Episodes

  • What’s in a Pronoun?

    What’s in a Pronoun?
    Sep 15 2025
    In this Season 2 conclusion, CWS talks with three young college students about their use of personal pronouns, and how these terms relate to their sense of their own gender and place in the world.
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    10 mins
  • Resilience in Little Rock

    Resilience in Little Rock
    Sep 15 2025
    CWS explores resilience in the face of racial terror by speaking with Dr. Terry Roberts, a member of the Little Rock Nine, who at fifteen years old volunteered to help desegregate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957.
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    14 mins
  • Music and Mania

    Music and Mania
    Sep 15 2025
    CWS explores the connections between music, mania, and the creative process with Sparni, a talented young musician who lives with Bipolar Disorder.
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    10 mins
  • Young People in Transition

    Young People in Transition
    Sep 15 2025
    CWS speaks with two transgender people,Benjamin and Juliette, about their lives and how they have navigated the complex social, psychological, and familial consequences of living transgender lives.
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    17 mins
  • Outed in 8th Grade

    Outed in 8th Grade
    Sep 15 2025
    This inaugural episode of Season 2 explores the social and psychological costs of being outed in middle school by school officials for being queer.
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    11 mins
  • The Paradox of Self-Injury

    The Paradox of Self-Injury
    May 10 2023
    Self-Injury is the deliberate destruction of body tissue – often through cutting or burning. Paradoxically, says Dr. Janis Whitlock, director of the Cornell Research Program on Self-Injury and Recovery, this behavior typically emerges from a desire to feel better, not to end one’s life. This impulse is critical, explains Dr. Whitlock, and it can be built upon to find healthier coping mechanisms. The episode also features Rylee Rose, a teen living in Northern New Jersey who has struggled with self-injury, explaining her reasons for self-injuring – and how this behavior fit into her larger struggle with mental health. Two of the most powerful findings of Dr. Whitlock’s research are that parental involvement was the single most important factor in a young person’s recovery – and the majority of teens who self-injure say they wish they could talk to an adult about their experiences.
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    17 mins
  • How the New 988 Hotline Works

    How the New 988 Hotline Works
    May 10 2023
    Fifty years ago, most people believed that you could not prevent suicide, explains Dr. Madelyn Gould, Professor of Epidemiology in Psychiatry, Columbia University, but today, partly because of her ground-breaking research, we know that suicide IS preventable. And one of the most effective crisis responses is the new national 988 Hotline. The vast majority of people who call asking for help say that just twenty minutes of conversation, on average, stopped them from killing themselves. Dr. Gould explains why and how the 988 Hotline is so effective and urges young people (and their parents) to use this resource to keep them safe during a crisis.
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    13 mins
  • Talking to Teens About Suicide

    Talking to Teens About Suicide
    May 10 2023
    Teens are already talking about suicide – they just might not be talking to you. One out of every five high school students in the United States seriously considered suicide in 2021, according to the CDC, and more than half of our country’s female students experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness. In this episode we speak with Dr. Laura Erickson-Schroth, Chief Medical Officer at the Jed Foundation, about starting a conversation with your teen and some ways to respond if your child says they are thinking about suicide.
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    9 mins