everything from Minecraft let's play to silly songs. Download it today from the App Store and enter code TTCA to get your first month free. Follow us: @ttcashow. Lex Friedman can be found @lexfri, John Moltz can be found @Moltz and Jon Armstrong is @blurb.

Contrary to rumors spread by us, Lex is not digging the Cards Against Humanity hole. Moltz watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving this week. The Mayo Clinic has some recommendations on potty training. As does WebMD. Our thanks to Enclosed, gorgeous and enticing panties for women. Visit Enclosed.com/car and get $25 off any of their subscription plans. Our thanks as well to Girls Can!, the monthly crate that introduces your child to fearless women. Go to GirlsCanCrate.com and use code "TTCA" to get 20% off your first month! Our thanks to Toca Boca, makers of Toca TV. Toca TV is hand-curated videos for kids with no ads. Everything from Minecraft let's play to silly songs. Download it today from the App Store. Follow us: @ttcashow. Lex Friedman can be found @lexfri, John Moltz can be found @Moltz and Jon Armstrong is @blurb.

Amy and Kabir discuss the election results as well as a fantastic piece in the Toca Boca magazine. Then, they are joined by Michael Robb and Asia Williams from CommonSense Media to discuss their latest report: "Case Studies of Media Use Among Lower-Income Minority Youth and Parents" Link to Toca Boca Article: https://goo.gl/BHaZwb Link to CommonSense Report: https://goo.gl/qZbG0I

Bjorn Jeffery, the CEO of the red-hot Toca Boca kid's app, talks about his new streaming service, Toca TV, which expands the brand with original programming for kids.

Bjorn Jeffery, the CEO of kids app maker Toca Boca, explains how the company took on Disney, Nickelodeon and other giants to find a niche with 5-9 year olds and the popular Toca Boca apps, which have been downloaded over 130 million times in four years, on #TalkingTech.

Inc's editors and writers talk about the future of cybersecurity, how the startup Grabr connects consumers with travelers who hand-deliver international goods, and they interview Bjorn Jeffery, the founder of the kids' apps company Toca Boca. Write us: uncensored@inc.com Visit: www.inc.com/inc-uncensored Today's episode is brought to you by Wunder Capital. Invest in large-scale solar projects across the U.S. Create an account for free at Wundercapital.com/uncensored. Wonder Capital… do well and do good. Support for today's Exit Interview comes from Deloitte's Emerging Growth Company team...conducting audits to meet the needs of fast-growing companies that seek investor capital or to go public. See how audit can help companies as they pursue high performance at Deloitte.com/us/EGC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Snabbt socker för små sockertorskar - eller pedagogiska nyttigheter för framtida generationer. Är pekskärmar livsfarliga eller livsnödvändiga? Och varför får barnen i Minsk inte peka i böcker? I Barnens kultur denna vecka besöker vi småbarnens främsta leverantör av skärmbaserad lek - den svenska dundersuccén Toca Boca. Allt testas på barn och de älskar att - städa. I alla fall på pekskärmar. Men är det så härligt okomplicerat som att kalla det för skärmlek eller händer något annat med barns utveckling när det blåa ljuset tar över all deras uppmärksamhet? Teknikkritikern Helena Granström vill hejda vågen.  Medan dataspelsforskaren Björn Sjöblom tycker att småbarnen allt kunde få vara lite mer destruktiva inne i sin digitala värld. Vi låter testpatrullen prova ett lekland och undrar varför vuxna inte får vara med och leka. Dessutom har Fredrik Wadström besökt barn och barnboksförfattare i Minsk tillsammans med den svenska bilderboksskaparen Sara Lundberg och upptäckt att idealen kring barnen och kulturen spretar åt vitt skilda håll länderna emellan. Programledare Jenny Aschenbrenner och Lollo Collmar

I veckans avsnitt av Digitalpodden: Daniel och Viktor tror sig ha räknat ut den hemliga planen bakom Nordeas oväntade satsning på crowdfunding. Dessutom – allt om Bonniers jätteförsäljning av Toca Boca, Tictails nedskärningar och tokhajpen inom edtech. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Snabbt socker för små sockertorskar - eller pedagogiska nyttigheter för framtida generationer. Är pekskärmar livsfarliga eller livsnödvändiga? Och varför får barnen i Minsk inte peka i böcker? I Barnens kultur denna vecka besöker vi småbarnens främsta leverantör av skärmbaserad lek - den svenska dundersuccén Toca Boca. Allt testas på barn och de älskar att - städa. I alla fall på pekskärmar. Men är det så härligt okomplicerat som att kalla det för skärmlek eller händer något annat med barns utveckling när det blåa ljuset tar över all deras uppmärksamhet? Teknikkritikern Helena Granström vill hejda vågen.  Medan dataspelsforskaren Björn Sjöblom tycker att småbarnen allt kunde få vara lite mer destruktiva inne i sin digitala värld. Vi låter testpatrullen prova ett lekland och undrar varför vuxna inte får vara med och leka. Dessutom har Fredrik Wadström besökt barn och barnboksförfattare i Minsk tillsammans med den svenska bilderboksskaparen Sara Lundberg och upptäckt att idealen kring barnen och kulturen spretar åt vitt skilda håll länderna emellan. Programledare Jenny Aschenbrenner och Lollo Collmar

