Welcome to Everyone Gets a Juice Box

Journalist and radio host Jessica Shaw is swapping celebrity interviews for a whole new beat: parenting kids who learn and think differently. 

As a mom of two, she knows the chaos, victories, and everyday struggles that come with the territory.

Everyone Gets a Juice Box is a space for parents to laugh, vent, celebrate wins, and tackle the messy realities of neurodiverse parenting. Nothing is off-limits — from school struggles to mom rage. Join us for honest, unfiltered conversations with parents who get it. We share the tea, the struggles, and, of course… the juice.

For a transcript and more resources, visit Everyone Gets a Juice Box on Understood.org. You can also email us at podcast@understood.org.

Jessica Shaw: My name is Jessica Shaw. I'm a journalist and a radio host, and for most of my career, I've covered entertainment. I've interviewed tons of celebrities: Ariana Grande, Angela Bassett, America Ferrera — and that's just the A's. I've hosted shows for Sirius XM and worked at "Entertainment Weekly." But on this podcast, I'm turning my focus to something totally different: parenting.

This is "Everyone Gets a Juice Box." It's a show for us parents whose kids learn and think differently. I have two teenagers, and for the past 18 years, my people have always been other parents. They're who I go to when I need help or advice, and they're who I rely on when I need to laugh or to celebrate. And yes, vent. And that's what this show is going to be: parents talking to other parents about challenges, about victories, asking questions, and sometimes giving answers, but maybe just asking more questions.

Nothing is off the table because there's nothing more exhausting as a parent than having to tiptoe around explaining your child. We're parents. We share the tea. And when it comes to our kids, we share the juice. This is me giving you a juice box. I've got mine. Everyone gets a juice box.

My child needs to know when the tests are coming, and what days there's not going to be a school bus, when are we going to have dance, when does basketball fit in. So we'll talk about the hard stuff, like mom rage.

I hate having to put three kids in three car seats. I mean, I'm sweating, crying, yelling, trying not to yell, but yelling, getting short and rigid and, you know. It was a nightmare.

And the good stuff, like how people like you find ways to make it all work out.

I have a child that when the schedule changes, she cannot always manage that. But if I can tell AI, "Listen, here are the six things that are going to be on for today. Please make something broken up for these times," it can make that so much easier.

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