Care & Feeding | Is Gaming Taking Over Boys’ Lives?

Slate Culture

Slate Podcasts

Arts, Tv & Film, Music

4.4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On this episode: Friend of the show Jamilah Lemieux tackles helping kids get a better night's sleep. She’s joined by gentle sleep coach Macall Gordon. They discuss what to do with “live-wire kids”, how to avoid burnout when trying to get your kid to sleep, why we need to stop blaming parents for kid sleep issues, and more. But first, Care and Feeding producer Cheyna Roth joins the team to talk about a recent New York Times piece, “How Video Games Are Shaping a Generation of Boys, for Better and Worse”. They dig into the pros and cons of gaming as a social activity, whether it’s possible to get kids to touch grass anymore, and how to navigate these tricky waters. Join us on Facebook and email us at [email protected] to ask us new questions, tell us what you thought of today’s show, and give us ideas about what we should talk about in future episodes. You can also call our phone line: (646) 357-9318. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get to hang out with us on the Plus Playground every week for a whole additional grab-bag of content — and you’ll get an ad-free experience across the network. And you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on Care and Feeding. Sign up now at slate.com/careplus – or try it out on Apple Podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode may contain explicit language.
0:06.7	Welcome to Karen Feeding, the show that's as honest and messy as parenting itself.
0:11.4	I'm Zach Rosen. I make another show. It's called The Best Advice Show. And I'm dad to Noah,
0:16.5	who is eight, and Ami, who's five. We live in Detroit.
0:20.2	I'm Elizabeth Newkamp. I write the homeschool and family travel blog, Dutch Dutch Goose. I'm the mom to Henry mommy who's five. We live in Detroit. I'm Elizabeth New Camp. I write the
0:21.7	homeschool and family travel blog, Dutch Dutch goose. I'm the mom to Henry who's 13, Oliver who's 11,
0:26.5	and Teddy who's nine. We are currently in Atlanta, Georgia. Lucy's out this week, so we're joined
0:32.6	by our very favorite, Shana Roth. Hello, I'm Shana Roth. I'm a senior producer at Slate.
0:38.0	I am now the producer of Karen Feeding, but I've popped around and hosted and produced a bunch of different shows across the Slate podcast network. I have a daughter who's five and a half. No. Holy shit. Sorry. It's pregnancy brain. It's pregnancy brain. It didn't sound right. I'm like, no. Yeah,
0:57.5	2020. Oh, my God. I have a daughter who's five and a half and I will be expecting a new one in March.
1:06.3	Well, this week, we've got a great conversation to share between Friend of the Pod, Jamila Lemieux,
1:11.6	and gentle sleep coach, McCall Gordon. They dig into tips and advice for helping your kids
1:17.0	get their very best sees. We'll get into that in just a bit, but first, we want to talk
1:22.3	video games. The New York Times had an article recently about how gaming is shaping a generation of boys.
1:28.9	Is this a good thing, a bad thing, or somewhere in between?
1:31.3	And how do you help your kids find their right balance between the screen and the real world?
1:35.4	We'll get into it.
1:36.2	So stick around. We will be right back.
1:42.8	You subscribe to music, TV, your gym, maybe even your weekly flowers, so why not your car?
1:49.1	A pivotal car subscription comes with serious horsepower.
1:52.5	One simple monthly payment puts you behind the wheel of a range rover or defender with everything from insurance to servicing taken care of.
1:59.9	No long-term commitments, no complications.
	...

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