I'm not a risk taker.

Even writing this book was a little bit risky for me, and it's really not that risky, right

in the scheme of risks I could be taking in my life, but it felt like a big risk for

me.

Melissa Karney is an economist at the University of Maryland.

My fields are public economics and labor economics, but I've always researched topics related

to U.S. inequality, poverty, and the economics of families.

Her new book is called The Two Parent Privilege, how Americans stopped getting married and

started falling behind.

It is built around a rather startling fact.

In 1960, only 5% of babies in the U.S. were born to unmarried parents.

Today, that number is 40%.

For black babies in the U.S., it's 70%.

U.S. kids are the most likely in the world to live in a home with only one parent by

a lot.

But at the many academic and policy conferences that Karney attends, she finds this startling

fact is rarely discussed.

My saying it's not discussed is probably more reflective of the circles I run in, which

is, you know, higher ed academia, which of course skews liberal and progressive, laugh-leaning

conversations about kids' well-being and concerns about social mobility.

In those circles and those conversations, I often find that this topic is met with discomfort.

But Karney decided to embrace the uncomfortable.

...