Speaker 1: Hi. I'm Laura Vanderkamp. I'm a mother of five, an author, journalist,
Speaker 1: and speaker.
Speaker 2: And I'm Sarah hart Hunger, a mother of three, practicing physician, writer,
Speaker 2: and course creator. We are two working parents who love
Speaker 2: our careers and our families.
Speaker 1: Welcome to best of both worlds. Here we talk about
Speaker 1: how real women manage work, family, and time for fun.
Speaker 1: From figuring out childcare to mapping out long term career goals.
Speaker 1: We want you to get the most out of life.
Speaker 1: Welcome to best of both worlds. This is Laura. This
Speaker 1: episode is airing in mid June of twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: I am going to be interviewing Rachel fold Cohen, who
Speaker 1: is the co founder and CEO of Silicon Society, which
Speaker 1: is an ed tech company focused on creating personalized learning
Speaker 1: experiences involving AI. She's a mom of three and also
Speaker 1: just generally likes to talk about bringing best practices from
Speaker 1: the tech world into family life and kind of vice versa,
Speaker 1: bringing best practices from family life into the world of
Speaker 1: tech companies. So we'll talk a little bit about that
Speaker 1: and you know, unique ways that parents can make a
Speaker 1: good run of it in tech companies. So yeah, we
Speaker 1: talk about that, but we wanted to open this episode
Speaker 1: by talking a little bit about the tech that we
Speaker 1: are currently using in our lives. Sarah actually created a
Speaker 1: lovely top ten list of the apps that apps that
Speaker 1: are on shoes top you know, home screen right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I was thinking about, like what was
Speaker 2: funny because and we're not going to be negative on
Speaker 2: this episode, but my husband was like fantasizing about getting
Speaker 2: something called like a light phone, which has less apps
Speaker 2: on it, and I'm like, no, there are certain apps
Speaker 2: on my phone that like I do not really want
Speaker 2: to not have in my life. So then I thought
Speaker 2: about what are the most essential things that I would
Speaker 2: just be like devastated. And Laura's going to mention one
Speaker 2: of them, which I agree with, is probably my top app.
Speaker 2: But I'll let her talk about that one. But I
Speaker 2: don't know my top like ten apps. I need the
Speaker 2: weather app and some way of like monitoring for thunderstorms.
Speaker 1: So do you have something special for like when the
Speaker 1: thunderstorm hits, Because there's some that are more specific, right
Speaker 1: than like that native weather app. I have weather Bug.
Speaker 2: It's free and it will show like where the lightning
Speaker 2: bolts are specifically.
Speaker 1: It's great. I have tray mind right now. Sometimes it is.
Speaker 2: I have tray Mind or to track my invisil line
Speaker 2: or aligner progress. Really like that. You guys know, I
Speaker 2: love you need a budget app. Use that constantly. I
Speaker 2: will say big shout out to the fact that you
Speaker 2: can deposit a check on your phone, Like that was
Speaker 2: an annoying errand we had to do for years and
Speaker 2: then like maybe a decade or so ago, you could
Speaker 2: do it on your phone. So I have the Wells
Speaker 2: Fargo app for check depositing. What's App is a great
Speaker 2: kind of I really like it for I mean, it's
Speaker 2: not my choice, but for school it's definitely to go
Speaker 2: to app for classrooms and a bunch of activities. And
Speaker 2: what I mean by not my choice is like the teachers,
Speaker 2: the ones that make that choice. But I'm just so
Speaker 2: glad that, like regionally, what's Up seems to be what
Speaker 2: everyone uses and not like a social media app. Since
Speaker 2: I don't really like going to social media. I have
Speaker 2: yet to be forced to join Facebook for some sort
Speaker 2: of activity. It's always WhatsApp, So that's great headspace for
Speaker 2: my meditation.
Speaker 1: Use that almost every day.
Speaker 2: I do use the high q app, which is Epics
Speaker 2: mobile app.
Speaker 1: I use it mostly when I'm on call.
Speaker 2: I generally access that via the desktop because it's frustrating
Speaker 2: to like see patient messages on your phone. But then
Speaker 2: I'm not going to like respond to a patient message
Speaker 2: on my phone. That would take forever. So I try
Speaker 2: to only use that for like when I have to.
Speaker 2: But it's I'm glad that it exists. The Due Lingo
Speaker 2: app is very helpful. The New York Times Games app.
Speaker 2: I didn't used to use this through the app. I
Speaker 2: just like went to the site. But the other day
Speaker 2: I was like, I'm going to treat myself to a subscription,
Speaker 2: and then I got the app and it's been fun.
Speaker 2: And then finally maybe a controversial pick. I do like
Speaker 2: Life three sixty because then I can see where everybody is.
Speaker 2: It's actually my favorite use of it is not stalking
Speaker 2: my children, although that is helpful, but being able to
Speaker 2: not nag my husband because I'll be waiting for him
Speaker 2: and then I won't be able to know if he's
Speaker 2: on his way. But this way I can tell if
Speaker 2: he's on his way, So actually, I guess it enables
Speaker 2: me to nag him if he hasn't left yet for something.
Speaker 2: That I know is going to make us late, but like, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's great Life three sixty, very helpful.
Speaker 1: I might it's been helpful, yeah, for I don't have that,
Speaker 1: but knowing where the kids' phones are. If they're like
Speaker 1: telling you when they're going to need to be picked
Speaker 1: up and their time estimation is way off, I'm like,
Speaker 1: I can see that the bus is like not where
Speaker 1: you're saying it is, and it's like a real time update.
Speaker 2: Because you just use like find my is that howbeit okay,
Speaker 2: it's the same same deal.
