For many parents, raising children in a constantly changing, digital world can feel overwhelming. From artificial intelligence and social media to vaping and self-injury, the challenges facing today’s adolescents are numerous and ever evolving.
A new podcast created by University of Georgia associate professor Amanda Giordano is helping fill this information gap by equipping parents and caregivers with the knowledge and skills to better understand and respond to a variety of youth risk behaviors.
The “Safety First: Tackling Tough Topics with Teens” podcast is part of a multi-year, federally-funded initiative aimed at reducing youth risk behaviors, such as substance use, behavioral addictions, excessive screen time, and other safety concerns.
“My hope for the podcast is that it empowers caregivers and parents to have conversations with their teens that they wouldn’t have had otherwise,” said Giordano, who teaches in the Mary Frances Early College of Education’s Department of Counseling and Human Development Services. “The podcast provides suggestions for how to approach those conversations with teens because the topics can feel intimidating.”
Funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and led by Kristine Ramsay-Seaner, an assistant professor of counseling at West Virginia University, the project is focused on providing accessible resources to rural communities that often lack prevention programming and mental health education.
Giordano’s podcast, which delivers free content directly to listeners, serves as the public-facing educational component of the grant, while the broader project will develop virtual training modules for a variety of youth professionals.
Each episode is 20 minutes long, allowing listeners to gain expert insight on a variety of topics despite holding busy schedules. “We really geared the podcast towards parents and professionals who work with youth,” said Giordano. “These experts aren’t talking to a room of academics; they’re talking to parents and providing relevant, practical information.”
Topics featured in the first season of the podcast reflect the most urgent concerns reported by professionals working directly with youth.
Giordano, along with her research team, determined which topics to feature based on data collected through a needs assessment survey, which showed that digital media addiction, vaping, social media addiction, cyberbullying, as well as mental health concerns were among the most concerning risk behaviors reported by professionals.
Currently, the most popular episode is focused on adolescent use of artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. Joined by Akanksha Dadlani, a child and adolescent psychiatry fellow physician at Stanford University, the conversation explores how teens interact with AI tools, potential emotional reliance on chatbots, and the importance of maintaining human-centered mental healthcare.
“One of Dadlani’s big takeaways was that you cannot replace mental health professionals with AI,” said Giordano. “She shares that AI lacks the human qualities that are essential for providing effective mental health support.”
With a different expert featured in each episode, guests provide listeners with tools for recognizing warning signs of youth risk behaviors, understanding emotional and behavioral patterns, and initiating open, non-judgmental conversations with teens.
Future seasons are already in development and will continue to focus on emerging issues affecting adolescents, including sexting, new substance use trends, and evolving digital behaviors. Additional episodes will be released later this year as the grant enters its next phase.
By combining expert voices with practical guidance, the podcast is an accessible resource for families navigating the realities of adolescence.
“I have a responsibility as a researcher to disseminate information in a way that the public can access and use,” said Giordano. “Publishing papers in peer-reviewed journals is so important, and helps move our field forward, but that isn’t the only way to disseminate information. Tools like podcasts, webinars, and blogs are more accessible and can get important data to the people who can really benefit from it.”