Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children

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1. TPP 528: Anya Kamenetz on the Fight for Special Education in America

   3 november 2026 · 28 min

   Afspelen
   Debbie talks with education reporter Anya Kamenetz about her six-episode limited podcast series produced in collaboration with Understood, Zero Reject, and why special education is at a crossroads in the US. They trace how special education evolved from exclusion and institutionalization into a civil rights framework, and how underfunding, staffing shortages, and policy shifts shape families’ experiences today. Lees meer

   About Anya Kamenetz

   Anya Kamenetz is an award-winning journalist, author and podcaster. She covered education for many years including for NPR, where she co-created the podcast “Life Kit:Parenting.” Her last book was The Stolen Year: How COVID Changed Children’s Lives, and Where We Go Now. Kamenetz is currently an advisor to the Climate Mental Health Network, working on new initiatives at the intersection of children, well-being, education and climate change.Her next book, forthcoming from Bloomsbury in 2027, is about mental health and emotional resilience in a world of crisis. Her newsletter on these topics is “The Golden Hour.”

   Things you'll learn from this episode

   Why special education is a civil rights issue and how disability rights protections affect millions of students and families

   How family-led advocacy and legal challenges led to the creation of IDEA and the rights students have today

   Why staffing shortages, limited placements, and inadequate resources can prevent schools from meeting students’ needs

   How the Office for Civil Rights helps families address disability discrimination and why changes in federal oversight matter

   Why teachers are often caught between wanting to support students and lacking the training, resources, and support to do so

   How universal design for learning, evidence-based instruction, accessible technology, and better teacher support can create more inclusive schools

   Resources mentioned

   Zero Reject Podcast

   Anya Kamenetz’s website

   Anya on Twitter

   The Stolen Year: How Covid Changed Children’s Lives, and Where We G…

2. TPP 378a: Julie Bogart on Helping Kids Become Critical Thinkers

   30 oktober 2026 · 47 min

   Afspelen
   In a world overflowing with information and complexity, critical thinking isn't just a useful skill; it's an essential life raft. From navigating complex interactions to making informed decisions, our children need the ability to think critically now more than ever. But what does that really mean? And how can we as parents nurture this skill in our children? I invited author and Brave Writer founder Julie Bogart back to the show to help us answer these questions and to talk about her new book, Becoming a Critical Thinker: A Workbook to Help Students Think Well in an Age of Disinformation. Lees meer

   In this conversation, we got into so many things. And as you’ll hear, I could have talked to Julie for hours. But for this episode, you can expect to hear Julie’s thoughts on how and why we can foster critical thinking in our children, how considering multiple perspectives and incorporating diverse viewpoints leads to better problem-solving, what parents can do to encourage self-awareness, open-mindedness, and curiosity, and much more.

   Things you'll learn from this episode

   Why critical thinking is essential to navigate complex issues and make informed decisions

   How considering multiple perspectives and incorporating diverse viewpoints leads to better problem-solving and policy-making

   How parents can play a crucial role in fostering critical thinking skills in their children by encouraging self-awareness, open-mindedness, and curiosity

   Why traditional models of authority and obedience in parenting are being replaced by a more collaborative and respectful approach that values children's reasoning and autonomy

   How the Becoming a Critical Thinker workbook helps students develop skills such as vetting sources, analyzing data, and considering multiple perspectives

   Why engaging in perspective-taking and tolerance can help neurodivergent kids deconstruct ideas and accept other points of view

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3. TPP 527: Why Food Advice Falls Apart for Neurodivergent Families and What Actually Helps

   27 oktober 2026 · 44 min

   Afspelen
   Functional nutrition practitioner and ADHD life coach Amy Jones joins me to talk about something that can be surprisingly complicated in neurodivergent families: feeding ourselves and our kids. Amy explains why the challenge for so many neurodivergent people isn’t knowing what we’re “supposed” to eat, but figuring out how to actually make nourishment happen when executive function, sensory preferences, appetite changes, decision fatigue, and low-capacity days are part of the picture. We also talk about supporting blood sugar, making food more visible and accessible, reducing mealtime stress, and creating simple, low-friction systems that make eating more doable for both kids and adults. Lees meer

   About Amy Jones

   Amy Jones is a Certified Functional Nutrition Practitioner, Certified ADHD Life Coach, and Certified Teacher who spent nearly 20 years in education before moving into functional nutrition and ADHD coaching. She supports neurodivergent adults, parents, and overwhelmed families who are struggling with food, energy, executive function, and daily functioning. Amy is also a late-diagnosed ADHD adult and a mom of two neurodivergent kids, including a son with ASD and ADHD, which shapes her understanding of food, routines, capacity, and family life.

   Her work focuses on the gap between what people know would support them and what they can actually access in daily life. Through functional nutrition, ADHD-informed coaching, and practical food systems, Amy helps families understand why feeding themselves and their kids can become harder when ADHD, decision fatigue, sensory load, appetite changes, and low-capacity days affect daily functioning. Amy is the creator of the Accessible Nourishment Framework and WTF’s for Dinner, a food system designed to reduce food-related decision load and make nourishment more manageable.

