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StrollerCoaster: A Parenting Podcast — Kids & Family
StrollerCoaster: A Parenting Podcast

Does everyone you know give you different parenting advice? Are you overwhelmed trying to find the most credible sources for innovative parenting tips? Let us do that! StrollerCoaster is a podcast for parents that allows you to sit down with childhood development experts and parents from around the world who are answering your biggest parenting questions and providing solutions you can actually use. Created by Munchkin Inc. (The Most Loved Baby Lifestyle Brand in the World) and hosted by CNN and NBC news anchor Lynn Smith, we cover topics from social emotional learning, to feeding your kids, to understanding your own parenting experiences, and so much more.
Plus, we even have a podcast for kids! StrollerCoaster StoryTime is a short-form podcast with a modern take on your favorite children’s stories. It’s full of surprises, cool sound effects and unexpected twists and turns, and you can find these episodes right here in the StrollerCoaster feed.
So, whether you’re a parent to be, or a parent of three, hop on board the StrollerCoaster, because raising little humans can be quite a ride.

Latest Episodes:

Our Kids Are Friends, But Do We Have to Be? Oct 14, 2024

Show notes

When you’re a parent, anytime your child makes a close friend, you do too! Whether it’s connecting with other caregivers at daycare or throwing a joint birthday party with people you barely know, it can be tricky – and rewarding – to navigate adult friendships when the only thing you have in common is that your kids are friends.

Social relationships expert, author and TEDx speaker Shasta Nelson guides Lynn & Justin on how to traverse the awkward terrain of making and growing friendships with other parents.

In our Parenting Story of the Day, writer/humorist Jessica Delfino tells us how she forged unlikely bonds and rewarding friendships on the playground, which she calls “a dating app” for finding parent friends.

Shasta Nelson / Podcast / Book / IG / FB / YouTube / X / LinkedIn

For over 15 years, Shasta Nelson has been translating the science of human connection into actionable practices that leads to greater belonging in our communities and work culture. Her expertise has activated organizations such as Google and LinkedIn to intentionally create and accelerate high-trust and resilient relationships.

Shasta is the author of three books about how to build healthy relationships including “Frientimacy: How To Deepen Friendships For Lifelong Health and Happiness.” She is also a two-time TEDx speaker, contributor to the Harvard Business Review and has been featured in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, TIME magazine and on the Today Show.

Jessica Delfino / Blog / YouTube / IG / FB / X / LinkedIn / TikTok

Jessica Delfino is an award winning comedian, writer, musician and mom who tries to balance her time between “momming” and performing. Her book “Dumb Jokes For Smart Folks” was a #1 Amazon bestseller.

StrollerCoaster: A Parenting Podcast is created by Munchkin Inc., the most loved baby lifestyle brand in the world.

You can find all your favorite Munchkin products – including the Spring 2-in-1 Bouncer featured in this episode – at Munchkin.com. Use the CURRENT CODE STROLLERCOASTER15 for 15% off regular-price items! (expires 4/13/25)

Follow Munchkin on Instagram / Facebook / Pinterest

Trees for the Future

BONUS For Kids! The Story of Two Brothers & Only One Elevator Button! Oct 07, 2024

Show notes

StoryTime for Kids is back! With an original episode: “The Story of Two Brothers & Only One Elevator Button!” Jayden and Cayden are brothers who compete over EVERYTHING. So the stakes are high when they both want to be THE ONE who pushes the elevator button first! How will they decide? How will mom handle the situation? Can you feel the excitement… over an ELEVATOR BUTTON?!!!

Parents and kids will love this story based on a real parenting moment that’s filled with great characters, music and surprises. Written in consultation with a leading childhood development expert, our story illustrates healthy ways for parents (and kids) to handle conflict and competition.

Watch the animated video of this and other Season 4 episodes on YouTube at Munchkin / StoryTime Podcast / https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaelLV1d0H9cvT9MY7ZAfGaLEiVUPny_5

You can find all your favorite Munchkin products at Munchkin.com.

