Based Camp - Making Teen Pregnancy Great Again： Why Teen Pregnancy is Necessary to Save America

00:00:00.000 Hello, Malcolm. I'm so excited to be speaking with you today because today we are trying to

00:00:05.860 make teen pregnancy great again. My name is Victoria and I'm 15 years old and I don't care

00:00:12.220 what my mama says, I'm gonna have a baby. I will do whatever it takes to take care of my baby. If

00:00:17.020 it has to come out of prostitute in my body, then so be it. It is a truth universally acknowledged 0.96

00:00:22.300 that demographic collapse is in part a product of a drop in teen pregnancy, which most people

00:00:27.920 hail is a big, good development. So I need to, I need to make a few notes here for people who don't

00:00:33.740 know. In the United States, if you divide women out by age ranges, and you don't know, you have to go

00:00:39.980 through a major fertility crash right now. Every age range of women is having the same or higher

00:00:47.720 fertility rate than they have historically, except for women under 24. Yeah. From 1990 to 2023, teen

00:00:53.800 pregnancy dropped 78% in the USA. So the teen birth rate in 2023 was 13.1 per 1000 teens.

00:01:03.180 And this isn't just in the US, Latin American demographers have said the majority of the crash

00:01:07.040 and fertility rate in Latin America is coming from women. I think it was under 21. Yeah. And it's, 0.97

00:01:12.020 and everywhere it's going down and even still in the US, like just from 2007 to 2023. So this is,

00:01:17.280 you know, in all of our recent memory, we're seeing about six to 8% year annual declines per year

00:01:23.420 for teens. So, I mean, you would have thought that maybe in the nineties, this would have already

00:01:27.620 completely crashed. The crash is continuing. It is, it is absolutely still happening. So teen pregnancy 1.00

00:01:33.800 is out and most celebrate this as, as a huge win, but well, what if it's not? So, you know,

00:01:41.280 I think a lot of this, it might just be a product of our extended infantilization of youth, which

00:01:47.660 by the way, is not working well for youth today. In 2023, 20 to 22% of high school students overall

00:01:53.920 seriously considered prematurely terminating their existence with about 9.5% reported

00:02:01.400 actually attempting said termination. On any given year. And so what we're going to be arguing here

00:02:07.220 throughout this piece is, is teen pregnancy isn't actually that bad. And we need to go back to a

00:02:12.400 society which enables and supports teen pregnancy. Which in turn accelerates adulthood. And, you know, 0.79

00:02:17.800 maybe getting out of youth these days is kind of a get, get the hell out of Dodge situation.

00:02:22.740 You know, like people, Oh, this robs you of your child. Look at childhood right now. Right. And keep

00:02:28.000 in mind also like female students specifically report much higher rates of, of all this misery. Like, 1.00

00:02:34.340 you know, this is this, you know, and women are the ones who are, you know, going through the process 1.00

00:02:38.180 of pregnancy. So also we, we should point out that delayed pregnancy leads to more health risks for

00:02:43.160 both mothers and babies. But here's the thing. This is also very timely and, and, and newsly in terms

00:02:48.240 of people who are looking at pronatalist initiatives, because in Russia, for example, cash payments are being

00:02:53.100 issued to pregnant women actively enrolled as students who reach a certain age of gestation and all

00:02:58.620 of these news outlets. I get, I get all the pronatalist news alerts and like half of them for like the past

00:03:02.980 month have been Putin gives out cash bonuses to pregnant school girls. Like, you know, there's, he's, you

00:03:10.100 know, it's a whole thing, but let's explore how teen pregnancy got demonized in the first place. And

00:03:16.100 this was an active campaign to make you think that you are a low life trash. If you get pregnant while 1.00

00:03:22.940 you're a teen, that you're ruining your kid's life, that you're ruining your life. And I know here.

00:03:27.580 Well, and that is trashy. That's the biggest thing, Malcolm. No one really cares about how

00:03:32.140 ruined or not ruined your life is. They care about how aspirational or trashy something is.

00:03:36.620 Let's be honest.

00:03:37.280 No, it's true. But, but I will note here, teen pregnancy works when it is full expectation that

00:03:42.960 the parents are going to help raise the kids, i.e. your parents are going to help raise your kids.

00:03:48.760 And my kids will be raised fully with that knowledge. If they get pregnant when they're teenagers,

00:03:52.520 we will help with as much of the work that we can in terms of child rearing to make it easy for them

00:03:58.800 to transition into that phase. I'm super excited to be a grandmother.

00:04:02.140 Oh yeah. Yeah. No, we'll be pushing them. Like, especially if you can no longer have kids at

00:04:06.040 that age when our first kid. Yeah. Cause I realized if, if we have the number of kids we want to have,

00:04:09.880 I'm going to be pregnant at age 50. I'm like, I don't know. Like just in terms of the,

00:04:13.660 the likelihood of me making it to that, I want to, but you know, we have to be realistic. So

00:04:18.860 increasingly like grandchildren, I have a spreadsheet that like tells me what, what age our kids will be

00:04:26.320 at different years. And I'm like, well, let's see, probably by this year, I can start reasonably

00:04:31.260 pushing for grandchildren. I have to figure out marriage first. My dad had me when he was 42.

00:04:36.280 So we'll be at kid number, what is it? Six or seven when I'm that age.

00:04:41.220 Hold on. I have an old spreadsheet. Because you're pregnant with number five now. Yeah. So where,

00:04:45.660 where am I going to be? Let's see. So we will have what child number, what?

00:04:51.660 When I'm 42. Oh, when you're 42, that's 2031 is when I would have our eighth child. If we keep

00:04:58.940 to our schedule. So, and this is assuming. And that's when I'd be completing the full round of

00:05:03.400 kids that I intended to have. Eight. No, you wanted seven. Seven was your original, like. Yeah.

00:05:08.420 And that would be when you're 42. Oh yeah. So, oh gosh. Yeah. When we, when we would be doing,

00:05:15.720 yeah. When he would be 42 and we would have our seventh child and your dad was only,

00:05:22.180 although your dad had a daughter from a previous marriage. So there was that.

00:05:25.960 Yeah. And then he had one more kid after me.

00:05:28.140 Yeah. Yeah. No, I'm, yeah. People are getting started later. And you know, again, it's super feasible,

00:05:32.600 but anyway, by the way, just want to say thanks to, to Megan for suggesting this episode. It's a

00:05:37.680 really good topic. Cause she, she. Megan. Point it out. Megan from Patreon, our friend, Megan, also

00:05:44.540 friend first, Patreon second. I mean, you, you could say who she is. She's, she's got Alexander's

00:05:50.260 wife. She's, but on her own, like. Yeah. On her own. She's really cool, but she doesn't have a big 0.95

00:05:54.840 public. Yeah. Like he, I can take relief. I mean, I love Scott Alexander. I could be wrong,

00:05:58.940 but I'm, I'm team Megan here. Sorry. Yeah. Sorry. Sorry. Not sorry. I agree. But anyway,

00:06:05.100 she pointed out that, you know, a lot of people are like, this is great. You know, this is wonderful.

00:06:08.380 But she also is like, is it so wonderful though? Because she's seen in her life and we have to,

00:06:12.580 and we'll get into this later. So don't, don't get into it too much, but like how pregnancy changes

00:06:17.680 people often for the better and having kids changes people for the better. Is it such a good thing?

00:06:22.580 The people I know who got pregnant as, as teenagers, like they were often the more 1.00

00:06:28.620 rebellious kids whose lives I thought were. Yeah. Because now it's the rebellious thing to

00:06:33.020 get pregnant as a teen. Yeah. No, no, no. But these are people whose lives were clearly spiraling

00:06:38.140 when this happened to them. And it's just like course corrected their entire life. Yeah. Like

00:06:42.940 now they're like hardworking, studious, holding a job, building a career. I mean, they might start

00:06:47.820 from a lower place because they, you know, spun out a lot, which led to the teen pregnancy. But this

00:06:52.700 isn't to say that this is like a negative thing. If anything, it's what saved their lives.

