Discussion Guides

The hour-long umbrella episode interweaves the latest discoveries from neuroscience with the stories of families and communities doing all they can to provide the nurturing environments all babies and young children need to thrive. But too often individual efforts are hindered by social conditions that depress children’s future learning, earning and emotional and even physical health. If we aspire to a healthier, safer, better educated, more prosperous and equitable nation, shouldn’t we invest in all our young children and their families now? They won’t fail us, but we can’t fail them.

Episode 2: Once Upon a Time

Imagine how things might be different if, for the past four decades, all children in the U.S. had access to high-quality early care and ed. It almost happened.

Episode 3: Are We Crazy About Our Kids?

Investing in high-quality early care and education pays for itself in many ways and many times over. So, what is holding us back?

Episode 4: Wounded Places

Too many of our children, especially children of color in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty, experience adversity, violence, neglect and other forms of trauma and show symptoms similar to PTSD—except there is no ‘post.’ How can traumatized children and neighborhoods heal?

Episode 5: DNA is Not Destiny

New scientific discoveries reveal how fetal and early childhood environments—chemical, family, socioeconomic—literally become part of us. They alter not the genes babies inherit but the epigenetic “volume controls” which turn genes on and off, sometimes with enduring effects.