1KHO 720: Kids Do Well If They Can | Dr. Ross Greene, The Kids Who Aren't Okay

The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast

Ginny Yurich

Kids & Family, Parenting

4.8 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2026

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ginny Yurich sits down with Dr. Ross W. Greene to examine a hard truth: if consequences were going to fix chronic behavior challenges, they would have worked by now. Greene’s central premise—kids do well if they can—shifts the focus away from motivation and toward lagging skills and unsolved problems. In this conversation, they unpack why the same students are repeatedly punished, why taking away recess often makes things worse, and how reacting in the moment keeps adults “late” instead of proactive. You’ll hear a practical framework for identifying predictable triggers, listening in a way that builds clarity rather than conflict, and solving problems collaboratively without lowering expectations. This episode is a thoughtful look at what actually changes outcomes—for the kids who are struggling most and for everyone around them. https://livesinthebalance.org/Get your copy of The Kids Who Aren’t OkayGet your copy of The Explosive Child Get your copy of Lost at School Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	When was the last time you had space to feel?
0:04.0	With the National Trust, you might just find life standing still under towering trees.
0:10.0	Maybe you'll find connection among the stories of the past,
0:15.0	or a moment to disconnect from it all on a mountainside.
0:20.0	Whatever you're feeling, wherever you are, with the
0:23.0	National Trust, you can make space to feel. Welcome to the 1000 Hours Outside podcast. My
0:32.6	name is Ginny Urge, and the founder of 1000 Hours Outside. And I have just read some excellent books.
0:37.1	And the author, Dr. Ross W. And I have just read some excellent books. And the author,
0:38.1	Dr. Ross W. Green is here. Welcome, Ross. Thanks for having me. So the books I read, and I know
0:43.9	you have more books in this, but I read the kids who aren't okay, which is coming out in 2026.
0:48.3	So if you're hearing this, you can go get it now. And it is about the urgent case of reimagining
0:53.9	support, belonging and hope in schools
0:56.8	what a photo on the front of a child who is just so frustrated and you feel it you feel it like you
1:03.1	know that feeling if you sat in in those desks and you know for some kids obviously it's it's harder
1:08.4	than for others and i also read your book which has come out in so many different editions called The Explosive Child, a new approach for understanding and parenting, easily frustrated, chronically inflexible children. I would say that the two of them go really well together. And I know you have other books as well. And also, the website that I went to is called lives in the balance.org. And this is a phenomenal website. It's one of the best websites I've ever seen. It was organized so well. There were so many helpful things. Like I printed off these cheat sheets and they're like one pagers and they're designed well. And it was just, you know, people's websites often are an afterthought these days. I was like, my goodness, there's a lot of help there.
1:45.2	So would you give us just a quick bit of your backstory?
1:48.0	You are really an advocate for children.
1:51.5	I like to think so.
1:53.7	I sure have been working with them for a long time.
1:57.2	And for whatever reason, given that I was not particularly behaviorally challenging, that's
2:05.2	the population that I gravitated to very early on, starting with kids with ADHD, moving
2:13.8	on to those, and I'm not very diagnostically oriented, but this is how we communicate these days.
	...

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