00:06:56.560 Absolutely. Yeah. So let's, let's start off by just giving like sort of laying,

00:07:01.200 give you a lay of the land because I think a lot of people, again, just they, they aren't really

00:07:05.440 familiar with how much teen pregnancy has dropped. So in North America, teen pregnancy is down 78%

00:07:12.480 since 1991, which is, is huge in Central America. There it's still actually relatively high with some

00:07:19.200 decline. The improvement actually stalled with COVID-19, which is interesting in South America,

00:07:24.960 there have been large national declines and going from basically 72 out of a thousand in Uruguay in

00:07:32.320 1996 to 36 out of a thousand in Uruguay in 2018. It's just like to choose one South American place.

00:07:39.840 In Africa, there, there has been a slow decline, but like still it's, it's going down even if the

00:07:46.400 absolute population is growing. And in Europe, there's been just a steep and steady decline. It's,

00:07:51.760 it's, it's, it has the lowest rates of teen pregnancy globally. So basically the largest

00:07:56.640 and absolute percentage declines have been in North America and many parts of South America and

00:08:00.940 Europe and Central America and Africa basically have a more modest declines, but there's still

00:08:07.760 lots of teen birth, especially because there's just so many young people that like, there are still a lot

00:08:12.260 of teen births because there's so many teens. And then Europe has the lowest overall teen pregnancy rates,

00:08:17.320 which might be why like people are fascinated by gypsy weddings and like gypsy.

00:08:23.640 I mean, I think one of the things about teen pregnancies is people will be like, kids are not

00:08:27.960 old enough and not mature enough to make decisions that will affect them the rest of their lives when

00:08:32.460 they're teens, like who their partner is. And it's like, yeah, but their parents are. And this is why

00:08:37.020 pseudo arranged marriages are so important.

00:08:39.020 Yeah, absolutely. And I think there's, there's a lot to be said for thoughtful teen pregnancy,

00:08:44.160 like the earliest place in terms of media demonizing teen pregnancy, the earliest contemporary

00:08:51.340 place I've seen teen pregnancy demonized is in one of those 1950s propaganda instructional film videos

00:08:57.680 that I love to watch. And there's this, this one in which this high school couple that's dating

00:09:01.560 is like out and about walking around and they see their friend from high school who dropped out

00:09:07.040 because she had a baby and is now like being a housewife. But the guy that she had a baby with

00:09:12.660 and then married kind of like, you know, isn't that educated? Isn't that conscientious? Like she just 1.00

00:09:19.060 made a poor choice. And it's clear from the, the, the propaganda that the primary critique is just a

00:09:27.320 lack of good vetting and preparation and not necessarily that she had a kid young because the general pattern

00:09:33.080 at that point was to get married right out of high school and have a baby right away anyway.

00:09:37.700 So it was more like, Hey, maybe don't do it at age 16, maybe do it at age 18, which is really

00:09:43.020 interesting. But the first really prominent Western show that was both researched and, and widely aired

00:09:50.700 that demonized teen pregnancy was 16 and pregnant, the MTV show, which I never watched. And then it's

00:09:57.280 subsequent sort of inspired show called teen mom. I I'll send you a clip from the trailer. Cause it's,

00:10:04.260 it's, it still reminds me of like old MTV stuff, which is entertaining. So just like take a look

00:10:10.720 at that to get a picture of how they were framing pregnant women. I'm starting my senior year of high

00:10:14.940 school in the fall and I plan on going to college and becoming a police detective, but that's not my

00:10:20.900 only dream. I'm also training to become a professional cage fighter and a model, but achieving all my

00:10:27.020 dreams is about to get a lot harder because I'm pregnant. I'm on summer break. And since the baby

00:10:38.560 is doing four months, I've been working long hours at a fast food restaurant to save money.

00:10:43.080 What happened? How'd you get pregnant? Well, you have sex. 1.00

00:10:48.340 Wow. For a 16 year old, she was doing a lot. Yeah, no. So like what, what's shown in the previews, 0.99

00:10:55.680 basically like, I'm a girl, I have a lot of big dreams, but I'm also pregnant. And actually someone

00:11:00.980 in our comments in another video recently actually was wondering what the effect of this show was on

00:11:07.160 most viewers because she watched this show. And at least for one of the pregnant female 1.00

00:11:12.680 protagonists that was featured in it, she was like, Oh, like I want to have, I want to have a kid now. 0.95

00:11:18.800 Like this teen pregnancy thing looks great. And I think later after she saw how the relationship

00:11:23.720 between this young woman and her male partner kind of devolved, she, she kind of changed her mind

00:11:28.880 about that, but it, there, there've been the interesting thing is interest, like research

00:11:35.780 studies done on the impact of this show and people have analyzed the effect and their effect on teen

00:11:42.360 pregnancy among viewers. So basically the show caused significant reductions in teen births,

00:11:48.700 multiple studies, most notably by economists, Melissa Kearney and Philip Levine. They found

00:11:53.940 that the premiere of 16 and pregnant in 2009, in areas where there was higher viewership experienced

00:12:00.120 notably larger declines in teen birth rates. Their research estimates the show was responsible for a

00:12:05.440 4.3 to 5.7% reduction in teen births in the 18 months following its debut, which explains the

00:12:12.580 approximately one third of the total decline in teen births during that period. So this goes to show

00:12:17.620 just like how much, cause the show also kind of frames it as kind of trashy to get pregnant as a 0.94

00:12:23.040 teen. It's not, you know, they're not showing aspirational wealthy teens being pregnant. They're showing,

00:12:30.260 you know, her, her boy, the, the boyfriend of the girl who in the preview that I showed like,

00:12:34.520 well, he's unemployed. Like, I wish he would get a job. He just kind of messes around. And here she is

00:12:39.020 being all like ambitious and everything. I want to be a detective and whatever a model and a kickboxer

00:12:44.700 and a model. MMA fighter. Yeah. She clearly is not going to be an MMA fighter or a model. 0.99

00:12:51.160 You can look at her. Dream big girl. I mean, yeah, but here's the thing is, is those careers 0.95

00:12:56.320 ultimately in the larger scheme of things, isn't going to come close to having a kid and raising

00:13:02.040 a kid. Well, so in the end, you know, it's, it's, that's the thing. And, and, but it also,

00:13:06.360 they're not going to make enough money or they're not going to. No, no, no. What I'm saying is

00:13:10.000 she's not going to change the world in any lasting way by being an MMA fighter or a model or by being 1.00

00:13:17.620 a detective. She will change the world in a very meaningful way. If she has a kid and raises them

00:13:22.820 well, that kid could go on to have descendants for, you know, that, that a line that lasts for

00:13:27.620 millions of years. I mean, we're the result of people making sacrifices and. Although Simone,

00:13:33.620 these people are probably not. Well, that's MTV's choice. Our listeners might. Our listeners

00:13:42.000 might, especially if they're of the younger variety. That we don't know. MTV chose to frame

00:13:46.540 her a certain way, whatever. You know, I can, I wonder if we can like look up what's, how is she

00:13:51.580 doing now? But anyway, not, it wasn't just this reduction in teen births that happened. There was

00:13:56.200 also increased interest in contraception that was inspired by this show. Some, some researchers

00:14:01.080 analyzed Google trends and Twitter data. And these studies found spikes in searches and tweets

00:14:05.980 about birth control and abortion whenever new episodes aired, which suggests that the program

00:14:10.740 increased awareness and discussions about contraception and pregnancy prevention. So

00:14:15.760 they're like, people are watching this show and like actively Googling, like, oh no, I need to not

00:14:21.000 do this. But here's the interesting thing. And this really dovetails with the person who commented on

00:14:25.680 another one of our episodes kind of wondering, like, I don't know, like what's the effect of

00:14:29.880 this show to make some, like to make people want to be pregnant more? Well, I think it was in response 0.90

00:14:33.680 to a propaganda episode because some experimental studies found that while a majority of teens,

00:14:38.640 around 82%, who watched the show felt it helped them better understand the challenges of teen

00:14:42.880 pregnancy, a significant minority, about 15%, believed it glamorized being a teen parent.

