Author and journalist EJ Dickson comes on the show to discuss her new book One Bad Mother and the impossible trap American mothers are put in—be they hot moms, influencer moms, MAHA moms or really any mom at all.

Also discussed: ER vacations, how the kids-on-airplanes discourse points to the erosion of Judeo-Christian values, therapy as emotional prostitution, what we owe each other as a communal species, the golden ticket in our society of a martyr complex plus a lack of shame, the sin of being annoying, Fauci’s karma (and romance novel), bringing back filial piety, and how everyone will fail you (even your mother).

The poem EJ references, “This Be The Verse” by Philip Larkin”:

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.   

    They may not mean to, but they do.   

They fill you with the faults they had

    And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn

    By fools in old-style hats and coats,   

Who half the time were soppy-stern

    And half at one another’s throats.

Man hands on misery to man.

    It deepens like a coastal shelf.

Get out as early as you can,

    And don’t have any kids yourself.

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