This week we’re joined by author, educator, gamer, and all-around brilliant human Ash Brandin, @thegamereducator. With 15 years of teaching experience and a librarian’s heart for digital literacy, Ash brings both research and real-world wisdom to one of parenting’s trickiest topics: screen time.
Their new book, Power On: Managing Screen Time to Benefit the Whole Family, drops Tuesday, August 26, 2025—and we couldn’t be more excited to dive into it with them.
✨ In this conversation, we explore:
- Why it’s time to unlearn the shame around screen use and embrace screen time as neutral. As Ash stated “Shame is not empowering.”
- The Screen Time ABCs—Autonomy, Behavior, and Content—and how they help us rethink what matters most
- Practical ways to build digital literacy and safety into family life (yes, we talk parental controls and Common Sense Media!)
- Ash’s STAR framework (Settings, Time, Ads/App Store, Restrictions) for setting up screens to support—not overwhelm—your family
- How conversations about screen time can shift from stressful battles to ongoing, supportive dialogues
Ash’s approach is empowering, inclusive, and refreshingly realistic. Whether you’re a parent, educator, or just trying to navigate your own relationship with screens, this episode offers frameworks, fresh ideas, and a whole lot of encouragement.
Tune in and get ready to power on—in a way that works for your family.
Recorded in the Omniverus Studios at Liberty Plaza in downtown Winston-Salem, we are produced by Tim Beeman for Such-N-Such Media. Theme music is by Doug Davis.
Links:
- Love what you hear? Donate in any amount to support our podcast or via LinkTree in bio coff.ee/mamasgonnamakeit
- https://www.thegamereducator.com
- @thegamereducator
- Bookshop.org
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