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Culture Study Podcast

What's With All This Eldest Daughter Discourse?

Culture Study Podcast

Culture Study Podcast

Arts, Society & Culture

4.5789 Ratings

🗓️ 17 December 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

I don't remember when I first noticed Eldest Daughter content popping up in my various social media feeds, but like so many millennials, I loved a meme that seemed to REALLY SEE ME. Why yes, I am a consummate planner who somehow holds at least six people's yearly calendars in my head at once! Why yes, I am a perfectionist! WHY YES, I AM AN ELDEST DAUGHTER!Does Eldest Daughter discourse give Eldest Daughters a means to communicate their (sometimes contradictory) feelings about their familial and societal roles? Or is it a way for Eldest Daughters to lean into their own martyrdom complexes? And how does being the immigrant eldest daughter compound your Eldest Daughter-ness? We got Eldest Daughter Ifeoma Ozoma to come on the show and help me (Eldest Daughter) and Melody (also Eldest Daughter, duh) answer all your questions — and work through our own changing relationship to the Eldest Daughter Discourse. (And yes, there's a reason this one's coming out during the holidays, the best/worst time to be an Eldest Daughter) ALSO GUESS WHAT, WE HAVE VERY GOOD EPISODES TRANSCRIPTS NOW! They come out within 24 hours of the pod, so you just have to be a little patient and then come back and click here. We pay an actual human for help with these, so thank you for either being a paid subscriber or listening to the ads that make this model possible! If you're a paid subscriber and haven't yet set up your subscriber RSS feed in your podcast player, here's the EXTREMELY easy how-to .And if you're having any other issues with your Patreon subscription — please get in touch! Email me at annehelenpetersen @ gmail OR submit a request to Patreon Support. Thank you for making the switch with us — the podcast in particular is much more at home here!Thanks to the Sponsors of Today's Episode! Get 15% off OneSkin with the code CULTURE at https://www.oneskin.co/CULTUREGet 15% off your first order of cleaning products by going to Blueland.com/CULTURETry Beam's Dream Powder for up to 40% off at shopbeam.com/CULTURE and use code CULTUREHead to Zbiotics.com/CULTURESTUDY and use the code CULTURESTUDY at checkout for 15% offShow Notes:Ifeoma Ozoma is an eldest daughter and also A TOTAL BOSS (TRULY)At the end of the episode we talk about her advocacy with Niños and Neighbors — you can read more about it here and join their mailing list/donate here The Eldest Daughter Club on IG (218k followers!) The study I referenced re: stress during pregnancy and hormones in eldest daughters comes out of UCLA — you can find more about it here We're currently looking for your questions for future episodes about:'90s Movie SoundtracksHow we think about the morality of money and taxes — who should pay taxes, who shouldn't, who "deserves" money, who doesn't, how we came to decide that religious organizations shouldn't pay taxes (and how that belief is changing), SO MUCHHow to process all the STUFF accumulated from relatives (we have a really helpful organizer with a bunch of mental health training for this one!) The State of The CHAIN RESTAURANT — and chain restaurant supply chain!!! (I'm so excited for this one) Anything you need advice or want musings on for the AAA segment. You can ask about anything, it’s literally the name of the segmentAs always, you can submit your questions (and ideas for future eps) hereFor this week’s discussion: Do you have eldest daughter energy? If you do, how has it changed over time? And if you don't: how do you relate to eldest daughters?

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is the Culture Study podcast, and I'm Anne Helen Peterson.

0:11.5

I'm ephomozoma and I'm the eldest daughter of an eldest daughter of an eldest daughter.

0:17.4

Oh, and the mom of an only daughter.

0:22.6

So the genesis of this is that Melody and I were riffing on the new Taylor Swift album, and we were like,

0:31.5

eldest daughter, what a disappointment.

0:34.5

Like, and some people really like it.

0:36.2

But anyway, we both thought, what a disappointment.

0:39.1

There was a lot of potential there because I'm an eldest daughter and Melody is an

0:44.4

eldest daughter.

0:45.0

And we have been, I think, surrounded, I think more recently by a lot of eldest daughter

0:51.8

discourse, memes, Instagram accounts, posts, just generally.

0:59.0

And if we're going to do an episode, though, I wanted to have this like intersection,

1:03.3

which I see as like eldest daughter to the eldest daughter power, which is immigrant

1:09.6

eldest daughter. So I said on Instagram, okay, who should I have be my co-host?

1:15.7

And you DMed me and we're like, hello.

1:19.0

So what are your eldest daughter credentials?

1:22.6

Oh, my goodness.

1:23.7

So I am the eldest daughter of two of an eldest daughter from Nigeria who was the eldest of

1:31.8

eight and who is also the eldest daughter of an eldest daughter.

1:37.8

Wow.

1:39.2

Eldest daughter lineage. And I think that that actually, like, there's something going on there.

1:43.7

I'm the eldest daughter of a middle daughter. Oh, interesting. The way that I've seen it play out in my

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