In this episode, Joe Waters welcomes New York Times opinion writer Jessica Grose to discuss families in the polycrisis.
Are families caught in a polycrisis within the polycrisis?
Housing, health care, caregiving, paid leave, economic uncertainty are just some of the relentless forces reshaping family life in the U.S. today. In the midst of these overlapping pressures, a deeper question emerges: who do we believe ourselves to be? Are we independent, self-reliant individuals? Or are we fundamentally dependent, interconnected, and relational beings?
How we answer that profoundly impacts how we view our responsibilities, our communities, and the role of public policy in shaping family life.
In this episode of Per Capita, Joe Waters, Capita’s Co-Founder and CEO, speaks with Jessica Grose, opinion writer at The New York Times, about the challenges families face and what government is doing—and could do—to support family flourishing. They also explore broader social trends, including declining workforce participation among women, the limits of policy in influencing birth rates, and the role of recreation and community spaces.