Progressive Parenting Project

Progressive Parenting Project

Hello Lovelies, this is an interview podcast about the healthiest ways to nurture humans, including ourselves and everyone connected to us. I'm really looking forward to learning, growing, and improving together on our beautiful exploratory journey. We'll discuss topics such as Body Image, Gender, Growth Mindset, and Media Literacy, just to name a few. Thank you so much for being here, and I hope you're able to benefit from this endeavor. :)

  1. The Paradox of Pretending with Haven Academy of the Arts Founder, Rebekah Kellaway

    JAN 27

    The Paradox of Pretending with Haven Academy of the Arts Founder, Rebekah Kellaway

    Hey SweetSmarties, I'm excited for you to listen to my interview with Rebekah, who founded and directs the nonprofit I work for, Haven Academy of the Arts! I'm currently teaching my second season of Pretend & Play there, which is Social Emotional Learning through Performing Arts! We learn kindness, empathy, theory of mind, emotional intelligence, and many other important aspects of being a wonderful human being, while Acting, Singing, Dancing, and playing in myriad creative, fun, enriching ways! During our conversation, we discuss the value of Arts Education, how beneficial it is to everyone, and how versatile those skills are, as well as the developmental and therapeutic dimensions that I've experienced as an actor and that I'm facilitating with my students now! We also talk about some assets I didn't even realize like how it helps us build resilience, persevere through challenges, and delay gratification, all of which strengthen us as people, and bolster our ability to accomplish a variety of goals! She introduced me to Collaborative and Proactive Solutions, which she learned from Dr. Ross Greene's book The Explosive Child. We also speak about Angela Duckworth's work on Grit and of course Carol Dweck's work on Growth Mindset, which I discuss often, because of how profoundly it impacted me! There's tons of gems in here, and I can't wait for you to hear all the beautiful moments we shared in this episode! A couple things I'd like to explain to you: She asked me to remove one little part where I distinguish between my two classes, without naming anyone, but just stating which day I teach them and how many students are in each one, so I took out a few words between 1 hour and 3 minutes and 1 hour and 4 minutes. I tried to edit out those words as smoothly as possible, but if at one point you feel like there's something missing, that's why. lol The second thing is that a gentle alarm went off for one very brief moment to signify that she needed to leave in 5 minutes, and I couldn't remove it without taking out some words I wanted to leave in, so I just kept it. I don't mind at all, and I hope you don't either. That's also why we had to end so quickly afterwards, because she had to go. 😄 Alrighty, that's all I wanted to share with you, and I hope you love hearing our interaction! I enjoyed having it so much, and I'm super grateful to Rebekah for collaborating with me, and for my whole Haven family I get to work with every week! 🥰 Talk to you next time, my Loves! Oh my goodness, also, happy 3rd season! I can't believe I almost forgot to mention this is our season 3 premiere! Woohoo! I'm so proud and elated we made it this far, and I'm ecstatic for where we'll go the rest of this season, and beyond!! ✨ P.S. You can visit their website at havenartsacademy.org or explore them on Instagram @havenartsacademy. You can also check out their Facebook page or email info@havenartsacademy.org for more information! I hope you choose to enroll in a program or support them however you can, if they seem like a good fit for your family. If your child is 3-5 years old, they may be in one of my classes, so that would be amazing if we got to work together! 🌟 Okie dokie, bye until next episode! 💖

    1h 17m
  2. Embracing our Inner Diversity with Social Worker and Therapist Jill Porzucki

    12/31/2025

    Embracing our Inner Diversity with Social Worker and Therapist Jill Porzucki

    Hey SweetSmarties, I’m setting a new record this month and season: publishing 3 interviews with a combined 5 hours of audio during these last few (consecutive) days of the year! I hope you’ve been enjoying my Social Worker series so far, and that you love this Season 2, 2025 finale! There is still one more Social Worker interview to come in March, but this is the end of our December trio. :) This is my 20th interview over all, since I started over a year and a half ago! :D I’m so proud of everything, and have enjoyed these interviews immensely, so I hope you’ve benefited a ton from my work this year! 3 Jill has a background in Social Work, and now has a private therapy practice she founded about 9 months ago, this past March! This is such a thrilling time for her burgeoning business, and I’m so happy I get to help her grow it! It was such a pleasure and a privilege to interact with her, and listening to our conversation, you can get a glimpse into what a fantastic therapist she may be to you, if it seems like you’d fit well together. ✨ We talked about her varied background, and how we both contain multitudes, which I love! Internally diverse people are so intriguing and amazing to connect with, so this experience was incredible for me! Not only has she done so much, but she’s a wealth of resources with a tremendous capacity and dedication to help others. I really appreciate how much she cares and how brilliantly equipped she is to improve people’s lives! We spoke about her current practice, and the many fascinating approaches she uses! I loved learning about them, and being sort of an example patient to both help me and show you how marvelous she is at her job (and just as a person)! I hope you decide to embark on this beautiful journey with us, and that you get so much out of our discussion! ❤️‍🔥 Talk to you next time; I wish you a fabulous end of 2025 and an extraordinary beginning of 2026, until season 3 premieres in a matter of weeks! 🫧

    1h 51m
  3. Always Striving to Help: Lydia Johnson's Social Worker Perspective

    12/30/2025

    Always Striving to Help: Lydia Johnson's Social Worker Perspective

    I interviewed a young, new social worker named Lydia Johnson, who just graduated from the University of San Diego in May 2025! She's only 22, and has already done so much varied, helpful work! I'm very impressed with her, and I imagine you will be too, after listening to our conversation. We spoke about everything she did throughout her schooling, and in the months since she began her current position as a case manager for Libertana, a home health care company. We also talked about some of my jobs, experiences, and philosophies, and had a wonderful time bonding, learning, and growing together during the nearly four hours we connected this night we met for our discussion! We recorded about an hour and a half of that time, and not only did I enjoy experiencing it, I'm excited for you to hear what we said! We had one major tech issue, which I worked really hard to resolve in post production, and I also mention it within the interview. Her microphone was off for the first 27 minutes of our recorded conversation, so I had to isolate the sound of her voice in the background of my microphone, and amplify it to try to match the volume of my voice as well as I could. You can tell it's a little wonky, but I'm very proud of my effort to solve the problem, and the results I was able to achieve with the tools I have. Anyway, I hope you love it, learn and benefit a ton, and I'll speak to you next time, SweetSmarties! 3 :)

    1h 24m

About

Hello Lovelies, this is an interview podcast about the healthiest ways to nurture humans, including ourselves and everyone connected to us. I'm really looking forward to learning, growing, and improving together on our beautiful exploratory journey. We'll discuss topics such as Body Image, Gender, Growth Mindset, and Media Literacy, just to name a few. Thank you so much for being here, and I hope you're able to benefit from this endeavor. :)