Modern Hysteria
Modern Hysteria
Podcast Description
Revealing the taboos of women's health and womanhood - menopause, mental health, postpartum, motherhood - because when we KNOW better we DO better. Your host, Micah Larsen, asks experts the questions we might not know we need to ask. Welcome to the *women's bathroom* of the internet. micahlarsen.substack.com
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The show covers various themes related to women's health and wellness, including postpartum mental health, birth trauma, chronic illness linked to emotional wounds, and sexual empowerment, with episodes like 'Postpartum Care x Maternal Mental Health' and 'Virgin to Vixen on Your Wedding Night' addressing these topics in a relatable and informative manner.
Revealing the taboos of women’s health and womanhood – menopause, mental health, postpartum, motherhood – because when we KNOW better we DO better. Your host, Micah Larsen, asks experts the questions we might not know we need to ask. Welcome to the *women’s bathroom* of the internet.
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 TABOO
Why 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
* Good Housekeeping push presents
* The Chloe Balloon Patchwork Leather and Suede Tote Bag 👜
THE GUEST EXPERT
Cyntia Onuoha Brown is a doctor of pharmacy and clinical pharmacologist now working in the women’s health sector.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The 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!)
Get full access to Modern Hysteria at micahlarsen.substack.com/subscribe
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