The Middle School Mary Poppins Podcast

THE MIDDLE SCHOOL MARY POPPINS PODCAST™

The #1-charting podcast about the wonderfully complicated years between childhood and adolescence.

Hosted by educator, educational technology specialist, and licensed social worker Suzanne M. Swain, EdS, LMSW, The Middle School Mary Poppins Podcast™ has grown into an internationally listened-to platform for families, educators, counselors, and everyone helping young people navigate the middle.

With more than 900,000 lifetime plays and downloads, 48,000+ Spotify followers, 8,000+ Spotify ratings with a 5.0-star rating, listeners in 135+ countries, and repeated #1 placements on Apple Podcasts—including #1 chart positions in Parenting and Kids & Family—MSMP™ has become a growing voice in the conversation about middle school development.

But the numbers aren't the reason this show exists.

The kids are.

STOP. REGULATE. LISTEN.™

Middle school isn't simply an academic transition. It is a neurological, emotional, social, technological, and identity transition.

MSMP™ explores what is happening underneath young people's behavior—and what the adults who love, teach, counsel, and care for them can do next.

Episodes combine developmental science, educational practice, mental-health perspectives, neuroscience, technology, humor, storytelling, and more than two decades of experience working with young people.

Topics include emotional regulation, executive functioning, critical thinking, anxiety, friendships, bullying, identity, resilience, motivation, school success, family communication, creativity, digital citizenship, social media, artificial intelligence, gaming, screen use, and the rapidly changing adolescent brain.

NEURODIVERGENT BRAINS BELONG HERE

Neurodiversity isn't an occasional topic on MSMP™. It is part of the way we understand young people.

The show regularly explores autism, ADHD, giftedness, twice-exceptionality, sensory needs, masking, executive-function differences, emotional intensity, communication differences, accommodations, regulation, and what happens when a child's brain doesn't fit neatly into the environment adults have created for them.

Instead of beginning with:

“How do we stop this behavior?”

MSMP™ begins with:

“What is happening underneath this behavior—and what does this young person need next?”

EDUCATION + TECHNOLOGY + MENTAL HEALTH

Suzanne began her career with an unusual long-term plan: experience education from as many perspectives as possible before trying to tell anyone how schools should work.

That meant teaching. Libraries. Curriculum. School administration. Higher education. Educational technology. And eventually mental health.

Her Educational Specialist degree in Educational Technology informs one of MSMP's continuing conversations: what technology is doing FOR young people, what it may be doing TO them, and how adults can help adolescents develop healthy relationships with screens, social media, artificial intelligence, gaming, information, and emerging technologies.

After decades in education, Suzanne returned to graduate school for social work and became a Licensed Master Social Worker because mental health cannot be separated from learning, relationships, behavior, or healthy adolescent development.

A FREE PUBLIC DISSERTATION

Suzanne sometimes calls The Middle School Mary Poppins Podcast™ her “free public dissertation.”

The idea began taking shape in her early twenties: spend a career learning about young people from different corners of education and then bring those perspectives together somewhere useful.

MSMP™ is that somewhere.

Rather than examining adolescence through one professional lens, the show brings together lessons from teaching, school leadership, librarianship, curriculum, educational technology, higher education, mental health, research—and, most importantly, years spent listening to kids.

The goal isn't perfect children.

It isn't perfect parenting.

And it certainly isn'