Good Inside with Dr. Becky

Challenge Accepted is a new limited podcast series from Good Inside and Hot Wheels. Created for parents who want to raise resilient kids, this series explores the early experiences that shape who we become - and the mindset it takes to keep pushing forward. This is Episode 1 of 4.
What if confidence isn’t believing you’ll succeed, but knowing you’ll survive it if you don’t? Kellie Gerardi grew up near Kennedy Space Center dreaming of space, with no obvious way to get there. She had no military background, wasn’t on a test-pilot track, and her parents had no background in science. She left Earth anyway, flying in November 2023 as a researcher on a Virgin Galactic science mission.
Dr. Becky digs into what happened early in Kellie’s life that made “I can figure this out” possible. It started with parents who took her interests seriously without promising her anything. Then came a kindergarten meltdown over reading an analog clock that changed how she handled failure. And it shows up now in why she lets her daughters watch her be bad at things (ever tried weekly improv?). They also talk about how her scientist’s mindset helped her through years of secondary infertility, and how to assess when quitting is actually the right call.
Stay tuned for coming episodes of Challenge Accepted, featuring Olympic bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor; New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart; and YouTuber, engineer, and inventor Mark Rober.
*
Thank you to Hot Wheels for making this episode possible.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Every parent asks their kid some version of the same question: “Who's your best friend?” Adam Grant thinks that's the wrong thing to be asking, at any age.
His new book Vibe breaks friendship into four types: pals, allies, companions, and associates. Most of us assume we need one person who's all four. Grant's research says that's a setup for disappointment, and that kids who are genuinely well-liked at school still feel excluded and isolated if they don't have one "bestie."
Dr. Becky and Adam get into why it takes about 50 hours, on average, to make a friend (and up to 200 to make a close one), why a scary hike or a rough IKEA build can bond people faster than anything easy, and why the person who reacts the biggest in your house usually ends up running it.
*
Thank you to Yoto for making this episode possible. Get 15% off your order with the code DRBECKY15 at YotoPlay.com. New customers only, ends October 31, offer valid on select products only. Terms apply.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We spend too much time making sure our boys know the right answer, and not enough time helping them build the emotional skills to act on it when the stakes are high.
“Should you respect someone’s no?” Yes.
“Should you speak up when something bad is happening?” Yes.
Our kids can ace that test.
Now add rejection. Add wanting to belong. Add: “If I say something, my friends might turn on me.”
Knowing the right answer isn’t the same as being able to act on it when the moment gets hard.
In this episode, a special recording of a live event with the Good Inside community in response to recent headlines about sexual assault, Dr. Becky shares three emotional skills we can start building in our boys today. These aren’t everything - sexual violence is not an individual parenting problem, and it won’t have an individual parenting solution. But these aren't nothing, either. They're some things we can do now, long before the stakes get higher.
Read Dr. Becky’s notes on this episode on the Good Inside blog.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Melinda French Gates has run some of the most powerful rooms in the world. She co-founded and co-chaired the Gates Foundation. She's sat across from heads of state. And in her 40s, at the top of her career, she started doubting herself in meetings she'd run a hundred times before.
She talks to Dr. Becky about why: chronic insomnia; undiagnosed perimenopause; a body that had learned, years earlier, to override its own signals, first in a male-dominated work culture, then in a college relationship that taught her not to trust her own read on things.
They get into a Gallup survey Melinda’s organization Pivotal Ventures ran this year of 5,000 adults, where half the respondents who'd been pregnant said they struggled with their mental health during or after it. And they talk about what Melinda calls the "10,000 paper cuts": the small, repeated moments, a comment talked over in a meeting, a doctor who doesn't quite listen, that teach women to stop trusting their own gut long before anyone tells them to, directly, all at once.
Becky and Melinda work out what actually rebuilds that trust, in doctors' offices and living rooms alike. Plus: what Melinda's granddaughters are teaching her about the phrase "I'm not ready yet," and the running joke she and her own kids share that perfect is creepy.
*
Thanks to Carter’s, Good Inside’s new Confidence Program is free for every family for the next six months. Click here to learn more.
*
Thank you to our partners for making this episode possible:
Frida: Shop Frida at Amazon, Target, and Walmart today
Perelel: Use code GOODINSIDE for 20% off your first order at perelelhealth.com/GOODINSIDE
Yoto: Get 15% off your order with the code DRBECKY15 at YotoPlay.com. New customers only, ends October 31, offer valid on select products only. Terms apply.
Care.com: For a limited time, you can use the code BECKY35 to save 35% on a Care.com Premium Membership.**Offer applies to initial term of http://Care.com membership subscriptions. Not applicable to add-on features or non-renewing access fees or services. Expires 10/31/26. Care.com does not employ or place any caregiver. Background checks are an important start, but they have limits. Visit www.care.com/safety.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Two parents came to Dr. Becky on the same day, both worried about their kid's confidence. One had a kid who wouldn't join the group. The other had a teenager who wouldn't leave the group. Dr. Becky says: maybe confidence isn’t what we think it is. She breaks down what confidence actually means, then she names three things well-meaning parents do that quietly work against building that kind of confidence.
Thanks to Carter’s, Good Inside’s new Confidence Program is free for every family for the next six months. Click here to learn more.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.