   Things you'll learn from this episode

   How ADHD, dulled interoception, and stimulant medication can make hunger cues easy to miss until irritability, brain fo…

4. TPP 325a: Akilah Richards on Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work

   23 oktober 2026 · 38 min

   Afspelen
   I really enjoyed exploring unschooling, deschooling, freedom, and liberation with Akilah Richards, host of the Fare the Free Child podcast and author of the book Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work. Lees meer

   I reached out to Akilah after seeing her TED talk, which led me to her book, and then her podcast, and I knew I wanted to invite her to join me in conversation. A recurring theme in this podcast, and in Tilt, is doing our own inner work as parents, and I love how Akilah talks about relating our own reparenting to freedom, decolonization, and liberation.

   Akilah shares her personal story of going from traditional schooling to unschooling to deschooling, and how she and her husband came to consider the idea of raising free people, what that means, and how they’ve navigated the realities of making unconventional choices that can sometimes make other people uncomfortable. She also shares how they think about the success and what a fulfilled life looks like for her family, as well as how her work aimed at decolonizing parenting has resonated with people worldwide.

   You'll learn:

   What it means to be raising a “free child” and why it can be a threatening or uncomfortable concept for many people

   What “mad question asking” is and how parents can use it to get unstuck

   How unschooling is tied to decolonization

   What “deschooling” is versus “homeschooling” and “unschooling”

   What “confident autonomy” is and why Akilah considers that a hallmark of “success” in her children

   How Akilah and her partner dealt with the barriers (social, cultural, and more) when they chose the unschooling path for their family

   What a “savor complex” is and how it can transform the family experience

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5. TPP 526: A Conversation with Jessica Slice About Her Family's Experience with PANS/PANDAS

   20 oktober 2026 · 48 min

   Afspelen
   Journalist and author Jessica Slice comes back to the show to share her family’s experience with PANS, or pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome, which began when her daughter experienced a sudden and severe change in behavior and functioning following a viral illness. Jessica recently shared her story in a viral article in New York Magazine, and today she takes us deep into what happened to her daughter, the medical dismissal her family encountered, and the long path toward getting a diagnosis and treatment. We also dig into why PANS and PANDAS remain controversial, what researchers believe may be happening in the brain, and what Jessica learned through both her family’s experience and her reporting. And importantly, we talk about what parents can do if their child experiences a sudden, dramatic onset of symptoms that they suspect could be PANS or PANDAS, including where to begin and how to advocate for care. Lees meer

   About Jessica Slice

   Jessica Slice is a journalist, author, and podcaster. Her book, Unfit Parent: A Disabled Mother Challenges an Inaccessible World was one of NPR’s top books of 2025. She has been published in Modern Love, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, the Guardian, The Globe & Mail, LitHub, Alice Wong’s bestselling Disability Visibility, Slate, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, and more.She’s been featured in Vogue, The New Yorker, PBS, NPR, The Cut, the BBC, etc.

   She is the co-author of Dateable: Swiping Right, Hooking Up, and Settling Down, This is How We Play, This is How We Talk, and the forthcoming We Belong which was co-authored with the late Judy Heumann. She lives in Toronto with her family.

   Things you'll learn from this episode

   How Jessica’s daughter’s sudden, dramatic loss of functioning after a routine virus ultimately led to a PANS diagnosis

   Why PANS symptoms can be mistaken for psychosis, autism-related behavior, or other mental health conditions, potentially delaying appropriate care

   How P…

6. You Might Also Like: Zero Reject from Understood.org

   19 oktober 2026 · 32 min

   Afspelen
   Beth Gellman-Beer spent her whole career fighting for kids with disabilities — first as a student written off as “lazy,” then as a federal civil rights attorney who found her dream job protecting students like her younger self. But on one ordinary night, a phone call changed everything: Her entire office had been eliminated. Lees meer

   In the premiere of Zero Reject, reporter Anya Kamenetz traces Beth’s journey from an unfair fourth-grade classroom to the front lines of a sweeping overhaul at the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights — the agency families turn to when a school isn’t meeting their child’s needs. Anya breaks down the reduction in force that gutted OCR’s staff, what it means for the 25,000 families still waiting for a response to their complaints, and the plan to dismantle the Department of Education altogether. With fewer people to enforce the law, what happens to the students the system was built to protect?

   https://lnk.to/zerorejectFD!fulltiltparenting
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7. TPP 285a: Dr. Mona Delahooke on the Power of Brain-Body Parenting

   16 oktober 2026 · 47 min

   Afspelen
   Psychologist, speaker, and author Dr. Mona Delahooke talks about her new book Brain-Body Parenting, and the power in understanding and responding to children's complicated behavior as a symptom rather than a problem. Lees meer

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8. TPP 525: Amanda Diekman on Supporting Kids Going Through Burnout

