Dolls and Dolls, Guys!

For decades, IQ was considered a person’s primary predictor of success. However, in Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman challenges this assumption, arguing that emotional intelligence—the ability to recognize, understand, and manage emotions in ourselves and others—is equally, if not more, important. Emotional intelligence (EI) determines how well we navigate relationships, handle stress, and make decisions. Without it, our emotions control us, leading to behaviors that hold us back. Fortunately, unlike IQ, Goleman contends that EI can be learned and developed.

This guide explores emotional intelligence and why it matters. We’ll discuss the nature of emotion and its effects on behavior, examine the five components of EI and how to strengthen them, and explore practical scenarios where EI can be applied to your own life. In our commentary, we’ll supplement Goleman’s discussion with input from sources like Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves and studies from other psychologists.

Do you often think about what you need to do to turn your child into a well-adjusted, successful adult? If so, you may be acting as a carpenter parent—a parent who adheres rigidly to the blueprint for raising a “successful child”—instead of a gardener parent—a parent who nurtures the innate interests and talents of their child. In The Gardener and the Carpenter, Alison Gopnik explains that the goal of raising and caring for children should be to allow them to blossom into their unique selves and that parenting should not be a form of work but rather an act of love.

Gopnik is a professor of psychology, affiliate professor of philosophy, and author of multiple books on how to be a good parent. In our guide, we’ll explore the flaws in the current parenting model, how children naturally learn and grow, and how the schooling model also fails to effectively support children’s learning. We’ll add advice from other child-care experts, contextualize Gopnik’s ideas in psychology, and add research and statistics that support or contradict Gopnik’s theories.

From sibling arguments to temper tantrums, parents constantly have to manage conflict. These challenging moments are pivotal opportunities to promote your child’s psychological development. The Whole-Brain Child explains the neurological and developmental reasons for many of your child’s meltdowns and misbehaviors. When the different parts of your child’s brain—such as the logical left brain and the emotional right brain—are not integrated, it makes your child mentally and emotionally off-balance, which causes her to act out.

The book teaches you how to diagnose signs of dis-integration, as well as strategies to help your child to re-integrate her mind. With these tools, your child will develop a stronger relationship with you, increase her self-awareness and emotional self-control, and build the foundation for a lifetime of healthy relationships and mental and emotional stability.

We need to talk about racism. But, for white people and people of color alike, talking about it can feel like navigating through a minefield. In So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo offers a handbook on how to have intelligent, productive, empathetic conversations about race.

Our guide discusses and extends Oluo’s ideas for how to tackle these conversations, comparing and contrasting her ideas on race with those of her contemporaries. We also examine the research underlying Oluo’s arguments. You’ll learn about the school-to-prison pipeline, why touching someone’s hair can be a racist act, and what you can do to fight racial injustice through both conversations and practical actions.

The 1619 Project is an anthology of essays edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones and co-created with the New York Times that seeks to reframe American history with the institution of slavery at its core. The book asserts that American history began in 1619 with the arrival of the first ship of enslaved Africans, one year before the Mayflower arrived. It also argues that, American democracy and the prosperous nation we know today were largely built by enslaved Black Americans but that this demographic is almost entirely excluded from America’s founding stories and remains suppressed today due to racist institutions that persist from slavery.

This guide will reframe America’s founding story by exploring how the institution of slavery has impacted our economy, laws, society, and the livelihoods of Black Americans. We’ll conclude by discussing Hannah-Jones’s recommendations for how the government can make reparations for these injustices. Throughout the guide, we’ll provide a broader perspective by discussing accounts from other historians, economists, and researchers.

In How to Be an Antiracist, author Ibram X. Kendi takes readers through his journey to become an antiracist—a person who believes that all racial groups are equal and supports policies that reduce inequity. Antiracists acknowledge that there are differences between races, but these differences aren’t responsible for inequities—policies are.

Kendi, like many of us, grew up in a racist society and internalized many of its ideas. As a result, despite being Black, he was racist himself throughout much of his life. In How to Be an Antiracist, he describes how he changed his thoughts and actions to become antiracist, and how you can do the same. Our commentary explores how racism became so deeply ingrained in our culture and why it’s so hard for us to let go of our racist ideas on an individual level. We’ll also suggest some specific ways you can implement Kendi’s ideas and start taking antiracist action.

For decades, IQ was considered a person’s primary predictor of success. However, in Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman challenges this assumption, arguing that emotional intelligence—the ability to recognize, understand, and manage emotions in ourselves and others—is equally, if not more, important. Emotional intelligence (EI) determines how well we navigate relationships, handle stress, and make decisions. Without it, our emotions control us, leading to behaviors that hold us back. Fortunately, unlike IQ, Goleman contends that EI can be learned and developed.

This guide explores emotional intelligence and why it matters. We’ll discuss the nature of emotion and its effects on behavior, examine the five components of EI and how to strengthen them, and explore practical scenarios where EI can be applied to your own life. In our commentary, we’ll supplement Goleman’s discussion with input from sources like Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves and studies from other psychologists.

In The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, child psychiatrist Bruce Perry describes a series of child abuse and neglect cases to illustrate how trauma impacts the developing brain and explain how he and his colleagues established a more effective therapy model for traumatized children.

In our guide, we’ll explain the psychiatric principles that Perry discovered during his years of working with traumatized children, including the stress response, the effects of trauma in infancy versus trauma at a later age, dissociation in response to trauma, and the role that relationships play in the treatment of traumatized children. We’ll also look at specific case studies that contributed to Perry’s Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics. Our commentary explores research supporting and expanding on Perry’s ideas, as well as scientific and social context on how trauma can manifest and the nuances of treatment.

No, you’re not a bad parent. And your kids are actually good kids—parenting is just hard. Do you wish it came with a manual? Clinical psychologist Becky Kennedy’s Good Inside might be just what you need.

Good Inside is a parenting manual to help you make changes in your child’s behavior while building a positive relationship with them. Most parenting advice sees children’s behavior as a problem to be fixed through time-outs, rewards, and serious conversations. But Becky Kennedy argues that these strategies jeopardize your connection with your children. That’s a high price to pay for band-aid strategies that don't deal with the root causes of problematic behaviors.

Our guide lays out the core principles of Kennedy’s approach to parenting, her essential toolkit for dealing with challenging behavior, and strategies to deal with 10 common parenting challenges. We complement Kennedy’s advice with that of other experts, including the authors of parenting classics The Whole-Brain Child, 1-2-3 Magic, and How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk.