Family Policy, Care, and Well-Being
The Latest Early Learning Matters Edition Is Out on Parental Wellbeing and Care, Early Childhood Matters
The Awakening of the Feminine: Why Women Manage Complexity Better Than Men, Ernesto van Peborgh
Three CHANGE cities—Bogotá, Buenos Aires, and Los Angeles—implemented community-based research efforts that recognize caregivers as experts and partners in shaping city policies.
Family policy is at the heart of an intense debate about the future of any plausible post-neoliberal governance.
The New Divide in American Marriage, The Atlantic
How Part-Time Jobs Became a Trap, The Atlantic
Do Not Abandon the Care Agenda, Democracy Journal
As a result, the very term middle class has become a meaningless catchall for a disparate range of lived financial experiences. No wonder so much policy and rhetoric geared toward this group fails to stick. Who are these policies actually for? And what theoretical problems do they aim to address? Those of the third-generation college-educated social worker, whose parents helped her with a down payment on a house? Or those of the first-gen woman with student loans who holds the same job and lives in a rental apartment? Technically they earn the same wage and both likely see themselves as middle class, but they have extremely different lives because only one is a member of the comfort class.
Six Months’ Paternity Leave Is Ridiculous – What Are Men Actually Going to Be Doing?, The Telegraph
Are Children Better Off When One Parent Has a Job or When Both Do? U.S. Teens Differ in Their Views, Pew Research Center
Whole Child, Whole Day, Whole Year: Assembling a Comprehensive Child Development System for America, Roosevelt Institute
Even in a Nation With Robust Family Policies, Stay-At-Home Parents Struggle, The 74 million
Upstate Elementary School Breaks Ground for Child Care Center, wyff4
Pensions for Housework, Fifthwave
Why Mothers Are Leaving the Workforce, Axios
Homes for Young Families Part 2 | Institute for Family Studies, Institute for Family Studies
Grandparents Are Reaching Their Limit, The Atlantic
One Obvious, Underused Child-Care Solution, The Atlantic
With many parents struggling to afford childcare, an army of grandparents have stepped up. They speak about the joys—and burdens—of caring for their grandkids at a time when they could be taking it easier.
It’s Not Normal to Raise Children Like This, The New York Times
5 In 6 SC Parents Who Want Afterschool Care Can’t Get It, Report Finds, Post and Courier
Demographic change
Liberals suspect they’re reactionaries. Conservatives suspect they’re liberals. Can they talk to you about having kids?
The End of Children, The New Yorker
They Want More Babies. Now They Have Friends in the White House, The New York Times
Will Cheap Housing Lead to More Babies?, Vox
The Women Who Think the World Needs More Babies, The New York Times
Not Just More Babies: These Republicans Want More Parents at Home, The New York Times
Population Decline Will Rob Us of Vital Social Force: Youth, Aeon
How the iPhone Drove Men and Women Apart, The New York Times
World Depopulation: Prospects and Implications, American Enterprise Institute
The Relationship Recession Is Going Global, Financial Times
The World Has Passed “Peak Child”, Our World in Data
Dependency and Depopulation? Confronting The Consequences of a New Demographic Reality, McKinsey & Company
Does The Pace of Economic Growth Affect Fertility?, Institute for Family Studies
Rethinking Fertility Trends in Developed Countries, Max Planck Institute
France and Britain Are in Thrall to Pensioners, The Financial Times
A Bold Idea to Raise the Birthrate: Make Parenting Less Torturous, The New York Times
Which Matters More for the Economy—Babies or Robots?, Vox
Chinese Kindergartens in Crisis as Enrolments Plunge 25% In 4 Years, The Financial Times
Why Progressives Should Care About Falling Birth Rates, The Financial Times
