Podcast host Jody Avirgan’s daughter has learned a lot from the hit kids’ TV show Daniel Tiger: how to say thank you, how to deal with anger, and even how to use the potty. The show’s songs have been so effective for her that Jody’s started implementing them into his parenting strategy. “I found myself doing what I’ve come to call the Gaslight Daniel Tiger technique, which is trying to convince my daughter that there are Daniel Tiger songs about very specific things that I want her to do or situations that we’ve encountered.” The catch is, that means Jody has to come up with his own Daniel Tiger-style songs on the spot. Hear Jody sing about putting away the vacuum cord, taking off your muddy shoes, and more!

Dr. Gabor Maté, physician and child development expert, takes a deep dive into healthy child development: what conditions are necessary for it, which of those factors are missing from our society, and what parents can do to compensate for it. To unlock the key to healthy child development, he says we need to look towards our ancestors. “Human beings evolved originally in small-band hunter-gatherer groups… children were parented by multiple nurturing adults… and children were held all the time. They had multiple playmates of different ages to play with. And so they grew up confident in themselves and connected to the group.” Plus, why Gabor believes too much influence from peers and the Internet is a developmental disaster for young kids.

Fitness trainer Jillian Michaels shares her number one principle when it comes to parenting: always lead by example. She tries to set a good example for her kids in every aspect of life, not just with fitness and nutrition, but with the hard stuff, too – like owning up to your mistakes or knowing when to say sorry. “I find that if I want my kids to be polite, say please and thank you, look people in the eye when they greet them, I have to do the exact same.” Plus, hear about one of Jillian’s “colossal” parenting mistakes, and how she recovered with grace.

After a kidney doctor told her to simply “lose weight” to resolve an ongoing, undiagnosed medical issue, comedian and writer Jen Curran decided it was time to get a second opinion. A kidney biopsy, a bone marrow biopsy, and countless phone calls later, Jen finally had her answer. “My brain immediately started going to the videos I’m going to have to make for [my daughter] to watch when she’s 16 and 30 and graduates high school. I’m going to have to sit down and write so many letters for her to open on different birthdays. I’m just imagining that I’m not going to live much longer.” Jen talks about what it was like in her first year after diagnosis, raising a newborn baby and going through treatment at the same time.

Comedian Jen Curran tells the story of how her seemingly normal pregnancy turned into a “really scary situation” overnight. After doctors detected abnormally high levels of protein in her urine and her baby started measuring small, Jen was diagnosed with preeclampsia, a not-too-uncommon condition that’s supposed to “magically” go away after birth. But after her daughter Rose was born, and the high levels of protein were still there, it soon became clear that there was something much more serious going on.

Actor Jay Ellis takes us back to his childhood – moving all around the country, going on adventures with his imaginary friend, and dreaming of being an FBI agent/karate master/football champion one day. He tells the story of one of his first interactions with the police, when, after toilet-papering a classmate’s house with best friend Joe, the pair are detained and berated by cops for more than 30 minutes.