00:14:48.620 And additionally, these studies reveal that teens who related strongly to the show's stars

00:14:53.380 or formed parasocial relationships with them, sometimes developed more favorable attitudes

00:14:58.280 toward teen pregnancy. Obviously, I mean, they would, and they perceived the risk.

00:15:02.520 There's the famous, like, I'm gonna have a baby.

00:15:06.820 Well, no, that was like, those were the Jerry Springer shows, right?

00:15:16.440 My name is Victoria and I'm 15 years old and I don't care what my mama says, I'm gonna have a baby.

00:15:21.580 I will do whatever it takes to take care of my baby. If it hasn't come out of prostitute in my body, 1.00

00:15:25.960 then so be it. I'm gonna adjust my baby in all brand names, and if I can't support it,

00:15:30.620 then I guess I'm gonna steal it. My mama thinks that I'm not ready to have a baby, 0.97

00:15:34.880 but I have everything my baby will need. If my baby gets cold and it needs a blanket,

00:15:39.640 it's all right, because I have it. And if my baby needs clothes, it's cool,

00:15:43.340 I have tons of them. And if my baby loses the possibilities, I have three more.

00:15:48.080 I'm not just having sex with one, not two, but three different guys. That's right,

00:15:53.020 I'm a player, but that's cool, because I got it like that.

00:15:56.280 My life dreams are to jump out of school, to be on Girls Gone Wild, and to have my baby. 1.00

00:16:01.540 And there's nothing my stupid mother can say to change my mind. 0.99

00:16:04.620 What's crazy is, the craziest thing about this story is they did a 10-year follow-up on this girl, 1.00

00:16:11.720 and she actually turned out pretty normal and with a lot of kids.

00:16:16.840 And now 11 years later, how are you doing?

00:16:20.020 Doing amazing.

00:16:21.200 And by the way, you have some exciting news about your life.

00:16:24.180 What do you want to tell everybody?

00:16:25.420 I'm still married, same baby daddy, all five of my kids.

00:16:28.340 All five of your kids.

00:16:29.620 And by the way, besides having five kids, you have a, what's your job?

00:16:36.200 I'm a registered nurse.

00:16:37.480 Oh, wow.

00:16:42.840 And what we also showed was that back then you were disrespecting your mom.

00:16:47.520 What's it like now?

00:16:48.860 Me and my mom are best friends.

00:16:50.600 Like.

00:16:51.040 And as my wife pointed out to me, this is a perfect example of what we're talking about.

00:17:01.040 We might get into this later in the episode.

00:17:03.000 But having a kid when you're young can really help stabilize your life if you are otherwise adrift.

00:17:08.720 And if you look at the things she's saying in the first video, I mean, yes, the promiscuity is an issue.

00:17:13.760 But other than that, she's just somebody saying, I want to do whatever it takes for my kids.

00:17:21.020 And I want to have those kids and I want to do whatever it takes and to give them a good life.

00:17:27.340 And I think that that's actually admirable.

00:17:30.340 And once she brought her kids into the world, her first kid into the world, it's clear that she understood that the way that she thought she was going to be able to live a life dedicated to her kids needed to change and needed to get serious.

00:17:42.680 And that's what she did with her life.

00:17:44.660 You know, where like people would come on and they'd have ridiculous, like our favorite mother in the entire world who's like, and I'm going to get everything from a baby and all the designer clothes. 0.95

00:17:52.000 And I can't afford it?

00:17:53.000 I guess I'm going to steal it.

00:17:54.520 I guess I'm going to steal it.

00:17:55.600 Yeah.

00:17:57.260 I wish her and her baby all the best because she's got, she's got pizzazz.

00:18:02.960 She's got, we need more of that.

00:18:04.060 She's got five pacifiers. 0.99

00:18:08.140 They're all Ralph Lauren.

00:18:09.380 And so, yeah, basically like there, there's this weird bifurcation and the impact of these shows where like most people are like, ew, this is trashy.

00:18:19.180 I'm not going to do it.

00:18:19.860 And then there's a couple of people who are like, sign me up.

00:18:23.620 And I kind of feel like maybe that's all that matters because that's kind of how it's going to be.

00:18:28.860 It's just these are part of our theory around pernatalism is it's just the people who are like, I'm going to have seven, eight, nine kids.

00:18:35.780 Like I'm going to keep going forever who are ultimately going to inherit the future.

00:18:38.900 And everyone else is like, and maybe I'll have one or two.

00:18:41.120 Like they don't really matter because they're not, they're not above repopulation rate.

00:18:45.880 So another, another really big show that at least in our youth introduced people to teen marriage and teen pregnancy was My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, which just showcased these over the top, really strange. 1.00

00:18:59.080 Like, I think part of it was the culture contrast because these gypsy weddings were, they involved very poofy dresses and very like this, this extreme contrast. 1.00

00:19:08.480 That one gypsy girl you showed me was so badass. 0.99

00:19:10.900 That was from My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding. 0.97

00:19:13.320 Yeah. And I, I, I sent with, to Malcolm.

00:19:15.540 What color do you want?

00:19:16.880 Black. 0.93

00:19:19.440 Black. 1.00

00:19:20.060 She doesn't want black. 1.00

00:19:21.540 I want black. 0.98

00:19:25.060 This is the best place in America to get a dress and you're still talking about black. 0.68

00:19:29.900 No, you need to wear something beautiful.

00:19:32.120 You need to wear something embellished.

00:19:33.480 You need to wear something with Swarski crystals.

00:19:35.560 You need to have bling.

00:19:36.920 You need to have poof. 1.00

00:19:37.720 You need to have something beautiful that you feel great in and you look good in.

00:19:41.420 Okay.

00:19:42.300 I'm starting to get a little upset.

00:19:43.940 I'm getting upset because I'm here to get a very beautiful dress that I feel like I'd be great in.

00:19:50.240 And if I just want it to be black, what is so crazy about that? 1.00

00:19:53.420 Dealing with gypsy brides. 1.00

00:19:54.600 It's a clip of one girl kind of butting up against the, the gypsy tradition of pink poofy wedding dresses. 0.96

00:20:01.280 Sometimes it had led lights sewn in because, you know, I think people loved that contrast of like extreme high levels of spending and very conspicuous consumption.

00:20:12.080 But then like in these like rundown parts of town, like living out of trailers, it's such an interesting contrast.

00:20:19.940 But while people didn't study this as much, so there's not a lot of evidence that an increased interest in teen marriage.

00:20:27.960 There's, there's a lot of just academic literature on how it focuses on issues of cultural stereotyping and social impact of stigmatized groups.

00:20:37.840 I think, you know, in the end though, this, this falls into the teen pregnancy is trashy camp because that's what the show's really played up.

00:20:46.600 And I, I do think that they made teen pregnancy look bad.

00:20:50.880 And so people are far, I mean.

00:20:54.800 Can you talk about other countries where they're trying to make teen pregnancy look cool? 0.85

00:20:58.600 Yeah.

00:20:59.220 Yeah.

00:21:00.200 Do you want, I have the, I can discuss the benefits of teen pregnancy first because I'd like people.

00:21:04.460 Okay.

00:21:04.500 Discuss the benefits.

00:21:05.640 Yeah.

