The Bad Husband Epidemic, Real or Rage Bait?

Care and Feeding | Slate's parenting show

Slate Audio

Society & Culture, Kids & Family, Parenting

4.4 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2026

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On this episode: Lucy Lopez and Elizabeth Newcamp are talking bad husbands this week. Not their husbands (though both are terrible gift givers). But it seems like everywhere on the internet lately there are a lot of wives posting about terrible things their husbands did, getting negative reactions, and then getting mad that people are attacking their husbands. The Cut even wrote a piece about it called, “I Love My Husband (Who Hates Me).” Is it all rage-baiting for clicks? And how much harm on both sides does content like this cause? Is it anti-feminist to defend the husbands? Lucy and Elizabeth unpack it all.

After that, they answer a listener’s question about her seven-year-old trying to dress like a seventeen-year-old. You can also get reactions to the listener’s question at the Care and Feeding column by Arionne Nettles: “My 7-Year-Old’s Latest Obsession Is Uh, Very Adult. I Definitely Didn’t Teach Her That.”

This week on the Plus Playground: From glitter water bottles to cards you can find at thrift stores, here’s ways to make waiting around fun with kids.

Podcast production by Cheyna Roth. Video production by Micah Phillips.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode may contain explicit language.
0:06.7	Hey, this is Karen Feeding.
0:08.5	We're usually three friends.
0:10.3	Right now, it's just both of us, Elizabeth and me, because Zach, we're Zach.
0:16.5	On his way to New York.
0:18.5	Yes.
0:19.4	We don't know how.
0:20.2	By car, by plane.
0:21.6	We're unsure.
0:22.7	We're not really sure.
0:23.7	But just so you know, we get together every week.
0:25.8	We talk about life.
0:26.8	We swap advice.
0:27.6	We keep each other sane while we muddle through this beautiful thing called parenting.
0:33.0	I'm Lucy Lopez.
0:34.5	I have a substack.
0:36.9	It's called Best Mom Friends Forever. And I also have daughters,
0:41.7	Amelia who's 15, Avery who's 13, and we live in Miami. I'm Elizabeth Newkamp. You can find me over
0:47.9	on the Best Mom Friends Forever Substack as well. I also write a homeschool and family travel blog
0:53.2	called Dutch Dutch Dutch Goose,
0:54.4	and I'm the mom to Henry who's 13, Oliver who's 11, and Teddy who's 9, and we live in
0:59.6	Honolulu, Hawaii. Love it. Here we are. We're about to have an honest conversation about
	...

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