Speaker 1: Yeah, although I don't have that on my phone as
Speaker 1: my husband has the account for their phones, so he's
Speaker 1: the one finding them, so but he'll report back. I
Speaker 1: would say, just like in general online ski I mean,
Speaker 1: whether that's through an app or just through their website,
Speaker 1: but something like restaurants, being able to look at multiple
Speaker 1: restaurants on open table and see availability is just so
Speaker 1: infinitely more efficient, like or your doctor has it, or
Speaker 1: even you know a app like ZocDoc if you're not
Speaker 1: you know, you're just trying to find somebody new and
Speaker 1: you know, see who has availability. We use park Whiz
Speaker 1: when we drive into New York City, which again is
Speaker 1: also a game changer of finding a garage that the
Speaker 1: price differential is ridiculous. Like we parked in one where
Speaker 1: the base rate was twenty one dollars for the evening
Speaker 1: when we went in a couple weeks ago for Jasper's birthday,
Speaker 1: and literally one that was two blocks away was sixty
Speaker 1: dollars for the same thing. And it's just like, you
Speaker 1: would have no transparency on this unless you like pulled
Speaker 1: in and asked, and by the time you're pulling in,
Speaker 1: you're probably not pulling out because it's kind of like
Speaker 1: a pain. And then to leave the garage once you're
Speaker 1: in it, you don't know if there's somewhere around this
Speaker 1: batter And now you do and you know you can
Speaker 1: get a spot. It's like just so much better than
Speaker 1: in the past. Map and traffic apps, oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: not perfect either. But I was thinking about this the
Speaker 1: other night. I was coming home from a rehearsal. I
Speaker 1: was nine thirty at night. So normally I seventy six
Speaker 1: has horrible traffic during the day in Philadelphia, but rarely
Speaker 1: at nine thirty at night, Like you would be surprised
Speaker 1: to see traffic on I seventy six, So I would
Speaker 1: have normally just gone on it, but I happened to
Speaker 1: look at the traffic app and there was something ridiculous,
Speaker 1: like something had happened. Who knows, like if they were
Speaker 1: repaving two out of three lanes or you know, there
Speaker 1: was an accident. I don't know, but it was completely
Speaker 1: stopped up, and so I went was rerooted around it,
Speaker 1: and I was like, wow, I would have just been
Speaker 1: sitting there like thirty forty five minutes on the highway
Speaker 1: when I'm just trying to get home at nine thirty
Speaker 1: at night. I'm really glad that this knowledge exists. I
Speaker 1: have picture this. I will throw this out there. A
Speaker 1: blog reader suggested this when I was trying to identify
Speaker 1: a plant in my yard. It is paid, so if
Speaker 1: your botany desire does not rise to the level of
Speaker 1: being a budget item, then you probably don't want to
Speaker 1: avail yourself of this. But I love knowing exactly what
Speaker 1: the plant is. And I was using sk which was free,
Speaker 1: but it just like wasn't working that well. And this
Speaker 1: picture this works really really well. So I've had like
Speaker 1: one where it didn't know and that may have been
Speaker 1: a lighting issue. So I'm going to throw that out
Speaker 1: there and I will say, Sarah, I love email.
Speaker 2: It's an asynchronous form of communication.
Speaker 1: It is great, it is and I know people let
Speaker 1: it take over their life, but you don't have to
Speaker 1: let it take over your life. You can decide to
Speaker 1: check it when you wish to check it, and if
Speaker 1: you treat it as a tool, it is an amazing
Speaker 1: way for you to reach people in a way that
Speaker 1: is not annoying for them because you are sending it
Speaker 1: at a time that they can check when they wish.
Speaker 1: And it is a way for people who would never
Speaker 1: have called you to reach you as well. So it
Speaker 1: allows people readers, listeners, viewers, whatever to find you and
Speaker 1: to send you feedback in a direct way. And I
Speaker 1: really enjoy that aspect. We love hearing from listeners, so
Speaker 1: please email me Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. I
Speaker 1: would love to hear what you think are what your
Speaker 1: top apps are as well. So we'll go ahead and
Speaker 1: listen to what Rachel fold Cohen has to say. Well,
Speaker 1: Sarah and I are delighted to have Rachel fold Cohen
Speaker 1: with us. So, Rachel, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much, so excited to be here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so why don't you tell our listeners a little
Speaker 1: bit about yourself.
Speaker 3: Yes, awesome. So, like you said, my name is Rachel
Speaker 3: fold Cohen. I'm the CEO and co founder of Silicon Society,
Speaker 3: and I've really grown up in the tech space. So
Speaker 3: started working in a startup in Soho and the adorable
Speaker 3: little office with a small team years ago, and I've
Speaker 3: really grown up throughout the ed tech space, got my
Speaker 3: master's in career development with a focus on talent development,
Speaker 3: and so at Silicon Society, what we're building is a
Speaker 3: space for folks to lead a scalable AI native shadows
Speaker 3: for the future of learning. And so it's been really
Speaker 3: cool to mix all those interests together. But what's been
Speaker 3: most interesting to me is seeing how I've learned from
Speaker 3: my whole tech experience and brought it into my parenting life.
Speaker 3: So I have three kids. They are how old are
Speaker 3: they today? They are six, nine, and ten, so nice
Speaker 3: and close together, and they teach me every day and
Speaker 3: hopefully I teach them and to dream to be sharing
Speaker 3: some of those learnings on this podcast.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, So you got kids in kind of the
Speaker 1: elementary school years, and I'm sure that you know there's
Speaker 1: been a lot of evolution and how tech is used
Speaker 1: in the elementary school years of Are your kids at
Speaker 1: a school where they do use a lot of tech?
