JD Vance Enters the Mommy Wars

The administration proposed a non-solution to a massive caregiving problem they don’t seem to understand. But maybe that’s the point. We're sorry, but something went wrong while fetching your podcast feeds. Please contact us at plus@slate.com for help. Episode Notes Childcare is expensive and who wouldn’t want to spend more time with their kids? Giving parents money to stay home, on its face, would seem to make sense. But a proposal from the Trump administration isn’t enough to help most stay-at-home parents—and it comes with some glaring downsides. Guests:Dr. Jessica Calarco, Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of four books including Holding It Together: How Women Became America’s Safety Net. Lauren Brody, founder of The Fifth Trimester movement, advocate with Chamber of Mothers, and author of The Fifth Trimester: The Working Mom’s Guide to Style, Sanity and Big Success After Baby. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen. Podcast production by Evan Campbell, Madeline Thames-Ducharme and Patrick Fort. Paige Osburn is the senior supervising producer of What Next and What Next TBD.