In-Home Elder Care Cost Is Rising More Than Three Times Faster Than Inflation, Axios
Being a Mother in the West Would Be a Dream, I Was Told. But Compared To Uganda, It Was aNightmare | Patience Akumu, The Guardian
Being a Mother in the West Would Be a Dream, I Was Told. But Compared To Uganda, It Was a Nightmare | Patience Akumu, The Guardian
The Common Good
Declining Life Satisfaction aAnd Happiness Among Young Adults in Six English-Speaking Countries, NBER
Mental Health Crisis ‘Means Youth Is No Longer One Of Happiest Times Of Life’, The Guardian
Rural Migration of Young Adults, Kelly Emrick
A Better Future Is Emerging. Here Are Five Examples, Michael Mezz
Wisdom Over Power: Why Contemplation & Wonder Are Essential for the Future of Humanity, Ian McGilchrist, The Great Simplification
Parenting in the Age of Neoliberalism: How Extrinsic Values Have Reshaped Childhood, CC Foundation
What the Comfort Class Doesn’t Get, The Atlantic
When They Go Home After Working All Day, It’s Not to a Home, The New York Times
Us Houses Are Shrinking as Inflation Pushes ‘Mcmansions’ Out of Reach, The Financial Times
I Should Have Seen This Coming, The Atlantic
An Age of Extinction Is Coming. Here’s How to Survive., The New York Times
The scale of our systems, markets and social networks leaves little space for reciprocal forms of care or community-driven support. We are encouraged to address social disconnection with personal improvement, rather than with structural or collective repair. But we are starved of opportunities for action; for the kind of public, relational life that builds shared meaning and transformation. Self-care, when isolated from community or politics, keeps us focused on maintaining ourselves rather than repairing the world around us.
Why Are Young People Everywhere So Unhappy?, The Atlantic
Is Modern Asceticism About Conformity or Quiet Revolution?, Psyche Ideas
A War Too Well Remembered, Financial Times
Acceptance Speech, Amitav Ghosh, Praemium Erasmianum Foundation
The Anti-Social Century, The Atlantic
Social Capital 2025: The Hidden Wealth of Nations, DEMOS
How Are the Kids Recovering From the Pandemic?, Greater Good
Stop Mocking Us Millennials—The 2008 Crash Ruined Our Lives, The Times
It’s tempting, but perhaps misleading, to trace the origins of political change to the changing values of the electorate, rather than the personal ambitions of new and opportunist political leaders.
$4,785. That’s How Much It Costs to Be a Sports Fan Now., The New York Times
Earning More but in Worse Shape: Hardship Overwhelms Many American Families, The Wall Street Journal
How to Live a Good Life in Difficult Times: Yuval Noah Harari, Rory Stewart and Maria Ressa in Conversation, The Guardian
Instead, pundits and policymakers are applying the word ‘loneliness’ to address a real and growing problem, but they are applying the wrong diagnosis. What they might call ‘loneliness’ is actually a different sort of crisis, one of depersonalisation. Depersonalisation is what happens when people feel not exactly lonely, but rather profoundly invisible. What is missing here is what scholars call ‘recognition’, ‘mattering’ or ‘being seen’—the notion that you are seen and heard, even emotionally understood, by the people around you, as opposed to feeling insignificant or invisible to others.
On dignity, belonging, and community
Two of the World’s Leading Thinkers on How the Left Went Astray, The New York Times
Capitalism, Scene on Radio
It Was Just a Rumor on Facebook. Then a Militia Showed Up., The New York Times
Remember the Future?, Dougald Hine
A New Kind of Gentrification Is Spreading Through London—and Emptying Out Schools | Anna Minton, The Guardian
The Internet as the Astral Plane. The Internet as Fairyland, The Default Blog
Our crisis of work and technology is one in which too many people feel that nobody sees them as a fellow human being.