Speaker 3: They do, Yeah, so they're spending about a third of
Speaker 3: their time on different forms of technology. So the school
Speaker 3: actually uses a rotational model, which is one of the
Speaker 3: things that I really appreciate about it, so that they
Speaker 3: either get some small time with their future small group
Speaker 3: time or they're spending it on technology. And it's really
Speaker 3: cool to see how some even kids apps have started
Speaker 3: differentiating their learning so that folk kids could be like
Speaker 3: advancing where they need to be. So that's definitely been
Speaker 3: a growing area.
Speaker 1: For the cool Well. I love the idea of differentiated instruction, especially,
Speaker 1: you know, kids have so many different needs and it's
Speaker 1: so hard as an individual teacher to meet all of them.
Speaker 1: But that's something that software can definitely excel at. But
Speaker 1: we wanted to talk with you about some of the
Speaker 1: ways that you know you are using tech in your
Speaker 1: home life and maybe some strategies that people might want
Speaker 1: to try. Yeah, some tips for our busy parents, definitely.
Speaker 3: And it's something that I think I naturally think about
Speaker 3: because when I'm with my kids, I'm thinking about their
Speaker 3: learning and development. And frankly, having three kids so quickly together,
Speaker 3: some of that definitely didn't go great at the beginning.
Speaker 3: So my first two kids are seventeen months apart. For
Speaker 3: those first seventeen months of my son's life, oh man,
Speaker 3: I gave him all the attention, like he wanted to
Speaker 3: bake with me, We bake, and I would teach him
Speaker 3: exactly how many teaspoons in a tablespoon, and he'd be
Speaker 3: pouring everything in and he'd spill and I would say,
Speaker 3: no problem, we'll clean it up, not a big deal.
Speaker 3: And then, as life has it, my next came pretty
Speaker 3: close behind, and I was so quickly felt like I
Speaker 3: was just kind of moving her over to the side
Speaker 3: and being like, just don't get in the way of
Speaker 3: our baking. We have a special little thing we do
Speaker 3: every week, and you're gonna play with a toy on
Speaker 3: the floor. And eventually, of course she wouldn't have any
Speaker 3: of that. She wanted to be part of the fun
Speaker 3: baking activity, and so I was kind of meeting at
Speaker 3: her level, and my oldest was getting bored. He knew
Speaker 3: that he used to get all of my attention and
Speaker 3: he was ready to learn more stuff. And I was
Speaker 3: going back to the tea spoon to tablespoon measurements. And
Speaker 3: then my third came along a few years later, and
Speaker 3: we were really lucky to have I'll just spell it
Speaker 3: out so it doesn't mess up everyone's home, but an
Speaker 3: al Exa in our home by that point in time,
Speaker 3: and so I could actually tell him what to be
Speaker 3: asking our AI assistant in our home, and they could
Speaker 3: be explaining some of those answers. And this was my
Speaker 3: first real, like aha moment of differentiated learning in the household.
Speaker 3: How we can actually use these speakers that we all
Speaker 3: hate that they're listening to us all the time, but
Speaker 3: really in a way to meet our kids' needs at
Speaker 3: their own developmental stages. So baking to me was a
Speaker 3: great example of one. But we actually use AI in
Speaker 3: the home for a lot of different things. So we'll
Speaker 3: use it for things like getting the weather or hearing
Speaker 3: sports scores, like really basic things that my kids want
Speaker 3: to know different pieces of and I don't know the answer,
Speaker 3: and honestly, I don't want to staring at screens. I
Speaker 3: don't want them looking at my phone. It's a quick
Speaker 3: way to get a piece of information and then talk
Speaker 3: about it as a family. So that's some like differentiated
Speaker 3: learning examples. I can also share some kind of tactical
Speaker 3: like how I use AI, but that could be a
Speaker 3: separate one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, I definitely want to hear it. I
Speaker 1: love the idea, I mean, because kids have so many
Speaker 1: random questions, and I mean, you want to answer some
Speaker 1: of them, and certainly the important ones are ones that
Speaker 1: deal with values you know you as a parent want
Speaker 1: to take on. But when you're asked by three different
Speaker 1: children in the morning what the weather is like today,
Speaker 1: it could be a little bit like by the third question,
Speaker 1: you're probably not that nice of a parent and answering totally.
Speaker 1: Some tech assistant might be better for that, at least
Speaker 1: in terms of patients. But what else are you guys
Speaker 1: using it for?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so some of my favorite hacks so using AI
Speaker 3: for school supply lists. This is one of my least
Speaker 3: favorite parenting tasks is at some point in the spring,
Speaker 3: you get a list of all the stuff you're gonna
Speaker 3: have to send in in the fall. My kids have
Speaker 3: multiple teachers and activities, so I have like four or
Speaker 3: five six different lists that for some reason, my brain
Speaker 3: just cannot cross check it all on its own. So
Speaker 3: what I started doing a couple of years ago. Was
Speaker 3: just copying, pasting the lists into whatever AI or whatever
Speaker 3: LLLM it is that you use, and just asking you,
Speaker 3: like doing some prompt engineering to ask it to put
Speaker 3: it in different categories, you know, combine, like if each
Speaker 3: list has a pair of scissors, just put five scissors
Speaker 3: on one list, or really just creating one list. You
Speaker 3: can even tell it what type of story you're going to.
Speaker 3: If you're going to like an art supply store and
Speaker 3: a supermarket, it'll put different lists for those different stories
Speaker 3: you're going to. If you're going to a place like Walmart,
Speaker 3: it could probably be all on one list, but you
Speaker 3: can kind of get it just to do some really
Speaker 3: specific tasks for you. I also love using it for
Speaker 3: travel planning specifically because as my kids age, even for
Speaker 3: day trips, there's such different needs. So we're actually going
Speaker 3: to a Kadia this summer, which I'm so looking forward to.
