Dad 2.0 Podcast

Watching his dad build an executive career from scratch taught prolific author Jon Finkel the value of daily discipline and chasing opportunity. His peripatetic childhood also helped him develop a versatile skill set that took him from The Man Show to manhood's ultimate test: being a stay-at-home dad of two tweens. We talk about how he found his author's voice, the bonding value of sports worship, why marketing your books is essential and fun, and how he turned into the love child of Stephen King and Bill Simmons (except jacked).

In early September, the "remnants" of Hurricane Ida flooded metropolitan Philadelphia -- and took out the entire first floor of Jared Bilski's house. And like all good writers, he turned the resulting flood of neighborly goodwill into a front-page story about the diverse, dedicated community that came to his family's aid. We talk with him about the writer's life, the close collaborators he met at Dad 2.0, and the psychology behind his initial difficulty to accept help when he so clearly needed it. And what exactly is Wawa bait?

After years online, counseling parents how to raise children without gender stereotypes, the writer f/k/a Mike Reynolds has adopted Emme as their new name and begun experimenting with their appearance as a way of declaring their ongoing nonbinary self-discovery. Emme talks frankly with us about the conversations they've started, the pain they've endured and the peace that has followed, and the wonderful support their community has given their "quite queer little family."

Now that Season 2 of Ted Lasso has concluded, Doug and guest host Whit Honea discuss (with many, many spoilers) all the brilliant and baffling narrative choices the writers made in their sophomore season. We also break down the inspiration and process behind Whit's brilliant Washington Post article about the power of positive male role models on his teenage sons. Themes of fatherhood, for good and for ill, run rampant throughout the first 22 episodes, and the challenge will be to wait patiently until Season 3 drops next August.  

We're back! And Season 4 begins with Jeff and Doug catching up on all the new things that happened over the summer. Travel is back, schools are in-person, and Dad 2.0 has a new partnership with American Underdog, the story of how Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner became the NFL's best player who was never drafted. We ramble, we laugh, we launch into a bunch of weird, tangential rabbit holes. We talk about Jeff's new book and make fun of his search history. And we get excited about this next season and where Dad 2.0 is headed next!

Our Dad 2.0 Digital closing keynoter Richard Kind wanted kids all his life, but he didn't become a dad until age 45 because he admits he spent too much time thinking he wasn't ready. Now, he says, Don't wait. You'll figure out how to provide the life you know they need, and before you know it you'll have three kids that you love, like, and trust. We also talk about sharing his father with a jewelry store, long-term co-parenting, and how he builds and maintains the many friendships that overwhelm his phone with texts.

After 13 years of on-the-job training, Shannon Carpenter has stocked his upcoming Ultimate Guide to stay-at-home fatherhood with lessons and advice he wants you to learn more easily than he did. This book resulted from his proactive decision to care for his kids and pursue his writing career, and he discusses how he plans to achieve the lofty goals he's set for each. Plus: Finding his agent on Twitter, how electrocution facilitates better flirting, and don't ask him for biscuits without a very clear context.

We met Christopher Persley while he was blogging at The Brown Gothamite, but now he's focused on how best to support his daughter Pepper's burgeoning career as a sports journalist. And mentorship is in short supply, because not many dads have a 10-year-old who has broadcast an NBA playoff game. We talk about his work to improve diversity in schools, trying to trust the father that walked out when he was five, helping Pepper preserve her childhood while surrounded by adults, and that swell of when she drained her first three-pointer.

Our first return guest is Aaron Gouveia, this time with his wife MJ; their new book Men and Miscarriage arrives tomorrow, July 6. They talk and write candidly about losing five pregnancies in nine years, struggling to share their feelings about them, and the stresses of collaborating on a book that dredged up so many painful memories.  We also discuss that time they Facebook-Divorced for six months, and why sometimes the best breakthroughs in a marriage start with a little benign subterfuge.

Damon Brown is one helluva Google. Scroll through his multi-faceted website that comprises his TEDx talks, his coaching business, his 26 books, his Inc. column, and his YouTube channel, and you won't believe he's also a stay-at-home dad for his two young sons. He's essentially living proof that focus and flexibility can help us make room in our lives for whatever we want to achieve. And whatever your circumstances, it's never too late to take stock, assign your main priority, and Build From Now.