00:21:05.960 And then I'll, then I'll get into what Russia is doing and then I'll get into what I think we would do instead if we were emperors of the world or Vladimir Putin.

00:21:13.360 But when, when we say teen pregnancy, I just want to make clear, like we're mostly talking about age 18 and 19.

00:21:19.580 I'm not talking about younger just because medically and I think personality wise, people just aren't necessarily ready.

00:21:27.440 And actually when you go and look back in history, there's this perception that people are having kids really, really young and absolutely they were outliers.

00:21:33.500 But most people in, in history during the medieval age, Renaissance, et cetera, like they were not having kids until they were around 18 or 19 or into their twenties.

00:21:42.400 Really young teen pregnancy was actually fairly unusual.

00:21:47.180 And, and there's a good reason for that because fertility in women is generally maximized between the late teens and late twenties. 1.00

00:21:54.860 And that's when the quantity and quality of eggs are at their peak and the ability to conceive per menstrual cycle is highest.

00:22:00.580 So basically there's this Goldilocks zone and basically from 25 to 29 is what, when many medical professionals recommended.

00:22:08.920 But I think that's just because they're afraid of recommending that 18 year olds have kids and it's, it, it, it, it maximizes natural fertility.

00:22:16.920 Basically, if you have a kid too young, you're at increased risk of preterm delivery, certain infections, and then fetal growth problems.

00:22:23.980 So it, there can be, there is a too young age.

00:22:26.940 Then, then after 35 risk of pregnancy complications, like high blood pressure, gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, pre preterm delivery, and chromosomal abnormalities, like Down syndrome start to skyrocket.

00:22:39.160 And also, you know, there's, there's, there's other health issues and we've discussed this in other things.

00:22:43.520 Like when we did the polygenic scores of our embryos, just from age, like approximately 33, 34 to age 35, 36, we saw a steep decline in all of their polygenic risk scores around cancer and Alzheimer's and all these other things.

00:22:59.440 Like, oh my gosh, like this is there, it, there's a cliff it's, it's there at least anecdotally.

00:23:05.620 I mean, it, it, it hits different when you actually experience it yourself and you see how, how genetic scores play out differently.

00:23:14.040 But yeah, also younger mothers tend to, to recover more quickly from pregnancy, but sort of outside of health things, teen pregnancy makes a complete career and motherhood more feasible. 0.99

00:23:25.380 Because if you start your career at third 30, instead of starting at 40, which is when most women end up starting after like doing the young kids phase at home, if they want to. 1.00

00:23:36.420 It's a lot easier because I mean, there are lots of young like grads who are just coming out of college at age 30.

00:23:42.360 You don't look weird in the job market.

00:23:44.480 You just look normal.

00:23:45.900 And if you're in an academic field, you don't even have to wait to start anything.

00:23:49.860 You can just do all the front-loaded academic work with an infant and toddlers because the university schedule and lifestyle really works well with that kind of workload.

00:24:00.600 So like, I just think it's perfect if you want to do, like, if you want to have it all.

00:24:04.420 And you'll also, of course, be more present with your kids because you're not going to be geriatric when they're older and when they have grandkids.

00:24:10.420 It's like significantly easier and more scheduled in the early stages of your career.

00:24:14.540 And just think about the numbers.

00:24:17.120 If you have a kid every 24 months, which leaves 15 months for recovery after each pregnancy, then you're having a kid at 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, and 30.

00:24:28.720 You can be done when you're 30.

00:24:31.480 And then you can have your whole career in front of you, which is, again, when many people graduate with their PhD.

00:24:35.960 And you can do all of this while getting it, you know, as long as you are disciplined.

00:24:40.020 Try not to be so lazy, people.

00:24:42.780 But also, I think the more important thing, and I'd love for us to talk about this a little more because this is kind of the premise that Megan had pointed out.

00:24:50.540 It, as is described in Hannah's Children, the book by Catherine Pakalik, it burns the selfishness out of people.

00:24:59.940 It could reduce short-term orientation and many of its associated ills in the U.S., leading to better voting patterns and more local and civic engagement.

00:25:08.340 I mean, we've met people, like, personally.

00:25:12.620 You and I can both think of, like, friends and others that we've met that after having kids, they're just better people.

00:25:20.780 Like, there have been people who go from party animal to super parent.

00:25:25.940 Yeah.

00:25:26.080 Like, most people do.

00:25:28.140 I mean, like, we recently filmed an episode about this New York Times reporter who just, not New York Times, she wrote a piece in the New York Times about hating men.

00:25:37.800 And this is after she had a kid. 0.97

00:25:39.100 And it's clear all she wants from life is sex. 0.91

00:25:41.140 And her daughter means nothing to her when contrasted with her sex life. 0.98

00:25:45.140 Oh, yeah.

00:25:45.260 That's not a great example because she became a parent and completely washed out. 1.00

00:25:48.880 No, but she didn't become a parent as a teen.

00:25:50.940 People who become parents as teens often as, like, a switch flips in their heads.

00:25:55.780 Whereas people who become parents within the proper pathways.

00:25:59.680 Or once they're more ossified.

00:26:00.940 Yeah, often feel more righteous in continuing that lifestyle.

00:26:05.920 In fact, I'd say the biological switch, which is supposed to happen in our heads when we have kids,

00:26:10.680 to make you, you know, live for the next generation rather than yourself, doesn't appropriately flip if you have kids too late.

00:26:18.260 You need to have kids within a certain time window.

00:26:20.980 It seems to flip much better if you have kids between late teens, I'd say very early 30s.

00:26:28.120 Interesting.

00:26:29.560 Yeah, I don't know.

00:26:30.040 I haven't seen the research.

00:26:30.980 It would be biologically coded to allow that flip to happen at a later age.

00:26:34.120 Yeah, or maybe, yeah, maybe it's similar to people forming.

00:26:40.680 Much stronger love bonds, it seems, when they're younger and less experienced in life.

00:26:44.980 Like, maybe, I mean, as you pointed out, like, you don't feel the same level of exuberance and happiness that our children feel.

00:26:51.160 Maybe everything is just kind of dulled down when you get older.

00:26:55.240 You feel less happiness.

00:26:56.400 You feel less, you know, dopamine reward.

00:26:58.600 You feel less love.

00:26:59.640 You feel less enthusiasm.

00:27:01.320 Like, everything kind of goes down.

00:27:02.500 Like, we're old dogs limping around.

00:27:04.260 Not that we're that old yet, but, you know, feels like it when we look at our children. 1.00

00:27:08.360 Oh, my God, they're insane.

00:27:10.680 But, yeah, I mean, also beyond all this, just like, and also a bunch of people in our Patreon were talking about this.

00:27:15.660 Like, oh, this person and this person in my life.

00:27:18.860 Just how they completely changed after they had kids for the better.

00:27:22.380 And also pulling in research evidence indicates that most people experience significant increases in responsibility, maturity, and life direction after having kids.

00:27:31.000 Mental health usually improves slightly or stays at least stable for both.

00:27:35.980 Although, of course, there are strains and challenges, especially for mothers.

00:27:40.660 But I actually think that giving someone responsibility and meaningful challenges in their lives is really good for their mental health.

00:27:47.260 Like, I think it's much better to be stressed out about being a mom and balancing that with your career or handling childcare or just dealing with the changes and stresses of being a mom than it is to be, like, obsessed with your aging.

00:28:01.560 And how are you going to afford the laser skin treatments that you're getting now?

00:28:05.740 And I watch a lot of dink female, like, single childless female influencers on YouTube. 1.00

00:28:10.900 And the things they worry about are just not very healthy.

00:28:14.260 So, yeah, I think it's great.

00:28:17.720 So, yeah, how can we bring back teen pregnancy?

00:28:20.160 Well, Putin is trying.

