The Case for Having Children: Can We Make It at Societal Level?

On a personal level, one can easily make the case for having children (although the not too online will not even bother): “Yep, it’s what makes us human – the natural order of things – and I want someone to continue my legacy, inherit my money, spend time with”. But in her recent essay, independent researcher Nadia Asparoushova proposes that the pronatalist individualist rhetoric vs the societal values antinatalist position just gets us talking past each other.

Join hosts Violeta Kristóf and Katrina Dela Cruz as they explore with their guest Nadia Asparouhova the pro and anti natalism arguments and positions at various levels of granularity: deliberate personal inquiry, impending biological drive, or byproduct of social movements, such as climate crisis or Effective Altruism. We will try to reach lines of inquiry that do not divide between the Retvrn pronatalist trad types and the personal choice policing climate activists. A more compassionate, forward-looking, optimistic , yet deeply rooted in societal welfare, alternative is possible, Nadia proposes, and it involves cultivating agency. Maybe we don’t need to throw the (literal) babies with the (polluted) bath water?!

Recommended readings:

• Cultivating Agency, by Nadia Asparouhova (Nadia’s blog)
• Maternal Instinct is a Myth that Men Created, by Chelsea Conaboy (NYT opinion)
• Women Who Stay Single and Don’t Have Kids Are Getting Richer, by Molly Smith (Bloomberg Europe Edition)

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