Alison Gopnik and Anne-Marie Slaughter on Why We’re Not Paying Enough Attention to Caregiving

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 25 April 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Caregiving is the most universal of human acts. But also one of the most invisible. While caring for a child, parent or loved one can be meaningful, and life defining, it can also be exhausting and life breaking. Drawing on her groundbreaking research on baby’s brains, UC Berkeley psychologist and philosopher Alison Gopnik is leading a multidisciplinary project to better understand the social science of caregiving with hopes of translating those insights into practical policies. Gopnik and policymaker Anne-Marie Slaughter join us to talk about how rethinking our approach to caregiving and how we support care providers, could lead to a better, more functional society. Guests: Alison Gopnik, professor of psychology and affiliate professor of philosophy, UC Berkeley; author, "The Gardener and the Carpenter: What the New Science of Child Development Tells Us About the Relationship Between Parents and Children" Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO of New America, a non-profit think tank; author of "Unfinished Business: Women Men Work Family" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	Support for KQIWID podcasts comes from Rancho LaPuerta, a wellness resort 45 minutes from San Diego.
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0:30.8	a newlywed Jewish couple struggling to make a life in Georgia.
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0:57.7	From KQED.
0:59.2	From KQED.
1:14.1	From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal.
1:19.1	Alison Gopnik is a cognitive scientist, developmental psychologist, and philosopher.
1:26.6	She's devoted her career to understanding, in her words, how young children come to know about the world around them.
1:28.8	But children don't grow up alone.
1:34.8	They're embedded in caregiving networks. And now Gopnik is leading a multidisciplinary project to understand the social science of caregiving. And not just for children, but for everyone
1:40.1	who needs care. We'll talk with her and New America CEO Anne-Marie Slaughter about what they
1:45.9	hope to learn about better supporting caregiving in our society. That's all coming up next,
1:51.2	right after this news.
2:07.5	Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. Caregiving is essential human labor. All children need caregivers and most people need caregivers at some point in their lives. Nothing could be more
2:14.4	important literally for the continuation of our families and even the species.
	...

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