00:28:22.000 And here's the scheme, Malcolm. 0.98

00:28:23.340 You can tell me if you think this is dumb or not. 0.97

00:28:26.140 But actually, as of this year, so in 2025, following the year of the family in 24 for Russia, meanwhile, they're killing all the young men. 0.93

00:28:35.140 But whatever, the year of the family, several regions in Russia began offering substantial cash bonuses to pregnant schoolgirls as part of an aggressive effort to reverse their low birth rate and the fact that they're killing other men. 0.62

00:28:47.560 Yeah, they're going to disappear.

00:28:49.300 They have such a low fertility rate. 1.00

00:28:50.620 They're super screwed. 0.99

00:28:51.560 But, I mean, let's just say, let's pretend that this is a world in which they aren't slaughtering their young men of reproductive age and making everyone super extra depressed because they were already Russians. 1.00

00:29:03.200 The initiative has, it's also actually drawn a lot of even just local controversy, but they provide a one-time payment of 100,000 rubles.

00:29:12.120 That's about 1,200 to 1,300 U.S. dollars to school-aged girls who carry their pregnancy beyond a certain gestational threshold.

00:29:21.220 So, for some regions, that's 12 weeks.

00:29:22.960 For some, it's 22 weeks.

00:29:23.980 It depends.

00:29:24.940 And they have to be registered as full-time students.

00:29:26.880 I like this because it's like, one, I think it's normalizing young mothers in school, which I would love to see in the university system and the academic system.

00:29:38.960 And, yeah, in some cases, the payments go up to 150,000 rubles, which is around $1,900.

00:29:45.620 So, let's give you a sense of scale vis-a-vis the average annual income in Russia.

00:29:50.880 So, you could kind of guess what that would be in, like, the U.S.

00:29:54.020 So, the average annual income in Russia in U.S. dollars is $14,513, with the median being $8,179.

00:30:04.420 So, if we're looking at the lower end, the 1,200.

00:30:07.500 Look at the median.

00:30:08.080 The median is the better one to go with.

00:30:09.640 The median is $8,000, okay?

00:30:11.280 Because Russia has a lot of oligarchs and stuff like that.

00:30:13.660 Okay, okay, so then 1,200 divided by 8,179 is 14%, or, well, 15, we'll say 15%.

00:30:27.760 Like, so, 15% of an annual salary.

00:30:30.280 That's a non-trivial thing.

00:30:32.480 Basically, like, if this were a payment that were given in the USA, it would be approximately $5,500.

00:30:40.860 So, like, actually kind of the same amount of, like, the baby bonuses.

00:30:44.500 Yeah, right?

00:30:45.820 Hold on.

00:30:46.420 So, this only goes to school kids?

00:30:49.180 It doesn't go to older people?

00:30:50.320 You have, yeah.

00:30:51.380 You have to be registered as a student.

00:30:55.600 There wasn't any clear language on a maximum age.

00:31:01.980 So, some regions will only extend the payment to only adult age.

00:31:08.360 So, you have to be 18 plus.

00:31:10.000 So, you can only, you know, it's not actually that young.

00:31:12.380 Some don't have a minimum age requirement.

00:31:14.900 And I don't, I didn't find any information about a maximum age requirement.

00:31:18.980 So, it seems they only had minimums.

00:31:20.700 Meaning that if you were maybe, like, in your 30s and enrolled as a student, you could get this bonus, which is great.

00:31:25.420 But, I mean, most people enrolled as students are younger, which is also fine by me.

00:31:29.960 And it's only.

00:31:31.900 And you have to be in a full-time education.

00:31:33.700 You can't, like, enroll in night school and get this.

00:31:36.100 But it also applies not just to general schools, but vocational colleges.

00:31:39.900 And legal guardians can receive the payment for school-aged girls who are beyond the stage of legal elective abortion.

00:31:47.820 So, like, if you're not allowed to legally receive it, your parents can, and then pass it to you, hopefully.

00:31:52.680 But the Russian government claims these payments are intended to support girls in difficult life circumstances.

00:31:57.260 And they're not explicitly saying that this is to promote teen pregnancies, but everyone's covering it like that.

00:32:02.340 And it's actually really not well received.

00:32:04.280 So, only 43% of Russians support the incentives, and 40% are opposed, which is kind of wild.

00:32:11.740 So, I just won.

00:32:12.360 But that's still more supportive than or against it.

00:32:15.320 Yeah, 43 versus 40, though.

00:32:17.700 I mean, it's.

00:32:18.820 It's not wildly popular.

00:32:20.860 Yeah, look, I like Trump's approach to 90-10 issues.

00:32:24.260 What is a 90-10 issue?

00:32:25.900 Okay, then go for it, you know.

00:32:27.560 But Trump's not a dictator yet.

00:32:30.480 That being the key word there, we're working on it.

00:32:32.640 Give him time.

00:32:33.420 Come on, it's time.

00:32:34.580 We're not even to the next presidential election, okay?

00:32:37.720 Just trust the process.

00:32:39.400 You know, come on.

00:32:41.180 We really screwed things up there.

00:32:45.140 We're winning the long game.

00:32:47.180 It's fine. 0.98

00:32:48.700 But yeah, I want to, like, one, Russia's screwed.

00:32:51.720 Two, I don't think that's enough of a payment to actually incentivize a lot.

00:32:56.120 I love that they're trying to make it a thing for people enrolled in full-time education to also be pregnant and have kids.

00:33:03.080 Because I feel like that's the best time to do it.

00:33:05.580 You have this, like, more flexible schedule.

00:33:08.040 I mean, what are you doing as a student but, like, up all night studying?

00:33:12.180 And, you know, you breastfeed and you're reading your textbook.

00:33:14.580 It's perfect.

00:33:15.200 Like, I just, I think it'd be great.

00:33:16.780 But let's say that you and I are trying to make teen pregnancy great again.

00:33:22.200 And we're targeting first pregnancies at age 18.

00:33:24.980 Because, like I said, if you have five kids, like, you're done by the time you're 30.

00:33:27.740 It's just amazing.

00:33:29.000 It's a big booster.

00:33:30.100 You're also not starting too early.

00:33:32.000 I think, number one, we have to stop infantilizing kids.

00:33:35.440 Well, I think another thing is people are like, but then when will I get to travel?

00:33:39.720 And it's like, we've created this intermediate stage of somebody's life that, like, is not an important stage.

00:33:44.540 The eat, pray, love stage.

00:33:46.500 Yeah.

00:33:46.800 No, literally.

00:33:47.660 Like, we expect every young person to go through, like, an eat, pray, love stage.

00:33:50.360 And it's wasteful.

00:33:51.500 It doesn't do anything.

00:33:52.680 It doesn't help you.

00:33:53.540 It doesn't help you develop as a person.

00:33:54.720 Well, it's clearly not helping people flourish economically, professionally, religiously, philosophically, or socially.

00:34:02.340 No, you look at, like, mental health rates, and the more eat, pray, love you do, the worse it gets.

00:34:07.160 Yeah, it's clear.

00:34:08.360 But also, like, we're starting to see Gen Z recognize this.

00:34:14.160 So I think we're realizing this, and I think we are going to see maybe a rebound in two pregnancies.

00:34:20.040 But, yeah, we're super, I think the primary reason, aside from the trashiness equals teen pregnancy propaganda, because we're uncomfortable with teen pregnancies, because they're not, we feel like teens aren't ready to be adults.

00:34:34.980 But let me bring us back to Benjamin Franklin, because I'm obsessed with him.

00:34:39.380 He's such a pompous turkey, but he's great.

00:34:42.240 He started his first job at age 10.

00:34:44.600 He worked for his father's candle making shop.

00:34:47.760 And then at age 12, he became an apprentice with his older brother, James, as a printer, which came his first significant job and the foundation of his future career at age 12.

00:34:57.520 And I'm just, I'm asking for age 18.

00:34:59.920 You know, like, this is insane.

