50 episodes listed below
Foster care and adoption, with the household left unmuted.
Barely Braided sets foster care and adoption inside the ordinary noise of family life, with Alex and Joel swapping jokes, tangents and stories from home. A TPR trial and a stinging one-star review come up alongside potty training, a new bidet toilet and Joel minding both dogs mid-recording.
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Barely Braided: A Disorderly Parenting Podcast is a two-person conversation recorded at home, and home keeps interrupting it. Alex and Joel set out to talk about foster care, adoption and raising kids. They get there by way of a few bars of Shania Twain, a story about singing lessons that did not go well, and Joel minding both dogs while the microphones are on. One of them concedes on air that most of what they talk about these days is not strictly a parenting or foster care subject. When the foster care material does arrive, it is specific. One conversation turns to Tennessee, where one of the pair calls the foster care system badly broken and points to regular news stories about DCS funding, workers who did wrong and staff shortages. They also explain why the situations of people they know stay off the air: those stories are not theirs to share without permission. A TPR trial comes up in the middle of a move, alongside an Airbnb stay with the kids while the house sat packed. The episode list includes 'Episode 51: It's Ari's Adoption Day!!!' and 'Episode 52: Reading Reviews + Tips For a New Caseworker'. In the second, they read out a one-star review from a listener who had also adopted from foster care and felt the adoption day was treated as a brief aside. They answer it rather than skip it, and one of them traces the family's hardships back to 2018, before the two were engaged or married. The move from Nashville to South Dakota gets the comic treatment. A 26-foot U-Haul, a car hauler and fenders that blocked a car door end with someone climbing out through the window. The animals are hard to ignore. One episode recounts losing two pets within a few months, including Jazzy, a 13-year-old cat, and the pair joke that the emergency pet hospital must think the worst of them. Parenting talk stays conversational. A discipline discussion turns on a child who shuts down when an adult gets stern, and a magnet analogy nearly becomes a science experiment. Potty training shares an episode with a bidet toilet Alex bought after careful research into value. The titles range further still, into rating top baby names from 2022 and a question mark over moving to Mexico. Gaps between recordings are acknowledged openly, one return is greeted with 'Took us 20 years', and Ruben is thanked for editing. The goodbyes run from 'adios' to 'hasta pasta'.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants foster care and adoption talk from inside an ordinary household, told as unpolished back-and-forth, and who is happy to follow detours into potty training, pets and home projects.
What sets it apart: Foster care and adoption are the frame, but by the pair's own admission much of the talk strays from it, so a TPR trial or a pointed one-star review sits right beside bidet jokes and pet news rather than in a separate, solemn register.
A podcast community focused on supporting and discussing foster care, adoption and ALL things parenting - even the sticky stuff. Hosted by Alex Ellis.
Airplane gummy bears and knowing when to say no: your parenting brain has room for both.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A loose, funny parenting conversation about discipline, strong wills, stickers, and everyday routine battles.
Parenting discipline is framed as a matter of temperament meeting timing. When an adult gets stern, the child shuts down or pushes back; when the approach is calmer and friendlier, a different kind of cooperation seems possible.
A candid catch-up where foster-care privacy, Tennessee funding questions, and a low-carb drink recommendation sit in the same room.
A long gap between recordings gives the episode its shape, as the hosts ease back into connection before turning toward privacy in foster care and adoption.
A candid answer to criticism opens into the relief of life after foster care uncertainty.
A one-star review gives the episode its shape as the host answers criticism that the show came across as entitled, then turns back to the family's hardships since 2018.
A candid, loosely shaped return about parenting, pet loss, and the sounds of family life.
Barely Braided returns after time away with a candid, homebound episode about parenting, pet loss, and the background noise of family life. The hosts explain that podcasting has not been the priority, record from the bedroom so the kids cannot hear, and move into a plain account…
A candid family-life episode about potty training, pet chaos, bidets, and the mess that keeps things funny.
Barely Braided keeps its focus close to home, turning everyday family mess into the point of the episode. Potty training the children sits beside less successful attempts with the dogs and cats, before Alex tests the bidet built into a new toilet and tries to make sense of what…
Parenthood and bodies, told one honest story at a time.
Barely Braided: A Disorderly Parenting Podcast Episode 54 moves from a Bronco deposit and dealership logistics to a long discussion of parenting choices with three-year-old adopted twins.
Barely Braided episode 53 moves from Deadwood Christmas logistics to an Alexa that plays Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas" at 4:35 every day and a neighborhood argument over cluster mailboxes and an 80-foot flagpole.
Alex and Joel open with a run of musical detours, including “Meet Me in Montana,” “From This Moment On,” and “Don’t Take the Girl,” before turning to family updates from South Dakota, Nashville, Mitchell, and Deadwood.
Ari’s adoption was finalized in Rutherford County, Murfreesboro, after the hosts were told a move from Tennessee to South Dakota could complicate the paperwork.
Joel and Alex describe settling into Deadwood, South Dakota, after leaving Nashville, including the loss of nearby playgrounds, drop-in daycare, and easy adult interaction.
Alex and Joel of Barely Braided recount Ari’s termination-of-parental-rights hearing in Tennessee, where the judge granted the termination after reviewing multiple grounds and about 20 exhibits.
Alex and Joel return to Barely Braided from Tulum, Mexico, after a long hiatus shaped by a failed business deal, a sold Nashville house, and plans to move to South Dakota with their foster daughter.
Alex and Amy revisit an 11-year friendship that began at Silverado’s, where Amy worked as a cocktail waitress and Alex became a regular.
Alex and Joel return to Barely Braided after a recording gap and discuss a January 11 termination-of-parental-rights trial that was delayed until late April because paperwork was filed too late.
Corey Taylor, a single foster and adoptive father from St.
Alex and Joel of Barely Braided read foster-parent responses about receiving placement calls immediately after approval, teaching basic routines, checking for lice, and buying preemie supplies.
Rita Soronen, president and CEO of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, describes the organization’s mission to increase adoptions from foster care, where about 122,000 U.S.
Barely Braided: A Disorderly Parenting Podcast examines how white foster parents experience race and prejudice while caring for Ari, a Black foster child they hope to keep permanently.
Alex and Joel Scott Ellis use their flight to Minnesota for cousin Justin's wedding as the basis for air-travel advice with their adopted son Brooks and foster daughter Ari, who are about six months apart.
Host Alex Ellis interviews foster parent Erin Bouchard about her experiences with foster care and adoption.
Host Alex Ellis interviews Ginger, a foster and adoptive parent and author of a children's book, about her family journey.
Host Alex Ellis and co-host Joel discuss foster care, adoption, and parenting challenges while casually chatting about sparkling water and vodka.
Host Alex Ellis introduces the podcast's mission to discuss foster care, adoption, and parenting, thanks listeners, and previews an interview with an elementary school counselor.
Host Alex Ellis discusses the silver linings of COVID-19 and introduces a guest, Stacey Roof, a social worker and foster parent, to share her story.
Host Alex Ellis interviews Corey Taylor, a 22-year-old unmarried foster dad, about his journey into foster care during the COVID-19 quarantine.
Host Alex Ellis introduces an episode featuring adoption and foster care expert Anne Austin, discussing DCS and private adoptions.