Jess is a mom of one wonderful kid, the CTO at Optoro, the host of the DCTech Slack, and an organizer of the Joy of Programming Meetup. She has held lots of roles in tech; including IT support, operations, development, and eventually leadership.
When she unplugs, Jess can be found around Washington DC playing music at open mics, cooking, playing board games, and spending time with her son.
Jess Szmajda has hosted 11 Episodes.
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063: Fear in Parenting
February 3rd, 2021 | 28 mins 47 secs
anxiety, fear, kids, middle school, parenting, screen time, young kids
Do you have anxiety as a parent? Chris, Jess and KWu gather to discuss the various stresses and anxiety parents face for kids of all ages, and how their decision making process has shifted over the years.
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061: DHH - Internet Famous with Kids
January 6th, 2021 | 47 mins 17 secs
dhh, family, internet famous, kids, podcast
DHH joins the podcast to talk about his experience as a parent while being internet famous. The group touches on security concerns, privacy, financial privilege, and share an eye role over highlight parenting reels on social media. Plus DHH suggests a few favorite parenting books.
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059: Hiring and Interviewing
December 9th, 2020 | 37 mins 1 sec
hiring, interviewee, interviewing, manager, tech
Jess, Chris S, and Allison discuss the hiring and interviewing process in tech. They share their experience as the interviewee, as well as the interviewer. The team identifies the underlying bias in the process, good signs and bad signs, and why it's important to set up a potential interviewee in the best environment possible.
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058: Co-Parenting
November 25th, 2020 | 40 mins 48 secs
co-parenting, coparenting, covid, covid-19, parenting, remote work, virtual school
Brandon Hays joins the panelist to discuss how the pandemic has impacted parenting, co-parenting and the new responsibilities that come along with it.
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056: Child Care Educators with Jessica Sager
October 29th, 2020 | 34 mins 13 secs
all our kin, child care, covid, essential workers, jessica sager
Today we sit down with Jessica Sager, co-founder and CEO of All Our Kin, to discuss the changes of child care during COVID-19 and how we can help make positive changes in our own communities.
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027: Fear Mongering and Inducing Panic
April 17th, 2019 | 40 mins 10 secs
fear, panic, scary
Due to the "Momo Challenge": the latest in a series of internet "challenges" and urban legends, Chris, Jess, JC, and Mandy talk about fear mongering and inducing panic: What do we do as parents to protect our kids? Do we, as technologists, have an advantage in understanding "hoaxes" better than non-technologists? Should we ignore the hype and "let live and let go?" And how much do we/should we be monitoring our kids?
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025: Girls in STEM
March 13th, 2019 | 40 mins 46 secs
learning, stem
Stephanie Rowe, the founder and CEO of Juelez, joins the panel to talk about getting girls involved in STEM. Conversations around topics such as designing into motivation, how parents can help, and gender ensue.
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022: Single Parenting
January 30th, 2019 | 47 mins 16 secs
dating, modern families, single parenting
In this episode, Mandy, Jess, Allison, and KWu talk about single parenting: how it's becoming more common, but that there are still stigmas attached to it, choosing your village, dating, specific challenges, and how others can be supportive.
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021: Self-Care For Parents
January 16th, 2019 | 35 mins 39 secs
self-care
In this episode, the panelists talk about the importance of self-care: having routines, setting environments, and taking time for yourselves as individuals while being okay with your child's temporary discomfort and happiness.
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020: Fertility Struggles
January 2nd, 2019 | 39 mins 53 secs
In this episode, Adam Cuppy joins the panel to talk about him and his wife's struggle with fertility and having a child. The emotional weight of the journey is discussed, as well as the lack of community for males with fertility struggles. Adam also talks about how the whole process has given him a greater sense that while it was hard, there are many other things in his life that are hard but worth pursuing.
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018: Designing Apps/Digital Products for Parents with Anne Halsall and Sara Mauskopf of Winnie
December 5th, 2018 | 35 mins 25 secs
In this episode, co-founders Anne Halsall and Sara Mauskopf join the show to talk about creating the app Winnie: a place where crowdsourced information is spread amongst parents that relays important information such as childcare, activities, and advice.