Speaker 3: We did go four years ago, but my kids were
Speaker 3: really different ages. So I actually put in our itinerary
Speaker 3: from a few years ago, updated with my kids current ages,
Speaker 3: and said how would you adjust this and what would
Speaker 3: you add? And I was able to get a whole
Speaker 3: new itinerary to research. So it really like doing that
Speaker 3: really specific prompt engineering. And if you're not good at
Speaker 3: putting in an initial prompt, just really spending a few
Speaker 3: minutes chatting with the AI will get you some really
Speaker 3: great outputs and honestly efficiencies. My trip planning now takes
Speaker 3: me an hour where it used to take me weeks,
Speaker 3: and I just really appreciate that time back.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well that's so interesting. I mean, so prompt engineering
Speaker 1: maybe a phrase that people who are not immersed in
Speaker 1: this like you are, may not have heard, yea even
Speaker 1: before this episode. What that is is maybe spell it
Speaker 1: out a little slowly for us. It's thinking about how
Speaker 1: you're getting the AI to respond with what you want.
Speaker 3: Is that right exactly? So anytime you ask a question
Speaker 3: to an AI verbal or you're typing it into a
Speaker 3: chat feature, that is a prompt. So if you say
Speaker 3: what is today's weather? That is a prompt. If you
Speaker 3: say who won the Super Bowl in nineteen ninety six,
Speaker 3: that is a prompt. But if you want to get
Speaker 3: a very specific output to your needs, the more information
Speaker 3: you give it, the more specific the output would be.
Speaker 3: And so prompt engineering is just a fancy way of
Speaker 3: saying figuring out exactly how you want to ask a
Speaker 3: question to get the output that you want. There are
Speaker 3: some amazing resources online, like prompt engineering guides. There's definitely
Speaker 3: one out there for travel, I'm sure we can find,
Speaker 3: but also for different scenarios, and a lot of the
Speaker 3: best practices are things like tell AI what you want
Speaker 3: it to be, so like the Great of the Star
Speaker 3: of a great prompt will usually include something like you
Speaker 3: are my travel planner for today. Here is what I
Speaker 3: need you to do, and then something very specific. So
Speaker 3: you're giving the AI a job and then prompting it
Speaker 3: with what output you want, and that's usually the most
Speaker 3: effective way. So that's some basic guidelines. If you're just
Speaker 3: getting started thinking about something like prompt engineering, do.
Speaker 1: You think it could help? But sort of like planning
Speaker 1: a summer, like what kids should be doing? Would it
Speaker 1: be able to look at the opportunities in your area
Speaker 1: and suggest, you know, or I have a fourteen year
Speaker 1: old who's into X and Y, what would you suggest
Speaker 1: we do is that? How would you shape that one?
Speaker 3: Yeah, well that's a great question. So what AI is
Speaker 3: very good at right now is general so types of activities.
Speaker 3: What it is getting better at is search. So AI
Speaker 3: search is still very new months old, where it's actually
Speaker 3: searching like Google would and then aggregating that information, so
Speaker 3: not just pulling information from like a corpus of past data.
Speaker 3: And so what's been interesting is that companies have not
Speaker 3: yet figured out how to I don't want to say game,
Speaker 3: but I'm going to say game AI search. Whereas like
Speaker 3: in order to game Google search, there's like SEO right
Speaker 3: search engine optimization, and websites were super focused on their
Speaker 3: search visibility. People haven't figured out how to quote unquote
Speaker 3: game AI search. What that means is that when you today,
Speaker 3: like as of mid twenty twenty five, AI search kind
Speaker 3: of pull some random stuff in there. So what I
Speaker 3: wouldn't necessarily recommend to say, like what summer camp should
Speaker 3: I send my kid to in this area, because it
Speaker 3: might actually pull a super niche camp that maybe isn't
Speaker 3: even so close. But if you ask a bit more
Speaker 3: broad question, it'll give you a starting off point. But
Speaker 3: follow this space, AI search is going to be really
Speaker 3: well defined in companies are going to learn how to
Speaker 3: be found on it.
Speaker 1: Excellent, excellent. Well, we're going to take a quick ad
Speaker 1: break and then I'll be back with more from Rachel Well.
Speaker 1: I am back with Rachel Fuld Cohen from the Silicon Society.
Speaker 1: We've been talking about ways that tech can assist our
Speaker 1: lives as busy parents. But you've been in the tech
Speaker 1: space for a long time at this point, and I
Speaker 1: know that a lot of what has been talked about
Speaker 1: and tech and with parenting is like, well, how can
Speaker 1: parents still make it despite the hustle culture and all that.
Speaker 1: I feel like you have a slightly different take on this.
Speaker 1: Do you want to talk about that a little bit?
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely, let's talk about it. Yes, I definitely do.
Speaker 3: I feel like there's been so much written out there
Speaker 3: about how parents make especially good employees, workers leaders because
Speaker 3: they're so good at balancing and juggling things, And of
Speaker 3: course that is true to an extent, but I actually
Speaker 3: think it's like getting the chicken and the egg wrong.
Speaker 3: And I think actually the narrative maybe serves to do
Speaker 3: a disservice to parents because it just this reminds everyone
Speaker 3: of all the juggling that we're doing all the time,
Speaker 3: which real talk, we absolutely are. But what I think
Speaker 3: is that the best parent caregiver employees that I've worked
Speaker 3: with that I see on a daily basis are folks
Speaker 3: who are naturally good at doing more with less. They
Speaker 3: are naturally good at finding tools, at finding people, at
Speaker 3: finding solutions that help them maximize their time at home
Speaker 3: and maximize their time at work. And when you see
Speaker 3: it done well, it's really skillful. Not to say that
Speaker 3: I don't feel guilty on the weeks that my kids
Speaker 3: are all from school and I'm juggling everything and things
Speaker 3: feel like they're falling. It doesn't mean it feels perfect
Speaker 3: or good all the time, but I actually think a
Speaker 3: lot of parents are just very naturally good at doing
Speaker 3: more with less and delegating. My kids call my delegating chores.
