Welcome to The Once & Future Parents, where three podcasters navigate the wild world of parenting from completely different stages of the journey. Matthew Fox is two months away from becoming a first-time parent at 47, Mandy Kaplan is raising a 15-year-old theater kid, and Pete Wright's adult children are out saving lives and helping the elderly.

When does parental influence actually end, and how much control do we really have? The hosts grapple with the tension between accepting limited control and continuing to guide their children through example.

What happens when reality doesn't match the parenting playbook from movies and TV? From purple newborns to the myth of water breaking as labor's dramatic beginning, the hosts discover that media representations of parenting often miss the mark.

Topics Covered

• Late-in-life parenting and aging as a new parent
• The nuclear family model vs. village-style child-rearing
• How childhood trauma and family patterns influence parenting choices
• Postpartum depression and mental health support systems
• The role of media in shaping parenting expectations
• Gender identity and inclusive language in parenting discussions
• Building community and support networks for new parents
• The difference between parenting influence at different child development stages

Hosted by Matthew Fox (Superhero Ethics), Mandy Kaplan (Make Me a Nerd), and Pete Wright from TruStory FM.

Meet the hosts of The Once & Future Parent: Matthew Fox, a brand-new parent who is fully panicking in a calm and totally normal way; Mandy Kaplan, currently negotiating freedom, hormones, and homework with a high school sophomore like it's a hostage situation; and Pete Wright, who has entered the parenting phase where success means getting a text back from a cell phone he doesn’t own yet somehow still pays for.

Three different parenting stages. Three wildly different perspectives. One shared sense of existential confusion about how any of us are supposed to do this.

Sure, we'll talk about screen time and sleep schedules—but we're really here for the questions nobody prepares you for: How do you help your kid make friends when you don't even know how adults are supposed to make friends? What happens when you realize your kid just outgrew your best parenting trick and you don't have a backup? And how do we avoid repeating the mistakes our parents made? (At least, not all of them. That would be absurd.)

It's thoughtful, emotional, and funny—the stuff we all wish we talked about more often. Because here's the thing: parenting doesn't stop. It just changes costumes.

Subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts, or visit https://trustory.fm/once-and-future-parent.