The BeTween Podcast

The BeTween Podcast is co-hosted by Rilyn McClane, an actual tween, and her grandmother Jill Savage, a veteran parenting author. The premise is exactly what it sounds like -- a conversation between a kid in the tween years and an adult who has thought a lot about raising them -- but the execution is better than the pitch suggests. Rilyn is genuinely funny and thoughtful. She is not a precocious child being coached through adult talking points. She brings her own questions and her own experiences to each episode, and her grandma Jill responds as a grandmother rather than as a therapist or expert. The chemistry between them is the whole draw. You can tell they actually enjoy each other, and that comes through even when they are discussing harder topics like friendships gone sideways or body changes or how to handle being embarrassed. The episodes are short, often under 20 minutes, which fits tween attention spans and makes it easy to listen together. Parents end up using it as a conversation starter with their own kids -- one episode in the car can crack open a discussion that might not have happened otherwise. Topics rotate through the stuff tweens actually deal with: sibling conflict, peer pressure, social media, figuring out what kind of person you want to be. Jill brings wisdom without lecturing, and Rilyn keeps her honest. For families looking for something that models good intergenerational conversation, this is a quiet gem of a show.