Parents Are People

What happens when you realize the people in charge don’t have the answers. Prologue: Guest Host Chana Joffe-Walt asks her kids when they first encountered adult fallibility. (8 minutes) See Something, Slay Something: A middle schooler really wants to trust the adults have her best interests in mind. But some of the most powerful people at her school begin to make that very difficult. (27 minutes) Talia Richman originally wrote about Madison for The Dallas Morning News. Postscript: In Israel and Gaza, children are directly facing the fact that the adults around them cannot protect them. (4 minutes) Dad’s Big Idea: Comedian Gary Gulman on a choice his dad made for him when he was seven years old. (11 minutes) Gary Gulman’s standup show is based on stories in his new book, a memoir called Misfit. Ride or Die: There are many kids who do not gradually discover that grown ups don’t have a handle on everything.  These kids already know. Miriam Toews’s novel, “Fight Night,” is about a nine-year-old named Swiv who takes care of her grandma and manages her mom’s mental health struggles. Even simple tasks can become complicated, like taking them both on the bus. (7 minutes) The audio for this story was excerpted from the official audiobook of Fight Night by Miriam Toews, which is narrated by the author and Georgia Toews, courtesy of Recorded Books. © 2021 by Miriam Toews, used with permission of The Wylie Agency LLC. Excerpted from Fight Night: A Novel. Copyright Miriam Toewes, 2021. Reprinted by permission of Bloomsbury.