Them Before Us Podcast

Your LED bulbs, your underwear, and your toast might all be quietly working against your fertility. Harvard-trained epidemiologist Katy Talento is back on our podcast to explain why, and what you can actually do about it.

At Them Before Us, we spend a lot of time on what happens downstream: a culture that tells women to delay, then an industry that sells their fertility back to them with another woman's eggs, another woman's womb, and a lab. In this episode, Katy and Jenn go upstream. We cover what modern life is doing to our bodies, why the "career first, babies later" script fails women, and how the choices you make at 19 shape the family your grandkids will grow up in. Children aren't a product to buy back after the fertile years are gone. This one will change how you think about light, college, and your grocery cart.

About Katy: Katy Talento is a Harvard-trained epidemiologist, naturopathic doctor, and former Trump White House health policy advisor and Special Assistant to the President. She spent two decades inside the DC healthcare machine, then left to help everyday people and employers outsmart it.

Chapters:

0:00 Katy Talento returns

0:57 Scurvy season and the winter slump

3:14 Blue light versus red light

5:08 How light affects sleep and fertility

6:25 Why you should ditch your LED bulbs

7:28 How culture flipped women's fertility upside down

10:37 Egg freezing and the ticking clock

11:47 Why you shouldn't wait once you find the one

12:37 Where you settle shapes future generations

14:00 Rethinking the value of college

20:04 Why the best men are going into the trades

21:50 What government can do about the birth rate

22:48 Microplastics and fertility-killing chemicals

24:31 The administration's step backward on glyphosate

27:05 Why MAHA messaging still matters

29:32 Industry pressure inside the White House

32:31 Where to find Katy

Find Katy:

Substack: https://katytalento.com

Naturopathic practice: https://allbetter.life

Employer health plans: https://allbetter.health

Instagram, X, LinkedIn: @katytalento

Facebook: https://facebook.com/katytalento.nd

Mentioned in this episode:

Katy's first appearance, episode 99: https://youtu.be/41qEL9H-CFU?si=AkUAP-7eEh9rtC8Y

Katy's guest post for Them Before Us, "Infertile":

Them Before Us:

Website: thembeforeus.com

Substack: thembeforeus.substack.com

#fertility #infertility #MAHA

In 1965, about 24% of Black children were born to unmarried parents, and today that number sits around 70%. Delano Squires [ @squire429⁩ ] is the author of The Vanishing Black Family and director of the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Human Flourishing at the Heritage Foundation.

In his book, he explains how, through slavery and the aftermath, Black Americans demonstrated a great dedication to preserving their marriages and families, but welfare pushed fathers out, and feminism told mothers they didn’t need them. He also lays out a child-first plan to rebuild marriage through the church, the schoolhouse, the state house, and the culture.

Get your copy of "The Vanishing Black Family: How Welfare and Feminism Made Marriage Optional and Children Vulnerable here: https://amzn.to/3VCXtkU

Follow the author on X: @DelanoSquires

Dr. Josh Herring joins Jenn on the Them Before Us podcast to talk about his new book, Sons of Adam, Daughters of Eve: C.S. Lewis' Images of Gender.

Simone de Beauvoir said woman is made, not born. Judith Butler picked that up and ran it all the way to "gender is just a script — write your own." C.S. Lewis saw this coming decades before either of them published a word, and he said the opposite: gender isn't a costume to escape or a stereotype to perform, it's a gift to receive — and it's more fundamental than sex itself. Josh walks Jenn through what Lewis actually believed about masculinity and femininity across Narnia, his letters, and his nonfiction, and why it matters for anyone raising kids, teaching kids, or just tired of a culture that can't define what a woman is.

Get the book: https://amzn.to/45pkQjF
Learn more about Josh's work at the Logres Institute for Classical Liberal Studies: https://www.logresinstitute.org/

About Josh Herring, Ph.D.
Dr. Josh Herring spent 13 years working for Thales Academy as a classical instructor, administrator, and college professor. He is the author of Sons of Adam, Daughters of Eve: C.S. Lewis's Images of Gender. He loves helping students of all ages and stages discover their intellectual heritage; he is the founder of the Logres Institute for Classical Liberal Studies, a member of both the Ciceronian Society and the Academy of Philosophy and Letters, and a follower of Jesus. He and his wife Jennifer live in the Raleigh, NC area.

Jenn sits down with Zac Kadau and Alissa Hollander from Life International, a global ministry equipping Christian leaders in over 170 countries, to talk about what defending human dignity actually looks like on the ground.

They get into surrogacy recruitment overseas, polygamy, honor and shame cultures, and the story of a pastor whose public repentance changed 36 churches.

Find Life International at lifeinternational.com.

Get more resources to defend the rights of children:

Web: thembeforeus.com

Substack: thembeforeus.substack.com

Instagram: @them_before_us

X: @thembeforeus

This episode is for the teachers, the homeschool parents, and anyone with a kid in a classroom of any kind. Billy Hutchinson, director of Colson Educators at the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, joins the show to break down a simple but powerful idea: nothing about education is neutral.

Every teacher, every textbook, and every campus culture is shaped by a worldview, whether anyone says so out loud or not.