In Good Company: The problem of isolation for parents, The 1a
Teen-Agers in Their Bedrooms, Before the Age of Selfies, The New Yorker
The Colourful Civic Groups That Hold Germany Together, The Economist
(Why) Are Young People Flocking To Religion?, Theos Think Tank
Spider-Man Posters, Wood Fires, Food Rations and Car-Shaped Beds—What Children’s Bedrooms Look Like Around the World, The Guardian
Charlie Kirk’s Killing and America’s Age of “Salad-Bar Extremism”, Derek Thompson
How To Include Kids Without Centering Them, Priya Parker
A Theory of Collective Stupidity in Organisations—and Possible Remedies, Geoff Mulgan
Have We Reached Peak None?, Graphs About Religion
Citizenship, Music and Arts: What Starmer Wants Kids to Learn in Schools, The i Paper
Mental health and well-being
Mental Health: Children Should Be More Resilient, Say Experts, BBC News
Economic Inequality Seen as Major Challenge Around the World, Pew Research Center
Four Mothers, Hachette Book Group
How a Radical Experiment to Bring a Forest Into a Preschool Transformed Children’s Health, The Guardian
AI
AI as a Sense-Making Technology, Flynn Devine
The Wild Chatbot, Dougald Hine
Joscha Wirtz – Building an AI Native Think Tank, Meet the Influectuals
The great paradox of the technopolar age is that, rather than empowering individuals and bolstering democracy as early Internet visionaries once hoped, technology may instead be enabling more effective forms of hypercentralized, unaccountable control. AI and other breakthrough technologies may even render closed political systems more stable than open ones—where transparency, pluralism, checks and balances, and other key democratic features could prove liabilities in an age of exponential change. Whether lodged in governments or corporate actors, concentrated tech power poses risks to democracy and individual freedom. In 2021, I wrote that “Big Tech’s eclipse of the nation-state is not inevitable.” But it seems as if Big Tech’s eclipse of democracy, at least, has already begun.
Behind the Curtain: Top AI Ceo Foresees White-Collar Bloodbath, Axios
Microsoft Reveals 40 Jobs About to Be Destroyed by Ai—Is Your Career on the List?, Windows Central
Canaries in the Coal Mine? Six Facts about the Recent Employment Effects of Artificial Intelligence, Stanford Digital Economy Lab
Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin review—timely visions of a virtual reality, The Guardian
RIGHTS.AI, London School of Economics and Political Science
OpenAI Tool Shows AI Catching Up to Human Work, Axios
US Has Most October Layoffs in Over 20 Years on AI and Cost Cuts, Bloomberg
A New Creative Intelligence, Musings Of A Wandering Mind
Climate
UN Special Envoy Michael R. Bloomberg Announces Effort to Ensure U.S. Honors Paris Agreement Commitments, Bloomberg Philanthropies
How a Scorecard Is Helping One Hospital System Curb Its Climate Impact and Save Money, The Commonwealth Fund
Climate Group Funded by Bill Gates Slashes Staff in Major Retreat, The New York Times
Climate Crisis on Track to Destroy Capitalism, Warns Top Insurer, the Guardian
Our Climate Needs A Mythology, Solitaire Townsend
New Index Ranks Vulnerabilities of 188 Nations to Climate Shocks, The Rockefeller Foundation
‘Something Is Working’: UN Climate Chief Optimistic About Green Transition, The Guardian
Bill Gates Says Climate Change ‘Will Not Lead to Humanity’s Demise’, The New York Times
Bill Gates Calls for Climate Fight to Shift Focus from Curbing Emissions to Reducing Human Suffering, AP News
Child-friendly cities
The Importance of Monitoring Neighbourhood Conditions for Children’s Well-Being and Development, OECD
Politics and Government
The Rise of the Union Right, The Atlantic
Thoughts for Inauguration Day, eatingpolicy.com
Ro Khanna: The Alternative to Trump Cannot Be a Defense of Institutions as They Are, The New York Times
We Must Fund Oppositions Properly to Save Democracy, Financial Times
How COVID Pushed a Generation of Young People to the Right, The Atlantic
We Can Achieve Great Things, The New York Times
Financial Worries and What They Mean for Politics, Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF)
Trump’s Soft Power Grab, New Statesman
Social Security Is Not a Ponzi Scheme, The Boston Review
What we need is policymaking as power-building. It is related to deliverism—but goes way beyond it.
