Teens

Our listeners voted for their favorite 2017 episodes of The Exchange. Today, it's our conversation about the controversial Netflix series "Thirteen Reasons Why," which brought  the issues of sexual assault, cyberbullying, and suicide to millions of young viewers.  But it upset many in the mental health field, concened that the show glorifies suicide.  That sparked a renewed conversation about these topics and the best way to present them, especially in an age when shows and images can go viral before parents can tune in.

This program was originally broadcast on May 17, 2017

We’re taking a look at the debate over early school start times and the science of adolescent sleep needs.

Guests:

Despite claims by the industry that e-cigarettes are healthier than traditional smoking, more research is raising questions about this alternative, including its rising use by teenagers. But vaping has caught on, with more shops opening and many ex-smokers who say vaping helped them quit tobacco.

GUESTS:

  It’s difficult to help anyone who is struggling with a drug addiction problem. But helping a teenager comes with a unique set of obstacles. 

The word vitamin has only been around for just over 100 years. But today vitamins are a $36 billion dollar-a-year industry. On today’s show, we’ll look at the history and science behind a largely unregulated market. Plus, a new hotline for emotionally distressed teens aims to help teens by communicating in a space where they feel comfortable – via text message.     

Listen to the full show and click Read more for individual segments.

It’s often said that adolescents are impulsive partly because their brains aren’t fully developed.  Now a new book adds fuel to the discussion, describing how the period of adolescence is a lot longer these days, from age ten to twenty-five. It also shows that the brain at this time is highly malleable, and much more easily influenced by both positive and negative experiences. 

This program was originally broadcast on November 3, 2014.

Sexting, sex bracelets, sex parties, the media would like you to believe twenty-first century teenagers are out of control, or are they?

Today’s show takes an objective look at teenage sexual behavior, and finds out what’s behind all the media hype. Then, we’ll hit the classroom and hear from a psychology professor who conducted an experiment of her own: offering students extra credit in return for a phone free environment.

Listen to the full show and Read more for individual segments.

New Hampshire has the country’s lowest teen pregnancy rate, according to a new study. 

The report from the Guttmacher Institute, a DC-based think tank, says New Hampshire’s pregnancy rate stands at about half what it was in 1988. In 2010, the most recent year the study tracked, just three percent of teenage girls became pregnant in the Granite State. The national rate that same year stood at six percent. 

Heather Boonstra is with the Guttmacher Institute.

From the Mona Lisa to the Sistine Chapel, sometimes the story of how a work of art was created is as important as the work itself. Today on Word of Mouth, breaking down the myth behind a breakthrough Jackson Pollock painting

Also today, Game of Thrones fans know that kids and teenagers play a prominent role in the series: think evil King Joffrey. We’ll tease out fact from fiction, with a look at what life was really like for young people in the Middle Ages.

Plus, singer/songwriter Loudon Wainwright approaches his own late middle age.

Listen to the whole show and click Read more for individual segments.

The New Hampshire Teen Institute is a non-profit organization that offers leadership and risk prevention training to teens, helping them understand and grow into their own strengths and potential. Susanna Keilig participated and volunteered in the Teen Institute’s “Leaders in Prevention” program and in the week-long summer program.

Most of us read 1984 and Lord of the Flies in high school, but the new dystopian novel has grown in popularity beyond the required reading list to include a new generation of young fans.  David Sobel looks at the legion of apocryphal novels set in worlds devastated by wars and environmental collapse now aimed at teens as emblematic of a rising tide of hopelessness. He is a member of the senior faculty at Antioch New England, and his article “Feed the Hunger” was published in the November-December issue of Orion magazine.

The New Hampshire Teen Institute is a non-profit organization that offers leadership and risk prevention training to teens, helping them understand and grow into their own strengths and potential. Susanna Keilig participated and volunteered in the Teen Institute’s “Leaders in Prevention” program and in the week-long summer program.

A few weeks back the Huffington Post and the nonprofit group Youth Service America issued a list of the 25 most powerful and influential young people in the world.

And one of them is from Derry, New Hampshire. Dylan Mahalingam founded the volunteer organization Lil’ MDG’s in 2004, at age nine. Since then he’s worked to encourage millions of youths to find ways to improve conditions for young people. He joins All Things Considered host Brady Carlson with more about what he does.

Produced by Chris Cuffe

Here’s a story worth sharing on your smartphone: new research says there is NOT an epidemic of teen sexting.

Janis Wolak is senior researcher at the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire. She’s co-author of two studies on sexting being released in today’s edition of the journal Pediatrics, and she tells All Things Considered host Brady Carlson the UNH data shows a rate of sexting much lower than the 20 percent number commonly cited in news reports.