A coach's take on raising strong-willed kids.
Randi Rubenstein's podcast treats raising a strong-willed child as something a parent can learn with coaching, and the host's sign-off sums it up: kids who feel better do better. The conversations run from screens and digital wallets to fatherhood, kids and addiction, and the lawsuits aimed at social media companies.
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Mastermind Parenting Podcast is Randi Rubenstein's show for families raising strong-willed kids, and it treats that job as something a parent can learn with coaching. The stated mission is plain: support strong-willed kids and the families that love them. Recent episodes all begin with the same testimonial. A parent describes one of the best school breaks the family has had in a very long time and credits a leadership training and Rubenstein's coaching. Their son went back to his creative self. He drew, colored, read and built with magnet tiles, and when TV time came he said he was done and asked to go outside. It is a small scene at home, and it shows what the show counts as progress. The guest conversations go well beyond the living room. In 'Is Big Tech the New Big Tobacco?', the talk turns to the personal injury lawsuits against social media companies, including a bellwether trial in California where Mark Zuckerberg and the head of Instagram have testified. The conversation with Ash Brandin is practical. A kid's phone can hold a bus pass, an ID and a digital wallet with a spending limit. Some buildings and jobs run on smartphones, so wishing for the old world ignores the one kids actually live in. Jeff Hittner's episode is about dads. It questions the assumption that fatherhood should come naturally and looks at the shame that can slow down the work of getting better at it. With Lisa Katona Smith the subject gets heavier: kids who find they can ease discomfort and fit in with others through a drink or a smoke, and the risk factors that make some brains more susceptible to addiction. The Leland Vittert conversation shows the host's method in miniature. Asking him to tell a childhood story about his father, Rubenstein calls the way his father handled it the fundamental idea of the coaching. Then the host stops him to point out what the story gives parents who have been without hope: hope, and something practical to do. The host is just as open without a guest. In 'Thanksgiving and Having an Attitude of Gratitude', the host admits to hesitating over a gratitude episode at all and puts it down to a rebel tendency. The delivery is warm and effusive. At the close, the host invites listeners to Instagram and Facebook lives for more teaching and coaching. The sign-off always lands on the same line: kids who feel better do better. That line is the clearest summary of the show's approach. The back catalog is large, so for a first listen, start with whatever worry is most pressing. For screens and social media, try the Ash Brandin episode and the Big Tech one. Dads can start with Jeff Hittner. For a child in trouble with substances, start with Lisa Katona Smith.
Made for: Suits a parent of a strong-willed child who wants a coaching approach to home life, along with practical conversations about screens, fatherhood and substance use.
What sets it apart: It keeps the strong-willed child at the center while guests take on forces from outside the home, from social media lawsuits to addiction risk. Episodes open with a parent's own account of what changed after coaching.
Welcome to Randi Rubenstein’s Mastermind Parenting Podcast. So, the big question is this - How do parents like us know that we aren’t messing up the biggest role of our lives, especially when we happen to have a strong-willed kiddo that is constantly pushing our buttons? We’ve all heard that kids don’t come with a manual, so how can we know for sure that we are saying the right things or that we’re getting this parenting thing right. On this podcast for parents of toddlers to teens, we’ll be giving you real tools you can use right away so that your kids will feel like they can talk to you about absolutely anything and everything. At Mastermind Parenting, we believe when your thoughts grow, t…
A bus pass meets Instagram in bed; Randi Rubenstein makes room for your mixed feelings about screens.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A grounded episode on family screen habits, teen safety, and an unresolved legal fight.
Families hear two sharply different versions of screen life in this episode. One parent describes Q finding his way back to independent play after PAC leadership training and Randy's coaching: a smoother school break, magnet tiles, books, and a child who can decide when TV time…
A grounded episode on the insecurities that can complicate parenting as a team.
Parenting as a team takes more than splitting the chores. This episode focuses on the harder layer: how parents speak when needs, fears, expectations, and insecurity are sitting just beneath the surface.
A measured look at screens in family life, balancing limits with the realities kids already inhabit.
Screen time lands here as a family-life question, less about panic than the daily habits that form around devices. A parent recalls a school break in which Q drifts back toward independent play, coloring, reading, magnet-tile building, and choosing outdoor time over TV.
A steady parenting conversation about addiction, risk factors, and supporting strong-willed children through difficult choices.
Addiction is the center of this parenting conversation, grounded in Lisa Katona Smith's experience after her son struggled with it and shaped around the family conversations that can help children face hard choices.
A father's everyday coaching becomes a grounded lesson in steady, specific guidance.
A father's steady presence anchors Leland Vittert's account of childhood conversations and social cues that came easily to other people. He remembers spending long stretches with his father, with news, politics, and business filling their time together.
Parenthood and bodies, told one honest story at a time.
A parenting coach discusses how a training program helped a child become more independent and creative, then introduces a guest from the Modern Classrooms Project.
Randi Rubenstein interviews attachment expert Kirby about supporting strong-willed children, with a listener testimonial about improved behavior after coaching.
Maya Sulkin and Frannie Block discuss their article "Is Social Media the New Big Tobacco?" and the lawsuits accusing TikTok, Meta, Snapchat, and YouTube of targeting children for profit.
Randi Rubenstein brings back Jeff Hittner, leadership coach and host of the Ambitious Dads podcast, to talk about why fathers and mothers often hear the same parenting situation differently.
Randi Rubenstein talks with Ash Brandin, the teacher, gamer, and author of Power On, about kids, teenagers, and screen-time boundaries.
Randi Rubenstein and guest Lisa Katona Smith focus on teenage drugs, alcohol, risky behavior, and Lisa’s framework called parallel recovery.
Randi Rubenstein talks with NewsNation anchor Leland Vittert about Born Lucky, the book he wrote with his father about growing up with autism and the role his dad played in helping him adapt.
Randy Rubenstein questions familiar gratitude slogans, then uses hedonic adaptation to explain why people grow accustomed to good circumstances and start complaining.
Jeff Hittner says love alone did not prepare him for fatherhood, especially when his sons' meltdowns triggered his own emotional dysregulation.
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The host discusses the Netflix show 'Adolescence' and shares a success story from a parent who used coaching techniques to improve their child's behavior during a school break.
Randy Rubenstein interviews Michelle Grosser about her son's transformation after implementing parenting strategies from pack leadership training.