Starborn Parenting Podcast

Starborn Parenting Podcast

Rick Kubina, PhD, and Madeline Jürgensen, PhD, have spent their careers studying behavior. Rick has three children of his own and now two grandchildren. Madeline has two young children. In other words, they live the research at home and teach it for a living. Each week on the Starborn Parenting Podcast, they take decades of behavior research blended with their own personal experience and turn it into tools parents can use that same night. Expect honest stories from their own parenting and grandparenting, including some that ended in frustration and tears, plus straight answers about what drives your child's behavior and how to change it without bribes or threats. They skip the jargon, disagree with each other on air, and never claim to have parenting fully figured out. Instead, they approach family life the way true scientists do: always observing, always testing, and sharing what works so other parents can benefit. New episodes drop weekly.

Episodes

July 27, 2026 35 mins

Not every behavior your kid does needs a lecture, and trying to fix everything can burn you out. In this episode, Rick and Madeline break down the four "behavior buckets" every parent should know: behaviors to grow, small stuff to let go, patterns to teach through, and crisis moments where safety comes first. Plus: the five-year test for picking your battles, Hungry Hungry Hippos "cheating," and the pencil story Rick would rather f...

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"Put your shoes on. Put your shoes on. I told you, put your shoes on!" Sound familiar? Rick and Madeline dig into why nagging feels like it works (it's the same intermittent reinforcement that keeps people pulling slot machine levers) and what it costs the trust bank you share with your child. They share what animal trainers can teach us about changing behavior without nagging, plus practical alternatives like specific requests, fa...

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"He's testing me." "She's being dramatic." "He knows exactly what he's doing." Those are theories, and theories can be wrong. This week Rick and Madeline teach a skill that changes how you see your kid, describing exactly what they're doing, without labels or judgment. You'll learn how to pinpoint a behavior in a few countable words, how the video camera test tells you if you're describing what you see or what you assume, and why w...

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July 7, 2026 36 mins

Nearly 400 million kids worldwide (3 out of 4) experience violent discipline at home. This week, Rick and Madeline take on the "blowtorch" of parenting: punishment. They dig into the global data, what pain-induced aggression does to a kid's brain, and why punishing tends to escalate over time without ever teaching kids what to do instead. Plus the difference between penalty and punishment, and three takeaways to help you put the bl...

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July 7, 2026 33 mins

When your kid melts down in aisle 6, something specific set it off, usually in the moment before the behavior. Maybe you said no, or the cart rolled past the toys. And some days, a skipped nap or a rushed morning primes your kid to blow at the smallest thing. In this episode Rick and Madeline break down the pattern behind every meltdown: what happens before, during, and after, so you can spot the setup coming instead of just surviv...

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Mark as Played

Most parents think rewards are pretty simple. Give the kid a treat, and they do the thing. There's a reason it works some days and totally backfires on others. Rick and Madeline get into what really motivates your kid, why the same reward can work for one child and do nothing for another, and how a reward is different from a bribe. By the end you'll have a lot more clarity on why your kid does what they do, and what to do about it.

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Mark as Played

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