Speaker 1: Hi everyone, I'm Katie Curic and this is next question.
Speaker 1: Do you ever wonder what your teenage kids might be
Speaker 1: talking about when you're not listening? Scary right? Well, my
Speaker 1: guests today are the host of a very popular gen
Speaker 1: Z podcast called Teenager Therapy, gyel Atour, Kayla Suarez and
Speaker 1: Thomas fam These kids, and I do mean kids, are
Speaker 1: just nineteen years old, but they are wise beyond their
Speaker 1: years and you're going to soon hear why they I guess, Gyles,
Speaker 1: since you're more of a flaky person, how do you
Speaker 1: feel when other people flake on you? It's almost as
Speaker 1: soon as I make the decision, I think I regret this.
Speaker 1: If you think you know teens, think again. Their podcast
Speaker 1: is funny, honest, instructive, real, but most of all vulnerable.
Speaker 1: Today we're talking about talks, Bottoms, matthewinity, femininity, and the
Speaker 1: endless pain and struggle of finding yourself when gay. By now,
Speaker 1: we've all heard about the mental health crisis affecting so
Speaker 1: many teenagers. My guest today have become a mirror for
Speaker 1: other teens, and that's helping all of them cope by
Speaker 1: making them feel less alone. By the way, if you
Speaker 1: want to get Smarter every morning with a breakdown of
Speaker 1: the news and fascinating takes on health and wellness and
Speaker 1: pop culture. Sign up for our daily newsletter, Wake Up
Speaker 1: Call by going to katiecurreic dot com. Very high tech
Speaker 1: operation here I can see. So. One of the things
Speaker 1: I love about teenager therapy is it's really not therapy,
Speaker 1: and you're not therapists. You're some friends sitting around talking
Speaker 1: about a lot of different things. So tell me how
Speaker 1: that in and of itself is therapeutic to listen to, guy,
Speaker 1: I want it. You start well. Actually, I think at
Speaker 1: first we didn't realize what could make us so interesting
Speaker 1: to listen to. That was one of our biggest words,
Speaker 1: and I think we still feel that insecurity of we're
Speaker 1: not doing anything special. We really are just sitting down
Speaker 1: and saying, Hey, what do we want to talk about today?
Speaker 1: And then we talk about it pretty messily. Sometimes we
Speaker 1: go off track, or we go back, or we go
Speaker 1: all over the place, And I realize, I think what
Speaker 1: makes us sell therapeutic for our listeners is that we
Speaker 1: have universal issues. At the end of the day, I
Speaker 1: think the emotions are the same. We all have that
Speaker 1: shared humanity in that aspect and I think there's so
Speaker 1: much comfort in knowing that, Okay, they're going through that
Speaker 1: as well, they're talking about it, they're dealing with it.
Speaker 1: It's just comforting. And how do you all decide, Kaylea,
Speaker 1: what you all are going to talk about? It's usually
Speaker 1: just based on what's going on in our lives. Well,
Speaker 1: you all have done something like two thirty episodes, right
Speaker 1: What started as kind of a fun exercise has now
Speaker 1: turned into a really, you know, a big deal, a
Speaker 1: podcast that gets a lot of downloads. I think the
Speaker 1: topics that our audience loves the most is whenever we
Speaker 1: talk about relationships, friend group drama and what else is
Speaker 1: a good one? Guys, sex, drugs and rock and roll
Speaker 1: minus the rock and roll. But we did just talk
Speaker 1: about drugs, and I think our listeners are really good
Speaker 1: enjoy it. It's kind of interesting how because we grow up,
Speaker 1: we have new experience, it's more to talk about. But
Speaker 1: also there's just always some little tiny switch in the
Speaker 1: emotion we feel or the way we approached it that's
Speaker 1: different from the way we would have even just a
Speaker 1: year ago. So documenting that sometimes means even if we
Speaker 1: cover the same topic, it's a totally new perspective, right,
Speaker 1: and it feels like the world is changing so quickly late,
Speaker 1: you know, I imagine you all must talk a lot