Speaker 3: I call it making them responsible humans who can take
Speaker 3: on household responsibilities. And honestly, same with my staff. I
Speaker 3: mean my staff, many of them are parents are incredible
Speaker 3: at cross supporting each other doing more with less. Like
Speaker 3: I mean, I think AI is such an obvious way
Speaker 3: that everyone can do more with less. But even before that,
Speaker 3: there are so many tools that I think the best
Speaker 3: workers just use because it makes their life easier. And
Speaker 3: so I do think, yes, we are all good at
Speaker 3: juggling a lot, but we're juggling fewer balls because we
Speaker 3: can use the tools and we can delegate, and I
Speaker 3: just like love seeing parents and caregivers in the workforce
Speaker 3: route at it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I'm very curious. What chores do you have
Speaker 1: your kids doing that? Uh? What's the chor schedule in
Speaker 1: the Cohen family?
Speaker 3: Yes, okay, well the chor schedule was pretty set for
Speaker 3: a while, so they're always the domain starts with their room,
Speaker 3: so like for my six year old, he is in
Speaker 3: charge of his room, so making his bed, making sure
Speaker 3: there are own stuff on the floor, and hanging up
Speaker 3: their towel. Man, if this day starts like that, that
Speaker 3: is a great day for my nine and ten year old.
Speaker 3: They also have responsibilities like setting the table for a
Speaker 3: weekly dinner, sweeping a couple times a week. And then
Speaker 3: we actually got a dog about a year ago now,
Speaker 3: which is a new edition. We have a whole other
Speaker 3: conversation about that, but that came with walking the dog
Speaker 3: responsibilities as well, which is great because usually the dog
Speaker 3: needs a walk when they get home from school, and
Speaker 3: my partner and I are both still working and so
Speaker 3: they can kind of take on that responsibility and allows
Speaker 3: me to continue to be doing what I need to
Speaker 3: do at work.
Speaker 1: Excellent, always good way to have that. But I would
Speaker 1: love to hear about your daily schedule. I mean, we
Speaker 1: had talked earlier about how you know, you've definitely been
Speaker 1: moving work around in the dimensions of time sort of
Speaker 1: in place you know, people work remotely proof where there's
Speaker 1: just a lot of flexibility with that. But what is
Speaker 1: your schedule looking like now?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, great question, fun to think about. My partner
Speaker 3: and I are big proponents of like we take everything
Speaker 3: a year at a time, and then we schedule up
Speaker 3: the wazoo. So I'm very fortunate. We are definitely benefactors
Speaker 3: of remote work. So we're both working from home, Like
Speaker 3: we'll travel and have to go in for meetings, but
Speaker 3: we have a pretty set drop off and pick up
Speaker 3: schedule for our kids that we can do on a
Speaker 3: daily basis because they are close by. And then I
Speaker 3: think one of the biggest transitions for me over the
Speaker 3: past year, so they'll my kids will come home from school,
Speaker 3: they do screen there and aftercare and then they do
Speaker 3: screens for an hour so that's their like TV time,
Speaker 3: so we can wrap up work. I know lots of
Speaker 3: opinions on different screen time, but that works so well
Speaker 3: for my family, and then one of us we split down,
Speaker 3: coming right when they're done with screens to make sure
Speaker 3: dinner is ready, and then we're both pretty much around
Speaker 3: for the bedtime routine most nights. The biggest transition for me, Lauren,
Speaker 3: I think this is what you were alluding to, is
Speaker 3: my kids used to go to sleep earlier. So any
Speaker 3: other parents of like kind of going into the preteen years,
Speaker 3: all of a sudden they care about like watching sports games,
Speaker 3: they're bedtimes or eight fifteen and eight thirty. But somehow
Speaker 3: we've been like very flexible these days with that. And
Speaker 3: for me, what that has meant is for years I
Speaker 3: had two hours between work and when I would like
Speaker 3: go back to work, which I didn't always have to do,
Speaker 3: but certainly being a founder right now, I am going
Speaker 3: back to work most nights, and that two hour block
Speaker 3: was pretty well defined, so I'd hyper focus on my
Speaker 3: family and then go back to work and hyper focus there,
Speaker 3: and that delineation has just gotten a little bit fuzzy.
Speaker 3: I felt so uncomfortable going back to work with my
Speaker 3: kids awake, and so one thing I've started doing is
Speaker 3: that first hour I'm usually back to work like eight
Speaker 3: to nine pm. I actually do it on the couch,
Speaker 3: and my ten year old loves looking over my shoulder.
Speaker 3: And at first I felt guilty about that. Why am
Speaker 3: I working and he's watching me. Now he's going to
Speaker 3: think that work is more of a priority. But I
Speaker 3: actually realized it was like pair programming, like I see
Speaker 3: our engineers doing all the time, like working together or
Speaker 3: kind of job shadowing. And now I really love answering
Speaker 3: his questions. I was actually on Canva the other night
Speaker 3: designing some social media posts and he had some really
Speaker 3: good input because, like spoiler alert, ten year old is
Speaker 3: better at create designing stuff than I am. And so
Speaker 3: it's actually been this really great experience that we've been
Speaker 3: able to add into our routine. But then at eight thirty,
Speaker 3: I'm like, all right, kid, go to bed.
