In this episode of For the Good of the Public podcast, Liz Tenety, co-founder of Motherly and Founding Women, moderates a conversation on creating a culture of care with Elissa Strauss, journalist and author of “When You Care: The Unexpected Magic of Caring for Others,” Joe Waters, co-founder and CEO of Capita, Tim Carney, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and Dr. Charles Daniels Jr., founder and CEO of Fathers’ Uplift. The panelists explore what it means to have a culture of care in this country and how it relates to today’s concept of care, drawing from their professional experiences and personal journeys with parenthood. They dig into the practical solutions that would approach care in a more humane way, both on a policy level and a community level.
Watch the video recording of this talk on YouTube!
“Caregiving is a hot topic. It’s on the campaign trail right now. It’s in the headlines, but there’s such depth to what we need around caregiving.” -Liz [07:44]
“I believe that care consists of various peoples–aunties, uncles, teachers, coaches–that contribute to the being of one person. And I believe that it’s mutually beneficial. I think members of their culture have someone to contribute to their being. None of us arrive to this place of love and care by ourselves. It takes a village.” -Charles [13:35]
“Caring for others is self care. It is challenging and stressful and hard, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not nourishing us in other ways.” -Elissa [21:20]
“If we want to support stay-at-home parents, if we want to empower choices by parents to care for their children in the ways that they think best and align with their values, one of the most important things we can do is address the cost of housing.” -Joe [45:32]
“It’s really tough to fix this because what we have on one hand is parents who can’t afford safe, clean, reliable childcare, and the biggest input into that is the wages.” -Tim [52:15]
TIMESTAMPS
[00:00] Intro
[04:04] About the panelists
[07:36] The deeper meaning of caregiving
[14:10] America’s concept of care
[21:29] Economic and cultural pressures
[25:43] The role of women
[32:05] Learning from other countries and cultures
[41:25] A more human approach to care
[51:12] Questions from the audience
[1:08:39] Outro
REFERENCES
- For the Good of the Public Summit
- Liz Tenety, co-founder of Motherly and Founding Women
- Elissa Strauss
- “When You Care: The Unexpected Magic of Caring for Others” by Elissa Strauss
- Joe Waters, CEO and co-founder of Capita
- Tim Carney, journalist at the Washington Examiner and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute
- Dr. Charles Daniels, founder and CEO of Fathers’ Uplift
- “Family Unfriendly: How Our Culture Made Raising Kids Much Harder Than It Needs to Be” by Timothy P. Carney
- The Atlantic: Why Do So Many Parents Think Kids Need Their Own Bedroom?
- Child Care is Infrastructure: Evidence from Universal Pre-K
- Loneliness in America: Just the Tip of the Iceberg?
- Call Her Daddy: Vice President Kamala Harris
- Friendship Bench
- Invisible Labor, Visible Needs: Making Family Policy Work for Stay-At-Home (And All) Parents
- Glamour: They Raised the World’s Biggest Superstars. Now They’re Telling Their Own Stories
CONNECT WITH US:
Website: www.ccpubliclife.org
X: @CCPublicLife
Facebook: Center for Christianity & Public Life
Instagram: @ccpubliclife
Podcast: For the Good of the Public
Mentioned in this episode:
The Spirit of Our Politics: Spiritual Formation and the Renovation of Public Life
The Spirit of Our Politics: Spiritual Formation and the Renovation of Public Life
New Updated Feed Here!
New Podcast
For the Good of the Public Summit 2025
For the Good of the Public Summit '25