00:35:01.280 Oh, fun aside, just because I think I told you this, but he, in his job working for his brother as an apprentice at age 12,

00:35:09.480 he started submitting editorials to the, to his brother's new newspaper, which was called the New England Current.

00:35:15.420 It was one of America, the colonies, first newspapers, under the pseudonym Silence Duguid, which is so Puritan.

00:35:21.900 It's so nominative to Germanism.

00:35:24.400 He posed as Silence Duguid.

00:35:26.320 Silence Duguid.

00:35:26.660 Imagine naming your daughter.

00:35:29.200 Silence Duguid.

00:35:30.120 Silence Duguid and Duguid thing.

00:35:31.480 Yeah.

00:35:31.640 And he's writing as a middle-aged widow, which I'm love.

00:35:34.780 Like, and just this 12-year-old boy who's like, I'm a middle-aged widow named Silence Duguid.

00:35:41.600 I love, I love, in the early internet, they're like, always assume that, that, you know, anyone you meet is actually a guy.

00:35:48.340 There's no women on the internet. 1.00

00:35:49.880 It's the same way.

00:35:51.340 There's no women in newspapers. 1.00

00:35:53.480 In the early-

00:35:54.000 In the early-

00:35:54.280 In the early-

00:35:54.300 In the early-

00:35:54.560 In the early-

00:35:54.620 In the early-

00:35:56.560 Well, he, he allegedly, you know, like, according to his autobiography, he, he took on this, this persona because he,

00:36:02.800 I actually quite fairly believed his brother James would not publish his writings.

00:36:07.420 Because, you know, he's his little brother.

00:36:10.220 Oh, actually, he did this-

00:36:11.400 He's a junior, right?

00:36:11.960 And so you can't-

00:36:12.780 Yeah.

00:36:13.260 Actually, he was, he was more like 16 at this point.

00:36:15.180 But still, like, you know, his little brother, he wasn't gonna, you know, give him the time of day.

00:36:18.920 So he secretly wrote the essays.

00:36:20.880 And then he slipped them under the door of the printing shop at night just to submit them.

00:36:25.340 And actually, so these essays got really popular.

00:36:27.480 And, and many, they're, they promoted many marriage proposals to this alleged widow.

00:36:32.840 People are like, so will you marry me?

00:36:36.560 And I'm just like, oh my god.

00:36:38.300 And they don't know it's a 16-year-old.

00:36:39.940 Yes.

00:36:40.540 No, no, for months, for months it remained a secret.

00:36:43.700 And she, he's like catfishing.

00:36:45.260 His first career move is to catfish men.

00:36:48.320 No.

00:36:48.600 He should have said-

00:36:49.560 He should have said back, like, send me diamonds.

00:36:51.600 Yes, send, send diamonds, send money.

00:36:55.740 Oh my god, yes.

00:36:57.140 But yeah, so, so actually his, his, his older brother, in response to all this, like, virality of Silence Do Good, the desirable widow, he, he published an ad in the paper asking Silence Do Good to come forward.

00:37:11.280 And Benjamin Franklin, he's, he's an incredibly egotistical man.

00:37:14.600 He eventually confessed that he was the real author.

00:37:17.100 And this really angered his brother.

00:37:19.980 Kind of was probably, like, jealous of all the intention, but, like, this, this, the fallout of it actually led Benjamin Franklin to leave, like, to break the agreement of the apprenticeship and, and go to Philadelphia and start his own life.

00:37:32.660 And it's, it's, he has this, also this story.

00:37:36.020 By the way, this, this Benjamin Franklin guy she's talking about, he actually did a lot of stuff after this.

00:37:40.920 You might be surprised to know.

00:37:42.920 Yeah. 0.99

00:37:44.040 Crazy upstart.

00:37:45.140 I actually did a few things after that.

00:37:46.560 A couple things.

00:37:47.920 But, you know, he actually made a lot of money from those couple things that he did.

00:37:51.100 And at one point, the first time he goes back to Boston, what does he do but show up at his brother's printing shop with his, like, fancy clothes and his pockets full of silver?

00:38:00.460 Just pisses off his brother so freaking much.

00:38:03.420 And didn't he, like, give out money to other people and stuff like that?

00:38:05.680 I think he did, yeah.

00:38:06.260 I think he, like, gave them some money or something.

00:38:07.700 And, like, everyone at the printing shop is like, wow, your little brother.

00:38:10.420 And his brother is just like, I just, oh, he's such a pompous turkey.

00:38:16.520 But, again, he's a pompous turkey, yes.

00:38:18.880 He really is.

00:38:19.600 Yeah.

00:38:19.860 Also, he wanted the turkey to be the national bird of the United States.

00:38:23.020 But my larger point is that we do not need to delay adulthood as much as we are.

00:38:31.400 Not only are we saving people from a youth that is literally terminal for a huge portion of people.

00:38:37.240 They want to end it.

00:38:39.080 They hate their youth so much.

00:38:40.300 Like, clearly, these are not the best days of your life.

00:38:44.080 But we are missing huge career opportunities.

00:38:48.560 I mean, think about, like, the time that people have lost spending, you know, wasted time in school where they're not learning anything useful right now anyway.

00:38:55.160 So I would, one, just total culture change on this infantilization of youth thing.

00:39:01.340 And I would change the standards of success in secondary education.

00:39:04.180 So, like, basically, like, national standards for what high school successfully does, from college enrollment or even graduation to annual tax return performance or some measure of financial independence and social independence.

00:39:17.560 Because I think right now, like, I don't know how it was for you in high school, Malcolm, but, like, for me, it was the purpose of high school is to get into a good college, just period.

00:39:25.300 It wasn't, like, be a productive citizen, be able to support yourself, be able to pay your taxes, be able to, like, get married.

00:39:32.960 So I would also then introduce basically trade school and adulting classes in high school, with adulting being kind of the modern euphemism for home economics.

00:39:41.780 So cooking, cleaning, repairs, financial management, like, taxes and investment and budgeting.

00:39:47.060 Just, like, to actually use secondary school to create productive taxpaying adults capable of thriving and being happy.

00:39:57.080 And then I would get super involved in matchmaking.

00:39:59.520 I want to bring back the London season, as you know, like, we're already creating a, we call it the index, or, like, a group of families that will sort of share and compare each other's cultures and traditions to see, like, who's thriving and learn from each other.

00:40:11.940 But also, get their kids together in matchmaking events. 0.52

00:40:15.120 Exactly. So for people who don't know, what we want to do is we want to build, like, Discord or whatever messaging platform is popular in the future, group for our kids and the other kids who are in this network so they can get to know each other and flirt.

00:40:27.500 And then say, hey, I want to get to know each other and then say, hey, I want to get to know this person better to us.

00:40:31.820 And then they can go live with, for a period, like, a few weeks or a month, the parents of the daughter.

00:40:38.480 I think it's better to send the guys to the daughter's house because they'll be more vigilant, you know, have more motivation to be vigilant.

00:40:44.740 And they can get to know each other and spend time together and under the context of the parents and they understand, oh, my job is joining a family, right?

00:40:54.080 Like, it's impressing the parents, it's impressing the siblings, and if I like this environment and this culture, this is something I want to replicate.

00:41:01.620 Yeah, and this is kind of playing with the Puritan tradition of sending out, where parents would also sort of head off the issue of teens being rebellious against their parents by just being like, okay, well, how about you just not be around me and be around someone else's parents?

00:41:16.960 And so they'd go and apprentice under a family, maybe, like, neighboring family or a family one town over, and they would both learn a meaningful skill but also live in a household of adults that weren't their parents.

00:41:28.140 So they didn't have this immediate need to kind of be rebellious for rebelliousness' sake in a way that hurt them.

00:41:34.640 So even if, you know, these relationships don't work out or they're like, you know what, we're actually not that good of a match, like, they're learning about a new family culture.