Speaker 1: Go to bed, It's time to get back. What do
Speaker 1: your mornings look like?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: What are morning is?
Speaker 3: My kids are early risers, so they come down. They're
Speaker 3: pretty much reading while we get snacks. We do school lunch,
Speaker 3: but they get snacks. I'll get snacks ready for them.
Speaker 3: There's a couple of mornings a week what we'll do cooking,
Speaker 3: and so a lot of times they'll help, like this morning,
Speaker 3: actually did some baking with our AI assistant because they
Speaker 3: were all up in there with the flower at seven
Speaker 3: o'clock in the morning, and so we'll do that and
Speaker 3: then we are out the door by seven fifty five,
Speaker 3: and so pretty much like the morning's run pretty smoothly
Speaker 3: at this point that they're a little bit older, they're
Speaker 3: getting themselves dressed and things like that. But we will
Speaker 3: have like a couple of activities sometimes we even do
Speaker 3: in the morning, and I very much rely on them
Speaker 3: to like figure those things out themselves or I'll guide
Speaker 3: them towards learning on their own. And that's been really cool, awesome.
Speaker 1: We're going to take one more quick ad break and
Speaker 1: then i'll be back with more from Rachel fold con Well.
Speaker 1: I am back with Rachel fold Cohen, who's with the
Speaker 1: Silicon Society. We've been talking about AI at home using
Speaker 1: tech tools, and then also various ways that parents might
Speaker 1: have a competitive advantage in the workforce. But here's the
Speaker 1: question that I think a lot of us are wondering.
Speaker 1: As somebody who is sort of steeped in the technology
Speaker 1: culture and knows the upsides of it, and you said,
Speaker 1: your kids use it a lot at school. I'm curious
Speaker 1: how you think about tech guidelines for your children, what
Speaker 1: they are allowed to do, what they are allowed to see,
Speaker 1: what they have access to, and how you envision that
Speaker 1: changing over the next few years.
Speaker 3: Oh, that's a great question, and honestly, I also see
Speaker 3: my approach to those changing over the next few years.
Speaker 3: So I will share where my head is at at
Speaker 3: this exact moment and what I've seen out there. But
Speaker 3: I think this is something that's always shifting. So I
Speaker 3: very much was raised on and believe it in everything
Speaker 3: in moderation mindset, which is why I'm okay with my
Speaker 3: kids having screen time during the week. We've set very
Speaker 3: clear boundaries and works for our family life. But things
Speaker 3: I'll never compromise on is safety, and so things that
Speaker 3: are out there like YouTube kids and parental controls have
Speaker 3: been a huge part of the past few years of
Speaker 3: setting those up as our kids get bigger and realize
Speaker 3: that they know how to search on YouTube if we
Speaker 3: let them, so really setting up strict parental controls and
Speaker 3: device access so like no devices ever go to the room.
Speaker 3: Screen time is always done in public, there's a parent
Speaker 3: sitting around whenever there's a kid on a screen, they'll
Speaker 3: never be alone. Those are things that are like pretty
Speaker 3: firm rules. And our kids' school does have an option
Speaker 3: to be part of a wait until eight packed in
Speaker 3: terms of cell phones, and so that's been really helpful.
Speaker 3: I actually have said to a number of friends recently,
Speaker 3: like I feel like I'm in this like sweet spot
Speaker 3: of my kids are like old enough to be self sufficient,
Speaker 3: but young enough to that they don't have devices, and
Speaker 3: so it's like this, I'm not yet fighting the phone battle,
Speaker 3: and they know that they're not getting one until eighth grade,
Speaker 3: but they're old enough to get themselves dressed. So it's
Speaker 3: like a wonderful in between moment. But those are some
Speaker 3: like the guidelines that said things are changing so fast.
Speaker 3: So for example, like one of my kids loves gaming,
Speaker 3: so we don't let him play any games where there's
Speaker 3: like outside chat or anything like that, and he's pushing
Speaker 3: back on it a little bit, and so it is
Speaker 3: honestly something that I need to research. I was not
Speaker 3: a gamer, so I'm not as familiar with like the
Speaker 3: limitations and safety there, but it's something that I find
Speaker 3: myself just researching more and more. And by the way,
Speaker 3: that's Another great use case for AI is like researching
Speaker 3: things like this, I'll always then click on the source
Speaker 3: the sources. So right now, basically any LM you use
Speaker 3: will have a source that you can click on, which
Speaker 3: it didn't used to have, So you want to make
Speaker 3: sure that there's like actual sources there. But it's a
Speaker 3: great use case for like understanding a safety landscape.
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, my ten year old loves gaming with friends,
Speaker 1: and so you need to have the ability to chat
Speaker 1: with them, to team up exactly to do that strategy
Speaker 1: that you know, you're who knows who they're playing with
Speaker 1: against because they can't talk to them, but you know
Speaker 1: these totally maybe adults who are being pounded by these
Speaker 1: ten year old boys, but anyway, you know.
Speaker 3: Totally well, and it's so easy. Like for me, it's like,
Speaker 3: I think much easier for me to set rules for
Speaker 3: my oldest than for my youngest. Like he's already watching
Speaker 3: and doing things that I would have never let my
Speaker 3: ten year old when he was six do. And so
Speaker 3: I do feel like there's a natural like you just
Speaker 3: learn so much as with your older kids as you
Speaker 3: learn these safety guidelines and then hopefully that benefits the
Speaker 3: younger kids a bit more with what they're comfortable with,
Speaker 3: but it could also go the other ways. So time
Speaker 3: will tell, time.
