Ahri Findling is An Emotional Support Dad

Ahri Findling is An Emotional Support Dad

From Parenting is a Joke by Ophira Eisenberg

April 14, 2026 · 46 min · Season 4 · Episode 445

About this episode

Ophira Eisenberg and comedian Ahri Findling discuss the complexities of parenting, emotional inheritance, and the social dynamics of school fundraisers.

Ophira Eisenberg opens this Parenting Is a Joke episode with a vivid, slightly unhinged comparison between riding Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure at Universal and the physical intensity of having her membranes stripped hours before going into labor, setting the tone for a conversation with comedian Ahri Findling that toggles between bodily reality, parenting anxiety, and the strange logic of creative life. Findling, a dad of a six-year-old and a toddler, gets specific about the social ecosystem of elementary school fundraisers—where comics donate their time while quietly wondering why parents don’t just hand over $100 and skip the two-drink minimum—and the unexpected hierarchy created by a fellow parent behind Baked by Melissa. The conversation sharpens around parenting as emotional inheritance: Findling traces his instinct to be an “empath dad” back to his own father while also confronting how that sensitivity collides with raising a daughter who mirrors his anxious tendencies, including a painful playground moment where she interprets two friends arriving together as exclusion. Both comics compare notes on bullying—Findling’s experience being severe enough that a hospital visit…

People in this episode

Host: Ophira Eisenberg

Guest: Ahri Findling

Topics covered

  • parenting
  • comedy
  • emotional support
  • bullying
  • creative life

Keywords

  • parenting anxiety
  • empath dad
  • elementary school
  • bullying
  • creative life

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