Passport Mommy

Passport Mommy is a parenting show built like a family magazine, and its recent episode titles read like tables of contents. A single title packs in a learning game, sports injury advice from CHOP, a new book and last-minute tax tips. Michelle Jerson hosts, and several segments come from her own legwork around New York City. She recorded a good part of one episode at the 2026 Toy Fair, where Frank Adler of Pickle Everything Games shows off a booth of pickle-themed games and backpack key chains. His partner, the inventor Jeffrey Breslow, is in the Toy Industry Hall of Fame. Breslow invested in an indoor pickleball facility and came up with a pickleball word game, and the company then found that pickles had fans of their own. The same curiosity takes Jerson to a beauty trade show at the Javits Center, where she tries products and hears about Botox alternatives. Another outing lands her at a Chelsea Market food event tied to the Anne Saxelby Legacy Fund, which helps keep small farms going and introduces a new generation to farm work. In that episode she talks with Amy Johnson and with Andy King, the event's producer, whom she says some may know from the Netflix documentary Fire Festival. Health keeps coming back. In what Jerson calls the health segment of the day, Dr. Brittany Partain of Exogen joins to discuss something new that doctors can use to help diagnose lupus, a complex autoimmune disease. Other titles name fetal surgery at CHOP and generalized pustular psoriasis. Children's learning comes up often too. Jerson calls Prodigy her kids' all-time favorite program and brings back Cassie Haynes-Riska, who taught for ten years before joining Prodigy and remembers kids clamming up at the word math. Jerson frames the talk with research linking high math anxiety to lower odds of finishing graduate school or pursuing STEM careers. Sarah DeWitt, Senior Vice President and General Manager of PBS Kids, introduces Weather Hunters, an animated STEM series for ages five to eight created by Al Roker, who also voices the dad. Money gets practical treatment. Andy Phillips of H&R Block explains why e-filing is more secure and quicker than mailing a paper return, and why a mistyped Social Security number bounces back as soon as the return is submitted. Titles also point to home warranties with American Home Shield, Wendy's partnership with the Girl Scouts, and books including 'Reality 2.0' and 'All Is Well'. Jerson sounds plainly delighted to be wherever she is. The Toy Fair episode shows the on-location side most clearly, and the Prodigy and lupus conversations show the expert-interview side.