Bare Naked Moms – Details, episodes & analysis

We – just like you – have known from print and TV who Andrew Ross Sorkin the financial journalist and storyteller is. But today we get to know who Andrew Ross Sorkin the Dad is:

• What he wants to replicate from his own childhood and what he hopes to do differently
• His thoughts on tooth fairy inflation and the challenges of giving his kids an allowance in the age of Apple Pay
• Andrew’s “dad portfolio” – how on the family and homefront he is spending his precious resources of time and money and where he’s seeing highest returns on that investment
• The idea of failure – when he’d feel ok allowing the kids to fail, how insecurity can be healthy but also debilitating, and when or how to know the difference

Andrew Ross Sorkin is a columnist for The New York Times and a co-anchor of CNBC’s Squawk Box. He’s also the founder and editor of DealBook, a financial news service published by The New York Times. He wrote the bestseller Too Big to Fail and co-produced the movie of the same name. He is a co-creator of the Showtime series Billions.

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As a parent, do you ever feel bare and naked? Totally unsure of what’s right or wrong, loaded up with experts’ tips and tricks yet still feeling lost, misunderstood, and (worst of all) alone? We do. Let’s talk.

We are Milano Buckley and Alanna Leavell, hosts of Bare Naked Moms, a weekly parenting roundtable where celebs, influencers, experts, and everyday parents discuss the uncomfortable moments of modern family life. Parenting is tough and no matter who you are, you'll get stuck in some thorny, tick-infested parenting weeds. Each week, we have an honest and respectful conversation about sticky stories and questions, hoping to bring relief and clarity on how to find more peace, joy, connection, and humor in your lives as parents.

Big Time Adulting’s Caitlin Murray is the Nora Ephron slash Larry David of today’s mom culture. The not-to-be-messed-with mom of three (whose oldest is a cancer survivor) points out the nonsense in everything from Daylight Savings to palate expanders. The only thing missing from her side-splitting insights on the absurdities of modern mom life are flying f*cks. 

In addition to her ninja kitchen dances and daily pearls of witty wisdom on Instagram, Caitlin recently started a weekly newsletter called Soul Snacks. And she’s currently writing her first book. On the show, she opens up about her evolving relationship with alcohol and being sober-curious these days. We get into the slippery slopes of tween girl fashion. She talks about how she’s navigating her newfound fame and how having a child who survived cancer changed everything about her as a mom.

In This Episode:

• Our relationships with alcohol and being sober curious
• Drawing boundaries around tween girl fashion 
• Being a normal mom who suddenly becomes super famous 
• What good days and bad days look like after your child has survived cancer

Please follow us: @barenakedmoms

Follow Caitlin on Big Time Adulting: @bigtimeadulting 

Check out her Soul Snacks newsletter: https://bigtimeadulting.beehiiv.com/

Lydia Fenet is one of the world’s top auctioneers, having raised over one billion dollars for charity organizations. Her success is fueled by an abundance of confidence. She joins us to talk about how she’s now trying to build confidence in her three kids and how she maintains her confidence as a mom despite all the demands of her career. 

Lydia is the author of two bestselling books, The Most Powerful Woman in the Room is You and Claim Your Confidence, and hosts a podcast. She and her husband are raising their family in New York City. 

In This Episode:

• Lydia vs. Mom Guilt 
• How letting kids fail allows them to become confident

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Follow Lydia Fenet: @lydiafenet

What the hell happened to Youth Sports? What happened to the days of a couple practices a week and one game on the weekends? These days, it feels like sports have become careers for our kids—and full time jobs for us parents to manage those careers. When and how did it get: so serious, so nonstop, so expensive? 

We get into the nitty gritty with Predators Lacrosse founder, Mike McCall. McCall breaks down the bigger game here—who the players are, and how to know if you’re a winner or a loser in it. 

In This Episode:

• How to assess the value of travel sports at every age 
• What the end game is in this bankrupting rat race
• How to think about allocating a family’s resources when it comes to sports

Links:

Please follow us: @barenakedmoms

Follow Predators Lacrosse: @predatorslacrosse and https://predatorslacrosse.com/

If you’ve been listening, you may have heard Milano talk a little about her complicated childhood. But in this episode, she takes the mic to tell much more of her story. Born to a mentally ill woman who was living in her car, Milano was raised throughout Manhattan by a motley crew of amazing parent figures and family units—including her biological mom, a family from Ghana from the neighborhood, her third grade teacher, her aunt and uncle, and her former school principal. Somehow she patched together enough love, support and guidance to land at an elite boarding school and university.

Cut to: Milano’s now 45 years old and living in a leafy suburb with her husband and three kids. But just when you think the credits of this would-be Hollywood tale might start rolling is when the real nail-biter begins: a whole new survival story of navigating marriage and motherhood without any maps and loads of childhood trauma. 

