Why Gen Z Can’t Handle the Real World (and How We Can Help Them) | Jennifer Cohen : 1266

The Human Upgrade with Dave Asprey

Dave Asprey

Fat, Health & Fitness, Meditation, Biohacking, Lifestyle, Diet, Science, Self-improvement, Fasting, Nutrition, Hacking, Fitness, Brain, Wellness, Education

4.6 • 7.3K Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You think you’re helping your kid. You clear the path. You smooth the bumps. You make sure they never feel too sad, too bored, too uncomfortable.

It feels like love.

But what if it’s making them weak?

In this episode, Dave Asprey sits down with bestselling author, TED speaker, and resilience expert Jennifer Cohen to reveal how today’s parenting norms are quietly producing the most anxious, dependent, and emotionally fragile generation in history—Gen Z.

Whether you’re raising kids, managing young employees, or trying to understand the next generation—you’ll walk away from this episode with a new lens on resilience, responsibility, and real-world readiness.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• Why Gen Z struggles with anxiety, confidence, and failure

• How smartphones, safe spaces, and overparenting weaken resilience

• The science behind boredom, chores, and grit-building discomfort

• Why participation trophies are doing real psychological harm

• The bold parenting shifts that build strong, adaptable adults

• How to model strength—even when it’s unpopular

• The simple framework to raise kids who can thrive, not just survive

If you want to raise strong kids—or work with a generation that’s struggling—this episode is a must-listen. It’s not just about parenting. It’s about the future. And it starts with getting uncomfortable.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You've said straight up that modern parenting causes fragile children. Why?
0:05.0	Studies showed that 27% of kids were taking their parents to job interviews because they weren't comfortable to go on their own.
0:14.0	We are failing our kids. Anxiety is sky rocking. Resilience is vanishing. And kids are crumbling under the smallest challenges. And the way
0:22.0	we're parenting today, it's making things worse. Parents do their best to do the right thing.
0:26.9	They protect, shield, and smooth the path. But what if everything that we believe about raising
0:32.6	successful kids is actually setting them up to fail? Jen Cohen isn't just another parenting expert.
0:39.1	She spent her career studying high achievers.
0:41.9	We are creating a generation of weaker kids with less coping skills and more mental health
0:47.8	issues than ever before.
0:49.5	Dissecting what separates the strong from the weak, the successful from the stuck. She's a Wall Street
0:55.6	Journal, bestselling author, an expert in resilience, and the woman behind an iconic TED talk
1:00.9	about kids. And her conclusion, we are raising the weakest generation in history. Kids today
1:06.6	have fewer coping skills than ever. They avoid discomfort. They collapse under pressure. And it's not
1:11.6	their fault. It's ours. Because modern parenting has become a trap. We tell our kids to be safe.
1:17.1	We take away the risk. We overprotect, overpraise, and accidentally create fragility when we
1:22.8	want to create strength. Chin is here to expose the truth about what we've done to our kids and how you can fix it
1:28.6	before it's too late.
1:29.8	And if you don't have kids, listen to the show because these are the people you work with.
1:34.0	We are basically snow plowing and taking away all of the challenges and the struggle from
1:39.9	our kids and we're not even allowing them the ability to learn how to fail. How do you raise
1:46.6	resilient and healthy and mentally strong children in a world that's a little bit fragile?
1:52.5	The world won't go easy on our kids. What if we taught them to be tough and kind?
	...

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