NurtureShock Gab, News & Updates

New Pieces at the Daily Beast

2010-02-27T08:43:00.000-08:00

Last week, we wrote two-pieces for The Daily Beast that we're very excited about.

In our book, we explain how poorly early IQ scores predict kids' later achievement, and, since the book's release, a number of people have begun calling for schools to use behavioral measures to assess kids. So in our first piece, we explain that the truth is these alternative measures are even worse – less reliable – than IQ results.

Our second piece is about one of the most famous behavioral measures: the Marshmallow Task. This test measures a child's ability to delay gratification, and it has been suggested that a preschooler's success in it can predict his SAT scores, 15 years later. However, we write that the science to support that claim is razor thin.

NurtureShock is On Over 30 "Best Of" Lists!

2010-01-08T17:11:00.000-08:00

NurtureShock has been included in over 30 "Best Of 2009" lists. We're very honored to have been recognized by each of them, and the sheer number is fantastic, but what is particularly thrilling to us is the variation in the lists, themselves.

For example, Barnes & Noble, San Francisco Chronicle and iTunes recognized us as being some of the Best in General Nonfiction, while Library Journal, AV Club, East Bay Express, and Nevada NPR had us in their lists of Best of Books, without reference to genre.

Audible.com has us at #1 in its "Best in Self Development" category.

Meanwhile, Discover magazine and Seed magazine said we were among the Best in Science Writing. This Week in Education and others include us in their lists of Best Education Books while Big Think has our race chapter as one of the year's Best Coverage in Politics/Social Issues.

And then Momma Data and others have tapped as us being the Best Parenting Book of the Year.

Amazing. Thank you so all very much.

NurtureShock's Many International Editions

2009-11-13T10:06:00.001-08:00

NurtureShock is now in its 6th printing in the U.S. It will be available on Feb 4th, 2010 in English in the U.K., Australia, and in English-language bookstores in Asia, released by Ebury Press. NurtureShock will soon be available in at least nine translations, by the following publishers:

Japanese: Intershift Inc, Tokyo
Chinese (Taiwan): Ars Longa, Taipei
Chinese (Mainland): Huaxia, Beijing
Korean: Mulpure, Seoul
Thai: WeLearn Books, Bangkok

German: Goldmann Arkana, Munich
Spain: Editorial Sirio, Barcelona
Portugal: Lua de Papel, Lisbon

Brazil: Texto Editores, Sao Paulo

Great Interview on CBC's The Current

2009-11-09T10:36:00.000-08:00

To those wondering how NurtureShock hit #2 in nonfiction on Amazon Canada over the weekend, it's because a great interview ran with Hana Gartner of CBC's The Current. The opening several minutes are some great/hilarious quotes from parents on the street giving their opinions on race, self-esteem, baby einstein, etc.

Here's the link to the page to hear it. On the bottom of the page, click "Listen to Part Three."

Two Months on NYT Bestseller list; Amazon Top 100

2009-11-03T14:27:00.000-08:00

I'm guessing we'll soon enough drop off the NYT bestseller list, with so many other fall books coming out - but thanks to everyone who kept us on there since our release week at the beginning of September.

We're also on the Top 100 bestselling books of the year of Amazon, according to the company.

NurtureShock is on Twitter –

2009-10-14T22:32:00.000-07:00

http://twitter.com/nurtureshock

We'll be posting regular links to our Newsweek.com column, info on events, links to blogs and articles we find interesting, etc.

So please join us on Twitter (and as a Facebook fan)!

Emotional Intelligence - Mano-a-Mano?

2009-10-09T18:15:00.000-07:00

Po and I have written, in both our book and the Newsweek blog, about how the evidence we've seen shows that emotional intelligence has failed to live up to the hype: it doesn't predict academic achievement, career success, or better life choices.

Well, Daniel Goleman – author of the hugely successful book Emotional Intelligence – has now contacted us, and, after a couple rounds of emails, we've all agreed to a sort of on-line debate in our Newsweek blog. I believe the fun should start Tues. (or Weds, if Tues. doesn't work out).

It promises to be an exciting week, and we really hope that you will join us.

Writing About Babble on Babble & The Latest Review...

2009-10-05T17:27:00.000-07:00

Today, Po and I have a piece, 11 Ways to Jump-Start Language Skills, on Babble.com, which gives new parents' some more specific thoughts on how to use the research from our language chapter with infants and toddlers. There's also a companion piece / interview with Po there as well.

