The following podcast is a dear media production.

Welcome to Raising Good Humans.

I am Dr. Lisa Pressman.

Research on child development is tricky.

First, because sometimes it's hard to know if the findings are

accurate, if they're generalizable to everyone, if they're meaningful, and also

because even when it is it can get emotionally charged because it suggests that there's a best way or a better way than what you might be doing or what you thought was the best way or what you grew up with, whatever it is that can feel yucky and it's also emotional because we're making a science out of the most or at least one of the most important relationships in our lives.

And that can feel prescriptive and cold and it even feels a little bit judgmental and I totally

get that. What I'm hoping is that when you can hear reasonable, reliable, and

valid research, it can give you calm in a sea of anxiety and mixed messages and that is what today is about

today is just about laying out what the research really amounts to when it comes to some of these

heated parenting topics like sleep training,

breastfeeding, and potty training.

And not from one study, but from Professor Emily Oster's really exhaustive analysis of many, many, many studies and stick around because

after my show notes are a very practical and point by point explanation of how to potty train your toddler with the hope of

making your inevitable potty training adventures a little bit easier.

I'm here with Dr. Emily Oster, who is a professor of economics and author of

crib sheet, a data-driven guide to better more relaxed parenting from birth to preschool.

Clearly, you have had the experience of being a new mom because what I really love is that

you're normalizing the very appropriate anxiety of having a human

being in your care and growing them.

It's appropriate to have a baby and be anxious a little bit anxious about making the

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