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.

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, we are talking all about the sometimes successful, oftentimes completely terrifying world of online dating. But first, Jordan discusses her latest local news interview experience talking about OFF February as well as speaking at a school board meeting for the first time. Jordan then shares about PhoneFreeSchoolsReport.org, which tracks which states have put legislation in place for phone-free schools. And one more Can’t Look Away screening has been scheduled for the end of this month with a more targeted approach to reach mental health professionals in our community. Helen then kicks off the dating conversation with her brief list of online dating “failures” via the Coffee Meets Bagel app in grad school, From a bold, in-person library ask-out to a weird Weird Al invite, those relationships just weren’t meant to be. Jordan’s online dating experiences, however, were plentiful and on multiple platforms. Ultimately, swiping right led to meeting her husband Brian! We then close with some concerning online “dating” trends happening with AI chatbots. There is a café in NYC opening specifically for people to take their AI chatbots on a date. We share our concerns about people forming attachments to AI rather than sustaining meaningful, human relationships.

We cover some heavy, but necessary, topics in this episode in order to answer the question: What does advocacy look like? Helen opens the episode by reading a statement made by Alex Pretti’s parents. We then debrief on our conversation with Becca Bramwell, including Helen’s realization that they, in fact, knew each other at EIU. Helen shares about her trip to Milwaukee for the Writing Innovation Symposium. Jordan is trying to come to terms with her oldest turning six and reflects on what it has been like being a mom for the past six years. We each discuss what lessons we want to pass on to our kids. Jordan shares her history of advocacy--first as a high school counselor and now as a parent with her own children, as well as for families in her community. An update is given about the ongoing social media trials and how to follow along. We then try to explain how advocacy and activism don’t always need to mean conflict or right vs. wrong. Jordan shares that February 1st is the start of OFF February and how to be intentional when using social media. We end by discussing a devastating story of an Indiana teen girl’s tragic death. Hailey Buzbee was a 17-year-old girl who met a man on an online gaming platform then was groomed and (allegedly) murdered by him. We hope that by using our platform to bring awareness to important issues, we may help another family avoid enduring the unimaginable pain of losing a child to online harms.

We are excited to add another perspective and voice to episode 26 with Becca Bramwell, current Principal of Prairie Grove Middle School in Prairie Grove, Arkansas. Becca and Jordan met in 2017 during new staff orientation at East Peoria Community High School and have been friends ever since. Becca shares her journey through education from a high school math teacher, to technology integration specialist, into middle school math teacher, then instructional facilitator, and now, middle school principal! We talk about the mental load that educators carry and how much is on a teacher’s plate. Becca shares about moving to teach in Joplin, Missouri, soon after the deadly tornados; the district was gifted funds from the United Arab Emirates to provide every student with laptops. From there, we dive into the stressful world of planning kid birthday parties. While talking about our reading choices, Becca grabs the most ridiculous looking (but clearly practical) laying down reading glasses. We talk about school cellphone policies and how Arkansas has a state, bell-to-bell cellphone law, which Becca loves—she details how well it’s working in her building. We talk about building community and how it’s difficult for both youth and adults!

We (attempt to) discuss the purpose and history of education. Jordan starts off the episode giving some book club updates and a recap of the latest Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing held about kids and screens. Helen and Jordan discuss the funny differences in their approach to “doing things.” Jordan often dives in immediately, and Helen takes more time to think it through. Most recently, Jordan created a technology survey to gather parent feedback regarding concerns with personal devices and school devices. She discusses an analogy about how smoking was once accepted (or at least permitted) in many places, including schools, and now the same is true with smartphones. Both are health-harming and both have secondhand effects. As Helen gives her first report on her “Introduction to Education in the United States” course, she teaches us all what a “snow squall” is after experiencing her first one! On the first day of class, Helen asked her students, “What is the purpose of education?” Jordan attempts to answer this in one word or short phrase and (not surprisingly) answers with many words. Helen discusses the latest Brookings Report on AI in education then shares about her current work-in-progress: creating a video series regarding disciplinary AI literacy and educator identity.

A new direction for students in an AI world

Jordan shares about her local TV news interview experience and how the segment disappointingly did not end up airing. (At the time of this episode release, the segment has aired.) Our conversation about a new global initiative called OFF February leads to the mutual agreement that Jordan writes emails that are far too long. Jordan shares about her first book club meeting reading Jean Twenge’s 10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High-Tech World and how it was a fantastic experience. Helen is gearing up for the first week of a new semester, teaching “Introduction to Education in the United States,” and in her recent state of “antsiness,” she took her daughter to the Peoria Zoo and then the fantastic Peoria Playhouse. We then dive into a Facebook history lesson; both our personal histories with the platform and the history of the company now rebranded as Meta. Jordan’s Facebook origin story goes back to the year THE Facebook was created in 2004, and Helen signed up a few years later in 2008. We each share various posts (both humorous and cringe-worthy) that we discovered in our deep dives. One memory Jordan forgot is that she had met Dierks Bentley--who is apparently a country musician--while at Ball State University. We then share about our differences in how we handle our Facebook “friends.”

Scrolling2Death, The Heat is On: https://www.scrolling2death.com/heat