MOMS OFF MUTE

Family Online Safety Institute (fosi.org)

MOMS OFF MUTE is a podcast about Raising Digital Kids. Real Conversations with and for Modern Parents. Hosted by Mom Jordan Bivings Glover from the Family Online Safety Institute. Every season takes a fresh approach to the conversation.

Episodes

  1. 1d ago

    Teen "Gambling" Apps, Password Rules, Class Parents and the Village That Remembers the Names with Cindy Smith and Jana Folmert

    Send us Fan Mail This week she is joined by returning guest Jana Folmert, who brought a friend: Cindy Smith, a mom of a 15- and 13-year-old who is not an expert, just figuring it out like everyone else. Cindy shares the rules that actually hold in her house: no face ID or thumbprint on the kids' phones, parents keep every password, and trust that gets extended as the years go by rather than handed over on day one. She also explains the conversation she has with her kids about why free apps are never really free. Then the conversation turns to something most parents haven't clocked yet: betting apps targeting teenagers, and the new prediction market apps built to sidestep gambling age restrictions entirely. Jana shares what she is seeing among her son's friends, and Cindy makes the case that gambling belongs on the same list as drugs and alcohol when it comes to conversations you cannot skip. Plus: Cindy took the quiz and got the Explorer, Jordan is a proud Firewall for now, and everyone agrees that the real parenting cheat code is having one friend who remembers all the kids' names. Homework this week: check in on the apps your teen has downloaded. Ask about the ones that look like games but aren't. This is Moms Off Mute. Want to find out your parenting archetype? Take the quiz at fosi.org. New episodes every Wednesday. Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Support the show Moms Off Mute is produced by the Family Online Safety Institute. Learn more at fosi.org/parenting. Follow Moms Off Mute on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute professional advice.

  2. Aug 12

    Mom Creators, Co-Parenting, and Who Decides When Your Kid Gets a Phone with Dara Whitley and Jana Folmert

    Send us Fan Mail This week Jordan is joined by Dara Whitley, a mom creator based in the Dallas area, alongside returning guest Jana Folmert. Both are single moms raising boys, and both have very different answers to the same questions. The conversation opens on mom content: why Dara creates, how she keeps her identity while parenting out loud, and the way she asks her almost-ten-year-old for permission before every brand campaign (he negotiates for a cut). Jana shares why she stopped posting her son at eleven, and how she now asks not just whether she can share, but who she can share it with. Dara opens up about digital co-parenting across two households with different rules, and what happens when your co-parent buys the phone you never agreed to. Jana counters with a phone at five, and the safety reasons behind it. Neither is wrong. Both are real. Plus: Connect 4, Uno, the family Wii, learning chess on Duolingo, and why tic-tac-toe at a restaurant table might be the most underrated parenting tool going. Homework this week: get interested in what your kid is interested in. Then find one game you can play together, on a screen or off. Follow Dara: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@onmymommyestbehavior Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onmymommyestbehavior This is Moms Off Mute. Want to find out your parenting archetype? Take the quiz at fosi.org. New episodes every Wednesday. Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Support the show Moms Off Mute is produced by the Family Online Safety Institute. Learn more at fosi.org/parenting. Follow Moms Off Mute on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute professional advice.

  3. Aug 5

    Dating in the Digital World: Three Generations, One Very Complicated Swipe with Jana Folmert and Deja Fowler

    Send us Fan Mail Dating used to mean someone picked you up at the door and your parents knew what movie you were seeing. Now it happens in group chats, private Snaps, and apps that change the rules every few months. This week Jordan is joined by two returning guests for a three-perspective conversation: Jana Folmert, FOSI's marketing and creative lead, single mom to a nearly-16-year-old, and someone navigating digital dating herself, and Deja Fowler, FOSI's Gen Z intern who has only ever known dating in the app era. They get into what it actually looks like to date online right now, how Jana talks to her teenager about crushes and consent without shutting the conversation down, and why "treat other people how you want to be treated" might be the most powerful digital safety lesson there is. Plus Jordan's own low-tech love story, which involved a building app, a high school hoodie, and a very nosy roommate named Mike. Deja closes with an idea the dating apps should probably steal: what if you could meet people at events instead of swiping on their height? Homework this week: ask your kid an open-ended question. Not "how was school," something they actually have to answer. This is Moms Off Mute. Want to find out your parenting archetype? Take the quiz at fosi.org. New episodes every Wednesday. Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Support the show Moms Off Mute is produced by the Family Online Safety Institute. Learn more at fosi.org/parenting. Follow Moms Off Mute on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute professional advice.

  4. Jul 29

    COVID Grads, Headphones on Hikes, and the Village Gen Z Missed Out On with Deja Fowler

    Send us Fan Mail This week Jordan sits down with Deja Fowler, FOSI's spring intern and recent college graduate, for a generational look at what it was really like to come of age during COVID. Deja opens up about a high school graduation that never quite happened, learning through work packets before the school had laptops, and how Snapchat, Instagram, and FaceTime became the entire social world for an entire generation. Now on the other side of college and headed to law school, she reflects on what got lost, what stuck, and why so many Gen Z hikers show up with their headphones in. Jordan and Deja explore the ripple effects that digital parents need to understand: why self-isolation became a habit rather than a phase, how core memories were skipped, and what the village owes a generation that missed out on so much. Plus: the Georgetown Cuddler, professional cuddling as a service, and Jordan's very serious PSA about not hiking alone with your headphones on. Homework this week: go easier on the Gen Z-ers. Ask them why before you judge. This is Moms Off Mute. Want to find out your parenting archetype? Take the quiz at fosi.org. New episodes every Wednesday. Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Support the show Moms Off Mute is produced by the Family Online Safety Institute. Learn more at fosi.org/parenting. Follow Moms Off Mute on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute professional advice.

