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The Bunker

'Hipster eugenics' – Why the US far-right is obsessed with babies

The Bunker

Podmasters

News, Politics, Society & Culture, Government

4.6984 Ratings

🗓️ 27 March 2025

⏱️ 21 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

America’s far-right is obsessed with people having babies. Why are they focused on this and where did ‘pronatalism’ come from? Carter Sherman is a reproductive health and justice reporter at Guardian US and joins Jacob Jarvis to discuss why people like Musk and JD Vance have jumped on this bandwagon and what it means for politics and people across the United States.  • We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to https://indeed.com/bunker for £100 sponsored credit.   https://www.patreon.com/bunkercast  Written and presented by Jacob Jarvis. Producer: Liam Tait. Audio editors: Robin Leeburn. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:06.4

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0:16.4

Follow the link in the show notes to find out more.

0:28.8

Thank you. Follow the link in the show notes to find out more. Right-wingers in America have a new obsession. People having babies. J.D. Vance in his first speech,

0:35.5

as Vice President said, I want more babies in the United

0:38.8

States of America, highlighting how important he thinks it is to encourage more people to have more

0:43.8

children. Elon Musk, another important figure in the Trump government, has a reported 14 children.

0:49.4

It's unclear if anyone knows what the exact number is, and he sparked outrage last year by telling

0:53.8

Taylor Swift,

0:55.0

I will give you a child in a tweet. This mindset all ties into a hard-to-define ideology called

1:01.6

pro-natalism, a movement pulled together by the loose notion that more people need to have more babies.

1:08.1

I'm Jacob Jarvis, and joining me to dive into this movement and how it ties into right-wing

1:12.0

politics is Carter Sherman, a reproductive health and justice reporter at Guardian US.

1:16.6

Carter, thank you so much for joining me today.

1:18.6

Thank you for having me.

1:19.6

Carter, how would you define pronatalism and what are some of the standard definitions that

1:24.6

we see bandied around for it?

1:25.6

Well, I'm really glad you're starting off with this question because I think there can be

1:29.7

a lot of confusion about what pronatalism actually is or means.

1:34.5

At its core, if you just look at the word, it means pro-birth.

1:37.3

It means believing that it is good for people to give birth to children.

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