00:41:42.020 They're learning about the adults' careers, which helps them normalize to things, especially if this is, like, a high-achieving family.

00:41:48.080 You know, it's helping them understand, hey, I could do this.

00:41:50.480 This is not rocket science, even if it's rocket science.

00:41:53.720 Like, anyone could do this if they just learned the stuff you need to learn.

00:41:58.000 So I think it's great.

00:41:59.500 The final thing I would do is, you know, for those who continue to go into higher education, higher education should be seen as a thing that you do while you become a parent.

00:42:07.480 I agree.

00:42:08.140 I agree.

00:42:08.460 Education and parenting, early parenting, are two things that go together.

00:42:13.500 Yeah.

00:42:14.020 Yeah.

00:42:14.240 It's just perfect.

00:42:15.080 And for the next generation, they will, for the people who survive.

00:42:17.900 I hope so.

00:42:18.520 Yeah.

00:42:19.020 It'd be really cool to, like, work with universities to help them create parenting programs and, like, housing and daycare programs and all these other, like, sort of support things that would make it more feasible.

00:42:29.640 So, yeah.

00:42:30.480 Is there any – so that's the one way in which I'm like, okay, Putin got that part right.

00:42:34.300 Everything else is just not good enough.

00:42:35.920 Too little too late. 0.98

00:42:36.800 He's screwed. 0.83

00:42:37.440 But what else would you add to make teen pregnancy great again? 0.88

00:42:40.860 I mean, there was my K-pop chaeble Korean scheme that I'd proposed whereby we would just give huge advantages to dynastic families in South Korea with the demand that each family – like, each child of the dynasty have a ton of kids themselves to make having a lot of kids and having a lot of kids young super prestigious and high class.

00:43:05.940 Because I think the trashiness element is a really big issue here.

00:43:09.120 But, yeah.

00:43:09.620 Anything you would add to this to make it cool?

00:43:12.420 Well, I mean, I think that a lot of people are actually doing what they need to do to make this.

00:43:19.340 What we need is a version of Elon who is more monogamous, I would say, that is attainable for the average person.

00:43:29.120 Oh, like an aspirational public figure who has a lot of kids and makes it look really glamorous and cool.

00:43:34.600 Yeah, and we're seeing that more within conservative circles.

00:43:39.280 I mean, this is something that we're seeing people talk about more and do more.

00:43:43.980 I mean, I don't know.

00:43:45.380 Every time the media covers a family like that, like the Duggars, it's – people gawk at it, but they certainly don't want it.

00:43:52.340 And the show's keep emphasizing.

00:43:53.200 But we've changed all that.

00:43:54.640 Now it's the tech elite.

00:43:56.800 Yeah.

00:43:57.420 The techno-fascist takeover, the Mother Jones cover piece on us.

00:44:02.760 This looks cool and edgy.

00:44:06.120 And who doesn't want to be a part of that, right?

00:44:09.260 Like I want to be – if you had told me when I was in middle school or high school, there's going to be a cover piece on you that's about the techno-fascist takeover, I'd be like, wait, are you serious?

00:44:20.540 That's awesome.

00:44:22.240 That is so cool.

00:44:23.720 No, it's not even like the takeover of the good guys.

00:44:26.320 Because who wants the good guys to take over?

00:44:28.640 It's the takeover of the ballers.

00:44:32.300 And that's where we are right now.

00:44:34.500 We're at baller stage.

00:44:36.240 Yeah, absolutely.

00:44:37.700 So, you know, I'm not at all worried about the way the press is framing us, except for that one slate piece, which is like, please stop talking about this couple.

00:44:46.560 Well, so the problem – look at it, though.

00:44:48.140 Like when the media talks about our actual family life, they're like, it's a life devoid of love.

00:44:54.480 The children are beaten and sad.

00:44:58.000 They're attacked like a barracks.

00:45:00.380 You see that and you think that looks bad, but actually that looks pretty badass.

00:45:04.760 Because anybody who sees the pieces know the children aren't beaten, but they're raised with expectations.

00:45:10.820 No, the phrase is they're raised by hand.

00:45:13.520 They're raised by hand, autismally.

00:45:17.320 No, no, no, no, no.

00:45:18.360 But expectations and discipline.

00:45:20.160 And I think we live in a society today where when people hear, oh, this couple is all about, you know, discipline and expectations, but also very tech-focused.

00:45:32.860 A lot of people are like, bro, that sounds like something I'm into.

00:45:37.220 Oh, you know what?

00:45:38.060 Actually, there was one show that did kind of make it seem cool.

00:45:42.700 What was it called?

00:45:43.240 The Umbrella Factory?

00:45:44.840 The Umbrella?

00:45:45.400 Oh, yeah, yeah.

00:45:46.120 Academy.

00:45:46.540 The Umbrella Academy.

00:45:47.700 Because it was like a large family.

00:45:49.280 Yeah, then it went off the whatever when it was her face went trans. 0.86

00:45:52.400 I don't know what happened with that.

00:45:54.740 Yeah.

00:45:55.020 That was like a car crash in fast motion.

00:45:57.740 Well, because, no, I mean, this is what we see so frequently when people go trans is the whole world becomes about them. 1.00

00:46:03.800 Any show that they're in, any office that they're in, everything like that, you just get more and more self-centered and more and more focused on personal self-affirmation and everything you're doing.

00:46:12.120 And then it spirals everything into chaos and destruction.

00:46:15.140 Yeah.

00:46:15.340 But the outside of that, outside of that, you should watch, by the way, if you're interested in this phenomenon and larger things about why people generally fail at things after they become trans, the Wachowski effect.

00:46:30.020 Talk about why formerly successful people end up sucking at something they used to be really good at after transitioning.

00:46:37.840 Yeah, which is weird.

00:46:39.420 Sad that this happens, but it does reliably happen.

00:46:42.300 In fact, I can think of almost no one it hasn't happened to.

00:46:45.340 Who's transitioned after becoming a public figure.

00:46:47.580 I mean, like, first they were public figures.

00:46:49.220 Yeah, but there are people who have transitioned, then become public figures, and they're doing great.

00:46:53.120 So it's kind of like, you're rolling the dice.

00:46:56.820 And either you have to kind of figure out a new specialty and really thrive in it, or just don't expect to keep being good at the thing you were good at.

00:47:03.080 You're basically re-rolling your birth stats.

00:47:05.740 Like, so much of your biology changes.

00:47:08.020 No, it really, it cannot be understated how much hormones, be they natural and endogenous, or the hormones that you consume can affect you.

00:47:18.500 Like, I know firsthand, like, both going through pregnancy and seeing how-

00:47:22.660 She actually has emotions when she's pregnant. 1.00

00:47:25.000 It's weird.

00:47:27.160 Yeah, because I have problems.

00:47:30.040 I have to take the same amount of hormones as, like, a trans person just to basically, like, have periods in between pregnancies. 0.90

00:47:37.520 Because that's, I just, my default is sort of nothing.

00:47:40.140 And it, yeah, when I actually, when pregnancy kind of kickstarts everything and everything starts working again, I'm like, whoa.

00:47:46.080 Like, but also it's not, like, everything down to, like, the things that taste good to you change.

00:47:50.060 Of course, these are profound.

00:47:51.540 You know, it shouldn't be any surprise.

00:47:53.040 At any rate, though, I'm really glad that Megan brought this up.

00:47:55.040 Because normally when we talk to journalists and news crews about prenatalism and we talk about, you know, the drop in birth rates largely being, you know, people having kids later and a drop in teen births, we're like, and that's a really good thing. 0.90

00:48:08.500 You know, this is great.

00:48:09.280 You know, we want people to have kids later.

00:48:12.820 Megan makes a really good point that, you know, maybe, I think we can moderate that statement a little bit.