   13 oktober 2026 · 46 min

   Afspelen
   Today I’m welcoming Amanda Diekman back to the show to talk about her new book, The Parents Handbook for Kids in Burnout: A Low Demand Approach to Healing and Thriving, and what parents need to understand when their child is experiencing burnout. Amanda will explain what burnout actually is, how it can show up differently across childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood, and why it’s so often mistaken for anxiety or depression. We talk about the signs parents may miss, what’s happening beneath the surface when a child can no longer meet the demands of everyday life, and how a low demand approach can create the conditions for healing. And importantly, Amanda shares what recovery can look like, how parents can support their child without inadvertently adding more pressure, and why healing from burnout requires us to rethink our expectations, timelines, and ideas about progress. Lees meer

   About Amanda Diekman

   Amanda Diekman is the author of the bestseller Low Demand Parenting and also the exhausted mom of three kids who have all experienced burnout. With relentlessly hopeful determination, Amanda turns her struggles into signposts, guiding the way into true healing for burned out kids—and their parents too. She lives in Durham, NC, and spends her days homeschooling, writing, and supporting vulnerable neighbors.

   Things you'll learn from this episode

   How low demand parenting goes beyond simply asking less and instead centers attunement, collaboration, and responsiveness to a child’s capacity

   Why burnout is a protective response to prolonged stress and how it can be mistaken for anxiety or depression

   How pervasive exhaustion, loss of skills, and extreme sensitivity can signal that a child is experiencing burnout

   Why burnout may progress from “I can’t do this” to withdrawal, disordered eating, self-harm, or other risky behaviors

   How the three phases of burnout—from total rest to returning curiosity and recovery—can help parents understand the healing process

   Why trusting…

9. TPP 315a: Dr. Lori Desautels on Rewiring Our Perceptions of Discipline in Schools, and at Home

   9 oktober 2026 · 41 min

   Afspelen
   Dr. Lori Desautels (author, Connections over Compliance: Rewiring our Perceptions of Discipline) helps educators, parents, and adults who work with children shift the way they think about discipline by reaching for sustainable behavioral changes through brain state awareness rather than compliance and obedience. She’s actively pushing back against reactive and punitive practices that can potentially reactivate the developing stress response systems of children, and is advocating for stronger co-regulation practices and regulated brain and body states for adults. Lees meer

   During this conversation, we consider why there is such a powerful foundational belief that discipline and punishment go together, what happens when the traditional methods of punishment are imposed on children who are coming to school with trauma or a heightened nervous system, and why it’s so important for educators to take responsibility over their own nervous system regulation.

   Dr. Lori Desautels, has been an Assistant Professor at Butler University since 2016 where she teaches both undergraduate and graduate programs in the College of Education. Lori’s passion is engaging her students through the social and relational neurosciences as it applies to education by integrating the Applied Educational Neuroscience framework, and its learning principles and practices into her coursework at Butler.

   Things you'll learn from this episode:

   Why there is such a powerful foundational belief that discipline and punishment go together

   What happens when the traditional methods of punishment are imposed on children who are coming to school with traumas or a heightened nervous system

   Why we should be moving away from the behavior management model

   Why it’s so important for educators to take responsibility over their own nervous system regulation

   Strategies for helping teachers (and parents) better show up for dysregulated kids

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10. TPP 524: Eli Weinstein on Navigating Marriage in the Parenting Years

    6 oktober 2026 · 39 min

    Afspelen
    Today I’m talking with Eli Weinstein, a clinical social worker, husband and dad of two, creator of ELIvation, and host of The Dude Therapist podcast, about the pressure cooker that parenthood can create for couples, and what it actually takes to stay connected when life gets loud. In our conversation, Eli and I dig into the expectations, resentment, mental load, and communication breakdowns that can strain relationships during the parenting years, and he shares practical, real-world tools for repair, clearer communication, shared responsibility, and keeping our partnerships strong along the way. Lees meer

    About Eli Weinstein

    Eli Weinstein, LCSW, is the therapist bringing heart and humor back to mental health. A loving husband and proudly goofy dad of two, Eli is based in Las Vegas and runs a thriving practice serving clients across New York, Nevada, and beyond through his global coaching work. Known for his straight-talking, relatable style, he’s the creator of ELIvation and host of The Dude Therapist podcast, where he dives into the messy, beautiful mix of relationships, parenting, and emotional growth.

    An international speaker and sought-after guest, Eli has been featured on over 250 podcasts and major media outlets including The Kelly Clarkson Show, Psychology Today, Parents.com, Men’s Health Magazine, and leading relationship and parenting platforms. His debut book, From I Do to We Do: Navigating Marriage Through Parenting Years (Wiley, 2026), helps couples stay connected when life gets loud. Eli’s mission is simple: make therapy-level wisdom feel human, hopeful, and real.

    Things you'll learn from this episode

    Why becoming parents can expose mismatched expectations, perceptions, and assumptions within a relationship

    How making the invisible mental and emotional load visible can create more understanding and shared responsibility

    Why truly sharing responsibilities means allowing your partner to take ownership and do things their own way

    How setting the table befor…

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