Speaker 1: about social media and the pressures that come from seeing
Speaker 1: people quote unquote live their best life. As Oprah would say,
Speaker 1: I think with that, I know that I try to
Speaker 1: limit myself. I mean, even with the podcast, you know,
Speaker 1: episodes air or things are posted on TikTok, I just
Speaker 1: don't like to look at it. I actively appoint it. Actually,
Speaker 1: just because social media plays such a huge role now,
Speaker 1: and I mean especially TikTok. Even myself I fall into
Speaker 1: the trap of I see these teenagers my age doing
Speaker 1: these big grand things. They're traveling, and I think to myself, like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm just in school right now, you know. But again,
Speaker 1: I'm just reminding myself that not everything is as it
Speaker 1: seems on screen. We'll talk a little more about kind
Speaker 1: of gen z and some of their concerns and the
Speaker 1: rap they get that might not always be accurate. But
Speaker 1: but let's go back to the kind of logistics of
Speaker 1: doing this podcast. It started with five people, right, take
Speaker 1: me back to the genesis of this, Thomas, how did
Speaker 1: it happen? So it was actually Guyle's idea, and he
Speaker 1: was listening to Casey Nisat's Couples Therapy, and he got
Speaker 1: really inspired by it because it was a married couple,
Speaker 1: yet he was able to relate to them on such
Speaker 1: like a deeper level than he had anticipated. And he
Speaker 1: wanted the same thing but for teenagers, and he got
Speaker 1: five of his friends. The idea that I pitched to
Speaker 1: them was, I think it'd be interesting to be able
Speaker 1: to hear what other teams are going through. And that
Speaker 1: was what year and you were how old? So we
Speaker 1: were fifteen years old. I was fifteen, so was everyone else.
Speaker 1: We were not necessarily all friends with each other, but
Speaker 1: we knew of each other, and you know, the members
Speaker 1: were interconnected in different ways. And so I asked my friends,
Speaker 1: do you want to be part of it? They say yes?
Speaker 1: And the first episode was published in like September eighteen,
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen. And what was the first podcast about? Do
Speaker 1: you remember? It was about our friends? We kind of
Speaker 1: It was so funny because all we did was we
Speaker 1: just put a camera with a microphone in the middle,
Speaker 1: and then we said, you sit on a bed. We did,
Speaker 1: we did, We sat on a bed and we didn't
Speaker 1: fit and so it was always so hot in the room,
Speaker 1: we were sweating. It was after school. We were also tired.
Speaker 1: Pretty low tech tech. Yeah, it's still very low tech, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's part of the ethos of the podcast
Speaker 1: is really friends sitting around our being in somebody's bedroom,
Speaker 1: and that's kind of the ritual. And then you all
Speaker 1: have dinner together, I know, after every podcast, which is
Speaker 1: so nice. And and do you think the vibe would
Speaker 1: totally change if it was in a studio like we're
Speaker 1: sitting in right now. I feel like it would definitely.
Speaker 1: I think you'd be a lot cooler, Kayla, in terms
Speaker 1: of temperature. The set of the bedroom just let's us
Speaker 1: very intimate, and because it's like a place that it's
Speaker 1: just his room, so we are all comforted, so it's
Speaker 1: always your room to room. Yeah. And it's back at
Speaker 1: home too in Anaheim, So it's just it all feels
Speaker 1: very natural. When you were putting together the quote unquote
Speaker 1: cast Guy Elf for the podcast, did you intentionally seek
Speaker 1: people with different life experiences? I'm curious sort of how
Speaker 1: you thought about representation when you were putting it together, right,
Speaker 1: I Mean I was thinking about it at the level
Speaker 1: that a fifteen year old would possibly you'd expect to
Speaker 1: think about it, right, I wasn't going into diversity training.
