In Season 2, Episode 10, Angel walks through everything: daycare vs. nanny vs. grandparents, what the research shows about infections, development, and leukemia risk, what to look for in a nanny, and why the first nanny she ever hired fell asleep holding her one-month-old and then called her from the phone she’d said she lost.

The main finding: the setting matters less than whether the person watching the child is actually present. That’s it. That’s the whole thing.

Also: 6 to 12 colds per year is completely normal. Working parent guilt has data behind it. And hand washing beats sanitizer, especially after playing with toys indoors.

Dr. Jonathan Chen is a physician and biomedical AI researcher at Stanford who went to college at 13 and can solve a Rubik's Cube in ways that require explanation. He joins Angel and Raman for the AI in medicine conversation that’s been building since Episode 3.

They cover knowledge vs. judgment, the sycophancy problem, empathy tokens, algorithmic bias, what AI is actually good at vs. where humans are still essential, and the competence-communication-character framework for trusting anyone — doctor or AI — with something that matters.

Also: AI can read your ethnicity from a chest X-ray. And possibly your health from your voice.

Masha talks about meeting Zen for the first time, the welcome party, parenting guilt that never fully leaves, and the walk she chose over the grading. Angel covers what kids actually need: stimulation, nutrition, safety, attachment, sleep — and what parental presence looks like at every stage, from newborn to teenager.

Also covered: vegetarian vs. vegan for kids, the data on parental sensitivity and executive function, 15 minutes of child-led play, and why Life 360 might be making parents more anxious, not less.

Closing: you’re never going to get it all right. But you are the perfect parent for your child.

Season 2, Episode 7 covers baby head shapes: positional plagiocephaly, torticollis, what the two conditions have to do with each other, and why starting treatment early — Angel means really early, not at the four-month visit — makes a significant difference in outcomes.

They cover the physical therapy exercises, the environmental changes at home, why a flat spot is more than cosmetic, and the stuff you didn’t know: there are six soft spots on a baby’s head, not one. And babies have puzzle-piece skulls because human brains are simply too big to fit through the birth canal any other way.

In this episode, Angel walks through the full infant sleep timeline: what to do in the first few weeks, what changes at four months, and what the six-month sleep training window actually looks like. Cry it out, camp it out, Ferber, drowsy but awake, routines from day one — all of it, with the context parents actually need to make decisions.

Also: breastfed babies sleep more in total, but formula-fed babies may sleep in longer stretches. Raman’s experience with Zen matches the data. And his friends in San Diego are calling the swaddle something Angel has never heard in a medical context.

This episode covers the first month of life with Baby Zen: swaddling with arms out, starting tummy time in the newborn period, flat spots and torticollis, cross eyes, cradle cap, peeling skin, pacifiers, irregular breathing, and why talking to your baby in a sing-songy voice is backed by real research.

Angel also shares what she witnessed Ashley do that impressed her more than almost anything: validating Zen’s emotions at five days old. And Raman shares what’s been harder than expected — Masha being away in Taiwan, the two-hour sleep schedule, and realizing he no longer has FOMO about anything that doesn’t involve his baby.

He also cried. On camera. He’d like to move on.

Dr. Angel walks through what’s actually in formula, what to look for on a label, what the MFGM research shows, why US formulas might have too much iron, and what the breastfeeding benefit data actually means when you look at absolute rather than relative risk.

She also covers something that doesn’t get talked about enough: the health benefits of breastfeeding for moms. Reduced cancer risk, cardiovascular protection, lower type 2 diabetes risk — all dose-dependent on duration.

Ashley started with a perfect latch and ended up with a trifecta of banked milk, pumped milk, and formula. That is not failure. That is a mom doing everything she can.

In this episode 3 of The Unplanned Parent, Dr. Angel is joined by Dr. Lamia Gabal — board-certified urologist, one of Orange County’s top docs, and one of the most entertaining guests the show has had. She went to UCSD medical school, did her fellowship there in urology, and has been practicing for over two decades seeing both men and women. She also has one of the best stories about bolt cutters you’ll ever hear.

