Conspiracy Theories, Big Brother, Scarcity
Links and recommendations
You can now catch my latest conversation with journalist Meghan Daum and clinical psychologist Andrew Hartz, Ph.D. on the Open Therapy podcast.
Links for Spotify and Apple Podcast.
NYC Event:
You are invited to attend my live event with Freya India, one of my favorite writers. Today (Wednesday May 13) at 6:30pm.
Details and registration here.
Wall Street Journal:
I have a new piece out in the Wall Street Journal about the Female Choice Fertility Paradox.
Fewer couples mean fewer children. The problem is that fewer men are becoming someone with whom a woman would want to build a family. A new paper in the journal Politics and the Life Sciences offers an honest diagnosis of this pattern. It also offers one of the worst prescriptions.
[…]
In Norway, the average stated preference is 2.4. In America, it’s 2.7. Actual fertility rates are 1.4 and 1.6, respectively. The reason for this gap, the paper suggests, is that fewer young women and men are forming stable relationships during their most fertile years. In Norway, the share of women ages 20 to 34 not living with a partner has doubled since the 1970s. According to one estimate by Morgan Stanley, nearly half of American women ages 25 to 44 will be single by 2030.
What drives the decline in couples? Here the researchers say something most demographers won’t: When women became financially independent, the value many men once offered, basic provision and protection, has largely been lost. A woman who earns her own income and lives in a country with a strong safety net doesn’t need a husband to survive. She can hold out for a partner she actually wants.
Read the whole thing here or here.
The Only Reading App I Use:
I’ve been using Readwise since April of 2021.
If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter/X, you’ll know I regularly share screenshots like this from books or articles I’ve read:
These screenshots come from my Readwise app.
Readwise aggregates your reading highlights from various sources like Kindle, Apple Books, Substack, Twitter, and so on. It stores your highlights in one place, making it easier to stay on top of your reading.
Each morning, it emails me 8 random excerpts from different books I’ve read. Since 2021, that daily message has been a quiet ritual for me: fragments from books I half‑forgot are resurfaced, like my own past self giving me a tap on the shoulder.
Moreover, when I’m thinking about a particular topic, a quick search pulls up not just my notes but every highlighted Kindle passage I’ve ever saved on the topic.
Exclusive Offer for My Readers
Use this link → https://readwise.io/robkhenderson/ to try Readwise free for 60 days (double the length of the standard free trial).
I suspect, like me, you’ll wonder how you ever read without it.
Links and recommendations:
GLP-1s May Become the Next Big Treatment for Problem Drinkers by Gabriel Rossman
Women are the agents we can’t locate in family outcomes by Anuradha Pandey
Follow me on Instagram here. The platform is less volatile and more chill than Twitter/X, so I post some spicier excerpts from my readings on my IG stories
You can follow me on TikTok here
Three interesting findings:
1. The number of incoming college students who describe their political beliefs as “far left” has tripled since the early 1980s, and doubled since 2013. The number of far-left Gen Z college students even exceeds the number among the Boomers of the early 1970s. (source: Generations by Jean Twenge).
2. Twenty-five percent of universities produce about 80% of all tenure-track faculty. Of the top 20 universities, the first 10 produce 1.6-3.0 times more faculty than the second 10. (source).
3. Six key rules for maintaining a stable friendship. (source: Friends by Robin Dunbar).
The paperback version of Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class is now available.
If you have gained any value from this newsletter and want to support my work, please buy a copy today. For yourself. For a friend or a loved one. If you can’t afford it, please support your local library.
Order your copy now:
Audible (I narrated the audiobook myself)
1-on-1 Coffee Chats
I’ve been thinking about ways to offer paid subscribers more value. Because I’ve already been doing occasional informal coffee chats with readers who reach out to me, I figured I’d open it up to subscribers. Starting this month, I’m setting aside time for a very small number of 1-on-1 coffee chats here in NYC. These will be casual, informal conversations. We can talk about anything from the newsletter, ideas from Troubled, luxury beliefs, psychology, human nature, or whatever else is on your mind. It’s possible I won’t be able to reply to everyone, but I’ll do my best to get back to as many people as I can.
Details:
-NYC only (I’m based here full-time)
-Limited slots (priority given to paid subscribers)
-Free subscribers are welcome to apply but will be lower priority
If you’re interested, please fill out the short form below. I review responses manually and will send a scheduling link.
Looking forward to meeting some of you in person.
-Rob
With part-time jobs in the country, two part-time incomes will be required to maintain an independent household. That should lead not only to less divorce, but to more marriages and presumably more children as well.
Hi Rob, would you do a call to discuss some topics? I am a psychology student in Spain/UK, so NYC isn’t an option for me. Regardless if you have time for a call I would love to discuss some of your ideas as a lower class son of immigrants, and how class and luxury beliefs shape Spain.