How should kids play football?
From Growing up WEIRD Podcast by Guen Bradbury and Greg Dickens
March 10, 2026 · 37 min
About this episode
The episode discusses the impact of antibiotics during labor on child health, brain development, and the benefits and risks of football for children.
In this episode, Greg Dickens and I discuss recent news on how antibiotics during labour affect a child’s long-term health, on how our brains continue to develop into our early thirties, on how astringent flavours help us learn, and on how adverse childhood experiences affect fitness in adulthood. We then talk about football - why it’s great for children, why industrialised football poses some very specific risks, and how parents can navigate the risks so children can get the benefits of sports. Finally, we talk about why high-salt diets contribute to metabolic syndrome. For more information on the long-term health effects of industrialised sport in childhood, see this article: https://guenbradbury.substack.com/p/do-children-need-protection-from For more information on why childhood cruciate ruptures are up 2000% since the year 2000, see this article: https://guenbradbury.substack.com/p/cruciate-ruptures-are-up-2000-in Topics covered * How does in-labour antibiotic prophylaxis for Group B Strep affect the baby’s long-term health? * How does your brain continue to develop into your early thirties? * How do astringent flavours affect learning? * How do adverse childhood experiences…
People in this episode
Hosts: Guen Bradbury, Greg Dickens
Topics covered
- child health
- football
- antibiotics
- brain development
- adverse childhood experiences
- metabolic syndrome
Keywords
- antibiotics
- childhood fitness
- football risks
- brain development
- metabolic syndrome
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Group B Strep, Substack
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