In the ten years we've known Caleb Gardner, he's moved from digital strategy at Edelman to social media for Barack Obama to building the backbone of the mission economy at 18 Coffees, He also moderated our Parenting It Forward panel, about breaking the cycle of flawed fatherhood, months after he had met his own institutionalized father for the first time. We talk about talking with his three sons about privilege, supplanting "cancel culture" with accountability, and why he almost named his company "18 Bananas Foster." 

The arrival of Fatherhood The Movie on Netflix today seems like a fitting coda for the segment of Matt Logelin's life as a world-famous widower. So Part II of our conversation (Part I is here) focuses on the now-teenaged Maddy, her mother's foundation, and the future Matt anticipates so readily. After 13 years, he gets to recede into a comparatively normal life as a stay-at-home dad with two daughters (and a third due in October), while his wife co-writes Deadpool 3. Glorious tedium awaits, and after all the turmoil, he deserves it.

When Matt Logelin's wife died just 27 hours after their daughter Maddy was born, he processed his grief by starting the blog that became the book that is now the movie "Fatherhood," which opens Friday, June 18, on Netflix. We're celebrating Father's Day week with a two-part interview with a lot of inside information about working with the director and screenwriter to adapt his book, what that first year of Maddy's life was really like. and how it felt when the Obamas asked to help produce his cinematic life.

"Hard work is a given," says Philadelphia Union coach Jim Curtin, who has made a career out of following his father's advice: Let your results speak for themselves. And from the Villanova Hall of Fame to MLS Coach of the Year, his results resonate throughout the terraces at Subaru Park. We discuss how the strategies that won the 2020 Supporters' Shield apply to parenting his three kids—and preserving their kidhood as long as possible. He's happy to watch them find their respective passions, stay in the background at their soccer games, and raise them in the city "near all the crazy soccer bars."

For the first time since Episode 5, Doug and Jeff celebrate the return of human contact by reuniting on his NYC rooftop and recording face to face. Amid the usual BS about movies, sports, and designer grilled cheese, we talk about the complex emotions surrounding our re-entry into social situations, work spaces, and pants. If you're wondering if you're ready, or if you did enough with your "down" time, cut it out. You did what you could, and you made it this far. That's reason enough to appreciate everyone else who's still with us and honor those who aren't — like Jeff's dad, whose passing has inspired Jeff's upcoming book about keeping your dad's stories alive.

Rich Wallace rose from a childhood in foster care to become a self-made activist and serial entrepreneur, and his youngest son Jason has built a 15-year career in politics, public service, and podcasting. We talk with them both about how their different childhoods inform their different parenting styles, why Jason developed his ambitions in third grade, and that time when Jason accidentally creeped on the Obamas. Jason Wallace wants his Office of Fathers, Men, and Boys to give dadfluence the governmental backing and outreach it needs. When the District of Columbia becomes a state, we look forward to supporting his eventual Senate campaign.

We've known Jim Lin since our beginning as a dad blogger and PR executive, but he's really a septuple threat (at least). And since he's been writing funny things and studying their impact since he was a kid, he's the perfect guest to discuss how successful influence works, where it's going, and why it involves Chuck E. Cheese. We talk about how he learned fishing as a kid to avoid people (and martial arts to confront them), why his blended family works, and how an Asian dude from Boston joined a Texas HOG.

In 1995, Armin Brott's "The Expectant Father" did what no bestseller had done before: It became an accessible, reassuring, and indispensable resource for new and expecting dads. Millions of copies, syndicated columns, fatherhood classes, and radio shows later, the book's fifth edition has been updated with more information, more case studies, more reader input -- and more discussion of the importance of the mental health of both parents. We talk about how Armin wanted to turn his anger into a force for good, why he joined the Marines to learn Russian, and why you should never tell your drill sergeant how to do their job. 

Asha Dornfest and Christine Koh began teaching us how to edit our lives long before it was cool, and we're celebrating Mother's Day week with a look at how their prescience has paid off. Emerging from quarantine will feature deep breaths, narrowed focus, and listening to signals instead of making plans. We talk about how great partners complement each other, maintaining optimism about social media, and the resurgent value of offline interaction. And what exactly is the secret behind snail mucin? 

For 26 years, journalist Matt Villano has built his freelance writing career by pursuing true stories, standing up for marginalized voices, and occasionally dressing up as a humongous wine bottle. He also chronicles road trips with his three daughters, in whom he hopes to instill his commitment to kindness, integrity, and service. We talk about how to build relationships with editors, how quarantine forced him to rethink what exploration means, and why his kids call him "Matty Magic." And why doesn't the game of Life have purple pegs?