Kinda Useful

Nick and his wife share what it's like to have a 1-year-old, and how other people react to her now. They look back at what other parents have told them as they watch their daughter grow in real time. We've come a long way as a podcast!

In this episode, recorded shortly before Nick's daughter turned 1, our hosts save us from a Taco Bell-related tangent, talk about her mobility but especially about her first new words, Baby Einstein and Baby Sign Language. On the way there, the Owlet makes a comeback and Nick shares when it was that his mindset changed about his former anxieties.

In an episode that's all about food, Nick tells us whether he thinks he's raising a picky eater, tells us whether he's raising his daughter as a vegetarian, and shares his thoughts on how to fix the future of all children, while Bruno learns about smash cakes and comes up with an amazing business idea. 

In this episode, Nick and his wife talk about how they plan to raise their daughter to deal with her emotions and find answers to questions she might have. Unsurprisingly, we all go down a deep rabbit hole about how having a child is really complicated, but still get an impromptu lesson in cell biology from Nick as a bonus.

It's nature versus nurture time at Kinda Useful! Nick and his wife try to answer the old-age question, but first they talk about their current relationship with their daughter and how that will change in the future. This episode still catches the family thinking back to traveling together but features one of the best analogies for raising a child you'll ever hear. 

Nick and Bruno are joined by Nick's wife! And wine! This was supposed to be our "how to travel with a baby" episode, and it is — but in Kinda Useful fashion, we tangent into extroversion vs introversion (and which one they've detected one in their daughter), talk about bad people, and curse. We curse a lot.

Nick talks about his addiction to his daughter’s giggles and his strategies to make that happen. Someday she’ll sit and listen to him read a book, but for now there’s other things they do together — like being asked about whether or not she cured cancer today. Warning: this is a very adorable episode.

After seven months, things are getting easier and more fun for Nick and his daughter. We look back at freaking out about the idea of being responsible for someone, laugh about babies’ fake fragility, and even finish this episode with some good advice to parents prone to a little bit of the ol’ anxiety.

After a couple of months away from the microphones (taking care of a baby-slash-scheduling stuff is really hard, yo), Nick and Bruno come back just in time to celebrate the first anniversary of the podcast. So they look back at that first episode, back when Nick was still dealing with news he was going to be a father, and compare his state of mind back then to the much more useful role he plays around his now-7-month-old daughter. Not everything is rosy, however, as Nick shares some fears that were creeping up only months ago — before being interrupted by his obviously very healthy daughter.

Nick talks about his daughter's reactions at three and half months old and ends up reflecting on how we document things, from his own childhood to how often he and his wife (don't) post photos in social media. Bruno can't relate because he posts stuff on social media nearly every day. 

Nick is still grappling with the overnight change that is having a nanny looking after his baby and having a hard time getting used to it. Things get a turn for the better when he talks about developments in his daughter's life.

Nick and his wife have found a nanny and goes through the process of trying to find a nanny, interview her, and eventually leaving his daughter alone with this other person on a daily basis. Now he feels guilty about spending less time with his baby. Also there’s math.

Nick, like most Americans, doesn't get much in the way of paternity leave. He looks back at not having had much time off in the first few weeks of his daughter's life, and then looks forward to a future where his current choices come back to haunt him — and her. Also more talk about that damn Owlet.

Nick tells Bruno about some of the many purchases they made for their daughter now that she's here, and admits to a ridiculous (and expensive) purchase.

After a few weeks of trying to schedule a new episode recording (the guy has been busy), Nick tells Bruno about some bad habits he's picked up, delves into the controversial world of infant sleep (and its message board wars), and shares some sleep tactics.

Nick does a play-by-play of the very intense day when his daughter was born, with wasps still on his brain. We follow the different emotions in his journey from dopey sidekick as his wife gives birth in an emergency C-section to a number of different "adverb-adjective" combos. 

This is another episode we've been looking forward to for a long time. Remember months ago when Nick found out he was going to be a father soon? He's a father now! And today he tells about the (very eventful) day his daughter was born, the (wasp-infested) crazy day leading up to it and a little bit of the weird days since. If you listen closely you get to hear his daughter cooing in the background too! 

THIS IT GUYS, THIS IS THE DAY WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR! Nick's daughter is here and — let's get this out of the way: she's healthy and doing great. BUT the day in which she came into the world was not at all uneventful. Nick's wife is back once again to tell it all about what he calls a "ridiculous" day (he'll tell his side of the story in the next episode).

Nick’s wife is about to pop and back on the podcast! On this episode, taped as she hit 37 weeks in her pregnancy, she talks about the extra 15 pounds sitting on her organs, strangers on the train looking at her nostalgically, having a bag ready and all those things that happen when the doctor says “ok, see you next week.”

After more than one episode when we dove deep into the gender rabbit hole, Nick avoids that conversation this time. He still double-checks the femaleness of his baby in the ultrasound, though — and then becomes very proud of how big she will be. Poor Nick's wife. We would never be able to go through what women go through.