Speaker 1: Will tell exactly. Well, Rachel, we always do a Love
Speaker 1: of the Week, So this is something that is exciting
Speaker 1: for you right now. I could go first, and I
Speaker 1: longtime listeners have heard me say that's probably a million times.
Speaker 1: But I really love the Kindle app. Yeah, because you
Speaker 1: can get a book so quickly, the instant gratification of
Speaker 1: getting a book and being able to start reading it
Speaker 1: right where you are. Do I prefer reading books that
Speaker 1: are on paper, of course I do, but you could
Speaker 1: give up a lot of that nicer experience in order
Speaker 1: to have the immediacy. It's been really helpful lately. I've
Speaker 1: had a few people I've needed to talk to that
Speaker 1: I was like, I didn't you know, I wanted to
Speaker 1: at least glance through their book before I talked to them,
Speaker 1: and I could because it was right there, you know,
Speaker 1: in the hour before you chat. So I'm thinking, so
Speaker 1: Kindle app is a big one for me. How about you?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I love that. I love the focus like accessibility,
Speaker 3: Like does knowledge being more accessible?
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go a totally different direction, Okay, let's do it.
Speaker 3: My love for the week is instant coffee. Ooh yes, okay,
Speaker 3: I feel like it is one of my parenting hacks.
Speaker 3: It is low tech, but it genuinely gives me time back,
Speaker 3: Like I was someone who would do my pour over
Speaker 3: my French press, which on the weekends I'll still love.
Speaker 3: But lately I've just been instant coffee in the morning
Speaker 3: and it gets me like right into my morning mix,
Speaker 3: the morning routine we talked about, and honestly, I think
Speaker 3: makes me like a better parent and a better like
Speaker 3: extra coffee between zoom meetings, and so I'm just really
Speaker 3: appreciating instant coffee these days. And for like basic innovations.
Speaker 1: It's gotten a lot better.
Speaker 3: It really, honest thank you for saying that.
Speaker 1: It really has. Really, I just like, you know, back
Speaker 1: in the day, I was like, oh, it's got like
Speaker 1: the bad church basement vibe of you know, in the
Speaker 1: little like totally. No.
Speaker 3: Now they have like French roast instant coffee, vanilla instant coffee.
Speaker 3: No shame, It's great.
Speaker 1: No shame. If it gives you a few minutes back
Speaker 1: in your life, all the better. You know, what you
Speaker 1: use that for is up to you. Well, Rachel, where
Speaker 1: can people find you?
Speaker 3: Yes, so you can find me on LinkedIn, Rachel fold Cohen,
Speaker 3: on Instagram, at Silicon Society, and on LinkedIn at Silicon Society.
Speaker 1: Awesome, Well, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 3: Thank you for your time. This was a blast.
Speaker 1: Well we are back. Always fun to talk about tech
Speaker 1: and how we can use it in our lives. So, Sarah,
Speaker 1: this question comes from a listener who, as we are
Speaker 1: coming into summer at the end of the school year,
Speaker 1: wants to know do you do anything to avoid summer
Speaker 1: brain drain with your kids.
Speaker 2: I think that the phrase is funny, and then part
Speaker 2: of me is like, oh, is it like extra to
Speaker 2: admit that you don't want your kids to fall behind?
Speaker 2: But I don't think it's about falling behind. I think
Speaker 2: it's more about I want to make sure that they
Speaker 2: are doing some things over the summer that are beyond
Speaker 2: just like staring at screens and playing with friends. I
Speaker 2: don't know, it's an interesting question. It's good, but yeah,
Speaker 2: playing with friends is great. Actually, yes, I guess we
Speaker 2: do mostly just to encourage reading, because it's harder to
Speaker 2: fit in reading during the school year. Different kids have
Speaker 2: various enjoyment levels out of reading. But I find it's
Speaker 2: an activity where if the more they do it, the
Speaker 2: more they seem to like to do it. And so
Speaker 2: this year we've actually kind of discussed having some monetary
Speaker 2: rewards for reading. We have not entirely fleshed out our structure,
Speaker 2: but the kids are into the idea. I just need
Speaker 2: to figure out how to implement it in a way
Speaker 2: that isn't totally unfair or silly. For example, some of
Speaker 2: the books that Genevieve reads might take fifteen minutes, and
Speaker 2: I don't need her getting some massive reward versus a
Speaker 2: kid that a book that a big kid might read
Speaker 2: could take a couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: Well, can you do it time based?
Speaker 2: Yes and no, because I feel like then it's hard
Speaker 2: to know are they really reading? Like I kind of
Speaker 2: think I'd.
Speaker 1: Rather just slip through it too, I mean, unless you're
Speaker 1: doing a pop quiz at the end, or requiring a
Speaker 1: paper summarizing the main thesis behind that ya novel, like
Speaker 1: you don't know anyway.
Speaker 2: There might be a required like no, not a thesis,
Speaker 2: but for them to tell me what it was about
Speaker 2: in their own voice, And that way, they can't use
Speaker 2: AI because they have to say it to me, unless they're.
Speaker 1: Really sneaky, they get AI to tell what it was about, they.
Speaker 2: Memorize that, they come back and report they have a
Speaker 2: headphone on it's feeding them.
Speaker 1: I wrote it out, mom, and now I'm going to
Speaker 1: read it to you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's at least one kid in my house who
Speaker 2: would benefit from some math practice, So we are going
Speaker 2: to encourage that as well. I think beyond that, we're
Speaker 2: not super aggressive. But yeah, I guess I don't love
Speaker 2: the idea of I'm just doing nothing and then starting
Speaker 2: the new school year having forgotten lots.
Speaker 1: Of what they learned. So okay, fine, we do we do?
Speaker 1: All right? What about you? We'll tease it out of
Speaker 1: you eventually. I'm not a type a mom at all.
