In this episode, we’re unzipping the wild, confusing, and often misunderstood world of the adolescent brain — and what that can mean for risk-taking and decision-making between the ages of 13 and 25.

Dr. Sue shares what decades of teaching teens, college students, and future educators have revealed about how young people actually think about risk, pressure, and identity. (Spoiler: they are thinking — just with a brain that’s wired differently than an adult’s.)

We dig into why peers matter so much, why “bad decisions” often make developmental sense, and why adults tend to forget what it felt like to be in that stage themselves. We also unzip the mixed messages baked into our laws — from the variation in consent laws, driving at 16, joining the military at 18, renting a car at 25 — and how they fail to reflect what we now know about the developing brain.

This episode is all about compassion, clarity, and cutting through the judgment. Adolescence is messy. It’s emotional. It’s confusing. And it’s a phase every single one of us survived — even if we’ve conveniently romanticized our way out of remembering how chaotic it really was.

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