The Curious Parent - Videos on the Science of Parenting

If you have followed Untamed Science over the last several years, then this set of parent videos makes a lot of sense. If you are coming to the site for the first time, welcome! Here’s a little sum-up:

Rob and I are science filmmakers with biology backgrounds. We are in our 30s, making babies and raising our family. So naturally, we’re fascinated and gung-ho about the science of our everyday lives—children, birth, pain, joy, sleep, not sleeping, what our kids eat—basically anything that happens. For us, it’s really fun (and sometimes useful or comforting) to ask lots of questions and talk to the top researchers in these fields about the science.

The idea for this series began at a ladies’ night with fellow mom and science filmmaker Melissa Salpietra (pictured below). Somewhere amidst drinks and tacos, we realized we HAD to make this series. We wanted to talk to experts and get the real scoop on so many things we asked ourselves and each other, so many things that couldn’t be explained with a Google search or the ultimate resource, our moms. We have had an absolute blast producing these together, and we hope we can dig deeper and make a million more!

To be very clear, parenting is not a science, but science is a huge part of our lives. Knowing the biology or the chemistry involved in the tasks and beautiful moments of daily life only deepens our appreciation and adds another layer to this wonderful and crazy time of our lives where we get to do the best job in the world. In the end, we all parent from our gut—and my gut says that all of this cutting-edge discovery is cool to learn about! Maybe there are other moms like us? We want to make sure everyone knows we are not giving parenting advice at all. We just want to share the joy of science in this new chapter in our lives.

In a most beautiful turn, talking to all these scientists and researching about all this stuff has given us even more respect, love, and appreciation for our parents, our children, and the role we now fill as parents. It’s an important job. It’s hard. It’s wonderful. It’s a gift. We are enjoying it and bungling through it the best way we know how—with faith, love, each other and science!

We hope you enjoy these videos—our first go at a labor of love! Please leave comments below and share them with your friends!

Haley