When the young son of actor and writer Andrew McCarthy raised a tough issue, his father found the right words to respond.

I’m a big fan of the work of childhood expert Michael Thompson, and his answer to a reader’s question reminds me of the importance of remaining open to an entirely different view of a problem.

In Stephan Lee’s terrific young-adult novel K-Pop Confidential, the character Candace’s performance illustrates the same lesson that I saw in my daughter Eleanor’s second-grade show on the monkey bars: Sometimes we should expect more from ourselves, and sometimes we should accept ourselves—our own gifts, our own limitations, and our own way to achieve an aim.

Whenever I think about the work that it takes to try to be friendly, I remember a funny story from my daughter’s childhood.

We share listeners’ suggestions about creative ways to create physical representations of our one-word themes for 2021, discuss an extremely easy, fun hack for bringing happy memories to life, and we talk about the happiness stumbling block of paying for college with journalist Ron Lieber.

I love aphorisms, proverbs, true rules, and Secrets of Adulthood, and I offer some of my favorite proverbs for parenthood.

In the wonderful children’s book “Little Bear,” Mother Bear takes away Little Bear’s hat, coat, and snow pants so that he can be warm in the fur coat in which he was born.

My daughter’s pediatrician asked a question that showed how well she understands the way children’s minds work.

We talk about why now is a good time to anticipate the pandemic regret you might feel in the future; we discuss a simple, effective, household hack about opening doors; and we do a deep dive into listeners’ suggestions about encouraging kids to eat vegetables.

In this Very Special Episode, we present an extravaganza of listeners’ simple, concrete hacks that can help us make our lives happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative.