Parenting Panics Through the Ages

What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood | Parenting Tips From Funny Moms

What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood

Kids & Family, Comedy, Parenting

4.8 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 11 March 2026

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Are screens ruining our kids' childhoods? Is AI going to rot our brains in the next thirty days? Or are these the latest examples of a very human tendency: the catastrophizing of change? From the dawn of the printing press to the Satanic panic over heavy metal lyrics, we explore the long history of social panics, find familiar patterns, and discuss our findings, including: Why parents are often thrust onto the front lines of new technology fears Why each generation believes the newest media will cause moral or cognitive decline The role of mass media and politics in amplifying fear How parents can keep perspective while still setting healthy limits on technology Here are links to some of the resources mentioned in the episode: Brittany Wong for HuffPost: New Study Shows This Social Platform Can Shift Your Politics To The Right — And It Happens Very Fast Wikipedia: definition of a moral panic Jo Ellen Parker for Liberal Arts Online: Socrates on Technology Christie Stratos: Why Did the Victorians Think It Was Dangerous for Women to Read Novels and Newspapers? Ana Vogrinčič for Media Research Journal: The Novel-Reading Panic in 18thCentury in England: An Outline of an Early Moral Media Panic Sarah Durn for Atlas Obscura: How Gruesome Penny Dreadfuls Got Victorian Children Reading Miller Kern for Ball Bearings Magazine: The Downfall of Society PS Art Books: The Comic Book Burnings of the 1940s: A Cultural Firestorm What Fresh Hell is co-hosted by Amy Wilson and Margaret Ables. We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.whatfreshhellpodcast.com/p/promo-codes/ What Fresh Hell podcast, mom friends, funny moms, parenting advice, parenting experts, parenting tips, mothers, families, parenting skills, parenting strategies, parenting styles, busy moms, self-help for moms, manage kid’s behavior, teenager, tween, child development, family activities, family fun, parent child relationship, decluttering, kid-friendly, invisible workload, default parent, parenting panics, moral panic parenting, screen time kids, technology and children, parenting fears, media panic history, parenting and technology, video games and kids, screen time debate, parenting anxiety, social media and kids, parenting trends history, generational parenting fears, digital parenting Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:31.6	My children listen to music that would have peeled the paint off my grandmother's car.
0:36.9	What fresh hell.
0:38.6	Laughing in the face of motherhood.
0:40.6	That seems like a bad idea if women can read with Margaret Aples and Amy Wilson.
0:45.7	Did I sneak off every night and watch Three's Company?
0:48.9	I did.
0:49.8	A podcast that solves today's parenting dilemmas so you don't have to.
0:54.4	It would be like the most long-form entertainment anybody in the New York City area consumed
0:58.8	this year.
1:01.6	Hello, everyone, and welcome to What Fresh Hell laughing in the face of motherhood.
1:06.1	This is Margaret.
1:07.1	And this is Amy.
1:08.0	This week, we're going to go straight into Mailbag.
1:11.0	I mean, a feat never accomplished before on this podcast. Let's do it.
1:14.7	Mailbag.
1:17.5	This week's mailbag is from Jennifer on Facebook. She says, I just want to give a huge thank you to Margaret and Amy for helping me strengthen my relationship with my husband.
1:26.2	I remember Margaret saying how she would
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