We are thrilled to share our conversation with Emily Cherkin, a.k.a. The Screentime Consultant. Emily shares her journey from being a middle school educator to now a fierce advocate for families and schools to be more tech-intentional. Emily started to notice a shift in education when, as a teacher, she was expected to use an online portal to communicate with students more than having in-person discussions. After her then kindergartener came home with a note asking for him to learn “ctrl+alt+delete” on the keyboard to take standardized testing, she turned into an accidental activist. Jordan shares her struggles with getting people involved locally, and Emily talks through the challenges she has faced in her own advocacy work. Emily describes what being tech-intentional means (spoiler alert: it doesn’t mean being anti-tech) as well as explaining the difference between ed tech and tech ed. Emily talks about how schools should be evaluating the potential use of any ed tech platforms by asking these four questions: Is it safe? Is it effective? Is it legal? Is it better? We talk about how the tide is turning as many states across the country are implementing bell-to-bell smartphone policies. Helen and Emily discuss their current experiences with teaching in higher ed and how to have discussions with future educators about the impact of technology on the profession. We talk about how we have to protect childhood and how these discussions are not anti-tech but pro-childhood and pro-learning.

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Visit thescreentimeconsultant.com to access the UnPlug EdTech Toolkit and connect with Emily.

Subscribe to Emily’s newsletter at substack.com/@emilycherkin.

Sign up for Emily’s free webinar on March 9, 2026: It’s time to talk about EdTech.

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Emily Cherkin, M.Ed., The Screentime Consultant, is leading the fight for a Tech-Intentional™ childhood. Emily works with schools, families, policymakers, and advocacy organizations to ensure the future of education prioritizes skills, safety, and relationships over screens, EdTech, and A.I. Emily is an author, speaker, consultant, and associate professor of public policy at the University of Washington. She is also co-chair of FairPlay’s Screens in Schools Action Network and the lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit against one of the largest EdTech companies in the world. Emily is also the creator of the UnPlug EdTech Toolkit.

We reflect on the important conversation we had on our last episode with Mike McLeod and the positive feedback we’ve received from listeners so far. We look forward to having Mike join us again on a future episode! Helen shares how she is trying out a new routine via her Substack to help cultivate a space for educators to connect with one another. Jordan realizes during the conversation that her segment on the local news about OFF February might literally be airing as we speak. The idea for this episode came after Jordan was reflecting on a recent grocery store experience with her two-year-old; while it would be more convenient to do grocery pickup, she wonders what would be lost by eliminating that experience. We share our childhood shopping experiences: Jordan loved pushing a kid-sized grocery cart, and Helen was given a box of cereal to eat while shopping. Naturally, this leads to comparing notes on our favorite cereals--shoutout to Oreo Os! We then talk about how we accessed and purchased music, movies, and concert tickets before streaming services and smartphones took over. An important point Helen makes is that she is convinced that she invented DVR. Jordan then shares about a recent webinar she attended called: Untangling EdTech: Evidence, Vision, Practice. It discussed how students using learning management systems (Google Classroom, Schoology, etc.) are often losing their ability to practice executive functioning skills, another potential loss in the name of convenience.

We are so excited to share our conversation with our very first Millennial dad guest: Mike McLeod! Mike is a professional speaker, ADHD and executive function expert, and the founder and CEO of GrowNOW ADHD who recently released his first book, The Executive Function Playbook. We start the episode reflecting on Helen’s daughter’s first birthday party and how adorably fabulous it was! Then we kick things off and ask Mike to share his journey to becoming the founder of GrowNOW ADHD. He shares his expertise about what ADHD and executive functions are (and what they are not)--spoiler alert: it’s not just kids having messy backpacks. He details the four pillars of executive functioning and explains how he takes a different approach at GrowNOW ADHD. We address how social media can make parenting harder because of all the “parenting experts” giving advice. We talk about his experience of writing a book and how it feels now that it’s out there. Mike shares his classroom observation experiences after traveling the country and visiting schools, including the problems he sees with edtech and school-issued devices. We reflect on what it’s like being millennial parents and how we’re all just trying our best. Mike and Jordan share their memories of a beloved 90's childhood play place: Discovery Zone. We were honored to have Mike join our podcast to share his experiences and expertise.