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The Political Scene | The New Yorker

Family Estrangement Is on the Rise. Are Politics to Blame?

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

The New Yorker

Politics, Obama, News, Wnyc, Washington, Barack, President, Lizza, Wickenden

4.2 • 3.3K Ratings

🗓️ 19 November 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The New Yorker contributing writer Anna Russell joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss the rise of family estrangement in mainstream culture. Recent studies have found that more than a quarter of all Americans are currently estranged from a relative. They talk about how the idea of going “no contact” has gained traction in mainstream culture, the personal and generational shifts that can lead people to distance themselves from relatives, and why family bonds feel less inviolable than they once did. They also look at the political disagreements that can lead to decisions to cut off contact, whether close family relationships can survive deep ideological divides, and what therapists and researchers say about the prospects for reconciliation following estrangement. 

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey everyone, it's Tyler.

0:04.0

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0:32.1

You can find links to the survey in our episode and show notes. Thanks so much for listening

0:36.9

to The Political Scene from the New Yorker.

0:50.8

Hi, Anna. Thanks so much for coming on the show.

0:55.4

Thanks for having me.

1:07.3

So Thanksgiving is around the corner, and this is obviously a time where a lot of people are kind of anticipating having difficult political conversations with their family or just difficult conversations in general.

1:12.4

And then there's also the more extreme version of this where people aren't going home at all. And you've written about the concept that it's most extreme, which is this idea of

1:17.5

family estrangement or going no contact. Is this the concept that you think is on the rise?

1:23.8

Yes. When I started reporting on estrangement, I was shocked to discover that by some estimates,

1:30.1

27% of Americans are estranged from at least one relative.

1:34.6

And that is a number that some psychologists think is rising.

1:40.3

The kind of research on estrangement is in its infancy, but there's a lot of evidence to show that it is growing and some of it is politically motivated.

1:55.8

That's Anna Russell, a contributing writer at The New Yorker.

1:59.9

Last year, Anna wrote a piece about the rise of family estrangement, why more people are choosing

...

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