# Melissa S. Kearney: "The Two-Parent Privilege" Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/book-club-with-michael-smerconish-4372437/melissa-s-kearney-the-two-parent-privilege Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/book-club-with-michael-smerconish-4372437/melissa-s-kearney-the-two-parent-privilege.md Podcast: [Book Club with Michael Smerconish](https://stenobird.com/podcast/book-club-with-michael-smerconish-4372437) Published: 2026-04-15T07:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://www.siriusxm.com Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/sxm.simplecastaudio.com/e3dd7ada-28ed-4fb2-9a98-2aa2a4696c24/episodes/c8dc55e4-0bff-45d2-a792-8634269c66da/audio/128/default.mp3?aid=rss_feed&awCollectionId=e3dd7ada-28ed-4fb2-9a98-2aa2a4696c24&awEpisodeId=c8dc55e4-0bff-45d2-a792-8634269c66da&feed=Xjj1yH0V Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/book-club-with-michael-smerconish-4372437/episodes/melissa-s-kearney-the-two-parent-privilege Duration seconds: 1274 ## Resource As U.S. birth rates hit record lows, Michael talks with economist Dr. Melissa Kearney, author of "The Two-Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind" about the consequences. From marriage trends to economic inequality, they break down what’s driving the decline—and why it matters for the future of families, the workforce, and the social safety net. Original air date 13 April 2026. The book was published on 18 September 2023. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/book-club-with-michael-smerconish-4372437/episodes/melissa-s-kearney-the-two-parent-privilege/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/book-club-with-michael-smerconish-4372437/melissa-s-kearney-the-two-parent-privilege.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.