# Episode 59: Catherine Pakaluk, Ph.D - A Life Marathon: On having a large family in a consumerist culture amidst declining marriage and birth rates

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-moral-imagination-1176352/episode-59-catherine-pakaluk-ph-d-a-life-marathon-on-having-a-large-family-in-a-consumerist-culture-amidst-declining-marriage-and-birth-rates
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-moral-imagination-1176352/episode-59-catherine-pakaluk-ph-d-a-life-marathon-on-having-a-large-family-in-a-consumerist-culture-amidst-declining-marriage-and-birth-rates.md
Podcast: [The Moral Imagination](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-moral-imagination-1176352)
Published: 2024-07-25T14:04:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.themoralimagination.com/p/episode-59-catherine-pakaluk-phd
Audio file: https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/143954813/6af3e9f189a97c256d8dafec1e110d2f.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-moral-imagination-1176352/episodes/episode-59-catherine-pakaluk-ph-d-a-life-marathon-on-having-a-large-family-in-a-consumerist-culture-amidst-declining-marriage-and-birth-rates
Duration seconds: 8736

## Resource

In this episode of the Moral Imagination Podcast I speak with Catherine Pakaluk about her book Hannah’s Children: The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth Over the last 200 years, we have seen a decline in birth rates in the United States and abroad, especially in Western countries. Most European countries are no longer at replacement rates and face serious population decline. Reuters reported that Japan’s population will decline by a staggering 30% in the next fifty years. In the United States, in the year 1800, the typical woman would have about 7 or 8 children. By 1900 that number was cut in half to 4. By 2000 the number cut in half again to about 2 children, which is just about replacement rate. The Wall Street Journal recently reported on the the record-low birthrate in the US, and how increasing numbers of people plan to have no children. In the midst of declining marriages, childlessness, and low birthrates, Pakaluk studied the increasing minority of women in the Western world who have chosen to have five or more children — the top 5% of childbearing. Her book is a mix of ethnography, sociology, and economics, and includes a critique of the dominant model of social and economic research. One thing that stands out with many of the women she interviews is how at some point a shift took place in their attitude — from seeing children as a choice, like a consumer good among other choices, to a different attitude of receptivity and openness to having another child, and then another. She talks about the many forces that promote small families — the cost of children, overpopulation propaganda, education, feminism, environmentalism, consumerism and more. But Pakaluk emphasizes that encouraging women to have more children cannot be addressed simply by implementing pro-f…

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-moral-imagination-1176352/episodes/episode-59-catherine-pakaluk-ph-d-a-life-marathon-on-having-a-large-family-in-a-consumerist-culture-amidst-declining-marriage-and-birth-rates/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-moral-imagination-1176352/episode-59-catherine-pakaluk-ph-d-a-life-marathon-on-having-a-large-family-in-a-consumerist-culture-amidst-declining-marriage-and-birth-rates.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.