Welcome to The Lost Debate, a show for political eclectics. I'm Robbie Gupta, and this is one of my favorite episodes we have ever had. I speak to Emily Oster, who is the CEO of Parent Data. She's a mom of two. She's the best-selling author, PhD and graduate in economics from Harvard. I'm a professor of economics at Brown University. Her book's expectinging Better, Crib's Sheet, The Family

Firm, and The Unexpected have sold over 1 million copies. She also has a couple podcasts,

including raising parents with Emily Oster. And she's somebody who is a bit of an eclectic.

She is a data scientist and economist who has commented and written a lot about parenting,

pregnancy, but also public health.

And it was actually on public health where she, I think, in some ways,

rose to more recent prominence because she was a, you know,

she called balls and strikes as I see it on a lot of the COVID public health stuff.

And I think went against the grain of orthodoxy on the center and left by saying, hey, like maybe we should open our schools faster and maybe we should think about public health messaging on issues like vaccines better.

And I think there is nobody out there on some of these subjects who speaks with more nuance and preparation than Emily. And we talk about a whole

host of issues, whether it's the COVID pandemic to the recent measles outbreak, to whether you

should drink unpasteurized milk, to what does it mean to be a great parent, to whether you

should even have kids. So you are going to

absolutely love this episode. Let's jump right in. Emily, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for

having me. Well, you know, I talked to Richard Reeves a couple days ago for this pod and I would say

you and Richard are two people very high on my list of people I've been wanting to talk to for a while. And I would say you and Richard are two people very high on my list

of people I've been wanting to talk to for a while. And I classify you both as, I would say,

like, heterodox rigorous thinkers is kind of how I would call this list. So I'm really excited

to ask you tons of questions today. Awesome. I will say, and being in comparisons with Richard

Green's is always a treat. So that's great. Well, you know, our audience is eclectic and we've got a lot

of people across the spectrum who were very critical of COVID lockdowns and school closures to

people who are more in the traditional Democratic camp.

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