Inside the Democrats’ Reboot, Time
Is Civil War Coming to Europe?, The New York Times
How Paris Handed Budgeting to Its Citizens, The Conduit
The Circle Cannot Be Squared (and That’s OK), Rowan Emslie
What To Do Now: How Philanthropy Can Help Win the Fight for America’s Future, Inside Philanthropy
A Road Map for Undoing the Damage of the Big, Awful Bill, The New York Times
How the Electoral College Could Tilt Further From Democrats, The New York Times
New Yorkers Support Free Buses, but They Don’t Think It Should Happen, The New York Times
She Held Her Baby for an Hour. Then the State Took Her Away., The New York Times
As Partisans Battle Over History, Former Presidents Try Another Tack, The New York Times
Democrats Are in Crisis. Eat-the-Rich Populism Is the Only Answer., The New York Times
Steve Teles: Why the Realignment Has Made Think Tanks More Relevant Than Ever, The Realignment
The Viral Mandate of Heaven, Mary Harrington
How to Save the American Experiment, The New York Times
How Children Are Treated in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Brookings
Hollowed Out: Can the Centre Hold?, Geoff Mulgan
The Millions of Poor Americans at the Mercy of the Shutdown, The New York Times
Resources and Data
Global Report: Trust and the Crisis of Grievance, Edelman Trust Barometer
Data for the Cities of Tomorrow, Metro Futures
The key shift to make here is to move from funding for “demonstrable” impact (because this—paradoxically makes real impact harder to achieve) to funding for collaborative learning and adaptation. The evidence shows, this is how real impact is made.
A Manifesto for the Simple Scribe—My 25 Commandments for Journalists, Tim Radford
Exploring the Inconvenience of Systems Thinking, Two Inconvenient Women
Why Traditional Leadership Training Falls Short and What To Do Instead?, Ajoy Datta
Practice Toolkits, Social Connection
The Fiscal Space, TAI Collaborative
From Data to Action: Enhancing Children’s Lives Through Better Insights, OECD
The Nice Guys of Philanthropy: A Profile in Soft Authoritarianism, Jason Lewis
A Manifesto for the Simple Scribe—My 25 Commandments for Journalists, Tim Radford
Exploring the Inconvenience of Systems Thinking, Two Inconvenient Women
Why Traditional Leadership Training Falls Short and What To Do Instead?, Ajoy Datta
Practice Toolkits, Social Connection
The Fiscal Space, TAI Collaborative
From Data to Action: Enhancing Children’s Lives Through Better Insights, OECD
The Nice Guys of Philanthropy: A Profile in Soft Authoritarianism, Jason Lewis
Narrative Change Hub, The Commons
Mapping the Mystery of Humanity, Global Flourishing Study
Real Insights: Trust, Freedom, and the Future—A Conversation with Lenore Skenazy, R Street Institute
Sensemaking in Turbulent Times – Activism Influence and Change, LSE
My New Deadline: 20 Years to Give Away Virtually All My Wealth, Gates Foundation
Trevor Noah in Conversation with Don Gips, #SkollWF 2025
DOGE Done Better: The Case for Progressive Efficiency and a Streamlined State, Demos
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Blackfoot (Siksika) Nation Beliefs, Rethinking Learning by Barbara Bray
Our Digital News Report 2025 is out!, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
2025 KIDS COUNT Data Book, The Annie E. Casey Foundation
The Myths of Philanthropy: What If We Change the Narratives That Govern the Philanthropic Sector?, The Center for Effective Philanthropy
Resource for Co-Designing Healthier Climate Policies, University of Melbourne
How to Get Sh*t Done in Washington DC, Todd Moss
Commonwealth Fund State Scorecard on Climate, Health, and Health Care, The Commonwealth Fund
Rogue Union: Courses & Community for Changemakers
Social Pressure Index: Private Opinion in America, Populace
Everything I Needed to Know About Online Content I Learned From Making Mixtapes, Joe Miller
Where Knowledge Goes to Die, David Gurteen
Narrative
Go Deep or No Home? The Essential Power of Deep Narrative, Inter-Narratives
Once Upon a Crisis, Alex Evans
Movement building requires a culture of listening—not mastery of the right language.