They cover everything: what nicotine, tobacco, and marijuana do to penile health and erectile function (including a young football player who came in for ED and was smoking weed every day), how anxiety creates a vicious cycle that makes ED worse, the role of obesity and the Ozempic penis phenomenon, PRP injections and shockwave therapy, testosterone replacement and why external testosterone shuts down sperm production completely, the boxers vs briefs data, and why only 4% of sperm looking normal is actually the norm.

Dr. Gabal also makes an important plug for vaginal health: topical estrogen, the Mona Lisa laser, and why the Women’s Health Initiative did women a massive disservice in the early 2000s that too many doctors still haven’t corrected for.

Angel’s closing line: nobody talks about penile health except her and her brother. The data is real, the conditions are common, and embarrassment is the only thing standing between most people and getting help.

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

YouTube Chapters

00:00 Cold Open — Weed and What It Does to Testosterone and Erections

00:44 Welcome — Meet Dr. Lamia Gabal, Board-Certified Urologist

01:11 Urologists See Everyone — Not Just Penises

01:48 What Nicotine, Laptops, and Hot Tubs All Have in Common

02:22 Raman’s Vaping Journey Revisited — From Sub-Fertile to Impressive

03:18 Dr. Gabal’s Path to Urology: Plastic Surgery Rotation Became a Career

04:10 Being a Female Urologist: From 4% to Almost 11% of the Field

05:00 Do Male Patients Get Awkward With a Female Urologist?

05:54 What Happens When Someone Comes in for ED and Doesn’t Have It in the Office

07:20 Dr. Gabal’s Egyptian-American Background and Her Very Open Father

08:33 Angel’s Indian Parents and Why Tim Had to Announce the Pregnancy

09:15 Nicotine and Penile Health: The Vascular Lining Problem

10:20 Vasoconstriction, Blood Flow, and Why Nicotine Is Bad for Erections

11:00 PRP Into the Penis: What It Is, Why It’s Done, and Why Smokers Get Turned Away

13:44 The Regenerative Medicine Toolkit: PRP, Exosomes, Stem Cells, Shockwave

14:34 Penile Enhancement With PRP — And Why Smokers Can’t Get It

15:27 Nicotine Patches and Pouches: Better Than Smoking, But Not Good

16:05 Marijuana and Erectile Dysfunction: The Young Football Player

17:19 How THC Raises Estrogen and Lowers Testosterone

18:33 Angel’s Pediatric Experience: ED in Teen Marijuana Users

19:08 Anxiety as a Cause of ED — The Vicious Cycle

20:29 Finasteride for Hair Loss and What It Can Do to Erections

21:39 Obesity, Metabolic Syndrome, and the Ozempic Penis Phenomenon

23:33 Anything Heart Healthy Is Penis Healthy

24:18 Shockwave Therapy + PRP: Better Together Than Either Alone

25:03 Are Men Using ED Treatments as a Reason to Let Themselves Go?

26:12 Treatment Options: What the Progression Looks Like

27:46 The 80-Year-Old With a 50-Year-Old Girlfriend: I’m Sorry, I Can’t Raise the Dead

28:49 Proactive Penile Health: Use It or Lose It

29:39 Vaginal Health: Same Principle, Different Organ

30:10 Testosterone Replacement and Why It Kills Sperm Production

31:16 Andropause: Testosterone Levels and When to Treat

33:16 Sperm Morphology: 4% Normal Is Actually the Norm

34:42 Why Sperm Shape Reflects What’s Inside

36:02 Destigmatizing Sexual Health — Dr. Gabal’s Daughter With Asthma Analogy

37:16 Medical Breakdown: Tobacco, Nicotine, and Marijuana’s Effects Reviewed

38:33 Topical Estrogen: Why It’s Underused and Critically Important

39:08 The Women’s Health Initiative and the Damage It Did

40:18 Earlier Hormone Replacement Is Better — Always

41:22 The Mona Lisa Laser and Why She’s Smiling

43:04 Is This Normal? Only 4% of Sperm Looking Normal Is the Average

50:18 Teens, Vaping, and Reproductive Health: The Timing Problem

51:12 Stuff You Didn’t Know: Boxers vs Briefs and Sperm Concentration

57:00 How Nitroglycerin Led to the Discovery of Viagra

62:37 The Bolt Cutter Story — Dr. Gabal’s Chief Residency Anecdote

65:56 Closing — Nobody Talks About This. The Data Is Real. Share This Episode.

