I've I've never really been one that's that leans toward prescription, right? Like do this and that should fix it, right? It's it's more about building up someone's own intuition and instinct and nurturing that inner that inner voice that can say yes or no or I'll try this and building up that self trust, but it is again, it's hard to do that on platforms that

that really are so short, short term or, you know, two-dimensional.

Hi, this is Dene. I'm the founder of Simple Families. Simple Families is an online community for parents who are seeking a simpler, more intentional life.

In this show, we focus on minimalism with kids, positive parenting, family wellness, and decreasing the mental load.

My perspectives are based in my firsthand experience raising kids, but also rooted in my PhD in child development.

So you're going to hear conversations that are based in research, but more importantly, real life. Thanks for joining us.

Happy New Year, 2022 marks the fifth anniversary of the Simple Families podcast.

I started this podcast back in February of 2017, sitting on the floor of my master bedroom closet with a cheap microphone and a laptop because I had read that the best place to record a podcast is in your closet because all of the clothes dampen the sound.

A lot has changed since then. The show has seen more than 4.5 million downloads in the top 1% of podcasts throughout the world, which is a huge accomplishment

that I'm very proud of. The show was growing rapidly in the first three years, and then the pandemic hit, and things got pretty stagnant.

Downloads just kind of stayed stable. In the past two years, the reach of the podcast hasn't really grown. And of course, I thought it must be something that I'm doing wrong. Maybe I'm repeating myself all the time, I don't know.

But I started asking around other podcasters and found that many other people who podcast on similar topics to mine have experienced the same thing.

Now one explanation could be that podcasting has grown immensely, and there's a lot of competition out there.

But what I suspect is that a lot of people have moved from podcasts to short form content.

As our lives have become more overwhelmed, want to get more bang for our buck, relating on 30 seconds of parenting content on TikTok, or reading over one square of five quick tips on Instagram.

If you're listening to this podcast, you might not be one of those people who has made the shift over to short form content, but you might be impacted by it more than you think.

That's what I want to talk about today. This shift towards shorter and shorter form content for really big topics like parenting and self-help.

Today, I'm joined by my good friend, Eden Heider. If you've read my book, I talk about Eden on page one, because she really was part of my page one.

She was probably my very first mom friend. We both became mothers right around the same time.

We bonded quickly over our messy houses, and the fact that we were both mental health professionals.

I'm happy to have Eden here today to listen and be my sounding board as I'm talking through this topic that's been on my mind for quite a while.

I see a crazy number of one minute reels on Instagram that do have valuable content, but it's like a fire hose coming at you faster than you can handle.

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