Speaker 1: I guess I'm expecting a lot from you, But I
Speaker 1: mean I do remember being like, well, we do want
Speaker 1: different perspectives, and Thomas was like, yeah, we should have
Speaker 1: different sexis, like we need a girl perspective. I was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: we should do that, and we were like okay, Like Thomas,
Speaker 1: you and me were gay, we need straight people, we
Speaker 1: need a straight man perspective, and we're like, okay, let's
Speaker 1: get a girl too. And so we just kind of
Speaker 1: naturally assembled into a relatively diverse cast because we all
Speaker 1: actually have pretty different personalities. And I think it's important
Speaker 1: for listeners to kind of hear themselves in various stories
Speaker 1: and in various people you know and life experiences. I'm
Speaker 1: sure that some listeners relate more to Caleb than they
Speaker 1: do to you, or gay listeners relate to you guys,
Speaker 1: and probably have some of the same questions or experiences
Speaker 1: as you two have. And I think another aspect of
Speaker 1: that is because I didn't envision it to go to
Speaker 1: where we are now, right, Were you surprised Klein when
Speaker 1: it really took off. I mean, you guys had you know,
Speaker 1: it grew pretty quickly. Now you have how many downloads
Speaker 1: do you get per episode? I'm kind of jealous, actually,
Speaker 1: around like forty five thousand dollars per episode. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: like the podcast I've told over the last four years,
Speaker 1: I've gotten like over like twelve million starts, and it's
Speaker 1: been wild. How big it is? I bet it's kind
Speaker 1: of shocking, right, Yeah. I think it's kind of surprises
Speaker 1: people because if you go to our YouTube channel that
Speaker 1: we don't use very much, it has maybe like a
Speaker 1: couple thousand subscribers, and people like, oh, that's a little podcast.
Speaker 1: Because podcasts it's all behind the scenes. So where I
Speaker 1: told them, like how big it actually is, I think
Speaker 1: it catches people off guard. How has the podcast evolved?
Speaker 1: Because it's gone from five hosts to three hosts. You
Speaker 1: all are now twenty, right, or almost five years ago,
Speaker 1: so you've matured and grown, and I'm curious how you've
Speaker 1: seen it evolved through the years. I feel that it's
Speaker 1: very much the same tone, but it's just us who's
Speaker 1: changing in us giving more mature opinions. Sometimes I think
Speaker 1: back to when we first started and the opinions that
Speaker 1: we were just spitting out when we were fifteen years old.
Speaker 1: It just it pains me to know that it's out
Speaker 1: there because I don't know what I was saying, and
Speaker 1: it probably was not great advice or anything. But I
Speaker 1: think that's kind of what is so beautiful about this
Speaker 1: podcast is that it kind of represents and shows how
Speaker 1: much we have grown throughout the years, and it really
Speaker 1: is a coming of age story told in real time.
Speaker 1: Where are you in school? Again? Usc? Both of you
Speaker 1: go Trojans? So how do you do it if you're
Speaker 1: both in college? I mean, how do you find this
Speaker 1: regular time? And do you still do it in your bedroom? Thomas? Yes,
Speaker 1: I think going home just made sense for us. My
Speaker 1: bedroom has already been set up for that way. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think the college thing was not as big of
Speaker 1: an obstacle as we expected it to be, and we
Speaker 1: have just been able to share so much about the
Speaker 1: whole transition from high school to college and our college experiences. Guyelle,
Speaker 1: why aren't you in school? Yeah? So, how's a big decision?
Speaker 1: I suppose? I mean I decided not to go to college, Whine,
Speaker 1: So it was a smart guy, I can tell. And also,
Speaker 1: this really good for your college applet it was. It
Speaker 1: really did a lot for my application because it's so
Speaker 1: funny because my plan was when I was in high school,
Speaker 1: I was like, I want to create something that's a
Speaker 1: really big deal, so I don't have to focus on
Speaker 1: grades as much and I could just let the work
Speaker 1: speak for myself and hopefully colleges will see that. So
Speaker 1: I wanted to go to college, and when college decisions
Speaker 1: came around, the college that I was accepted to was
Speaker 1: UC Berkeley, which is in the Bay Area. Right, that's
Speaker 1: a damn good school. It is. It is hard to
Speaker 1: get into, it isn't it. Yeah, it's pretty hard to
Speaker 1: get into. So I was surprised. I mean, the plan
Speaker 1: works because my grades were not like Berkeley standards. I
Speaker 1: wasn't four point I was like three point three, three
Speaker 1: point five bees regular classes. But I guess they loved
Speaker 1: the work that I was doing. And at the time,
Speaker 1: I was just thinking, well, if I go to school,
Speaker 1: how am I going to manage? Am I going to
Speaker 1: be handling that well? And so I thought maybe I
Speaker 1: just should not go because there's a momentum happening with
Speaker 1: the podcast. It was growing really quickly, and I thought
Speaker 1: do I really want to go to school for four years,
Speaker 1: possibly pause the podcast to slow it down to focus
Speaker 1: on school, and then come back and have to restart
Speaker 1: this momentum. And so I made the decision. I think
Speaker 1: I just want to focus on doing what I already do.
