Does Parenting Make You a Better Person? (with Erik Hoel)

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4.7 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 July 2024

⏱️ 84 minutes

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Summary

Does parenting make you a better person? Can it improve your life? Neuroscientist Erik Hoel makes the self-interested case for parenting arguing that it makes you less jaded and more heartbroken (in a good way) for how you experience the world. Listen as new father Hoel speaks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the universal and particular truths surrounding parenting, and why the perception presented by the media is often at odds with our own experience. Topics include different parenting styles and their effects, how parents shape children's personalities and preferences, and the famous children's books that both men love and hate. The conversation closes with a discussion of the reliability of recent studies condemning homeschooling.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, Conversations for the Curious, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:08.0	I'm your host Russ Roberts of Shalem College in Jerusalem and Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Go to Econ Talk. in to today's conversation. You'll also find our archives with every episode we've done
0:24.5	going back to 2006. Our email address is mail at econ talk.org we'd love to hear from you. Today's July 1st, 2024, and my guest is neuroscientist, philosopher, and novelist Eric Hoel.
0:44.8	Eric's sub-stack is the intrinsic perspective.
0:49.0	This is Eric's fourth appearance on any kind talk.
0:51.2	He was last year in July of 2023 discussing
0:54.8	consciousness and free will. Our topic for today is children. We'll get into
0:59.5	parenting, public policy toward the family and the moral dimension of being a parent.
1:04.0	Eric welcome back to econ talk.
1:06.0	Oh, it's a pleasure to be back for the fourth time.
1:09.0	Today's conversation will be based on some of your recent essays at your
1:13.5	Substack, the intrinsic perspective. Let's start with your claim, a bold
1:18.2	claim, that parenting makes you a better person.
1:22.8	And that's the first part of your essay,
1:24.9	but you just some throat clearing beforehand
1:26.6	and you start off saying that life before children
1:30.7	was a little bit boring despite having done drugs at Burning Man.
1:35.8	So I just, I want you to talk a little bit about the transition that occurred when you went
1:41.5	from no children to children and you have two, just for the record.
1:46.8	Yeah, and just to clarify, I mean, I think it made me a better person.
1:51.6	You know, I sort of am carefully hedged in the piece to say, you know, I'm not sure that
1:57.3	parenting is the right move for everybody and if people have like very strong opinions about not
	...

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