Responding to anti-natalism

Jun 25, 2025

One of the most radical things you can do is live your life in direct opposition to the forces that control our society. Not just fighting for policies or organizing your community, although those are certainly important parts of it, but also living with values that oppose the values of our dominant society. And even more importantly, raising the next generation to embody those values—not in a coercive way, but through organic parenting and role modeling that make radicalism irresistible. This is how we raise revolutionaries: instilling community, love, egalitarianism, and a need for justice into children. And this is just what our guest in today's episode has devoted himself to doing.

Breht O'Shea is an activist, organizer, political educator, and host of the podcast Revolutionary Left Radio and co-host of the podcasts Red Menace and Shoeless in South Dakota. He is a father of three based out of Omaha Nebraska.

In this conversation, Part 3 of our Post Capitalist Parenting series, Breht shares with us insights about parenting that he's learned over the years as a father of three and what Marxism teaches us about parenting. We discuss the classic text by Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, which is a dialectical materialist analysis of patriarchy and the family, tracing the emergence of the patriarchal family and it took through various iterations of class society but also exploring what families have looked like under actually-existing socialism and also what it might look like under communism. We also explore the anti-natalist position which attempts to argue that having children is immoral, why this perspective is deeply flawed, what Buddhism can teach us about parenting, and much, much more.

Support Breht and Rev Left Radio, and join their community HERE

Further Resources

• The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, Freidrich Engels

• Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence, by Kristen Ghodsee

Related Episodes:

• Post Capitalist Parenting Pt. 1: Parenting Under Capitalism w/ Toi Smith

• Post Capitalist Parenting Pt. 2: Reimagining the Family w/ Kristen Ghodsee

• Revolutionary Leftism with Breht O'Shea

• Buddhism and Marxism with Breht O'Shea

• What is To Be Done? with Breht O'Shea and Alyson Escalante

• Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism w/ Breht O'Shea and Alyson Escalante

• Red Menace: "The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and The State" by Friedrich Engels (Pt. 1)

• Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism w/ Kristen Ghodsee

Intermission music: "Cool 4 U" by Club Cafe

Upstream is a labor of love—we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com/upstreampodcast or please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support

If your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming documentaries, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship

For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky. You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.