Speaker 1: I I was going to go to school for marketing
Speaker 1: and business, and I'm like, I already got the hang
Speaker 1: of it somewhat. I mean, the work speaks for itself.
Speaker 1: And so decided not to go to school focus on
Speaker 1: the podcast. And so that's been my full time job
Speaker 1: until now until now, meaning well now I also am
Speaker 1: like working on funny enough. The next step for me
Speaker 1: is creating a podcast network, my own startup along with Kayla.
Speaker 1: So now I guess I just fell into the career podcasting,
Speaker 1: and so I started with teenager Therapy, but now I
Speaker 1: want to make even more and kind of give birth
Speaker 1: to a lot of baby podcasts that and do you
Speaker 1: want them all to be targeted to teenagers or are
Speaker 1: you open to other things? So it's called Astro Studios,
Speaker 1: and it's a gen z podcast network that's focused on
Speaker 1: developing and producing podcasts for young people that are mostly
Speaker 1: focused around self help and helping teams answer the question
Speaker 1: what are others going through? It's the same thesis of
Speaker 1: teenage of therapy that if you share the experiences of
Speaker 1: real people, real people want to listen. And that's all
Speaker 1: really what podcasts can be. And so it's those comforting
Speaker 1: conversations that we really want to capture. Well, when we
Speaker 1: come back, we're going to talk about gen z of
Speaker 1: which you are apart and try to figure out what's
Speaker 1: going on with them. That's right after this. I never
Speaker 1: do that, but I just thought it was a good segue,
Speaker 1: and usually segues don't present themselves point starting. I'm just
Speaker 1: starting the college process, but like there's a lot of
Speaker 1: like stigma and about like the acceptance rates and the
Speaker 1: extracurriculars needed, and it's like I almost don't want to
Speaker 1: tell people where I'm applying because there's like all this judgment.
Speaker 1: I'm a couple of friends of mine who don't see
Speaker 1: like colleges are right fit for them, and they will
Speaker 1: like to go to trade school. But there's certain people
Speaker 1: that will always get you because you know, they'll think
Speaker 1: that the cause that they are going to is this
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Speaker 1: we had whole years and a half of not seeing
Speaker 1: anyone or doing anything, and how we're supposed to like
Speaker 1: We're expected to be fully like social and not so
Speaker 1: awkward after and I feel like unfair I guess okay,
Speaker 1: so we are back with the hosts of Teenager Therapy.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the generation that's listening to this podcast.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people are really worried about teenagers.
Speaker 1: It's hard to be a teenager today. What are some
Speaker 1: of the things that teas are really struggling with. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, you've heard the US search in general sound
Speaker 1: the alarm on the youth mental health crisis, and it
Speaker 1: seems like, for one, teams are lonely. You know, people
Speaker 1: are trying to figure out why. What could be the causes?
Speaker 1: It's smartphones? Is that the apps on the smartphones? What
Speaker 1: isn't I mean, if you look at the data, there's
Speaker 1: clearly an issue. And I think what we see just
Speaker 1: from a personal experience is there's this disconnect from communities.
