Podcast
Youth Culture Today with Walt Mueller
Hosted by Walt Mueller · EN
Youth Culture Today is a 60-second daily radio spot from CPYU and Walt Mueller, now available as a podcast. It provides a quick glance into the world of teenagers and today's youth culture for parents, youth workers and others who care about kids and want to help them navigate adolescence in ways that bring glory to God.
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Episodes
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Kids and Academic Cheating
3d ago00:01:00Tap to summarizeAre your kids cheating in school? Have you talked to them about what it means to honor the Lord in their academic pursuits? You might be surprised to learn that according to the International Center for Academic Integrity, a survey of over seventy thousand high school students found that ninety-five percent of students admitted to some form of cheating. Sixty four percent admitted to cheating on a test. And, fifty-eight percent admitted to plagiarism. I’ve been hearing reports from teachers on how students are cheating these days. Some students take audio notes of test questions immediately after leaving an exam, and then share the audio notes with other students. One report said that a student had a cheat sheet attached to the bottom of his Croc. In Colossians three twenty three we read, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for me.” Teach your kids to embrace academic integrity as they study to build their minds, and faithfully serve the Lord.
Transcribe →God's Blueprint for Fathers
6d ago00:01:00Tap to summarizeOn this weekend when we look forward to celebrating Father’s Day, I want to remind the fathers who are listening of their greatest responsibility in life. In Ephesians six four we read this: “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” If we are taking the time to carefully, diligently, and correctly teach the Word of God to our children, we will have fulfilled our highest calling as parents. Writing back in eighteen eighty three, English pastor Robert William Dale has this word for dads that still rings true today. “Parents should care more for the loyalty of their children to Christ than anything besides, more for this than for their health, their intellectual vigor and brilliance, their material prosperity, their social position, and their exemptions from great sorrows and great misfortunes.” Dad, on this weekend when you are celebrated, ask the Lord to lead you into how to best lead your kids.
Transcribe →Dopamine and Digital Addiction
1w ago00:01:00Tap to summarizeIn a recent interview with NPR about her new book, “Dopamine Kids”, Dr. Michealeen Doucleff, spoke about the tricks and tools that tech companies use to hijack the brains and dopamine systems of our kids. Her book offers up a science-based plan to rewire the brains of our kids, which have been captured by screens. Doucleff tells us that these tricks and tools have been developed and utilized by the gambling industry. But during the 2000s, the tools were adapted by developers to be used in social media and gaming platforms. This is all done as a strategy to keep our kids tethered to their devices, a strategy that we know is working when our kids protest our removal of screens from their hands. Doucleff says that the games and apps are designed to give kids the feeling that their fundamental needs and desires are being met, by releasing dopamine into their brains. As Christians, we know that the greatest need and longing existing in our kids can only be met through a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Transcribe →Chatbots and Body Image
1w ago00:01:00Tap to summarizeIn the past, we’ve issued warnings about how kids are consulting with non-human AI chatbots online to get advice on all sorts of things, including mental health issues. The trend is dangerous, as so many of the news and research reports are now telling us. A new peer-reviewed study published on PubMed reports on how these AI chatbots are responding to the questions kids ask about appearance, body image, weight, eating, and diet. The responses reveal that chatbots are providing answers that lean into cultural standards for eating, thinness, and appearance, rather than pointing kids to safe dietary practices. There are legitimate concerns regarding the impact of these answers on kids, particularly the very real possibility of encouraging issues related to body dysmorphia and disordered eating. Parents, we need to set the table for our kids to come to us with these questions by fostering strong relationships that will result in our ability to give biblically-faithful answers to all of their questions.
Transcribe →Needed - Online Humility
1w ago00:01:00Tap to summarizeIn First John two sixteen we read these words: “For all that is in the world – the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life – is not from the Father but is from the world.” Those words offer some great directives related to how we present ourselves on social media. I got to thinking about that when I read this directive in a recent edition of TableTalk magazine: “Selfish pride is the antithesis of humility and is the way of the world. If we seek to exalt ourselves at the expense of others, we will produce only strife, and we will not enjoy a lasting exaltation anyway. But if we humble ourselves, God will exalt us.” John Calvin chimes in with this: ‘We emulate and envy, because we desire to be eminent. This is a way wholly unreasonable, for it is God’s peculiar work to raise up the lowly, and especially those who humble themselves.” Parents, all of us, especially our kids, are encouraged to trumpet ourselves. Teach your kids to glorify God in all things, rather than themselves.
