Is Gaming Taking Over Boys’ Lives?

Care and Feeding | Slate's parenting show

Slate Podcasts

Society & Culture, Kids & Family, Parenting

4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2025

⏱️ 42 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

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

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?
1:35.3	We'll get into it.
1:36.2	So stick around. We will be right back.
1:43.3	How much do you know about the scandal that got Bill Clinton impeached?
1:46.5	Monica Lewinsky is under the microscope.
1:48.8	Bill Clinton is under siege and the White House is trying to contain the damage.
1:53.4	Maybe you know the basics.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Slate Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.