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

More episodes of Parenting is a Joke

• The Parent Trap with Ahri Findling · April 21, 2026 · 35 min
• Laurie Kilmartin Parents From the Green Room · April 7, 2026 · 41 min
• Good Mom, Bad Puppy with Ashley Austin Morris · March 31, 2026 · 48 min
• Writing Horoscopes for Tiny Terrors with Johanna Gohmann · March 24, 2026 · 41 min
• Johanna Gohmann Declares All Toddlers Are Scorpios · March 17, 2026 · 52 min
• Raising Responsible Subway Riders with Gideon Evans · March 10, 2026 · 38 min

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