Episode Details

A six-year-old rides his scooter to a playground a quarter mile from home. Two days later, Child Protective Services is at his family’s door. His case is one of several in a recent New York Times article asking whether letting children play outside alone has effectively become a crime. Chuck Marohn talks with Lenore Skenazy, founder of the Free-Range Kids movement and president of Let Grow, and planner and pedestrian-safety advocate Angie Schmitt about “worst-first thinking,” neglect laws, and the decline of walking and biking to school. Parents are expected to raise capable, independent kids while also keeping them under constant watch, while the built environment often makes even short walks to school or the playground harder for children to navigate on their own.

• "Should Letting Children Play Alone Outside Be a Crime?" by Ian Frisch, Nytimes.com (August 2026)
• Chuck Marohn (LinkedIn)
• Lenore Skenazy (LinkedIn), Let Grow (Site)
• Angie Schmitt (LinkedIn), Love of Place (Substack)
• Downzone:
  
  • World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks (Site)
  • The Wisdom of Not Knowing: Discovering a Life of Wonder by Embracing Uncertainty by Estelle Frankel (Site)
  • A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck by YSophie Elmhirst (Site)
• Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.

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