  5. Jul 22

    Baby Monitors, NICU Moms, and When to Turn the Camera Off with Leslie Pedder

    Send us Fan Mail This week Jordan is joined by Leslie Pedder, Moms Off Mute's very own podcast producer, mom to a nearly-two-year-old, and the rogue friend who saw Bruno Mars without her. Jordan brings receipts. The real conversation gets into baby monitors, video cams, and the digital tools that give new parents the peace of mind they need to, you know, actually sleep. Leslie shares her experience as a NICU mom and why the monitor became a lifeline once she brought her daughter home. Jordan reflects on the choice to only use sound monitors with her second, and the moment two baby monitors on video became too much. Plus: why shared access to the monitor with in-laws can get invasive fast (with a very relatable clip from The Rookie), the case for un-wi-fied monitors, and the bigger question worth sitting with. Kids are citizens too. So when do we stop watching them in their own rooms? Homework this week: think about when privacy starts and ends in your household. Come back next week when Jordan digs into it further. This is Moms Off Mute. Want to find out your parenting archetype? Take the quiz at fosi.org/parenting New episodes every Wednesday. Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Support the show Moms Off Mute is produced by the Family Online Safety Institute. Learn more at fosi.org/parenting. Follow Moms Off Mute on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute professional advice.

  6. Jul 15

    From Sims to Smartphones: 20 Years of Digital Parenting with FOSI Founder Stephen Balkam

    Send us Fan Mail This week Moms Off Mute welcomes its first dad, and it's the one who started it all. FOSI Founder and CEO Stephen Balkam joins Jordan for a full-circle conversation about raising two daughters through the dawn of the digital age, and now watching his one-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter interact with phones. From dial-up childhood and hours spent building cities on Sims, to the arrival of the iPhone alongside the launch of FOSI in 2007, Stephen shares what it was really like navigating each new wave of technology as a parent long before there were guides, quizzes, or communities to help. Including the moment he realized his daughter was majoring in Facebook and texting instead of geography. Plus: why the "400 texts per month" plan never stood a chance, the parenting advice a TikTok psychologist reminded him of recently (be a team with your partner), and the small tech moments that still make him smile after nearly 20 years in this work. Homework this week: dance with your kids. You don't have to post it. This is Moms Off Mute. Want to find out your parenting archetype? Take the quiz at fosi.org. New episodes every Wednesday. Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Support the show Moms Off Mute is produced by the Family Online Safety Institute. Learn more at fosi.org/parenting. Follow Moms Off Mute on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute professional advice.

  7. Jul 8

    Digital Consent, Promposals, and What Teens Don't Owe the Internet with Guest Jana Folmert

    Send us Fan Mail Jana Folmert is back for round two, and this conversation goes deeper into the reality of raising a teenager in a culture where everything gets filmed. Jordan and Jana get into the promposal problem (yes, some kids only accept if the post gets enough likes), the tricky territory of digital consent when your kid isn't the one posting, and what to do when someone else's phone camera decides your child's viral moment for them. From "treat people how you want to be treated" as the golden rule of the internet, to why banning under-16s from social media doesn't actually solve the consent problem, this episode is packed with practical wisdom from a Mentor mom of a nearly-16-year-old. Plus: Jordan's plea to please help her find her glasses in the street instead of filming her looking disheveled, and a reminder that not everything needs to be content. Homework this week: talk to your kids about digital consent. Ask them what it means to them, and how they'd want to be treated online. This is Moms Off Mute. Want to find out your parenting archetype? Take the quiz at https://fosi.org/parenting/ New episodes every Wednesday. Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Support the show Moms Off Mute is produced by the Family Online Safety Institute. Learn more at fosi.org/parenting. Follow Moms Off Mute on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute professional advice.

  8. Jul 1

    From Firewall to Mentor: Single Parenting a Teenager in the Digital World with Guest Jana Folmert

    Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Season 2 of Moms Off Mute! New format, same honest, fun, unfiltered conversations. This season, Jordan is joined each week by a different parent to talk about what digital parenting actually looks like at their stage of life. First up: Jana Folmert, FOSI's marketing and creative lead, single mom to a nearly-16-year-old, and one of the most no-nonsense humans you'll ever meet. Jana is the Mentor archetype through and through, and the contrast with Jordan's Firewall instincts makes for a fascinating conversation. In this episode: how gaming helped Jana's son stay connected with his friends through COVID and turned virtual friendships into real-world ones, why she set him up with a VPN and what that actually means in plain parent language, and how she uses a shared Google Map of TikTok viral food trends and restaurant tips he sends her to keep their communication open. Plus: why "moody teenager" can be a feature, not a bug, what omakase has to do with digital parenting, and the reminder that every archetype evolves as your kid grows up. Homework this week: ask your kid what their favorite thing you did together in the last month was. Then actually listen to the answer. Want to find out your own archetype? Take the quiz at fosi.org/parenting/ New episodes every Wednesday. Listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Support the show Moms Off Mute is produced by the Family Online Safety Institute. Learn more at fosi.org/parenting. Follow Moms Off Mute on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute professional advice.

    From Firewall to Mentor: Single Parenting a Teenager in the Digital World with Guest Jana Folmert
5
out of 5
6 Ratings

About

MOMS OFF MUTE is a podcast about Raising Digital Kids. Real Conversations with and for Modern Parents. Hosted by Mom Jordan Bivings Glover from the Family Online Safety Institute. Every season takes a fresh approach to the conversation.