PREVIEW - Isaac talks with Emily Oster

May 26, 2025

Emily Oster, an economist and author known for her data-driven approach to parenthood, joins to discuss a range of topics. They dive into declining fertility rates and the impact of financial incentives on family planning. Cultural shifts and societal attitudes towards parenthood are examined, along with the pressing need for better parental leave policies. The conversation touches on how COVID-19 has influenced education and parental concerns, particularly the challenges faced in the age of social media, highlighting the evolving landscape of modern parenting.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Global Decline in Fertility Rates

Fertility rates have declined globally, especially in rich countries, often below replacement levels.
Measuring fertility rate decline is complex because people are having children later in life.

INSIGHT

Limited Impact of Financial Incentives

Financial incentives like baby bonuses have limited impact on increasing birth rates unless they are very large.
Most effects of incentives shift timing of births rather than increasing total births.

INSIGHT

Key Factors Behind Fertility Decline

Declining teen birth rates and delayed childbearing explain part of fertility decline.
More people are choosing not to have children at all, a key factor we struggle to understand.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

On today's episode, Isaac talks with Emily Oster, economist, author, and CEO of ParentData, to discuss declining fertility rates globally, the impact of financial incentives on birth rates, and the various factors influencing people's decisions to have children, which not only include financial constraints, but also by changing societal attitudes towards parenthood. They talk about cultural and policy implications of family support and fertility in the United States, the need for paid parental leave, the debate surrounding declining birth rates, and the evolving concerns of parents over the years. They examine the impact of COVID-19 on education, the political ramifications of parenting decisions, and the role of data in making informed choices. Finally, they address the challenges of parenting in the age of social media and the fears that modern parents face.

By the way: If you are not yet a podcast member, and you want to upgrade your newsletter subscription plan to include a podcast membership (which gets you ad-free podcasts, Friday editions, The Sunday podcast, bonus content), you can do that here. That page is a good resource for managing your Tangle subscription (just make sure you are logged in on the website!)

Ad-free podcasts are here!

Many listeners have been asking for an ad-free version of this podcast that they could subscribe to — and we finally launched it. You can go to ReadTangle.com to sign up! You can also give the gift of a Tangle podcast subscription by clicking here.

You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here.

Our Executive Editor and Founder is Isaac Saul. Our Executive Producer is Jon Lall.

This podcast was hosted by Ari Weitzman and Isaac Saul and edited and engineered by Jon Lall. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75 and Jon Lall.

Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Senior Editor Will Kaback, Hunter Casperson, Kendall White, Bailey Saul, and Audrey Moorehead.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.