The technofuturists want it. The evangelicals want it. The creepy manosphere dudes want it. The current iteration of the American right wing may be an odd and sometimes contradictory coalition, but there’s at least one thing they all unite around: More babies.

President Trump has dubbed himself “the fertilization president,” while his vice president, J.D. Vance, notoriously has bemoaned “childless cat ladies” as a social ill and suggested that people with children should get more votes. Elon Musk has fathered at least 14 children as part of an ideologically driven quest to save civilization with his “legion” of offspring. The Trump White House has considered a number of proposals for boosting the birth rate, including a motherhood medal for women who have six or more children.

Meanwhile, pronatalist influencers like the noxious Simone and Malcolm Collins are flocking to the predominantly white, male, and conservative Natal Conference to advance the cause and draw attention to what they deem a population crisis.

What exactly is going on here? Why has the right suddenly become obsessed with birth rates, and what policies will they push to achieve their fertility goals? Why are these so-called pro-family advocates utterly uninterested in policies that would both improve the lives of parents and children and potentially raise birth rates, like universal free childcare? And how has the left responded to this renewed breeding obsession? After months of reading and raging about these questions, we decided we needed to talk it out. In this podcast, we try to follow all of these threads — and, to be transparent, we also vented a lot of sputtering fury.

Below, we’ve compiled a list of articles we read prior to this conversation, many of which are cited in the podcast. Gently poach your brain in a pronatalism soup, if you will! Sarah Jones’s essays for New York Mag are particularly illuminating on the historical context and dark undercurrents of the right wing’s fertility fever.

Hope you enjoy! xo

Reading ListPronatalist Profiles:

“America’s premier pronatalists on having ‘tons of kids’ to save the world: ‘There are going to be countries of old people starving to death,’” by Jenny Kleeman, The Guardian

“Pronatalism explained: Why tech titans like Elon Musk want to have tons of kids to save the world,” by Julia Black, Business Insider

“Meet the ‘elite’ couples breeding to save mankind,” by Io Dodds, The Telegraph

NatalCon Coverage:

“The Women Who Think the World Needs More Babies,” by Emma Goldberg, The New York Times

“The Pro-Baby Coalition of the Far Right,” by Elizabeth Bruenig, The Atlantic

“They say they want Americans to have more babies. What's beneath the surface?” by Lisa Hagen, NPR

“What's behind the 'pronatalist' movement to boost the birth rate?” by Tonya Mosley, NPR’s Fresh Air

Pronatalist Policies and Their Effectiveness

“White House Assesses Ways to Persuade Women to Have More Children,” by Caroline Kitchener, The New York Times

“So you want to increase your country’s birth rate? Experts say it’s tough,” by Vivian Hoang and Hannah Graberstein, PBS News

“A Nobel Prize winner decodes why people aren’t having kids,” by Heather Long, The Washington Post

“The rise of pronatalism: why Musk, Vance and the right want women to have more babies,” Carter Sherman, The Guardian

Leftist Responses to Pronatalism on the Right

“There’s Nothing New About Pronatalism,” by Sarah Jones, New York Magazine

“Why the Left Should Embrace Pronatalism,” by Elizabeth Bruenig, The Atlantic

“Don’t Have Children,” by Kate Manne, More to Hate

“Pronatalism Isn’t a Solution, It’s a Problem,” by Sarah Jones, New York Magazine

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