Teenagers Untangled has been picked by The Times UK as one of the top podcasts for parents

Education Episodes

May 13, 2025

142: Why school exam systems need to change and how to support our own kids now

What do you think of this episode? Do you have any topics you'd like me to cover? The intense, content-heavy exam system in the UK kicks off at this time of year with GCSEs and A levels; high-stakes exams that can feel like a make-or-break moment for teenagers. I've already discussed with Susie how we can support our teens through the stress, which you can download here: https://www.teenagersuntangled.com/exam-revision-parenting-through-the-pressure/ This time I'm joined by jo…

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April 29, 2025

140: Respect, artifical intelligence and toxic femininity - the teenage view

What do you think of this episode? Do you have any topics you'd like me to cover? When I asked listeners for their questions one stood out as a worthy of almost an entire episode: 'What does it take to respect people around you, especially your parents?' There's so much that could be said on this topic that it think I might give it a deeper dive at some point, but the insight from my teens was very interesting nonetheless. Artificial Intelligence is everywhere in the news…

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April 22, 2025

139: Secondary school, friendship groups, and those awkward talks about porn and sexting

What do you think of this episode? Do you have any topics you'd like me to cover? In this episode my teens, Phoebe and Amelia, joined me in the studio to help answer some questions emailed in by listeners, and sent to me on social media. We kick off by chatting about exploring their identity and what they think is the key to gettting them out of their bedrooms. *So sorry about the quality of the audio on their microphones. I do everything on my own so I haven't yet perfected having…

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April 1, 2025

136: Are education and hard work less important now than parents?

What do you think of this episode? Do you have any topics you'd like me to cover? I grew up believing in a meritocracy; with hard work - and government funding of my university education - I eventually escaped a difficult home and poor schooling to succeed in journalism. But times have moved on, and the reality now is that getting a university education is no longer the gateway it used to be. In fact, according to generational expert and historian, Dr Eliza Filby, our life chances and .…

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April 1, 2025

135: Adolescence: Help for parents with the core themes. How to discuss and connect with our kids

What do you think of this episode? Do you have any topics you'd like me to cover? The mini-series, Adolescence, is a global hit, topping Netflix charts in 71 countries and amassing 24.3 million views in its first four days. It's sparked a global conversation about parenting, masculinity, and the impact of social media on young people. It's brilliance rests on holding up a mirror to everyone in society, showing us the complex factors that cause toxic ideas to take root. When I …

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Feb. 4, 2025

128: Life skills: How to supercharge them with a working holiday.

What do you think of this episode? Do you have any topics you'd like me to cover? Sponsored by JENZA Positively life changing is how I would sum up the time I spent working abroad during my gap year. I met people with a completely different world view, different language, and learnt to navigate many challenges alone. It gave me a positive, can-do attitude to life. Now my teens are 16 and 18, I want to make sure they have the confidence to meet whatever life throws at them head-on. Given…

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Jan. 28, 2025

127: How to be a good parent to teenagers, using evidence. An interview with Matilda Gosling

What do you think of this episode? Do you have any topics you'd like me to cover? It's one thing to get advice on how to parent, it's another to have independent studies that give real evidence on how well one approach works rather than another. Faced with raising two young kids in a COVID lockdown, social scientist and skilled researcher Matilda Gosling looked for a book that gave her advice that was based on sound evidence. She discovered that such a book didn't exist, …

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Jan. 14, 2025

125: How to motivate our teens to love learning and why parents are the missing piece of the puzzle.

What do you think of this episode? Do you have any topics you'd like me to cover? We parents are deluding ourselves about how much our kids enjoy school, according to research for the book The Disengaged Teen. In survey responses 65% of parents thought their 10th grade kid loved school, whilst only 26% of 10th graders actually said they did. A lot of educators admit that things go wrong in the teen years, and many fine minds are trying to work on ways to tackle the problem. In the meant…

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Nov. 19, 2024

117: Friendships, frenemies and banter. What to expect and why.

What do you think of this episode? Do you have any topics you'd like me to cover? Friendships, and fitting, in are everything to teenagers. You could argue that understanding the dynamics, and supporting our kids through the turmoil of the teen years, is one of the best things we parents can do. Former Headteacher of 18 years, Andrew Hampton FRSA, is no stranger to the issue. He's not only raised two girls he's also had to deal with the fall-out in school when friendships go w…

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Oct. 22, 2024

113: Motivation: How to motivate your teenager. An interview with eminent Psychologist David Yeager

What do you think of this episode? Do you have any topics you'd like me to cover? When kids hit puberty they become driven by a core motivation that many of us adults don't fully appreciate. It's not simply fun, or sex; they're looking for experiences that give them social status and respect. According to David Yeager, author of 10-25: The Science of How to Motivate Young People, a societal belief that teens and young adults are lazy and incompetent causes us to misunders…

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Sept. 17, 2024

108: How grades harm school students and what we parents can do about it and nterview with Josh Eyler

What do you think of this episode? Do you have any topics you'd like me to cover? Grades are used in education the world over, but why? With the growing mental health crisis in teenagers I've been exploring how experts are asking whether perhaps it's time we looked again at the role grades play in helping or hindering the learning of our children. In my interview with Josh Eyler, author of Failing Our Future: How Grades Harm Students, and What We Can Do about It we discuss the…

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Aug. 27, 2024

105: Grades. Our obsession with them fails everyone. An interview with Exam Nation author Sammy Wright

What do you think of this episode? Do you have any topics you'd like me to cover? What is school for, and are exam grades a good measure of a human? Does someone's grades tell us what we should know, or are we being misled? Do grades help children grow and engage with learning, or do they simply destroy interest and entrench social divisions? These are the sort of questions that perplex many of us who are parenting teenagers. It’s coming to the end of summer in the UK which means t…

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Aug. 6, 2024

103: Exams: how to cope with boys who fail them and seem apathetic. Email from a step-parent

What do you think of this episode? Do you have any topics you'd like me to cover? In the West, we tend to see success for late teens as passing exams, getting into further education or getting a job, and moving on with life. So when we received an email from a mother, concerned for the welfare of her two step-sons who've performed poorly in their final high school exams, and who don't seem to be interested in finding work, we thought it would be a really interesting topic to u…

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