Ask Lisa: The Psychology of Raising Tweens & Teens

Dr. Lisa Damour is a clinical psychologist who has spent her career working with adolescents, and Reena Ninan is a journalist and mom who asks the questions parents actually want answered. Together they make Ask Lisa, a show aimed squarely at the parents of tweens and teens who are trying to figure out what on earth is happening to their kid. The format is conversational. Reena brings up a situation -- sometimes from listener questions, sometimes from her own life, sometimes ripped from the news -- and Lisa walks through how to think about it. The topics are the ones that keep parents up at night. Social media anxiety. Friendship drama. Sleep. Mental health red flags. When to push and when to back off. How to have hard conversations without making everything worse. Lisa is particularly good at explaining the developmental reasons behind tween behavior, which helps parents stop taking things personally. The approach is grounded in research but never dry. She writes bestselling books on the same topics, so the expertise is real, but the podcast gives her space to think out loud in a way books cannot. Episodes run 30 to 45 minutes and release weekly. The tone is calm, practical, and compassionate toward both parents and kids. It is not a shame-based parenting show, and it is not pretending every family looks the same. If you have a tween in the house and you are feeling a little lost, this is the podcast friends keep recommending for good reason.