Speaker 1: But I think something that's a little bit more interesting
Speaker 1: to me is there's a lot more pressure to be
Speaker 1: this perfect person. And I think it's really weighing heavily
Speaker 1: on a lot of young adults because you have things
Speaker 1: like cancel Culture or Twitter, and you know, these media
Speaker 1: storms when you make any sort of mistake that I
Speaker 1: think a lot of young people are feeling a lot
Speaker 1: of pressure to do as much as possible be a
Speaker 1: perfect activist or a perfect citizen, a perfect human, perfect student,
Speaker 1: exactly a perfect student, and it's just not possible, right,
Speaker 1: And so I think a big problem that I see
Speaker 1: is we all need to give ourselves a little bit
Speaker 1: more grace and a little bit more forgiveness and learned
Speaker 1: that we're all going through these issues and we're figuring
Speaker 1: out a little by little. And so when you go
Speaker 1: on social media and see people being attacked for different
Speaker 1: aspects that you might have not known, judge, it puts
Speaker 1: a lot of pressure. And it also seems, Kayla, like
Speaker 1: there's so much built in competition. I mean, the world
Speaker 1: is competitive place already, but when you have these very
Speaker 1: concrete ways to weigh your quote unquote popularity through likes
Speaker 1: and through follows and things like that, is that part
Speaker 1: of it or what do you think is bugging gen Z?
Speaker 1: I would say it's a part of it. I mean,
Speaker 1: it depends on the person that you're talking to. But
Speaker 1: I think it's just because the growing popularity of social media.
Speaker 1: You know, I feel like an ab normal amount of
Speaker 1: teams are now online, starting as young from like thirteen,
Speaker 1: maybe even twelve or ten, which is so crazy to
Speaker 1: think about. But you just initially start social media for
Speaker 1: the fun of it, but then you quickly realize that, oh,
Speaker 1: a lot of people are getting likes doing this, or
Speaker 1: they're getting a lot of likes doing that, and so
Speaker 1: it's just following trends in a way to gain popularity
Speaker 1: or likes or anything like that. And they're also being
Speaker 1: exposed to so much so young. Exactly, it's really scary.
Speaker 1: And I think that goes for a lot of things
Speaker 1: where teenagers just don't know who to go to for
Speaker 1: their problems. You know. Of course there's the classic answer
Speaker 1: of you know, see a therapist or go to a doctor,
Speaker 1: but a lot of the times that's just not accessible
Speaker 1: or it's not a conversation that you just casually bring
Speaker 1: up with your parents, and a lot of people honestly
Speaker 1: can't afford it. Exactly. Yeah, one other issue. So the
Speaker 1: answer isn't as simple as just quot to therapy. That's right, right,
Speaker 1: it starts. I mean it's such a fundamental issue that
Speaker 1: one of loneliness, and there's one we're lacking community. I mean,
Speaker 1: you have these big giant cities that feel empty, you
Speaker 1: feel devoid of community, and genuine interaction. You have dating
Speaker 1: apps that encourage people to only talk to people online,
Speaker 1: and you see people be more and more opposed to
Speaker 1: spontaneous in person connection and conversation. Also, there's something about
Speaker 1: it where swipe swipe, swipe swipe, It makes people feel
Speaker 1: so disposable, right, And there's something about that mentality that
Speaker 1: I think can then seep into real life. When you're
Speaker 1: on those dating apps, you're constantly looking for the next
Speaker 1: best thing, right. You know, you can never settle on
Speaker 1: just one person, because you're like, what if a few
Speaker 1: more swipes and I meet somebody even prettier or you know,
Speaker 1: somebody even better. And it's always that mindset that then
Speaker 1: translates into your real life where you just aren't happy
Speaker 1: with what you're seeing in person, you never satisfy. The
Speaker 1: thing of a quality that gen Z doesn't and my
Speaker 1: eyes feels lacking, is the ability to work on more
Speaker 1: relationships and not throw them away so easily. I think
Speaker 1: you know, at times the wrong advice can get passed
Speaker 1: around of protecting your peace and not letting anyone disturb
Speaker 1: in anyone that doesn't serve you, you kind of disregard them.
