In this bonus episode, I disagreed strongly with Meghan Murphy on the necessity of housework.

Discussed in the episode:

• ‘Women aren’t nags – we’re just fed up’
• ‘Thoughts on being raised by a single dad and the advice to “just do less”
• ‘The women quietly quitting their husbands’

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No one is under any illusions about how tired mothers are. And fathers, too. Particularly during the early years of sleep deprivation. We're also often overwhelmed by responsibility and financial stress. None of this is in doubt. 

But does that mean that mothers are unhappy? It's a complicated question to answer. A lot of people assume – particularly, I suspect, people who don't have children themselves – that tiredness and busyness necessarily suggest that a woman's wellbeing is damaged by having children. And there are, of course, feminist ideas that fall out of this assumption. Primarily, the idea that marriage and motherhood are oppressive to women, and that these are burdens that women long to be relieved of. 

Today I'm joined by two academics who offer their expertise on the question of maternal happiness. Wendy Wang is the Director of Research at the Institute for Family Studies, and Jenet Erickson is a fellow at the same institute. She's also an associate professor at Brigham Young University. I met Wendy and Jenet at a conference organised by the Institute for Family Studies earlier this year at which they both presented their research on marriage, children, and – here's the really interesting bit – the strong correlation between a woman's experience of physical touch and her mental wellbeing. They both argue that mothers – specifically married mothers – are happier on average than other women. Together we examine the evidence. 

Give the gift of everyday luxury and make every moment comfortable. Head

to cozyearth.com and use my code COZYMMM for 20% off sitewide. And if you

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In this bonus episode, I spoke with Nina Power about 'hybristophilia' – a fetish typically found in women that is characterized by sexual attraction to criminals. We discussed what the phenomenon reveals about female sexuality, the insights offered by erotic fiction intended for a female readership, and the tightrope that women have to walk when trying to attract sexual interest from men. 

Discussed in the episode: 

• https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15334175/The-female-police-officers-betray-law-inside-Besotted-women-share-force-secrets-criminal-lovers-share-jail-kisses-them.html
• https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/36533018/ex-prison-officer-jailed-parties-onlyfans/
• https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2074301/Woman-with-objects-fetish-marries-Eiffel-Tower.html
• https://www.louiseperry.co.uk/p/the-evolution-of-mental-illness-marco
• https://www.louiseperry.co.uk/p/where-do-fetishes-come-from-ray-blanchard
• https://archive.org/details/lovingtosurvives0000grah 

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My guest today is Jean Twenge, professor of psychology at San Diego State University, and author of books including ‘iGen’, ‘Generation Me’, and ‘Generations.’ Her latest title is ‘10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High-Tech World: How Parents Can Stop Smartphones, Social Media, and Gaming from Taking Over Their Children’s Lives.’

We spoke about why smartph…

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In this bonus episode, Rob Henderson and I spoke about sexual politics and education. Do men care about whether a potential wife has a degree? Is university the best place to find a spouse? And was ‘Princeton Mom’ right?

Discussed in the episode:

* https://x.com/Rich_Cooper/status/1989676504880386558

* https://x.com/sentientist/status/1991591912881680859?s=46…

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In this episode I’m joined by Lyman Stone and Diana Fleischman for a debate on eugenics – specifically, Diana’s argument that most people support ‘negative eugenic’ policies to some degree, and that governments ought to go further by encouraging the use of sterilisation or long term contraception among, for instance, drug addicts.

Lyman Stone is the Director of Research of the consulting firm Demographic Intelligence, the director of the Pronatalism Initiative at the Institute for Family Studies, and an author on Substack -

Diana Fleischman is an evolutionary psychologist, Associate Research Professor at the University of New Mexico, and author of the Dissentient Substack - https://dissentient.substack.com

Discussed in the episode:

* Diana’s essay ‘You’re probably a eugenicist’

https://dissentient.substack.com/p/eugenicist

* Shor, E., & Simchai, D. (2009). Incest avoidance, the incest taboo, and social cohesion: Revisiting Westermarck and the case of the Israeli kibbutzim. American Journal of Sociology, 114(6), 1803–1842.

* Gipson, J. D., Bornstein, M., Berger, A., & Rocca, C. H. (2021). Desire to avoid pregnancy and contraceptive use among female methadone patients in Los Angeles. Contraception, 103(5), 322–327

* Donohue, J. J., & Levitt, S. D. (2001). The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 116(2), 379–420. https://doi.org/10.1162/00335530151144050

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In this bonus episode, I spoke with Ed West about the new data indicating that British citizens are emigrating in much larger numbers than anyone realised. We also spoke about how emigration has shaped the Anglosphere and the proposed reforms to the asylum system.

Discussed in the episode:

* ONS revised emigration estimates – https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplep…

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My guest today is Melissa Kearney, Professor of Economics at the University of Notre Dame and author of ‘The Two-Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind.’

We spoke about the experience of raising children in a low fertility society, why feminists should care about pronatalism, the cause of the massive recent dec…

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In this bonus episode, I spoke with Diana Fleischman about the new Lily Allen album, why most people aren’t well suited to polyamory, why celebrities cheat more often than normal people, whether we should stigmatise polyamory, and the middle aged women taking testosterone to boost their libidos.

Discussed in the episode:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wes…

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My guest today is Joyce Benenson, Lecturer in Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University and the author of ‘Warriors and Worriers: The Survival of the Sexes.’ We spoke about boys and men – why even very young boys are often obsessed with enemies, superheroes, weapons, and everything else to do with warfare, and how psychological sex differences ar…

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