Ash and Aidan ElDifrawi, the father and son co-hosts of the podcast "Hold Me Back," joined Cheddar News to talk about the important conversations — and confrontations between Generations X and Z. Aidan, set to graduate next year, explained how the idea formed during discussions at the dinner table during the pandemic. "We started having these debates, and my sister and I would tend to agree on things, and then my mom and my dad would tend to agree with each other on things, and that's why I noticed the generational divide for the first time," he said. "So I had this idea for this podcast where we can model rational discourse based on facts and research instead of bias and reactionary comments. And I pitched it to my dad, and he said yes, and the rest is history."

Cheddar's News Wrap

Father and Son Hosts of 'Hold Me Back' Podcast Navigate the Generation Gap

Welcome back to Chester's news ralf. Everyone. The whole me back podcast is helping thousands of families bridge the generational gap by tackling issues from social media to the college admission process to political correction and more so hosted by a unique father and son duo. The podcast aims to create a safe environment for healthy debates with each episode ending in a new social contract on the most divisive topics. So here to tell us all about it are the hosts themselves, Ash and Aiden elder fraud away guys, thanks so much for joining. I'm excited for this. Ash will start with you. What inspired you to start this podcast with your son? Oh well actually he inspired me. So why don't you tell the story how this happened? Yeah. So to start off, my family loves to debate. Um every night now we have debates in the last hours of the dinner table about the most controversial topics, but it wasn't always that way. It was not always that pretty. Um it really started during quarantine. We were all brought together at the dinner table for the first time consistently. And you know, we started having these debates and my sister and I would tend to agree on things and then my mom and my dad would tend to agree with each other on things and that's why I noticed the generational divide for the first time. And so I had this idea for this podcast where we can model rational discourse based on facts and research instead of bias and reactionary comments. And I pitched it to my dad and he said yes and the rest is history. Oh my gosh, you guys I love this story. Um Aidan it's so good to get your take and Ash. I do want to bring you in as well. What have been some of the most enlightening conversations that you guys have discussed on the podcast? Yeah. So for me the most enlightening, there's been a bunch but one that really hit me hard was we had this episode on grades and the reason I actually like this episode is a he was really open and honest. I know it was really hard on him to sort of talk about the pressure he was feeling but more so I had to really sort of self reflect and realize that there's a lot of things I was doing. I didn't realize I was doing. It was hard for me to hear. And so it created a very open discussion with us and I learned a lot about myself but more so is that we literally heard from dozens, not hundreds of parents that that episode and that dialogue really changed the way the parents interact with their kids, not just on that topic, a bunch of the topics that one really left a mark on me. I do like that. Um, and aid and I'd be curious. I I see here you're 17 years old. Do you find that your friends and your peers, they listen to the podcast with their own family members to try to have and tackle some of these hard conversations? Yes. So that was one of the most surprising things for me. Uh when I started this podcast, I made the commitment to my dad and myself that I was gonna have to be open and honest and it's not, it's no secret that high school is a pretty harsh place at times and I figured that I could be, you know, creating social disaster for myself. I'm gonna have to be wearing a paper bag over my head every day to school. But I found the complete opposite. I think a lot of my peers found it very relatable and they were drawing to the vulnerability and hearing a lot of the problems they face on the daily being talked about by someone their age. And so I faced, I got a lot of support I was not expecting and for sure I've heard about you know, families, we know that I have listened to it together and they tell us that we have fundamentally changed their perspectives on things. And so that's the most meaningful feedback we can get. That is pretty good. Uh feedback Aiden Ash, how is this deepen your bond with your son and has anything surprised you throughout this process? Well, I mean, the answer the second question first, I mean, I think I was surprised at how much it's been embraced. I you know, when we started this, it was, you know, agents idea was a generational divide and having these healthy dialogue. I didn't realize how much it was going to resonate with parents and kids in terms of that dialogue and that dynamic and that would become a real platform. And I was surprised how many parents reached out to us and tell us that and actually how many people that we never thought would actually want to be on the podcast, I wanted to be come on and be guest. And so to me that was the most surprising thing. And so what was the first question that you asked in terms of how this might have deepened your own relationship with your son? He can talk about that too. So uh it has changed a lot. We we we now what's funny is we call each other out a lot of times now when we actually start falling back into old habits. So it's funny that when we start sort of having this biases come in or we start not listening very well, we call each other out on that. But I think more importantly nothing is really not. I mean I think a lot of families, there's certain topics that cannot talk about it. If they do, they turn really ugly arguments and they just go unresolved. And so for us we don't have that anymore. We actually turn those topics into podcast episodes where we're forced to compromise and resolve those things. And so it's really a lot more open, more honest and just generally close it. Oh, you guys? I can't wait to listen. I know season three is in the works. That's ash and Aiden algebra we host of the podcast. Hold me back. Thanks again.