Follow Munchkin at Instagram / Facebook / Pinterest

What Really Happens If You Say "Stop Crying!"? Sep 30, 2024

Show notes

Children cry, it's a fact. We hate to hear our kids cry but saying “stop crying” isn’t going to help. In fact, it can be harmful. Rachel Tuchman, a Mental Health Counselor with a speciality in early childhood development, explains to Lynn and Justin that demanding children “stop crying” can squash their emotions and lead to big issues later in life. Rachel provides concrete, actionable advice on what to say instead and how to react when kids cry in public.

In our Parenting Story of the Day, Irina Gonzalez explains how she responded when a family member told her - 3 month old baby - that men don’t cry.

Rachel Tuchman / Blog / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube

Rachel Tuchman is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) with over 15 years of experience specializing in childhood development. She has worked with many diverse populations including kids and adults with developmental delays, child behavior issues, overwhelmed parents looking for skills and support and teens struggling with the pressures of adolescence and life.

Rachel is a HAES (Health At Every Size) aligned clinician and dedicates a lot of her time out of office to educating parents and kids on the importance of body respect and the behaviors that truly honor our health. Currently, she offers services in her Cedarhurst, NY and does speaking engagements for schools, synagogues, and various community organizations.

Irina Gonzalez is a journalist, editor, and author of theParenting in Hard Modenewsletter and an upcoming book on impactful Latinx Americans. You can find her on Instagram and Facebook.

StrollerCoaster: A Parenting Podcast is created by Munchkin, the most loved baby lifestyle brand in the world. Don't forget about StrollerCoaster StoryTime our podcast for kids!

You can find all your favorite Munchkin products – including the Step Diaper Pale – at Munchkin.com. Use the CURRENT CODE STROLLERCOASTER15 for 15% off regular-price items! (expires 4/13/25)

Follow Munchkin on Instagram / Facebook / Pinterest

Why Our Kids Need The Arts Sep 16, 2024

Show notes

Kids need the arts! Art is so important for a child’s early development. Whether it’s ballet, playing the tuba or finger painting, we should be encouraging our children’s artistic expressions. But how do we get started?

Dr. Gai Lindsay, an Early Childhood Educator with a PhD in Visual Arts Pedagogy, breaks it all down in this episode. She explains to Lynn and Justin that you can start by putting charcoal drawing sticks into the hands of a baby! You won’t want to miss her other surprising and insightful ideas.

In our Parenting Story of the Day, Quiana Cooper-Jarrett shares an inspiring story about how she and her daughter connected over music at one of the most amazing venues in the world – Carnegie Hall.

Let's get artistic!

Dr. Gai Lindsay / Blog / Instagram / Facebook

Dr. Lindsay has a Ph.D. in Early Childhood Education, School of Education, Faculty of Social Sciences, Art is Experience: An Exploration of the Visual Arts Beliefs and Pedagogy of Australian Early Childhood Educators. She is a senior lecturer in The Early Years Bachelor of Education degree program at the University of Wollongong in Australia.

Before entering academia, she worked as a preschool teacher, director and early childhood consultant for 23 years and this work inspired her determination to be an academic who impacts the quality of early childhood teaching.

Carnegie Hall’s Family Resources

StrollerCoaster: A Parenting Podcast is created by Munchkin Inc., the most loved baby lifestyle brand in the world.

You can find all your favorite Munchkin products – including the Float High Chair featured in this episode – at Munchkin.com. Use the CURRENT CODE STROLLERCOASTER15 for 15% off regular-price items! (expires 4/13/25)

Follow Munchkin on Instagram Facebook Pinterest

From The Playground To The Car: Transitions Made Easier Sep 03, 2024

Show notes

How do we get our child from the playground to the car or from dinner to bed without a tantrum? For kids, going from one thing to the other is tough. They get upset and we get upset. But once we recognize that these are daily transitions and they happen throughout our lives, we can work with our children (and on ourselves) to lessen the difficulty and set them up with great life-skills.

Dr. Rebecca Schrag Hershberg, Clinical Psychologist and author of the “Tantrum Survival Guide,” joins Lynn and Justin for an insightful conversation about easy and actionable ways to transition children from one activity to another.

And in our Parenting Story of the Day, Marie Holmes shares the touching story of how she and her son got through the really big transition of changing schools.

