The Nature of Nurture with Professor Jay Belsky

Raising Good Humans

Voicing Change Media

Education, Kids & Family, Parenting

4.7 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 20 February 2026

⏱️ 76 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In today’s episode I sit down with developmental psychologist Dr. Jay Belsky to explore a question so many parents wrestle with: is temperament destiny? We talk about why children differ in how deeply they’re shaped by their environments, what “developmental plasticity” really means, and why the same parenting can land so differently depending on the child. We discuss the difference between sensitivity and susceptibility, the limits of attachment research, and why focusing only on long-term outcomes can distract us from what matters in the here and now. I WROTE MY FIRST BOOK! Order your copy of The Five Principles of Parenting: Your Essential Guide to Raising Good Humans Here: https://bit.ly/3rMLMsL Subscribe to my free newsletter for parenting tips delivered straight to your inbox: https://dralizapressman.substack.com/ Follow me on Instagram for more: @raisinggoodhumanspodcast Sponsors: Zip Recruiter: Try it FOR FREE at ZipRecruiter.com/HUMANS Bloom: Go to bloomnu.com with code HUMANS for 20%of your first order Ello: Visit ElloProducts.com/CleanStart and use code RGH at checkout for 20% off your first purchase Little Spoon: Get 30% off your first online order at littlespoon.coms/RGH with code RGH First Day: Our listeners get up to 57% Off AND a Free Gift with code HUMANS at FirstDay.co Minnow: Go to shopminnow.com code MEETMINNOW15 for 15% off Produced by Dear Media See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The following podcast is a Dear Media production.
0:10.0	Welcome to Raising Good Humans.
0:11.8	I'm Dr. Lisa Pressman and today is just a thrill for me because I have a very brilliant developmental psychologist on Jay Belski,
0:24.1	who just published The Nature of Nurture, Rethinking Why and How Childhood Adversity Shapes Development.
0:30.4	And we had such an interesting conversation and we're really talking about amazing concepts like differential
0:40.3	susceptibility and how different kids have different plasticity levels. So some are going to be
0:46.5	more sensitive to their environment. We've talked about that. And this differential susceptibility
0:52.5	means that their plasticity in some of the kids
0:56.6	means they're going to be malleable in positive growth ways and negative, depending on their
1:04.0	environment.
1:05.4	And it's a really interesting conversation about evolutionary adaptation, differential susceptibility, which is
1:12.1	particularly important if you have more susceptible kids. So we're talking about that. Have a listen.
1:21.4	And of course, send me a DM with questions. Go to my substack or reach out to me there, Dr. Lisa Pressman.
1:30.1	substack.com.
1:32.9	And can you go write a nice rating and review if you have time so we can spread the word?
1:39.1	But most importantly, listen to this conversation, particularly when we get to differential
1:44.0	susceptibility,
1:45.2	it kind of blows my mind.
1:48.4	Let me start by saying temperament's one of those concepts, it reminds me of the Supreme Court
1:53.8	Justice who couldn't define obscenity, but recognized it when he saw it.
1:59.2	And there are a lot of definitions out there,
2:01.4	so I wouldn't presume to be the, quote, singular authority.
	...

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