Welcome to Axis ProRata, a podcast that takes just 10 minutes to get you smarter on the collision of tech business and politics.

I'm Dan Pramak. On today's show, how election hacking could play into the tech industry's next big IPO and facial recognition software gets banned in San Francisco.

But first, America's Baby Bust. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control recently reported that the U.S.

fertility rate hit a record low last year, and that the number of births in the U.S. hit their

weakest mark in 32 years. Not only does this spell trouble for stroller makers and birthday

party clowns, but it also could cause broad economic upheaval, as a relatively small U.S.

workforce would be required to

support a large elderly population basically imagine baby boomer outflows

without millennial inflows and then put added life expectancy on top of it

moreover this is the sort of thing that can feed on itself with younger

Americans essentially required to work longer hours, thus making it

less likely they'll have kids. Basically, we could turn into Japan, particularly if there's no

political will to raise our levels of immigration. The bottom line here is that elected officials

always like to talk about our children and our children's children when it comes to things like

national debt or climate change or crime. But what we really need to hear more about is how many of our children and our children's children they're really going to be.

In 15 seconds, we'll go deeper with Axios reporter Steph Kite.

But first, this.

Axios chief technology correspondent, Enah Freed, shares breaking news and analysis on the most consequential

companies and players in tech from the Valley to D.C. Subscribe to get smarter faster at

signup.axios.com. And now, back to the ProRata podcast. We're joined now by Axios reporter,

Steph Kite. So, Steph, give me the big picture here. Why are

American birth rates falling so rapidly? So it's interesting because when we hear that fertility

...