Welcome to Mom and Dad are Fighting, Slate's Parenting Podcasts for Thursday, August 10th, the Raising Empowered Athletes Edition.

I'm Jamila Lemieux, a writer, contributor to Slate's Karen Feeding Parenting Column and Mom to Naima, who's 10, and we live in Los Angeles.

I'm Zach Rosen. I host another podcast. It's called The Best Advice Show, and I'm Dad to Noah, who's 10, and we live in Los Angeles. I'm Zach Rosen. I host another podcast. It's called

The Best Advice Show, and I'm Dad to Noah, who is going to be six this month, and Ami, who's

going to be three next month. We live in Detroit. We're going to start today's show, as we often do,

by sharing our biggest parenting triumphs and fails for the week. And then it's August,

meaning fall youth sports at our kids' schools are underway and with it the inevitable set of questions and complications that come

along. We welcome author Kristen Jones. Her new book is Raising Empowered Athletes, a youth sports

parenting guide for raising happy, brave, and resilient kids.

It's a timely guide for any of us trying to be the best sports parents we can be.

Then, if you're sticking around for Slate Plus, we're going to unpack a piece we loved in

the Atlantic asking, what if friendship, not marriage, was at the center of life?

Well, I always talk about this group of guy friends that I,

that I've had since kindergarten, who remain among my closest friends. In fact, we were on our

monthly Zoom meeting last night, planning our annual trip together, where we rent a house and

just hang out and talk and eat edibles for a weekend. That relationship

with those friends is twice as long as my relationship with my wife. It's literally nearly almost

my entire life and I think is a huge part of my identity.

Not only do you get a whole segment each week, but as a Slate Plus member, you'll also get to listen to this show ad free. No interruptions. We know as parents, you get enough of those

already. It's also what keeps the lights on around here. So please, join if you can. You can sign up

for Slate Plus now at slate.com slash mom and dad plus. All right, we're going to catch up on our

week in parenting as soon as we get back from this short break. All right, Zach, what have you been

...