In This Episode:

• The unique charms of Milano’s bipolar mother that inspired everyday people to step in and save Milano.  
• How marriage and parenthood activated Milano’s childhood trauma responses. 
• How Milano’s search for answers in the parenting world led her back to her childhood, her mom, and to Bare Naked Moms. 

Please follow us: @barenakedmoms

Milano wrote about her story on Oprah Daily 

Milano also told her story on the Big Time Adulting podcast

Kids on professional paths….How did they get those paths? How much is the parent and how much is the child? How do you know if they’ve got the goods? And, if they do, where do you go from there? 

In this episode, we talk to Broadway star Melissa Errico and gentle parenting coach Susan Nason about raising “prodigies.” Melissa and her husband, former tennis champ Patrick McEnroe, have three teenage daughters who are serious talents—one in tennis, two in dance. Together, we explore our burning questions about kids who have already picked a lane: Nature vs. nurture? Who’s driving the train? As a parent, when to push and when to retreat? (Sidenote: Patrick makes a cameo!) 

In This Episode:

• How to help competitive children navigate high-stake wins and losses.
• Identifying a child’s talent as just one part of her whole self. 
• The differences between pushing and teaching perseverance. 
• The importance of modeling imperfection and being comfortable with the mess of life. 

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Follow Melissa on Instagram: @melissa_errico_fairymom 

Check Melissa out on her website: https://melissaerrico.com    

Follow Susan Nason on her website: www.theparentwhispererny.com 

Check Susan out in this article: Town & Country Magazine 

Are you a parent with ADHD? Or are you married to one? Do you struggle with the executive function that raising kids and running a household requires? We hear so much these days about kids with ADHD, but in our conversation with social media stars and bestselling authors, Penn and Kim Holderness, we get a real sense of what it means to be a parent with ADHD. Penn was diagnosed back in high school, and he and Kim bring their signature honesty, humor and insight to their new book, ADHD Is Awesome: A Guide to (Mostly) Thriving With ADHD, which landed on The New York Times Best Sellers list and has gone on to become one of the most popular books ever published on the subject. We talked to them about: 

• Why managing a family and household is so much more difficult for a parent with ADHD. 
• The challenges of marriage and parenting when your partner has ADHD. 
• How some ADHD traits can really work in your favor as a parent.

Joining the conversation is Dr. Rebecca Hershberg, a clinical psychologist, parenting coach, and author of The Tantrum Survival Guide. Dr. Hershberg has shared her wisdom on CNN, The Today Show, and The New York Times. 

Follow us on Instagram: @barenakedmoms

Follow Penn and Kim Holderness: @theholdernessfamily

Follow Dr. Rebecca Hershberg: @rebeccahershbergphd

Deborah Norville is a TV legend, the longest serving anchor on American television. She’s also the proud mom of two sons and one daughter, and she’s so transparent about what she’s learned along the road of parenting them from infants to adults. We asked her to be our fortune teller mom from the future - to give us pearls of wisdom on the chapter we’re in right now—call it Chapter 5: Chaos Reigns:

• How she navigated some dark times in her career and in motherhood.
• What she regrets not doing with her own kids when they were young.
• Why she thinks gratitude is the best inoculation for struggles with mental health.  

Deborah Norville was inducted into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame in 2016. She’s been the host of Inside Edition, TV’s top-rated syndicated newsmagazine, since 1995. She joined the show from CBS News, where she was an anchor and correspondent. Deborah is also the former co-host of NBC’s Today Show and the former host of Deborah Norville Tonight on MSNBC. 

Deborah is a bestselling author and lecturer. Among her books is Thank You Power: Making the SCIENCE of Gratitude Work for You, which details the connection between gratitude and enhanced cognitive function and energy. 

🔗 Follow us on Instagram: @barenakedmoms

Do you ever worry that your kids have it too good to be resilient? Do you try to protect them from hard stuff because you want them to be happy? Do you wonder how some kids who experience trauma end up being just fine, while others with placid, uneventful childhoods are hot messes? As parents, it’s so hard to know when to protect our kids from pain or anxiety and when to let them experience it.

In this week’s episode, Alanna and Milano have a fascinating discussion with childhood development expert Dr. Tovah Klein about the importance of not shielding our kids from their mistakes, our mistakes, or the unsavory feelings and events of everyday life. Dr. Klein shares what she’s observed in her 30 years as Director of the Barnard College Center for Toddler Development and what she outlines in her recently published bestseller, Raising Resilience: How to Help Our Children Thrive in Times of Uncertainty: that the key ingredient of success in a child (and human) is resilience—knowing that we can feel and do and see hard things and ultimately be OK.  

In This Episode:

👉 How to protect kids without paralyzing them 

👉 The importance of giving children the freedom to fall 

👉 Parents as containers and anchors

👉 How to talk to our kids about scary things

👉 Why “potential” and perfection are nice ideas that totally backfire

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Buy Tovah Klein’s book here

Follow Tovah: @tovahklein

Follow us: @barenakedmoms