PediatricDigest

Tuesday, 26 May 2026

🌱 mess, mindset, and growth 🌳

May 2026 Newsletter

Hi read,

My first year running groups at OKOT in 2015, I ran a group that felt like one long conflict. Kids arguing. Dysregulation. Me spending most of the session managing friction between children instead of... well, what I thought the "real" work was supposed to look like.

I went home exhausted. And then I sat down and wrote an email to the parents.

I decided to be honest and I told them: it was a hard day…but this is actually the work.

Conflict isn't a sign that something went wrong in group. It's the reason we're here. Helping kids slow down when they're activated. Helping them regulate their bodies. Helping them talk TO each other instead of AT each other.

That IS the therapeutic work. The messy sessions are often the most important ones.

One of the dads wrote me back. He said it was the first time any therapist had ever framed hard things as opportunities for growth. That every other clinical setting his son had been in seemed focused on avoiding conflict and negative feelings at all costs.

And he said he felt like someone actually understood what his kid needed.

I've never forgotten that, after all these years.

It's easy to say "hard things help us grow." It's a lot harder to believe it when you're in the middle of a hard thing — whether you're the parent, the child, or honestly... the therapist!

But it's true. And it's what we show up to do every single session. And what you're doing every day with your child as you parent. So when things feel hard: remember that's when the most growth is likely happening.

💚 Resource of the Month

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck is the research behind everything I just described. Dweck's work on growth mindset — the belief that abilities can be developed through effort and struggle — is exactly why we don't shy away from hard moments. It's foundational to the ConTiGO approach we use in our sessions, and it will transform your OWN thinking about everything: your child, your parenting, your work, and your life.

🌳 OKOT Service Updates

☀️ We have just a few last small-group summer camp spots! Check which weeks are full and register for Summer Camp here.

We're also enrolling now for fall groups and individual OT services at all locations in San Francisco, Berkeley, & Oakland CA and Madison, WI.

Oh! And if you know anyone who is a FABULOUS occupational therapist (we only hire the best), we are hiring one more OT for our Berkeley/Oakland, CA location. They can find info here. Just forward them this email.

Cheers,

Laura Park Figueroa

Founder, OKOT

P.S. Pics below of fun from Outdoor Kids summer camp last year. :)

VISIT OUR WEBSITE

2930 Domingo Avenue #1092
Berkeley, California 94705, USA

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Monday, 25 May 2026

Latest from Food Politics: RIP Carlo Petrini: a huge loss to the food world and to humanity

By Marion Nestle

May 25 2026

RIP Carlo Petrini: a huge loss to the food world and to humanity

Carlo Petrini and Slow Food acolytes in Turin, 2016.

As a member of Slow Food USA, I received its notice about the death of its founder, Carlo Petrini, at age 76 in Bra, Italy.

A visionary leader and public intellectual with a profound commitment to the common good, human relationships, and the natural world, Carlo Petrini founded Slow Food, the international Terra Madre gathering, and the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo. Through these initiatives, he brought to life a global movement rooted in the values of good, clean, and fair food for all, connecting communities, farmers, food artisans, cooks, activists, and young people across the world.

Much has and will be written about his monumental importance to the Slow Food movement and to the food movement in general. His story about its founding is legendary, triggered as it was by the placement of a McDonald’s at the base of the Spanish Steps in Rome. Slow Food was to be the opposite of Fast Food—a celebration of the deliciousness of traditional, “real” foods consumed around the world. He taught the world to treasure them.

He also established the University of Gastronomy in Bra, an exciting place; I taught there once.

Alas, I do not speak Italian, so I never got to know him well. But I heard him speak many times (particularly enjoyably when translated by Corby Kummer). I thought he was brilliant, and funny. Our meetings were always warm and affectionate.

Here is one memory. At the Slow Food Terra Madre in Turin in 2016, he drove up to me on an electric bike and insisted I get on it immediately. I took the photo right after that. There he was, surrounded by adoring fans. I count myself among them.

This is an irreplaceable loss to the food movement, to humanity, and to me.

Other remembrances

The post RIP Carlo Petrini: a huge loss to the food world and to humanity appeared first on Food Politics by Marion Nestle

R.I.P. Ray Goldberg, “the father of agribusiness”

Now Available: What to Eat Now

My new book, What to Eat Now, is officially out!

It's both a field guide to food shopping in America and a reflection on how to eat well—and deliciously.

For more information and to order, click here.

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