New Study Finds How the Gender Gap is Framed Affects Perceptions of It, Science Daily
How Do We Develop Better Cultural Values?, Ruth Taylor
The Future Needs Better Storytellers: Designing with Imagination in Mind, Elena Vasileva
Ideas That Change The World, First Scattering
Spelling It Out, Dougald Hine
Imagine 2200 Climate Fiction Contest: The 2025 Collection, Grist
Collapse for the 99% , Luke Kemp, Planet Critical
Why Inclusive Language Matters for Poverty Research, Lizzie Shannon-Little
Former Observer Big-Hitters Launch New Title With Redundancy Payouts, Press Gazette
Anyone driving change hits problems. Our instinct is to solve them, but our attempts often reveal hard tradeoffs and unshakable tensions.
Think Beyond
Hospicing Modernity by Vanessa Machado de Oliveira (also forthcoming Outgrowing Modernity)
Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World by Tyson Yunkaporta
Lost Prophets – Episode Ivan Illich (ft. David Cayley)
Kate Raworth on Economics for Rebels
Care Top 5: Adrienne Maree Brown
Joanna Macy on the Shambala Warrior Prophecy
You Matter More Than You Think: Quantum Social Change for a Thriving World – Karen O’Brien
And what we selected for our newsletters
February 2025
To Take on the Right, Will Labour Go Blue? (The Times)- from Ian Marcus Corbin, Senior Fellow
Believe by Ross Douthat (Zondervan)- from Ivana Greco, Senior Fellow
Ro Khanna: Democrats Have a Future. Here It Is. (The New York Times)- from Elise Anderson, Senior Associate, Family Policy Lab
Generative AI, the American Worker, and the Future of Work (Brookings)- from Joe Waters, Co-Founder + CEO
Democrats Are Losing the War for Attention. Badly. (The New York Times)- from Elliot Haspel, Senior Fellow
The Wild Chatbot (Writing Home)- from Caroline Cassidy, Chief Strategy Officer
April 2025
From Statecraft To Soulcraft (NOEMA, by the Berggruen Institute)- from Ian Marcus Corbin, Senior Fellow
America’s Missing Men (Commonplace)- from Ivana Greco, Senior Fellow
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (Europa Editions)– from Amy Vaccari Mandrier, Director, Operations
Putting (Some Kind of) Families First (the Hedgehog Review)- from Elliot Haspel, Senior Fellow
Wisdom Over Power: Why Contemplation & Wonder Are Essential for the Future of Humanity (The Great Simplification)- from Caroline Cassidy, Chief Strategy Officer
What We Knew Without Knowing (The New Yorker) – from Erika Pérez-León, Senior Associate, Communications
May 2025
The Happiest Country in the World Isn’t What You Think (New York Times)- from Ian Marcus Corbin, Senior Fellow
Newborn Needs: The Case for an American Baby Bonus (Niskanen Center)- from Ivana Greco, Senior Fellow
The Inheritors by Eve Fairbanks (Simon & Schuster)- from Amy Vaccari Mandrier, Director, Operations
White House Assesses Ways to Persuade Women to Have More Children (New York Times)- from Elise Anderson, Senior Associate, Family Policy Lab
Address of the Holy Father to the Second World Meeting of Popular Movements, Expo Feria Exhibition Centre, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia (The Vatican)- from Joe Waters, Co-Founder + CEO
The Post-Neoliberal Imperative (Foreign Affairs)- from Elliot Haspel, Senior Fellow
How to Die (and Live) Well with Ivor Williams (Larger Us podcast)– from Caroline Cassidy, Chief Strategy Officer
Las Chicas Con Gato y sin Hijos vs. las Tasas de Natalidad (La Nación)- from Erika Pérez-León, Senior Associate, Communications
