# Episode 127: Merle Bombardieri - Kids: How to Make Life's Most Important Choice

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/keep-talking-1331245/episode-127-merle-bombardieri-kids-how-to-make-life-s-most-important-choice
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/keep-talking-1331245/episode-127-merle-bombardieri-kids-how-to-make-life-s-most-important-choice.md
Podcast: [Keep Talking](https://stenobird.com/podcast/keep-talking-1331245)
Published: 2024-11-01T10:00:13+00:00
Episode link: https://rss.com/podcasts/humans/1728287
Audio file: https://content.rss.com/episodes/14586/1728287/humans/2024_10_30_15_27_38_f7746d6c-8dc5-4678-b912-69483b4aa634.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/keep-talking-1331245/episodes/episode-127-merle-bombardieri-kids-how-to-make-life-s-most-important-choice
Duration seconds: 3781

## Resource

Merle Bombardieri is a clinical social worker, a psychotherapist and the author of " The Baby Decision: How to Make The Most Important Choice of Your Life ." ------------ Book Dan to do an interview or a meeting ------------ Keep Talking Substack Spotify Apple Podcasts Social media and all episodes ------------ Support via Venmo Support on Substack Support on Patreon ------------ (00:00) Intro (01:00) How Merle got involved in helping people decide about kids (07:21) How Merle decided whether to have kids (09:44) Maintaining neutrality when going through exercises (13:34) Being childfree should be the default (17:57) Role models for the childfree (21:00) When is not having kids a growth decision? (23:05) Is Merle disappointed that one of her kids is childfree? (26:30) Exercises for straight couples to decide whether to have kids (36:02) Long-term ambivalence should result in being childfree (38:50) How to better understand what it's like to have kids (40:48) What do the childfree not understand about parenthood? (42:30) "As a child-free person, you have a right to be ordinary.” (44:30) Suggestions for someone who wants to be childfree and has no support (49:05) Who should become parents? (56:49) Are we getting better at having this conversation? (58:34) The importance of growth for the child-free

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/keep-talking-1331245/episodes/episode-127-merle-bombardieri-kids-how-to-make-life-s-most-important-choice/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/keep-talking-1331245/episode-127-merle-bombardieri-kids-how-to-make-life-s-most-important-choice.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.