And this morning, we were delighted to see a rave review from Library Journal:

"Prepare to be slack-jawed as Bronson (What Should I Do With My Life?) and Merryman excavate astonishing research that reveals why our parenting strategies have backfired . . . . The book presents a panoramic view of the latest research and is further distinguished by pragmatic prose that avoids alarmism and sanctimony. Verdict: This tour de force is one of the best parenting psychology books in years and will likely be seismic in influence.—Julianne J. Smith, Ypsilanti Dist. Lib., MI"

Check out Dual Essays on Pokemon & Marshmallows

2009-10-02T15:58:00.000-07:00

I have two essays up today, Friday - one on The Daily Beast and one over at Newsweek.com. The two essays go together; they're both about dopamine's effect on the brain, and the importance of nurturing children's intrinsic motivation, ie., the activities that make their heart sing. Please check them out.

NurtureShock on The View, Fresh Air, and in The Daily Beast

2009-09-30T09:34:00.000-07:00

Several big hits this week - we're told the Fresh Air interview is running today (we will try to come back later with a link.) The hosts of The View talked about NurtureShock for several minutes yesterday, here's that link. And esteemed literary critic John Marshall writes about our interview on The Daily Beast.

NurtureShock in the news

2009-09-20T17:01:00.000-07:00

Before Po and I both head back on the road this week (me in the New York City area, Po in Sacramento and St. Paul/Minneapolis – please come!), a quick update –

Following up on its earlier great review, in this week, San Francisco Chronicle's Top Shelf / Recommended Reading column has NurtureShock at the top of its nonfiction recommendations, proclaiming: "'Mythbusters' for anyone who has a child - or was one." (Thanks, Gallery Bookshop!)

Swellbeing twittered: "My MUST read book of 2009: Nurtureshock" while Po and I were guests of KUER's RadioWest.

We've also been really interested in the continuing conversation about Newsweek's excerpt of our race chapter. We were honored to have our Newsweek colleague Raina Kelley call it "brilliant," while other venues as varied as Inside Catholic, ("fascinating") and The Guardian of Trinidad took their turns to reflect on it.

But some of the reaction took a surprising turn – as Rush Limbaugh and other conservative Republicans falsely claimed that we'd written a liberal attack on anti-Obama Republicans. We flatly disagree: theirs is a willful misrepresentation of our article, and an unforgivable distortion of the findings we reported in it.

Our chapter/excerpt is apolitical, and its findings apply regardless a family's political persuasion. For more of our response, check out this week's issue of Newsweek – you can also read it online.

Dr. Albert Mohler on NurtureShock

2009-09-15T15:41:00.000-07:00

Dr. Albert Mohler is the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary - the flagship school of the Southern Baptist Convention. He's one of the intellectual leaders of the evangelical movement, and he also hosts a daily radio show, which I had the pleasure of being on yesterday. This appearance was important to Ashley and I, because we think there's a false dichotomy out there between science and faith as they relate to kids. In fact, modern science has a lot of guidance to offer about the moral development of children. When our work was first published in New York magazine, Dr. Mohler was one of the first to tell Christian parents to listen up.

On the show yesterday, Rev. Mohler called NurtureShock "a phenomenal book," "the kind of counterintuitive thinking we desperately we need," "fascinating," and credited it for "tremendous gains in understanding of our children and ourselves."

-Po

NurtureShock - Today's Round-up

2009-09-15T12:56:00.000-07:00

Today, Guy Kawasaki has an in-depth Q&A with Ashley, while the Seattle Examiner has a Q&A with both of us, since Po's in Seattle, with a few events around town (check the schedule and please come!)

Suite 101 gave NurtureShock a lovely review ("The book... entertainingly shares the science.... Lively prose, personal stories and sharp analysis make NurtureShock a winning book."

While the Washington Post's Petula Dvorak used our Newsweek excerpt to help her make sense of discussing race in her family, as well as a few current events.

NurtureShock Latest

2009-09-14T11:30:00.000-07:00

We've had some wonderful reactions to NurtureShock and the adaptation of our piece in Newsweek that we had to share.

The book was "enthusiastically recommended!" by Love2Learn.net. Impressed by our "staggering amount of evidence," Joana of The Symposium concurred with: "I strongly recommend and encourage any person who has even the slightest day to day contact with children to pick up a copy of this book." Today's Adventure proclaimed: "Shocking, insightful, entertaining. Read it!" She's Going Bananas said that the Newsweek excerpt was a "must read" that stopped her in her tracks.

Metroreader opined: "Every so often a book is published that dominates the conversation on a particular topic and changes the conventional wisdom. NurtureShock by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman is such a tide-changing tome. It will set parents’ (and others’) tongues wagging for years to come. . . . I think I am a better parent for having read NurtureShock and you will be too!"

We always love it when booksellers are excited about the book, so we were delighted to see Green Apple Books conclude that "what they’ve found will surprise, entertain and enlighten you. . . . This is a book that, if you are a parent, will quite literally change your life and maybe that of your children."

But I do admit that my favorite post came from LibraryQueue; she reported that her three-year-old saw the cracked-egg cover and replied with a concerned, "Uh-oh, Mommy! Your book is broken!"