Transcribe →Parenting and the Adolescent Brain
1w ago00:01:00Tap to summarizeThe structure, complexity, and functioning of the human brain gives glory to God, our Creator! With the advancements being made in brain scans, researchers are seeing just how incredibly magnificent the human brain really is. Recent findings indicate that the brain changes its wiring of neural circuits over the course of our lives. The phase of change known as adolescence kicks off around age nine, and then continues until around the age of thirty-two. While the bodies of our children and teens reach maturity during the teenage years, we have to understand that the brain is not yet fully formed. The last part to develop is the frontal lobe, which is responsible for decision-making and impulse control. Understanding this reality allows us to more fully understand our kids. This should not excuse poor decision-making or behavior during the teen years, but it does explain it. It should also motivate us to fulfill our God-given role to nurture them in the discipline and admonition of the Lord.
Transcribe →Youth Sports - Sacrificing Sabbath
2w ago00:01:00Tap to summarizeEric Liddell, the subject of the movie “Chariots of Fire” came to mind recently as I read a news story about a decision made by a 16-year-old teenager from Satellite Beach, Florida. Liddell, a devout Christian, chose not to run his 100 meter heats in the 1924 Olympics because they were being held on a Sunday. Last fall, high school swimmer Michael Alexander Shapira, gave up his place in the Florida 2A state championship meet because the event was set to begin on sundown Friday, which is the start of the Jewish Sabbath. A devout Jew, Shapira received pressure from his coach and teammates to change his mind. Shapira said this: “When you sanctify God’s name in public, you show the world what it means to live with faith. This isn’t about what I want. It’s about who I am.” In February, Shapira was named International Jewish Teen of the Year. Parents, how easily we sacrifice our Sabbath and Sunday worship for youth sports. What are you teaching your kids?
Transcribe →When They Consider Suicide
2w ago00:01:00Tap to summarizeDuring the months of spring and early summer, suicide attempts among young people tend to rise. Pastoral Counselor Karen Mason offers some great advice on how to interact with a person who you think might be experiencing depression and considering suicide. She says that our job is to recognize when a situation is serious and to take action according to the seriousness of the crisis. Listen non-judgmentally to the person at risk. Become familiar with the suicide risk factors and warning signs. . . a list of which can be found on our website at cpyu.org. Mason says that the best way to assess the seriousness of a situation is to ask the person at risk. As uncomfortable as it may be to ask the person directly, it is the best way to determine risk. In fact, asking directly can create relief for a suicidal person who may have no other idea about how to start a conversation. There is no evidence that asking puts the thought of suicide in a person’s mind. So ask. You might be saving a life.
Transcribe →Kids and Surveillance Capitalism
2w ago00:01:00Tap to summarizeOne of the great concerns regarding the growing presence and use of Artificial Intelligence has been labeled as “surveillance capitalism” by writer Shoshana Zuboff. Zuboff defines surveillance capitalism as a system that claims human experience as free raw material for translation into behavioral data. AI takes this raw material, analyzes it, and then harnesses it to nudge, coax, tune, and herd behavior toward profitable outcomes. As it relates to your kids, think of it this way. They spend lots of time online, becoming addicted to social media platforms designed to addict them. Data on their online behavior is consistently collected, as they are being watched. Profiles of your kids are then created from that data, and then sold to companies and marketers who want to reach them with something to sell. In other words, the online attention of our kids is being commodified, which in turn commodifies our kids. Parents, this is just one more caution you need to heed.
Transcribe →Reclaiming Parental Authority
2w ago00:01:00Tap to summarizeBecky Kennedy and Sheryl Zielger are both psychologists who are raising teenagers themselves. I discovered their names in an article they had written for CNBC’s online site. The article’s title caught my eye: “If you want to raise stronger, more independent kids, give them this: They need it now more than ever say psychologists.” Kennedy and Ziegler cit how many parents today are so filled with the fear of doing something wrong, that they try not to push too hard or enforce too many rules, assuming that doing so might push their kids into stress, anxiety, and a host of other mental health issues. But the two tell us that this is NOT what our kids need. Rather, what our kids need is for us to boldy claim – and in some cases reclaim – our parental authority. They say that now more than ever need us to offer up a safe system, a structure where we are in control. As Christian parents, we know from reading Scripture that this is our responsibility. But are we exercising our God-given authority?
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