Dr. Rebecca Schrag Hershberg

A mother of two, Dr. Shrag Herschberg is a leading clinical psychologist, parent coach and author of the “Tantrum Survival Guide: Tune In To Your Toddler's Mind (and Your Own) to Calm the Craziness and Make Family Fun Again.” She is the former Director of Training and Quality for Healthy Steps at Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, an infant and toddler preventive mental health program that gained national and international attention for its integration of early childhood professionals within primary care pediatrics. She also held an assistant professorship in the Department of Pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Instagram @rebeccahershbergphd

Marie Holmes is a parenting reporter with Huffpost and can be found on X @holmes_marie.

StrollerCoaster: A Parenting Podcast is created by Munchkin Inc., the most loved baby lifestyle brand in the world.

You can find all your favorite Munchkin products – including the Night Owl Stroller featured in this episode – at Munchkin.com. Use the CURRENT CODE STROLLERCOASTER15 for 15% off regular-price items! (expires 4/13/25)

Follow Munchkin on Instagram Facebook Pinterest

StrollerCoaster Returns! Season 4 Trailer Aug 26, 2024

Show notes

Buckle up! StrollerCoaster, the top-ranked parenting podcast created by Munchkin Inc. - “Voted Best Branded Podcast 2024 by Digiday ” - is back for Season 4 on September 3rd!

We bring you more amazing interviews with cutting-edge experts along with inspiring and relatable stories from parents across the country just like you.

Our host Lynn Smith dives deep into the topics you want to hear about:

Getting from the playground to the car
Easy ways to really connect with your kids
Handling opposition when all your child says is “NO!”
Teaching healthy competition
Finding more patience
Creating stressless snack times

…and much more!

Make sure you are subscribed so you don’t miss our first episode on Tuesday, September 3rd.

Coming soon - new episodes of StrollerCoaster StoryTime for Kids! A short form podcast with a modern take on your favorite children's stories and original tales chock full of surprises, cool sound effects and unexpected twists and turns that are perfect for listening with your kids.

StrollerCoaster: A Parenting Podcast & StrollerCoster StoryTime for Kids are created by Munchkin, the most loved baby lifestyle brand in the world.

You can find all your favorite Munchkin products at Munchkin.com.

Follow Munchkin on

How I Changed As A Parent: Season 3 Jun 19, 2023

Show notes

What a season!

True to our name StrollerCoaster has ridden the ups and downs of parenting with laughter, candor, and always—with our best face forward. Enjoy this season finale as we look back at the mind-blowing science of playing outside, handling big emotions gracefully, the physiological experience of kindness, reading to learn as opposed to just learning to read, how-to raise confident kids, how to navigate what’s “not fair!” and how each of these empowering themes played out in real life.

We share what we’ve learned, what’s worked and what we are planning to try next...

Enjoy this unfiltered look at How We Have Changed as Parents (and how we are greasing the tracks for a smoother ride.)

BONUS For Kids! The Wolf Who Cried Ice Cream Jun 05, 2023

Show notes

Once upon a time there was a parrot, a snail, a duck, and a wolf! They were all great friends, but the wolf really liked to play tricks on the rest of the gang. Tricks can be funny, but they can also be misleading. Find out what happens when this wolf cries "ice cream!" and ends up learning a very valuable lesson on the importance of honesty. Grab YOUR ice cream, sit back, and relax, as our 9-year old director leads a cast of amazing improv actors in our one-of-a-kind version of the classic children's story 'The Boy Who Cried Wolf'.

Turning the Page: The New Way to Raise a Reader May 22, 2023

Show notes

We know reading is so important to a child’s life, from the stories we tell them as infants to teaching them how to read themselves. But how does reading work inside a child's brain and what effect does it have on brain development? We talk to Dr. David Pearson, a reading expert with 40 years of experience, and take a science-driven deep dive into reading to demystify how it works. Then we hear a story from Emily Varod about the power that books had to help her kids overcome the challenges they face from day to day.

Physical Activity Is Even More Important than You Think! May 08, 2023

Show notes

“Time to go out and play!” It’s something we as parents tell our children when we need a break and they need some exercise. But as we learn in this episode, the benefits go MUCH deeper than that. We’ll sit down with Angela Hanscom, an occupational therapist who noticed a startling trend in her young patients and came up with some solutions that can make a huge difference in every child’s life. Then we hear a story from Ramsey Hootman about how her son’s connection with the outdoors actually transformed him for the better. This one gives physical activity an entire new level of importance!

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