Jaundice — specifically a bilirubin of 19, a Coombs positive result, and ABO incompatibility — sent Raman and Ashley back to the NICU for four nights when Zen was four days old. In this episode they tell the full story: the text message, the crying, the packing of the bag, the phototherapy lights, the IV they couldn’t get in, the NG tube, and the occupational therapist who fixed the feeding problem with one nipple change.

Dr. Angel covers what jaundice is, why it happens so commonly in newborns, what ABO incompatibility means, and the phototherapy guideline change in 2022 that halved the number of babies getting unnecessary treatment. Plus: the fascinating history of how phototherapy was discovered by nurses watching babies near hospital windows in the 1950s.

Ashley’s parents sent a message about Raman as a father. It opens the episode. Bring a tissue.

In this episode of The Unplanned Parent, Raman and Ashley are joined by Dr. Angel to tell the story of Baby Zen’s arrival. Two weeks old at the time of recording, Zen came into the world via induction at 39 weeks and four days — Ashley’s age and the IVF process both factoring into the decision to not go past 40 weeks. Raman picked Ashley up the morning of the induction, they went for a beach walk, got burritos, and headed to the hospital. What followed was about 14 hours of labor, no epidural, and Raman stepping out for a Coke Zero during active pushing.

They cover the moment the baby arrived (he popped out, immediately pooped, immediately latched), Raman cutting the cord after being told it was “like cutting a piece of meat,” the accidental nipple photo texted to the entire family, the puja welcome ceremony at Ashley’s home with both families, the NICU stay for jaundice, Ashley’s postpartum incontinence situation (now resolved with a diaper solution she’s proud of), and Raman joining what he thought was a lactation group but was actually a loctation group for people with dreadlocks. Dr. Angel covers the medical side: brain changes in both birthing and non-birthing parents after a baby arrives, baby blues vs. postpartum depression (including her own experience having PPD with all three of her kids and only getting treatment with her third), placenta pills and why the data doesn’t support them, and occupational therapists as an underutilized resource for newborn feeding problems.

Nobody can tell you what it’s going to feel like until it happens. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

Last season, we followed Ashley and Raman through the whole wild, beautiful, planned-yet-unplanned journey to becoming platonic co-parents — the IVF, the waiting, the figuring it out as they went.

Now Baby Zen has arrived, and everything has shifted. Season Two lives in that shift: the newborn haze, the questions nobody fully prepares you for, jaundice scares, feeding curveballs, sleepless nights, and the co-parenting dynamics that look one way on paper and completely different in real life. We're bringing some incredible guests along the way, and we're figuring a lot of this out in real time — right alongside Raman and Ashley.

If you've been with us since Season One — thank you, genuinely. This show exists because you showed up. If you're just joining us, welcome. Subscribe wherever you listen, and we'll see you in Season One.

Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Consult your treating physician for guidance specific to your situation!

Dr. Rhea Chattopadhyay, reproductive endocrinologist and IVF specialist, joins Angel and Raman to walk through the whole process: AMH testing, ovarian stimulation, egg retrieval, embryo grading, PGT-A, expanded carrier screening, embryo transfer, and what the body still has to do after the clinic’s work is done.

She also covers the ethical questions that don’t have clean answers yet — what happens to unused frozen eggs and embryos, how many IVF cycles is too many, and what it’s like to have the crystal ball conversation with patients who want to know if it’s going to work.

A lot of people go through fertility treatment completely alone. This episode was made for them.

Episode 10 is the safe sleep episode — what SIDS actually is, what parents can control, and what the data says about all the things new parents worry about: belly sleeping, swaddling, co-sleeping, pacifiers, reflux, over-bundling, and breathing patterns that look alarming but are completely normal.

Angel also shares a Rutgers study on Indian American SIDS rates that complicates the co-sleeping conversation in really interesting ways. And confirms that your baby can sleep in a cardboard box if you’re in a bind. It’s AAP-endorsed.

This episode is Masha’s divorce story — why she ended a marriage that looked fine from the outside, how she and her ex navigated separation during COVID with her mother in the house and two kids under seven, and what she’d do differently if she could go back. She also talks about introducing Raman to her kids, how her son handled learning that his dad was dating, and the decision to stop drinking that she credits with finally helping her move forward.

