Why Ezra Klein Thinks “We're Living Through A Mistake”

Death, Sex & Money

Slate Audio

Careers, Sexuality, Business, Health & Fitness, Relationships, Society & Culture

4.6 • 7.7K Ratings

🗓️ 30 August 2023

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The New York Times journalist talks about the difficulties of early parenthood, the lure of communal living, and why he loves Burning Man. Want more from Ezra on the topics in today’s episode? We recommend the following: This episode of The Ezra Klein Show with scholar Kristen Ghodsee on communes and intentional communities (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/09/opinion/ezra-klein-kristen-ghodsee.html), a conversation The Atlantic’s Jerusalem Demsas about homelessness and the origins of our current housing crisis (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/18/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-jerusalem-demsas.html), an interview with writer Sheila Liming on loneliness in America (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/18/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-sheila-liming.html), and two interviews he’s done with child psychologist Alison Gopnik (https://www.vox.com/podcasts/2019/6/13/18677595/alison-gopnik-changed-how-i-think-about-love, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/16/podcasts/ezra-klein-podcast-alison-gopnik-transcript.html). Finally, Annie Lowrey’s piece about her experiences with pregnancy, childbirth and early parenting: “What Counts As the Life of the Mother?” (https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/08/pregnancy-birth-complication-abortion-life-of-mother/671006/). Did you know we have a weekly email newsletter for the Death, Sex & Money community? Every Wednesday we send out a note from Anna, fascinating listener letters from our inbox, and updates from the show. Sign up at deathsexmoney.org/newsletter, and follow the show on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Got a story to share? Email us at deathsexmoney@wnyc.org. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Even if you're perfectly healthy and your kids are perfectly healthy, I don't believe
0:03.6	people are meant to do this, you know, two parents plus kids.
0:09.2	It's too few people.
0:10.8	I mean, to say nothing of one parent plus kids.
0:14.2	This is Death, Sex, and Money.
0:22.1	The show from WNYC about the things we think about a lot.
0:27.2	And we need to talk about war and an assail.
0:37.1	Journalist Ezra Klein explores a wide-ranging beat on his podcast and in his column
0:42.6	at The New York Times.
0:44.2	He's interested in how policy systems interact with Americans,
0:48.3	political identities, and how all that trickles down in each of our lives.
0:53.6	And like many of us, the past few years have been characterized by a lot of upheaval in his life.
0:59.9	The year before the pandemic, he and his wife had moved across the country
1:04.2	from Washington, D.C. to the San Francisco Bay Area.
1:07.7	And what kicks off then is a four to five-year period, depending on how you count it,
1:14.6	where my partner got very sick and very mysterious ways, which
1:20.7	interacted with pregnancy with two pregnancies in infinitely disastrous ways.
1:26.3	Their workplaces shut down.
1:28.3	They didn't have family locally.
1:30.2	And earlier this year, they decided they couldn't stay.
1:33.8	It really was because that was just too hard.
1:37.8	It was too hard to be there with young kids and one of us being sick without family support,
	...

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