305. Can Screens Benefit the Whole Family? with Ash Brandin
Brave Writer
Julie Bogart and Melissa Wiley
4.8 • 927 Ratings
🗓️ 17 September 2025
⏱️ 70 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Do you ever catch yourself treating screens like contraband—tolerated in tiny doses, never to be openly celebrated? Ash Brandin, author of Power On: Managing Screen Time for the Benefit of the Whole Family, urges us to view screens as morally neutral and to focus on how they can serve the whole family’s needs.
In this episode, Ash shares their “Screen Time ABCs”: Access that adapts to context rather than rigid caps, Behavior as neutral data rather than blame, and Content choices that create better stopping points. They offer practical tactics like sticky-note reminders for Minecraft, reducing scarcity with predictable access and occasional “yes days,” using body doubling for schoolwork, and setting YouTube Kids to Approved Content Only to eliminate ads and algorithms. Ash also addresses AI, encouraging us to teach kids digital literacy and vetting skills rather than fear.
Their perspective replaces guilt with guidance, helping families connect through technology instead of fighting against it. Tune in to hear Ash’s thoughtful strategies and mindset-shifting advice.
Resources:
- Follow Ash Brandin on Instagram: @thegamereducator
- Read Power On: Managing Screen Time for the Benefit of the Whole Family by Ash Brandin
- Fall class registration is open!
- Visit Julie’s Substack to find her special podcast for kids (and a lot more!)
- Purchase Julie’s new book, Help! My Kid Hates Writing
- Join us at the Brave Learner Home: https://bravewriter.com/brave-learner-home
- Learn more about the Brave Writer Literature & Mechanics programs
- Start a free trial of CTCmath.com to try the math program that’s sure to grab and keep your child’s attention
- Subscribe to Julie’s Substack newsletters, Brave Learning with Julie Bogart and Julie Off Topic, and Melissa’s Catalog of Enthusiasms
- Sign up for our Text Message Pod Ring to get podcast updates and more!
- Send us podcast topic ideas by texting us: +1 (833) 947-3684
Connect with Julie:
- Instagram: @juliebravewriter
- Threads: @juliebravewriter
- Bluesky: @bravewriter.com
- Facebook: facebook.com/bravewriter
Connect with Melissa:
- Website: melissawiley.com
- Substack: melissawiley.substack.com
- Instagram: @melissawileybooks
- Bluesky: @melissawiley.bsky.social
Produced by NOVA
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Looking for a great math program? |
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| 0:10.0 | by using creative graphics and animation that are sure to grab and keep your child's attention. |
| 0:16.0 | Here's a great testimonial from Lori. |
| 0:18.0 | She said one day my 10-year-old was in tears over math. |
| 0:23.7 | I tried my best to help, but I ended up in tears as well. |
| 0:27.7 | That very night, I received an email offer for CTC Math. |
| 0:32.1 | The following Monday, we reviewed the curriculum together. |
| 0:35.8 | She was willing to give it a shot, and we have never looked back. |
| 0:39.9 | Start your free trial today by visiting ctcmath.com. |
| 0:50.0 | Well, hello, everyone. |
| 0:51.8 | Come on into the webinar. |
| 0:53.5 | It's me, Julie Bogart, and Ash Brandon, and we are here to celebrate the brand new book by Ash that I love so much, Power on Managing Screen Time for the benefit of the whole family, which to me is what makes this work particularly interesting to us. This webinar is also |
| 1:15.2 | going to be shared on the Brave Writer podcast. So wherever you're listening or tuning in from, |
| 1:20.3 | we are so glad to have you with us. Hello, Ash. Say hello. Hi, everyone. Hi, Julie. I'm so glad to be |
| 1:26.5 | here. I'm so glad to have you. Tell everyone just a little bit about you, your situation, where you work, where you live, your family. |
| 1:35.0 | Yes. So my name's Ash Brandon. I use them pronouns online. I am known as the gamer educator. My day job is that I am a middle school, what we call teacher librarian, which is the |
| 1:47.2 | name for librarians where I work. So I have, this is my 15th year in education and I've taught many, |
| 1:53.6 | many things, but my fourth year as a librarian, which I feel like a great fit in many ways. And since 2021, I have been running my Instagram |
| 2:04.8 | account, helping families manage technology for the benefit of their whole families. I say that |
| 2:10.2 | I take my knowledge of technology and like classroom management and pedagogy and kind of |
| 2:15.4 | combine it all together to hopefully help |
... |
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