Care ethics and the social contract

"Family-friendly society" sounds SO BORING but listen: it's what we all want. It's what singles and elders want, it's what parents and partnered people without kids want, it's what KIDS WANT. A society that takes all of us — and our needs and capacities — seriously?? That considers all of us, in whatever scenario we find ourselves, AS A FAMILY? When we announced that we were doing this episode, we got a ton of questions asking us to also consider people who weren't parents in their 30s and 40s, and yes, of course, team, I would never approach this topic without thinking expansively about it — as in, expansively enough to include me, and our beloved co-producer Melody, and all of our various family configurations.

I would only do an episode with expansive questions like yours with someone (with tremendously policy experience) who understands "family-friendly" expansively. So listen in as Elliot Haspel and I imagine a better (and possible!) family-friendly world.

AND GREAT NEWS: WE HAVE VERY GOOD EPISODE TRANSCRIPTS NOW! They come out within 24 hours of the pod, so you just have to be a little patient and then come back and click here. We pay an actual human for help with these, so thank you for either being a paid subscriber or listening to the ads that make this model possible!

If you're a paid subscriber and haven't yet set up your subscriber RSS feed in your podcast player, here's the EXTREMELY easy how-to .

And if you're having any other issues with your Patreon subscription — please get in touch! Email me at annehelenpetersen @ gmail OR submit a request to Patreon Support. Thank you for making the switch with us — the podcast in particular is much more at home here!

Thanks to the Sponsors of Today's Episode!

• Get 15% off your first order of high-quality, refillable cleaning products at Blueland.com/CULTURE

• Wake up with clearer skin, smoother hair, and cooler sleep. Use code CULTUREPOD for an extra 30% off at blissy.com/CULTUREPOD

• Cozy up with your pup this season! Go to ollie.com/culture and use code CULTURE to get 60% off your first box!

• Get $35 off your first box of wild-caught, sustainable seafood—delivered right to your door. Go to:  https://www.wildalaskan.com/CULTURE

Show Notes:

• Find out more about Elliot's work here — and buy Raising a Nation: 10 Reasons Every American Has a Stake in Child Care for All here

• Subscribe to Elliot's truly excellent newsletter, The Family Frontier, here

• A pretty fantastic write-up of the 1971 Comprehensive Childhood Development Act (and its failure) by the Institute for Research on Poverty

• More on "the curb-cut effect"

• Elliot cites a now famous maxim from the former mayor of Bogotá mayor, Enrique Peñalosa: "children are a kind of indicator species, if we can build a successful city for children, we will have a successful city for everyone.”

• "70% of children under the age of 6 have all available parents in the workforce"

• Elliot cites Elissa Strauss's book When You Care — here's my interview with her

• Only 13.9% of US workers were part-time in December 2024 — compare to the EU numbers here!!!

• Chamber of Mothers!

• The AMAZING coconut-miso-ginger curry I mention in the Wild Alaskan ad!

We're currently looking for your questions for future episodes about:

• New trends you've noticed in the world of MOMFLUENCERS

• How we think about the morality of money and taxes — who should pay taxes, who shouldn't, who "deserves" money, who doesn't, how we came to decide that religious organizations shouldn't pay taxes (and how that belief is changing), SO MUCH

• How to process all the STUFF accumulated from relatives (we have a really helpful organizer with a bunch of mental health training for this one!)

• The State of The CHAIN RESTAURANT — and chain restaurant supply chain!!! (I'm so excited for this one)

• Wedding culture (especially the more, uh, cult-like or obligatory components)

• What would LIFE AFTER CARS look like?? (With the hosts of the War on Cars pod!)

• For our next Culture Of Place: Puerto Rico!

• Anything you need advice or want musings on for the AAA segment. You can ask about anything, it’s literally the name of the segment

• As always, you can submit your questions (and ideas for future eps) here

  For this week’s discussion: What did this conversation make you want the MOST? What feels like it could be possible in our lifetimes, and what still feels intractable?