Billy walks through the three places where worldview actually gets formed in a kid's education: the teacher, the curriculum, and the campus culture. He explains why a "Christian school" can still function just like a secular one, why a secular curriculum isn't automatically the enemy, and what parents should actually look for at graduation season if they want to know what a school truly values.

We also get into phones, social media, and AI, and why Christian parents need to think beyond "how do I use this tool better" to the bigger question underneath: what is this doing to my kid's understanding of what it means to be human?

If you're a teacher, a homeschool parent, or just someone raising kids in this cultural moment, this conversation will change how you look at every school day.

Learn more and access free resources for educators at colsoneducators.org/tbu.

Join the TBU team for our great big Father's Day episode! We've got interviews with Robin Porter from LoveLife, Roland Warren, the CEO of CareNet, a "Here for the Comments" segment on the best dads in media, and all our staff join together to share about their own mothers and fathers and the positive impact they made on each, growing up.

Pastor Robin Porter has served in church ministry for over twenty years in various roles, including as lead pastor of Eastside Bible Fellowship in Bellevue, WA. He was introduced to the ministry of LOVE LIFE two years ago and was deeply impacted by the ministry's church and gospel focus to serve the most vulnerable. God continues to grow Robin's boldness to stand for life even as He equips Robin to mobilize and unite the church around the issue of life.  See more: https://lovelife.org/

Roland C. Warren is an accomplished author and serves as president and CEO of Care net. His first two books, Bad Dads of the Bible: 8 Mistakes Every Good Dad Can Avoid (Zondervan) and Raising Sons of Promise: A Guide for Single Mothers of Boys (InterVarsity Press), have helped fathers and mothers apply biblical principles to their parenting journeys. His latest book, The Alternative to Abortion: Why We Must Be Pro Abundant Life, guides Christians on a new way forward for the pro-life movement in the aftermath of the overturning of Roe v. Wade. 

See more: https://care-net.org/roland-warren/

We just graded all 50 states on how well — or how badly — their laws protect children when it comes to parentage, surrogacy, donor conception, and marriage. Two-thirds of states got a C or below. One state got an A. In this episode, you'll meet the man whose state earned it — and the team that built the tool every family advocate in America needs right now.

Go explore the Children's Rights Scorecard and find your state's grade at thembeforeus.comIN THIS EPISODENate Grasz — Executive Director of Nebraska Family Alliance, the largest Christian public policy organization in Nebraska. Nate led the passage of the First Freedom Act, one of the strongest religious freedom laws in the country, and has spent years successfully fighting to keep the words mother, father, husband, and wife in Nebraska's statutes — helping earn Nebraska the only A on the Children's Rights Scorecard.Learn more about Nebraska Family Alliance at nebraskafamilyalliance.org

We also hear from Them Before Us founder Katy Faust and Engagement Director Patience Sunne on how the scorecard was built, what they found, and how you can use it to protect children in your state.

It's a special Them Before Us staff takeover as the gang gets together, in Brady Bunch style boxes, to share favorite mom and dad moments. Then Jenn and Sam go through some of the amazing moms in the movies as we round out the end of our Greater Than week of celebrating moms.

What's a favorite memory you have of your mom and dad?

And if you think every child deserves the mom and dad they came from, join us at greaterthancampaign.com.

If you've caught Micah Kunkle debating "Progressive" ideas on Jubilee or other platforms, you already know he's the real deal.

Micah joins the TBU podcast to talk debate strategy, why so many young men are drawn to "strong male" influencers pushing harmful ideas, and how we can engage Gen Z in the fight for children's rights.

He's one of those rare voices who's both a rigorous thinker and genuinely kind in disagreement, there's a lot to learn just from watching him.

📺 Find Micah:

Youtube  ⁨@micahkunkle⁩ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/micahkunkle/

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@micahkunkle

And more about Maven: https://maventruth.com/

What actually holds a nation together when everything feels like it’s coming apart?This week, Jenn sits down with Tim Goeglein to unpack the convictions behind his new book, What Really Matters: Restoring a Legacy of Faith, Freedom, and FamilyDrawing from history, culture, and personal experience, Goeglein makes a clear case: the future of freedom rises or falls on the strength of faith, family, and character.He challenges the quiet erosion of the American family, pointing out that when marriage weakens, everything downstream feels it. Strong families don’t just benefit children. They stabilize communities, shape responsible men, and preserve the conditions where liberty can survive.You’ll hear why restoring fatherhood is central to rebuilding culture, how faith once anchored public life in ways we’ve largely forgotten, and what it takes to recover a legacy worth handing down.If you’re looking for clarity in a noisy moment and a vision that looks beyond headlines to long-term cultural health, this conversation delivers.Get your copy here: https://amzn.to/4moiGsa---------------------------------------------------------Bio: Tim Goeglein is Vice President of External and Government Relations for Focus on the Family. Formerly, he served as a special assistant to President George W. Bush and as a deputy director of the White House Office of Public Liaison. He was the President’s principal outreach contact for conservative and faith-based groups. Tim’s extensive resumé includes serving as a senior fellow at The Heritage Foundation and as a communications director for U.S. Senator Dan Coats of Indiana and Gary Bauer at the Campaign for Working Families. Tim has authored a memoir, The Man in the Middle: Faith and Politics in the George W. Bush Era, and his latest book is titled American Restoration. He and his wife, Jenny, have two sons.