The Middle School Mary Poppins Podcast
💜☂️ The Middle School Mary Poppins Podcast™ is a chart-topping parenting and education podcast hosted by Suzanne M. Swain, EdS LMSW — former middle school teacher, school librarian, administrator, professor of education, therapist, and educational sociologist with over 20+ years of experience working with tweens, teens, families, and school systems.
👩🏫📚🎓 Educated, trained, and classroom-tested in Tennessee (UT🧡), Suzanne taught 5th, 7th, and 8th grade while becoming deeply determined to understand every layer of the middle school experience in order to better serve kids. From classrooms and school libraries to administration, behavioral support, higher education, and emotional health, that journey eventually became the foundation of The Middle School Mary Poppins Podcast™ — a warm, research-based approach to helping families navigate the emotional realities of adolescence.
💕 ND-Friendly: MSMP is designed with neurodivergent listeners and families at the heart of the show, keeping distractions, abrupt interruptions, & excessive ads to a minimum for continuity & regulation. Any carefully selected, relevant sponsors will be limited and placed primarily at the beginning or end of episodes.
✨ Today, the podcast has grown into one of the top-ranked independent parenting podcasts on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, reaching listeners in more than 115 countries and earning over 4600 + five-star Spotify reviews.
🍎 Apple Podcasts (May 3-11, 2026):
#1 in Kids & Family
#1 in Kids & Family: Parenting
🏆 Spotify:
4,600 + five-star reviews ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Each episode blends years of classroom experience, humor, neurobiology, emotional regulation tools, school culture insight, and real-world support for parents, educators, and caregivers navigating the beautiful chaos of adolescence. Topics include anxiety, autism, ADHD, screen time, emotional resilience, executive functioning, family systems, neurodivergence, and the emotional realities of modern parenting.
📚 The Middle School Mary Poppins Podcast™ is especially known for its “Emotional Critical Thinking” educational theory developed by Swain, (ECT) is based in systems theory and is focused on helping families move beyond shame, punishment, and panic toward connection, re/regulation, technology resilience, and long-term self-recognized growth using simple, practical tools families can actually use, with technology as a constant thread.
👏 The show proudly remains independently produced and intentionally selective about sponsorships and featured partnerships. Companies and organizations highlighted on the show are carefully vetted for alignment with the podcast’s mission, values, and commitment to supporting children and families ethically. If you are interested in speaking engagements or advertising, email: suzanneswain@gmail.com
🦊 If this episode helped your family, classroom, or community, you can support the show and explore additional resources for parents and educators at:
msmarypoppins.com. Help spread the word by offering some stars or a review! Thank you for supporting grassroots podcasting!
Coming Soon:
Downloadable Survival Guides & More
🎤 For media appearances, conferences, speaking engagements, educational consulting, or partnership opportunities:
suzanneswain@gmail.com
💜 Extra special thanks to Janine Stella of StellaMix for supporting independent podcast production and creative collaboration behind the scenes. To learn more about StellaMix or to help make your own podcasting dreams come true, visit: stellamix.com
The Middle School Mary Poppins Podcast
S2 EP 11 - Ridiculous Joy: It's a Beautiful Life
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Middle school can feel weird, overwhelming, awkward, emotional, and completely ridiculous sometimes… so maybe the answer is learning how to hold onto a little “Ridiculous Joy” to help us cope with the difficulty.
In this episode of The Middle School Mary Poppins Podcast, Suzanne M. Swain, EdS, LMSW introduces the heart behind the show and the mission driving these conversations: helping kids, families, and educators better understand each other through neuroscience, emotional critical thinking, humor, and honest dialogue about what it actually feels like to grow up in today’s world.
“Ridiculous Joy” is Suzanne’s favorite phrase, and will be the title of her upcoming parenting book. It is through finding silliness and ridiculous joy in life that we are able to build up these experiences to remind us that life is full of wonder and excitement if we’re just strong enough to get through the darker days.
Drawing from years of experience as a middle school teacher, school librarian, administrator, professor of Education, and licensed master social worker working directly with students and families, Suzanne explores the complicated emotional world middle schoolers live in every day. Kids today are constantly moving between different environments — school, home, social media, peer groups, extracurricular pressure, and adult expectations — often without the emotional tools to fully process all of it yet.
This episode explores why communication between kids and adults can break down so easily, how cognitive distortions shape the way we interpret situations, and why emotional regulation has become one of the most important life skills we can teach. Suzanne also introduces the idea that joy itself can become an act of resilience — especially for neurodivergent kids, anxious kids, overwhelmed kids, and the adults trying to support them.
Blending humor, brain science, real classroom stories, and heartfelt honesty, Ridiculous Joy: It’s a Beautiful Life sets the tone for the entire MSMP podcast experience: compassionate, practical, slightly chaotic, and deeply hopeful.
💜 ND Friendly Listening Note: MSMP is designed with neurodivergent listeners in mind. Ads and interruptions are intentionally kept to a minimum and placed thoughtfully for continuity and emotional regulation support.
☂️ Visit msmarypoppins.com for resources, updates, and ways to support the show.
Produced by StellaMix Podcast Productions
🌐 stellamix.com
Stay clever, little foxes!🦊