In this episode, I interview Andrey Zhukov Founding Engineer At Toca Boca. Take a look at the beautiful and amazing kids iPhone and iPad apps developed by Toca Boca and you'll understand the brilliance of of the team at Toca Boca. Andrey shares his story of the early days at Toca Boca.

In this episode I chat with Jack Nutting about a question I received from a listener. I interviewed Jack in Epsiode 2, he is an App Development Expert, Author & Developer With Thoughtbot, previously developing for the wildly popular app dev company Toca Boca. Jack shares his thoughts on whether you can go it alone as an app developer or whether its best to build a team.

Oscar Hoglund is the Co-Founder & CEO of Epidemic Sound, which provides production music licensing to more than 85,000 customers across 200 countries. He also co-founded the Scandinavian MCN United Screens and serves on the board of children’s entertainment company Toca Boca. In this episode, we explore Oscar’s path to entrepreneurship, the importance of tactics in addition to strategy, and the Scandinavian startup scene. Oscar offers insight into the launch of United Screens and its recent investment round, and we look extensively at Epidemic’s involvement in the evolution of the digital music space. They may be known as the “bad boys” of the music industry for creating a music ownership model that eliminates middlemen and royalty reporting (what Oscar calls a “Spotify for business”), but Epidemic Sound makes no apologies. Host: James Creech ABOUT THE SHOW All Things Video is a podcast dedicated to uncovering the past and charting the future of the online video ecosystem. Listen to interviews with founders, executives, and thought leaders from the world’s leading video networks and engage in thought-provoking debates about the key issues shaping the next generation of entertainment. From the short-form content revolution to the rise of multi-channel networks (MCNs) and the fragmentation of video viewership in an always-on world, All Things Video reveals the key trends and insights from the world of digital video. Subscribe for new episodes and updates! ABOUT THE HOST James Creech is an entrepreneur focused on technology, online video, and digital media. He currently serves as the SVP, Growth for Bent Pixels, the premier technology provider for the world's leading video networks and next-generation media companies. OUR SPONSOR This episode is brought to you by Epidemic Sound, the company reimagining music licensing for the digital age. Epidemic’s library contains tens of thousands of tracks that you can license a la carte or on a subscription basis. Unlike other music licensing companies, Epidemic Sound owns its entire catalogue and makes tracks available via one straightforward license to cover all your needs, worldwide and in perpetuity – no more headaches around usage reporting, performance royalties, or murky rights ownership. It’s better for the artists and better for you, the creator. So whatever your music needs, www.epidemicsound.com has got you covered! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

In this episode I interview Jack Nutting - App Development Expert, Author & Developer With Thoughtbot, previously developing for the hugely popular Toca Boca. Jack shares his app journey, what we can learn from his failures and successes and his experience with his earliest app creation which attracted a massive 200,000 app downloads per day

Toca Boca’s Amanda Rösler joins us to discuss making great games for kids. We talk about why Toca Boca’s apps are more like toys than they are games, games for kids on the App Store, the pitfalls of making games for kids, and tea parties. Later, we talk about co-op games we’re looking forward to playing. Toca Boca Toca Town The Kids section of the App Store The Úll Conference Oregon Trail Dead Space 3 The Luigi Death Stare Splatoon Super Hot