Also, today, SharedBook is going live with three chapters of the book; there, you can add comments to the text and even order a printed version of the annotated copy. FYI, it's still a bit of a work-in-progress: there are some functionality issues that we hope that they can work out, and, unfortunately, the software doesn't work with Safari, so you'll have to use Explorer or Firefox to get to it. Hachette Book Group also has an on-line excerpts of the book (click on the "Open Book" link).

San Francisco Chronicle Raves

2009-09-11T17:45:00.000-07:00

calling NurtureShock "fascinating," "groundbreaking," "compelling," and "riveting." We would have happily taken any one of those. Read the review here.

Also a nice take on the book at the Baby Toolkit blog, especially finding some help in the material in The Sibling Effect.

Discuss "Why White Parents Don't Talk About Race" at Salon.com

2009-09-11T15:45:00.001-07:00

Thanks to a very intelligent summary of our chapter and additional commentary by Amy Benfer, there's a thoughtful discussion of the issues and challenges for parents at Salon.com. Check out Amy's piece, "The Color-Blind Myth" and its comments.

I was also on CNN with Campbell Brown last night talking about the material.

NurtureShock debuts at #10 on the New York Times Bestseller list

2009-09-09T15:18:00.001-07:00

Thanks, readers, for such a strong initial boost for our book! In our first official week of sales, (some sales were triggered prior to publication date because of the All Things Considered feature), we came in at #10 on the Nonfiction list. Thanks again!

A Bookseller Explains "NurtureShock"

2009-09-05T16:58:00.000-07:00

Here's a nice video from a bookseller at Barnes & Noble in Minnesota explaining the book.

Financial Times raves about NurtureShock

2009-09-04T20:57:00.000-07:00

While CBS News has a short Q&A with both of us, which you can take a look at, don't miss the Financial Times review: "engaging... startling.... This is a funny, clever, sensible book. Every parent should read it."

Five Great Audiobook Experiences

2009-09-04T14:21:00.000-07:00

For fans of audiobooks, I have two original audio essays at Audible.com right now. One - available right now - is about Five Great Audiobook Experiences, (or Audible experiences); the other will be up next week. It's a fascinating little science essay, "Some Strange Things About Kids IQ."

The NurtureShock audiobook is there at that same link too. Shout out to Dennis Kao, the producer who worked on the recording with me.

-Po

Today's Media Hits

2009-09-04T13:53:00.001-07:00

KQED San Francisco, an hour with Dave Iverson.

The MojoMom podcast with Amy Tiemann.

Here's the link to the page for last night's terrific Nightline episode. From that page you can watch the video.

Stanford Magazine review: "The authors pull the bottom Jenga block out from under a towering number of assumptions modern parents hold about child-rearing"

CBSNews.com also did a Q&A with us.

NurtureShock is "brilliant" -Washington Post's Brian Reid

2009-09-04T08:22:00.000-07:00

We were interviewed about NurtureShock by Brian Reid, of the Washington Post's On Parenting blog; that piece will run next week.

But as a lead-in to that, today, Reid wrote, in a post entitled, "NurtureShock: Blinding me with Science," that the book is "brilliant" and "fascinating."

Nightline Tonight and Campbell Brown Part 2

2009-09-03T18:43:00.000-07:00

On ABC's Nightline tonight, anchor Cynthia McFadden and I go down to Stanford to visit Dr. Carol Dweck and recreate her seminal experiments on 5th graders - some being praised for their effort, some being told they're smart. If you've known about this science and wanted to see those experiments in action - see kids crumble or concentrate, on camera - this is the episode to watch.

Also tonight on CNN, Part 2 of my chat with Campbell Brown is available to watch here.

Po on CNN's Campbell Brown

2009-09-03T05:34:00.000-07:00

Po was a guest on last night's Campbell Brown (it was originally to air on Monday, but breaking news meant the segment got bumped until yesterday – so sorry if you were looking for it earlier in the week.)

NurtureShock is a Barnes & Noble pick of the week and gets more great reviews....

2009-09-03T02:41:00.000-07:00

NurtureShock is a Barnes & Noble pick of the week.

The San Francisco Weekly says NurtureShock is "required reading" for the fall.

Stanford Magazine says: "the authors pull the bottom Jenga block out from under a towering number of assumptions modern parents hold about child-rearing."

And AV Club writes: "If NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children can actually be classified as a parenting book, it may be the least touchy-feely one ever. The new work by Po Bronson, the New York Times bestselling author of the career book What Should I Do With My Life?, delights in showing that most parental intuition and supposedly common knowledge about child rearing is just bullshit, and he has the facts to prove it. Much like in his previous work, he’s entered a genre known for emotional cheese, and produced a book that’s hard to put down and easy to take seriously.... The science is well explained and studded with examples, so it never seems dry or dumbed-down. The facts are the real strength behind the narrative, which adeptly contextualizes strange truths."