Speaker 1: But I think a lot of the fulfilling relationships do
Speaker 1: come from putting in the work to talk about the issues,
Speaker 1: which I think is why our message resonates, because we
Speaker 1: just really want to show people vulnerability and talking about
Speaker 1: your issues openly is what creates meaningful connections. They're not
Speaker 1: just this instant chemistry tied with that work. I mean,
Speaker 1: it takes work. What have you noticed, Thomas that you're
Speaker 1: quiet over there about. Yeah, Well, it's hard to ever
Speaker 1: feel satisfied and happy with your life if you see
Speaker 1: people your age already doing the things you want to
Speaker 1: and it makes you feel bad. It makes you feel
Speaker 1: kind of hopeless. But I also want to acknowledge that
Speaker 1: social media has done a lot of good for gen
Speaker 1: Z as well. It has, I feel like, made us
Speaker 1: feel very educated on a lot of topics that we
Speaker 1: otherwise would not have known, and it's a way for
Speaker 1: us to connect. I mean, even just doing this podcast
Speaker 1: that wouldn't have been possible without social media. Yeah. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's the ultimate double edged sword a thing because there
Speaker 1: are so many good things and so many terribly destructive
Speaker 1: things as well that come with it. And I think
Speaker 1: the pandemic only exacerbated what was already percolating in terms
Speaker 1: of the lack of community and the social isolation that
Speaker 1: a lot of people are experiencing. You know, it's interesting
Speaker 1: they're not having these real life experiences because they're living
Speaker 1: so much of their lives virtually. Yeah. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: that's a concern too, because I don't think there are
Speaker 1: enough spaces fourteens together and have the sense of community
Speaker 1: that we want to build and encourage, and so that's
Speaker 1: a big issue. Something that I actually feel very passionate
Speaker 1: about is creating more third spaces that are in school
Speaker 1: or work where as a young adult, as an adolescent,
Speaker 1: you could go and hang out with your friends and
Speaker 1: not be fine for loitering or for not being where
Speaker 1: you're supposed to be. So if your friends don't have houses,
Speaker 1: where do you and your friends go? Maybe you go
Speaker 1: to a park, but then it's cold, so you'd rather
Speaker 1: just stay inside and interact on we used to go
Speaker 1: you see malls or dad. I mean, there's not much
Speaker 1: to do. It just feels like where do you go
Speaker 1: where you just want to feel at peace? Right? Like
Speaker 1: a big dream of mine is where do teenagers go
Speaker 1: when they're lonely? I mean, if you don't have people
Speaker 1: in your school that you enjoy. If you don't have
Speaker 1: people at home that you enjoy, if you don't have
Speaker 1: any spaces that you enjoy, where do you go to
Speaker 1: get that sense of connection or even just to feel
Speaker 1: at peace, because how do you escape it all in
Speaker 1: a way that is safe? And I would love to
Speaker 1: start that with teenager therapy. I think that's a big goal.
Speaker 1: It's creating more spaces where people can gather and there's
Speaker 1: young people that go, and you know, that's somewhere you
Speaker 1: can meet new people that isn't necessarily dating apps. So
Speaker 1: I think gen z is actually on the same wavelength
Speaker 1: as you ask. We don't enjoy dating apps. We're tireder
Speaker 1: of than we want to meet people in person have
Speaker 1: that interaction. Yeah, I don't know. It's like we say
Speaker 1: we want human connection, but then when it's presented to us,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, we're like, actually, it's because we're
Speaker 1: not used to it. Yeah. Yeah, everyone's always at Target.
Speaker 1: Once you get your license, like everybody is, there's nowhere
Speaker 1: else to go and it's open till ten, So everyone's
Speaker 1: always at Target. It's crazy, it's actually wild. Yeah, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like, oh that's team currencies. Yeah, I feel cool
Speaker 1: basement and good snacks exactly. That's a big thing. I like,
Speaker 1: can you out in person better than you don't? There's nothing,
Speaker 1: nothing beats the real thing. When we come back. How
Speaker 1: can parents connect better with their teens? We'll have some
Speaker 1: advice for them. I want to be done with teenage times.
Speaker 1: Is everyone's always on top of you for for like
Speaker 1: no reason. You look up your parents as a role model, right,
Speaker 1: and sometimes you don't think your parents are real people.
