In this episode of the Slow Reckoning Podcast, host Amarinder Sidhu speaks with Nina Bandelj, Chancellor's Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine, about her new book Overinvested: The Emotional Economy of Modern Parenting.

Nina describes sociology as the scientific study of human behavior in social context, at both the micro and macro level. And how economic sociology, the core of her academic practice, explores the social meaning of money and how it interacts with our values, emotions, and relationships.

The episode digs into how parenting has become an "emotional economy," where economization (investment-style reasoning, financialization, privatization, and marketization of childcare, tutoring, and youth sports) merges with emotionalization (therapeutic advice culture, a heightened focus on emotions, and the centrality of the parent-child relationship).

The conversation moves through the growth of the parenting industrial complex, and how parents have come to rely on privatized services to prepare their kids for future success as public options shrink.

It closes on the collective action problem parents find themselves inside, the case for public investment in raising children, and how each parent might think differently about what it means to raise a young person in today's world.

00:00 Welcome and Introductions

02:33 Sociology as a Field of Study

05:20 What is Economic Sociology

07:49 How the Book Came About

14:21 Defining Emotional Economy of Parenting

18:36 Economization and Emotionalization

23:50 Viewing Kids as Human Capital

28:47 Preschool and Youth Enrichment Race

34:12 Parenting Industrial Complex

39:07 Good Parent Feelings

41:28 Expanding Extracurriculars

43:02 Why Parents Enroll

46:24 End of Free Play

49:51 Viewing Kids as Investments

50:29 Parent Expectations from Kids

55:16 Therapy Culture and Parenting

01:04:07 Social Inequality and Parent Burnout

01:09:49 Resistance to Public Support

01:14:10 Rethinking Parenting Choices

01:19:43 Closing Reflections

In this first episode of the Slow Reckoning Podcast, host Amarinder Sidhu speaks with Tejvir Sekhon, a professor of Marketing at West Washington University, about using "dark arts of marketing" for social good.

Tejvir explains his research focus on consumer wellbeing, moral decision making, and sustainable consumption, and discusses his work on “conspicuous anti-consumption,” including how brands like Patagonia can make reduced consumption socially legible. They also unpack status signaling beyond wealth, the role of choice architecture in everyday decisions, and how marketing and money shape preferences in markets and politics.

The episode gets into Tejvir's poetic reflections on consumer dilemmas and parenting pressures, from Halloween candy and kids’ devices to competitive parenting, Costco waste, and longevity marketing, ending with optimism about business students seeking change from within.

00:00 Welcome and Introductions

01:00 Marketing for Social Good

04:11 Conspicuous Anti Consumption

08:29 Patagonia and Profit Logic

12:30 Poetic Consumer Dilemmas

16:42 Choice Sets and Blame

19:17 Ads Politics and Preferences

23:00 Parenting in a Yes World

27:44 Costco Bulk and Waste

29:25 Longevity Market Solutions

33:30 Scaling Sustainable Marketing

38:31 Hope in Future Marketers

40:11 Closing Thanks and Wrap