00:48:17.780 Like, there's an argument to be made.

00:48:19.620 When we got into this movement, I really didn't, I wasn't sure that I would encourage my kids to have kids when they're still changing.

00:48:25.640 No, because I wasn't sure that they'd be able to find a partner.

00:48:28.560 I think, I'd be worried if they had kids before.

00:48:32.840 But, not teen years, but I'd say, like, the sweet spot for me when our kids start having kids is 18 to 21.

00:48:41.360 Yeah, I think 21 would be great.

00:48:45.720 And that's when we're really going to focus on finding them a permanent partner.

00:48:49.580 Okay, so let's see.

00:48:50.560 When will our oldest turn 21?

00:48:53.320 I'm just checking because I have this in my spreadsheet.

00:48:55.300 Octavian turns 21 in 2040.

00:49:03.760 I'll be 52.

00:49:04.880 You'll be 53.

00:49:05.880 That's not too bad.

00:49:08.640 That's not so bad.

00:49:09.600 Yeah.

00:49:10.480 When my dad turned 50 and I was still a kid, and I go to him and I go, you're dead.

00:49:17.160 You're so indelicate.

00:49:18.640 We just had my father visiting, and you're like, well, it's great that, you know, you're hanging out with the kids before you die.

00:49:24.200 And my dad's like, I'm not.

00:49:25.620 But it's, you know what, memento mori.

00:49:29.160 You and I are constantly thinking about how we could die at any point.

00:49:32.500 And we're trying to find it all the time.

00:49:33.360 Absolutely, I don't mind.

00:49:34.540 Yes, it's not like an old thing.

00:49:36.320 It's just like anyone could die at any time. 0.96

00:49:38.300 And you better appreciate every freaking person. 0.94

00:49:40.540 You know, go hug whoever it is you care about because, oh gosh. 0.95

00:49:44.980 But yeah, I, yeah, 50 is the new 40, et cetera, because we even infantilize adults now.

00:49:53.580 So we'll try to leverage the, that, that otherwise toxic dynamic to our benefit at that point.

00:49:59.580 But yeah, I, I'm, I'm glad we talked about that.

00:50:03.380 Good talk, Malcolm.

00:50:05.800 Good talk.

00:50:06.960 Love you.

00:50:07.700 Tonight we're doing faux, right?

00:50:09.880 Yeah.

00:50:10.440 Scraps.

00:50:11.300 And you're going to do some onion.

00:50:12.980 Oh, did we not get basil?

00:50:14.980 Do you just want me to use the pesto?

00:50:16.960 Yeah, just use a bit of the pesto.

00:50:19.380 Okay, well, at least we have the green onion.

00:50:21.380 So I just, I put those things on top at the end, right?

00:50:23.940 So.

00:50:25.540 Well, I mean, the basil can be cooked with it, I think.

00:50:29.220 Oh yeah, I'll put that in the stock itself.

00:50:31.060 Yeah, well, especially because, you know, we're not having bigger leaves.

00:50:33.340 So I, you want it with the chives and the, yeah.

00:50:38.140 Is there, yeah, it called for onion.

00:50:40.940 Anyway, I'll go.

00:50:42.140 No, onion is always info.

00:50:44.980 Confetti style or like.

00:50:46.720 No, no, not confetti style.

00:50:48.360 Ring style.

00:50:49.200 Oh.

00:50:49.400 It gives it like a crunch and something to like pick up with like your chopsticks or something.

00:50:53.620 Oh, okay.

00:50:53.980 So it's not, is it not cooked?

00:50:56.380 How long do I boil it if I'm boiling it?

00:50:59.200 Well, I mean, you don't cook the beef by boiling, I don't think, Info.

00:51:04.220 I think you cook it outside.

00:51:04.920 No, no, no.

00:51:05.200 I'm going to pan sear the beef and then I'm going to serve it on the side and you're going

00:51:07.980 to put it on top if you want to.

00:51:09.760 But in terms of the onion, what am I doing?

00:51:12.140 It's cooked with the noodles and everything is my understanding.

00:51:15.380 Okay.

00:51:16.040 So it's, it's very lightly cooked because you still want to crunch.

00:51:18.540 Yeah.

00:51:18.680 It's very lightly cooked.

00:51:19.980 And the, the, the, don't be generous with the bean sprouts.

00:51:25.140 In fact, you, you, you might want to do like about equal proportions of bean sprouts and

00:51:29.580 noodles because I was thinking just half, cause we're probably going to do this for two nights.

00:51:33.360 I was just going to do half the bean sprouts we got.

00:51:35.760 Okay.

00:51:36.080 Yeah.

00:51:36.360 I mean, that's a lot of bean sprouts.

00:51:37.840 Okay.

00:51:37.980 Okay.

00:51:38.180 Maybe a third.

00:51:39.460 You're right.

00:51:40.020 And then I can be a little aggressive there.

00:51:42.500 I can saute in, in, in soy sauce for the third, third, what do you think on Wednesday?

00:51:48.320 Saute in soy sauce?

00:51:49.720 Yeah.

00:51:50.280 The third amount of bean, bean sprouts.

00:51:52.760 Oh yeah.

00:51:53.040 That'd be really interesting.

00:51:54.060 Yeah, sure.

00:51:55.580 And then I can have bread was your homemade peanut butter, homemade bread, homemade peanut

00:51:58.840 butter.

00:51:59.000 Well, I need to do another round of sourdough.

00:52:02.520 That's not whole wheat for you because you don't believe in whole wheat.

00:52:05.580 It's against your religion. 0.96

00:52:06.440 So hold off on that, but we'll get there.

00:52:10.860 I love you too.

00:52:11.600 I'll go get started.

00:52:13.640 You're wonderful.

00:52:15.100 You are wonderful.

00:52:17.140 The thing that I always hate in my romance mangas is when they do a time skip in a romance

00:52:23.200 manga, you know, to like future, future time in their marriage and they don't have a bunch

00:52:27.160 of kids.

00:52:28.560 Oh, that always makes me so angry.

00:52:31.020 I'm like, what?

00:52:32.800 Where are the children?

00:52:33.600 You're like every protagonist's mother-in-law.

00:52:36.820 Where are my grandchildren?

00:52:38.800 Well, what do you mean they have two children?

00:52:41.780 This is not acceptable.

00:52:44.000 That's beautiful.

00:52:45.160 Malcolm, you've reached a new stage in your evolution.

00:52:50.340 You're going to what? 0.99

00:52:52.020 I'm going to smash you. 1.00

00:52:54.020 You're going to smash me with a dinosaur? 1.00

00:52:56.880 Yeah. 0.98

00:52:58.240 Why? 0.99

00:52:59.300 Because I'm going to smash you with a dinosaur. 1.00

00:53:03.360 Do you like smashing? 1.00

00:53:05.060 Yeah.

00:53:06.700 Did you smash the baby dinosaurs already?

00:53:09.960 I didn't.

00:53:11.620 You did?

00:53:13.000 I didn't.

00:53:14.640 You didn't?

00:53:16.160 I saw you smashing them.

00:53:17.760 I saw you smashing them.

00:53:19.760 Why do you like smashing?

00:53:28.160 Because I like smashing bricks.

00:53:31.880 You like smashing bricks?

00:53:33.560 Yeah.

00:53:34.560 Do you want a hug?

00:53:35.980 Yeah.

00:53:37.120 Okay, here.

00:53:37.600 You can come here and let you go. 1.00

00:53:39.340 I killed one. 1.00

00:53:41.800 Aw, you're so sweet. 0.98

00:53:43.820 Yeah.

00:53:44.540 Right?

00:53:45.020 You want me to put on magic school bus and the projector?

00:53:51.980 Yeah.

Based Camp - August 05, 2025

Making Teen Pregnancy Great Again： Why Teen Pregnancy is Necessary to Save America

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