Dr. Angel covers adverse childhood events, what buffers them, and what the research says about how kids from non-traditional households actually do. Plus: the surprising stats on how today’s 12th graders feel about marriage and kids.

In this episode, Raman’s girlfriend joins the show to tell her side of the story — how they met, how she found out about Ashley’s proposal, and what it’s actually been like to be the partner in this particular situation. She’s an economics professor with a PhD, a mom of two navigating 50/50 shared custody, and someone who has consistently shown up for Raman throughout all of this.

Her take on his decision to become a dad is worth hearing in her own words.

Dr. Angel covers postpartum mental health (it’s not just for moms), shared custody statistics, and the research on divorce rates by education level. Plus: Masha coins the title Fanti, and it’s sticking.

This content is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Consult your treating physician for guidance specific to your situation!

This episode covers every question new parents actually ask — why hep B is given at birth, whether the ACIP changes affect anything right now (they don’t, thanks to an AAP lawsuit), what the autism data actually shows, why spacing out vaccines backfires, what aluminum in vaccines means in context, and why giving Tylenol before shots is no longer recommended.

Plus: kids today get exposed to 130 antigens through vaccines. Kids in the 1980s got over 3,000 — for fewer diseases. The episode reframes almost every common concern about childhood vaccines.

Angel admits the autism thought crossed her mind when vaccinating her own kids. She vaccinated on schedule anyway.

Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Consult your treating physician for guidance specific to your situation!

In this episode, Dr. Angel is joined by Dr. Samantha Johnston, a pediatric infectious disease specialist and longtime friend. Together they walk through the four vaccines recommended during pregnancy — Tdap, RSV, COVID, and flu — and explain exactly what each one is doing for the mom and the baby. They also cover MMR and varicella (live vaccines that can’t be given during pregnancy), herpes near delivery, and the new RSV monoclonal antibody for newborns.

The ‘Stuff You Didn’t Know’ segment covers measles immune amnesia — how the natural measles virus can erase up to 70% of your lifetime immune memory. The vaccine doesn’t do this. The disease does.

Raman ends the episode with Dr. Johnston’s number saved as Rash Samantha.

Episode 7 of The Unplanned Parent is the practical one. Ashley spent 15 hours on her baby registry and is overwhelmed by the options. Raman plans to go with the flow and is grateful Ashley did the hard work. Dr. Angel steps in with the information that actually matters: what to look for in a car seat, why Wirecutter and Consumer Reports are your best friends, what the stroller pram function is for, and why the weight of the car seat itself matters more than most people think.

They also cover breastfeeding — including what the data actually says about breastfeeding with breast implants, what to do when the latch doesn't work, and how pumping compares with breastfeeding. Plus sleep safety, co-bedding vs. bassinet, tongue ties, circumcision, and the two things you absolutely need to decide before you leave the hospital.

And: 70% of people make errors installing a car seat. Even experienced ones. There's a fix for that.

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Consult your treating physician for guidance specific to your situation!

In Episode 6, she walks through how she got here: the deadline she gave herself at 42, the FaceTime call where Raman's name came up as a joke, and the morning-after text where he said he was actually considering it. She also explains why she chose a known person over a sperm donor — and why specifically Raman.

Then she gets into the legal agreement. What started easy became hard fast. Two things in the document made her cry. One almost made her call everything off.

Dr. Angel closes with why talking through the big parenting questions before you have a baby is so much better than after.

In Episode 5, she tells her own story: why she froze her eggs at 34, what it actually felt like to give herself daily shots for three weeks, and why she went back and did it again at 40.

She also shares the unexpected thing the egg freezing process gave her: a diagnosis of Hashimoto's thyroiditis that had been missed for years, and a treatment that changed how she felt almost overnight.

Dr. Angel walks through the science: thyroid hormone and fertility, how the egg-to-embryo attrition process works, what the data says about IVF outcomes, and the story of the first IVF baby born in 1978.

The first time we hear this story from the other side of it.

Dr. Angel Rampal puts her brother through the questions every new parent should be sitting with before the due date: circumcision, breastfeeding (and whether you can have a drink while doing it), cord blood banking and what those OB-office brochures aren't telling you, infant CPR, skin-to-skin for dads, sleep safety, and a few things most parents don't find out until they're mid-diaper-change.