Speaker 1: So sometimes they just like open up to you, like
Speaker 1: the mistakes you've made in your life. Maybe they think, okay,
Speaker 1: like tag them my parents before and I will say
Speaker 1: total outsider if I'm make mistake, just kind of tell
Speaker 1: us about like their high school struggle. So it makes
Speaker 1: us feel less alone in ours Thomas, how can parents
Speaker 1: do a better job, especially given the loneliness epidemic? You know,
Speaker 1: the pressures young people are feeling. How can parents help more?
Speaker 1: I think, just like emotional availability, I think the reason
Speaker 1: why a lot of kids hide from their parents is
Speaker 1: because they don't literally they really don't give them the
Speaker 1: time or space to be talking about those issues, or
Speaker 1: if they do, they feel that there's going to be
Speaker 1: a consequence for it. And I think even just seeing
Speaker 1: how gen Z believes that they're going to be the
Speaker 1: next generation of parents that are going to do better,
Speaker 1: I think the current parents can look at that and
Speaker 1: it's not too late to become that parent and be
Speaker 1: able to let your children feel comfortable about sharing their
Speaker 1: issues with you. I have many parents listen to the show.
Speaker 1: Do you think parents are learning from your conversations just
Speaker 1: as as your team listeners are. I know that they
Speaker 1: have because we've received some comments and like dms about
Speaker 1: them listening, which is negative or positive. Positive, positive because
Speaker 1: it helps them understand their child a little bit more,
Speaker 1: which is always nice to hear because it shows that
Speaker 1: they're taking some step in the right direction. And I
Speaker 1: think that's a huge part two of just we would
Speaker 1: want to see our parents show us that they're also
Speaker 1: trying to learn, you know, rather than us always having
Speaker 1: to talk about our feelings. Why don't you know? Why
Speaker 1: don't you talk about it too? You know? I think
Speaker 1: a big part is also just leading by example, because
Speaker 1: I feel vulnerability in a way as contagious. You know,
Speaker 1: if you see one person talk about their feelings, it
Speaker 1: makes you more inclined to talk about it. Parents just
Speaker 1: like to put up this act of they know what
Speaker 1: they're doing, they're always they're fine, they have all the answers,
Speaker 1: which I know is not right at all. So I
Speaker 1: think is being honest about that would would go a
Speaker 1: long way. What do you think? I agree? I think
Speaker 1: whenever you know, sometimes we will speak of panels, and
Speaker 1: one of the questions we get, which is funny, is
Speaker 1: just how can I have my children feel more comfortable
Speaker 1: opening up to me? I always give them the same
Speaker 1: answer that I think vulnerability you can't expect it without
Speaker 1: giving it in return. So I think to parents, if
Speaker 1: you want your kids to open up, you have to
Speaker 1: open up yourself. You have to show when you cry,
Speaker 1: when you're feeling her, when you're feeling vulnerable. And that's
Speaker 1: what really gives a message Okay, it's safe, like I
Speaker 1: can do this too. You're not just this parent, You're
Speaker 1: this human being. It shows a lot of humanity. I
Speaker 1: wanted to ask you about one thing that I think
Speaker 1: is contributing to the generation gap, and that is the
Speaker 1: change in how we view the LGBTQ plus population. Gender
Speaker 1: identity and sexual orientation is so much more normalized among
Speaker 1: young people and judged or criticized or otherwise in the
Speaker 1: way it was when I was growing up. And I
Speaker 1: read a statistic recently that said twenty one percent of
Speaker 1: gen Z self identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or
Speaker 1: something other than heterosexual. So that's nearly twice as many
Speaker 1: as millennials, and the gap gets even bigger among older
Speaker 1: generations like mine. I don't know, I'm just very interested
Speaker 1: in your perspective on it. Honestly, it's like, how can
Speaker 1: you not be open minded at this point after everything
Speaker 1: that's happened. It's almost like we don't really have a
Speaker 1: choice but to be ourselves and really speak up when
Speaker 1: we can. Because of the platforms we've had. I think
Speaker 1: gen Z just has this openness to change that a
Speaker 1: lot of other generations didn't really have. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: also because we have so many more perspectives available at
Speaker 1: all times, so everything becomes normalized so much quicker. But
Speaker 1: when you're exposed to something you every day, it's hard
Speaker 1: to be shocked or against it because you're like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean there's more to it, there's more to it.
