S2E15 Declining Birth Rates x Ruining the Workplace x Béyoncé x Push Presents with Dr. Cyntia Brown

Hi. It’s Micah from Modern Hysteria, your podcast and newsletter revealing the taboos of women’s brains and bodies (listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts).This week, we’re talking about the real reasons the US birth rate is in decline.THE TABOOWhy people aren’t having kids… Not because they don’t want them, but because society makes parenthood feel economically, emotionally, and structurally impossible.LINKS + RESOURCES * Municipal grocery stores* Beyonce article* Good Housekeeping push presents* Mommit push presents* The Chloe Balloon Patchwork Leather and Suede Tote Bag 👜* The Gucci Diana bag 👜THE GUEST EXPERTCyntia Onuoha Brown is a doctor of pharmacy and clinical pharmacologist now working in the women’s health sector.📧 [email protected] TAKEAWAYSThe declining birth rate isn’t a referendum on women’s choices or values.It’s a mirror reflecting the systems we live inside—systems that make parenthood financially precarious, emotionally taxing, and logistically unsupported.People still want families.What they need are the conditions to build them: affordable housing, job stability, paid leave, accessible reproductive healthcare, and a culture that doesn’t treat caregiving as a women-only burden.TIME STAMPS* 02:15 | Fertility rate x birth rate* 5:01 | How we treat pregnant people and mothers* 9:59 | Invisible labor* 11:25 | Deadbeat moms* 13:40 | Cost of living x job insecurity* 14:41 | Male fertility* 20:08 | Aside: Béyoncé* 22:08 | Selfish women* 23:48 | Aside: Push presents* 29:40 | Aside: Baby bonuses* 32:03 | Barriers to becoming parents* 33:07 | Aside: Mamdani groceries* 35:13 | What do we want from policymakers?* 40:52 | What are you crazy about right now?What do you think?Should the government give people push presents?Is the decline in birth rate a crisis?Should women be more selfish?Tell me in the comments (I read every single one!) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit micahlarsen.substack.com