Angel also shares something personal: postpartum depression with all three of her kids, and what it looked like when she finally couldn't power through anymore.

A lot of ground. A lot of honesty. The usual.

Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Consult your treating physician for guidance specific to your situation!

The recommendation: quit vaping for 90 days to improve sperm quality. Raman's first reaction was to hang up and vape ten times in a row.

Episode 3 is the story of how he actually did it — the addiction, the logistics of quitting, the dismantled vape that ended up in a dumpster at 1:30am, and the before-and-after sperm analysis that made it all worth it.

Dr. Angel covers the science behind nicotine and sperm health, what men should be doing in the preconception window, and how to talk to teenagers about vaping before it becomes a problem. Plus: ChatGPT as a surprisingly effective quit coach.

In Episode 2, Raman walks through the six months between his "I'm in" text and the actual embryo implantation — and it was a lot more than just showing up to a clinic. Psychological evaluations. Lawyers. A legally binding document covering everything from vaccines to what kind of car the kid can ride in. And one sperm sample that, in his own words, could have been better.

Dr. Angel weighs in on what she found surprisingly refreshing about the whole process, when to tell a child they were conceived non-traditionally, and the science behind why all of Raman and Ashley's viable embryos came back male.

Thorough, candid, and occasionally very funny.

In this first episode of The Unplanned Parent, Dr. Angel Rampal (board-certified pediatrician) and her brother, Raman, kick off the season by going back to the very beginning: the moment a running joke between friends stopped being a joke. Raman's longtime friend Ashley had frozen her eggs at 34, she was ready to have a baby at 44, and she wanted to know if Raman was in. His first answer? Hell no.

This episode traces how that hell no turned into a text message that said "I'm in — where do I go?" They cover the long deliberation process, the friends and family Raman consulted (including a Tim walk that shifted things), the lawyers and accountants who told him not to do it, and the one variable that quietly tipped the scale: everyone who knew Ashley said yes.

Dr. Angel also weighs in from a pediatrician's perspective — what the research actually says about non-traditional family structures, why platonic co-parenting can work, and the medical detail that gave her the most hope: Ashley's decision to freeze her eggs a decade ago.

No scripts. No tidy conclusions. Just two siblings sorting through a genuinely unusual situation — and a season just getting started.

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

YouTube Chapters

00:00 Cold Open — 'If we end up old and want kids, just ask'

00:46 Welcome to The Unplanned Parent — Angel Introduces the Show

01:17 Meet Raman — The Nomadic Co-Host Who Said Yes to Fatherhood

02:06 The Man Who Never Wanted Kids

03:25 D-Day: The Text That Started It All

04:25 How the Joke Between Raman and Ashley Started

05:43 How Raman and Ashley Know Each Other

07:35 Ashley Gives Raman a Deadline: Answer by Thanksgiving

08:26 Raman's First Answer: Hell No

09:17 What Made Him Reconsider — The Kids on the Ski Trips

11:13 Angel's First Reaction: Also Hell No (But for Different Reasons)

13:06 Angel's 180 — Why She Changed Her Mind

15:20 The Tim Walk — The Conversation That Helped

16:12 Bobby's Advice: There Is No Wrong Answer

17:08 The Lawyers and Accountants Who Said Don't Do It

17:59 What Raman's Parents Said

19:22 The Pattern Raman Noticed: Everyone Who Knew Ashley Said Yes

20:09 What It Takes to Co-Parent With Someone — Angel's Take

21:56 The Mental Hurdles: Raman Was Dating Someone

22:35 Masha — How His Girlfriend Fit Into the Decision

23:00 The Poconos House, Gabby the Dog, and What Might Change

25:26 Ashley's Promise: Your Involvement Level Is Up to You

26:03 Angel's Pediatric Take on Non-Traditional Family Structures

27:30 What Raman Might Have Missed — Angel's Medical Concerns

28:33 Ashley Froze Her Eggs at 34 — Why That Matters

29:18 Is This Normal? Two Friends Having a Baby Together

30:01 Angel's Biggest Concern: Carrying a Pregnancy at 44

31:34 The Adverse Childhood Events Research — What Actually Affects Kids

33:38 Why This Baby Is Starting With Plus Points

34:24 Closing — What's Coming Next episode