Speaker 1: I'm not. Yeah, I really am not. But I feel
Speaker 1: like the upside of summers you're learning different things and
Speaker 1: different skills, and you get a chance to try out
Speaker 1: different parts of knowledge. Like, for instance, Ruth will be
Speaker 1: in a theater camp for two weeks, and so she'll
Speaker 1: have to memorize lines and songs and work on choreography,
Speaker 1: and that's just a different skill than what you'd normally
Speaker 1: be doing during the year. Unless you're doing the school
Speaker 1: play or something I guess, or going to sleep away camp.
Speaker 1: That's going to be different skills, but you're still going
Speaker 1: to be learning things with sailing or horseback riding or
Speaker 1: pitching a tent to various different things that kids are
Speaker 1: learning learning as part of that. Josh ber will be
Speaker 1: at a vocal camp for a while, so he'll be
Speaker 1: learning music as part of that. Sam is actually taking
Speaker 1: two online courses this summer to get credit for that
Speaker 1: for not having to have it in his schedule next year,
Speaker 1: So he will be entirely taken care of on the
Speaker 1: academic front. And I believe Alex will likely have a
Speaker 1: required math component this summer because the way they do it,
Speaker 1: they then have kids skip fifth grade math and start
Speaker 1: in sixth grade math in fifth grade and so then
Speaker 1: you have to do it over the summer to get
Speaker 1: into it in the fall. Anyway, so he will have that.
Speaker 1: Beyond that, I don't know, I would like them to read.
Speaker 1: I think we're going to try to have some sort
Speaker 1: of still enforced non screen time at night. I don't
Speaker 1: know exactly what that's going to look like, but that
Speaker 1: is with the time when the younger kids at least
Speaker 1: will be looking at books. I mean, this is really
Speaker 1: like Alex and Ruth. I'm going to be thinking about
Speaker 1: this with I'd like Henry to learn to read. Maybe
Speaker 1: that'll be the summer project. I don't know, you never know.
Speaker 2: I mean every kid at their own pace. I one
Speaker 2: kid read early of mine, and then another two none
Speaker 2: at all.
Speaker 1: So yeah, just never know. Yeah, it's hard to tell.
Speaker 1: He gauged his interest in it. He likes the chapter
Speaker 1: books we're reading now. So we're reading the Dragonmasters series
Speaker 1: and we are reading the Magic Treehouse series kind of
Speaker 1: interspersed with another. We'll read like two chapters from one
Speaker 1: and one chapter from another on the same night. He
Speaker 1: likes to move forward in two books simultaneously with that,
Speaker 1: which is good. But in the other day, we had
Speaker 1: a little incident where somebody gave him mountain dew. I
Speaker 1: don't know what happened, and I was spelling out that
Speaker 1: he was not to be given mountain dew ever again,
Speaker 1: and I was saying, we're not going to purchase moun
Speaker 1: Tai and he's like, but I like Mountain Dew, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, yes, that's so funny.
Speaker 2: Maybe he can read already. Maybe he's just holding it
Speaker 2: from you. Wait, I have to share what I'm reading
Speaker 2: to Genevieve right now, just because I feel like if
Speaker 2: you're in our generation, like you're just gonna be like, Yes.
Speaker 2: We are reading The Babysitters Club Super Special number one,
Speaker 2: Babysitters on Board, Yes, which features a cruise and a
Speaker 2: trip to Disney World. And as I'm reading it, I'm
Speaker 2: like realizing I probably read it fifteen times, Like everything
Speaker 2: is familiar. I knew which manicure color that Karen was
Speaker 2: gonna pick. I was like, oh, yeah, the light purple
Speaker 2: nail polish. Then she picks like it is so fun
Speaker 2: to revisit that, and she loves it, so it's still the.
Speaker 1: Test of time. Yeah, well that's great, that's exciting. We
Speaker 1: have had a lot of Babysitters Club Super Specials read
Speaker 1: around here, although I have not re read them, but
Speaker 1: maybe I should, Maybe I should pick them up. I
Speaker 1: don't know. Alex has been reading a bunch of these
Speaker 1: history books. They're sort of not really historical fiction. They're
Speaker 1: more like telling the tales of like World War One
Speaker 1: and World War Two. And the Viking is another various
Speaker 1: like Little Boy exciting things Alexander the Great, but in
Speaker 1: these little nuggets of anecdotes, so they keep you reading,
Speaker 1: and so throw those out there too. I wish I
Speaker 1: had the name in front of me right now, but
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 2: I think I know what you're talking about, because Cameron
Speaker 2: likes a.
Speaker 1: Really famous podcast. He's like the one of the top
Speaker 1: history podcasters, and he's written all these books for children.
Speaker 2: Well, someone can fill in the blank. Camra like's the
Speaker 2: ones that are focused on disasters. There's one of those
Speaker 2: are good, and then there's one about like I survived,
Speaker 2: Like I survived.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that sounds Saint Helen's exactly. Yeah. Those are another
Speaker 1: big win as well. And Harry Potter will always do
Speaker 1: a shadow for Harry Potter. All right, well, this has
Speaker 1: been best of both worlds. I've been interviewing Rachel full
Speaker 1: Cohen about tech and parenting. We've been talking about our
Speaker 1: favorite apps and summer brain drain. We will be back
Speaker 1: next week with more on making work and life fit together.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening. You can find me Sarah at the
Speaker 2: shoebox dot com, at the Underscore shoe Box on Instagram,
Speaker 2: and you.
Speaker 1: Can find me Laura at Laura Vandercam dot com. This
Speaker 1: has been the best of both worlds podcasts. Please join
Speaker 1: us next time for more on making work and life
Speaker 1: work together.