Seen Read Heard: December 2025

Some of my latest reads and listens include Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson (Audio), Kelly Corrigan Wonders with Aliza Pressman on Sane Parenting (Podcast), and the ISACS Parent Series. 

Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson (Audio)
The promos of the PBS/Ken Burns (et. al.) documentary on the American Revolution inspired me to load the audio version of Isaacson’s Ben Franklin biography on my phone. I found myself curious about the lives and thoughts of so many of the stalwarts of our Independence, the United States Constitution and our remarkable start as a country. While I am always frustrated by audiobooks because of the amount of information I cannot retain, this book worked well as a recording. I can’t quote anything from Isaacson, but it was not hard to get the big picture of Franklin: He was crazy smart, very flirtatious with lots of women (though seemingly not promiscuous), tough on his son, great to his grandson, every bit the inventor whose gifts would be hard to exaggerate, and quite the measured voice of compromise when it came to navigating independence and the establishment of the country. 

I had favorite anecdotes, like the role chess played in Franklin’s life. He spent a lot of time in France and England, dressing the part of a “frontiersman.” He made important friends abroad, ultimately leveraging those relationships in the diplomatic work he did. A favorite among them was his friendship with Lady Caroline Howe, the sister of a prominent British military leader. He played chess with Howe regularly and used their conversations to gather and share important information, hoping, in 1774, to help the colonies avoid war with England. 

Isaacson is clearly a great researcher and storyteller. I felt the book sometimes felt less like the narrative of a life and more like a collection of entries in an encyclopedia about Franklin’s many inventions, relationships, negotiations or writings. Partly that feeling is because his life was so incredibly full of those experiences. It would be hard for a complete biography of Benjamin Franklin not to feel encyclopedic. 

Kelly Corrigan Wonders with Aliza Pressman on Sane Parenting (Podcast)
As I have shared before, Corrigan became a go-to for me by sheer happenstance. I like to feel some sort of connection to the places our children live (Vancouver, British Columbia, and Nottingham, New Hampshire). One way I get some scoop is to listen to their local radio stations online. Listening to New Hampshire Public Radio early one Sunday morning, I found this very wise, very measured woman who hosted wonderful conversations and asked informed and insightful questions. I found myself learning a great deal from her show, Kelly Corrigan Wonders. This episode was a conversation with a psychologist and author and was titled “On Sane Parenting.”  I did not write exact quotes as I listened, but I did take some notes that I paraphrase below:                                                                                                                                                                                             

Toxic stress moves to tolerable stress for a child with the help of a caring relationship with one important adult.

“Whatever you are feeling is just what you’re feeling” is a message kids can benefit from … addressing a child’s worries doesn’t have to be more dramatic. 

There is great value in just joining the parent who is hurting, struggling, suffering, by saying, “I know,” or, saying to the child who just needs to be heard, “I remember.” Parents often should not offer advice or a solution. 

There is powerful value in children realizing and parents acknowledging, “We’re just people ”who were raised by real people …  and you (my child) are just a person being raised by very real people. “It’s a very powerful moment when a child realizes how normal their parents are.” 

They love hearing about our failures … when we got fired from a job, etc.

Our kids can know that we have doubts, insecurities; it’s so much better than them thinking their parents are perfect and never make mistakes or struggle. 

A way to find civil dialogue is to lead with uncertainty and intellectual humility.

Sometimes start responding to a child who is struggling, with, “I don’t know if this would be helpful …”

There is significant importance to modelling repairs to a relationship as a parent … using language carefully in the repair process … Repairs are undermined by an apology that begins, “I am sorry YOU …” Repairs are enhanced by starting, “I am sorry I …” or, even better by simply saying, even to your child, “I was wrong.”

Research is Mesearch

Our children benefit from knowing that all feelings are welcome here.

Even the deepest ruptures are usually repaired. Most people are actually resilient.

ISACS Parent Series
In our Friday Update communication, we continue to share links to amazing speakers that our independent schools association has arranged this year.  They’re worth a listen on a walk or while waiting in the carpool line. I cannot link to them here because you have to go through some registration hoops, but those hoops are worth it to hear Child Psychologist Lisa D’Amour (The Emotional Lives of Teenagers: Raising Connected, Capable, and Compassionate Adolescents) and Researcher, Social Commentator and Author Jonathan Haidt (the cell phone guy who wrote The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness). Next up is Author and Pediatric Psychotherapist Tina Payne Bryson presenting on Elevating Discipline with the Brain in Mind, on Tuesday, January 13, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. Here’s the original communication with directions on how to sign up for the Webinar Series.