June 2025
The Dignity of Dependence by Leah Libresco (Notre Dame Press)- from Ivana Greco, Senior Fellow
Ways of Curation by Hans Ulrich Obrist (MacMillan Publishers)- from Amy Vaccari Mandrier, Director, Operations
There’s a Link Between Therapy Culture and Childlessness (New York Times)- from Elise Anderson, Senior Associate, Family Policy Lab
Simone Weil’s Statement of Human Obligation (1943) (Clarion)- from Joe Waters, Co-Founder + CEO
What To Do Now: How Philanthropy Can Help Win the Fight for America’s Future (Inside Philanthropy)- from Elliot Haspel, Senior Fellow
Ruth Taylor—How Do We Develop Better Cultural Values? (The Examined Life)- from Caroline Cassidy, Chief Strategy Officer
A Bold Idea to Raise the Birthrate: Make Parenting Less Torturous (New York Times)- from Juana Penalosa, Summer 2025 Intern
July 2025
As Women Have Far Fewer Babies, the U.S. and the World Face Unprecedented Challenges (NPR)- from Elise Anderson, Senior Associate, Family Policy Lab
Four Mothers: An Intimate Journey through the First Year of Parenthood in Four Countries by Abigail Leonard (Hachette Book Group)- from Elliot Haspel, Senior Fellow
The Internet as the Astral Plane. The Internet as Fairyland (Default.Blog)- from Caroline Cassidy, Chief Strategy Officer
Is a “Viking” Childhood a Happier Childhood (with Helen Russell)? (The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos)- from Juana Penalosa, Summer 2025 Intern
Anéantir (Annihilation) by Michel Houellebecq (Éditions Flammarion)- from Joe Waters, Co-Founder + CEO
August 2025
In Pursuit: Marriage, Motherhood, and Women’s Well-Being (Institute for Family Studies)- from Ivana Greco, Senior Fellow
Canada is Killing Itself (The Atlantic)- from Jay Chaudhary, Visiting Fellow
The Trump-Era Gender Wars, Brought to You By Neoliberalism, an interview with Stephanie Coontz (Jacobin)- from Elissa Strauss, Writer-in-Residence
Dr. Frank: The Life and Times of Frank Porter Graham (UNC Center for Public Television)- from Joe Waters, Co-Founder + CEO
No Country for Young Families (The Argument)- from Elliot Haspel, Senior Fellow
How Should a Modern-Day Father Be? (New York Times)– from Erika Perez-Leon, Senior Associate, Communications
Even in a Nation With Robust Family Policies, Stay-at-Home Parents Struggle (The74)- from Elise Anderson, Senior Associate, Family Policy Lab
September 2025
Do Men Hold the Key to Increasing Births? (Natal Gazing)- from Elissa Strauss, Writer-in-Residence
The Intimacy Illusion (Museguided)- from Caroline Cassidy, Chief Strategy Officer
A Dry White Season (André Brink)- from Joe Waters, Co-Founder + CEO
Abundance Is a Vehicle For Community (Persuasion)- from Elliot Haspel, Senior Fellow
October 2025
The Kindness of Machines and the Cruelty of Being Partial Humans (Indy Johar)- from Caroline Cassidy, Chief Strategy Officer
Spring Is Rebellious: The Art & Life of Albie Sachs (Zeitz MoCAA)- from Erika Pérez-León, Senior Associate, Communications
Time as a Public Policy (The Family Frontier)- from Elissa Strauss, Writer-In-Residence
The Unfinished Revolution (The Atlantic)- from Joe Waters, Co-Founder and CEO
When Communities Lead, Appropriate Tech and Change Follow (Reboot Democracy Blog)- from Elana Banin, Visiting Fellow
The unseen: Our Crisis of Work and Technology is One in Which Too Many People Feel That Nobody Sees Them as a Fellow Human Being (Aeon)- from Elliot Haspel, Senior Fellow