Episode 001 - Hungry Hippos Relly and Pauly talk about board games with big manuals, the podcasts that they’ve been listening to and where to start with the Zelda series. They’re big fans of Tabletop and Penny Arcade and want to sneak into a game store and record people playing Dungeons & Dragons. Theme music: Helix Nebula by Anamanaguchi, from the album Power Supply. We would love your feedback on this episode, suggestions for future episodes, questions, or comments. You can email us, talk to us on Twitter or ask us something via this site. (Most of the) things we mentioned in this episode (though some of them were really briefly): [01:29] Jonathan Coulton, singer/songwriter [01:30] Paul & Storm, professional singing persons [01:44] MC Frontalot, nerdcore star [03:03] Ticket To Ride, board game [03:10] Tabletop, web show [04:02] Game of Thrones, board game [04:08] Game of Thrones, TV series [05:27] Diplomacy, board game [06:56] Geek & Sundry, web channel [08:47] Board Game Geek, gaming website [09:08] Gloom, card game [09:17] Fiasco, role-playing game [11:47] Penny Arcade, gaming website [12:03] Penny Arcade, board game [12:48] XKCD, webcomic [14:10] PAX, video games expo [14:24] Childs Play, charity [15:30] Penny Arcade Report, gaming news [16:44] Acquisitions Incorporated, podcast [16:52] Wizards of the Coast, games company [16:55] Dungeons & Dragons, role playing game [17:23] Paul isn’t 34 yet. He should be able to remember his own age. [18:32] Dungeons & Dragons, animated series [20:20] Memories of the Futurecast, podcast [25:00] Encounters, D&D campaign [26:33] Shift Run Stop, podcast [26:57] GDS, doing exciting things with government digital services [28:12] 5by5, podcast network [28:18] Back To Work, podcast [29:17] Radio Free Burrito, podcast [29:50] Zelda, gaming universe [30:58] The Minish Cap, Zelda game [31:00] A Link to the Past, Zelda game [31:03] The Wind Waker, Zelda game [31:06] Ocarina of Time, Zelda game [33:37] Twilight Princess, Zelda game [35:00] Majora’s Mask, Zelda game [42:43] Magic 2013, iPad game [43:18] Skyward Sword, Zelda game [43:26] Skyrim, video game [44:22] Toca Boca, iOS games for kids [45:48] Board Game Geek iOS blog [46:30] The World Ends With You, iOS game [46:47] Phoenix Wright, video game series  [52:06] XOXO, festival [52:26] Mythbusters, TV show [52:46] Indie Game The Movie, documentary [53:15] Brighton Digital Festival

I P3 Spel den här veckan handlar det om barn. Nej, nej, inte hur man gör dom (det har vi ju redan pratat om!) utan hur dom funkar ihop med spel. Angelica Norgren får sällskap av panelen, Susanne Möller och Anton Berg. Tillsammans ser dom tillbaka på sina tidiga spelminnen, och vilken inverkan dom digitala lekarna sedan barnsben har haft på deras liv. Orvar Säfström tycker att man ska fira med tårtkalas när barnen når maxnivå i World of Warcraft och för Therese Göterheim är det självklart att spela tillsammans med 14-årige sonen Zaccarias. P3 Spel träffar föräldrarna som tagit ställning för sina barns spelande. I studion blir det ännu mer barnsnack med Emil Ovemar (bilden), producent på spelstudion Toca Boca som med över åtta miljoner nedladdningar har gjort succé med spel som Toca Tea Party och Toca Doctor. Dessutom så blir det Signerat Samson, spelnyheter och snack om dom hetaste spelen just nu. Ja, vi menar förstås Mass Effect 3. Du hör P3 Spel, söndag 18.03 i P3.

Gastheer Maarten Hendrikx, @maartenhendrikx op Twitter of via zijn website. Panel Marco Frissen, @mfrissen op Twitter, of via zijn website. Davy Buntinx, @dirtyjos op Twitter, of via zijn website. Stefaan Lesage, @stefaanlesage op Twitter, of via de Devia website. Jan Seurinck, @janseurinck op Twitter, of via zijn website. Cindy de Smet, @drsmetty op Twitter. Gast Stef Verheijen, @steffest (of @zeursteffest) op Twitter, of via zijn website. Onderwerpen iOS vs Android, kunnen we er eens mee ophouden?  (marco.org) Facebook komt met een HTML5 versie van hun site. En project Spartan. Security,1Password for iPad, 1Password for iPhone, 1Password for Mac, LastPass, Lulzsec. Turntable.fm Tech45.tech45 Spam in de Kindle e-book store. Non-nieuws van de week: Lieven Verstraete verlaat Twitter. Joepie! Tips Jan: Lightbox Marco: ESA iOS app, Mobiola Webcam app (via @cleverclogs) Cindy: Klas Cement, gratis taallessen Davy: Moneybook Stefaan: Tocaboca games, of Toca Boca in de iOS App Store Steffest: http://www.aliexpress.com (aanvulling Marco: http://dealextreme.com en http://focalprice.com) Feedback Het Tech45-team apprecieert alle feedback die ingestuurd wordt. Heb je dus opmerkingen, reacties of suggesties, laat dan een commentaar hieronder achter. Via twitter kan natuurlijk ook @tech45cast. Ook audio-reacties in .mp3-formaat zijn altijd welkom. Items voor de volgende aflevering kunnen gemarkeerd worden in Delicious met de tag 'tech45'. Vergeet ook niet dat je 'live' kan komen meepraten via live.tech45.eu op (let op! eenmalige verschuiving!) woensdag 29 juni vanaf 21u30. Deze aflevering van de podcast kan je downloaden via deze link, rechtstreeks beluisteren via de onderstaande player, of gewoon gratis abonneren via iTunes.