Speaker 1: And so really, when it comes to being LGBT. It's
Speaker 1: just what can you do? No one really cares. You
Speaker 1: see it everywhere, it's just other people. It's not really
Speaker 1: something that's a lot on a lot of people's mind.
Speaker 1: I think it makes a lot of older people uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: And I'm curious how you view the reaction to the openness. Well,
Speaker 1: I think it's expected that old generations aren't as open
Speaker 1: to it. I mean, it's definitely this heartening to see it,
Speaker 1: and you see bills like in Florida being passed around,
Speaker 1: and it just makes you wonder how we're making so
Speaker 1: much progress but backtracking in some of the most important ways.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of our generation is hoping that
Speaker 1: as soon as we get into power and these older
Speaker 1: generations kind of step off and die die out exactly,
Speaker 1: I mean, you'll start to see a big shift. I
Speaker 1: mean that's the goal at least. I mean, you're you're
Speaker 1: seeing a lot more gen Z being able to actually
Speaker 1: be eligible for office, and so their policies are completely
Speaker 1: different than the ones that you're seeing in older generations.
Speaker 1: And so the backlash is weird because you I think
Speaker 1: there's it's just the natural pushback against new things. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're use your old way, so it's you're going to
Speaker 1: stick to it. Well, Thomas, tell me what your hopes
Speaker 1: and dreams are for the future. What are you hoping
Speaker 1: to do when you graduate from USC and because we
Speaker 1: have these two doing astro studios and I'm curious what
Speaker 1: you're looking forward to. Well, I'm still very committed to
Speaker 1: the overall message of teenager Therapy and it would be
Speaker 1: nice to expand this from an American podcast to international podcasts.
Speaker 1: So I think teenagers everywhere have the same issues. I
Speaker 1: think it's we are all experiencing very universal problems. But
Speaker 1: it would just be cool because everyone can bring in
Speaker 1: such new perspectives and sometimes I wish that we had
Speaker 1: more because it really is just the three of us
Speaker 1: and we've all grown up in the same area. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's so many different life experiences for teenagers everywhere. You know,
Speaker 1: it'd be cool to do like a day in the
Speaker 1: life of a teenager. I know people have done that before.
Speaker 1: They pick a single day and then they give everybody
Speaker 1: the same assignment. It would be really interesting. I think
Speaker 1: I think that's the vision, right, Yeah, that is the
Speaker 1: vision yeah for you. Yeah, Well, I'm really glad that
Speaker 1: I got a chance to talk to you all. You
Speaker 1: give me hope for the future, which sounds so cheesy
Speaker 1: and cliche, but it's true. You know. No, every every
Speaker 1: couple podcast episodes we say a cliche and we're like,
Speaker 1: we've accepted it's true. People say it for a reason
Speaker 1: they really do. Well. Thank you, Thank you all for
Speaker 1: coming in and best of luck with Astro Studios and
Speaker 1: with Teenager Therapy and all the exciting things that are
Speaker 1: out of you in the future. I'm excited all of
Speaker 1: you appreciate it. Thanks for listening everyone. If you have
Speaker 1: a question for me or want to share your thoughts
Speaker 1: about how you navigate this crazy world reach out. You
Speaker 1: can leave a short message at six O nine five
Speaker 1: one two five five oh five, or you can send
Speaker 1: me a DM on Instagram. I would love to hear
Speaker 1: from you. Next Question is a production of iHeartMedia and
Speaker 1: Katie Currekmedia. The executive producers are Met Katie Curik and
Speaker 1: Courtney Litz. Our supervising producer is Marcy Thompson. Our producers
Speaker 1: are Adriana Fasio and Catherine Law. Our audio engineer is
Speaker 1: Matt Russell, who also composed our theme music. For more
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